Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1148 Postscript : The Industrial Revolution Period?
Is the Ming Dynasty going to fall?

of course not.

The Ming Dynasty today is even still in its heyday.

Compared with the finances of the Tang and Song dynasties, which also lasted for more than a hundred years, the finances of the Ming Dynasty were as healthy as a strong young man.

Even if it continues to go downhill, it can still hold out for another one or two hundred years before reaching the bottom.

The real crisis of the Ming Dynasty was that it was heading towards the Industrial Revolution!
Moreover, this industrial revolution has always developed abnormally.

The two founding emperors forced a lot of scientific and technological knowledge into the country, but due to their own limitations, a large number of key technologies were missing.

It’s like clicking on the technology tree when playing a video game. Some technologies have reached the modern era, while some are still in the Middle Ages.

Very mismatched.

Therefore, in the first few decades after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there was a great explosion of thought and technology. The native scholars and craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty gradually made up for the various technological shortcomings, which also brought about a chaos of social thought.

Zhu Ming's grandson, Emperor Yanchun Zhu Tang, was not a truly incompetent ruler.

This emperor lived in an era of the most chaotic thinking, and he saw many remarks in society that were unruly and unfatherly.

At that time, newspapers and magazines appeared like mushrooms after rain, advocating for their financial backers. In order to increase sales, more than half of the news in many newspapers were false, and rumors were flying everywhere in the government and the public.

Some newspapers even dared to secretly fabricate and ridicule the secrets of the imperial palace!
As a result, Emperor Yanchun Zhu Tang slammed on the brakes and spent half of his reign controlling people’s thoughts.

Not only did he abolish the Yellow Emperor era, he also made up a bunch of miraculous deeds for Taizu and Taizong. He also issued a decree to strengthen the censorship of publications, confiscated more than 60% of private publications, and hundreds of newspaper and magazine practitioners were beheaded, imprisoned, exiled, and disqualified from the imperial examinations.

At that time, there were many people who opposed this practice, but there were just as many who supported it.

Because the world is indeed going downhill, and all kinds of demons and monsters are popping up.

Moreover, there was a fierce clash between new and old ideas.

The next emperor, Zhu Xiaochi, reigned for only four years and was already old and ill when he ascended the throne. He had no energy to control the court, and the thoughts suppressed by the previous emperor, both good and bad, took the opportunity to revive.

Emperor Dingtai Zhu Jingjun ascended the throne in his thirties. He was very open-minded and tolerant when he was young. He managed to get the only female Jinshi who was granted an official position in the Ming Dynasty against all odds.

He allowed the spread of various ideas, encouraged scientific progress, and encouraged the development of industry and commerce.

It was not until a huge corruption case in Guangdong that Emperor Ding Tai saw something different.

He began to rectify the banking industry, cleared out a large number of private banks, prohibited businessmen from investing in railways, and tightened the issuance of mining rights for various mines. He did not allow any private institution to get involved in the two railways leading to Central Asia and Mobei, and was even unwilling to issue national bonds to build railways.

Due to the high difficulty, huge cost and long construction period, the two railways have only barely paid back their investment now.

……

When capital grows to a certain size, it will seek power that matches its own strength.

In France, the king was confused.

In Britain, they deprived the king of his military and financial powers, leaving him with only the naming rights for the Royal Navy.

The Ming Dynasty was a little different: the imperial power was too strong!

As soon as capital showed signs of emerging, it was ruthlessly suppressed by Emperor Yanchun.

So they naturally changed their strategy and began to rent power in the officialdom, and capital and bureaucracy quickly colluded with each other.

Moreover, capital was defeated in this process and merged into another monster - bureaucratic capital!
Nowadays, all the larger companies and factories in Ming Dynasty are related to officials.

They even came up with the idea of ​​"donation".

That is, giving shares of one's own trading company to officials or their relatives free of charge in order to gain various business advantages.

This is not the most terrible.

What’s even more frightening is that the navy and army generals are also doing business openly, and even using the army to help with their business!

Emperor Dingtai reigned for 42 years, and spent most of his time fighting against the monster called bureaucratic capital.

He also issued a decree prohibiting civil and military officials and their immediate family members from engaging in business, and even forced some of the navy and army to rebel. Even the troops who did not openly rebel would demand payment every now and then, anyway, just to force the court to lift the ban.

Emperor Dingtai endured the pressure from the army and fought twelve large and small rebellion wars.

It can be said that it is very effective.

Now no civil servant or military general dares to say that he (or his immediate family members) are doing business.

It can also be said that the medicine remains the same, just a new soup.

If you don’t dare to do it openly, then do it quietly. If direct relatives cannot do business, then let cousins ​​and brothers do it.

Of course, the trend of the army directly participating in business activities has been suppressed by Emperor Dingtai. The whole process was extremely bloody, the war to suppress the rebellion emptied the national treasury, and some troops even fled to West Asia and Eastern Europe.

Another fleet fled to East Africa and ventured across the Cape of Good Hope to hide in Northwest Africa!

These events were not reported in detail in the newspapers, which only said that the court had won many great victories and successfully suppressed the rebellion.

Why should we crack down on these bureaucratic capitalists?

Because they embezzle public funds for their own benefit, tax evasion is just a piece of cake for them. They also form interest groups, influence the court through money and public opinion, and even secretly manipulate the appointment and dismissal of cabinet ministers.

