Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 274 Reform and Development in the First Year of Chongzhen
The early investment in large-scale immigration was extremely large, but the financial benefits were slow to come. However, neither the Navy nor the War Department had previously opposed the recruitment of immigrants, mainly because military expansion required an increase in population.

The current ratio of the military to the civilian population in Jinhe State is about 1:10, which can be described as militarism. There are more people who indirectly serve the military. For example, three of the four bureaus of the Construction Department are purely military departments.

But this time, after Zhu Niang spoke, Shibi and Miguel both expressed their opinions on immigration work.

In general, the Navy Department believes that the speed of immigration needs to be controlled and should not have a significant impact on finances as in the past. The Navy Department currently has more than 6,000 people. Compared with the size of the personnel, the fleet, especially the number of cruisers, is the biggest shortcoming.

Therefore, Miguel suggested that in addition to the cruisers built by the Ship Bureau itself, the company should also import cruisers, and the Spanish Cavite Shipyard and the Portuguese Cochin Shipyard could be considered.

In addition, he also proposed to purchase large armed merchant ships for modification, which reminded Lin Hai of the VOC merchant ships seized by Japan.

The opinion of the Army Department was contrary to that of the Navy Department. Wu Guoyi was mainly committed to recruiting immigrants as quickly as possible, but was ridiculed by Shi Bi. Then Zhu Niang reiterated the importance of population size to the company's development from another perspective, that is, the growth of grain production.

Since Lin Hai resigned from his post, the grain trade between Huiyou Company and Fujian Province has been stagnant. As the company develops rapidly, it is still unknown how the Ming Dynasty will respond. The board of directors must have a bottom-line thinking of food security, so the grain output of Jinhe Kingdom is also an important guarantee for the company's long-term development.

Zhu Niang's remarks were opposed by the Navy. Miguel said that there was plenty of rice in Southeast Asia, and if the Ming Dynasty did not sell us grain, we could just buy it from overseas. Shibi said that the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense was a piece of shit, and if that day came, we would just rob it.

So Zheng Tingqiu kept silent, and the Civil Affairs Institute and the Army Department stood together to confront the Navy Department. The two sides had a two-to-two number of people, and the argument became intense.

Lin Hai let the two sides argue for a while, then he cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, listen to me. With the company's current development momentum, I don't think this issue is worth arguing about. The sooner we recruit immigrants, the better. Navy development is also a top priority at the moment, and neither should be neglected..."

"Everyone, large financial expenditures are a good thing, which means that the company is developing rapidly. Our decision-making mechanism determines that large expenditures must win the support of the majority of the board of directors. This shows that our money is spent on the cutting edge, on matters that are beneficial to the development of the company..."

"Money is only meaningful when it is flowing. It is not a good thing for a company to have more and more cash in its account. In my opinion, it is best for a company to have more expenditure than income every year."

These words are easy to understand for modern people, after all, fiscal deficits are very common in later generations, but for the ancients they were undoubtedly too advanced.

Zheng Tingqiu, who had been silent for a long time, was surprised when he heard this: "Expenditure is greater than income, so how can the gap be filled?"

"Of course we borrow. Have you forgotten that we issued corporate bonds last year? If we hadn't, the company's immigration work would have stopped long ago. Although the company paid some interest for this, the increase in population has ensured the great development of the Navy this year, and also ensured food security in the second half of this year. Therefore, only by living beyond one's means can the company's rapid development be guaranteed..." "The ideal situation is to borrow new debts to repay old debts, and to keep rolling them over, investing future income in current development needs. The faster the development speed, the more it can support the expansion of debt. Of course, the people of Jinhe Country are not rich enough at present, the wealth accumulated in society is not enough, and the company's reputation is far from being deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It is still relatively risky to do this now..."

"But fortunately, we have another good news. The Li and Xu families have expressed their intention to invest in the company. My third brother Ou Zuoji should also have this intention. This will inject a large amount of new working capital into the company..."

After Lin Hai finished speaking, except for Wu Guoyi who was still a little unhappy, everyone else was happy. Finally, the board of directors decided to take out 200,000 taels of silver for dividends this year.

This figure is about 10% of the net profit. From the perspective of profit percentage, it is similar to last year, but the absolute value has increased a lot. After the news came out, all shareholding employees will be excited, and those who do not have equity will also work hard to perform in order to obtain equity.

Following the dividends from Japan in the fifth year of Tianqi, this was a new round of wealth-creation movement. In addition to boosting the morale of employees, it also paved the way for the reform of decentralizing government businesses in the first year of Chongzhen.

To develop the private economy, the private sector must first have money. In addition to attracting overseas Chinese businessmen, Lin Hai also decided to introduce policies to encourage company employees to start their own businesses.

"Everyone, in order to allow the Navy Department to focus on training and fighting, and to improve the efficiency of recruiting immigrants from home and abroad, I plan to set up a new second-level department, called the Ministry of Transportation, which will be divided into the Trade Department and the Immigration Department..."

Lin Hai then repeated what he had said to Li Guozhu in Penghu, and he finally decided on the name of the new department. The word "transportation" covers the meanings of diplomacy, trade, and transportation, which is a good summary of the functions of the new department.

Like the giant Ministry of Transportation during the Republic of China period, Huiyou Company's Ministry of Transportation will undoubtedly be a strong department, which will change the situation where the Ministry of the Navy has the sole dominance on the board of directors.

Despite this, several directors of the Navy Department expressed their support for the establishment of the Ministry of Transportation, which made Lin Hai quite pleased.

However, when he talked about the decentralization of government and business, everyone expressed the same doubts as Li Guozhu. Lin Hai had to explain it more and finally convinced the majority of the board members.

"Regarding the decentralization of government-run businesses, I would like to add that all private individuals engaged in industry and commerce must register with the Civil Affairs Bureau. Multiple shareholders must register a company, and the company's articles of association and equity changes must be filed with the Civil Affairs Bureau. Of course, if you just open a small shop, you only need to register as an individual business owner..."

Lin Hai explained in detail the industrial and commercial management system he envisioned, and then continued: "So the Civil Affairs Bureau will also set up a new department. I want to name it the Economic Development Department, which will have three bureaus: Industry and Commerce, Taxation, and Land. They will be responsible for industrial and commercial registration, commercial tax collection, and land transfer, respectively. I nominate Lun No. 1 as the director. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)