Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 383

"Step into the industrial revolution, reduce the value of land investment, accelerate land mergers, and finally take the land back to the state..."

Zhu Youjian turned around and sat back in his seat, picked up a pen and began to write down his thoughts.

A better way to alleviate land annexation appeared in front of Zhu Youjian, and that was the industrial revolution.

As long as Daming is allowed to step into the industrial revolution, the status of arable land as a means of production will be greatly reduced, and people without arable land will be absorbed by industry and service industries, so Zhu Youjian does not need to restrain land mergers.

On the contrary, at that time, he will also encourage centralized management of land to improve production efficiency and reduce the agricultural population.

Zhu Youjian has carefully studied the process of land annexation in the Song Dynasty. First of all, facing the land annexation in the Song Dynasty, the method adopted by the Northern Song Dynasty was also innovation and suppression.

However, in the face of the general trend of land annexation, the first people who cannot survive are not those whose land has been annexed, but those whose land has not been annexed...

It's not that the tyrants robbed the peasants of their land, and the peasants could no longer survive, so the peasants rebelled.

Rather, the imperial court originally collected money from 100 peasants, but later [-] peasants were annexed by large tax-exempt households, and the remaining [-] people had to pay [-] people's shares.

As the burden increased, some peasants who couldn't bear it all turned to big households, and the burden of the rest continued to increase.

In the end, some people were squeezed out of their way, and they left the land to become refugees, or simply rebelled.

At this time, the imperial court is like a sieve, with a bunch of independent kingdoms "tax evasion and tax evasion" all over the body.

Whichever one of them you want, the others will stop you for their own benefit.

For the rebels, they are not in conflict with a certain big family, but in conflict with the entire system.

Taking away a den is a drop in the bucket, if they stop here, they will still have a heavy burden.

The Great Industrial Revolution cannot suppress land mergers, but it can ease land mergers and allow the dynasty to transition to a new era of technological revolution.

Zhu Youjian remembered that in the books he had read, there was information about land annexation after the first industrial revolution in Britain.

Probably after the first industrial revolution, nearly [-]% of the land in the UK has been in the hands of about [-] wealthy families for a long time.

This must be the product of repeated mergers and acquisitions. Although riots occurred frequently during the merger process, from a macro point of view, these big landowners have long been the backbone of Britain.

Later, due to changes in the world, the landlords fell behind in the struggle with the capitalists, and the imperial court began to levy high inheritance taxes on them.

The more land you have, the more taxes you pay. In the end, Britain used this method of boiling frogs in warm water to dismember the big landowners around the [-]th century.

Therefore, it is impossible to rely solely on the industrial revolution to alleviate land annexation. The industrial revolution can only increase jobs and provide refugees with more job opportunities.

If the refugees had the opportunity, there would be no turmoil, and the court would have a chance to breathe, and then slowly attack the gentry.

It's just that Daming's current situation is very embarrassing. First of all, British land is privately owned, so inheritance tax can be collected.

Although the Ming Dynasty was also privately owned, nearly 8 million mu of the more than [-] million mu of land is currently under public ownership.

In this situation, it is not advisable for Ming to imitate later generations alone, or to imitate Britain during the industrial revolution alone.

Zhu Youjian can emulate the United Kingdom and recognize private ownership of land, but in essence he still wants to nationalize all land and prohibit the circulation of land in the market.

The prohibition of land circulation will inevitably prevent some farmers from selling land to go to towns to do business and open up new ways to get rich.

However, land circulation is prohibited, which is to protect farmers in disguise. Even if the other party fails to enter the city, there is still land in the village for the other party to support their families.

only……

After writing here, Zhu Youjian's pen paused.

He is very clear that the industrial revolution is a double-edged sword, because the industrial revolution will stimulate the capital market and finally release the beast of capital.

On the left are the powerful gentry, on the right are the capitalists, and Zhu Youjian stands in the middle, in a dilemma.

