Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1106 Industrial Revolution ([-])
Quan Zheshen's words made Meng Songlu a little embarrassed, obviously Meng Songlu was not an imperialist yet.

It's just that what Quan Zheshen said, Meng Songlu really didn't know how to answer the words, so he could only smile slowly: "Brother Zhao said, it's not that Xing Guogong didn't say the solution. If you want the world to be unified, you must be good at it." Director."

"For example, if your country is not good at weaving, why do you have to weave it? You can do something else. There are always some things that your country is good at but the Celestial Dynasty is not good at, or your country is cheap and the Celestial Dynasty is quite expensive. "

Quan Zheshen just chuckled, thinking that might not be the case.Even if it is rice, no one in the world knows that Su Chang is a land of fish and rice?Isn't the means of growing rice here better than ours?But on your side, the master and the vice can be reversed, and I have never seen you give full play to your advantages and continue to grow rice.

But he didn't say it directly, but hid his inner dissatisfaction in his heart, and said: "Brother Meng, although I live in a small remote country, I have heard that southern Jiangsu is rich. This Nantong was not well-known at first, but now according to you, It has been more Yanghuai, but it is only the result of more than ten years of reform. Originally, Jiangbei was also a place with many disasters, and it was famous for its salt. It is not as rich as the south of Jiangsu."

"In this case, I would like to ask Brother Meng to guide me on a trip or two. I can see the villages and towns and the people's livelihood, and I can learn a thing or two."

For this request, Meng Songlu did not intend to refuse, but explained: "I said that Nantong Prefecture surpassed Huaiyueyang, not only because Nantong Prefecture gradually became rich, but also because of the Caoyan incident that caused Huaiyang to decline. If we talk about it, After all, it is no better than Jiangnan."

"However, since Brother Zhao wants to take a look, he may be able to learn one or two reasons."

After agreeing, he gradually went up along the river with a black canopy.

The old town of Nantong City has now been hidden behind many buildings that have risen outside the city walls, and some new towns around the old town have taken shape.

"Since the previous dynasty, the population has grown and the cities have gradually crowded. Some people in the previous dynasty said that the development of new cities is now the top priority. Nowadays, many workshops in Nantong are not in the old city, but the places on both sides of the canal that are convenient for water transportation have gradually become town."

"This place is called Tangzha. During the Chenghua period of the previous dynasty, the gate was built here. Because there are people surnamed Tang here, it got this name. There are four major workshops here, employing tens of thousands of workers."

"One of them is the cotton ginning factory. The cotton from northern Jiangsu is transported here, and the cotton seeds are removed here."

"The second and third are oil mills that use cottonseed as raw material, and soap factories that use cotton oil as raw material."

"Finally, there is the workshop where the wool is washed."

"Alkali used for grooming and oil soap is not produced here. It is shipped from Songjiang. In the past few years, northern Jiangsu has been reclamating wasteland, and the reclamation company has also raised wool sheep for woolen gauze."

"But such as cotton spinning, wool spinning, etc., the factories are still in the south of the Yangtze River."

These emerging large-scale factories can also be regarded as the source of Meng Songlu's "beyond Yanghuai".

With the completion of the canal, it is obvious that this place will become more prosperous.

Tens of thousands of people gather here to form a town, and the food and drink of these tens of thousands of people can drive more industries.

This is not the cotton textile industry center of Dashun, but it is the distribution center of Dashun cotton.

In fact, it's no wonder that Yangzhou, Huai'an, and northern Jiangsu are suitable for large-scale cotton cultivation. The geographical conditions are here, and Shanghai is the export trade center of Dashun.

Even if Yangzhou and Huai'an want to transform, how can they compete with Nantong?Will capital foolishly go to Yangzhou to build a cotton processing plant?

It must be the place that is closest to the cotton production area in northern Jiangsu and is also close to the export area.

The decline of Yangzhou and Huai'an that Liu Yu forced was actually a process of natural decline that took 50 years and was forced to be completed within five years. This naturally caused many problems and was forcibly suppressed by means of violence.

The big factories that Meng Songlu introduced should be regarded as the largest factories in Dashun at this time.But in fact, the real money-making industries are all in Songjiang.

For example, no matter whether it is wool cleaning or soap making alkali, as the upstream of the industrial chain, there is no factory in Nantong at all.

As for why not set up a factory in Haizhou, which actually has better raw material conditions, it is because the by-product of the original soda-making method can be used for bleaching.

Many industries in southern Jiangsu may not use alkali much, but this by-product bleach is very much needed.

Many industries, which seem to be the free choice of capital, are actually secretly manipulated, using the upstream and downstream industrial chains to even monitor or review the output volume to prevent disorderly expansion.

Meng Songlu is quite proud of these large factories. Although these factories are not his, it does not prevent him from raising his head proudly when talking about these factories, even though these factories are quite different from his ideas in some places. For discord.

He was just about to introduce some special places in this emerging factory area, such as the "Reformation School for Bad Children", "Training School for Blind People", "Training School for Women Workers", etc. He didn't want Quan Zheshen to have no interest in this place.

Quan Zhe thought about the reality, these four factories are meaningless.

Not to mention whether North Korea is suitable for growing cotton, but just talking about the current situation, even if cotton is planted, most of the cotton that is rubbed out will be bought by Dashun, and then woven into cloth and sold back to North Korea for replacement. Much cotton.

