I want to be emperor

Chapter 1125 Chu people do good deeds

As the second industrial revolution continues to unfold, the Chu Empire's demand for various raw materials is almost endless... The demand for industrial raw materials in human history, from ancient agricultural society to the first industrial revolution, During the second industrial revolution, its growth rate was extremely exaggerated.

This can be seen from the output of the most basic upstream product of the industry, namely steel.

From tens of thousands of tons in the agricultural era, to hundreds of thousands of tons during the first industrial revolution, to millions or even tens of millions of tons during the second industrial revolution... and then continued to soar to several billion tons.

And what is the current steel output of the Dachu Empire? Chengshun's annual steel production in fifty-one years reached more than 80 million tons... This is a very exaggerated figure.

If compared according to the original time and space, it far exceeds the steel production of various countries on the eve of World War I, and even exceeds the total global steel production at that time!

Why does this happen?

Because the combined population of all the industrial countries during World War I was not as large as the entire Chu Empire...

The United States before World War I was relatively typical, but it had only about 100 million people and produced more than 30 million tons of steel. If calculated per capita, the annual steel production per capita was about 300 kilograms.

As for the Great Chu Empire, it has a population of nearly 800 million. According to the level of the Americans in World War I, it would require 240 million tons... But the current steel output of the Great Chu Empire is only more than 80 million tons. The average weight per person is just over 100 kilograms.

Therefore, judging from the per capita level of steel, the contemporary Chu Empire is less than one-third of the United States during World War I...

But this does not affect the contemporary Chu Empire, whose industrial strength far exceeds that of the United States during World War I...

Although the contemporary Chu State's various industrial data per capita are lower, you can't stand that it has a population of nearly 800 million... With such a huge population, no matter what data is used to calculate the total, it is a very terrifying data.

This is not only true for steel, there are also other important economic data, such as coal production. In the fifty-one years of Chengshun, the coal production of the Chu Empire reached an astonishing more than 900 million tons. This data even exceeded that of the United States and the United States during World War I. UK total.

The same exaggerated industrial data include the railway mileage built by the Dachu Empire... reaching more than 500,000 kilometers. This data is the railway mileage operated by the Dachu Empire Railway Corporation, including directly-governed territories, administrative territories and vassal state investments. Railways do not include short-distance mining area railways and special transport railways invested and constructed by local enterprises themselves.

This data far exceeds the peak of more than 300,000 kilometers of railways in the United States during World War I... Although it is not as good as the total railways of all countries during World War I, the rapid construction of railways in the Chu Empire has not stopped. At the same time, the railways in the vassal states Construction is also relatively limited and not large-scale.

But even so, it is expected that by the fifty-fifth year of Chengshun, the total commercial railway mileage of the Chu Empire will exceed 600,000 kilometers, which is roughly the same as the total global railway mileage on the eve of World War I.

In addition, there is also the tonnage of merchant ships. The total tonnage of merchant ships currently registered in the Dachu Empire has reached more than 40 million tons... As a global empire, the number of merchant ships is extremely exaggerated.

Steel, coal, railway mileage, merchant ship tonnage...these basic economic data are all very exaggerated in a country, but if you want to talk about per capita...it's actually just that.

After all, the Great Chu Empire has a population of nearly 800 million. With such a population of 800 million, many economic data look ugly when calculated on a per capita basis... There is nothing that can be done about it.

The per capita growth of any data is backed by massive resources...

And this is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire has worked so hard to develop global resources... It is not enough to develop it on its own. It also needs the population of hundreds of millions of vassal states to develop low-end resources together.

In the process of resource development in indigenous countries, in order to increase the labor efficiency of the indigenous population, produce more labor surplus value, and produce more resources, the Chu people also gradually relaxed some technical restrictions and allowed Chu State's wholly-owned enterprises purchased specific equipment for specific industries in the vassal state for use in agriculture and mineral production.

Therefore, you can find many vassal countries overseas. Although the local areas are so poor that the current generation cannot even afford to eat... there are large farms using tractors and minerals using various advanced mining equipment.

The more typical ones should be produced by coal mines in the British region... Ever since the Chu people discovered that there was a large amount of high-quality coal in the British region, they have been investing in the development of local coal here.

