New Shun 1730

Chapter 1159: Many Forks in the Road, Where Are We Now (XIV)

So, before the Industrial Revolution broke out in Dashun, Songsu, what was the main problem of the world's cotton textile trade?

It was the Indian working people and the Chinese working people, competing with each other to see who could win.

Look at these two big countries with a population of over 200 million. Whoever wins will control the world's cotton textile trade.

Are London, Paris, Manchester, Lancashire, etc. qualified to participate in this cotton trade at this time?

However, with the outbreak of the Dashun Industrial Revolution, the nature of the trade changed. It was no longer a competition between handicrafts with similar efficiency to see whose labor was cheaper.

Instead, it became a competition of efficiency.

They are all handicrafts, and everyone is about the same.

At most, I can rub one foot and two, and you can rub one foot and three, and there is no difference in order of magnitude.

But it was different after the Industrial Revolution.

Even the weak iron wheel pedal loom of Dashun, which lacked the beauty of steam and large factories, still increased efficiency by four times.

This is really not something that can be won by trying hard and reducing wages.

But didn't the Industrial Revolution of Dashun just break out?

Therefore, after Dashun sanctioned the Danish East India Company and carried out the religious and opium cases, the shareholders of the British East India Company launched a class self-help movement and increased their investment in India.

Because, in addition to tea, porcelain, rhubarb, high-end silk, brass and other key products, it seems that India can really replace part of Dashun's goods.

Of course, it seems that Dashun used a large number of handicrafts to exchange for a bunch of waste silver that could not be eaten when hungry or worn when cold.

But in fact, this is not the real main line of Dashun's trade and reform in recent years.

The real main line is to accumulate a large amount of silver through the enrichment of commerce, and then use this enriched silver as an investment, basically throwing it into the large-scale development of Northeast China, Nanyang, Northern Jiangsu, and Ezo.

It is still a variant of high accumulation and high investment under the control of the visible hand.

Otherwise, Dashun's copper coin and silver exchange problem that gave Liu Yu a headache would have exploded long ago.

After all, the situation of Dashun at this time is a bit like the later generations in the 1990s. How much green paper is earned, how much RMB is issued internally. Basically, the Songsu Trade Zone is the bank of Dashun, which uses silver as currency.

Dashun is just a "bank of issuance" controlled by Liu Yu, who throws money into the immigration development of Northeast and Nanyang, expands the plate and controls inflation.

The effect is that Dashun is fine now, but a bigger crisis is behind it. The larger plate makes the capital increase faster. The next time there is no investment point, Songsu capital may really go to buy land.

Therefore, with the outbreak of the Dashun Industrial Revolution, the Indian issue is different from the logic of the previous Northeast and Nanyang development.

Dashun needs India to be a raw material production area and industrial product market.

But at this moment, this logic is definitely not reasonable, because it seems that it is impossible to be an industrial product market now.

So it can only use the commercial capital profit problem of the old Ma teaching of reverse training to persuade the emperor to collect taxes and salt taxes in India.

Before that, Dashun certainly faced a trade dilemma similar to France.

But in fact, it is different from France.

The similarity between Dashun and France on the issue of Indian trade determined that France must withdraw from India.

The difference between Dashun and France on the issue of Indian trade determined that the Emperor of Dashun was very interested in India.

It's not just a pie in the sky.

After all, Dupleix also spent a lot of money collecting taxes on the King of France.

The difference is that, indeed, Dashun has many things that cannot be sold in India. For example, textiles that overlap with France, cotton cloth and woolen cloth are all large categories of textiles.

But Dashun also has many things that can be sold in India, so that the emperor can really see the money, and France really doesn't have it.

Moreover, this has little to do with Dashun's industrial revolution.

Basically, the commodities of the industrial revolution that Dashun just started to develop basically cannot be sold in India.

However, Dashun's own handicraft expertise and Dashun's business in Southeast Asia allowed Dashun to stubbornly maintain a huge trade surplus with India.

Rosewood.

Sandalwood.

Pepper.

Sulfur.

Coffee.

Dried fruits such as dates.

Tin.

Teak.

Burmese ivory.

Chili pepper.

Candle.

Whale oil.

Incense.

Masala powder made from Zhejiang turmeric and Nanyang spices.

Ceylon betel nut and gemstones.

Palm oil from Nanyang plantations.

And the special products of Dashun handicraft industry: alum, porcelain, tea.

Glass.

Copycat clocks from Songsu.

Strange medicines.

And Dashun's special products for India: gold powder - Dashun's gold powder is not gold powder, but zinc alloy powder. The gold powder that Indian rich people like to sprinkle and apply may be real gold. The gold powder driven by Dashun's Xibei goods has become a very special, irreplaceable, and quickly famous product. Maybe gold powder has some religious or cultural significance in India. In short, the gold powder made by Dashun's profiteers with zinc alloy is very easy to sell.

It looks scattered, but some of them are exclusive to the emperor's treasury, and some of them are scattered, but they add up to a lot.

Dashun only imported a few items from India.

Cotton.

Saltpeter.

Rice.

Hemp rope.

That was it.

Cotton was mainly used for cotton jackets and trousers of immigrants from Northeast China, so that the long-staple cotton in Java, Subei, could be used to make cloth.

Saltpeter: On the one hand, the demand for gunpowder surged after the Dashun military reform; on the other hand, Subei used Indian saltpeter as fertilizer.

As for many stories, it seems that India produces high-quality dyes, indigo.

