Xinshun 1730

Chapter 229
This unspeakable lie is the contradiction between imperial power and Huaxia.

Liu Yu is convinced that the imperial power will not allow a Chinese version of the East India Company to have the power to arm, tax and even establish a government abroad.

The country is not an inseparable whole, there are different classes and different interests.Managing Nanyang requires a large amount of investment. As for whether it is beneficial, it depends on where the buttocks sit.

The emperor's pioneering spirit seduced by interests will one day reach an unacceptable threshold.

After this summoning, Liu Yu walked around the capital alone a few times, trying to feel a little bit of the difference from a few years ago, but there were not many, and there were no immediate and visible changes.

The biggest change is that Dashun officially banned religion and announced a break with the Holy See.

If you continue to believe in orthodox Catholicism, missionaries will be sent to Macau and prohibited from preaching in the mainland; or, like Taoist priests and monks, they will be subject to government management, and believers can continue to believe in Western religion, but the customs of worshiping ancestors, Confucius, and kneeling to the emperor will not be obeyed The so-called "Sacred Letters" of the Holy See.

The two Catholic churches around the once bustling Forbidden City were no longer noisy.For most people who are not religious at all, this change does not cause much discomfort.

Presumably, for a long time, religion still spread in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places.

Religion is the mental anesthesia of the poor, and it is also the last reliance of some weak people against the clan. In the future, in places where the clan is powerful, such as Fujian and Guangxi, it will surely spread into disasters.

Dashun has been slowly divided.

The society of small peasants and common people in the north; Confucian scholars, big officials and landlords in the south of the Yangtze River; clans and believers in the south confront each other; different economic bases will also give rise to different ideological soils, just like the original dispute between Confucianism between the South and the Confucianism between the Confucianists and the North. There will be some new interpretations.

He stayed at the door of his western learning teacher Dai Jinxian for a while, but he didn't go in in the end.I wanted to talk to Dai Jinxian about Dashun's ban on religion, but after thinking about it, this kind of thing is almost unsolvable.

Maybe Dashun will produce a few talents to change Catholicism into the same religion as monks and priests, maybe not, but this is beyond his control.

Walking wildly, Liu Yu suddenly found that he couldn't find a few friends of the same age in the capital, even if they were friends of the same age.

Either he went abroad to study with Duke Qi and has not returned, or he has already served in various ministries or joined the army.Even Tian Ping, whom he is very familiar with, is now sent to Songjiang to work at the customs.

Just like when he first came to this world many years ago, the whole capital was a little strange to him.He somewhat missed the sound of the rumbling guns and the white sails of the warships in Weihai.

With the matter of the navy in my heart, I am like an arrow, but I can't get away for the time being.

He still has to wait for a group of people, that is, to recruit a large number of bastards who have learned arithmetic and geometry, but cannot pass the entrance examination to the Martial Virtue Palace, and cannot assume the status of good family sons.

This is the preparatory teacher he conceived to teach natural knowledge by self-study and start from scratch.Relying on his fame and the precedent of presiding over the recruitment of Jinghai Palace official school, Liu Yu still has appeal.

I waited until May, participated in several times of the imperial court's wrangling court meetings, and finally waited for the money allocated by the imperial court and the recruited personnel.

It's time to leave the capital.

Tian Zhenyi didn't sneak out to see her off, Liu Yu told her what happened in the court, and the two of them tacitly agreed not to do anything out of the ordinary, such as meeting in private.

Fortunately, summer has arrived, and Qi Guogong and his party should be back soon. The long wait is finally over, and the mood is still very good.

Arriving in Weihai all the way, the scene that was completely different from the capital once again appeared in front of him, and Liu Yu felt much more comfortable.

Just like Bianjing in the Song Dynasty, the wealth of the whole country was concentrated there, supporting a different kind of prosperity.

Weihai is the same.

The annual military pay and investment of the imperial court; the large amount of capital injection that almost monopolizes the trade with Japan; the construction of military factories and various workshops all make this place present a deformed prosperity.

For a city with a population of only tens of thousands, one hundred and one million taels of finances are transferred here every year, and coupled with the enrichment of funds from trade with Japan, it is a bit abnormal to say that it is deformed.

Next to the dry dock, a Newcomen steam engine bought by the French from Europe at a high price was pumping water there with thick black smoke.

The earliest warships in service are moored there, and workers are cleaning the bottom of the ship from barnacles and various shellfish.

The asphalt bought from Nanyang was boiled in a large pot, giving off a pungent smell.

The bulky Newcomen steam engine laboriously drained the water in the dry dock, mixed with the air without smoke and the pungent smell of asphalt, and in Liu Yu's nostrils, there was a kind of sweetness that others could not understand.

