Xinshun 1730

Chapter 933 Awakening ([-])

Liu Yu praised Xu Heng's idea very much. Although he scolded most businessmen a lot, he could understand them in this matter.

Social consciousness lags behind social being.

The thinking of these businessmen has not yet adapted to their new social status of expanding and seizing the market from the thinking of businessmen, merchants, and compradors.

A group of people who were sitting at home collecting money before asked them to understand the market conditions in Europe, which is really difficult for them.

How much tea is sold in the European market and how many people can afford it has nothing to do with them before.

Before, they only cared about what price Europe would set for buying tea from them.

Now the cargo ship of the Western Trading Company has just returned to Europe for the first time, and it is also the first time that Dashun has actively sold the goods to Europe.Sweden is not counted, because Sweden Dashun has no absolute initiative.

This time, the ship of the Western Trading Company docked in Amsterdam openly, ostentatiously auctioned wholesale goods at the auction in the seven provinces of the Netherlands, and actually sold a batch of futures bonds.

Once you have taken the initiative, you have to consider more issues.

In the past few years when the Dutch East India Company competed with the Ostend Company for the tea monopoly, the Dutch East India Company lost a lot of money, but for the Dashun merchants at that time, this kind of profit and loss had nothing to do with them None, they still wholesale tea at normal prices.

Now that the status has changed, these situations must be considered.

It is too difficult for the old generation to expect them to change their minds.

Can only boil them to death.

It's young people who are coming up with these ideas now, and that's something to celebrate.

Seeing Liu Yu nodding in approval, Xu Heng said again: "The Duke never does such empty talk. If you want to ask the Duke, he must have sent someone to collect the situation there. Otherwise, the Duke would not ask. of."

"Guogong might as well tell the situation over there, so that everyone can judge whether the price should be raised or lowered."

A group of businessmen suddenly realized, and they thought yes, the Duke of the State never talked about empty talk and calculation, since he asked such a question, there is a reason for it, why didn't he think of it?
Liu Yu nodded with a smile and said: "That's right. But the question is, is this what I, a supervisor, should do? What is your board of directors doing? If I don't speak, I won't do these things, you guys What to do? This is the key question."

"It's like raising a child. You said that when you were a baby, you had to take care of everything. When you grow up to be twenty, do you still have to tell the child to eat when hungry and drink when thirsty?"

"It has been almost 20 years since the cooperation with Sweden and the trade with Japan, right? Shouldn't it be time to grow up?"

"But let's talk about the facts now, I will tell you about the situation over there that I have collected, and you can judge for yourself."

"Britain is now similar to us. It is a country that mainly farms and raises sheep. After they enclose land, they don't lease small plots to maintain social stability, but hire labor. Those who can't work or use them, either Die, go to sea, or go to work in the city."

"Since we talk about selling tea, we have to talk about the agricultural laborers with millions of people. It should be said that the life of any agricultural laborer in Britain at this time is better than that of most people in the Chinese dynasty. Beer belly, full of smiles A full face is standard equipment."

As he said that, he took out the data collected by Tian Ping in England. It has to be said that the agricultural laborers in England and the tenant farmers in Dashun are completely two classes.They are all farmers, or they can all be called farmers, but they are really not the same thing.

"I'll read it to you."

"Britain raises sheep and farms, so the most expensive time for hired labor is the day of mowing and harvesting. Wages are settled on a weekly basis. This is the creation of the Western gods. There are seven days in a week and four weeks in a month."

"When mowing the lawn, a skilled laborer's wages are about 10 shillings a week. After a month, it is about 30 shillings, which is 1.5 pounds, which is equivalent to about five taels of silver."

"In the slack season, long-term workers have to pay wages during the slack season. It was lower at that time. On average, it was 6 shillings a week, and 24 shillings a month, which was about 3 taels of silver."

"I'll just give a family income of an ordinary agricultural employee. You can do the math yourself. How should the tea price be calculated?"

"A farm laborer living in Market Harborough, Leicestershire."

