Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 640
"Let's go and have a look, it's the Spring Festival, let's find a lottery..."

"Ugh……"

Over there, Qi State is having a New Year’s Eve Lantern Festival, and here, Daming is celebrating Zhengdan New Year.

It’s just that compared to the bustling north, there are not many people celebrating on the streets of Cochin Champa Mansion.

The north is decorating with lanterns and festoons, coming and going to celebrate the new year, and drinking the first cup of rice wine in the new year, but inside and outside the city of Champa, only a small number of people can decorate with lanterns and festoons, and most people still insist on working on the first day of the new year.

It's not that they want to work, but that if they don't work, not to mention tomorrow, even today will be very difficult.

All of this is just because this is Champa Mansion, the five southern mansions of Cochin.

Ninh Thuan, Taihe, Binh Hoa, Champa, Binh Ming...

These five prefectures are the five prefectures with the largest number of natives in Cochin, with a total of 130 million natives, accounting for nearly half of the natives of Cochin.

Due to the large number of indigenous people, and the fact that there are many plateaus in the south and the plains are all along the coast, there are very few Han people who are willing to migrate here.

Under the relocation policy of more than ten years, there are only about 6 Han people in the five prefectures, and only [-] in Champa.

In Daming, most of the able-bodied people were Han Chinese, and there were only so many Han Chinese in Champa Mansion, so the so-called Chinese New Year would naturally not be so lively.

Because Han and local people live together, Han people are not very happy to invite opera troupes to perform for free in the neighborhood of the city, so Champa City looks very deserted in the New Year.

As for the local people, although they also like the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year, due to income problems, most of them do not have extra money for consumption.

At present, many factories in Daming are controlled by the imperial court, so the power of wages is also determined by the imperial court according to local conditions.

According to the "Law of the Ming Dynasty·Gong Law" set by Tianqi in 20 years, the minimum wages in the capital provinces of the world are ten coins for five hours in a single day, which is the lowest wages.

In terms of the minimum wages, the wages of the 28 provinces in the two capitals are increased according to the local conditions.

For example, in rich and prosperous provinces such as the two capitals, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, even in county towns and market towns, the daily wage can reach [-] yuan. If it is in a major city in the province, the daily wage can reach [-] yuan to [-] yuan .

The two capitals of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the other eleven provinces in the Central Plains, where wages are basically around [-] to [-] yuan.

The first class again is Nanzhou, the four provinces of Northeast China and the four provinces of Hexi, basically around [-] to [-] wen.

As for the provinces with the lowest wages, they are the four provinces of Luchuan, Jiaozhi, Jiugang, and Yingzhou.

It is normal for the four provinces to have low wages, because their land is filled with a large number of natives.

There are more native people and less work, and more people and less work will naturally prevent wages from rising.

Therefore, the wages in the four provinces are ten to fifteen yuan, which is the bottom line of the Ming Dynasty.

This is just the marked salary, whether you can actually get it or not is another matter.

Because there are few jobs, many people can only find a job and get paid for only one-third of the time a year.

Fortunately, the Han people say that each household has four or fifty acres of land. Even if the price of Jiaozhi grain is only two cents per catty, after keeping the rations, they can still collect more than twenty taels of silver every year, which is enough for a family of five or six. life of flesh.

On the other hand, a family of five has only [-] acres of arable land, and the food they produce is only enough to feed them. If they want to eat meat and buy cloth to make clothes, they can only satisfy it by working to earn money.

For a family of five, at least five taels of silver are needed to ensure that there is food to eat, each person has a set of clothes, and firewood, rice, sauce, vinegar and tea can basically maintain life.

Five taels of silver may not seem like much, but considering that the supply of work in Champa Mansion is still in short supply for twelve cents a day, the two of them have to work for at least 400 days to get the five taels of silver.

Even if the more than 400 days are divided between two people, each person needs to do at least 210 days of work.

But for the local residents of Champa Prefecture who are unemployed for two-thirds of the year, the working hours of more than 400 days are simply a fantasy.

In the native families of Cochin, if someone in the family can sign a long-term employment contract of more than three months, it is worth celebrating with a drink.

From this point of view, it can be seen how the living environment of the Jiaozhi natives is.

"This...is too painful."

Now at the head of Champa City, there is an emperor like Zhu Youxiao. When he hears about the distress of the Jiaozhi natives, he can't help but feel a little bit unbearable.

Just facing his words, Zhu Youjian who was standing beside him said indifferently:

"Guochao is still developing. As long as Guochao can reclaim an additional [-] million mu of arable land, the local people will not suffer so much..."

Once Zhu Youjian said this, the official of the Champa Mansion who was in charge of driving couldn't help but feel ashamed.

