Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1004
Taoism pays attention to small countries with few people.

Just like Laozi's chicken and dog hear each other, the village survives by itself and does not communicate with others.

In fact, this is the same as the Confucian self-restraint and ritual restoration. It is a typical state of slave society. A village or township can be isolated from the world, without fighting or grabbing, and enjoying itself leisurely.

But this is based on the underdeveloped productive forces. It is common for ordinary villages to be separated by dozens of miles, and it is common for towns to be separated by hundreds of miles.

Therefore, in the Spring and Autumn Period, two armies separated by several countries could fight each other without fear of being stolen.

With the development of productivity, the distance between villages has been shortened, cities have become closer and closer, and the population has continued to multiply.

China has been a populous country since ancient times. With tens of millions of people and millions of square kilometers of land, the existence of Luyin has become inevitable.

The guide system of the Ming Dynasty, as long as you leave the county, you need guides to prevent blind people and fugitives.

Just like in TV dramas, the emperor issued an imperial decree to exile, or punish the three clans, why didn't those criminals just escape?

It is really because of the restrictions of the guide system, there is no way to escape.

Of course, under extreme operation, as long as you don't enter the county town or checkpoint, the vast rural areas don't need road guides.

But in this era of poor and malicious people, it is normal to bully foreigners. In comparison, the county town is dozens of times safer than the countryside.

In the feudal era, in addition to rushing to the county town for taxes, ordinary farmers could meet their daily needs by going to the market under normal circumstances.

At the same time, scholars, scholars, and businessmen who need to travel to study, they are rich and powerful, and it is not worth mentioning to get guides.

However, during the Shaowu period, the tax was light and the business tax was emphasized, so that the speed of population flow increased greatly.

Such as sailors.

Then why was water transport not needed before?
That's because although the water transport is a democratic movement in essence, it is under the jurisdiction of the governor of the water transport. The boatmen were originally from military households, with official skins on their bodies, and they were working for the court.

But sea transportation is different. The imperial court will contract the task of transporting money, food and taxes to those fleets, and only pay the money without caring about the escort.

In this way, only money is needed, saving time and effort, and easily eliminating corruption.

At that time, once the money and goods are wrong, it will be much easier to deal with those boatmen than officials.

"This guide is really annoying." The captain sighed.

The tax collector shook his head, and said in a low voice, "I'll introduce you to a good method, which can save a lot of effort and take advantage of it."

"Oh?"

"But this number."

A thumbs up, the captain was terrified.

100 yuan, really terrible.

But Lu Yin is too annoying, as long as there is a checkpoint port, he will be bothered again, he gritted his teeth:
"Row."

"Haiyun, you know that?"

"Of course, in the early years of Shaowu, water transportation and sea transportation were carried out in parallel, but now [-]% rely on sea transportation."

The captain nodded hurriedly.

In the pre-Ming Dynasty, the 400 million shi of grain that arrived in Beijing actually moved 1000 800 million shi of grain, and [-] million shi of grain was embezzled in the middle.

And contracted to the fleet, 400 million shi arrived in Beijing, only 40 silver dollars, and the freight rate was about one-fifth, which can be described as extremely cheap.

At the same time, the huge Cao army was also abolished, avoiding exploitation, abandoning the burden on the body, and smiling.

He was one of them, from the canal to the sea.

"The ration of sea transportation is 400 million shi. Even if it is a large ship with a thousand materials, it will cost nearly [-] ships. Even if it is the top ten ship gangs, it cannot add up to [-]."

The tax collector said with a smile: "So, they have to recruit soldiers and horses, and recruit some white ships when transporting grain."

"As long as you carry five hundred stones, you will be given 50 yuan in silver dollars. At that time, it was official food. Who would check the road guide?"

"Isn't that a waste of money?" The owner of the boat calculated that the 400 million yuan was only 40 yuan. If it was distributed to those white boats, wouldn't it be a profit?
"Are you really not understanding or are you pretending not to understand?" the tax collector said with blank eyes, "Stop it!"

Only then did the captain suddenly realize.

This is the traditional skill of water transportation.

Since the transportation is official grain, there are basically no tax collectors to collect taxes. When the time comes, half of the grain is loaded, and half of the cargo is loaded, and the tax saved by going back and forth can make a lot of money.

"However, there is a limit to this levy of white boats. The imperial court set a limit of 400 million materials, and the excess will be ignored."

The tax collector shook his head and said, "I have a cousin who happens to be working for the Flying Whale Gang. I will let you occupy a spot when the time comes. My money is not for nothing, and I have to distribute it to others."

