Not long after, Yuan Keli, Xiong Tingbi, Qin Liangyu, Xu Guangqi, and Bi Ziyan arrived at Damingyuan."
Your Majesty!""
Excuse me!"
Zhu Youxiao said and walked out of the hall with his hands behind his back: "You go with me to the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau, and talk about things while inspecting." ”"Yes!"
The ministers followed Zhu Youxiao to the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau.Zhu Youxiao took them straight to the workshop that had used steam engines to forge guns and irons, and after arriving here, he observed these steam-powered forging presses at work, and said to his ministers: "According to Song Aiqing, who is in charge of ordnance manufacturing, in the past, even skilled craftsmen needed a month to manufacture gun barrels, but now with this steam power, the construction period has been shortened to much less than half of the original, and the efficiency has improved rapidly.
You know this better than me, but you also know that now from Beijing to Tianjin, millions of people are living on these military industries, and many powerful people in the DPRK and China have shares in it, so it is naturally impossible to reduce production, so we can only exchange these things for some things we need more, such as land, ore and even people, otherwise it will be just a pile of scrap iron in our hands!
”"Your Majesty!
In this regard, the minister also realized it before, but he didn't think of the best solution, and it involved a lot, so he didn't dare to report it. ”Bi Ziyan said a word at this time, and then said: "In the past, in order to completely stabilize the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Beijing, the imperial court not only gave relief for a period of time, but also opened a large number of government-run workshops to make a living by the canal. ”"That's right, if it's cold today, the output of the fields in the north has long been insufficient, even if there are so many fields, it can't feed so many people, so that these displaced people are compiled into workshop workers, and making a living by working is the only feasible way at that time, which is also the holy place of Your Majesty, but this has also caused the industry to be too big now, and the things produced are too much, so that they can't be sold, in the opinion of the ministers, it is better to stop using the steam engine first, so that the production capacity will not increase."
Xu Guangqi suggested at this time."
If you do this, the profits will not increase again, but there are more and more people who want to live a rich life, and if the steam engine is stopped, a part of the profits of the existing powerful gentry will be given to the new nouveau riche."
Zhu Youxiao replied."
What Your Majesty said is that once this steam engine is used, it will be impossible to stop, and it is better to only exchange some land, ore and even population to come back, otherwise, we will have to reform the internal affairs again, and it will not be so that when the time comes, the ownership will be as expensive as Fang Wenzhenggong, and the Grand Duke will selflessly return all the official shares occupied by his family to the imperial court."
Yuan Keli said at this time.Xu Guangqi and the others were silent.Zhu Youxiao also laughed because of this.In order to make the cake of the empire bigger, he engaged in the official industry, and thus cultivated a group of new magnates and formed his own ruling base.But now, if he does not popularize the application of the newly invented steam engine and continue to make the cake bigger, in order to let the newly increased population also live a prosperous life, he really has to do as Yuan Keli said, carry out internal political reform again, and crack down on the new elites who have emerged because of the government-run industry.Unless these new magnates can take the initiative to spit out the benefits they have obtained and return them to the imperial court.However, how difficult it is, even if I am willing, the clan in-laws behind it will not be willing."
Yuan Aiqing is right, without a steam engine, it is equivalent to a family with ten acres of land is unwilling to use a hoe to reclaim the wasteland, but the population of the family is increasing, if you want to feed the people born later, the people born in front can only eat less, rather than this, it is better to take this hoe to reclaim the wasteland, this steam engine is my Ming now more hoe, from the beginning of our steam engine, it is destined that my Ming must be reclaimed abroad, can not be like before, Only guards the one-third of the acre of his own land to take care of. ”Zhu Youxiao said at this time."
Remember, Ministers!"
Yuan Keli and the others immediately replied."
Now you talk about how to change it, our Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau produces so many firearms every day, so many arrows, bows and crossbows, we have to change something."
Zhu Youxiao said."
Sold to the outside?"
Xu Guangqi asked."
You can sell it, but you have to keep it, you can't sell the latest firearms, otherwise you will cultivate a strong enemy of your own."
Zhu Youxiao said."
In this way, we can only expand the army first, and then mobilize the soldiers to open up territory for the Ming Dynasty, let the soldiers go to the firearms consumption points, and exchange the land and population for the imperial court."
Yuan Keli said."
And minerals!"
Zhu Youxiao added.Then, Zhu Youxiao asked Yuan Keli and other ministers: "How is the new commercial tax levied now, and in terms of tariffs?"
”Yuan Keli replied: "Back to Your Majesty, the commercial tax collected now has reached more than 50 million yuan of silver coins, and in terms of tariffs, due to the addition of five new cities in Goa, Nagasaki, Taiwan, Haojing, and Jeju, and there are many merchant ships coming and going from these three places, all of which are stuck on various routes, so the current tariffs have increased to more than 15 million yuan of silver coins per year, and the sum of the two has already been twice that of today's Tianfu." ”Xiong Tingbi's main energy is now in the military, so he didn't pay much attention to the revenue of the Ming treasury, and now after hearing Yuan Keli say this, he couldn't help but smile excitedly and said: "I really didn't expect that one day, the revenue from commercial taxes and customs duties will be twice that of Tianfu." ”Qin Liangyu was also a little puzzled and said, "Yes, I didn't expect it to be so much!"
”"It's normal to have so much, those Westerners are in a place called America, moving mountains of gold and silver to their own country, and then bringing a lot of silver to my Daming to exchange all kinds of goods, even if we put the tax high, they all have money to give, and after taking it back, some people can afford it!
These silver coins were given to us by forcing them to give us, or they were exchanged for goods. ”Zhu Youxiao was also in a good mood, so he personally explained it to Qin Liangyu, who didn't know much about these things, but in order to motivate himself to be enterprising among the powerful people in the Ming Dynasty, he used a more exaggerated speech, after all, America cannot be full of gold and silver.But Qin Liangyu listened to it and asked, "In that case, Your Majesty, why did no one in my Ming Dynasty transport these gold and silver?"
”Zhu Youxiao said: "That's a long story, I'll go in the future!"
”Then, Zhu Youxiao said: "In the past, the income of the Ming Dynasty mainly relied on the field endowment, but if the field does not increase, the field endowment in the world will be limited, even if the wind and rain are smooth in a year, it is only tens of millions of stone field endowments, and the population is constantly increasing, and it is very difficult to feed the newly increased population, let alone open up territory; Therefore, after every few generations, the dynasty will lose its territory, but now the main income of the imperial court is not the field endowment, but commercial taxes and customs duties, then as long as the more places to open up the territory and have enough population, then we can sell more Ming goods, collect more commercial taxes and duties, so we have to change our thinking, we have to take the initiative to open up the territory to the outside world, not as in the past, in order to save people's wealth, we have to retract their momentum, abandon the land and lose the city; What Yuan Aiqing said just now is not wrong, the army must be expanded, and more Ming soldiers must be armed with firearms to earn more land and population for the Ming Dynasty!
”