At first, they held the idea that not a single screw could flow into the indigenous countries, and completely banned the entry of industrial equipment from all countries... But soon the Chu people slapped themselves in the face, and quickly liberalized the export authority of equipment in the mining industry, allowing Enterprises wholly invested by Chu people use mineral equipment in the vassal country, even the most advanced equipment...

Because without equipment, even if a large number of indigenous laborers are used, they will not be able to produce too much coal... But the Chu people need a lot of cheap coal.

On the other hand, if advanced coal mining equipment is allowed to enter, then we can use local cheap labor and our own advanced equipment to mine large amounts of coal, and then use it in the industrial production system of the Great Chu Empire.

So now, don’t look at the indigenous kingdoms in the British region, such as the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Wales. They are all very poor and have no industry of their own... but there are a large number of Chu people investing in construction within their borders. advanced mines.

Of course, apart from employing a large number of local labor forces, these advanced minerals that can produce large amounts of coal every day have nothing to do with the local area... they don't even pay taxes.

According to the many treaties reached between the Great Chu Empire and various vassal states, if the Chu people open local mines and establish resource industries such as plantations, they only need to pay a certain amount of fees in the early stage, and then pay a fixed amount of fees every year. There is no need to pay additional tax.

In this case, during the entire process, these vassal countries, during the large-scale development of minerals and plantations by the Chu people, could also obtain certain benefits, but they were very small... one hundred profits could probably be taken away. There were only two or three copies, and the rest were all taken away by the Chu people...

As for your idea of ​​allowing Chu State enterprises to pay taxes to the vassal state in the process of mining and operating in the vassal state...isn't this nonsense? Do you really think that Chu people are here to do charity?

Not to mention whether Chu State Enterprises are willing to do so, the taxation department of the Chu Empire first disagrees... The natives took the tax, so what did their taxation department collect?

If the vassal country wanted to collect taxes... the Chu people would dare to send troops to directly destroy the country, turn the local area into an administrative territory, and then turn all the local indigenous people into free labor!

The overseas expansion of the Dachu Empire has never been gentle!

However, even though the overseas expansion of the Great Chu Empire, almost every step was stained with blood and tears from the perspective of later generations. However, this series of colonial actions in Europe, West Asia, India and other regions were actually not good for the local indigenous people. Not too bad a thing.

Although the Chu people squeezed it very hard... But this is seen from the perspective of later generations, and from the perspective of contemporary Chu people.

If you look at it from the perspective of the nobles in the indigenous countries and the perspective of the local ordinary people... you will actually find that the people of Chu are not bad.

When the Chu people recruited people to mine, they actually paid them wages, and they gave them more than the indigenous nobles... Before criticizing the Chu people for exploiting the indigenous people too harshly, you have to know about the European and Western Asia and other regions before the Chu people came. The living standards of the local people are not very good, and serfdom or even slavery even exists in some countries.

Even in countries without serfdom, most of the population are tenant farmers... As for land? Most of the land is in the hands of the nobles, and the number of yeoman farmers who own their own land is very small.

In most areas, the living standards of the indigenous people are very low. They are facing famine at any time and will starve to death in the slightest disturbance... This is basically the case in all countries in the feudal agricultural era. This has nothing to do with the system, it is purely It is caused by low productivity.

Not to mention these indigenous people, even the indigenous nobles, their living standards are not much better... Don't look at the large number of messy nobles in Europe, you think the so-called nobles are very decent, but if you want to say The standard of living is not that good either.

To be honest, when the Chu people came to Europe, the Chu people looked at the local indigenous people as if they were looking at monkeys... The so-called indigenous nobles probably put a flower on their head and a feather. monkey……

There is no way, the Chu people who have entered the second industrial revolution basically view the contemporary indigenous people of various countries like this... dirty, ignorant, ignorant, stupid... There are even biologists from Chu who write serious papers. It is claimed that after research, the IQ of most indigenous people is far lower than that of the Chu people; the IQ of the indigenous people in some areas is even equivalent to that of gorillas in Africa...

Not to mention laziness and lack of self-control.

It can even be said that the contempt for the indigenous people in the contemporary Chu Empire society comes from the heart, and has even formed an academic theory... This contempt is a unified argument formed by the entire society.