To be honest, because Ming entered the first industrial revolution, and even touched the edge of the second industrial revolution in agriculture, the speed of reclaiming arable land far exceeded that of other countries in the world in the mid-nineteenth century, let alone many countries in this era .

But the problem is that even if a dynasty of the size of the Ming Dynasty entered the industrial revolution, the amount of arable land cultivated each year remained within 2000 million mu.

This is the most optimistic estimate, but even so, it will take 15 years to reach [-] million mu of newly cultivated land.

If you are not optimistic, it may take 30 years,

30...

Officials in the Champa Mansion are well aware of the current customs of the Cochin natives. Most of them pray for a daughter, because as long as they have a daughter and marry the Han people smoothly, even if they marry a farmer, it can make their lives better. Great progress.

If this trend continues, I am afraid that 30 years from now, the number of local residents in Cochin will plummet to a heinous level.

However, the officials of the Champa Mansion also quickly realized that the fewer the natives, the easier it is to rule and manage, so this kind of atmosphere may be a good thing.

After correcting his position and mentality, the official stopped thinking too much.

Compared with him, Zhu Youxiao worried:

"If things go on like this, I'm afraid they will be dissatisfied with our Han family and cause turmoil."

"Is it possible to open a factory to improve their lives?"

Zhu Youxiao doesn't sympathize with the natives, he doesn't even sympathize with the people of the Han family, let alone the natives?

His problem was simply that he was worried that the local people would rebel and threaten Ming's rule in Jiaozhi.

But to this, Zhu Youjian responded lightly:

"The opening of a factory is also for Han immigrants."

"Besides, there are already enough commodities produced by the country at the moment, and even so much that it is difficult for domestic people to digest them through trade."

"Therefore, it is impossible to open factories. This problem can only be solved when the population increases slowly and the cultivated land continues to increase."

As he said that, Zhu Youjian glanced at the officials of the Champa Mansion, and they also sang loudly with understanding:
"Long live, what His Highness said is very true!"

"Then... that's fine." Zhu Youxiao was still a little worried, but seeing that so many officials said it was all right, he couldn't say anything more, so he just nodded and approved what the officials said.

Accompanied by officials, he immediately began to visit the city of Champa Mansion, looking at the lives of the people in the streets and alleys of the city.

After walking down this circle, in general, the people of the Han family are living a relatively healthy life. In addition, there are many places outside the city that can be reclaimed as arable land. Therefore, after Zhu Youxiao looked at it, he asked Zhu Youjian:

"The seaside of Champa Prefecture is flat. If there are enough tractors, I am afraid that a lot of land can be reclaimed. Look..."

Zhu Youxiao wanted to transfer tractors to support Champa Mansion, Zhu Youjian also echoed this: "It's all up to my brother to decide."

"Okay!" Hearing what Zhu Youjian said, Zhu Youxiao smiled a little happily, and turned to Lu Wenzhao and said:

"This year, [-] tractors will be dispatched to support Champa Province."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, and while Zhu Youxiao was making a hasty inspection, he and Zhu Youjian returned to the royal palace of the former Champa Kingdom.

Although it is said to be a royal palace, it is actually relatively simple and crudely built, not as grand as the mansions of some dignitaries.

However, Zhu Youxiao was quite satisfied with being able to live in such a place in this land of Champa. After all, it was impossible for him to have a palace built while he was touring.

Sitting in a stone palace full of exotic customs, Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian also chatted about basic state affairs while sharing meals.

Zhu Youxiao held in his hand the summary volume of memorials reviewed by Zhu Ciran for nearly a month, and while reading it, he asked Zhu Youjian whether it was reasonable to do so.

"Currently 4000 million taels of national debt have been sold, but more than 600 million taels of them were purchased by the feudal clans, and more than 800 million taels were purchased by officials."

"It can be seen from this that the people don't have much money in their hands, or even if they have it, they don't trust the government's national debt."

"In addition, Guochao has issued 700 million taels of banknotes, and there are more than [-] million taels of paper currency in circulation, while only more than [-] million taels of paper money are circulated in the country, and more paper money is mainly circulated in Qi."

When Zhu Youxiao said this, he glanced at his younger brother worriedly:
"Brother, if so many banknotes and national debts are issued, if one day these banknotes..."

"No." Zhu Youjian shook his head firmly:

"Guochao's banknotes are issued according to the amount of gold in the treasury. As long as the amount of gold is not exceeded, there will be no major problems with the banknotes."

"At present, the total amount of gold in the treasury is 200 million taels, and more than [-] million taels of banknotes can be issued."

"In addition, the provincial mining departments also hand in nearly one million taels of gold every year, which also means that 1000 million taels of banknotes are issued every year."

"But even so, brother still has to be careful not to issue too many banknotes in one go."

Zhu Youjian was afraid that his brother would feel comfortable printing money, and would think about printing money if he had no money in the future, so he reminded him.