Pure capital is not that powerful in the Ming Dynasty. It is the combination of bureaucracy and capital that is the most difficult to deal with. ...

Can industry and capital curb mergers and improve people's lives?
Quite the opposite.

The direct impact is to accelerate mergers and make people's lives more difficult.

Let’s not even talk about Britain and France, it’s more interesting to take the United States as an example.

The era of the great development of railroads in the United States can be seen as a feast of capital annexation of land. A company obtained the right to develop a railway, sought a bank loan, issued stocks publicly, and then built the railway after obtaining funds.

Wherever the railway was built, land was annexed. All the land along the route was bought by companies, and countless American people became landless farmers.

All this land is used to build railways?

No, no.

Of course, the extra land was used to open farms, and those unfortunate landless farmers were transformed into farm workers.

Ding Taidi slammed on the brakes, first rectifying the financial market, then prohibiting capital investment in railways and limiting capital investment in mines. However, collusion between officials and businessmen always finds a way to annex land for various reasons, and now many cities have a large number of landless farmers.

Unfortunately, the Industrial Revolution had not yet developed to a sufficient extent, and it was impossible to effectively transform landless farmers into workers.

How did the UK do it?

If you spit on the streets of London, you will be exiled to Australia. It is very easy to eliminate the excess population.

But is Ming Dynasty Britain?
Britain only needs to clean up the population of London to ensure that the whole country is not in chaos. The Ming Dynasty has countless cities of the same level as London. How should the court clean them up?
……

"Here it comes, here it comes, it's started."

When Xie Yiqin got the latest issue of "Da Ming Weekly", he knew that the reform was about to begin as soon as he saw the article on the front page.

The headline on the front page was: "Is the use of child labor in line with morality? — A debate between morality and profit."

Before changing the law, create public opinion first.

When Wang Anshi was carrying out the reform, he also created public opinion first, and was even pushed to the top by public opinion. During the reform process, he continued to create public opinion and even compiled textbooks himself.

The current prime minister has an excellent point of entry into public opinion.

The situation of child laborers is too miserable and does not conform to the core ideas of Confucianism: benevolence and righteousness.

This then leads to a classic Confucian topic: the debate between righteousness and profit.

The author of the article believes that the current situation in the country is that there are too many adult workers to be used, but factory owners are determined not to use adult workers in positions that can employ child workers. This has led to a large number of adults being unemployed on the one hand, and countless child workers being miserable on the other.

The reason is nothing more than businessmen pursuing profits, and child laborers are paid even lower wages!

Businessmen forget the greater good and profit for the sake of small profits.

The article quotes extensively from classics to illustrate the adverse effects of this behavior in terms of morality, law, and economy.

This is very much in line with the core values ​​of Confucianism, and the front-page article has already established itself as an invincible force.

And it was extremely inflammatory. Those passionate students, those scholars who failed in the imperial examinations, those intellectuals who were not satisfied with their jobs, and those numerous unemployed workers and landless farmers were all incited by this article!

Due to "physical discomfort", Xie Yan was forbidden by his parents to go out and continued to stay at home to recuperate.

That day, the family was having breakfast.

Suddenly, an official came in a hurry and rushed to the inner courtyard without waiting for the announcement: "Major, the unemployed workers have rioted, and it seems that there are a dozen scholars leading them. They surrounded the Cai family's factory and started fighting without saying a few words. They rushed into the factory and smashed the machines everywhere!"

"Okay, wait until I finish my meal." Xie Yiqun said.

The clerk was extremely anxious: "Great Judge, how can this be the time for dinner?"

Xie Yiqin sneered: "The cabinet issued a decree to ban child labor at the beginning of the year, and I have also invited the Cai family to discuss it several times. They have not been panicking for the past six months, so why should I be panicking during breakfast?"

The clerk said, "The Grand Judge is not panicking, but the prefect and the commander are. They will definitely send troops to suppress the incident. If someone dies, the Grand Judge will bear the brunt of the consequences!"

The prefect could not apply for mobilization of troops, only the magistrate could.

Moreover, the Tongpan was also in charge of the economy.

If the army suppresses a protest and causes loss of life, the first person responsible is the Tongpan, and the second person responsible is the commander.

"No rush." ​​Xie Yiqin was still leisurely.

Of course...it's just pretend!
Xie Yiqin took a few bites and then stood up and walked out. He seemed to be calm and unhurried, but in fact, his steps were very fast.

Xie Yan didn't say a word the whole time and just watched his father leave silently.

He also read the newspaper, and the more he read, the more fantastic it seemed to him. China should have been in the late Southern Song Dynasty or early Yuan Dynasty, but there were official newspapers discussing the abolition of child labor, and the court was clearly inciting opposition.

After finishing breakfast, my second brother and younger sister went to study.

Xie Yan also said to his mother: "Mom, my headache has gone away these past two days. Can I go out for a walk?"

"It's very chaotic outside. You are not allowed to leave the city. Let Wang Sheng go with you." The mother was a little worried.

Xie Yan gladly obeyed the order and after traveling through time for several days, he was finally able to go out and see the world.

(It seems that a leader is missing, I am very sorry, thanks to Successor- for the leader reward.)
(End of this chapter)