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

Chapter 446: Failed Persuasion and Industrial Transfer

Song Yan looked at Xu Aimin in astonishment and said, "This is not a child's game, but a project of the imperial court. If we go on strike, we will be in big trouble."

Unlike what Xu Aimin thought, working in Gaoling must be hard, but the income is more than twice as high as in his hometown. Moreover, the conditions in this shack seem rudimentary to him, even worse than a stable. But for Song Yan, the conditions in his hometown are even rudimentary than here. In Gaoling County, at least there is a bustling market outside the construction site. It is more than ten times more prosperous and lively than his hometown. Therefore, he is very satisfied with his current income and his life, and has no intention of going on strike at all.

Xu Aimin said: "Strike is the legitimate right of the people. Guanzhong is under the feet of the emperor. Even if they are Han officials, they cannot use their power to oppress others. If they dare to do so, I will report it to the emperor and let him punish them."

Song Yan shook his head and said, "We should be conscientious and not do such things that will ruin the pot."

Xu Aimin said: "This has nothing to do with conscience. This is just fighting for your legitimate rights and interests."

Song Yan said, "I am very satisfied with my current salary. There is nothing to fight for. It doesn't matter if you city people go on strike, but we country people can't afford it. This is not a child's game. If you really want to play, you should invite your classmates to play football outside the city."

Xu Aimin was so angry that he was speechless. This was different from what he thought. They themselves did not feel that they were oppressed. It was useless for him to worry.

He could only leave with his friends in disappointment.

The four kids came to the inn to rest, and they discussed why they failed.

Chen Mai said bluntly: "We are too young and have no prestige. The craftsmen don't believe us. I listened carefully. Song Yan talked about the game and the house play respectively. Obviously, he just regarded us as children and thought we were playing some games. He didn't trust us.

Secondly, they are satisfied with their current lives. I have asked other craftsmen that they save only 5 coins a year in their hometown, but in Guanzhong they can accumulate a salary of coins, which is times their original income. With such a high income, how can they not be satisfied? "

Zhang Piqiang said: "According to the emperor, the economy is now on the rise, conflicts in the world are not intense, and the people below are satisfied with their lives, so they naturally don't want to hold demonstrations.

Prince, we are still too young. Now is not the time for us to govern the world. We should just record what we saw and heard in Gaoling County and hand it over to the principal. "

The hero was stunned and said, "There are no demonstrations to play. I have been in Chang'an City for so long and I have never seen such a thing."

But he quickly reacted and said, "Chen Mai, I'll give you my homework to help me with."

Xu Aimin said: "But my father also said that only when the economy is on the rise can the people have a certain bargaining power. When the economy really goes down, there will be fewer jobs, and several people will compete for one job, and the people will have no say."

"I still think that these farmers have no organization of their own, they are scattered, have no vision, and are too complacent. The craftsmen in the city, under the organization of the Mohists, dare to fight against the workshop owner. They dare to formulate the "Equal Wealth Law" when the economy is on the rise."

Zhang Piqiang smiled bitterly and said, "Prince, we are not Mohist masters and do not have such high prestige. If Master Qin were here today, Song Yan and his men would definitely take to the streets to protest immediately."

Xu Aimin scratched his head. It seemed that everything he wanted to do was restricted by his age and prestige.

June 10th, Gaoling County, County Government Office.

County Magistrate Zhuo Hong summoned all the Han officials in the county to discuss matters early in the morning.

"The second textile industrial zone has broken ground. All of you need to work more efficiently. Don't shirk your responsibilities like a big boss. Those who come to Gaoling County to build workshops are big bosses. It is they who we invite to build workshops in Gaoling, not them who want to please us by building textile workshops in their local area.

If people have any troubles, we should solve them for them instead of acting like big shots and asking for bribes. This will drive people away and make them go to other counties to open workshops. If one workshop is lost, Gaoling County will lose a lot of taxes and the people will lose a lot of jobs.

If there are really Han officials who have no sense of the overall situation, I will deal with them as soon as I find them. You should all have a sense of crisis. The past two years have been a turning point in the development of Gaoling County. If we develop well, our Gaoling County will be worthy of its name of Little Chang'an. The court attaches great importance to Han officials with governance capabilities. If we have good performance, our careers will naturally be smooth.

