My life skills in Daming Liver

Shen Shixing suddenly said: "Grand Governor, do you mean to let the income from developed provinces subsidize those inland provinces? Use the subsidy money to allow underdeveloped areas to develop cultural and educational undertakings that are unlikely to develop in the short term?"

Su Ze nodded, and Shen Shixing said:

"But if this happens, officials and people in Southern Zhili, Zhejiang and Fujian will have opinions. Don't our sovereignty belong to the people? Those representatives of the Constituent Assembly will definitely have a quarrel."

With the popularity of newspapers, some representatives of the Constitutional Convention also began to use newspapers to promote public opinion.

Many people have opened columns in newspapers, and some even set up special columns in newspapers to collect local public opinion.

Although for now, the Constituent Assembly is just a decoration, and the appointment and dismissal of officials are still appointed by the Metropolitan Governor's Office. With Su Ze's prestige in office, the district Constituent Assembly simply cannot resist Su Ze's authority.

Not to mention Su Ze, the current cabinet ministers also started their business with Su Ze, and their prestige is enough to suppress the Constitutional Assembly.

But it will be hard to say in the future.

Moreover, the representatives of the Constitutional Convention can make noise and force the government to deal with some hot issues. This also allows many officials to have supervision. It is indeed a progressive system.

One thing Shen Shixing didn't say is that under Su Ze's theory of sovereignty in the people, new trends of thought began to appear among the people.

As Su Ze turned on the switch of academic confinement, various trends of thought emerged.

The emergence of newspapers also allowed various theories to spread faster.

Su Ze is naturally happy to see this development.

Shen Shixing served as the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture and was from Suzhou, so he was naturally very concerned about public opinion in southern Zhili.

Shen Shixing said hesitantly: "Nowadays, in the entire Susong area, there is a trend that some inland areas are closed and backward, and the people in these places are lazy, so they deserve to be poor."

"They also believe that the government should not invest too much in these areas, especially the Xuzhou Railway."

"What happened to the Xuzhou Railway?"

"The Su-Song Railway is profitable, but the Xuzhou Railway is not profitable at all. These people believe that the government should not lead this type of investment. This is equivalent to using all the tax money of Southeast Asia to help build Xuzhou, and this kind of construction cannot recover the cost at all. ,Meaningless."

Su Ze narrowed his eyes and said, "It's not just the Susong area, many officials also have this idea."

Shen Shixing nodded and said: "It is true. Not only the Susong area, but also some government agencies in Nanjing also have this idea. They believe that the government should not interfere with economic activities and should allow the local economy to develop freely."

Su Ze smiled and said: "Isn't this liberalism? Haha."

Liberalism?

Shen Shixing murmured, and felt that the four words Su Ze were very subtle and perfectly represented this trend of thought.

Isn't this freedom? Nowadays, among the young scholars in Su and Song Dynasties, many people are shouting "freedom" and want to break through various constraints, and there are even many strange things happening.

Su Ze could only lament that the emergence of certain trends of thought was indeed a historical necessity.

In areas with good economies, it is normal for liberal thoughts to emerge.

Historically, this trend of thought also appeared in the Jiangnan region at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and a group of so-called "crazy Confucians", "crazy monks" and "crazy warriors" emerged.

If Su Ze had not changed history, his wife's uncle Li Zhi would have been the most famous person among the mad Confucians in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Li Zhi in the late Ming Dynasty put forward a variety of shocking ideas, including those that opposed ethics and advocated freedom. Some people even said that Li Zhi was the liberator of the mind in the late Ming Dynasty. pioneer.

But now Li Zhi is still serving as the magistrate of Zhejiang and has completely given up on academics.

Su Ze felt a little regretful some time ago, thinking that he had changed history and turned a thinker like Li Zhi into a rule-abiding official.

But I didn't expect that the same trend of thought would appear in the Susong area in advance.

Even if Su Ze's ideological foundation of sovereignty lies in the people, these liberalisms have the blessing of public opinion, which makes them more justified.

Even the government in the southeast has many supporters of this idea, who believe that the government should reduce direct investment and use public debt to raise funds for infrastructure construction instead of spending money directly like the Xuzhou Railway.

The more extreme ones believe that the government should not manage the market, let alone business.

Su Ze said: "It is normal for this kind of thought to appear in the Susong area, but Rumo, do you think this idea is really correct?"

Shen Shixing also fell silent.

When he was in charge of Songjiang Mansion, he also met many workshop owners and businessmen who started from scratch.

