Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 655 Both War and Development ([-])

Peng Zhicheng was sitting in a bright and clean office on the second floor of the Canyon Township Railway Station, looking back and forth with a document in his hand.This is a programmatic document on the country's next stage of development just issued by the Policy Research Office of the Government Affairs Council. It was written on the above, and at the same time, the report also looked forward to the future development, and forward-looking ideas for the development of some industries.

This document was distributed to cadres at the township level in order to collect as many opinions as possible from grassroots practical cadres. This will also be of great benefit to the country in formulating policies. intention of.Peng Zhicheng is a veteran of the retired army, a special advisor to the Government Administration Council, a national railway supervisor, and a commissioner of Yihe District, so he is naturally qualified to read this document.

"The war has entered its third year today. During the 16-month war, our army has made brilliant achievements. It captured many Spanish cities with less than 500 casualties, basically annihilating all The enemy's two major fleets in South America obtained extremely rich spoils at the same time. However, the huge military victory cannot cover up the stagnation or even regression of national economic development in the past period..."

"According to statistics, in the last full fiscal year (1647), the state's total fiscal revenue was 215.2 million yuan, a decrease of 1646% compared with 5.6. Among them, the collection of various domestic taxes has increased, so the tax revenue is included in the national fiscal revenue. For the first time, the proportion of China's textile industry exceeded 10%, reaching 10.8%. The main reason for the decline in the country's total fiscal revenue is that the trade profits handed over by state-owned enterprises have dropped sharply, which has dropped by 8.6% compared with the same period last year. Among them, China's textiles are in the The main reason is the continued decline in sales in the French market - the Kingdom of France has raised tariffs on imported Chinese textiles for the third time, and it has hit a new high of 20% so far."

"Compared with revenue, last year's fiscal expenditure was 323 million yuan, a 1646% increase from 45. Among them, military expenditure accounted for 67.5% of the total fiscal expenditure, which also increased by 64.2% from last year. Consumption, the total military expenditure next year will have a significant increase."

"To sum up, the fiscal deficit for the whole year of 1647 was 107.8 million yuan. With the deepening of the war and the simultaneous launch of a series of economic construction, it is expected that the government's fiscal deficit will exceed 160 million yuan next year. If the war is protracted If not, the country's finances will surely fall to the brink of collapse..."

After watching the sensational opening part, Peng Zhicheng slapped the document on the table and laughed silently.A group of people in the Policy Research Office really made a big fuss. Among other things, the cabin of the first batch of immigrants returning from the Far East this year carried a full 120 million minted silver dollars.These silver dollars, which took more than two months to be minted by the Dabo Mint, are one of Marshal Mo's main "political achievements". To understand it in just a few words, the impression is naturally not too deep.

But these boxes of silver brought back from the Far East are different. At a time when the national fiscal deficit has hit a record high, the effect of these 120 million silver dollars is extraordinary.At least the officials in the headquarters of the civil service system, such as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who originally disliked him, now have a great change in their perception of him: the country's annual investment in the Far East will never exceed 25 percent. 120 yuan (not counting shipbuilding), Marshal Mo actually sent [-] million yuan in cash to the local area, and almost recovered all the country’s investment in the Far East over the years. Such cadres are capable cadres and the country Good cadre!

In addition to the money, the Ministry of War also sent nearly 90 yuan of various gold and silver coins harvested from La Plata to the central finance.In addition, more than 80 cattle (the number is still increasing) and nearly [-] other livestock (sheep, horses, pigs, llamas, donkeys, mules, etc.) It can be cashed, and if you count other volatile materials such as leather, hardwood, grain, jewelry, etc., there is probably [-] million yuan in it.

If this is not enough, don't worry, the 1000 million bank lire (more than 164 million yuan) loan promised by the Genoese will soon arrive, and all of this money is enough to continue the two-year war for the East Coast Republic.As for what to do after two years, cold salad!Let's take care of the present first, maybe two years later the export trade will flourish again?

"...For the current plan, it is still necessary to vigorously develop the national economy and resume export trade. Through the cooperation agreement signed with the Genoese and the Dutch West India Company, we will vigorously promote the development of new products in emerging markets-Brazil, the Caribbean, North America, West Africa and even Italy. , Spain’s commodity exports. The east is not bright and the west is bright. The decline in sales in the French market will be made up by emerging markets, and the decline in textile trade will also be made up by other commodities. For this reason, the Government Council has formulated a development outline for the next few years .”

