I want to be emperor

Li's Steel has great ambitions and wants to engage in power grid business... Although they currently don't even have AC generators and motors and other corresponding equipment, they already have such a strategic plan.

I have to say that the senior management of this company has a very good vision and great ambitions.

If you just want to make it happen, the problems you will face are not small.

The scale of current power applications is very small, and the scale of power consumption simply cannot support the construction cost of large-scale power grids. In addition, DC power is not suitable for building large-scale power grids. Therefore, current DC power applications require corporate users to purchase their own power generation. The machine generates its own electricity for use.

In other words, there is no concept of large-scale power grids in the current industrial market.

However, Lee's Steel Company dared to take the lead and directly aimed at this goal that did not even have a concept, and was prepared to invest huge sums of money for this purpose.

But... the management of Li's Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. would never have thought that the owner of the empire, Luo Zhixue, was a time traveler!

How to do this kind of thing with electrification? Luo Zhixue basically had the corresponding concept even before electrification started.

According to Luo Zhixue’s early plan, the early theoretical research on electrification was carried out by the Royal Institute of Technology and major university research institutions. After the basic basic theory was established, official capital took the lead and guided the market for early electrification applications.

Specifically, it is reflected in the construction of wired telegraph and the three major electrification companies and Tongling Special Materials Company.

Through the construction of wired telegraph, the technical level of the three major electrical companies was developed and expanded, and then electrification was promoted into the industrial field.

After electrification products begin industrial application, then we can start to establish a preliminary power supply network to increase power generation, reduce power supply costs, and lay the foundation for the large-scale application of electricity in the entire industrial system.

The second industrial revolution is represented by the internal combustion engine and electrification.

And the empire cannot say that it will let the market develop on its own... The second industrial revolution will not only bring more advanced productivity, but also because advanced productivity will also bring further concentration of wealth.

If left unchecked, various capital oligarchs and monopolies will emerge during the second industrial revolution. The United States in the late 19th century is a very typical example in history.

The destructive power of this monopoly is too great. It will also lead to the disappearance of healthy competition in the market, and the gap between the rich and the poor will rapidly widen. More importantly, the rapid expansion of capital will affect the basic rule and stability of the empire.

And this is something the empire can't stand!

Monopoly in the industrial era is actually no different from large-scale land annexation in the agricultural era. Both will lead to fierce social conflicts.

And this kind of thing is intolerable to the top officials of the empire!

How was the empire established?

It was built on the corpse of the Ming Dynasty, which had a high degree of land annexation!

Based on the tragic fate of the Ming Dynasty, the senior leaders of the Dachu Empire formulated a series of extremely stringent land-related laws to prevent land annexation. Among them was the famous stepped agricultural tax. The more land you own, the more taxes you pay. When you own too much land to a certain extent, the land output is not enough to pay taxes!

The government land limited transactions were also introduced, and the government land purchased by private individuals could only be sold to the official if they wanted to sell it in the end, and could not be traded privately.

At the same time, once privately held private land is sold to the government, it will become official land in the future, and restricted transactions will also be implemented.

These measures, coupled with the large-scale confiscation at the beginning of the empire, allowed the empire to officially own more than half of the arable land and most of the non-arable land in the entire empire.

Relying on many restrictive policies and a large amount of official land, the Chu Empire restricted large-scale land annexation and ensured that everyone had land for farming.

And the promotion of this series of policies was not smooth sailing. There were many voices of opposition and armed confrontations. Therefore, in the early years, the empire suppressed rebellions every year, killing a lot of people.

This land reform was paved with millions of lives!

And the reason why it was successful was actually inseparable from the fact that the empire was fighting a civil war at the same time, and many opponents, especially those groups of medium and large landowners, were directly killed in the name of false remnants, armed tax resistance, etc.

If this kind of thing were to be done after reunification, there is a high probability that it would not be possible... because at that time, there is a high probability that there will already be a large number of officials from landlords in the ruling class of the new empire.

It is rare for people to succeed in revolutionizing their own affairs.

Only in the earliest days, the middle and high-level officials of the empire were still a bunch of mud-legged people. In other words, these middle-level and high-level people in the empire who were born from mud-legged people had not yet degenerated into powerful gentry, and were still full of hatred for the traditional gentry and powerful people. Do this first.

Luo Zhixue took advantage of the unification war to settle the land issue first... It was easy to do these things at that time. Luo Zhixue, who had the army in hand, did whatever he wanted, and almost no one objected...