He is very clear that the current Da Ming is actually trying to step into the stage of the first industrial revolution, and because of the previous accumulation, once Da Ming steps into this stage, he will directly reach the peak.

Of course, Daming is too big and has a large population, so the industrial revolution of a court in Daming is actually comparable to the industrial revolution of a continent.

With such a large volume, it is doomed that the owner farmers cannot disappear too much at once, so Zhu Youjian needs two things.

Stability, demand...

Stable domestic political situation, commodity demand in domestic and foreign markets, labor demand.

Only relying on domestic demand, promoting large-scale infrastructure construction in a natural disaster environment can alleviate land annexation and feed the hungry people. This can be seen from the fact that corrupt officials have to start with the money of "relief with work".

"Relief with work" is the last way for the hungry people to survive. If this way is blocked, the only way to survive is to sell land.

It's a pity that "relief with work" requires a huge amount of money and food, and Zhu Youjian collected the money and food from home and abroad exhaustively, but after putting it in, a group of blood-sucking insects would eat most of it.

This group of people was not satisfied after eating most of the money and food, and they had to join forces with the local gentry to eat the fields of the common people.

It is decided on this point that no matter what Zhu Youjian does, the anti-corruption campaign will continue, and Sun Chuanting's road to governor will continue.

Zhu Youjian didn't do anything for the time being, he was waiting for an opportunity.

He is waiting for the fourth generation steam engine, and also waiting for Huanglong to open up the second market for Daming.

As long as these two things appear together, domestic demand and external demand will be pulled together, and a huge economic closed loop that accounts for half of the world's population will be formed.

At that time, whether it is currency reform, appeasing refugees, or reducing the status of cultivated land as a means of production, Daming will be handy.

After the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution, the trade surplus between the East and the West will increase.

For the same amount of money, you can earn several times the profit by playing trade surplus, but you can only get a meager profit by playing land.

At that time, as long as the irresistible gentry go into business and become capital, there will be some weak gentry left, and it will be much easier for Zhu Youjian to clean up.

However, cleaning up the powerful gentry will provoke a more greedy capital. Whether it is worth it or not depends on Zhu Youjian himself.

He was walking a path that no one had traveled, not even one to follow.

His identity is firstly the king of Qi in the Ming Dynasty, secondly he is one of the rulers of the Ming Dynasty, and then he is the common people of the Ming Dynasty.

He had to carry out reforms while maintaining the rule of the Ming Dynasty. If he was not careful, he might play off the situation and play himself to death.

Of course, he can always fight corruption to pursue stability, but there is a price to pay for fighting corruption, and he also needs a scapegoat.

Using Sun Chuanting as a scapegoat is something he can't do.

Gradually, Zhu Youjian didn't know how to write any more.

There are too many things to check and balance him, and he has to consider all aspects, otherwise, if he makes a mistake, he will lose everything.

"It is still necessary to create a group of people who lack the means of production, use them to drive away the big gentry, and finally deal with the weak gentry."

Zhu Youjian closed the half-written booklet, took it to the stove, and threw the booklet, which had been written for an hour, into the stove.

"Basic education must be promoted, and Sun Chuanting needs a group of helpers..."

The firelight shone on his face, erratically, and he probably figured out a way.

"Your Highness!"

At this time, Lu Wenzhao walked into the Chengyun Hall with the document book, Zhu Youjian turned to look at him, and he also bowed and said:

"Your Highness, Tianzhu's market demand is here."

As he spoke, he presented the document with both hands, and Zhu Youjian also took the document and read it in general.

In general, the population market of Tianzhu is placed there. In fact, as long as the commodity demand of the major Mughal cities is investigated, the commodities needed by the place can be roughly judged.

As long as it is a human being, it is actually involved in the four behaviors of "basic clothing, food, housing and transportation".

Needless to say about clothes, the Nanchang Weaving Bureau specializes in weaving cloth.

The reason why the scale of the Weaving Bureau has not been expanded to seize the domestic market of the Ming Dynasty is because the private family workshops in the south of the Yangtze River still need this income.