There are a limited number of textile factories in Chang'an City. Once they are all withdrawn, there will be no more such easy money. If we try to keep one more workshop today, we can get a few hundred more bonuses at the end of the year. Maybe our names will be included in the Han Monthly Report."

"Yes!" said all the Han officials in Gaoling County.

Although many people do not agree with Zhuo Hong's words, now is indeed a time when good things are happening.

The "Equal Wealth Law" was implemented most strictly in Chang'an City. Now the income of craftsmen generally increased by 5% compared with before the law was issued. You should know that the salary in Chang'an City was the highest in the entire Han Dynasty. With another 1200% increase, the salary of the most ordinary female textile workers exceeded coins. The income growth of high-tech craftsmen was even more exaggerated. They received dividends based on their skills. There were tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. Monthly incomes of over yuan could finally be counted in the statistics. Although it was just an insignificant small data, it was already very remarkable. This showed that the Han Dynasty was forming a golden collar industry. The wealth in Chang'an City finally increased a bit and flowed downward.

This trend is naturally a great thing for ordinary craftsmen. They can increase their income by 20 to 30 percent each year and can foresee that their lives will become more and more prosperous. The middle class and petty bourgeoisie in Chang'an are expanding rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A new white-collar class began to emerge. With technology as their foundation, they expanded rapidly on the back of the steam engine, with their income more than ten times that of ordinary craftsmen and even higher than that of many small workshop owners.

At the same time, Xu Fan also encouraged the improvement of the status of craftsmen, especially in the past two years, when there was no awarding of titles for military merit in the Han Dynasty. However, because of the development of machines that benefited the world, more than a dozen craftsmen were awarded titles, although they were all nominal barons and viscounts.

But it is obvious that the enthusiasm for learning technology in the entire Han Dynasty has increased by more than ten times. The social status of craftsmen has been significantly improved. At least in Chang'an City, Han officials have begun to regard those skilled craftsmen as families that are well matched with their own. Those skilled craftsmen are even more regarded as young talents. Who knows what kind of machines they will develop that will benefit the world and make their families glorious and become the aristocratic class of the Han Dynasty. Every year, countless people become new craftsmen in the Han Dynasty. The power of the craftsman class is growing rapidly, and it has accounted for 10% of the population of the Han Dynasty.

Comparatively speaking, the workshop owners have been experiencing both pain and happiness in recent years, and the source of their happiness is the steam engine.

As time went by, the technology of steam engines became more and more mature, the horsepower became higher and higher, and the application areas became wider and wider. The roaring steam engines brought the Han people several times the production efficiency. As long as any industry was combined with steam engines, the production capacity would be increased several times, and the profits would increase as a result. Money poured into their pockets like a torrent of river water.

For workshop owners, the steam engine is their code for wealth and the best helper for them to obtain wealth. In the past few years since the steam engine was promoted, the wealth of workshop owners who own steam engines has generally more than doubled.

But the source of their suffering was the court's decree on equalizing wealth, which caused their production costs to continue to rise. What made them most painful was that this was not a one-time increase, but a continuous increase over five years. They could only watch the profit margins of their workshops decrease year by year.

Among them, textile workshop owners are the most conflicted. The textile industry is a labor-intensive industry, and salaries account for a very high proportion of costs. In the past two years, Chang'an has increased salaries by 5%, which has almost increased their costs by %.

For other high-tech industries, a 5% increase in costs may not be a big deal, but for the textile industry, which is an already saturated market, a % increase in costs will bring their costs close to the profit line again. The capacity crisis five years ago seems to be looming over them.

However, corresponding to this is the increase in salaries, and the consumption capacity of ordinary people has indeed increased visibly. According to the above statistics, the amount of cloth consumed in Chang'an City five years ago was roughly one million pieces per year.

Now, the amount of cloth consumed in Chang'an every year has reached 250 million pieces, one-fifth of which are high-end Shu brocade, cashmere cloth and other high-consumption products. The rapidly growing consumer market in Chang'an City has supported countless textile workshops.

If there had not been the Equalization of Wealth Act that brought about a rapid increase in the wealth of the lower classes, the efficiency of the textile industry improved by the steam engine would have been enough to squeeze out all the workshops that did not have steam engines and textile machines.