"The parent is a 37-year-old veteran. He does long-term work for a year, plus piecework. When he is busy, he adds money and does extra work. The annual income is about 35 pounds, 100 taels of silver."

"The eldest son is nineteen, young and strong, but in terms of work, he is still not as good as a 27-37 to 26-[-] man. So he can earn about [-] pounds a year."

"The second son is sixteen and earns £22 a year."

"The youngest son, fourteen, does some chores. It costs £10 a year."

"His wife raises sheep and milks them, and can sell them for 3 pounds a year; plus doing part-time jobs during the busy farming season, he can earn about [-] pounds a year."

"Every year, the farmer gives benefits. Beer, coal, etc., can be sold for three to five pounds a year."

"This is a fairly ordinary family of agricultural employees. If there is some property, it is not enough for others to work. After this year, how much is the family's income?"

"A family's income is about 100 pounds, 300 taels of silver. I won't mention this dynasty, just say that when I visited Japan before, the Japanese family lived well and hired people to work at home. Can't you pay 300 taels of silver? Can you guarantee to eat rice every day?"

These few simple figures completely shocked the businessmen here.

They finally understood why Liu Yu was so keen to go outside to do business. It was really because ordinary people in China couldn't afford too many things.

The annual income of a family of hired workers is 300 taels of silver, which is really unimaginable for the businessmen here.

Although they don't work in agriculture, they also know that the standard for Dashun's "middle class" is to serve as a soldier, which is about 3 to 4 taels of silver a month plus food and drink, which is equivalent to 50 taels of silver a year.

And this kind of income is enough to make many people flock to it, because it is too much.Even some court officials complained about the monthly salary of three or four taels of silver for soldiers.

Liu Yu didn't ask how the farmers in Dashun were doing, but only asked about Japan next door.

Many people are engaged in Japanese trade, and they know that even the "sages" in the Japanese countryside may not be able to guarantee that they will eat rice every meal.

And if a family can earn 300 taels of silver a year, at least they can afford to eat rice every meal.

In this way, the merchants present will understand whether the price of this tea should be reduced or increased.

Four people, 300 taels of silver a year, equivalent to a monthly income of about 25 taels.

If the family's monthly income is 25 taels, it is obvious that Wuyi tea, which costs seven or eight taels a catty, will definitely not be bought.

If it is reduced to more than one tael per catty, it should be said that this is a completely acceptable luxury for a family with a monthly income of 25 taels.

...But what if it is reduced to 5 denarii a catty?

I am afraid that it will not increase the shipment of tea.

Those who drank tea before still drink it because they can afford it; those who didn’t drink tea before still don’t drink it because they couldn’t afford it before.

Of course, this is the price set by Dashun.

In fact, there is still a lot of room for "development" in the British tea market.

Because the tea tax in the UK is about 120% this year, the price of non-smuggled tea from formal channels is still too high, which seriously restricts the growth of the UK tea consumption market.

The businessmen present are not fools, as long as they are properly guided and given data, they will naturally draw correct inferences.

Although they don't understand the principles of economics, just like before Lavoisier discovered oxygen, did people on the earth not need to breathe?

It's just that these businessmen showed disbelief on all their faces after briefly sorting out their inferences.

Data can lead to the right truth.

But is the data itself accurate?
The set of data that Liu Yu uttered was really too terrifying.

According to the national conditions of Dashun, the merchants thought that the Duke of the State had made a mistake, right?

A tenant farmer, a family can receive 300 taels of silver a year?
Not to mention tenant farmers in the Celestial Dynasty, but a squire with three to five hundred acres of land, can he receive three to five hundred taels of silver a year?
Is there a gold mountain in the UK?

Is there still Yinhai?

Everyone including Xu Heng who raised this question felt that what Liu Yu said was a bit too ridiculous?Is there such a big gap between the lives of the people in the Celestial Dynasty and Yingyi?
Besides, this is not reasonable at all. Is it gold?Can one person grow 100 taels of silver a year?If you can't even plant 100 taels of silver, how can you hire someone to return the 100 taels?
This set of data really shocked their hearts and made it difficult for them to accept it for a while.

