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

Chapter 651, Real Estate and Industrial Upgrading
Du Yu said with a smile: "If we can make the pensions of the elderly in rural areas the same as those in cities, why not increase taxes by thousands?"

Liu Heng smiled and said, "You are really young. You are a farmer in Guanzhong, so you don't care about the increase of thousands of taxes. But my Han Dynasty still has poor counties. For farmers in Jincheng County, Jiuyuan County, and Shuofang County, thousands of coins are a huge tax."

Chen Maidao said, "In terms of guaranteed pensions, craftsmen and farmers are the same. The reason why craftsmen in Chang'an have higher pensions than farmers is mainly because they have decades of pensions paid to them by the factory. If you want your elders to have the same pension as the craftsmen in Chang'an, you can pay the pension to them. Judging from the appearance of your village, it doesn't seem like you can't afford the money."

The Han Dynasty has a compulsory pension system, but the supervision of those agricultural workshops in rural areas is not as strict. Basically, they are not forced to pay pensions. After all, most of these small workshops in rural areas are owned by themselves. Of course, they do not have this extra pension. This is the same as Xu Fan's world. The income from the land is part of their pension. The only difference between the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty is that the per capita arable land is more than ten times more, and farmers' income is higher.

This made Du Yu hesitate. He was a top student at the Agricultural College and naturally understood that providing pensions would increase the costs of the workshops. Although they were in the countryside, they were not without competitors. Thousands of agricultural cooperatives in Guanzhong were their competitors. In addition, the railways lowered transportation costs. To some extent, the competitive pressure on agricultural products was higher than that on industrial products. Moreover, agricultural cooperatives were collective, so increasing pensions was like transferring money from the left hand to the right hand.

Xu Aimin was quite appreciative and said, "You are the president of the agricultural cooperative in Duli. Let me take you to see how your agricultural cooperative is. We also have connections in Chang'an City and can introduce you to some business."

Du Yu said: "Everyone please follow me."

Xu Aimin and others boarded Du Yu's tractor.

After entering Duli, Xu Aimin was surprised at the prosperity of Duli. The roads in the village were paved with cement, and there were rows of three-story buildings around it, with a courtyard in the front and a yard in the back, and tiles on the outside. Through the windows and doors, he could see that the interior construction of these houses was not bad, at least comparable to that of the residential areas in Dahan. In Duli, they also saw fitness parks, primary schools, clinics, theaters, etc. All kinds of living and entertainment societies were relatively complete.

Xu Aimin said: "Your village is very wealthy, even Chang'an is not as rich as this."

Chen Mai smiled and said, "You are doing a good job as the president!"

Du Yu said: "I have only been in charge of the village for two years, so I don't deserve these praises."

Then he said respectfully: "Du Village can be so prosperous because of Governor Yinzhou. It was the governor who helped us establish the agricultural cooperative and borrowed money to build a large glass greenhouse. Then it happened to catch up with the court's implementation of the vegetable basket project. Our village was arranged as the vegetable base of Chang'an City and received various policies and financial support. Now we have 5000 acres of glass greenhouses in Duli, which can provide Chang'an City with millions of kilograms of vegetables every year."

Hearing that Duli's prosperity was related to Yuan Ang, they felt lucky for a moment. Xu Aimin smiled and said, "Governor Yuan did a great thing."

Du Yu said respectfully: "Back then, Governor Yuan promoted agricultural cooperatives in Guanzhong, and millions of people in Guanzhong benefited from them."

Then they saw the greenhouse area reflecting the sunlight. The 5000-acre glass greenhouse was magnificent in this era and quite a spectacle. They were taken to the greenhouse area, where there were already busy farmers picking vegetables or carrying them, and then drove away on tractors. Although these farmers were busy, they were organized and everyone had a clear division of labor.

Liu Heng asked curiously, "It's almost noon now, and you are still transporting vegetables to Chang'an?"

Du Yu shook his head and said, "This is kimchi that we are going to pickle. In recent years, the number of glass greenhouses in Guanzhong has increased, and the price of off-season vegetables is not as high as before. We can only make more kimchi. Although the price is not as good as off-season vegetables, they are selling well in Chang'an City, the Western Regions, and Longxi areas. Because the output is large, the overall profit is not bad."

