Daming: I help my wife be the empress

Chapter 166 Xingguanying Iron Works, Liu Linchang Admonishes

Liu Linchang, as an assistant in charge of the Industry Department of the Supervisory Government, had also worked in the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty for many years, and he had thought about the policy of the steel industry before.

Hearing this, he said: "I think that the government-run ironworks can be handled according to the previous rules, but it is necessary to clarify personnel and strictly investigate and punish corruption.

As for the taxation of the iron industry, the first is to strictly investigate the number of private iron mines and iron factories, register all of them, and close down the illegally opened iron mines and iron factories.

Second, in the past, my Ming iron tax was [-] taxes and [-], but today's turmoil is just when iron is needed, so it can be changed to [-] taxes and [-]. "

After Liu Linchang finished speaking, the rest of the hall remained silent for a while.

Because of this matter, neither Li Yan nor the two ambassadors of the Weapons Bureau are as knowledgeable as Liu Lin, nor as he has the right to speak.

Aimee Zhu studied Daming's policies on the iron industry with Hao Guangming last night, and it can be said that she gained a lot of knowledge.

In the initial construction period of any country or dynasty, steel is in great demand.

Therefore, even Zhu Yuanzhang, who did not attach importance to industry and commerce in the biography, not only took over the iron and steel industry and craftsmen of the Great Yuan Dynasty as much as possible at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, but also developed on this basis.

For example, iron smelters, that is, government-run iron factories, were established in suitable places across the country.

According to the information obtained by Hao Guangming, there were thirteen government-run ironworks in Daming during the Hongwu period, and two more were added during the Yongle period.

Fifteen, it should be the most prosperous time for the Daming government-run ironworks.

At the beginning, the military equipment of the Ming Dynasty had not been upgraded to the top, and the folks were devoid of iron after the war, and the iron was naturally not enough.

But in ancient times, folk ironware could not be consumed quickly. Some people could even pass on an iron pot to the next generation, and a kitchen knife was used for more than ten or ten years.

If the army fights all year round, the armor and weapons will wear out faster, but if the world is peaceful, the swords and guns are stored in the warehouse, and they are maintained strictly according to military regulations, the wear and tear will also be slow.

In addition, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the administration of officials was relatively clear, there was less corruption in government-run iron factories, and the tax collection efficiency of private iron mines and iron factories was also quite high.

Finally, in addition, in the early Ming Dynasty, the usefulness of iron was so few, and foreign trade was not developed, or even non-existent.

As a result, in the ten years or so of Hongwu, the iron obtained by more than a dozen government-run iron factories and iron schools across the country far exceeded the country's needs, and there were a lot of iron deposits from the imperial court to the localities.

In fact, during the years of Hongwu and Yongle, the grain received by Daming also had a similar situation of central and local accumulation.

But food is the daily needs of people and even animals. There will always be famines in places in Ming Dynasty, and there will always be people who can’t eat enough. As long as the court allocates it properly, it will never let too much food rot in the warehouse.

But iron is different.

First of all, the most important point is that the ancients also knew that iron ore is a non-renewable resource, and once it is used, it will be gone.

Secondly, even if you look at the entire Daming, iron materials are only so useful.

There is almost no situation where there is too much iron in one place, and there is a shortage of iron in another place, and it will be used just after deployment.

In addition, the preservation of iron materials is not easy, and it is easy to rust.

Not to mention the loss of this corrosion means that it is completely gone, but it is also for nothing, right?
Faced with this situation, the Ming court adopted the following measures——

When the imperial court lacks iron materials, it will let the government-run iron factories smelt iron near the mining area; if there is no shortage of iron materials, the people will be allowed to mine and smelt iron in the mining areas that belonged to the government-run iron factories, and they only need to pay one-fifteenth taxation.

What needs to be explained is that from the Ming Dynasty until Zhang Juzheng's reform, taxation was mainly in kind.

The grain tax is to collect grain, and the iron tax is naturally to collect iron materials.

During the Taiping period, not only the population grew rapidly, but also the private iron industry developed rapidly.

In this way, even though the government-run ironworks of the Ming Dynasty did not start work, the iron materials collected from the private sector far exceeded the needs of the imperial court.

The imperial court collected too much iron through taxation every year, and watched these non-renewable iron materials slowly rust and break in the warehouse. How could a frugal person like Zhu Yuanzhang bear it?
Therefore, in the 15th year of Hongwu, something that seemed strange and even incomprehensible to those who did not know the inside story happened.