In this regard, Zhu Youxiao nodded, and talked about economic issues with Zhu Youjian in detail.

In fact, for a unified dynasty like the Ming Dynasty, the country's reputation can be used to print money, and there is no need to use the gold standard or silver standard.

But once such a system encounters a monarch who does not understand the economy, the result will be the second treasure.

Even a person like Zhu Yuanzhang can't beat the pleasure of printing money, let alone future generations.

Therefore, the gold standard can be regarded as a bottom line that Zhu Youjian told the successive emperors, a bottom line that would not lead to the collapse of banknotes.

The advantage of the gold standard is that the currency will not be overissued, because a country's gold reserves are limited, and it is difficult to increase rapidly, and the extremely low inflation brings permanent preservation of wealth in the form of currency.

This seems perfect, and it is very binding on the court, but the disadvantages of the gold standard are also obvious.

The disadvantages of the gold standard are obvious. Currency cannot be oversupplied because the total amount of gold in the world is fixed. This brings about a big problem, that is, almost all trade, ranging from small enterprises to large countries, will be a zero-sum game.

Assuming that a country continues to run deficits with other countries, the capital and wealth of the country will continue to decrease, which will inevitably lead to various restrictions on imports and exports, and each country will introduce policies to encourage export dumping and restrict imports.

Trade among countries is necessarily distorted and unfair. Since trade is a zero-sum game, countries can only give full play to their absolute advantages and cannot achieve comparative advantages. The allocation of resources can never be in a relatively optimal state.

In addition, the reduction of inflation brought about by the gold standard is not very effective. In the long run, inflation is indeed kept at a low position, but short-term fluctuations are often large.

Suppose a country discovers a new gold mine within its borders, this will lead to extremely high inflation in recent years.

In this way, the wealth growth of each country is not based on its technological advantages, but depends on luck to see who has more gold mines in the country. This is not in line with the original intention of better resource allocation to bring productivity.

Turning our attention back to a country, since a country's gold reserves are relatively constant, it is difficult for the economy to develop rapidly.

The emergence of emerging industries to bring about economic growth requires a large amount of currency as initial capital. However, due to economic prosperity and development, the total amount of currency remains unchanged, making the value of currency higher and higher.

In this situation, all people are more inclined to hold currency, resulting in the problem of reluctance to borrow and difficulty in borrowing.

In addition, the gold standard also involved political problems, which made the imperial court's interference in the economy weak and unable to effectively supervise.

In such a situation, once there is a bottleneck in the economic development market, the imperial court cannot rescue the market, and there are only fiscal policies and cannot use the various disadvantages of monetary policy, so credit currency came into being.

The biggest advantage of credit currency is that it can be over-issued, and in a sense it is infinitely over-issued.

This phenomenon makes international trade no longer a zero-sum game, and a "win-win" becomes possible, and both parties to the trade can benefit from the trade.

With monetary policy, the imperial court can use it to better control the economy, because the existence of credit can inject blood into emerging industries.

Since holding currency will cause depreciation, people are more inclined to invest, which helps to increase productivity, drive economic growth, and optimize its resource allocation.

As for the shortcomings of credit currency, it is also more obvious from the current point of view. Its biggest disadvantage is that the currency can be overissued.

This leads to huge inflation if the imperial court deliberately or unintentionally misoperates for some reason.

It also leads to deflation if the operation is not careful, which will cause a devastating blow to the economy, and there is also the problem of bubbles.

In a sense, the bubble problem is also caused by the widespread existence of inflation.

Since the currency itself will depreciate, people tend to hold assets. This created demand has spawned a large number of bubbles, causing the price of the underlying object to deviate from its intrinsic value.

In addition, credit itself is intangible and cannot be inherited or guaranteed, unlike gold, which is a genuine collateral.

After all, the existence of credit itself is determined based on the past transaction records of individuals, organizations and even countries and their repayment willingness, and does not depend entirely on how many assets they have that can be mortgaged or have already been mortgaged.

This leads to the fact that once a moral hazard or a natural or man-made disaster occurs, no one can escape completely.

The treasure banknotes in the early Ming Dynasty are a living example. Therefore, for the rejuvenation of the Tianqi Dynasty, which has not yet cultivated the trust of the people in the court, the gold standard is an economic field that must be entered.

In addition, the gold growth rate of the Apocalypse Dynasty was very rapid, and the countries under the vassal system and Ming Dynasty also belonged to an alliance.

During the economic upswing period, the countries under the suzerainty system will not have problems. Once they encounter a downturn period, they may disintegrate internally. After all, there are too many vassal states without gold mines.

However, as long as Ming Dynasty remains strong and all countries use Tianqi Tongbao uniformly, some small economic downturn problems can still be solved.

As for big economic problems, even big enough to disintegrate the suzerain-vassal system...