Then Xu Aimin visited other workshops in Duli along the way, which made him very happy. Duli was one of the earliest villages in Guanzhong to build agricultural cooperatives. When it was first built, it received the support of Yuan Ang, so the agricultural cooperative developed very well. There were chicken farms and pig farms inside. What surprised Xu Aimin the most was that there was actually a workshop for breeding earthworms here, and it was quite large in scale.

Du Yu understood the surprise of Xu Aimin and others and said, "Now that life is prosperous, the rich people in Chang'an like to grow flowers. Earthworm manure is the best fertilizer. It can be sold for five coins per pound, which is much more valuable than grain. Earthworms are also top-quality feed. According to agricultural economics, the protein in earthworms is three times that of beef. Whether it is used as chicken feed or pig feed, it can make poultry grow faster. In addition to making money from off-season vegetables, our village makes money from this earthworm workshop."

When Xu Aimin and others heard the price, they didn't know what to say.

Instead, Chen Mai whispered to Xu Aimin: "This should be the content of the new agricultural economics of the emperor."

Xu Aimin showed a hint of embarrassment. After Xu Fan became the emperor, he lived a free and easy life. When he was teaching at the Agricultural College, he would talk about the breeding techniques he had learned from the perspective of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and verify them with the students of the Agricultural College.

Therefore, Changan Nongjia School has a large number of rabbit farms, maggot farms, scorpion farms, Tibetan mastiff farms, mushroom farms, shiitake mushroom farms and other special farms in Shanglinyuan. Raising rabbits and mushrooms is normal, and raising Tibetan mastiffs is barely acceptable, but raising maggots, scorpions and snakes is a monster. The key is that there are some agricultural products from the lower three roads, such as cordyceps that can prolong life and wolfberry that can strengthen yang. Although he also understands the reason why his father did this, he wants to get some high-value and high-profit specialties for those poor areas. Drive the development of these frontier poor areas, because these special breeding industries are all those frontier poor areas. These special products from the lower three roads can have an output value of tens to hundreds of billions with the promotion of his father. It can effectively improve the living conditions of the people in these areas, but Xu Aimin still thinks it is a bit too embarrassing.

These special breedings are much better than their predecessors. Now, because Dahan farmers vigorously promote various poultry technologies, chicken, duck, goose, pig, sheep, cattle and other breeding farms are blooming everywhere. These breeding farms generally have low profits, but these special breeding farms have high technical requirements, and farmers do not face the market alone. They are organized by Dahan farmhouses, which can improve product quality and regulate market production capacity.

For this special breeding industry, Xu Fan learned from the later generations of Japan and South Korea in terms of the model. After all, the high prices of these things will not affect the quality of life of ordinary people in the Han Dynasty. Xu Fan knew the flaws of the later generations' experience of getting rich. Before engaging in these special breeding, he first found a good market. As long as he found the market, in this era when information dissemination was not well developed, he would almost dominate the market within a dozen years, so those special breeding industries were very profitable. Xu Aimin and others had lunch in Duli and left. On the way, Xu Aimin sighed: "The productivity of our Han Dynasty can no longer keep up with the material and cultural needs of the people. We still need to work hard to improve productivity."

Jia Yi was hesitant to speak. This situation had already been recorded in the Book of Shang Yang. Shang Yang knew that the desires of the people were constantly increasing and could not be satisfied forever, so Shang Yang did the opposite and used the Five Strategies to tire the people out and compress the people's desires to just survival. In this way, the people would not think too much about their demands, and the organizational capabilities of the court would not be high, making it easier to implement.

On the contrary, the current Han Dynasty, in order to build a world of great harmony, requires very high abilities of the emperor, civil and military officials, and the organizational capabilities of the Han Dynasty. If the emperor had not laid a solid foundation, he would not dare to believe that the Han Dynasty could have its current prosperity.

Unfortunately, for the Han Dynasty, Shang Yang's five policies to exhaust the people were seriously politically incorrect. The Great Harmony that the Han Dynasty built was to gradually improve the material and spiritual needs of the people, so Du Yu was right to have higher requirements for the court. But sometimes being right does not mean being able to do it. If the elderly in the world have an extra 500 coins, the entire Han Dynasty's fiscal expenditure will have to pay an extra 200 billion coins, which is unbearable for the Han Dynasty.