This is why in the Great Chu Empire, although there are a lot of people who come into contact with indigenous women every year, and there are also a lot of indigenous women who are kept as maids, there are really not many who will marry indigenous women...

How should I put it? It’s not that you can’t eat shit. You can eat it if you insist on it...but what do others think of you?

After all, people are social animals. When living in the world, people have to worry about the opinions of the people around them. You said you don't care about other people's opinions. You want to be free. I can live however I want... I can eat shit if I want to, and drink shit if I want. If you want to pee, drink urine. If you want to run naked, run naked... Oh, it's not impossible.

But how many can do it?

Although the contemporary Chu people and the indigenous people in the vassal countries all live on the same earth, they actually live in different worlds.

But even so... After the Chu people came to these indigenous areas, the life changes they brought to the local indigenous people were huge, and judging from the actual living standards, they actually improved.

How should I put it? Although the Chu people plundered global resources, they also brought higher productivity... such as the most important agricultural production.

In the same land, if the indigenous people are allowed to cultivate it, there will not be much food production, and the land that can be developed is also relatively limited.

But after the Chu people came, they established modern plantations locally and produced more grain or other economic crops...

At the same time, although the people of Chu eat a lot and have a large population, it is actually difficult to increase their food consumption significantly after reaching a certain limit. After the per capita food consumption level of the people of Chu reaches 400 kilograms, there is actually no How could it have increased? What increased was the consumption of meat, poultry, eggs and other foods.

During the same period, the food produced by Chu people around the world has continued to grow at a rapid rate... The output of various grains is increasing year by year. Although Chu people also consume more, the rest is consumed by the indigenous people. There is actually more food.

In other words, compared to more than ten years ago, the indigenous people have access to more food... and their living standards have also improved relatively.

This can be seen from the fact that the population of various indigenous countries has increased significantly in the past ten years...

If there is not enough food to eat, it is impossible for the population to grow at a relatively large rate.

From this perspective, after the Chu people expanded around the world and colonized India, West Asia and Europe, it truly improved the living standards of the local people.

Not only ordinary people have improved their living standards, but even the indigenous nobles and wealthy businessmen have also improved their quality of life because of the arrival of the Chu people... In the past, productivity was only so much, and these nobles and wealthy businessmen had nothing to offer even if they had money. Enjoyable materials.

But it's different now... With the arrival of the Chu people, these nobles and wealthy businessmen can use their money to buy many industrial products and even various luxury accessories produced by the Chu Empire, and then enjoy a higher quality of life.

For example, lighting... In the past, no matter how rich these nobles were, they could only use candles.

But now, as long as you, an aristocratic and wealthy businessman, have money, you can buy a manor in East London near the London Concession and install electric lights and even some other electrical equipment.

They couldn't imagine such a life before...but now they can actually enjoy it.

Therefore, with the arrival of the Chu people, it is true that the Chu people were exploitative... but it is also true that the living standards of the local people have been improved to a certain extent.

To put it bluntly, these natives also enjoyed the benefits of the productivity explosion brought about by the Second Industrial Revolution of the Dachu Empire... Even if it was only slightly affected, it was enough to change their lives.

From this perspective...the colonization of the Chu people was a good thing for them.

Of course, this is just the opinion of the Chu people themselves... As for the indigenous people, especially some of the indigenous elite groups who claim to be ambitious people and care about the country and the nation, they deeply hate Chu's colonization. Even in my dreams, I want to drive away the Chu people and regain my independence...

They dreamed that after driving away the Chu people, they could develop industry and commerce on their own, develop modern mechanized agriculture, modern mining, build various modern factories... and establish an independent modern industrial country!

I have to say that the fantasy is beautiful, but the reality is cruel... In fact, even if the Chu people are driven away by them, the Chu people only need to exclude this indigenous country from the global economic system, and then carry out a comprehensive technological blockade ... Let alone developing industry, they would be considered awesome if large-scale famine does not occur.

The regional single economic system model in the global economic system controlled by the Dachu Empire... This thing is much better than simple military suppression.

For example, in the British region, if the Chu people evacuated and implemented a grain trade blockade... at least a quarter of the population would starve to death that year!

But this kind of thing won't happen in the short term... because these natives don't have the ability to drive away the Chu people, at least in the next fifty years.