Before they appeared, it was difficult for Zhu Youjian personally to come up with a solution. After all, problems can only be solved by sorting them out. This is the same as politics.

The problems in the middle and late Ming Dynasty were easy to solve for people like Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, but they could not live to see the problems, so these problems could not be solved by future generations.

Zhu Youjian's only advantage is that he knows the world trend, so the documents he left almost cover the problems that Ming Dynasty may encounter in the next 400 years and how to solve them.

Its function is to reduce many detours, so that Daming can always walk in a straight line.

But the problem is that no matter how good his writing is, the emperor must be able to understand it.

For example, right now, Zhu Youxiao watched Zhu Youjian write the "General Outline", but he still didn't understand the gold standard and credit standard in it.

But as an emperor, his intuition told him that economic issues were issues that he had to learn, so he discussed with Zhu Youjian every day to let him clear up his doubts.

This time Zhu Youjian also explained Zhu Youxiao's doubts as before, and after listening, Zhu Youxiao also touched his chin and said:

"According to my younger brother, as long as the economy continues to rise, the suzerain-vassal system will be difficult to disintegrate, and Ming Dynasty will still be the co-lord of the world."

"Just how should the economic upswing be maintained?"

Zhu Youxiao asked Zhu Youjian about this, Zhu Youjian turned to a certain page of the "General Outline" and pointed to it:

"If you want the economy to maintain a rising period, you need to continue to carry out technological innovations, so that emerging industries continue to emerge, continue to create jobs, and meet the employment problems of the people."

Zhu Youjian used the most easy-to-understand words, and even gave an example:

"If there is no steam engine, what will the workers in the steam engine factory do? They can only plan food in the fields, or go to the city to work."

"But brother, you also know what they will do when a natural disaster breaks out and a large number of people flood into towns without jobs."

"The economic problem is the biggest problem for the court. If the people live and work in peace and contentment, have jobs, have food, and have enough food and clothing, they will naturally not seek rebellion."

"Steam engine factory, cement factory, fertilizer factory, feed factory, bicycle factory, rubber factory..."

Zhu Youjian read the names of the factories one by one, and finally said:
"Guochao now has 120 two industrial zones and 730 six factories."

"The things produced by these factories are the most popular products that have never been owned by Ming Dynasty. This is an emerging industry."

"The emergence of these factories has solved about 300 million jobs and fed 300 million families."

"Speaking of a small scale, it can feed 300 million people. If it's too large, that's 2000 to [-] million people."

"The more workers there are, the fewer peasants, and the less peasants, the more individual land holdings, the easier it is to accumulate wealth, and the stronger the resistance to natural and man-made disasters."

"A worker can basically maintain an income of four liang a year based on the minimum wage of ten ren in the Guochao factory, plus holiday subsidies."

"This is still on paper. In fact, the wages of the Guochao factory are basically 25 to [-] yuan. With festivals and subsidies, the workers' income is basically [-] to [-] taels."

"Eight taels of silver, this can buy at least sixteen shi rice, and the output of sixteen shi rice requires at least fifteen acres of land, which can feed at least four people."

"That is to say, every additional worker can support four people, and if there are two workers in each household, they can basically eat meat every now and then."

"I said this just to tell my brother that besides reclaiming arable land, Guochao has many means to make people live and work in peace and contentment. Among them, the emerging industries brought about by technological innovation are the greatest existence that can make people live and work in peace and contentment."

"Therefore, my brother must not neglect the research of the Military Armament Academy. Not only can the funds not be deducted, but also the investment must be increased year by year while the economic growth is slowing down."

Zhu Youjian said so much, just want his brother to always pay attention to technological innovation.

"Brother, don't worry, I will always care about the Military Armament Academy, and once there are good innovations, I will support them vigorously."

"As for Brother Ran, I will also explain it carefully and tell Brother Ran exactly what my brother said."

Zhu Youxiao understood Zhu Youjian's words. Although he didn't know how to support emerging industries, he would learn.

The way his younger brother supports him is to vigorously build factories, sell things through imperial stores, and then create demand to continue expanding the factories.

If his younger brother does this, he will follow suit.

What's more, if my younger brother goes to Qi State in the future, I am afraid that he will also establish an existence similar to the Armament Academy.

As long as Qi State invests heavily in the construction of some kind of factory, then Daming will follow suit. With Daming's size, once imitation starts, the jobs created may make Qi State overwhelmed.

Just doing this, somewhat immoral to my younger brother...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao glanced at Zhu Youjian with a guilty conscience. Zhu Youjian was still talking about the benefits of technological innovation without realizing it, for fear that Zhu Youxiao would lose interest in technological innovation one day.

Little did he know that his good brother was already thinking about him, and he was going to cross the river with his brother in the future...

(End of this chapter)