At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 352: The beautiful era of craftsmen and tariffs

But in this era, those who could write books and biographies were all knowledgeable and respected as masters. Zhuo Hong's achievements were nothing in front of Tu Shenpu.

Of course, Zhuo Hong’s attitude was so respectful, especially because Tu Shenpu was also a craftsman but could write books and biographies. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States centuries, he was the second craftsman to do this (Mozi was the first), and he is now It feels like seeing an idol.

Then Zhuo Hong enthusiastically took Chen Ping and Tu Shenpu to a construction site outside the shipyard.

The construction site is densely packed with buildings two to three feet high, and countless craftsmen are working around these buildings. They were either transporting sand or laying bricks. Although they worked hard, there was not much sadness on their faces, but smiles on their faces.

"This is a workers' dormitory built by our shipyard. All buildings are made of the latest cement masonry structures. Each floor of a three-story building can accommodate two families. There are a total of 120 such workers' buildings in this area. They are built in workers' dormitories. After that, our Wuxian Shipyard can also achieve home ownership.”

In the past two years, with the prosperity of the people all over the world, the mass production of cement and bricks, and the architectural style brought by Xu Fan, more and more people began to choose to build cement buildings, which were also famous in later generations.

Zhuo Hong showed off: "There is also a nursery for our shipyard employees, a primary school, a theater, a hospital, and a market area, which can meet all the needs of our workers and save everyone from having to walk more than ten miles to the county seat.

Now we have achieved that everyone has a house, we are craftsmen, and those who do not need to till the land have their own land. We have our own jobs and our own pensions. Your Majesty is not talking about building a world of great harmony. This is a world of great harmony that belongs to our workers. "

The entire Han Dynasty is promoting the world of great harmony, and the aspiring young people of Han Dynasty are also using their own understanding and methods to build a world of great harmony.

Building a craftsman's hall in this way can greatly enhance the craftsmen's sense of identity. According to Chen Ping's observation, craftsmen under the Shaofu are generally more motivated than private workshops.

Therefore, driven by the workshops under the Dahan Shaofu, Dahan launched a wave of housing construction craze. Because they were building houses for themselves, most of the construction workers were the factory's own employees and their families, except for a few.

Based on his understanding of the world of Datong, he created the world of his imagination bit by bit.

All the Wuxian shipyards used the most expensive building materials. Chen Ping even found that the ground was paved with cement. The cost was unimaginable.

Therefore, Chen Ping has seen so many such specialized craftsmen that he is no longer surprised.

Chen Ping said with some worry: "You are planning to build a small county town. Can your shipyard's income withstand such a large expense?"

And the emperor wanted to see the world of great harmony, so they naturally wanted to build a world of great harmony according to the emperor's vision.

Because of the strict restrictions imposed by the prefectures in various parts of the Han Dynasty, it was difficult for them to do anything extraordinary, because if they did, they would definitely be punished by the court.

Zhuo Hong smiled and said: "No problem. Now our shipyard orders are scheduled for three years. If we turn it over to the court, we can still keep tens of millions of dollars. Each of these buildings only costs about 5 to 6 yuan. If we build another Some supporting facilities can be built with three years’ savings. Workers’ Home is a home for workers, so everyone can work with peace of mind.”

Tu Shenpu looked hesitant and said: "You have spent all three years' income without leaving any balance? What if something goes wrong?"

He is a Mohist, and logically he should be on the side of the craftsmen, but building a building so extravagantly without leaving any savings, it looks like he is eating his food.

The Han Dynasty's economy has been developing rapidly in the past two years, and Shaofu workshops in various places have saved an extremely large amount of development funds. Anyone who dares to enrich their own pockets with this money will definitely be hanged. But if it is used to improve the living environment for all employees, no one will object.

Zhuohong of Wuxian Shipyard is such a practitioner.

Relatively speaking, the Shaofu has less control over its subordinate factory directors and gives them more initiative. As long as the interests of the workshop are not harmed, the Shaofu will generally not be too overly concerned with the subordinate workshops.