"Guo Gong... Could it be that the statistics are wrong? How can a family of tenant farmers earn so much money a year?"

Liu Yu laughed, but did not explain directly, but told a story.

"There is such a story in Feng Menglong's "Warning the World". It is said that one day Wang Jinggong wrote a poem on chrysanthemums, saying: The west wind passed through the garden last night, and the yellow flowers fell and the ground was filled with gold."

"After Su Xueshi saw it, he felt that Mr. Jing was just talking nonsense. Your chrysanthemums will fall all over the ground with petals? So he wrote a poem: Autumn flowers don't fall like spring flowers, and I told the poet to sing carefully."

"Those who have never been to Huangzhou will not understand what kind of chrysanthemums are in Huangzhou."

"In the same way, why do you think that the peasants in Yingyi are the same 'chrysanthemums' as the peasants in this dynasty?"

"Have you ever thought about why the same landlords, the British landlords, supported foreign expansion, while the gentry of this dynasty always said that they were militaristic and opposed expansion?"

"Could it be that it's because of human beings? The landlords of Yingyi are full of martial arts, but the gentry of this dynasty are weak?"

"Britain's textile industry can't even keep up with a Suzhou prefecture. It's the landlord who really speaks forcefully. Why is it different?"

It sounds like politics, but it's actually business, it's interests.

Liu Yu turned his head and erased the two lines of poems on the screen, and wrote Sima Qian's famous line heavily: All the prosperity of the world is for profit, and the world's hustle and bustle is for profit.

It is very difficult for people in Dashun to understand the land enclosure movement, because the village communes and public lands were completely disintegrated in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and the land enclosure movement had actually been completed 2000 years ago.

Let a group of people who grew up in a country where land has been privately traded for a long time understand what is called public land; let a group of people who grew up in a country where land has been privately traded for a long time understand why the eruption of fighting for land ownership to individuals Wave after wave of uprisings.

It's really difficult.

But after this step is skipped, the remaining problems are easy for these businessmen to understand.

The special environment in Britain has created a group of special landlords.

Landlords—wool—wool export—land rent—Spain’s mountains of gold and silver but no industrial capacity—the navy ensures the export of wool—the price of wool increases—the rent increases—maintains the increase in land rent—continues to expand and sell wool.

Fundamentally speaking, it is still profit-seeking.

But for the gentry in Dashun, this is different.

The gentry - war costs money - money is taxed from them - the Northern Frontier is worth nothing to them.

Still in order to defend their own interests.

The starting point is the same.

The national conditions are different.

lead to consistent expansion, and one conservative.

For the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, would Dashun's war against Luocha and the conquest of Junggar be of any benefit to them?The land in the Western Regions was given to them for free, but they didn't want it.Even if you invest money in development there and produce a pile of grain and cotton, how can you ship it out and sell it for money?If you can’t sell it for money, what else can you do with food besides feeding dogs?
But for the British landowners, the benefits of fighting over Jenkins' ears and fighting over the regulations of navigation were huge.

The market expands—the export of English woolens rises—the price of wool rises—and rents rise.

This is not due to the abundance of national martial virtues, nor the difference between Confucianism and Protestant culture, but driven by class interests.

For the gentry in Dashun, will the land rent increase if they expand abroad?

More recently, you can collect money for raw silk tea at home, so why expand?
If Britain does not expand, the wool of France, the wool of the Netherlands, the wool of Spain, and the wool of the German princes will all squeeze the British wool industry, reducing the rent income of British landlords.

If Dashun does not expand, will the land rent of the gentry drop?
On the contrary, in the eyes of Jiangnan gentry, what is the result of the imperial court's abundant military virtues and external expansion?

Along with Dashun's control of Nanyang and Southeast Asia, Dashun changed the currency tax for rice transfer, and the rapid development of Dashun's navigation technology, the price of rice in Songjiang dropped from one tael to 7 yuan. fell before...

If they support external expansion, they are really being sold and paid for.

(End of this chapter)