These workshop owners and businessmen relied on opportunities and their own efforts to finally achieve success.

The "free" transportation of goods and selling them to other places is one of the foundations of the rise of southeastern industry and commerce.

Shen Shixing also agrees with their thinking to a certain extent. After all, the taxes collected are collected from all the people in the southeast. They are used to build railways, which can also be said to be infrastructure construction. If they are directly sent to the governments in inland areas, subsidies will be provided. They set up culture and education, which is really difficult for people in developed areas to accept.

There is even an idea that people in developed areas work hard to support the lazy people in underdeveloped areas.

Su Ze said with a smile: "If you are poor, you will have local protection, if you are rich, you will have free trade. Isn't that what most people think?"

Shen Shixing carefully pondered these two sentences and felt that Su Ze had expressed the essence of free trade.

Su Ze said: "The purpose of our shipping department's tariffs is not to allow our more competitive products to be sold abroad and to prevent competitive products from other countries from coming in. To allow as much silver as possible to flow into the country and to prevent silver from flowing out of the country. .”

Shen Shixing nodded. Since the concept of mercantilism was proposed, it has always been the national policy of the Southeast.

This national policy is also the foundation of the Southeast. Relying on this national policy, silver can continuously flow into the Southeast, and this is how the Southeast market prospers.

Otherwise, considering the economy of the Southeast, there would not be so much silver in the country that could serve as currency.

The Municipal Shipping Department has also been implementing this national policy.

Su Ze said: "But have these people ever thought that they really earned their money entirely by themselves?"

"Without a unified market and developed technology, will they definitely be able to make money?"

"Then why didn't they make money when the Ming Dynasty ruled?"

Shen Shixing also nodded and said: "It is true. It is not the advanced technology, unified market, and increasingly convenient logistics that have given these industrial and commercial owners the opportunities. They all attribute the opportunities to their own efforts." , it is indeed too one-sided.”

Su Ze said: "One-sided? Rumo, have you read this article?"

Su Ze handed a thick magazine to Shen Shixing.

"Mathematics", Shen Shixing naturally knew this magazine. It was a magazine sponsored by "Tiangong Academy" and mainly included "papers" related to arithmetic.

Shen Shixing didn't understand why Su Ze took out an arithmetic magazine when discussing free market issues.

Although Shen Shixing likes reading, it does not include arithmetic books.

Especially these arithmetic papers made him drowsy and dizzy.

As the Minister of Education in charge of education, this magazine was sent to Shin Shixing for review several times when it was first published.

Shen Shixing could still understand some of the initial arithmetic papers, but with the development of arithmetic, it has now developed to the point where he can't even understand the questions!

Shen Shixing really wondered how the heads of these math guys grew.

Su Ze said: "There is an interesting paper in this issue of "Mathematics"."

Shen Shixing looked at the thick arithmetic and felt his scalp numb.

Su Ze said: "Rumo, read this article."

"Suppose there are 100 people, each of them has 100 copper coins, and they immediately make a transaction and give one of their coins to the other party."

“Is this a fair trade model of free trade?”

Shen Shixing thought about it and realized that this was indeed an ideal free market.

"Rumo, you don't need to look at the calculation process, just look at the results."

“This kind of transaction is random, and everyone participating in the transaction is actually completely equal by default, which means that everyone’s ability, background, and initial capital are exactly the same, which can be regarded as the most ideal and fair situation. Everyone brings a fair amount of initial capital to participate in market transactions.”

Shen Shixing nodded quickly. This experiment indeed assumes this fair premise that is completely impossible in reality.

"But the result of this mathematical experiment is that after many blind auditions and tens of millions of transactions, the wealth of these one hundred people changed."

Shen Shixing turned to the conclusion and saw only a beautiful curve that conformed to mathematical rules. After many transactions, the wealth of this sample has greatly diverged.

Shen Shixing looked at Su Ze in surprise, and Su Ze said:

“Even if people with exactly the same abilities trade in a free market, everyone’s wealth will eventually be distributed normally, which means freedom does not mean fairness.”

"The differentiation starts from the first few transactions. People who have accumulated more wealth in the current period are more likely to expand their advantages in free transactions and obtain more wealth."

"In reality, there is no completely fair starting point. If this differentiation is allowed to continue, wealth will only become more and more concentrated."

"This model does not deny the importance of effort, but what is more important than effort is timing. Individual efforts may not play a big role in the distribution of wealth in the entire society."

"Freedom does not mean fairness, but complete freedom is actually the greatest injustice."