New Shun 1730

Theoretically, the tenant land can be taken back and rice can be replaced with mulberry.

But Confucianism is irrational, but humanitarian.

Rationality is bloody and bloody.

Doing this is forcing hundreds of millions of tenant farmers to lose their homes and lives.

Liu Yu cited the example of British agricultural workers to prove that what these people have been saying all along, "there is no market at home at all," is not a lie.

There is no market at home.

If you want to make money, you can only go abroad.

The people in China really cannot earn 100 taels a year working on the farm.

Without money, food and clothing cannot be satisfied, so how can they consume?

It is also to awaken the class consciousness of these emerging classes. Dashun's external expansion cannot rely on the gentry, but can only rely on the distorted chaebol groups that may appear now, which are a combination of nobles and merchants.

Only for them, external expansion is beneficial.

According to the figures cited by Liu Yu, to some extent, what Macartney said, "It is impossible to see the beer belly and red face of British peasants on the faces of Chinese peasants", is really correct.

However.

It is not just the Spring and Autumn style of Macartney.

In fact, Liu Yu, who brought out detailed data, also played with the Spring and Autumn style.

Because in Britain, France, and China, the concept of peasants is different, and the situation is also different.

Many people bring in the status of Chinese peasants and imagine that European peasants must live worse than workers, so peasants are the lowest-income class in Britain.

When these businessmen present heard the words "agricultural hired workers", they thought of the Dashun tenants they were familiar with.

However, this is a fallacy.

In fact, until the Opium War, the dream of many British workers was to work and earn money, and then become farmers.

At this time, the salary of a British teacher was actually only about 15 pounds a year, about half of that of a skilled farm worker.

British agriculture has its own particularity, and British nobles and landlords also have their own particularity. This special connection makes the land income in Britain very high.

Coupled with the enclosure movement, high land tax and the anti-subsidy of the poor tax to agricultural workers, which led to the bankruptcy of self-cultivating farmers, the per capita labor area of ​​British large farms is much higher than that of Dashun.

It should even be said that it is dozens of times higher.

On average, 1,000 acres of land, that is, about 6,000 acres of land, the average number of hired workers is 38.5, which is equivalent to 150 acres per person.

Britain actually has a three-field system, one-third of spring ploughing, one-third of autumn ploughing, and one-third of fallow.

In addition, the wool export in Britain makes herding sheep more profitable than growing grain.

This makes the average labor of each agricultural employee basically reach the limit of small farmers-100 acres.

In other words, if the average laborer in Dashun has 100 acres of land, then it is exactly the limit of self-cultivating farmers.

If the average laborer in Dashun also has 100 acres of arable land, then life will naturally not be bad.

However, now... 1 billion acres of land, 200 to 300 million people.

In fact, according to the production efficiency of the Han and Tang Dynasties, to restore the curved plow, ox-drawn plow, plow, waterwheel, etc., to a certain extent, only 10 million laborers, that is, about 60 million families, are needed.

If we think rationally, the remaining 200 million people are "redundant people".

If China copies the British system, then these 200 million "redundant people" can only be killed.

The morality of China for thousands of years and the current reality do not allow such "rationality".

These "absolutely rational" "redundant people" must also survive.

In the case that these people must also survive and Dashun cannot carry out land reform, this is forcing the emerging industrial and commercial groups to expand outward.

In fact, Liu Yu is tempting.

Because the example he cited is not the real average situation.

Instead, it takes the highest level in a special area to say that this is the average situation.

In fact, the average situation in the UK is lower than this.

This family has its own house and a small piece of land, while the annual income of most agricultural hired workers is actually around 30 pounds, about 100 taels of silver.

However, even so, the income of agricultural workers in Britain was higher than the annual income of the middle-class farmers in Dashun.

Of course, there are many differences here.

Agricultural workers in Britain need to buy food with their wages. The price of bread in Britain is about 1.5 pence per pound, which is equivalent to 3 taels of silver to buy 160 pounds of bread; while in Dashun, 3 taels of silver can buy 360 pounds of rice.

Because of the development of American silver, Europe has experienced a price revolution, and the overall price is about 2 to 3 times that of Dashun - a quarter of wheat in the Middle Ages, 8 bushels, about 400 pounds, is sold for 50 shillings, 8 taels of silver; while the price of wheat in Dashun, calculated in silver, is exactly one-third of that in Britain.

In fact, the price of grain in Britain will soon soar, soaring to the level of 120 shillings, or 18 taels of silver, for a quarter of wheat in the Middle Ages. This is also the root cause of the British grain law that later prohibited imports at 4 pounds per quarter to prevent price cuts. There are interests involved, because the power of industry and commerce cannot beat the noble landlords. This quarter is the 400-jin large quarter of the Middle Ages, not the 25-jin small quarter of later times.

However, we cannot say that [100 liang of Britain is not as good as 20 liang of Dashun].

The living standard of the real agricultural workers with an average annual income of 100 taels of silver, not selected by Liu Yu's Spring and Autumn style, may not be as good as that of the middle-class peasant families with an annual income of 20 taels of silver.

There is a passage in "Dream of Red Mansions" where Granny Liu said, "Five cents a pound, ten pounds and five cents... plus wine and food, there are more than twenty taels of silver in total. Amitabha! The money from this meal is enough for our farm family to live for a year."

This is basically the case for farm families. After all, agricultural workers have no land and have to buy their own food and drink.

But although the living standard of the British workers with 100 taels is similar to that of the middle-class peasants in Dashun, the gap is actually large for industry and commerce.

The workers have to buy food, clothes, shoes, and other things.

The middle-class peasants in Dashun grow their own food and spin their own clothes.

Moreover, how many "farmers" like Granny Liu, whose fathers were officials in Beijing, are there?

