Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2304 Country Talk ([-])

"Autumn orchids are green, green leaves are purple stems; the hall is full of beauties, and suddenly I am alone with Yu Xi. Mr. Feng is really very elegant. This word has excellent skills and heat, and it expresses the true meaning of Dr. Qu. Beauty vanilla, Sacred and dreamy, with magnificent imagination and refined meaning." After a night of spring rain, Liu Renqing woke up in the morning and saw Feng Yu writing in his study, and after looking at it for a while, he sighed and said, "I'm so depressed and worried, Du Yong sighs to increase the injury; thinking about childbirth is relentless, and the night is long; the sadness of the autumn wind is moving, how can it be so buoyant! The doctor’s lament a thousand years ago, unexpectedly, we still have not been able to get rid of it. The thieves in yellow are in power, and the country is in a difficult situation. I really don't know when it will be so bright."

Qu Yuan is romantic and sentimental at the same time.The ultimate concern for the fate of the country, the spirit of joining the world to help the people, the extraordinary enthusiasm shown in social ideals, and the will to live without regrets despite nine deaths, to some extent perfectly fit the Confucian character, so he was able to live in Confucianism many years later. It still resonates with Confucian children like Feng Yu and Liu Renqing.

"What? Last year, your Tea Office sold a total of more than 30 yuan of tea, and the imperial court issued a decree to reward it. What is there to hurt the spring and the autumn?" Feng Yu glanced at Liu Renqing and said.

He and Liu Renqing were Jinshi in the same year, and they had stayed in the Imperial Academy together before, so they had a good relationship, so they spoke very casually.Liu Renqing is now a Taoist official in charge of Jiangbei tea, raw silk, and porcelain trade, and is a fourth-rank official.As for Feng Yu, as the magistrate of Huai'an Prefecture, he was originally from the fourth rank, but because this mansion is extremely important, it is also the fourth rank, which is no different from Liu Renqing.

Two days ago, he brought a group of entourages to the Xiangshui hall to discuss with Taoist Liu Renqing about a transfer of money.There was a flood in Huai'an Mansion before, and Kangxi specially approved to transfer 20 yuan from various banknotes in the area under the jurisdiction of Xiangshui Hall—silver coins minted by the Qing court, with the words "Dangyiliang" on the front—to Huai'an Mansion , together with the funds they raised themselves, to build flood control dams throughout the prefecture.Feng Yu ran to the Xiangshui hall, although he intended to remind Guan Yin, but at the same time, he also had the purpose of visiting old friends and talking at night by candlelight.

Liu Renqing was also very happy about Feng Yu's visit.The two handed over the delivery work of Guan Yin to their subordinates, and then traveled around the mountains and rivers together, having a great time.Of course, Feng Yu didn't forget his other official business, which was to talk with foreigners in Xiangshui and Haizhou Port about the purchase of new-style cannon-casting machine tools.This is a matter assigned by the superiors, and Feng Yu is still very caring - loyalty to the court is the consistent advantage of Master Feng.

There are a lot of machine tools, mainly imported from England, and the Dutch also sell some, but not many.These foreign merchants are very ruthless in asking prices, but for the sake of the imperial court, they have no choice but to admit it.Fortunately, foreign merchants also purchase a large number of Chinese specialties in ports such as Xiangshui and Haizhou every year. The foreign trade of the Qing court is still in a state of surplus as a whole, so this kind of business can still be done. Both parties get what they need, and everyone is happy. .

After the machine tool is purchased in place, it will be sent to various places for installation and debugging according to the plan.At present, the Manchu Qing has established eight military enterprises in the whole country, and the so-called eight major factories.Among them, Jinchang (Jinzhou), Fengchang (Shengjing), Jingju (Beijing), and Ningchang (Nanjing) are old factories with a large production scale and relatively strong technical force, so they will continue to account for the bulk of this batch of goods. In order to achieve the purpose of becoming bigger and stronger.In addition, the Qing government successively established four arsenals in recent years, Luochang (Luoyang), Hanchang (Hanzhong), Xiangchang (Xiangyang), and Gaochang (Lanzhou), but the scale was small and the production capacity was not very sufficient. The reason is also to supplement the consumption of the front line nearby. In fact, it was originally developed from the repair shop.This time they will also receive some machine supplements, and even some technical backbones drawn from the old factory to strengthen their technical strength and production capacity. The future is brighter, provided they can always obtain external parts and even The supply of the whole machine.