Learning these things, isn't that a dead end?
Selling some rice is bad enough, but if cotton becomes more expensive, wouldn't the two classes of nobles grow cotton regardless of the life and death of the people, and wouldn't it be even more chaotic by then?

This northern Jiangsu was originally a piece of grass and salt, so it can be done like this.How does North Korea have such a place?

It’s okay to grow rice. In case of a famine, you don’t have to export it. You can feed yourself as much as possible and help the people.

But if we switch to cotton, if something happens, maybe hundreds of thousands or millions of people will die?
"Brother Meng, although these workshops are novel, I am afraid that the way to save the world is not among them. You can see them or not."

"According to Brother Meng, there is also a dispute in the Shang Kingdom that cheap rice hurts farmers, and cheap rice hurts farmers. Presumably, those who start factories must like cheap rice and cheap rice."

"Although the Shang Kingdom is rich and prosperous, farming and weaving are still the main thing after all. How to solve the problem of cheap rice hurting farmers?"

Meng Songlu suppressed and was about to continue to introduce the mood here, sighed and said: "The rice price hurts farming, and it has never been resolved. However, after Xingguogong's reform, the harm of the rice price is not as good as the benefit of the equal tax. However, the benefit of the equal tax, It benefits the good people, but as for the tenants, there are many who quit their tenancy and fled.”

Quan Zheshen is quite interested in this question.

Because since they are all Confucian scholars, then who is the pillar of the dynasty, the two sides have the same attitude, that is, those good people, that is, self-cultivating farmers, good men, and the backbone of society.

What Quanzhe is interested in is how can the tax reform really benefit the people?

Why is the tax reform over there, the more the tax is reformed, the heavier it is, and the more improved it is, the worse it is?Many policies seem to be quite good, such as repaying the rice system, and loaning out rice when it is too late to harvest. According to the interest rate of 12%, it is already quite low. This is good government no matter how you look at it, but in the end it all becomes bad government. .

Throwing out this doubt, in exchange for Meng Songlu's long silence.

Meng Songlu himself couldn't answer what was going on here. What was involved was not just a simple tax reform, but also involved many problems.To talk about this, I am afraid that we have to start with the promotion of sea transportation, the abolition of the canal, the abolition of labor, the division of labor, the construction of infrastructure to accommodate the surplus fleeing population, and the construction of professional infrastructure personnel to carry out projects, etc. It is difficult to explain clearly.

Furthermore, like some water conservancy projects in northern Jiangsu, the imperial court did not actually pay much.It was purely paid by the group of people who grow cotton, but where did the money paid by these people actually come from?Money can't be changed out of thin air, can it?
Going forward, thinking about the dumping of Dashun cotton cloth to North Korea that Quan Zheshen lamented just now, Meng Songlu felt that it was better not to make it clear.

Talking too much, talking too nonsense, even being too blunt like when Duke Xingguo was talking with merchants in Songjiang Mansion, it seems that it is easy to surprise the vassals and alienate them.

Meng Songlu thought to himself, the canal from Funing to Nantong, you people from North Korea, can be regarded as the effort of twenty or thirty miles.

It's hard to speak clearly, so I had to say: "Since Xingguogong's reform, mu taxes are all based on money. In fact, speaking of truth, the taxes paid by many good people around Nantong are all paid out of women's looms."

"Since the cotton planting in northern Jiangsu, the Academy of Sciences has promoted the iron wheel loom. Some wealthy merchants bought looms and distributed them in the countryside. They also provided yarn. After weaving, they took back the cloth and gave them wages."

"Ordinary good people pay taxes every year, women weaving enough to pay. As for the cheapness of grain, it really has little impact on these good people who cultivate themselves. They don't need to rush to sell food, most of them eat by themselves. I used to eat some melons and vegetables, but now I eat a few more rice, that’s all.”

"The weaving pays money, and the money is being taxed. It saves the merchants from lowering the price when the new grain comes down, and the good people don't complain much."

"The ones who have the greatest influence are mainly the tenant farmers."

Quan Zhe wondered: "As Brother Meng said, since women weave cloth, the sub-primary and the sub-primary are the sub-primary, so don't the farming women know how to weave?"

Meng Songlu smiled wryly and said: "Times have changed. Landlords in Nantong, seeing that cotton is becoming more expensive, reaped land instead of tenants, but planted cotton."

"The tenants want to rent, but the landlord doesn't. They all rely on weaving. If they don't have land to cultivate themselves, their life is difficult. Therefore, they can only leave their hometowns and go to work and sell their labor."

"This matter also involves the issue of cotton seeds. The most expensive ones sold today are the improved Fusangzhou long-staple cotton in northern Jiangsu. Originally, kapok cotton was not very valuable, and it was difficult to grow yarn and it was not easy to make large cloth. Therefore, it is rented The number of tenants to collect rent has been decreasing day by day in the past few years. It is the norm to drive out tenants.”

"It's just that after being expelled, there is always a way to survive. Even if you can't work, you can still be bought and moved to Kanto and Southeast Asia. Therefore, there has never been any major chaos."

"Nowadays around Nantong, those who stay in the countryside are either long-term laborers for landlords;

"The poorest are all driven away, and the countryside is naturally rich."

"Anyway, the head tax has been canceled now. There are fewer people, and it has nothing to do with tax. Officials in various places are also happy to drive poor tenant farmers out, and they don't like them to stay in the local area."

(End of this chapter)