At home, Zhu Youjian needs to worry, but not abroad.

Tianzhu’s white cloth costs five hundred cash per piece, while Daming’s white cloth costs two hundred cash. The profit from this is enough to exchange for a lot of gold and silver.

In terms of food, first of all, among various edible things such as salt and vinegar, rice and wheat, sugar, meat, etc., it is impossible to export rice and wheat Daming. Salt is the foundation of a country, and Zhu Youjian is not prepared to share with him The vassals compete, but choose the way of cooperation.

Needless to say, the remaining vinegar, sugar, wine, and tea, together with cloth, will be the main commodities exported by Ming Dynasty.

These few things, except that vinegar is not so strong, the other four items are necessities in any country.

These four commodities can benefit not one family, but millions of families.

The economic layout must start, and it will take two or three years for Huanglong to win most of the South Asian market.

Planting mulberry and raising silkworms, planting sugar cane, and cultivating tea trees, these three policies that benefit owner farmers must be implemented.

It is best to plant sugar cane in Jiugang, but Daming needs Jiugang as a base to ease land mergers and supply food to the country.

Putting sugarcane in Guangxi is a good move. Guangxi is not densely populated, with only three million people in the province. Moreover, the drought in Guangxi has begun to decline this year. Not surprisingly, there will be no severe drought in the next ten years.

With two grain production bases in Sichuan and Jiaozhi in the southwest, it is a good idea to build a sugar mill in Guangxi.

Of course, the choice of Guangxi is also because the local tyrants here have long been solved by Zhu Youjian, and it is easier to install the pillar industries of the imperial court.

As for the tea farm, it can basically be said that it covers all the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and what needs to be done is to expand the scale.

Heavy industry in the north and light industry in the south. This configuration is good. The ore is continuously shipped from overseas, and it will not damage the resources of the north itself, except for the coal mines in Shanxi and Shaanxi.

Driving the gentry to South Asia will not only promote culture, but also exploit minerals, and use South Asian resources to develop from Taungoo to the interior.

However, the premise of doing so is that domestic wages must keep up.

So Zhu Youjian closed the file, pondered for a moment, and then said:

"A notice was issued this year that sugarcane fields in Guangxi are exempt from taxation, and the price of sugarcane charged by Huangdian has increased from one penny per catty to three penny per catty."

"In addition, the major tea farms under the supervision of the Tea Division will expand from this year, and the output of tea will double in five years' time."

"The purchase price of silk in Jiangnan will remain unchanged for the time being, but the land tax of Sangtian will be reduced to fifty one."

"In addition, the speed of acquiring mines in various parts of Guochao needs to be accelerated. This year's Huangdian also needs to select a group of people to let students who graduated from Yanshan go in to improve efficiency."

Of the three policies formulated by Zhu Youjian, two directly benefit farmers, one is the increase in the purchase price of sugarcane, and the other is the reduction of mulberry fields.

The reason why the purchase price of silk has not been increased is for the consideration of small folk workshops.

With the scale and channels of Nanchang, it is natural to increase the purchase price of silk, but in that case, small folk workshops and family workshops will not be able to survive.

They do not have ocean-going trade channels, so they can only buy materials at high prices, and then sell cloth at a par price in the Ming market.

Small workshops will gradually withdraw from the stage of history, but not now.

Zhu Youjian needs to give the people a way to survive, whether they are refugees, self-cultivating farmers, or urban people.

"How many workers are employed by the disaster victims in the imperial court?"

Zhu Youjian asked Lu Wenzhao, and Lu Wenzhao knew it well: "About 120 million people."

Zhu Youjian's first reaction was that the number of workers hired by the victims decreased, but he did not ask why the decrease, but instead asked:

"How much money and grain do you have saved from the state treasury? How much can you collect this year?"

"Excluding the gold and silver that are going to be used in the currency system, the state treasury still has more than 370 million taels of silver, or 72 million shi." Lu Wenzhao replied honestly:
"It has rained a lot since April this year, and the Household Department's forecast for the land tax has risen to about 800 million shi, and the tax money should be around 700 million taels."