And when it comes to these imported equipment, parts and even some finished guns, it is impossible not to mention the localization efforts that the Qing court has been trying to carry out for many years.The understanding of the Manchu government and the public on this is still in place: "To check the water and land armies, they need to use long-range artillery, most of which are purchased from abroad. There are many twists and turns. If there is a priority, the enemy ship will be blocked, and there will be nowhere to buy or transport. Moreover, the quality of the purchased weapons is different, the quality is different, the new and the old are mixed, and it is easy to make mistakes. ... Armaments must never be delayed, we must not avoid hardships and dangers, and support them with all our strength, we will be able to cook without rice."

What I said above is that the Manchu Qing court understood that the east bank had an advantage in the open sea. Once they acted forcefully, the Dutch East India Company, the English East India Company, the French merchants, and other miscellaneous merchants who are now selling weapons to the Qing Dynasty will have to do so. Weigh the consequences.Taking a step back, even if someone was moved by the huge profits promised by the Qing Dynasty and risked being caught by the East Coast Navy to sell weapons, the quantity and efficiency would definitely not be good, and the harm to the national defense of the Qing Dynasty would still be great.Therefore, they took advantage of these years of peace to purchase a large number of guns from Europe and store them in storage. At the same time, they hired many talents (the total number has reached hundreds of people), purchased many machines, and greatly updated their military production system. Yi Yi, although his level may still be third-rate, but it has improved a lot compared to before.

But this is still not enough.Feng Yu once wrote a letter, arguing that it is necessary to buy new types of machines—such as the latest boring machines—rather than the old equipment that is on the verge of being eliminated, and then based on independent production: "Stealing foreign guns, the method of making them is changing with each passing day. The country is the best, and it is almost perfect. The Beijing Bureau tried to make artillery, but the machine is scarce, the manufacturing method is old, and the style of the cannon is old, and it is not high-quality... Please buy the new cannon. Machines, and recruit foreign craftsmen and technicians to teach apprentices of Chinese workers, so that people and machines can learn from each other, with a view to quick success."

It has to be said that the suggestions of Feng Yu and others are very reasonable and hit the nail on the head.However, due to the low overall industrial level of the Qing Dynasty, even if the latest machines are purchased, if they break down, they may still have to import key components from abroad for repairs, and there are still situations where they will be stuck.But there is no other way. Nothing can be done overnight. Buying new machines to make guns and cannons has greatly reduced the risk and cost.If you want not to be stuck at all, you can only take your time, slowly accumulate technology, and develop related industries. There is no other way.

"More than 30 yuan of tea leaves are still a little insufficient. Now the gang of tea merchants are no longer as angry as before. Since they lost a big battle with Dongguo tea merchants the year before last, they are now shrinking turtles and muddling along. I think It’s exasperating to think about it, but Nanfang Shunni can sell more than 50 yuan of tea a year, which is half more than my Daqing, and my platform is not very safe.” Liu Renqing shook her head helplessly said.

"There is no need to rush this matter. Dongguo merchants like to buy Shunguo tea, so there is nothing they can do about it. But more than 30 yuan a year is actually quite a lot. The important thing now is, where did all the money go?" Feng Yu these days I read some books and newspapers published in Ningbo in [-], and found that the Dongguo government did everything possible to ask the businessmen who made money from all walks of life not to hide the money in their own treasuries, but to invest in factories and develop the economy.At worst, they also ask to deposit the money in the bank to earn interest, which means that if you have money and don't want to invest it, then don't occupy the latrine and don't shit, just lend the money to people who want to invest.