Many crucial policies of the empire were basically finalized at that time, such as the unified agricultural tax, the stepped agricultural tax, the limited sale of official land, the official operation of salt, the policy of industrial and commercial power to strengthen the country and enrich the country, the education policy, the reform of the imperial examination, etc...

These things were finalized during the Unification War and became basic national policies.

After the empire unified China and began to accept a large number of elite children into the ruling class, it was no longer able to shake the national policy.

Later, the empire's industry and commerce developed rapidly, and at the same time Luo Zhixue was promoting external expansion, which also shifted the attention of the domestic upper class to industry and commerce.

The so-called industrial and commercial capital of the contemporary empire, except for official capital and a very small number of self-made businessmen, in fact, most of the private capital themselves are the gentry group of the pre-Ming Dynasty.

Although the empire killed the gentry very ruthlessly, it did not kill them all... These remaining gentry groups sold off their land assets, and then took these funds into industry and commerce. This was also the main source of many private capital in the empire. source.

The development of industry and commerce has in turn made the benefits obtained from simply holding land less attractive, and the big businessmen and wealthy people naturally have no interest in land acquisition.

Through a multi-pronged approach, the Chu Empire truly solved the land annexation problem that had plagued the Huaxia region for thousands of years.

Among them, industrial development played a decisive role... In fact, if the empire had not started the first industrial revolution and was still an agricultural country, even if Luo Zhixue implemented a perfect land policy, it would actually be impossible to truly solve the land annexation. question.

For thousands of years, it’s not that no one has tried it, and it’s not that there are smart people who can’t think of a good way… it’s just that no one can do it.

In the agricultural era, land was the most valuable fixed asset. At the same time, the rich did not have many investment options. After making money, there was no other good investment direction except buying land.

As a result, no matter how good the policy is, it will not withstand the erosion of time. Sooner or later, problems will occur, and this series of so-called agricultural policies will come to naught within a few decades or at most one or two hundred years.

But it was different with the first industrial revolution. The income from investment in industry exceeded that from investment in agriculture. At the same time, the development of industry and commerce made the entire economic system huge. The rich had a variety of investment methods for their money, so there was no need to be crowded. When purchasing land in agriculture, some land annexation was carried out.

Therefore... putting aside the phenomenon and looking at the essence, if we want to comprehensively solve land annexation, there is actually only one way, and that is industrialization!

Others are basically treating the symptoms rather than the root cause!

Luo Zhixue had a hard time solving the land annexation issue in the Chu Empire. Naturally, he could not tolerate the emergence of private capital monopolies and trusts in the second industrial revolution.

It’s not that we can’t have a monopoly, but we can’t let private capital monopolize it.

Especially in some industries that are key to people's livelihood, the Chu Empire does not allow private capital to monopolize, and even prevents private capital from entering.

For example, the salt industry... So far, salt is still a government-owned industry.

In the salt industry of the Dachu Empire, with the improvement of technology, the output of mineral salt and sea salt has soared. At the same time, the emergence of trains, ships and other transportation methods has made the price of salt very low... No matter how low it is, the retail price is It is calculated using the unit of 'cent'.

Take the ordinary table salt sold locally in Songjiang Prefecture as an example. A pound of ordinary table salt only costs five cents!

The exchange ratio of Chu Yuan is one Chu Yuan equals one thousand cents!

One of the most common low-income workers in Songjiang has an average monthly salary of 6.5 yuan. With this monthly income, he can buy 1,300 kilograms of salt!

In today's Dachu Empire, the same weight of salt is much cheaper than rice!

Why can it be so cheap?

In addition to technological progress, which has led to a significant increase in output and a significant reduction in costs, this is also related to the imperial high-level officials forcibly lowering the selling price of salt.

The specific manifestation is that at the beginning of the establishment of the empire, the Dachu Empire Salt Company, which was able to turn over tens of millions of Chu Yuan in profits and taxes every year, in the forty-six years of Chengshun, the profits and taxes are expected to be less than 5 million, a decrease of ten times. many……

Moreover, these profits and taxes are basically not generated by the local salt business, but by other businesses of the Salt Affairs Corporation, such as industrial salt, condiment business and salt export business.

Decades have passed, the population has doubled many times, and the overall sales volume of salt has increased so much. However, the profit of the salt business of the Salt Affairs Corporation is infinitely close to zero, and it can only rely on additional businesses to generate profits and taxes.