An official from Guangping Mansion named Wang Yundao reported that Linshui Town, Cizhou, produced iron. In the Yuan Dynasty, there was an iron factory here, which could produce millions of catties of iron a year. Zhu Yuanzhang was asked to follow the example of the Yuan Dynasty and set up an iron factory here.

Zhu Yuanzhang still couldn't get angry after scolding Wang Yundao in the memorial, so he had Wang Yundao beaten again and was directly exiled overseas.

And the case of Wang Yundao is not an isolated case. During the Hongwu period, many officials who were not smart enough and wanted to increase their political achievements through iron smelting were reprimanded and even severely punished.

Speaking of which, the iron tax of the Ming Dynasty was not much, and it was three times less than the five taxes of the Qing Dynasty.

However, the private iron industry has developed too fast, after all, it is profitable, so when the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were in power, the annual income of iron materials always exceeded the annual expenditure.

Because of this, many government-run iron factories have not started operations for several years or even decades, and some have even been directly abolished by local officials, completely letting the so-called "common people" mine for profit.

As a result, when the government was corrupted, more and more people became corrupt in the country, and more and more people were able to be exempted from taxes, the iron materials obtained by Daming through iron courses became less and less.

In the late Ming Dynasty, wars became more and more frequent, and the court's demand for iron materials increased instead.

At this time, many government-run iron factories had already existed in name only, and the iron class could not receive enough iron materials, and even if it could receive it, it was mostly inferior iron.

As a result, there was a situation where the imperial court spent additional money to purchase high-quality iron from the people...

When studying this part of historical materials, Hao Guangming thought: If Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, the two emperors who feel distressed when they see the iron materials being over-harvested and rusted in the warehouse every year, see that Emperor Chongzhen has to spend money to buy them from the people. Iron, but short of money, the expression will be very exciting.

Closer to home.

Speaking of the above, I want to show that the iron industry in Sichuan belongs to the typical situation in the late Ming Dynasty.

The government-run ironworks in Pujiang existed in name only, while the private ironworks in various places could not accept ironwork.

Therefore, the set of methods proposed by Liu Linchang is quite good in terms of the theory and experience of governing the country of a feudal dynasty.

However, what Auntie Zhu wants is not just an ordinary feudal dynasty.

Seeing that Li Yan and the others were silent, she said, "What Liu Xieli said is generally reasonable, but except for the iron tax being changed to ten taxes and one tax, government-run iron factories, private iron mines, and iron factories cannot be governed according to the old system. Change."

Liu Linchang was puzzled when he heard this, and said: "Maybe Jian Guo doesn't know something, but there is nothing wrong with our iron industry system.

As far as I know, according to this system, from Hongwu to Jiajing, there was a surplus in the country's annual iron material revenue.

It was only because the official administration was too corrupt, corruption was rampant, and tax evasion among the people led to the situation that the court had no iron to use when the late emperor was in power. "

The implication is that if you want to do a good job in the iron industry, you only need to clarify the administration of officials and severely punish corruption.

Auntie Zhu smiled when she heard this, and asked, "If the old system was fine, why did Daming Iron Industry become so corrupted to this point? Is it really just because of corrupt officials?"

Liu Linchang wanted to say yes, but with his years of experience in the officialdom and life, he knew it wasn't all true.

Auntie Zhu continued: "Besides, the world is undergoing major changes unseen in 3000 years. In three to four hundred years, our world will become as advanced as the later generations.

Therefore, our need for iron in the future can be said to be endless, and it is possible that we will be short of iron for the rest of our lives under the rule of the Jian Guofu.

Now that we want to start the iron industry, we naturally have to learn from the methods and experience of later generations to come up with a system that is more necessary for my Ming Dynasty. "

Hearing Aimee Zhu's words, Liu Linchang was still frowning and thinking.

Huang Yuanchang and Zheng Xiang didn't dare to speak for a while, for fear of saying the wrong thing.

Li Yan was the first to understand and accept what Auntie Zhu said, and asked, "Does Jian Guo have a plan with the son-in-law?"

Aunt Zhu said: "It's not a plan, but I do have some ideas, so I need to call everyone to discuss and supplement it."

Seeing that Liu Linchang's attention was also diverted, Auntie Zhu continued: "Let's talk about the government-run ironworks first—you may not have noticed what I said before, but what I said was government-run, not government-run.

In the past, iron produced by government-run iron factories was provided to the imperial court free of charge. When the imperial court no longer needed iron, they closed it down.

This method of handling is too extensive and hinders the continued development of the ironworks, so it has to be changed from government-run to government-run.

Let the iron factory be like a private iron factory, and be responsible for its own profits and losses.

