Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 768 Positioning of Jinghua Group

Intimidation and temptation, familiar with the road.

In the past ten years, or to be more precise, in the past half a year, Gao Yushi seems to have been doing this kind of thing all the time. He dare not say that he has reached the pinnacle, but he should be called a proficiency.

Now that Annan's military power has been mastered, and the rights and obligations between the Jinghua Group and the Annan Metropolitan Commander have basically been properly divided, the next thing to do is the work of government affairs.

In fact, the importance of government affairs is really no less important than military affairs.And the most important thing, in short, is only four words: colonialization.

In the eyes of Gao Yushi, Jinghua Group, especially when it comes to the outside world, is similar to the so-called "East India Company" of Europeans. Of course, it wants to make profits, but in the final analysis, it is a pioneer of colonial development.

The British India in history was established by the "British East India Company". Before the demise of the company, there were no less than 20 "company troops" mainly composed of Indians in India.

It would be foolish not to learn from such a good experience.

1757年6月23日，在位于恒河源头的巴吉拉蒂河边—个名叫普拉西的村庄，英国人和孟加拉王公西拉杰·乌德·德拉展开了一场战斗。英国方面的主帅罗伯特·克莱武率领一支3000多人的部队，其中包括900名欧洲人和2200名印度人，而他的对手西拉杰则投入了3.5万名步兵和1.5万名骑兵。

In the end, only more than 20 British soldiers were killed or injured, while the Bangladeshi army lost more than 1000 soldiers.

In terms of scale, this "Battle of Plassey" can hardly be called a major battle, but its historical significance is extremely significant.After this battle, the influence of the British began to penetrate into all levels of government in India and became the actual ruler of India.More importantly, this war represented that the East India Company officially became the "agent" of the British Empire's colonial rule in India.

Strictly speaking, as a historical term, "East India Company" does not specifically refer to the British East India Company.In the 17th century, the "East India Company" was a company model established by most countries in Western Europe to develop colonial trade. Its trading partners were mainly India, Malaysia and other Asian countries located in the Indian Ocean and the west of the Pacific Ocean.The reason why it is called "East India" is to distinguish it from America, which was called "West India" by the West at that time.

In the beginning, among the East India companies established in Western countries, the most advanced and powerful one was actually the Dutch United East India Company.They adopt the joint-stock company model and operate with the goal of long-term operation, so they are regarded as the pioneers of the "joint-stock system" by later generations.At its peak, the Dutch East India Company monopolized the spice trade in the entire East India and completely suppressed the business of the East India Companies of other countries.

However, Gao Yushi has no interest in the "advanced Dutch company system", because the system he implemented in Jinghua itself is also a joint-stock system, but...it has too much Chinese characteristics.

This feature is called political shareholding, and in more popular terms, it is that the rich and powerful eat dry shares.

Gao Yushi has never clarified what the "Jinghua Group" refers to in the Ming Dynasty, but in fact everyone will definitely acquiesce in this way: any industry that Gao Yushi controls and whose signboard starts with the word "Jinghua" belongs to the "Jinghua Group" group".

This group is completely controlled by Gao Pragmatism, and there is no such thing as equity.But when it comes to each specific industry, there are two other systems that are implemented at the same time, namely, dry stock dividends and performance dividends.

There are two types of dry stock dividends: one is the powerful and powerful holding shares. It is no longer necessary to explain this. Zhu Yingzhen, Zhang Yuangong, Li Zongcheng and other dignitaries or their children receive profit dividends from various industries under Jinghua, which are dry stocks.

Dry stocks do not pay, enjoy profit dividends, but do not have any decision-making power-that is, the so-called voting rights in later generations.

The other category is technical dry stocks, and the Liu family's Baibao Xuming San falls into this category.But the more important technical leader is Zhu Zaiyu.

Zhu Zaiyu improved some production equipment, such as coking and iron smelting tools (Gao Yushi proposed the concept, and he was responsible for the design and calculation), sail shape, pulley block, etc., Gao Yushi also arranged dry stock dividends for him after the product was produced. .

However, because Zhu Zaiyu has no concept of money (historically he even insisted on not inheriting the throne), the dividend ratio given by Gao Pragmatism is surprisingly low, but because his "patents" are a bit too much, the money is finally pooled together It's quite impressive.

The performance bonus is given to the daily managers of various industries, such as Gao Rui (Gao Xiaozhuang), Gao Mengnan, Shuai Jiamo, Gao Sitang, etc., in addition to the formal salary, they all have performance rewards to get.

However, for the performance rewards of the highly pragmatic guy, it is easier to get the "subsistence allowances", but it is difficult to get the subsequent higher levels.For the division of performance rewards, Gao Mo's Internal Affairs Department and Gao Guoyan's Finance Department worked together for several months to roughly set a performance level. Of course, there is no need to go into detail.

But I want to mention one thing by the way: "Generals" like Gao Yu, Gao Zhang, and Gao Jing who lead troops on expeditions also receive performance rewards. account.