"Don't feel bad, this is using your money to do your business."

"understand."

The captain was overjoyed.

In a few days, he unloaded the goods to the port, and naturally a caravan came to buy the southern goods.

Although there is a gap of [-]% to [-]% in the price of goods from Tianjin to Beijing, but it is not easy to travel for hundreds of miles, and it takes time, so the owner of the ship did not do it.

It is impossible for one person to earn all the business in the world.

When I came to Tianjin City again, its prosperity was still there. The long streets were crowded with people, there were endless hawkers, there were countless shops, and there were people wandering everywhere.

The confluence of sea, land and river has allowed Tianjin to continue to prosper for more than ten years.

However, the sound of looming locomotives throughout the city in Tianjin is unique in the world, only Suzhou and Songjiang can compare.

Along the way, countless horse and mule carts transported generations of cotton to those weaving fields.

Then a large amount of cotton cloth is sent to the dyeing house for dip-dying, and then goes to embroider the pattern cloud.

Even in Tianjin Prefecture, a street of dyeing workshops, a street of cotton cloth, a street of dyestuffs, a street of spices and so on have been formed.

The looms could no longer be accommodated in the city, so many weaving farms moved to the outer city.

It's just that, in the past, there were only female workers in the weaving field, but now there are many male workers.

Due to the difference between men and women, some weaving farms erected walls, while others just added a curtain.

"Why are there so many male queens?" The captain asked Daqi, "Isn't weaving something that abuses the family?"

After catching a passer-by, he said, "All the women workers in the Tianjin government are in the city. The thirteen or fourteen-year-old women who weave have saved enough dowry for two or three years before returning home. There are more and more weaving fields, and women in the city are also entering the weaving field. not enough."

"As a last resort, only male workers are allowed."

"The more people are lacking, the higher the price of weavers, and the men will go all out."

"Labor shortage?" The word suddenly appeared in the captain's mind.

This is a rare word in the entire Ming Dynasty.

After all, Daming, with its vast land and abundant resources, has no shortage of people, and it even seems to be more than ants on the ground.

But it just happened.

"This is a matter of Suzhou and Songjiang. I never thought it would appear in Tianjin."

The boat owner said with emotion: "However, in Suzhou, what is lacking is the best weavers, not female workers. This is the first time in Tianjin."

The emperor who was far away in Beijing naturally knew a thing or two about the situation in Tianjin.

But the way he got to know it was not because of Jinyiwei or Dongchang, but because of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As the emperor's imperial agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not only responsible for the adoption and purchase of the royal family, but also has a large number of imperial merchants specializing in business, earning a lot of wealth for the emperor.

Although there were many monopolies and forced buying and selling, the population base of merchants was too small, even if there were gentry standing behind them, it was not a cause for concern.

So the imperial merchants made a fortune and basically monopolized high-profit businesses such as sugar refining, silk, horse trading, and spices. To some extent, they can be regarded as state-owned businesses!
Zhu Yixi turned a blind eye to the imperial merchants' behavior of enriching their own pockets, and basically didn't care much as long as it wasn't too much.

And once it is too much, or the emperor is short of money, it is normal to carry as many fat pigs as possible to enrich the internal funds.

This is much better than expanding Huangzhuang.

There are hundreds of imperial merchants, some of which are responsible for court food, some for jewelry, and some for clothing.

Naturally, the weaving field will be involved.

These people do not hesitate to exaggerate for their own benefit:
Due to the lack of female workers, certain profit growth is weak and so on.

If it was other emperors, it would have passed in a blink of an eye, but who made Zhu Yixi a time traveler!

He saw the deep meaning of it at a glance: urbanization.

The so-called urbanization is because the prosperity of the commodity economy has led to a large number of handicraft workshops, or the shortage of workers in factories, which requires everyone's labor.

In England, due to the lack of population, the new aristocracy occupied the public land, drove the peasants to the city, and let them work in their own factories.

In the United States, because of the lack of labor in the factory, the arrogant white people had to pinch their noses to let black people enter the factory, thus resenting the farmers who had a large number of blacks, which caused the Civil War.

France, on the other hand, is similar to China. Its population has always been in the leading position in Europe and its labor force is sufficient, so there is no need for sheep to eat people or free slaves.

What it does is to let farmers go to the city because of their interests.

Today's Daming is the same.

After weaving for several years, the girl can accumulate her own dowry to subsidize the family, and even make the men put down their face and go to work in the weaving field.

But the efficiency of men is less than half that of women, and under the same salary, men are not as good as women.