Although the Tongzi Tower was old and shabby in later generations, it was the most expensive building in this era. Cement alone was not cheap, and the price was five times that of grain. Bricks were also considered a relatively expensive building material, and the Han court was only willing to part with them. In frontier areas, military facilities were built with cement.

These factory directors had power and sufficient money. If they wanted to make progress, they naturally had to follow the emperor.

Chen Ping was not opposed to building houses for craftsmen to live in. Farmers should have their own land, and residents should have their houses. This was the greatest political correctness of the Han Dynasty. Anyone who dares to oppose this will not be able to stay in Dahan.

But other areas can only build one wooden house at most. For example, the Wuxian Shipyard has built hundreds of buildings with cement and blue bricks. This is such an unprecedented largesse. The level of luxury is the first time even he, the prime minister, has seen it. .

And it just so happens that Dahan is in a period of economic growth, and all industries in the world are in a blue ocean. As long as the goods are produced, there is almost no product that cannot be sold. The workshop's income is increasing every year. The young government only supervises whether these factory directors have taken corruption or bribery, and does not care about other matters at all.

Home ownership is the first step for many people to build a harmonious world. Therefore, the factories affiliated to the Han Shaofu will basically provide houses for craftsmen, which is also their welfare. After all, the imperial court said it wanted to build a world of great harmony, but as a result, the craftsmen in the Shaofu didn't even have houses. What a big deal.

Zhuo Hong smiled and said: "How could there be a problem? Maritime trade is booming, and the shipyard's orders can't be completed. In ten years, our shipyard will only become more and more prosperous, and even if there is a problem, it's not that the imperial court is still there, we are The imperial court’s workshop, the imperial court can still watch us fall!”

Chen Ping and Tu Shenpu were speechless.

The Wuxian Shipyard is extremely large. After Chen Ping made a tour, it was already evening.

Chen Ping planned to stay overnight, so Zhuo Hong specially arranged a clean place for Chen Ping and others to live.

After dinner, Chen Ping and Tu Shenpu went to the factory area for a stroll. At this time, the shipyard was already off work, and there were energetic young people playing in groups on both sides of the road. These young people were either talking about today's work, or discussing what they would do in the evening. I planned to watch some opera, it was a lively and peaceful scene.

"Fellow workers, please stop!" Suddenly a man stood on the high platform and shouted.

"This Sunday, the factory organized an event to have a dinner with the female workers of the Wuxian Textile Factory. The cost of the dinner was paid for by the factory. Those who fall in love with the woman can also go to the largest opera theater in Wuxian to watch "The Match". The theater has been booked by the factory. It doesn’t cost you a penny. Those who are not married must go.”

Chen Ping was a little shocked. He only knew that our welfare was good, but he didn't expect it to be so good.

But the young craftsmen below just bought it.

"I've been working overtime for a week, and I'm almost exhausted. I still want to sleep in on Sunday, so I won't go if I don't."

"We have to play football on Sunday. If we don't have time to go on a blind date, find someone else."

"I've watched "The Match" 100 times, and I've memorized it all. If there's anything good to watch, I won't give it a try."

The steward said angrily: "You are the only one who has many things to do, Chen Xiaoer. Nai Gong will inform your family today that if you don't go, he will break your legs."

Hearing this, the craftsmen below felt frightened and no longer dared to refute.

Chen Ping looked at this scene and said, "What do you think Zhuo Hong did?"

Tu Shenpu said: "Being able to fight for the interests of craftsmen means that he has not forgotten his original intention as a craftsman, but a certain person is not optimistic about the future of Wuxian Shipyard. He should become a Han official and manage a county. He will become a man who serves the country and the people." A good official."

"But he is extremely unqualified as a factory director. In His Majesty's words, Zhuohong is not organized enough and does not have a long-term plan for the Wuxian Shipyard. It is impossible for a qualified workshop owner not to leave the money he has prepared. This Just like you cannot fight a war without leaving a reserve army.

