Chapter 1262: Chapter 1260: Shortage
On the first day of December, snowflakes started to drift down from the sky over the Imperial Capital of the Gafura Empire.
In fact, it should have snowed here long ago, but although the air had been damp and cold recently, the conditions for snow were just missing.
No clouds, no snowflakes!
This time the snowflakes finally started to fall, and on the corner of the table, the headline on the newspaper stated today’s temperature in the Imperial Capital—a chilling minus eight degrees!
This weather is rare in Gafura; in previous years, it usually only got this cold around late December, but now it’s just the start of December.
Since last winter, everything has changed a bit.
Summer can be deadly hot, and winter can be deadly cold.
An ordinary worker kisses his wife and daughter before putting on his thick winter clothes to leave; as she sees him off, his wife hopes he can swing by the supermarket after work tonight and bring back some food.
The man glanced at the newspaper at the corner of the table, noticing a brief headline on the front page reading "Full Effort to Ensure Food Supply".
He nodded in agreement and left his cozy home.
Once outside, the cold wind felt like knives cutting his face; he tucked his hands tightly into his sleeves to keep them warm.
With his head low, he braved the wind forward.
Actually, his mood wasn’t as gloomy as the weather; the snowy world appeared exceptionally clean.
Every step on the snow produced a crunching sound, leaving a series of footprints behind.
Looking back, the distant footprints have already been covered by new snowflakes, leaving only the nearest ones somewhat visible.
Most pedestrians were like this, and cars on the road slowed down; the heavy snow pressed the slow-motion button on the world.
A convoy passed by him, the stiff flags above the headlights of the lead car clearly marking it as a noble’s entourage.
The man glanced sideways into the car; behind the transparent glass, two nobles in "thin" clothing were chatting lightly unaffected by the cold outside, with smiles on their faces.
"That’s nobility for you," the man sighed, watching the convoy’s departure.
He didn’t need to complain about anything; life is better now than it was before. It used to be, if you saw nobles, you had to put down your work and stand by the roadside with your head lowered if you were a commoner.
Now, no one requires him to do so, he doesn’t have to greet the nobles, which is a big change.
He walked for almost forty minutes before arriving at the factory.
He could have taken the bus, but... recently, the prices of various goods have been rising quickly, while the bus fare isn’t much, saving wherever possible still matters.
Also, walking is good for health and keeps the body warm; doctors recommend people to get more exercise...
He found a suitable reason for not taking the bus; everyone has beautiful dreams, but poverty is always the relentless punch smashing them.
He entered the factory and started working; the factory doesn’t provide heating, claiming that the room’s draft makes effective heating impossible, so they work in thick winter clothes.
The man finally showed some smile, chatting and working with his colleagues, but happy times are often short.
After discussing some fresh topics, everyone seemed to have an unspoken agreement to work silently.
No smiles on their faces, just numbness; he can’t even feel his face!
By one in the afternoon, everyone got a thirty-minute break to have lunch and rest a bit before returning to work.
Actually, half an hour of break isn’t enough; Gafura’s workers have protested a few times, but nothing really changed in the end.
They struck against the capitalists, causing significant trouble, but that’s all it was—trouble.
Remember, capitalists serve the nobles; when nobles are displeased, police will arrest the strike leaders or organizers.
This isn’t the Federation; there’s no soil for freedom, so everyone follows an unspoken line.
At noon, they had a somewhat cold lunch provided by the factory, the taste is neither good nor bad, just edible.
The afternoon work continued to be heavy, man worked until about 6:45 p.m. before the machinery noise began to quiet down.
People started tidying up their tools, then leaving.
Remembering his wife’s request, he bid farewell to his colleagues usually sharing his way home, departing alone for the supermarket.
There weren’t many people on the road, it’s slightly past seven, the sky fully darkened, he quickened his pace, noticed when getting close to the supermarket how unusually lively it was today.
Lots of people, an overwhelming number of people, bewilderedly he joined the clustering crowd entering the supermarket.
Soon he saw a long queue at the food counters.
"What happened?" he asked as he reached the queue’s end, looking at the person in similar attire in front of him, with a friendly inquiry.
The person ahead seemed to know something, "Items are now supplied in limited quantities; each person can buy only a set amount."
The man was a bit surprised, "Why would they do that?"