This made the capitalists unable to bear it anymore. They desperately wanted a large number of female workers to participate in the weaving field, so as to exchange cotton cloth for a large amount of silver dollars.

After all, earning less is losing money.

"Before, I abolished the restriction on the use of roads between one prefecture, so that the Tianjin prefecture will develop vigorously. Now that it is booming, a mere Tianjin prefecture is not enough, and the whole of Hebei is required to serve."

Putting down the secret bag in his hand, Zhu Yixi muttered softly.

In this huge empire, the existence of guides is very necessary. If hundreds of millions of people run around without guides, the consequences will be disastrous.

Therefore, Zhu Yixi adopted a temporary residence permit policy in the face of Beijing, a city full of fish and dragons, with a population of one million.

Without a temporary residence permit, you can't enter the city at all, you can only stay outside the city.

Also for the sake of stability, other cities do not have curfews, but Beijing does. Although it will inevitably have some impact on the economy, it is a political demand.

"This time it's the government, next time it's the province?"

Back to the guide system, Zhu Yixi felt a headache.

The development of the economy and capital needs to let go of the guide, and the stability of the empire requires the guide.

If the government is expanded to the province, then the guide system will be useless, and the control will increase sharply.

Suddenly, Zhu Yixi thought of the Southern Jiangsu Railway.

The hundreds of miles of railway tracks from Nanjing to Songjiang Mansion were almost all raised by businessmen themselves, and they were the result of their earnest expectations.

Although it has the need to promote the circulation of commodities, I am afraid that its biggest role is the gathering of population!
Whether in Suzhou or Songjiang Prefecture, the textile industry is a major player, and the demand for workers is extremely strong.

The establishment of the railway track is naturally conducive to the absorption of the population in the two places, so that the capital will continue to develop, and the gentry and businessmen will make a lot of money.

"I'm afraid that in Jiangsu, Lu Yin is useless!"

Zhu Yixi shook his head.

In the face of such huge interests, the local government dare not stop it at all, because it itself is a vested interest group.

Thinking of these, Zhu Yixi couldn't help but want to leave the palace and go to Tianjin, and even Suzhou and Songjiang to have a look.

In recent years, he has basically wandered around in Beijing and Yuquan Mountain, but he has not been to Tianjin for several years.

With a plan in mind, even if nine cows come over, they can't stop him.

Not to mention the cabinet.

In this way, the emperor's inspection of Tianjin Mansion started.

After more than ten days of work, after preparations, the royal driver set off.

For the sake of safety, Yu Jia did not take the railway track, but took the official road, and it took six days to arrive at Tianjin Mansion after walking [-] miles.

The flatness of the official road made Zhu Yixi nod his head.

If even the official paths that are close at hand are dilapidated, then other official paths in the world can be imagined.

On this tour, the emperor did not bring his concubines with him, only a few plump maids of honor.

At the same time, the six princes, King Liao, King Yue, King Wei, King Fu, King Zhao, and King Xiang, accompanied them.

For these princes, being able to leave Beijing is their greatest happiness.

Under the leadership of the King of Liao, one by one got on the horse and followed the team leisurely, which was very lively.

It's just that within half a day, the inner sides of the legs were bled out, and each of them withered immediately.

Only the king of Liao remained unchanged, leisurely and leisurely, so uncomfortable.

"Fourth brother, why are you alright?" the chubby King Fu asked.

"I went to Chahar and then to Horqin back then. After riding for a few months, the cocoons had already worn out. What are these?"

King Liao's face was full of pride.

Zhu Yixi smiled and said, "I don't know the severity."

In terms of experience, the King of Liao is indeed better than these few brothers.

When I sent the princess to Kang, I traveled thousands of miles and stayed in the snowy area for a long time, so I suffered a lot.

Not to mention Chahar and Horqin afterwards, it was all a lot of experience.

The other princes only practiced in the eight departments of the capital and made some progress in government affairs, but their knowledge was indeed not as good as that of King Liao.

"It seems that we have to let them go out for a while."

The emperor's heart moved: "It's not enough to just observe politics, you have to really practice it."

He didn't worry about the content of the practice.

Daming is really huge, tens of millions of square kilometers, [-] million people, every month there are disasters in places, it is normal to send princes to condolences and relief to the victims.

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Yixi suddenly felt that it would be good to treat the prince as an imperial envoy, inspecting the embankment, inspecting corrupt officials, etc., can also be handed over to them.

Only by letting them be fooled by officials will they truly understand what is inside the bureaucracy.

(End of this chapter)