"The first is to increase the proportion of non-textiles in exports. After calculating according to the cost-benefit ratio, the Government Affairs Council approved the five-year plan for the three industries of steel, shipbuilding, and transportation proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. In the steel industry, the production capacity of Ping An Iron and Steel Plant last year It has fallen sharply, and has fallen below 1646 tons for the whole year, which is 18% lower than that in 2. But last year, the national iron demand for the whole year was close to [-] tons, with a gap of as much as [-] tons. The loss was huge. The reason is that the war dispatched a large number of inland steam transport ships to La Plata to transport military supplies, resulting in the total number of workers in the Changshan Iron Mine (workers, prisoners in hard labor camps, prisoners in labor camps, and black laborers) A large amount of iron ore produced by more than [-] people) could not be transported to Ping An Port in time. In addition, a large number of dock workers were transferred to the front line to serve as soldiers, and the throughput efficiency of the terminal declined. This is also one of the main reasons for the iron ore transportation bottleneck .”

"According to the plan this year, the nearly 110-kilometer section of the Northwest Railway from Baichiyabao to Hejinbao will be fully opened to traffic. A total of more than 1 tons of rails and other equipment will be required. Other machinery, vehicles, boilers, steam engines, hardware appliances, The combined demand for metal agricultural tools, munitions, and anchor chains may exceed 35 tons for the whole year. If losses in normal production are included, Pingan Iron and Steel Works needs to produce more than [-] tons of steel for the whole year. No. [-] blast furnace is designed to produce [-] tons of iron per day and [-] tons of iron per year. If the raw materials required for normal production such as iron ore, coke, soda ash and various additives can be supplied normally, there should be no problem in completing the production task. "

"But the current bottleneck is transportation." Peng Zhicheng looked at the document and couldn't help but read in a low voice: "The last time I chatted with Lao Xiao, the 72-ton inland river steamship under the inland river transportation company has only increased in total until now. There are 79 ships, and the total transport tonnage is less than 35 tons. Even if the [-]-ton small steamer that has been decommissioned and is now being used again is added, the total tonnage of this inland waterway transport will not exceed [-] tons. And among them A considerable part has been transferred to the front line to transport military supplies and personnel, and the transportation capacity in this country is even more tense. Coal, ore, construction materials, grain, timber, machinery, etc., which one should not occupy a large amount of transportation tonnage. Nowadays, coal mines, iron ore , The amount of fuel, ore, and food produced by the farm has not decreased, and may even increase, but this backlog can only be used if it cannot be shipped out.”

"The capacity of water transport is tight, and the less efficient road transport is even more unbearable." Peng Zhicheng took the document in his hand again, thinking while reading: "Road transport is still quite backward in today's country, and high-grade roads (national highways) , county road) mileage is short, not even 300 kilometers. There are no more than 100 trucks, and the total transport tonnage is only about [-] tons. The Ministry of Communications is simply talking nonsense to connect roads between them!"

In fact, as the war continued, the negative impact on the domestic economy on the east coast was indeed getting deeper and deeper.Among other things, the squeeze on transportation resources alone has caused a large number of domestic factories to be underutilized, production efficiency has dropped, and production capacity has dropped significantly compared to before the war.This is especially evident in industries such as iron and steel, construction, and wood processing, which are extremely dependent on energy and raw materials. The downturn in these industries was quickly transmitted to downstream enterprises, causing the speed of industrial machines on the entire east coast to drop, the level of productivity to drop, and workers The efficiency of wealth creation has declined.

Coupled with the fact that the Spaniards exerted their influence, quite a few countries or regions refused to export various materials needed for industrial production to the east bank, which further made the domestic industrial production on the east bank even worse.Now the Government Council can only give priority to guaranteeing the production of some key enterprises, such as textile enterprises, military enterprises, machining enterprises and so on.At the same time, in the past year, the country has been reducing the production of various non-essential commodities in order to save resources as much as possible to protect the industries that are mainly supported by the country.

For example, the export of metal agricultural tools, hardware products and steel bars, which had been booming in the past few years, fell below 1647% for the first time in 5 after four consecutive years of double-digit growth rates. The volume even fell by 10%, which is all due to the shrinkage of domestic steel production capacity.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that there was a large backlog of raw coal produced by the Ping An Mining Bureau last year.In the middle of the year, the leader of the Mining Bureau had to order a cut in production for the first time after consulting the Government Administration Council.In 1647, the production of Ping'an Coal Mine, which had been increasing for ten consecutive years, decreased by 8% year-on-year, which seemed to indicate a general economic slowdown on the east coast.

"There are still fewer people." Peng Zhichang sighed, and said to himself: "It seems that the situation will be broken on the railway. It requires both war and development. This economy cannot collapse."

(End of this chapter)