It is good news that the total amount of taxes and revenues has recovered, but Zhu Youjian knows that there are more places to spend money.

The severe drought will continue, but it will usher in a trough period of about three or four years.

This trough period does not mean that the severe drought will subside, but that the scale of the severe drought will not be larger than that of the previous three years.

The peak of the first wave of severe drought was last year, and it is slowly fading until the second wave of severe drought will usher in three or four years later.

Daming needs to enhance the people's ability to resist drought in the local drought situation, and sum up the experience of fighting natural and man-made disasters in the first drought to prepare for the second wave of drought.

How many lands have been annexed during this three-year drought, how many corrupt officials have been greedy for disaster relief funds, and helped the gentry to oppress the people by force, all these have to be summarized and prevented in the next severe drought.

During this severe drought, the unreliable temperament of the local government was completely exposed.

After all, the officials are also part of the gentry, and it is better to expect all of them to have a conscience to help the victims than to rely on Mr. Huang to donate their family property.

Bank affairs must be advanced, and the household registration passbook system must also be advanced.

It is much more direct to distribute wages directly to the user's passbook than to distribute money and food to the local government, and then the local government forwards it to the people.

In the final analysis, during this severe drought, there were too many middlemen between the imperial court and the hungry people.

If the bank gets it right, the payment of "cash for work" wages only needs to go through a middleman.

Even this middleman has corruption, but if you want to track it down, the difficulty is reduced, and the speed is also very fast.

Zhu Youjian has deposited a large amount of gold and silver to implement the currency system. Now he only needs to wait for Li Changgeng to take action, and the bank will be established soon.

He turned around and walked back to his seat. After sitting down, he explained to Lu Wenzhao:
"You personally go to the Finance Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs and tell Li Changgeng that next month's Enke, he can add a separate subject and choose the person he wants."

"In short, no matter whether he wants money, food or talents, as long as the court has what he has, the court will support him. Before the end of next year, I must see banks stand up all over Daming."

"Your Highness..." Lu Wenzhao asked cautiously:
"This memorial, isn't it sent to the cabinet? Is it sent directly to the Finance Department?"

"..." His words made Zhu Youjian silent for a few seconds:

"Send it to the cabinet, and also to the Secretary of Finance. If the cabinet doesn't approve it, it will follow the government's orders. Li Changgeng will accept it himself."

"Yes..." Seeing this, Lu Wenzhao retreated with the news in his mind, and then wrote two identical memorials himself, and sent them to the Finance Department and the cabinet.

It was still dark when the cabinet got the news, and there were still only Yuan Keli and Sun Chengzong in the Wenhua Palace.

When the memorial about the bank was delivered to the two of them, they quickly understood what Zhu Youjian wanted to do.

"Your Highness is going to cross the border and directly distribute money and food to the hungry."

Putting the memorial on the table, Yuan Keli saw the essence clearly, and he also thought it was a good method.

"If this memorandum is released in batches, the attention of the officials will be transferred from Sun Chuanting to His Highness."

Sun Chengzong picked up the memorial and looked at it carefully, and said while reading.

"The pressure is better on His Highness' side than on Sun Chuanting's side."

"On His Highness's side, we can always discuss and discuss." Yuan Keli picked up the teacup, brewed it, looked at the tea leaves in the tea, and continued:
"If it's on Sun Chuanting's side, that group of people will die."

"The mine is going to be advanced, and the imperial court is beginning to intervene in the sugar business. It's already a little difficult to do both, but I have to create a bank. I always feel..." Sun Chengzong hesitated to speak.

"It's not that exaggerated..." Yuan Keli took a sip of tea:

"The factory, the imperial store, and the bank are intertwined. As long as the people are replaced diligently enough, few people can get in."

"With these three links together, Sun Chuanting doesn't have to investigate corruption, he can just check the bank."