Without prepared funds, the workshop cannot bear any risks. Now is the dividend period of the shipbuilding industry. His model can be maintained. But as long as other shipyards in Dahan increase in scale and shipping becomes saturated, Wuxian Shipyard may become the first shipyard. A group of fallen workshops. "

"And Zhuo Hong is wrong about one thing. If the Wuxian Shipyard really cannot make ends meet, the Emperor will not only not save it, but will directly sell the shipyard. The best outcome for them is to be merged by other shipyards under the Shaofu. "

Compared to Zhuo Hong, Tu Shenpu had more contact with Xu Fan and understood his thoughts better. Chen Ping smiled and said: "Is it so serious? I heard that many workshops in Han Dynasty have begun to borrow money to start factories. Wuxian Shipyard does not borrow money from foreign countries."

Tu Shenpu shook his head and said: "This is different. Although the idea of ​​​​the construction craftsmen is good, all the money is spent on consumption. The money is spent, but other workshops borrow money for production, from business operations Basically, these are two different concepts, one is pure consumption, and the other is money that will grow.”

"Just like a few years ago, the emperor asked agricultural banks to lend money to farmers for production, but he asked the banks to buy cattle, farm tools and other production tools themselves instead of giving money directly.

Although it is a bit cruel to ignore loans from farmers who are sick or whose elders have passed away and want to pay for funerals, such loans are indeed a waste and cannot be repaid at all. "

"The Emperor said to a certain person that to do good things is to do good things, and to do good things is to do good deeds. These are two completely opposite things. To do good things, you must find ways to make money and maintain efficiency. To do good things, you must find ways to maintain the fairness of the system."

"Don't think about having your cake and eat it too, and don't be clever."

“If you want to have your cake and eat it too, the result is that both the fish and the bear’s paw are gone.”

Then he worriedly said: "The factory directors under the Shaofu have the idea of ​​having their cake and eat it too. Many things are clearly not what they should do, but they take over everything. This is not a good thing."

Judging from the inspections along the way, the abilities of these factory directors in my country are worrying. If there is a big storm, I don’t know how many people can lead these workshops out of the predicament.

Chen Ping said in astonishment: "The truth is that these workshops are making money, so what's the dilemma?"

Tu Shenpu said, "Take textile factories as an example. They use the most advanced textile machines in our country and occupy the best river channels. However, their profits are only slightly higher than those of private textile factories, which cannot match what they have." Advanced textile machines.”

"Based on an observation, many factories are overstaffed. There are too many managers and too few producers. According to Shang Junshu, the best ratio of managers to producers is 1:100, and at most it is 3:100. It should not exceed 1:10, but now many workshop managers have reached the level of :. With fewer people doing work and more people eating, profits will naturally decrease. "

Tu Shenpu's words made Chen Ping embarrassed. The Shaofu's subordinate workshop would become like this, and it had something to do with the imperial court.

In the Han Dynasty, because the income of craftsmen was high and the city's infrastructure was good, the court would find ways to place ministers who retired for various reasons into the workshops of the Shaofu every year.

When the imperial court saw that soldiers and officers were placed in the workshop without any problems, they regarded this as a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

Today, Tu Shenpu broke Chen Ping's illusions and told them that hidden dangers were coming.

Ordinary soldiers and non-commissioned officers undergo training for a period of time to become craftsmen, while officers undergo management training to become managers.

The Han court had already developed path dependence. The officialdom could not accommodate so many officers becoming Han officials, so it was not a bad arrangement to let them go to workshops and become managers, and get a generous salary.

Chen Ping could only change the subject and said: "Wuxian Shipyard is so profitable, which is rare for a big man like me. There should be nothing wrong with it."

Tu Shenpu sighed and said: "Kuiji County is too far away from Guanzhong. They don't understand many good equipment and advanced management concepts in Guanzhong. The difference in management concepts between the two sides is more than five years.