More importantly, the roots of these textile workshops are in Chang'an. Steam spinning wheels, steam looms, and other machines are not unique to Chang'an, but they are of the best quality and the lowest price in Chang'an. If textile factories want to improve their efficiency, they cannot do without these machines. Moreover, when the steam engine breaks down, they also need a master craftsman who understands these machines to repair it.

Such a market with strong consumption power but high labor costs makes it difficult for them to develop, but they are reluctant to withdraw. They are in a dilemma and have a mixture of love and hate.

But these workshop owners did not have to worry for long, as they soon came up with a good solution that would satisfy both parties: moving the workshops out of Chang'an City but not out of Guanzhong.

Although the salary in Chang'an was high, not all places in Guanzhong had such high salaries. The salaries in the counties around Chang'an were still very low. Under such circumstances, other counties in Guanzhong became the first choice for these textile factories. Compared with the high salary in Chang'an, these counties had a low base salary, so even if the salary increased by 50%, it would not exceed 1,000 coins.

Moreover, these counties are located in Guanzhong. Now most of the counties in Guanzhong are connected by rail. It takes only one day to reach Chang'an City within a radius of 200 miles. It is extremely convenient whether buying machines or hiring craftsmen to repair machines.

So starting from last year, first the owners of small textile workshops left Chang'an City and set up factories in other counties near Chang'an. Later, more and more textile workshops left Chang'an City, and there were even several medium and large workshops.

You should know that Chang'an City now produces more than five million pieces of cloth every year. Half of this production capacity transfer is 250 million pieces. The average price of a piece of cloth is 600 coins, which is equivalent to a production capacity transfer of 15 billion coins.

Such a huge transfer of production capacity can make any county rich. For a small county, even if they can grab one-tenth of it, it would be a huge fortune that can bring 100 or 200 million in wealth and tens of millions in fiscal revenue to the county.

Gaoling County is originally a satellite city of Chang'an. The county seat has a certain textile industry foundation. At the same time, the railway connecting Chang'an and Luoyang passes through Gaoling County. The transportation is extremely convenient. It only takes half a day to take a rail carriage from Gaoling County to Chang'an City.

The most important thing is that the income of female textile workers in Gaoling County is far lower than that of female textile workers in Chang'an. Even after two rounds of salary increases, the salary of female textile workers in Gaoling County is generally around 800 coins, which is exactly % less than that in Chang'an. By moving the textile workshops to Gaoling County, the textile cost of the female workers is equivalent to no increase.

But it was not far away from the huge market of Chang'an City, and even their old customers did not decrease. Although the workshop came to Gaoling County, the transportation cost did not increase much.

So Zhuo Hong, who had been the county magistrate of Gaoling County for several years, was suddenly struck by this enormous wealth. Last year, Gaoling County took over dozens of small textile workshops in Chang'an City, completely filling up the original textile workshop area of ​​Gaoling County. That year, Gaoling County increased its tax revenue by 3 million, and the tax growth rate was the highest among all the counties in Guanzhong.

This year, more workshop owners want to come to Gaoling, and Zhuo Hong naturally opens the door to welcome these wealthy people.

It doesn't matter if there is no land in the textile zone. He can build a second textile zone. The sewers, drains, and roads will be built for you immediately. He will also introduce you to the cheapest and most efficient engineering team for the factory, and ensure that you, the textile workshop owners, can reopen as quickly as possible.

Compared with other officials of the Han Dynasty, Zhuo Hong entered the political arena of the Han Dynasty as a manager. His ideas were not as rigid as those of other Han officials. He still ran Gaoling County in the way of running a workshop. If others brought you wealth, what's wrong with you trying to please them?

It is not the job of the county magistrate to solve the worries of the workshop. One more workshop owner in the local area means one more source of tax revenue.

Although Zhuo Hong's actions caused a lot of discussion among other Han officials, in the eyes of the workshop owners, it was very rare for a Han official to treat them as an equal.

As a result, before the second textile workshop area in Gaoling County was completed, more than a dozen workshops intended to move to Gaoling County.

So when Xu Aimin and his team arrived in Gaoling County, they found that the entire Gaoling County was like a large construction site, because Zhuo Hong wanted to build a new district in Gaoling County to welcome the arrival of the second batch of workshops.

(End of this chapter)