Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 487 Create Demand

What is the use of food?

This question is simply mentally retarded, because everyone knows that food is for eating.But the question is, what if there is no more food to eat?
Oh, that can save part of it for emergency use.However, food is not gold, it has a shelf life, so there must be a limit to preparing for shortages. What if there is still more food to eat after the food is stored and prepared for shortages?
That's the situation in Huguang now - it has to be sold, or it will just rot.

Selling is also particular. For example, the food in Huguang is mainly sold to the south of the Yangtze River.

It must be explained here that in the early days of the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangnan area was the main food producing area, and it was known as "Suhu is cooked, and the world is full".But in the middle or late period, no one mentioned this, and it became "Huguang is ripe, the world is full", because the economic structure of the Jiangnan area has undergone great changes.

In short, the Jiangnan area has changed from an agricultural-dominated economic structure to a commercial-dominated economic structure. A large number of good fields in the past have changed from planting grain to planting cash crops such as cotton and mulberry trees. Several large cotton spinning and silk centers with Suzhou as the core were established, and at the same time commercial activities were greatly strengthened, forming a commercial core.

There is a saying that without agriculture there is no stability, without work there is no strength, without business there is no wealth.There are both industry and business in the Jiangnan area, but there is a shortage of agriculture.

Fortunately, it doesn't matter, because Huguang and Jiangxi have been greatly developed, and agricultural production has increased rapidly, and they can already replace the Jiangnan area as the main grain producing area.And because of the Yangtze River waterway, the cost of transporting grain from Huguang and Jiangxi to Jiangnan for sale is not too high.

There are industries and businesses in Jiangnan, so there is no shortage of money, so since Huguang has a surplus of food, the best way to deal with it is to sell it to Jiangnan.

But what Gao Pragmatically needs now is not to send food from Huguang to the south of the Yangtze River, but to go north to support the Central Plains and Hebei regions, which is more troublesome.

These northern provinces are far from comparable to the Jiangnan region in terms of industry and commerce, and in terms of transportation, they do not have the huge advantage of the Yangtze River waterway for convenient transportation.As long as Huguang merchants are not out of their minds, how could they not sell grain to Jiangnan, but to Henan, Shaanxi, or even North Zhili and Shanxi?

In terms of economic structure, Huguang's "local tyrants" actually don't need many foreign goods, because in the era of small-scale peasant economy, Huguang is completely self-sufficient, and it lacks almost everything.

Even silk and cotton cloth, the flagship products in the Jiangnan area, can be produced by Huguang itself.Cotton cloth needs no special introduction, but for silk, Hunan embroidery is one of the four famous embroideries that are as famous as Suzhou embroidery. How much do you think Huguang’s external demand for silk can be?Although its silk production is not comparable to that of Jiangnan, it is definitely more than enough to satisfy itself.

As for porcelain, Liling in Huguang is also one of the eight major porcelain centers, especially underglaze colored porcelain, even in later generations, it is a world-renowned hard-pressed product, which shows that Huguang has no shortage of porcelain.In general, Huguang's dependence on foreign commodities is very low.

So what is it lacking?It may just be short of money...

Because some economically developed prefectures and counties in Huguang have now carried out a whipping reform, such as Hanyang, Wuchang, Yuezhou, Changsha, etc., have changed from the past in-kind tax to cash payment Taxes, so what Huguang lacks now is not materials, but money.

However, in terms of money, Henan and other provinces are definitely not as good as Jiangnan, so this road is not open.

So in this way, there is no way to operate according to the normal thinking. The only way to be highly pragmatic is to follow the thinking of later generations, that is... there is no demand, I will create demand for you!
Huguang lacks few things, but it doesn't mean it has no troubles. Huguang's current troubles are mainly two.

First, there are also floods in the Yangtze River Basin.Floods in the Yangtze River Basin have always existed, but the area of ​​Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake has not been greatly reduced at present, which can somewhat play a role in flood storage, but this does not mean that there will be no floods in the Yangtze River Basin, large and small floods still occur from time to time occur.

As I said before, the Ming court basically had neither money for disaster relief nor major repairs to water conservancy, and they all relied on local government to make small troubles.Since it is just a small fight, it is of course difficult to achieve any climate, and there is no overall plan to speak of, so there will still be floods when there should be floods, and it will not play a big role.

Another problem is the security issue.The inland border areas at the junction of Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi, and Sichuan provinces, because of the mountains, dense forests, and small population, adopted the measure of "empty land and no refugees allowed to enter" in the early Ming Dynasty.But in the mid-Ming Dynasty, there was still a Jingxiang refugee incident here.After the incident was put down, the central government of the Ming Dynasty decided to set up new institutions such as Yunyang Mansion and Huguang Xingdu Division here to strengthen management, and set up Yunyang Fuzhi (Governor) to govern. From then on, the "border area" evolved into a "political area".

However, that does not mean that this area will be peaceful for a long time. In fact, it has been a frequent area of ​​turmoil until the early Qing Dynasty, and it has never been peaceful.Frequent civil unrest is one aspect, while bandits and bandits are another aspect.

However, this aspect is not easy to use. Would Gao Wushi want to tell the local government office in Huguang: I will send my servants to help you suppress bandits, and you will give me food?
Therefore, the second cannot be used for the time being, and we can only think of a solution from the first: if Huguang vigorously renovates the water conservancy, it will definitely be beneficial. It can not only reduce the losses caused by disasters, but also further increase food production. This article is beneficial to the "local tyrants" who have a large number of local fields.

The benefits that Gao Pragmatism can bring to the north are obviously hitchhiking and selling cement. Because of the appearance of cement, the reinforcement of dams is simpler, more efficient and stronger than before. purchase.In other words, if Huguang also overhauls water conservancy, it will definitely consider buying a lot of cement, that's for sure.

The question now is, is the local government in Huguang capable and motivated to do this?

In the past, it would definitely not be possible.The local government in Huguang is the same as the local government in other parts of Daming. Firstly, the funds are extremely limited, and secondly, one thing more is worse than one thing less. Why are they so enlightened, trying to find ways to do projects everywhere like public servants?It doesn't make sense!
But now it is different, the current local officials in Huguang -- no, the current local officials in Daming, as long as they still have hope for their official career, or even as long as they don't want to get crowned and leave, almost all want to Do things, especially things that can actually improve your political performance!

This seems very strange, why did the magistrates of Ming Dynasty suddenly become diligent?
In fact, this is due to Gao Gong's examination method that incorporates the high-practical "quantification of political performance" thinking.

　Thanks for the support of book friends "Fengfeng Fengfeng", "HughJL", "Long in Disrepair nn", "sugarsugar", thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)