Therefore, for Dashun's industry and commerce, the lowest-level agricultural workers in Britain are still "living people".

The people below the middle-level farmers in Dashun can only be regarded as "worse than livestock" in the eyes of industry and commerce, and they are not even qualified to be counted as numbers, because they can only buy a red headband for the New Year.

At least livestock can be sheared and sold for money. Nowadays, one pound of high-quality Spanish long-staple wool costs 6 coins of silver.

A sheep that has been missing for many years and was caught, shaved 54 pounds of wool, 30 taels of silver, enough to buy three or five young girls in a disaster year, people are really worse than livestock.

The consumption capacity of Britain's 6 million people is comparable to that of Dashun's 60 million people, if the middle-level farmers, poor farmers, and tenant farmers in Dashun are also considered "people".

Just like in the Lianghuai area, can there be three households in a village of a thousand people with an annual income that reaches the level of the lowest-level agricultural workers in Britain?

In this case, let's not talk about other industrial products, just talk about tea.

The market of Dashun is already saturated with 200-300 million people.

If we want to expand the internal market, there is only one way, land reform, to give people money to spend.

Instead of giving 60% of the rent to the landlord, because the landlord only has one mouth. He can collect rent from 1,000 people, but he can't drink 1,000 kilograms of tea and wear 1,000 pieces of cloth a year.

The purpose of land reform is purely rational.

Only when the land income is reduced can capital flow to industry and commerce.

Only when the people have land can they have consumption power and expand the internal market, which in turn promotes the development of industry and commerce.

If we don't take this road, let alone other things, Dashun can't even borrow national debt with 10% interest in the country.

And this road is tacitly impossible to take. When Li Zicheng walked halfway, he reached Jiugong Mountain. If the Li family of Dashun didn't want to die, they naturally didn't dare to move.

Since it is tacitly assumed that this road cannot be taken.

Then, naturally, there is only one way left, which is external expansion.

So Liu Yu used a special example of British agricultural workers as an average to induce the desire of emerging groups to expand externally.

Because, according to this data, if the European market and British tariffs are opened, the tea trade alone can be expanded more than ten times.

Liu Yu wants to induce them to make their own inferences: building ships is for profit; expanding the army is for profit; going to war is for profit.

The gentry can oppose the war because they really have no benefit.

But the emerging class must understand that only by expanding abroad can they gain benefits.

Similarly, whoever supports the war pays for it, it is a simple truth.

There is no doubt that Dashun cannot use the government's Taicang silver for external expansion. It can neither be used nor should it be used.

Otherwise, it is necessary to seize power, carry out land reform, and eliminate landlords in the country. Carry out a whole set of transformations, destroy an old world, and then create a new world with an internal market according to the demands of capital.

Which is more difficult?

It goes without saying.

External expansion is much simpler.

Investing 100 million taels of silver in the navy for many years is enough to control Europe's monopoly on oriental trade goods and open up the European market.

And if 100 million taels of silver want to completely transform this country, eliminate landlords, and distribute land, it may be the same as Song Jiang, Fang La, Wang Qing, and Tian Hu.

Now the fact is in front of us. Liu Yu said on the surface that it was about tea pricing, but in fact he said, "Go, go to the West, there is a land flowing with butter and honey, there is what you want most - silver!"

At this time, it is just an awakening education for these merchant groups, and if this awakening education continues, it will inevitably produce a very ridiculous result.

The Dashun Merchant Group, which has been shouting for free trade, will choose to go to war with Britain because Britain really abolished the high tariffs on tea, and the reason is free trade.

At that time, it will become a joke.

Why go to war with Britain?

Because Britain's high tariffs protect there is no free trade.

What is the cause of the war?

Because Britain is really going to cancel the high tea tariffs.

A man is innocent, but he is guilty of holding a treasure. The British market is too tempting.

It is so tempting that Liu Yu said that the life of British hired workers has made many people think about killing the British East India Company.

As Liu Yu finished talking about the living standards of British employees, the conflict between Dashun Xiyang Trading Company and the British East India Company, at least at the level of the board of directors and major shareholders, had rapidly intensified and became irreconcilable.

The question Xu Heng asked was just a simple commercial pricing issue.

But when this issue was explained by Liu Yu in this way, it was no longer a simple commercial pricing issue.

Looking at the words on the curtain board, "Every bustling world is for profit, and the bustling world is for profit," this originally simple commercial pricing issue has gradually evolved into the question of "How can we sell more tea?"

It's "us".

Not Dashun.

Who represents Dashun?

For the tea farmers, merchants, and merchants of Dashun, the abolition of the tea tax in Britain was a good thing worth celebrating.

As for the Maritime Chaebol Group, which has gradually emerged in Dashun, the company's stock price will plummet on the first day when the tea tax is abolished in the UK.

If Dashun had a parliamentary system, and with the abolition of the tea tax in the UK, we would see representatives of tea growers and merchants making tea, and representatives of industrial capital opposed to war; while the Maritime Group is inciting war, and will definitely concoct something similar to "Zhang Er Mazi Er" " incident, inciting public opinion and inciting emotions.

Of course, this goes both ways.

Once the productivity level of Dashun is not as good as that of the UK, there will be an immediate reversal:

Dashun's tea farmers, merchants, and industrial capital will ask Dashun to protect the interests of its people; while the maritime business group will claim that free trade will promote competition, liberalize tariffs, and increase imports.

This tendency was already obvious at this time. After Liu Yu slightly exaggerated the living standards of British employees, no one in the auditorium was interested in discussing whether to "raise prices" or "lower prices."

Instead, they are discussing how to expand exports to the UK.

Since the UK is so rich, how can we get them to buy more of our stuff?

This is not a question of how to price tea.