Chen Mai thought for a moment and said, "If we want to quickly increase the court's fiscal revenue, there is an easy way to do it, which is to build large-scale residential areas and increase the price of houses. If the price of houses in Chang'an doubles, the income of the Internal Affairs Bureau alone can increase by several billion coins. If this is done throughout the Han Dynasty, it should not be a problem to increase 40 to 50 billion coins."

Chen Mai served as the Minister of Internal Affairs for ten years. These ten years were the easiest ten years in his political career. He obtained the political resources left by Zhang Pijiang, and transformed the city blocks into residential areas on a large scale. All kinds of wooden houses and brick houses in Chang'an city were transformed into new 5-7-storey buildings. While settling the original situation, he was able to add several times more houses. Each of these houses cost more than coins. The annual expense alone was as high as billion coins, and almost all of this money belonged to the Minister of Internal Affairs, which made Chen Mai the richest Minister of Internal Affairs in the history of the Han Dynasty.

Since the Nei Shi had money, he could improve the welfare of the Han officials under him. The Han officials under him would then be united with Chen Mai and would find ways to complete the tasks assigned by him even if they were difficult. The ten years that Chen Mai served as Nei Shi were the ten years with the strongest organizational power in the entire Nei Shi period.

At the same time, because they had the right to transform Chang'an City, building a community required a large amount of bricks, cement, glass, bamboo, steel bars and other building materials. As long as the local tyrants participated in the Chang'an City transformation project, they could get a big piece of the cake. The Han officialdom was too skilled in using industries to control downstream enterprises in the industrial chain. It could even be said that Han officials above the county magistrate were familiar with such methods.

The local tyrants had requests for help from Chen Mai, the Minister of Internal Affairs. In order to please Chen Mai, these local tyrants naturally did not dare to cause trouble during Chen Mai's tenure. As long as the local tyrants did not cause trouble, most of the contradictions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs could be eliminated invisibly, which improved Chen Mai's evaluation of his strategy.

The people of Chang'an were very satisfied with the arrangements made by the Nei Shi, as they saw their old and dilapidated houses turned into spacious buildings with new theaters, primary schools, clinics, markets and other facilities. Therefore, during the ten years that Chen Mai served as Nei Shi in Chang'an, he was highly regarded by the entire city, and he was almost the Nei Shi with the highest support.

Chen Mai also knew that he could do all this because the houses in Chang'an City were valuable and the Nei Shi could gain enormous wealth from the transformation of Chang'an City. This money solved 90% of the problems during his tenure.

But Liu Heng immediately shook his head and said, "Not right, not right. If the court uses real estate as an industry, it will definitely increase the price of houses on a large scale, so that ordinary people will find it difficult to own their own houses. When the rich see that real estate is profitable, they will speculate on the price of houses on a large scale and increase the price of house rents on a large scale. This will inevitably lead to the rentier class encroaching on the money of ordinary people on a large scale. When the rent exceeds half of the labor income, what is the difference between this and the landlords and tyrants occupying the fields and encroaching on the interests of farmers in the past. Our Han Dynasty eliminated the local landlords and tyrants with equal distribution of land, but released a new batch of landlords and tyrants with houses. How can we say that we are building a world of great harmony?"

Liu Heng had such a deep understanding because the real estate industry in Kuaiji County was the most developed in the entire Han Dynasty. Kuaiji County was the economic center of the Han Dynasty and also the economic center of the world. Kuaiji County not only gathered the wealthy businessmen of the Han Dynasty, but also gathered the nobles and wealthy businessmen from all over the world. These people had huge amounts of money in their hands, but bringing these money to the Han Dynasty would not be cost-effective at the low interest rate, and building a factory would be too hard, and the profits would have to be divided among four groups. They could only get 25% at most. The key was to open a factory in the Han Dynasty, and the manager had to go down the production line. Otherwise, they could only be a director honestly, working for the Han Dynasty court, and working for the Han Dynasty's peasants. They also had to risk the factory closing down and their wealth being wiped out. When had the nobles and wealthy businessmen ever suffered such a loss? This was against the will of heaven. Therefore, those among this group of people who were not particularly talented in business generally would not open factories.