"Your Highness picked him out, but based on what I know about Sun Chuanting, whether he is willing to be picked out of the quagmire is still unknown."

Yuan Keli put the teacup on the table, and Sun Chengzong also frowned and said, "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" Yuan Keli leaned on the chair:

"From the perspective of others, fighting against powerful gentry and corrupt officials is purely like moths flying to a flame."

"But in his view, Sun Chuanting, I'm afraid this is what an official should do."

"Your Highness overestimated Sun Chuanting's obedience, underestimated his stubbornness, and overestimated his obedience."

"..." Hearing these words, Sun Chengzong felt that the matter was a bit tricky, and asked tentatively:
"If Sun Chuanting doesn't want to be picked out, then the bank will carry out corruption together. This..."

"The people below are going to turn upside down, it's unstoppable." Yuan Keli's old god was there, and he obviously understood that the current situation cannot be changed when he saw the memorial.

"Even in the Hongwu period of my Ming Dynasty, hundreds of officials still forced the palace to play."

"Right now, it's more than three years since Taiping."

"In the past three years, both the outer court and the inner court have accumulated a lot of temper. Take advantage of this time to let it out, and then Long Live or His Highness will come out to finish the matter, and this matter will be settled."

"The only variable is Sun Chuanting, whether he will retreat or not, now it is not His Highness, but himself."

"But you said he won't retreat." Sun Chengzong frowned, Yuan Keli nodded slightly:

"He won't back down, because if it were me, I wouldn't back down either."

It was rare for Yuan Keli to stand on the same footing as Sun Chuanting. Sun Chengzong looked at him in surprise, but Yuan Keli said indifferently:
"How can a person not have a three-point temper. Sun Chuanting was chased and intercepted by the people below, and he was disgraced."

"Now that you have Shangfang's sword in your hand, if you don't kill a few people, do you think he will be taken out honestly?"

"How can a person who throws his pen into the army bear this anger?"

"You mean... Long live, the Shangfang sword was fired wrongly?" Sun Chengzong asked Pan Heng.

"It's not wrong, it just happens to be right." Yuan Keli put the black hat on the table back on his head:

"The arrogance of the people below should be killed. Let them know who is in charge of the overall situation above the dome of the Ming Dynasty."

"Don't think that they can cover the sky with one hand as long as they have a dominant party right now. As long as the superiors think about it, they still have to die when they deserve to die."

"I think their brains are stuffed with money, and when they have three points of ability, they want to wrestle with Long Live and His Highness."

"Long live to give Sun Chuanting the sword now, I'm sure, not only will they not be able to deal with Sun Chuanting, but they will be dealt with by Sun Chuanting, and maybe they will be left in ashes."

"But the drought in eastern Chuandong and the case are over?" Sun Chengzong frowned, realizing the seriousness of the matter.

"Yes..." Yuan Keli is here:

"The matter in eastern Sichuan is over, but don't forget that the rich places in Sichuan are in western Sichuan, and those prefectures in Chengdu."

"Corruption in the east of Sichuan, followed by the vine, and the west of Sichuan is safe and clean?"

"I'm afraid that Sun Chuanting, once he hears about Shang Fang's sword, will go directly to Chengdu by car..."

Yuan Keli's words made Sun Chengzong's thoughts drift to Sichuan, but soon he came back to his senses and looked at the memorial on the table:

"If that's the case, then this memorial..."

"Let's be popular." Yuan Keli sighed:

"Even if you and I don't approve of popularity, Your Highness will let Li Changgeng take over."

"Things can't be stopped. Sun Chuanting wants to kill people, and His Highness wants to kill people too. If the people below still have a three-point brain, they might be able to save themselves if they are soft now."

"It's just that I watched Gu Bingqian, Feng Quan, and Shi Fenglai stay at home and thank guests behind closed doors. It seems that those people have become outcasts."

"You and I will be on duty in this Wenhua Palace. If there is no accident, I'm afraid you and I will be busy next time..."

(End of this chapter)