Therefore, the current shareholding system of Gaowushi is a shareholding system with "Chinese characteristics". It has both an advanced side, which is equivalent to the practice of "equity incentives" in later generations, and a "rotten" side...it is equivalent to a power-for-money transaction.

There is also a "flexible mechanism", that is, Gao Yushi can use "face" to find dignitaries to raise funds, but this is a spare skill, and Gao Yushi has not used it yet-his "cash flow" is still abundant so far of.

I just don't know whether this abundance can be maintained after the construction of the Golden Port City is fully launched and the construction of pure warships begins.Maybe at that time he will consider diluting a small part of the equity, or exchanging face for money.

Since there is no need to learn the institutional systems of the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company, all that needs to be learned is the means of operation.

The failure of the Yongle Dynasty’s control over Annan was ultimately due to the fact that it was unable to make ends meet and the losses were too serious; European colonial rule was able to spread around the world to a large extent because their colonial policies were profitable.

There is another big reason why the colonies are profitable, which is similar to the agent model of the East India Company.

The East India Company considered profit first, and then continued to develop colonies, and the purpose of developing more colonies was to make more profits-only such "recruitment" can be maintained.

So many commercial clauses in the "Jinghua Sixteen Articles" are designed for this purpose.Even including some clauses with a strong political meaning, in essence, it is to protect these profits.

But Gao Wushi knew that whether it was the British or the Dutch East India Company, there was one thing he could not learn at will, at least in Annan.

This is called a predatory colonial policy.

For example, the British East India Company maintained the privilege of zero tariffs in the Mughal Dynasty of India for a long time.Although the "Jinghua Sixteen Points" came from a highly pragmatic decision, he left Annan with a little consolation—Jinghua also paid [-]% of the tax in full.

In history, after the British East India Company took control of India's political and military power, it soon replaced trade with plunder and became its main means of profit. Gao Yushi believed that this was the beginning of their downfall.

At that time, the East India Company was in power, and it couldn't wait to use it to achieve maximum plunder.Every time the company conquered a place, it plundered the treasury and blackmailed the princes and nobles.

In 1757, after the East India Company captured Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal, it robbed £370 million worth of treasure from the treasury of Prince Siraj of Bengal.The East India Company then installed Mir Jafar as the puppet ruler of Bengal.Mir Jafar "repared" another £100 million, paying £50 to a British businessman in Calcutta.These wealth even exceeded the sum of the annual trade of the East India Company.

The original peaceful business policy was abandoned, and replaced by war, territorial expansion, and tax increases. The East India Company seemed to be more profitable, but it was already dying step by step.

Launching wars, colonizing, plundering, and selling opium... While the East India Company was engaged in high-profit business, due to the disappearance of competition, internal corruption was also increasing.

Since Clive became Governor of Bengal in 1764, "the once courteous employees of the company have become violent and greedy; the shareholders have colluded with each other and bribed elections; strife-ridden institution."

At that time, all the employees of the East India Company began to fill their own pockets and accumulate wealth privately.According to a report of the British Parliament, between 1757 and 1766, the gifts received by the employees of the East India Company were as high as 217 million pounds. In the middle and late 18th century, the generous "remuneration" for serving in India made company stocks not only regarded as a conventional investment, but also capital that allowed oneself or relatives to go to India to make a fortune.

If these situations are evaluated by Gao Pragmatism, it is "the transformation from a commercial company to a corrupt dynasty".

If you want to make some inappropriate analogies, this is like the combat effectiveness of the Qing Dynasty before and after entering the customs. In just ten or twenty years, it can fall from the peak to the bottom; The Taiping Army of the Wang Dynasty and the Taiping Army after the capital was established in Tianjing did not take ten years to degenerate beyond recognition.

Therefore, Gao Yushi does not intend to let the Jinghua Group follow the old path of the British East India Company. What he wants to learn is mainly the "first half of his life" of the East India Company.

So what are the characteristics of the East India Company's "first half of life"?

It is to maintain business competition, maintain business reputation, and at the same time insist on profit first and not fall into endless plundering frenzy.

All of the above can be described in five words that Gao Pragmatism is very familiar with: sustainable development.If we must add two more words, it is: adhere to sustainable development.

Killing chickens to get eggs and fishing in the wild must not be a wise rule, only growing leeks for the sake of cutting leeks is serious.

Therefore, while Gao Wushi held the military and political power in Annan, he established two ports in the north and south for Annan, and at the same time allowed Mo Maoqia to cooperate with Jinghua Group in business.

Not only that, Gao Yushi was also afraid that Jinghua Group lacked competition and vitality, and built Golden Port as a free trade port-the new port located at the mouth of the Lihe River in the north (roughly the Haiphong City of Vietnam in the future) is not such a pure free port, because the North Part of him wants to ensure that the Mo family and the old Annan forces related to the Mo family can be profitable.
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This can be regarded as gradually writing the "deep water area of ​​​​reform", and the writing is getting slower and slower...

(End of this chapter)