The simple reason is that the empire's top officials have made big price cuts on salt every few years.

The Dachu Empire Salt General Company was originally created to make money to fill the financial gap, but now the Salt General Company no longer has this mission. Its mission is only to ensure the supply of salt... Even the special tax salt in the past The tax was also officially abolished in the 1930s. If the salt company continues to operate, it only needs to pay the regular business taxes as a regular enterprise. It does not need to pay the special salt tax as before.

Under such circumstances, the empire has even slightly liberalized its salt business to allow private capital to enter, mainly in the field of salt production... However, because the current salt production industry is too low-profit, private capital is not willing to enter, so it has been clamoring for several years. There is no effect if the salt is released!

In the Da Chu Empire, the salt industry has long turned into a low-profit or even loss-making industry...

It's because the empire's top leaders no longer need the Salt Company to contribute fiscal revenue... but have found a new and better direction to increase fiscal revenue, and that is tobacco!

The Dachu Empire directly classified the tobacco industry as a government-owned industry, and the cultivation, production, and sales were all the responsibility of the Dachu Empire Tobacco Corporation.

With the continuous expansion overseas, overseas tobacco began to enter the empire, and then started the smoking trend. After the empire's top officials, mainly Luo Zhixue, saw this scene, they directly set up a tobacco franchise.

As the number of smokers continues to increase, the profits and taxes contributed by the tobacco industry are very terrifying. They have long exceeded the salt industry at its peak. Now, the profits and taxes are approximately more than 30 million yuan per year.

Why are the profits and taxes contributed by tobacco so high?

Of course it’s because of high taxes.

At present, 70% of the selling price of a pack of paper cigarettes in the empire is tax... The remaining 30% is also part of the tobacco company's profits, which must also be turned over... In the end, the empire's finances The income that can be obtained from the selling price of a pack of cigarettes is about 80%.

This is much harsher than many countries in later generations. The average tax rate for the global tobacco industry in later generations is 58%, and the more developed countries are, the higher it is! As for the Dachu Empire, the special tax on tobacco alone was 70%... and then the tobacco company was required to hand over profits every year, and the final revenue received exceeded 80%.

Therefore, whether in modern times or later modern times, especially in medium and even developed countries, tobacco is a very important source of fiscal revenue.

It's just that the Dachu Empire was more ruthless in the tobacco industry. There was no way... In the early days of the second industrial development, there were too many infrastructures, the empire's financial gap was too big, and the people's livelihood industry was not easy to squeeze too hard. , naturally we have to start from other aspects.

According to the calculations of some professional financial people in the empire, in a few years, when more people smoke, tobacco income alone will be able to sustain the empire's huge military expenditures.

From now on, when the generals of the empire see the smokers swallowing and puffing out smoke, they will have to stand in awe... These are all role models for the imperial subjects who are patriotic and support the army!

Compared with the early salt industry, today's tobacco franchise is purely to obtain high financial revenue for infrastructure construction.

Specialties in other fields are mostly focused on people's livelihood.

Such as the railway industry... The reason why the railway construction in the Great Chu Empire was able to achieve such great results, and many remote and backward places could also have railways, was because of the railway franchise.

Do railroads make money? In areas with dense population and developed industry and commerce, there is definitely money to be made, and not less.

But in areas with a small population and underdeveloped industry and commerce, railways are losing money...

Especially those so-called war-ready railways, every one of them is losing money.

For example, the early Prairie Railway, the Northwest Railway, and the Central Asia Railway all suffered from losses. In recent years, as the population in these places has increased and industry and commerce have developed, the situation has become slightly better.

It is impossible for the empire to allocate so much financial funds to build railways in remote and backward areas, so other means must be used.

What means?

Use the profits from profitable railway lines to build and maintain railways in remote areas to stimulate local economic development.

That's why such a behemoth as the Dachu Empire Railway Corporation appeared... This is a real behemoth that manages and operates more than 200,000 kilometers of railways, and is building or planning to build hundreds of thousands of kilometers of railways.

When it comes to assets and liabilities, Dachu Empire Railway Corporation is the well-deserved number one among countless companies in the empire... Its liabilities alone are hundreds of millions of Chu yuan, which is scary.

Of course, their total assets are also larger, reaching more than one billion yuan.

What is this concept?

The gold content of Chu Yuan is 3.5 grams. If converted according to the gold standard currencies of various countries at the end of the 1th century in the original time and space, Chu Yuan is equivalent to pounds, which is approximately equivalent to US dollars;

One billion yuan is roughly equivalent to 478 million pounds, which is more than 2.3 billion US dollars.