China has had this problem since ancient times, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was no exception.Now there is only a slight improvement. After earning money, tea merchants began to purchase machinery to set up roasted tea factories and brick tea factories. The related packaging and transportation industries have also developed, and the number of people employed has gradually increased.The imperial court collects taxes from it, and at the same time distributes donations to the merchants. The money obtained is spent on the military industry. Although it has little to do with people's livelihood, it still employs a lot of workers after all, which strengthens the atmosphere of industrialization.But compared to the mud-legged government of Shunguo in the south, it is still a bit conservative to be honest.It seems that because of more contact with the east coast, factories are popular, and most of them start from industries related to agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, such as noodle mills, rice mills, egg powder factories, oil mills, timber factories, tea factories, etc. Factories, textile mills, brick kilns, shipping companies, pens, inks, papers and inkstones, etc., developed very rapidly, and directly faced the export of Ningshao and other domains.Because of the big appetite of the people on the east coast, these people who set up factories invested in expanding production capacity after making money, hired more people, and paid more taxes, forming a virtuous circle.If it weren't for the smaller territory and smaller population of Shun Kingdom, its strength might have already caught up with that of Qing Dynasty.But even the current situation is enough to make the Manchu government and the people vigilant, especially Shunguo does not discriminate against businessmen, and businessmen are not very afraid of property being stolen (many of them have opened bank accounts in Ningbo), which is very rare , is a major guarantee for their rapid economic development.

The Qing Dynasty is now facing such a dilemma.The products of foreign trade are always limited to a limited range of commodities, which not only bears a great risk of market fluctuations, but also makes it difficult to increase the total amount.But if they want to develop other industries, they lack a market, a huge export market!The five feudal clans in the Far East of the East Coast people, headed by Ning Shaofan, are actually very wealthy.Ningbo has a lot of people and little land, so there will definitely be a shortage of food on its own, so there will be a market for flour mills, rice mills, and oil mills in Shunguo—of course Ningbo also has such factories, and they don’t want to use these All the jobs are thrown away, but the cost is definitely not comparable to that of Shunguo—Ningbo has advanced textile technology, but lacks raw materials, so it is natural to import semi-finished cotton yarn from Shunguo; Ningbo people have money and spending power Strong, then it is very simple for Shunguo to export some goods that he is reluctant to consume.

To put it bluntly, as long as the Far East vassals and the economic circle they control open their markets to Shun Country, then the local low-end light industrial products will have a market, and the miserable farmers will also have the opportunity to sell their labor for money.In addition, the ideological and cultural field of Shunguo is not dominated by Confucianism, on the contrary, there are many genres that sing against it. Therefore, it is logical that the light industry developed by relying on local raw materials will develop rapidly.

And what about the Qing Dynasty?By competing for a limited market share with other people's highly homogeneous products (even at the expense of launching a business war), the money you can get in exchange is limited after all.Moreover, it is doubtful whether all of the limited money earned back will enter the circulation market.Or even if all of them enter the market circulation, the process of benefiting ordinary people through the trickle-down effect and driving the development of the whole society is too slow.

Is there a primary product market that allows you to open up exports? It is really important for countries in the early stage of industrialization!If yes, then you can soar into the sky, if not, then grind slowly.

"It's true that there are many people who take the money back to buy land and build houses, but there are also those who set up factories and mines." Liu Renqing said: "The general office of the Lanzhou Gao Bureau is my fellow townsman. He once talked to me about the coal merchant Yuan Baodi. He said that this gentleman made a lot of money selling grain to the people of Dongguo in Tianjin, and then went to Gansu to develop with Mr. Zhao. Now most of his family property has been invested in coal mines, which is not bad. However, these people are still a little less after all. If there are more If so, why am I unhappy in Qing Dynasty!"

"That's right. Although foreign steam engines cost hundreds or thousands of gold, they are of great benefit to the country. It would be a pity if the proceeds from selling tea were not used to buy machines, but cast into silver melons and placed in the cellar." Feng Yu sighed Said: "There is no rush for this matter, take your time, let's start with you and me."

(End of this chapter)