And they soon found an industry in Kuaiji County that paid well, required little work, and was close to home, which was the real estate rental industry. Kuaiji County had a developed industry, and every year millions of people from the Han Dynasty and overseas flocked to this wealthy place to work and earn money. With so many craftsmen, there was naturally a huge market for house rentals, and these nobles and wealthy businessmen had their eyes on this market. They first used their money to buy houses, and then rented them out on a large scale. Under normal circumstances, they could make a profit of more than 20%.

But this is not a good thing for people who come to Kuaiji County to work. They usually have to spend 3% to 4% of their income to rent a house. In order to make more money, the landlords will also rent out the houses as single rooms like pigeon cages. Moreover, the price of such pigeon cages is not low.

When Liu Heng was the prefect of Kuaiji County, he discovered this contradiction in Kuaiji County and learned that these houses had become a place to squeeze money from craftsmen. He immediately reported to the court and requested the court to temporarily implement a rental tax in Kuaiji County, and use this tax to build a large number of craftsman communities in various counties of Kuaiji County, with 50,000 new craftsman houses built each year. This lowered the rent in Kuaiji County, and the pigeon cages were also dismantled again.

Xu Aimin also shook his head and said, "Our Han dynasty must ensure that salaries flow to the hands of craftsmen and protect their interests. However, the development of houses is essentially a collaboration with the powerful to exploit craftsmen and farmers. This has shaken the fundamental national policy of our Han dynasty."

In fact, when Zhang Pijiang was developing new residential quarters, Xu Aimin discovered that it was profitable and could greatly increase the court's revenue, so he wanted to promote this model on a large scale. However, his father gave him an interpretation of the consequences of real estate development, which would inevitably increase the cost of living for ordinary people, enrich a group of nobles and powerful people, and suppress the interests of ordinary craftsmen and farmers.

Such a trend has already occurred in major cities such as Chang'an, Kuaiji County, Linzi County, and Sanchuan County, which makes Xu Aimin extremely vigilant. The Han Dynasty still maintains a suppressive stance towards landlords, powerful people, and big merchants. Xu Aimin does not want these people to reappear in the Han Dynasty because of their houses, so the Han Dynasty implements a rental tax in major cities, and uses this tax to build artisan communities to suppress local rental prices.

This policy was told to Xu Aimin by Xu Fan. To be honest, Xu Aimin initially thought that the rental tax would affect the craftsmen who rented the houses, but Xu Fan laughed and said, "You overestimate the morality of the landlords. You have to believe that the rental price of houses is not set by them based on morality, but they push it step by step to the limit that the craftsmen can accept. The income of the craftsmen is the limit of the rent. So without this tax, the rent price is like this. With this tax, the rent price is still like this. This is what they call market regulation."

Later, Xu Aimin found that it was just as his father said. Even though the court increased the rental tax, the landlords still did not dare to increase the rent. Those who increased the rent all ended up with the craftsmen quitting the lease. Later, a large number of craftsman communities were built and a large number of craftsmen moved in. In order to retain tenants, the landlords had to reduce the rent. Now, even in a big city like Chang'an, the rent generally does not exceed 20% of a craftsman's income. Even if you want to get this money, the rental house must be of high quality and good environment. If this requirement is not met, people would rather rent the court's craftsman community, and pigeon cages are out of the question. No one is willing to live there.

Jia Yi found that the emperor had so many restrictions, but still wanted to increase the pension. He thought for a while and said, "Then the court has only one way left, which is industrial upgrading. Only with industrial upgrading can a craftsman produce more wealth, and the pensions of the elderly in our Han Dynasty can continue to increase."

The Han Dynasty's industry has developed rapidly in the past few decades, and global wealth has flowed into the Han Dynasty. It can be said that the changes in the Han Dynasty in 50 years are more drastic than the changes in China in 3,000 years. In this dynamically changing social environment, everyone has recognized the view that industrial upgrading can bring more wealth.

(End of this chapter)