Dominate the Country

After flipping the valve, the water that was pouring down like raindrops suddenly stopped. Chen Ming wiped the water droplets on his face and quickly wiped his body with a towel beside him. His body, which had just been sweating profusely due to exercise, immediately became refreshed!

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but since the power-storing water pumping of the imperial palace water tower became steam power, he felt that the water flow suddenly became powerful.

Since the practical steam engine was manufactured, with the control of Chen Ming’s will, the "Patent Act" was quickly passed at the cabinet meeting, and then the patent application of Zhongshan Academy of Natural Sciences was quickly recognized. Then Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce purchased the exclusive right to a 20-year patent period for the steam engine from Zhongshan Academy of Natural Sciences at a sky-high price of one million banknotes, and the patent protection period for inventions and innovations in the "Patent Act" is also 20 years.

This news shocked the whole of China!

Everyone realized the value of the "Patent" at the first time, and everyone also understood the meaning of the patent at the first time.

When the time entered May, the first batch of steam engines off the production line had been put into use. The imperial palace, various government offices and colleges in Nanjing were the first users of these steam engines. Then there were orders from Nanjing Shuntian Prefecture, which were enough for the newly opened steam engine factory to produce for one month. Because Nanjing was going to officially roll out tap water, steam engines were of course indispensable.

Everyone realized the wonderful prospects of steam engines. In the future, not to mention the private sector, just the government orders, that would be paper money like snowflakes. Is a million patent fee expensive? A month ago, many people said it was impossible, but now no one thinks it is not worth it. The exclusive patent period is twenty years.

The greatest significance of this patent law is to use the future "technology disclosure" in exchange for legal protection within a certain period of time. The twenty-year patent protection period was a decision made by Chen Ming after thinking again and again. At the same time, the British, the country that first introduced patent law in the world, had a patent period of thirty years.

Chen Ming finally chose a twenty-year protection period. Because the patent law is to encourage technological progress and has to grant short-term monopoly rights, it is not to let inventors lie on the credit book and be parasites for life. At the beginning of this issue, a fifty-year protection period was proposed. Chen Ming felt that this period was too long in all senses. Moreover, by setting a relatively high patent maintenance fee (starting from the eleventh year, the higher it is later), the patent owner was forced to give up the patent early. Unless it was a very profitable patent, such as the steam engine, which had an extremely bright future, it was difficult for anyone to keep the patent period until the end of twenty years.

Chen Ming was arbitrary on this point. He said twenty years was twenty years, because in the world, there was another country with patent law, Britain, where the thirty-year patent period played an unexpected role in the epoch-making invention of Watt's steam engine. Chen Ming's memory of his previous life clearly told him that this period was really too long.

Watt got the patent in the late 1960s, but the steam engine was produced next year - 1776 in the Western calendar. It was just that Watt had a very good partner, who made the British Parliament agree to extend Watt's patent period, which was a very remarkable ability. After the patent protection of Watt's steam engine came into effect and went into production, did many people feel that Watt was continuing to explore the potential of the steam engine? The fact is that most of Watt's substantial energy thereafter was not spent on continuing to improve the performance of the steam engine, but on defending against competing inventors. Watt obtained additional patent rights, which gave him unfair expectations on the crank movement. Even more dramatically, when the more advanced Hornblower engine was put into production, Bolton and Watt used the legal system to drive out competitors and force them to stop production.

During Watt's patent period, Britain added about 750 horsepower steam engines per year. In the thirty years covered by Watt's patent, additional horsepower [foreign] increased at a rate of 4,000 per year. In addition, during Watt's patent period, the efficiency of steam engine fuel did not change much. After his patent expired, British steam engines had most of the efficiency improvements in all aspects.

Too long a patent protection period is to encourage patent holders to rest on their patents. It is very likely that major technological innovations will not be implemented due to the existence and obstruction of existing patents, which will hinder the progress of technology.

However, many people still don't think of this. Whether it is an official or a commoner, more people look at the surface. An invention patent sold for 1 million, which caused an unimaginable sensation throughout China. Whether it is for ordinary people or ordinary landlords, one million banknotes is an astronomical figure that they can't imagine. Even the foreigners in major trading ports and Nanjing Commercial Street were stunned by this phenomenon.

Everyone immediately set their sights on the newly released "Patent Act". Then the foreigners were surprised to find that it did not stipulate that patent rights must be applied for by local people, and foreign inventions can also be applied for. It's just that China has certain mandatory implementation regulations. For example, if the patent holder does not implement the patent right within a certain period of time, the state has the right to force others to implement the patent, and they only need to pay the average patent license fee of the patent holder. This is also to prevent the patent holder from using monopoly to prevent technological progress.