In the original time and space, by 1900, Britain's fiscal revenue was only a little over million pounds, while the United States only had million pounds.

The debts of the Dachu Imperial Railway Corporation alone were equivalent to several years of central fiscal revenue in the United Kingdom or the United States at the end of the 19th century.

The Da Chu Empire Railway Corporation is very exaggerated in terms of its responsibility and total assets... And it would be impossible for such a behemoth to be supported by the central fiscal revenue of the Da Chu Empire alone...

In fact, the central fiscal revenue of the Dachu Empire was not much, only more than one billion a year. It was impossible to use hundreds of millions to develop railways.

But the railway must be repaired!

How to do?

The method of the empire's top officials was to engage in railway monopoly, then use bank loans and issue railway bonds to raise funds to build railways, and then use the profits of profitable railways to repay these loans and maintain the operation of loss-making railways.

In this way, more than 200,000 kilometers of railways have been built, and railway construction is not limited to the hinterland of East Asia. Now the railway network of the Chu Empire has extended to Eastern Europe, and European railway trunk lines are being built. Eventually, the empire's railways will It will pass all the way through Berlin, Paris, and finally reach the English Channel.

At the same time, there are also a large number of railways in other areas. Even in Africa, the empire has built several railways to develop local minerals, well, mainly gold and develop farms.

At the same time, railway construction in the Americas, especially in North America, has accelerated rapidly in recent years, especially after the completion of the East-West Railway in North America. The central and eastern regions of North America have developed rapidly, the population has skyrocketed, and the demand for transportation is also very large. Nowadays, North America has become the second largest railway construction area after the hinterland of East Asia.

Just the current number of completed and planned railway lines has reached 100,000 kilometers, and this is just for now... and does not include new plans for the future.

At the same time, there are also many railway network constructions in other regions, such as India, Europe, Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa and other regions. A large number of railway lines are under construction.

For example, the empire plans to extend a railway line from the Central Asian railway network southward, then build it to the port of Basra in Kuwait, and then continue westward to the Mediterranean coast, and then all the way to the Suez Canal area.

The railway network plan of the Dachu Empire is very huge!

And planning such a huge railway network naturally serves the empire's overall economy and national defense strategy.

Naturally, such an important thing cannot be left to the control of private capital.

The same goes for communications... Whether it is the previous inn system or the current post office system, as well as the telegraph system that has developed rapidly in recent years, they are all exclusive businesses directly controlled by the government, and the private sector is not allowed to intervene.

Similarly, there are some urban basic service industries, such as water supply and public transportation. Although these local urban basic service industries are nominally operated by enterprises, these enterprises are all local official enterprises and are under the jurisdiction of the provincial industry departments.

The industry that protects people's livelihood must be under control. This is Luo Zhixue's bottom line.

Likewise, future power supply will not be an exception!

Therefore, after seeing great progress in the development of electrification, especially after small-scale applications have begun in the industrial system, Luo Zhixue also instructed the Ministry of Industry to start building industrial power supply networks in various places. Through advance layout and preparedness, Lay the foundation for further promotion of electrification.

To develop electrification, the power supply problem must be solved, and the Ministry of Industry must shoulder this responsibility.

Under such circumstances, on December 20, the 46th year of Chengshun, the Ministry of Industry announced the investment and construction of a number of power supply companies, and planned to build power supply networks in many large cities and some medium-sized industrial cities to provide the basis for electrification. Development provides cheap and convenient electricity supply.

At the same time, these power supply companies have formed a procurement alliance and are preparing to tender for a series of power generation and power supply equipment.

Li's Electric Company, which had made quite a move before and shouted the slogan that it wanted to enter the AC field, also received a bidding invitation!

However, this series of official actions and bidding invitations have left the executives of Li's Iron and Steel Company at a loss... Damn, the power supply business that they have been thinking about has not yet happened, and it has not even had time to announce it to the outside world. Well, the Ministry of Industry has actually decided to build a power grid on its own!

And then they got another very important news, that is, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce regards power supply as a livelihood industry and has natural monopoly characteristics. At the same time, in order to avoid duplication of construction and waste, it stipulates that companies that want to build a large-scale power grid must have corresponding Technical qualifications and approval from the Ministry of Industry.

