Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1002
Let's put it this way, steam engine extracting brine is the limit of "progress" of Shaanxi Salt Merchant Group.

They won't go any further.

Because it doesn't make sense.

Spend a lot of money to invest a lot of money in metallurgical industry research, research oil silk rope to replace the braised bamboo rope?
Unless the board is out of their minds.

Spend a lot of money to invest in steam drilling technology?
Not to mention steam drilling, but nuclear power drilling, can it sell more salt by a catty?

If not, what are you spending the money for?
Theoretically, if transportation and sales are not separated, Shaanxi Capital Group can choose "self-production and self-sale" to completely control the entire industry chain of salt from production to transportation, sales, off-line cash exchange, and pawnshop usury in cooperation with salt merchants. Let them not buy land for the time being but use capital to do this.

But that's nonsense, Liu Yu doesn't allow it, and the court absolutely doesn't allow it.

The so-called degeneration and reaction are actually very easy to understand.

Take Sichuan Salt in history as an example. Before the steam age, it was possible to repair tens of miles of brine pipelines, natural gas pipelines, and drill 1000-meter-deep mechanical wells. large industrial and commercial district.

and then?
Then all unregulated capital flows to land, usury, and pawn shops.

Is this too much management to not develop?

Or is it precisely because the imperial court is incompetent, unable to control capital, land mergers, and financial lending, that the profit-seeking nature of capital spontaneously flocks to places with the highest profit margins?

How to manage, this is a big problem.

It is a bigger problem than fostering a new consortium.

Otherwise, just wait for something big to happen.

Before supporting them, it is necessary to consider how to control them and how to direct their capital to the place where "they should go to promote the development of productivity", rather than the place where "the profit is high".

The logical core of capital is profit, not productivity.

Sometimes, profits and productivity are in the same direction, such as the Querrybank spinning mill in the UK, which is the same as high profits and productivity progress, which is higher than the profit of buying plantations in the Caribbean Islands.

Sometimes, the direction of profit and productivity is inconsistent. For example, to open a similar factory in Dashun, it is really better to buy land, hoard land, and lend usury with that money.

In theory, it’s okay to leave it alone: ​​all capital is going to buy land and lend money. One day, the profit of buying land will be lower than that of investing in factories, and the interest on lending will drop. You can see that the interest rate in the UK is from 12%. Has it dropped to around 4%?

But it’s like Hume’s ironic idea for free trade: buy Chinese goods vigorously, so that China’s per capita silver deposits are the same as those in Europe, then British goods will be competitive.

What's true in theory doesn't work in reality.Hume's deliberately ironic idea, the result is that on that day, there will be no fucking concept of British goods.

And the same logic applies to the land issue in Dashun. This requires the elimination of all the self-cultivated farmers in Dashun first. Every land owner is a big landlord and big capital, and it will go back to slavery or feudal serfdom in an all-round way.

In this way, it will not be easy to sell the land. Slaves and serfs need a gross pawn loan. Will the loan interest rate come down naturally?
Then the profit return of buying land is reduced, and then capital flows spontaneously to industry.

But the biggest problem is that the nearly 3 million people in Dashun do not want to die, nor do they want to be slaves or serfs.

In the reality of Sichuan Salt Capital Group, the output problem will reach its limit within three to five years at most.

It's pointless to have more, because it can't be sold.

Then, after three to five years, the progressive nature of these Sichuan salt workers has completely disappeared—they have completed their stage mission, making steam engines popular in southern Sichuan salt wells, and promoting the development of coal mining in southern Sichuan.

But because they have contributed to their staged progress, let them be reactionary and depraved in the future to lend money and buy land?

This leads to the question of capital outflow.

Sichuan is there.

Shaanxi to the north, snow-capped mountains to the west, and Guizhou to the south... Where do you go?
Naturally, it is the two lakes on the east side.

The first problem for the capital to go out of Sichuan is the traffic problem.

Dashun is definitely not capable of building the Three Gorges.

However, the ability to blow up the hidden reefs of the Three Gorges and build a stretching road from Yibin to Chongqing is more than enough.

The key is, who pays?
The imperial court was to transport copper, lead, and zinc, and the traffic in Guizhou and northern Yunnan would not work, so the imperial court paid for it.

Will the imperial court pay the money for breaking the fiber-stretching road from Yibin to Chongqing?

This is icing on the cake for the court, but not necessary.

The same money can be used by the imperial court to build ships, repair the Pearl River Estuary, and renovate the Haihe River, but it will not be used for the waterway out of Sichuan, which is sufficient for the imperial court but not enough for capital development.

After Liu Yu destroyed the Lianghuai capital, he left behind where those capitals went.Nanyang, northern Jiangsu reclamation, and overseas trade are all destinations.

And after Liu Yu supported Sichuan Salt Capital, he also had to find a place for these capitals that would be saturated and corrupted in at most three to five years.

He couldn't solve the land problem.

The usury problem is essentially a land problem, and he still can't solve it.

But he can guide capital, at least to make the effect of urine bifurcation, so that it will not all go to land and usury.

Even if one-fifth is invested in the direction of promoting productivity improvement, it will be considered a good result.

So, where is the best investment direction for Sichuan Capital?

After looking around, there are only two places.

Go to Guizhou to mine.

Then there is the Jianghan Plain.

There is cotton in the Jianghan Plain, and the cotton output is not low.

There are coal mines, just in Huangshi on the edge of the Yangtze River.

There is iron ore, and there is copper ore.

There is limestone suitable for the development of heavy industries such as cement, and it is on the edge of the Yangtze River.

Only by first strengthening the economic ties between the Jianghan area and Sichuan, can the Sichuan salt capital that has been fostered not just squat in Sichuan to hoard land, lend money, and pawn.