Compared with the 150-year-old "Monopoly Law" in the UK, China's "Patent Act" has a considerable degree of innovation. Although it is impossible to completely restrict patent holders from using their patents to obstruct the invention and application of new technologies, the inventors of new technologies already have certain countermeasures. For example, the tragedy of Jonathan Hornblower in the history of the original British time and space, in this time and space China, in the long future, of course, it is impossible to completely eliminate it, but Chen Ming also hopes to reduce it as much as possible. Spending energy to suppress competitors and obtain privileges is called rent-seeking behavior by later economists. History and common sense have shown that it is the evil result of legal monopoly. But the significance of patent law is so great. This can only mean that many things really need to be looked at in two ways!

Before Chen Ming knew it, many foreigners in China had already written letters to China. Although it was unknown how long it would take for these new things to reach the hands of the recipients, there was no doubt that when these letters arrived in Europe, China's "Patent Act" and millions of patents would spread throughout Europe like the wind.

But for most ordinary people, this thing was just a temporary shock. When a patent boom was surging all over China, many people in Nanjing were watching the water towers rising from the ground in the city with great interest. For them, this was a major event related to life and rest.

With the steam engine, Chen Ming's palace was the first to install it. Before the patent was signed, the old tap water system in the palace changed from animal power to steam power. The large tin pipe was connected to the flow, the animal power siphon was used to drain the water, and the small copper pipe was connected to the large tin pipe, and then equipped with a faucet. Chen Han's palace and Chen Ming's previous prince's mansion both had water towers, and they started to draw water with animal power early, and there was no shortage of supply. But now I don't know if it's psychological reasons or something else, Chen Ming really feels that the water sprayed from this shower head is more powerful than before.

In the entire Nanjing city, when the city streets were rebuilt before, there were already sewers and tin pipes buried. Now connect the small copper pipes and add a faucet, and the people can also enjoy the convenience of tap water.

However, tap water is also charged. Although it doesn't cost much, there must be people in the huge city of Nanjing who are reluctant to give it up. They also have many ways to get around it, anyway, there are no water meters in this era. There will be no shortage of "clever tricks" like several families sharing one faucet in Nanjing in the future, which requires the newly established tap water company of Shuntianfu Material Department to compete with the ordinary citizens of Nanjing.

"Mills, crushers, mixers..."

The steam engine that just came off the production line a few days ago has few places where it can be used now. In addition to pumping and belt conveyors, the textile machine will not be debugged until at least next month, and the rest is used in mills and crushing and mixing. The military factory also took away three steam engines, saying that they would connect the forging, but no good news has been heard in these days.

"Tell the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce to finalize the steam-powered textile machine by the end of this month, and hold an investment promotion conference next month, the location will be set in Nanjing."

After signing several documents submitted by the cabinet, Chen Ming received a more meaningful report. With the Fu Han Army in Beijing and Lanzhou launching an attack on the Qing Army in the northwest and northeast, it can be predicted that the Fu Han Army will seize the entire Gansu and Shengjing this year. So what should be done with the land bonds in the Northeast?

The newspaper has mentioned the increase in land bonds more than once. With the Fu Han Army's military action in the Northeast, the price of land bonds in the Northeast has become higher and higher. Not only some big merchants have made purchases, but many military and civilian companies have also set their sights on this piece of fat meat.

So what should be done with these land bonds? Should they be thrown to the people like this, or should the state redeem them with money? However, the rate of increase in land bonds is much greater than the cabinet's estimate last year.

Because last year, the military cooperative in Lushun [which has not yet been converted into a joint-stock military-civilian company] released another big news. They stopped growing rice and planted soybeans, and carried out deep processing of soybean products, such as oil extraction, such as making dried tofu and soybean paste, and then relied on their advantage of being close to the army to sell all of them to the army. Yes, all of them were sold, and there was nothing left. Even the remaining bean dregs cakes were fine feed that cattle and horses loved to eat.

Although they did not grow rice as before, and it was high-quality rice, which surprised the whole country, but this time their profits were undoubtedly greater.

The big news of the "rice" grown by the Lushun military cooperative at the beginning fundamentally refreshed the impression of the bitter and cold land in the Northeast in the minds of the people across the country. Many newspapers and newspapers, based on the starting point of earning eyeballs and making profits, conducted in-depth digging on this news, and as expected, they dug out the news that the Northeast Mohe tribe paid tribute to Chang'an a thousand years ago during the Tang Dynasty, "Lucheng Rice", which brought the first wave of price increases in Northeast land bonds.

Ordinary people are very blindly following newspapers. In this era of high illiteracy, newspapers have great power of public opinion.

Look at the location of the Mohe people at that time, and where Lucheng is. It is further north than the entire Liaoning [Shenyang], and is in Jilin and Heilongjiang. Rice can be grown there, which shows that the entire Northeast can grow rice. For many farmers, especially those in the north, any place where rice can be grown is definitely a paddy field, which is the best land.