"Cigarettes! Matches!"

The sailors who went ashore to rest received their salaries, and the children who sold the cigarettes and matches produced by the workshop knew that these sailors were the most willing to spend money, and surrounded the sailors and shouted loudly.

The unmarried sailors generously bought two packs of cigarettes, and several of them jointly bought a few matches, and staggered into the city.

The dense brothels, restaurants, and grocery stores in the city all show that there are a large group of people with money to spend.

On the way to the pier, a series of newly built cannons are being shipped to the south.

Maritime merchants in Dashun are allowed to carry some cannons to guard against pirates. The cannons here are of good quality and are very popular among maritime merchants in the south. In addition, the chamber of commerce that trades with Japan will definitely purchase them, and business is booming.

Outside the military factory, a new batch of recruitment is underway.The general situation of Dashun's military reform has been decided, and a large number of orders for flintlock guns and bayonets can be expected to usher in a wave of great development in the next few years.

After Wendeng tried out the system of sharing the land into the mu and the permanent tenancy system, it also promoted the flow of population.Many Wendeng locals went to Weihai to find a job working in a workshop, and not everyone could get Yong Diantian's turn.

Under the policy of compulsory permanent tenancy, more and more landlords also chose to move to the city, or invested in the shares of military factories, or opened various shops.

Occasionally, there will be a few four-wheeled carriages carrying plate glass to the homes of some wealthy households. Some wealthy households have also begun to try to replace the glass in the main hall with glass that is more transparent than window paper.

Liu Yu is convinced that this abnormal prosperity will continue for a while. As long as the imperial court puts the fleet's home port in Weihai, it will be more prosperous than other places.

More deformed population "trading" than this deformed prosperity is also going on in this deformed port.Those who were bought at low prices or cheated from everywhere, waited numbly to board the ship to meet their unknown fate.

The legend of the distant Whale Sea is very cold, and it is as far away as the sky, but in the descriptions of those human traffickers, it is clearly a paradise.

There are long-term workers bought by local people, and some are bought to reclaim wasteland. The food does not need to be transported away, it can be traded in Vladivostok, and you can go directly to Weihai to exchange money with the receipt.

In addition to the population transported outward, during the monsoon, the ships of the French East India Company also brought in a group of various craftsmen hired by Liu Yu.

They are all lured here with high salaries and the promise of allowing shares to come here "want to go to the East to make a fortune", or are craftsmen and technicians sent by the French semi-official level.

The French captain, who specializes in transporting people and the machinery that Liu Yu bought with money, is already very familiar with Liu Yu. After a brief courtesy, he took out a piece of information about Europe that Liu Yu had previously ordered with money.

According to the industrial and commercial intelligence collection of the map-finding style, the direction to be collected is written in advance by Liu Yu, and a sum of money is paid.

It's not a secret, it's just that no one has noticed this direction.He wrote the directions and it was easy to collect.

After flipping through the contents of the information book, Liu Yu frowned slightly. There was some uneasy news on it.

British local merchants related to the cotton textile industry are holding a massive petition, hoping that the British government will relax restrictions on the cotton textile industry.

The beginning of the industrial revolution on the technical level has not yet come.

As for the foundation at the policy level, I am afraid that the United Kingdom will lay a solid foundation within a few years.

The enclosure movement in the UK is to raise sheep in enclosures.

The basis of the British textile industry is woolen, not cotton. This is the bulk commodity exported by the UK and the backbone of the British handicraft industry.

However, with the trade expansion of the East India Company, cotton cloth from China and India, with its low price, excellent quality and good dyeing, crazily impacted the local woolen textile industry in Britain.

Cotton cloth is good and cheap, and the British handicraft industry has been greatly impacted by the foreign goods of the East India Company.

Thirty years ago, the impacted woolen textile industry began large-scale demonstrations, rallies, and petitions. Finally, the United Kingdom issued a decree: absolutely prohibiting the entry of textiles from China, India, and Persia into the United Kingdom.

However, the relationship between the East India Company is very hard.

The law belongs to the law, and the policy belongs to the policy. There are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. The sale is still not delayed at all, which makes the British wool textile industry difficult.

More than ten years ago, the South China Sea bubble exploded, and Britain's finances were in serious trouble. The industry and commerce were affected by the bubble explosion and the reform of the gold standard by Mr. Niu, and exports were even more difficult.

After the bubble exploded, more stringent policies were introduced. In order to protect the local handicraft industry, the import of cotton cloth was strictly prohibited to the greatest extent.