The imperial court is equivalent to becoming the owner of the iron factory, and the management officials are equivalent to becoming treasurers and stewards.

If the imperial court wants to use iron, it needs to buy it from the iron factory at the market price. There is no discount, but it has the highest right of first refusal.

After the iron factory produces iron and sells it to the imperial court, there is still a lot of iron, which can be sold to the common people, or cause ironware to be sold overseas for profit.

The ironworks make monthly, quarterly, and annual reimbursements to the imperial court at different levels, and the profits are handed over to the imperial court and are subject to the imperial court's supervision.

In addition, whether it is the officials who manage the ironworks or the artisans below, in addition to fixed salaries, they can also receive bonuses based on the profitability of the ironworks and their personal contributions to the ironworks.

Ironworks officials and blacksmiths are not only subject to strict supervision, but also can make profits by doing things, so corruption will naturally be less, and work will be more serious and efficient.

In this way, the government-run ironworks can continue to develop healthily and continue to expand in scale. What do you think? "

This time, Li Yan didn't respond first, but frowned slightly while thinking.

Huang Yuanchang and Zheng Xiang looked at each other, and they were about to come out to flatter Auntie Zhu.

Unexpectedly, Liu Linchang came out first, and persuaded with a worried face: "Jianguo, although this government-run iron factory strategy is beneficial for the present, it will bring disaster to future generations, it is absolutely not feasible!"

Aunt Zhu was a little surprised when she heard that, but she was not angry, but asked seriously, "Why did Xie Li Liu say that?"

Liu Linchang said very solemnly: "Jianguo, iron ore is not food and vegetation, once used it cannot be regenerated.

According to Jian Guo, the scale of government-run iron factories will grow rapidly, and with the power of the state, the iron-making efficiency will be much higher than that of the private sector, and the consumption of iron ore will also be very fast.

In this way, even though my Ming Dynasty has a vast land and rich resources and a lot of iron ore, I am afraid that after a hundred years, I will fall into a crisis of shortage of iron ore and no way to make iron! "

Speaking of this, Liu Linchang directly knelt down to Aimee Zhu, as if he would not get up if Amy Zhu didn't repent.

On the other side, Huang Yuanchang and Zheng Xiang were dumbfounded.

But the two of them are not stupid. They didn't expect it before, but now they can understand what Liu Lin said makes sense.

So I couldn't help being afraid for a while--fortunately, they came out a step late just now, otherwise wouldn't they become courtiers who only cared about flattering the country and disregarding the country's long-term plans?
But Liu Linchang is really daring.

Her Royal Highness the Princess described such a good government-run iron factory system, and she actually pointed out a big loophole to him in person, and she was not afraid of being secretly hated by the Princess for wearing small shoes afterwards.

While the two were engaged in mental activities, they saw Li Yan also stand up, cupped his hands and said, "The supervisor of the country, I also feel that Liu Xieli's words are reasonable. Governing the country needs to take into account the long-term. Prisoner, please think twice."

Seeing this scene, Huang Yuanchang and Zheng Xiang couldn't help but look at each other, thinking: Should I also go out and ask the supervisor to think twice?Show your loyalty and dare to advise?
At the old house in Zhulin, Hao Guangming, who saw this scene through the camera of his mobile phone, laughed.

"Haha, it seems that we underestimated Liu Lin's growth before. He actually has a sense of sustainable development. You made him the assistant director in charge of the industry, you are right."

After hearing this, Auntie Zhu couldn't help smiling when she looked at Liu Linchang who was kneeling below, and Li Yan who was admonishing with him.

With Hao Guangming around, how could she not know about sustainable development?
　Sorry, it took too long to study the materials related to Ming Dynasty steel, and the code words were delayed, and the second update was late.

　　However, if some materials are not clear, the writing is very false, and I am afraid that the writing will not be good.

　　Of course, the author is writing history for the first time, but it is easy to get lost in historical materials (when reading stories, I loved reading them when I was a child).

　　For example, when Zhu Yuanzhang severely punished Wang Yundao, the author also laughed at Zhu Yuanzhang for being "short-sighted" when he first read it, but after a deeper understanding, he realized that Zhu Taizu was far smarter and more insightful than I thought.

　　In fact, the more information you know, the more you will think that the ancients were smart.A lot of things are just limited by the time limit, so they can't get out of it.

　　Not much to say, I haven't eaten yet, so I went to eat.

　　(There are more than 3500 words in this chapter, and there are more than 2800 in the morning chapter. The code words are slow, and it takes more time to search and research materials. I really tried my best to update. Thank you for your subscription support!)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)