In addition, the financial report of the military cooperative in Lushun, which was just released publicly last year, shows that their per-acre income is not much lower than that of the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River. Because growing beans is much more time-saving and labor-saving than growing rice! At the same time, all products of deep processing of soybeans have very good sales and have more potential than rice.

With the continuous import of rice from Annan and Siam, domestic grain prices have been falling. A large number of fields in the south of the Yangtze River have begun to turn to cash crop planting.

In the Northeast, where there are few people and a lot of land, the farm economy is very suitable for all this at the moment. The innate conditions have allowed the military cooperative in Lushun to embark on the farm management model, and the land bonds in the Northeast have ushered in a new wave of large increases with real benefits.

"Then you divert your attention? Let the people's attention be diverted!" What a common method this is in later generations, even in China's history, it has emerged in endlessly.

"Stock Exchange, isn't this a good opportunity to promote the Stock Exchange?"

"The channels for ordinary people to sell land bonds are limited, and there is no unified price. It is difficult for ordinary people to maximize their own interests. Then with the stock exchange, won't there be a new way to buy and sell such bonds?" And it is relatively open and transparent.

"As for the redemption of land bonds. You can ask the bank to redeem them according to the original interest rate. Remember, if you exchange them at the bank before the deadline of the 1:12 exchange rate, you will be paid according to the 1:12 exchange rate." The original interest rate of land bonds is an extremely low one cent, that is, one percent. But the land bonds outside the customs are only three silver dollars per mu, and the land sold is all concentrated in Liaoning. This is a completely free price.

Even if there is no firecrackers in the financial report of the Lushun Military Cooperative, if such land bonds are listed and taken to a regular stock exchange, it will not be difficult to double the unit price.

Chen Cong showed a look of cutting meat on his face, "Your Majesty, this price is too low." The price of land bonds has risen by 30% to 40%. If all of them are redeemed, and then the land in Liaoning is released, even if it is 60 banknotes per mu? The court will not benefit much more than it does now.

"That's what I should do." Chen Ming was thinking in his heart, but he should not be ungrateful. "Land bonds are called land bonds, but in fact they are war bonds. All those who buy land bonds are the most staunch supporters of our dynasty. Now that we have won the war, the court has taken most of the benefits, but you can't not even give a sip of soup to the supporters?" This wave of wealth is considered a war bonus. Chen Ming thinks it is what he should give, and he is willing to do it.

"The cabinet should guide public opinion."

"Also, how are the preparations for the immigrants entering Liao?"

"Are the contact points, food, medicine, cattle and farm tools along the way ready?"

Chen Ming held the military power tightly with one hand, and relaxed a lot with the cabinet with the other hand. For example, he handed over the next issue of immigration to the Northeast to the cabinet. If the cabinet replied that it was ready, Chen Ming would watch the next migration. If there was a problem, he would punish them.

The first batch of immigrants to the Northeast were all northerners, from Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi. It was best not to have any problems along the thousand-mile journey. If there was a problem, he would ask the cabinet. As for whether the cabinet would conceal his eyes and ears, Chen Ming felt that the cabinet was not capable of that.

"The reception stations, food, fodder, medicine, livestock and farm tools in the four northern provinces have all been prepared. This is the cabinet's summary report, please take a look, Your Majesty."

Chen Cong was very responsible and concerned about this matter. This thin booklet covered the "great migration" of the entire four provinces.

"Your Majesty, I also received a report from Gansu this morning. Since the beginning of winter last year, there has been little rain and snow in Gansu, and farmers are very eager for it. In the neighboring northern Shaanxi, there was little snow and rain last winter, but the rainfall after the beginning of spring this year was quite sufficient. However, Gansu, especially the western part of Gansu, is still unable to sustain.

The wheat harvest relies on spring rain. But the time of rain and sunshine is unpredictable. We should improve personnel and wait for the right time. We must make early preparations for savings."

Chen Ming narrowed his eyes. He also received a report from the Grand Commandery. After the beginning of spring this year, there was indeed not much rainfall in Gansu, especially in the western part of Gansu. This place was severely plundered by the Qing Dynasty last year. If there is another drought this year, it will be more urgent, bigger and more severe than the previous famines.

No, it is already May, and there are signs of famine.

"The cabinet is preparing to allocate 4 million [paper money] to Gansu for relief, and increase agricultural and water conservancy subsidies by 30%."

Chen Ming exempted Gansu's agricultural taxes this year and next year, otherwise the relief money would be more than 4 million. This 4 million is more for the refugees in western Gansu. The 30% increase in agricultural and water conservancy subsidies will allow Gansu to hire more people to build water conservancy projects.

"What are the local officials doing?"

"All localities have contacted the army to strengthen local patrols and public security. In addition, altars are set up to pray for rain. Millions of people are eager for rain. Local officials, gentry and people are praying for harmony from heaven. If the rain comes in time, there is still hope for the harvest..."

Chen Ming's cheeks twitched.