It is even strictly forbidden for British people to wear cotton cloth, not only imports are prohibited, but even cotton cloth is not allowed.

Contrary to the free trade advocated by the Anglo-Saxons of later generations, Britain at this time was a "closed" country, similar to Dashun.

It’s just that Dashun wanted free trade but no imports, while the UK only allowed exports but no imports on its own initiative.

However, the merchants of the East India Company have long been acutely aware of a problem: the decree says that cotton cloth is not allowed, so if the cotton cloth is mixed with linen and wool, is it still cotton cloth?
Letters and words all have proper nouns. If the cloth is 90.00% cotton and the remaining [-]% is linen or wool, then this cloth should be called cotton, linen and wool blended cloth, not cotton cloth, so This law is flawed.

With this loophole, the United Kingdom began to produce some blended fabrics mixed with linen, cotton and wool to evade the law.

Of course, the biggest beneficiary is the East India Company.

By setting up empty mills, Chinese and Indian cotton cloth was shipped to England, where it was sold as "blended cloth".

It's the same all over the world. As long as there is a small loophole in the law, capital will poke the loophole into a huge hole. It is the same reason that Liu Yu is allowed to mix some goods when transporting rice to Japan.

As the influence of the South Sea Bubble gradually dissipated, and as a large amount of cotton cloth was smuggled and sold in the name of blended cloth, some practitioners related to cotton textiles in the UK began to seek legitimacy from this loophole.

Businessmen in Manchester and Lancashire have been lobbying on a large scale since this year, hoping that the government will relax the cotton cloth policy, and also hope that Manchester's hemp-cotton blended cloth can obtain a legitimate qualification and can be sold in the UK.

Judging from the newspapers collected by the French, this time the lobbying was basically successful.

As long as this policy is relaxed, the policy foundation for the British cotton textile industry will be laid.

The British have already invented the flying shuttle, but this thing has no impact on the textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River.

In the short term, it is the East India Company that will benefit.By opening this opening, they will be able to transport the Indian spindles to the UK, and directly transport the embargoed cotton cloth, which must be risky.

But since Manchester's mixed fabrics are allowed, weaving and weaving, spinning and weaving are weaving, India's spindles can supply the demand after the invention of the flying shuttle and after the policy allows cotton textiles.

After seeing the news, Liu Yu was a little anxious.Since there is still hope of "surpassing victory", he has to think about how to take the road ahead.

It should not work to follow the British.

The spinning jenny is a miracle in the UK, but it is not at all in Dashun.

Because the yarn spun by this thing is not suitable for pure cotton cloth at all, but for mixed cloth of linen, cotton and wool.The yarn spun by this thing is easy to break, and requires stronger hemp and wool as warp threads and cotton as weft threads.

Moreover, the United Kingdom does not allow pure cotton products for the time being. Manchester and Lancashire still take advantage of the policy loopholes, thinking that their textiles are not pure cotton but mixed cloth. Pure cotton is still banned in the United Kingdom at this time.

Cotton cloth in Dashun is cotton cloth, and linen cloth is linen cloth. This kind of mixed cloth is rare. The spinning jenny that is easy to break is equivalent to a waste in Dashun, and it is of no great use.

What is really useful is the mule spinning machine, and the appearance of the mule spinning machine has made it possible to manufacture pure cotton products.

However, we all know that the spinning jenny machine is easy, but the mule spinning machine is difficult. At least Liu Yu doesn't know how to make it, nor does it understand the principle.

The spinning jenny is the beginning of the British Industrial Revolution, so it is widely spread.

But in fact, if this thing is put in Songjiang, the weavers in Songjiang will scold it to death: the yarn spun by this thing is so fine and easy to break, how to weave cloth with this thing?
However, the mule spinning machine, which is more low-key and more suitable for Dashun, has not been widely circulated, and there are no "golden ideas" that can inspire people to know what this thing is about.

Moreover, when the mule spinning machine was invented, Napoleon had moved from Corsica to France, so he couldn't copy it even if he wanted to.

But there is one thing, Liu Yu is sure not to copy the spinning jenny, but to keep an eye on the British patent.

See if there are early hydraulic spinning machines in the past few years, and then spend a lot of money to poach people and continue to improve.

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Yu felt that this road of "seeking to surpass" cannot follow the established method of plagiarism.Still have to consider a different path... For example, bypass light industry first, wait for plagiarism, and put energy and large investment on the pre-technology "hydraulic boring machine" of the steam engine.

This thing can not only dig cylinders, but also drill barrels. It takes a road that is completely opposite to that of the UK, where the market drives demand and demand promotes progress: it is heavy before light, which violates the law of market demand.

(End of this chapter)