The man standing in front of him was silent for a while, "Maybe it’s because there’s not enough stuff!"
The man who originally thought about going back if it didn’t work out gave up that idea.
It was over half an hour before it was his turn.
"Each person can only purchase two pounds of wheat flour, two pounds of bread, five pounds of potatoes, and one pound of beef. What do you want?" the superior clerk asked the man.
Of course, superior doesn’t refer to his status or tone, but because he was indeed positioned higher, a design meant for the clerk’s convenience.
When people needed something, they just had to move it to their feet, and those outside the counter could pick it up.
If they stood at the same height as the customers outside the counter, constantly lifting heavy items, it would quickly make it impossible for them to continue working.
The man was a bit confused, "Is there no limit on vegetables?"
He intended to buy some vegetables, but the clerk shook his head, "We don’t supply vegetables..."
The weather was too cold, causing the growth cycle of vegetables to slow down significantly, and they could easily freeze to death at night.
The few vegetables available were all for the supply of the nobles, and the prices were ridiculously high, unaffordable for ordinary people, making it as if they weren’t being supplied at all.
The man spent money to buy all he could, but these foods weren’t enough to support his family for three days, and the prices had risen by about ten percent compared to last month, which made him very worried.
Because when he was waiting in line at the supermarket, he heard people say that prices might continue to rise.
After returning home, he told his wife about these matters and urged his wife to reduce the household’s supplies.
The wife was a bit troubled but eventually agreed.
During dinner, the daughter looked greedily at the few pieces of beef on her father’s plate.
She looked at her mother longingly, but the latter could only harden her heart and pretend not to see.
Outside the window, the cold wind was still fierce, and in the entire Imperial Capital, in all of Gafura, many families were like this.
All of a sudden, it was as if there wasn’t enough food in the world to eat, a situation that had never occurred before in Gafura, leaving many people unsure of what to do.
"Is there not enough food to eat?"
"There’s not enough food to eat!"
The Prime Minister had a headache because there was not enough food to eat.
Actually, after last winter when the weather suddenly turned extremely cold, he realized more food had to be stored for this winter, and he did just that, importing a lot of grain.
Gafura is an island country with limited agricultural and pastoral land. In earlier years, the nobles enclosed land everywhere, and much of the land suitable for farming was private territory of the nobles.
The nobles certainly wouldn’t farm or graze, so the land lay waste. Even if winters weren’t as extremely cold as now, Gafura’s grain mainly depended on imports.
But now imports have increased, yet rumors from unknown sources stated Gafura had no grain, leading people to start looting.
Some grain merchants also began to raise prices, the increase seemingly modest, with the highest only at fifteen percent, but this is food!
This isn’t other things, not luxury goods. A fifteen percent increase is enough to make many families go hungry!
The Prime Minister talked to a group of grain merchants, and thus, limited supplies began appearing.
They no longer freely supplied the public, instead beginning limited supplies, with the condition of ensuring price increases didn’t exceed ten percent.
This made the rumors become more frightening!
Someone holding the grain bags meant the current grain supply had become a problem, and the Prime Minister had to solve this issue.
Otherwise, he’d be faced with two choices.
First, people continually living in an environment of food shortages might trigger more terrifying social problems and phenomena unless the Prime Minister compromises by allowing food prices to float freely.
The second option is that once he agrees to let food prices float freely, more people will be unable to afford food!
Many, when faced with such harsh problems, tend to choose starvation, which will only worsen the country.
The best solution now is to use the emergency budget from the treasury to purchase a batch of grain from outside to resolve the current problem, then address subsequent issues.
He wasn’t the only one in the room; there were others as well.
The official in charge of agriculture and pastoral affairs softly murmured as if talking to himself, yet also as a reminder.
"Your Excellency Prime Minister, unless those nobles are dealt with, the price of grain will never come down!"
In a power-oriented Gafura, many things followed rules; at least capitalists couldn’t interfere with politics on the Main Island using money.
The nobles were much wealthier than the capitalists, especially the great nobles, whose amassed wealth over hundreds of years rivals not the sudden wealth of a young person entering the stock market with a hundred dollars!
If the nobles disagree with the grain price increase, the capitalists wouldn’t dare raise the grain prices.
Behind this issue, it’s still the nobles who are having their way!