Instead, it gradually extended its gaze down the Yangtze River.

Finally, with the capital of Songjiang Prefecture, we will work together to complete the industrial start along the Yangtze River.

Songjiang and other places will use Hubei's iron, Hubei's coal, and Hubei's lime cement in the future.

Through this kind of guidance, salt, the gold-gathering beast, is sucked from Hubei to Sichuan's silver, and then spit back to Hubei.

Otherwise, if you stay in Sichuan, you will repeat the original story, and you will switch to buying land and lending money. Sichuan, which used to have a daughter, has become a habit of drowning in just a few decades.

Of course, this investment process is slow, but the first step must be to strengthen the connection between Sichuan and the two lakes, so that Sichuan people no longer fear the danger of the Three Gorges.

To put it simply, it is to let Shaanxi people who make money in Sichuan not focus on Sichuan and Shaanxi, but on Hubei and Hunan.

Create a sense that Hubei is actually closer to Sichuan than Shaanxi.

It's just that it's useless to talk about these reasons with these Shaanxi businessmen.

You tell him that hoarding, buying land, and collecting rents are reactionary and cannot promote the development of productivity.You should invest in business and industry.The first step in investing in industry and commerce is to open up the traffic in Chuchuan.

To put it bluntly, it is no different from farting.

It’s not whether they understand it or not, but even if they understand it, even if they can write a paper on this point of view tomorrow, they should hoard land and lend money.

So Liu Yu said another reasoning, which has nothing to do with this, just like fooling the emperor: talk about people when you see people, talk about things when you see ghosts.

After breaking the defenses of the Shaanxi businessmen and humiliating their incompetence, Liu Yu used his power to ask, "That's what I said, if you made money, what would you do?"

"Is it true that you will definitely buy land in your hometown in Shaanxi and Sichuan, and collect rents. Open a pawn shop and lend usury?"

"You don't even invest a sum of money to build roads and rivers. Because you think that now it's official transportation and commercial sales, and you are only responsible for production. Why do you want to build rivers?"

"You may build bridges and do good deeds in your hometown, but you will never invest a penny where you can't make money."

"Let me speak more clearly."

"In order to transport copper and lead, the imperial court repaired the transportation lines in Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and northern Yunnan. What does this mean? Not only does it mean that the salt in Sichuan can be bought there, but it also means that the rice and grain in Sichuan can be sold there. gone."

"It means that buying land and collecting rent in Sichuan can make a lot of money. Am I right?"

This is also true.

The Shaanxi businessman lowered his head, not daring to look directly.

Liu Yu said while the iron was hot: "One more thing, it is my idea to gather forces to revitalize Sichuan Salt. Then, in the future, you will buy land, hoard land, and lend money, and make Sichuan's small farmers run-down. What will I do when I am in the court? "

"Now the imperial court is not using troops in the southwest for the time being, and you have no chance to do things for the imperial court. In addition to your monopoly, some people will be jealous. Will they use this as an excuse to attack me?"

"It's not about exchanges or anything like that, but that you have to do something to let the imperial court give you the monopoly power. Is it justifiable?"

"It's still the same sentence. Some people will be jealous of this kind of business that the imperial court wants to support. Since everyone is a waste, and the imperial court supports whoever is standing up, then you have to give the imperial court a "You are different from those wastes." confession?"

"Why give it to you? At least you have to give me a step?"

The point is so clear, Liu Yu continued: "One more thing, what do you want to do now, you think this is a deal with the imperial court, it's fair."

"Wait for you to do it in the future, and then ask you to pay, and you will feel that the court is extorting you, greedy and so on."

"The story of ups and downs has been told for 2000 years, and it is still the same now. Don't think you are saying that Lianghuai businessmen complained wrong, it is because you were driven away from Lianghuai, and you complained when you were asked to sit there. "

"Some things are different if you do them beforehand and afterward."

"If you really give you monopoly power, you will have to collect taxes formally, and there will be no more benefits. You can't open a hole."

"Before you give it, if you do something, it's called contributing to the country, and then the court rewards you for monopoly power."

"Do you understand the difference?"

Having said all this, the Shaanxi businessman took the initiative and hurriedly said: "We have the intention to contribute to the country, but now the imperial court is not fighting in the southwest, so we can't use our strength."

"In addition, the weather in Shu has been good in the past few years, and there have been no major disasters. There is no one to assist the imperial court in relief."

Liu Yu laughed and said directly: "From the east of Kui to Jianghan, there are many dangerous shoals, and most of the imperial ships transporting copper and lead sank; but there is little cotton in the land of Shu, and there are many places in Jianghan, which makes it difficult for ships going upside to pass, and to The land of Shu is expensive."

"Furthermore, if there is a famine, it is inconvenient to send food from Shu to Chu."

"I see, why don't you take this opportunity to invest in repairing the fiber road from Kuidong to Jianghan?"

"I told the imperial court about your good deeds, and the imperial court praised you a lot, and granted you a monopoly in southern Sichuan salt, so as to save land rent."

"The imperial court is building the Huaihe River again. If the Huaihe River flows into the sea and the Three Gorges are unobstructed, it will be an act of auspiciousness and prosperity, and I dedicate it to Your Majesty."

"Furthermore, you account for [-]%, and Sichuan merchants account for [-]%. You contributed to the society and let the court give you a chance to monopolize. The old grievances of Sichuan and Shanxi merchants will allow us to work together in the future."

"In this way, the country is safe and the people are happy, Shu and Chu benefit, and His Majesty appreciates it, and the authorization is famous, isn't it beautiful?"

(End of this chapter)