When Zhao Ming heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned: "What, can't you dig it?"
”Gu Yanwu whispered: "Regent, in the early years, there was a perennial earthquake in Beijing, and the imperial court thought that quarrying charcoal would hurt the dragon vein, so it stopped mining coal around Zhili.The carboniferous mines on the Fengyang side were indeed mined during the Hongwu period, but most of them stopped later.After all, this is the central capital, and the regent is digging a lot, I'm afraid some people will gossip. ”"Afraid of hurting the dragon vein?"
Zhao Ming frowned.Gu Yanwu nodded, "There is indeed such a saying!"
”Zhao Ming understood in his heart, but this mine, Zhao Ming had to dig it.Before the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution, in fact, the gap between China and the West was not large, and the living standards of the British were not even as good as China.Generally speaking, the idea that the Industrial Revolution broke out in Britain and not in China is usually subjectively believed to be due to institutional problems, but this statement is actually a very one-sided view imposed on us by the West, which holds the hegemony of thought, in order to establish its own institutional self-confidence in the world.Why did the Industrial Revolution break out in Britain and not in China?
This should be asked why China did not survive the Industrial Revolution.The precondition for the industrial revolution was the commercial revolution, which was the extremely developed commodity economy in China during the Southern and Ming dynasties, and in the Jiangnan region, and the urbanization of the Song Dynasty even reached 12 percent.This shows that China has the premise of a commercial revolution, so why did it not trigger an industrial revolution.Then we have to look at other conditions, and focus on four aspects, one is food, the second is energy, the third is market demand, and the fourth is the stability of the internal and external environment.Since there is going to be an industrial revolution, there must be people who will become workers, and there needs to be enough food to feed these workers.If it is industrialized, first of all, the price of grain will have to be lowered, so that the workers who continue to move into the cities can afford to eat food and still have to make money.If not, there will be a shortage of food, food prices will skyrocket, and the workers will not be able to support themselves in the cities, then there will definitely be a return of the population, and the workers who have moved to the cities will return to the countryside in large numbers to farm.And when it comes to grain production, no country has a greater say than China.Before the Industrial Revolution, Britain was still backward in rotational farming, while China's intensive cultivation per mu of land was much higher than that of Britain, and whether it was the 12% urbanization rate of the Southern Song Dynasty or the formation of hundreds of thousands of cities in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, it shows that China can support a large number of urban population.Then food is not a limitation, a condition for the industrial revolution to occur in China.Looking at the market demand, this point is needless to say, before the industrial revolution, China's goods have been selling well in the world, do not need to go to the door, begging people to let you do business, countries will come thousands of miles to buy your goods.Therefore, market demand is not a problem that restricts the industrial revolution in China.Then there are only the last two left, one is energy, and the other is the stability of the internal and external environment.The stability of the internal and external environment, without mentioning this point first, assumes whether the industrial revolution can occur in China under the condition of a stable internal and external environment.The answer is not easy.Some people say, is it because there is no steam engine?
When it comes to the steam engine, people think of Watt, but in fact, just like Edison was not the inventor of the light bulb, the steam engine appeared before Watt, and he was only the improver of the steam engine, not the inventor.The earliest steam engine, in fact, appeared in Egypt and was used to open and close the heavy stone doors of the temple, while China had already used the steam engine to blow wind in the Han Dynasty.Since this is not a problem, then why was the Chinese steam engine, not used and improved, not applied on a large scale, so that the industrial revolution broke out?
A big reason for this is the thing that drives the steam engine, which is coal, which is energy.The industrial revolution cannot be achieved by burning firewood, there must be new energy sources.China is a coal-producing country, but the coal-producing regions are mainly concentrated in the north and northwest, while China's commodity economy and society are concentrated in the south of the Yangtze River.The economy collapsed in the north, and the economic center of gravity and population shifted southward in large numbers, while the south of the Yangtze River did not have a large source of coal, so the people had to chop firewood, burn bellflowers, and use stoves and unique stoves to reduce energy consumption.China's coal, ninety percent in the northwest and north, from the south of the Yangtze River coal, the nearest is the Huai River on both sides of the river, Huaibei and Huainan two mining areas, and not much mining, transported to the south of the Yangtze River, ordinary people can not afford to burn, only the use of dignitaries and nobles, consumption and demand is limited.The economy of the north is underdeveloped, although the coal reserves are abundant, but the transportation remains the same, once leaving a certain distance, the cost of transportation immediately rises, in addition to the Beijing division with some coal, ordinary people can not afford to burn.In contrast, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the sea and is easy to transport, so coal is widely used.Of course, coal alone is not enough, and a condition is needed, that is, the steam engine needs to be continuously improved.The original steam engine, not to mention, consumes a lot of coal, and is inefficient, the general industry does not need this kind of burning expensive coal, there are things that have little effect, can only be used as a toy, there is not much commercial value, not worth promoting.Therefore, there are not many industries that can make the steam engine evolve, and the only suitable one is for coal mining.Coal in the coal mine is cheap, it can be completely indifferent to the consumption of coal, to meet the high energy consumption of the original steam engine, and the external demand for coal will not make the steam engine unemployed, then it has the opportunity to evolve and improve.Therefore, since 1698, when Savrey invented the first primitive steam engine for coal mine pumping, after more than 200 years of continuous improvement, there was a later Watt steam engine, and the industrial revolution broke out.In Chinese history, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty both had capital sprouts, but the industrial revolution could not have occurred when burning firewood.In fact, Zhao Ming has long wanted to lay out in this regard, but the energy is not in his own hands.Now that the Huainan vein is in his hands, how could Zhao Ming not dig it because the ancestral grave of the Zhu family is in Fengyang?
Now the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty is developed, the grain output is sufficient, and there are overseas colonies to provide grain and raw materials, the market demand is huge, coupled with the gradual stabilization of the internal and external environment, the prerequisites for the industrial revolution have been met, and there is an energy revolution and a steam engine.Therefore, how could Zhao Ming let go of the coal mines in Huainan and let go of the opportunity to change the world.Not to mention the ancestral grave of the Zhu family, it is his own ancestral grave, and Zhao Ming will not hesitate to excavate it."
Dig!"
Zhao Ming shouted categorically: "Not only to dig, but also to dig a lot, and to try to increase coal production, reduce coal mining and transportation costs, so that the people in Jiangnan can use cheap coal." ”Gu Yanwu was slightly stunned when he heard this, he didn't know why the regent insisted on burning coal, isn't it good to burn firewood?
However, since the regent ordered it, Gu Yanwu still saluted and said, "The minister understands!"
The will of the regency will be passed on to the cabinet!
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