Then, before other companies could react, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce had directly announced the list of companies approved to build power grids in various provinces... Dozens of provinces directly under the empire's jurisdiction, regardless of whether they were local provinces or overseas provinces, were all included. But there are only five companies approved... and only one company in each province is approved.

Looking at the detailed plan, damn, every approved power grid company has obtained a permanent power grid franchise in the approved province... This means that other companies can no longer get involved.

These five so-called power supply companies are naturally the power supply companies created by the Ministry of Industry some time ago...

The main reason why it was divided into five power supply companies instead of one was that the empire's territory was too large and it would be too difficult to manage it as one company. That's why five power supply companies were created and managed by region.

Basically, it is divided into one family for the hinterland of East Asia, one family for Nanyang, one family for North America, one family for South America, and then one family for Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

This caught the top management of Li's Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. off guard. In the end, they didn't even know whether to continue investing... Although alternating current will have great benefits in the future, the power grid is not allowed to be built, so why not build a woolen wire!

As for the sky-high investment of five million yuan, if there is no such thing as a power grid, when will it be recovered?

But in the end I made up my mind: keep going!

Damn it, don't let me start a power grid to sell electricity. After we get the AC equipment out and complete the patent wall, we will sell the AC equipment for a sky-high price... Then you grid companies from the Ministry of Industry will be obedient. Come work for me!

In addition, the executives of Lee's Steel Company are also counting on an alternative plan... The power grid in the empire's directly-administered territory is not allowed to be built, but what about the administrative territory?

Okay, then administrative territories are not allowed, but what about those vassal states?

Your Ministry of Industry can't still worry about the people's livelihood issues in other vassal countries, right?

Although electrification equipment is now an advanced technology product that is strictly exported, some consumer products for civilian use are often not subject to too much control. For example, light bulbs are expected to be exported soon.

When the export controls on electrification-related equipment are relaxed in the future, the Lee Iron and Steel Company will monopolize power grids in those vassal countries and still make a lot of money!

In short, with the patent of AC corresponding equipment in hand, you are not afraid of turning the world upside down!

Therefore, although they were caught off guard, the senior management of Li's Iron Company did not lose confidence. The originally planned investment of five million will continue to be invested... Of course, it cannot be all invested in just a few years. Instead, we are preparing to extend the investment to ten years... which actually means reducing the initial investment.

After all, simply researching and developing alternating current equipment would not actually cost so much money... The reason why they finalized so much funds at the beginning was that a considerable part of the funds were intended to be used to build the power grid.

Investment in the power grid is the bulk of the money.

But now that the power grid is no longer allowed, the goal of Lee's Iron and Steel Company has become very simple. Just ignore the power grid and the like.

First, rely on a series of basic alternating current patents in hand, then spend money on research and development to develop alternating current equipment, and then register a series of alternating current equipment patents... completely blocking the way for newcomers!

The big companies in the Da Chu Empire, regardless of whether they are government-owned or private companies, all like to play this way... build a lot of patent walls to block the way of latecomers and competitors.

The Lee Iron and Steel Company, which holds the basic patent of alternating current, believes that it is naturally invincible... it can even directly block the necks of the five major power supply companies!

The five major power supply companies want to establish a power supply monopoly, and Lee Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. wants to establish a monopoly on AC equipment... In the end, we have to see who works for whom!

Unless the five major power supply companies do not use AC power to build the power grid, but use DC power to build the power grid!

Don't tell me...the five major power supply companies of the Ministry of Industry actually planned to use alternating current at the beginning, but they discovered that Li's Electric had already secretly registered all the basic patents for alternating current, and was unwilling to let go of alternating current related issues. Licensing!

At the same time, because AC application technology is relatively weak, Li's Electric currently does not have corresponding mass-produced products for commercial use.

Therefore, after careful consideration, the five major power supply companies of the Ministry of Industry actually abandoned Li's Electric and purchased a large number of DC power generation equipment and other corresponding equipment from the three major electrical companies, preparing to take the lead in setting up a test DC power supply in Jinling City. Power supply network.

Several senior professional managers of Li's Steel Company were silent for a while after learning the news.

Even in the contemporary Dachu Empire, people with a little expertise in electrification know that DC power cannot create a large-scale long-distance power supply network. The only thing that has this possibility is AC power.

But the five major power supply companies are actually planning to use DC power to build the power grid...

In the conference room at the headquarters of Lee Iron and Steel Company, under the smoke, someone vaguely muttered: "Did we underestimate them? Or overestimate them?"