Now Guanzhong is already promoting industrial chains, and trying to gather the workshops in an industrial chain together to reduce costs and increase profits, but here in Kuaiji County, they don't even understand what an industrial chain is. "

"I just took a closer look at their factory. Although it has been cleaned, it is still extremely dirty and messy. Sawdust, paint, and phlegm stains can be seen everywhere on the floor. Even if it has been cleaned, it is not very clean. Especially the toilets inside the workshop. There was serious dirt and a strong smell.”

"Does this have anything to do with the production of the workshop?" Chen Ping asked in astonishment.

Tu Shenpu said: "Of course it does matter. If a workshop wants to make money, it must improve efficiency. If it wants to improve efficiency, it must have standard parts and standardized production. The simpler and more standard it is, the higher the efficiency.

Ensuring the cleanliness of the production environment is the simplest requirement of standardization. Even the simplest cleaning requirements cannot be achieved. How to make standardized parts and how to improve production efficiency. "

Chen Ping thought about it when he visited the Chang'an Carriage Workshop. It was indeed very clean, but he only saw it in that workshop.

Chen Ping said: "You cannot use your own standards to demand the workshops of the world."

Tu Shenpu said: "But the workshops in Chang'an City have already begun to learn this set of standards. If the Wuxian Shipyard does not learn, or does not formulate their own standards for the shipyard, they will be surpassed sooner or later."

"Private workshop owners, as long as they can make money, their desire to learn is extremely strong."

"As for the factory directors of my big brother, they have senior qualifications and great achievements, and they do not have a strong willingness to learn. Let alone learn from other people's experiences. This is a very embarrassing thing for them."

Speaking of this, Tu Shenpu sighed, but most of the factory directors he studied in were private workshop owners. Each of them asked questions very carefully. If they didn't understand something, they asked repeatedly. They also told what they encountered in their factory. Take it upon yourself to solve the problem.

On the contrary, it was the factory director of the Shaofu. They all received a mission to visit. They looked at it casually, boasted about the cleanliness of the factory and the speed of production, and then left.

As far as he knew, the factory directors had not made any changes.

On the contrary, the management standards he established began to spread in private workshops. Knowing this situation, he could only sigh.

Chen Ping was helpless when he heard this. The most difficult thing these days is studying.

There are still more than a dozen high-ranking officials with two thousand dan studying in the government affairs class in Chang'an City under the pressure of the emperor.

After visiting the Wuxian Shipyard, Chen Ping continued to visit other workshops in Kuaiji County. Generally speaking, these workshops were in a prosperous state and did not look like they were about to close down as Tu Shenpu said.

Then Cheng Chenping entered the government office of Kuaiji County to check their population, taxation, industrial development, etc. during the year.

Chen Ping was surprised to find that all aspects of Kuaiji County's data were much better than he thought, especially in terms of taxes, which almost exceeded 12 yuan. You must know that this was only the figure for half a year. He remembered that Kuaiji County last year The county tax is only gold.

Chen Ping quickly read through the information and quickly found out the reason. After the boom in maritime trade, most merchant ships docked in Kuaiji County and sold spices in Kuaiji County.

As a result, the commercial tax in Kuaiji County has shown a rapid increase, and now this tax has become the largest source of tax revenue in Kuaiji County.

The imperial court spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build two overseas strongholds, and with the increase in immigrants and land gradually being reclaimed, the imperial court's expenses will continue to expand.

As a result, most of the taxes brought by the spices went to Kuaiji County. This result made Chen Ping dumbfounded.

But Chen Ping understood this kind of thing, and the imperial court had to make plans in advance. In a place where the imperial court was constantly replenishing blood, there would inevitably be strong branches and weak trunks, which was extremely detrimental to the stability of the Han Dynasty.

Chen Ping thought for a while and said: "I want to suggest to the emperor that an overseas reclamation department should be established. The imperial court should find a way to control the benefits obtained from maritime trade. A customs department should be established. All taxes on ships landing in the Han Dynasty should be controlled by the imperial court. "

In Chen Ping's view, all the benefits of spices should be obtained by the court, but now that the emperor has opened up these benefits to the world, the court can no longer lose the benefits of taxes.

(End of this chapter)