In fact, India does not produce indigo now.

Dashun and France monopolized the indigo dye in the world at this time.

Historically, until the storm of 1993, when the ideas of revolution spread all over the world and the black leader Toussaint, who accepted the enlightenment ideas of the Great Revolution, revolted, Haiti monopolized the world's indigo production - so before the ginseng trade, no one would be willing to exchange the entire North America for Haiti, which produced 40% of European sugar, had almost 100% monopoly on indigo, and ate mud cakes in later generations.

France was willing to use a battleship fleet to defend Haiti, but it was impossible for it to send 1,000 more soldiers to India.

The reason why Dashun could monopolize indigo dye with France at this time is also a strange coincidence...

Because Dashun claims to be the water virtue.

Then there is the famous ironic joke before the founding of Dashun: In the eyes of the mud legs of Dashun, the water virtue is not black, but blue... "The thieves are water-based and prefer blue."

Therefore, the military uniforms of Dashun are blue.

Therefore, the plantations in Southeast Asia, especially Java, have become the indigo production areas on par with Haiti.

However, coincidentally, before the emergence of synthetic dyes, if the industrial revolution broke out, the most suitable universal dye is indigo.

It is cheap and can be mass-produced, which is most suitable for industrialization.

Otherwise, things like carmine are expensive and not suitable for use on machine cotton cloth; and dyes such as betel nut are not the colors that Dashun likes.

Therefore, at this time, Dashun did not have indigo in its trade imports in India, because India's indigo exports had to wait until the storm in 1993, when the British were dumbfounded and the industrial chain was broken, before they began to engage in indigo grass on a large scale in India.

On the contrary, the raw materials for dyes in India were Ceylon betel nuts provided by Dashun, and they preferred this color.

The above are the differences between Dashun and France when facing the Indian issue.

Therefore, Liu Yu never used the perspective and worldview of the bourgeoisie to tell the emperor the story of India.

Because although there was a capitalist trade component, this component could only arouse the emperor's interest, but it was not enough to make the emperor determined to engage in India.

From the beginning to the end, Liu Yu stood from a standard perspective, the emperor's minister, and the feudal ruling class to deceive the emperor into engaging in India.

Three perspectives.

The reverse practice under the feudal ruler's characteristic understanding of Lao Ma [commercial capital, in its dominant position, represents a system of plunder and robbery everywhere] is to collect taxes.

This is not necessary to mention. How the salt merchants before Liu Yu's salt reform and the Dutch suppressed the price of sugar in Java before are called the robbery system under the dominant position of commercial capital.

The other two are cotton and saltpeter.

Looking at cotton from the perspective of capitalism is different from looking at cotton from the perspective of the feudal rulers of Dashun.

There is no need to mention the perspective of capitalism.

The emperor's perspective is that the emperor does not want cotton to be grown in North China and the Central Plains.

I hope they can grow more grain and a little cotton, just enough for themselves, and don't plant a lot of land for cotton.

I feel uneasy.

Northern Jiangsu can grow cotton for profit because it is convenient for transportation, but it is regarded as "outside" by the emperor, not "inside", and thrown out of the basic plate of small peasant economy, the imperial power.

If something really happens... let's see what's going on.

If something happens, there is an advantage in sea transportation, which makes it convenient to mobilize grain for disaster relief, and nothing serious will happen.

If something happens, food can be blocked, which is convenient for suppression, but nothing serious will happen.

If the Central Plains were infected by the Songsu area, and people would stop growing grain and grow cotton, the invisible hand could adjust it, but the problem is that adjustment takes time. The emperor was afraid that before he could adjust it, the rebels would destroy his ancestral graves.

Having no grain is a big deal.

Especially since the Grand Canal was controlled by Liu Yu, the rice supply to the capital was stable, but if there was a famine in Henan and other places, the rice transport through the canal could not be counted on, so it was better to grow more grain honestly.

Of course, it would be best to grow cotton in non-core areas to meet the demand for cotton under the development of the commodity economy.

In recent years, along with activities such as reclamation and crossing Guandong, some places in North China have also begun to grow cotton, and the price has risen in recent years.

The emperor hoped that Liu Yu would use foreign low-priced cotton to directly kill North China's attempt to grow cotton and not grow grain properly, just like the method used to deal with Shenyang's previous trial of growing cotton - what kind of economic crops should be grown, just grow grain honestly and get rid of tobacco and cotton.

Because the emperor basically understood one thing: as long as there is food to eat, the people will not rebel under normal circumstances; the Central Plains and North China are the base of the Dashun imperial power. There were too many deaths in the wars at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Dashun compromised less here, so the small peasant economy is very stable, and the base in the sense of class cannot be disturbed.

Therefore, this involves the issue of Bengal saltpeter.

At this time, the only saltpeter mines in the world that can be mined, transported, and used are Chile and Bangladesh.

Needless to say, the military value.

The key is the Academy of Sciences. The agronomy under the guidance of Liu Yu gave the emperor hope of a stable rule.

Liu Yu's level is definitely not enough for breeding or something.

However, he understands the principle that a crop is a flower, and it all depends on fertilizer.

Salt was used as nitrogen fertilizer and potash fertilizer, and the wheat yield per mu was 150 kilograms, and it gradually increased to 600 kilograms.

600 kilograms per mu, in later generations, would be called "disaster", "food crisis", and "disaster year".

In modern times, it is because the emperor has seen many strange things in recent years, otherwise it can be directly regarded as "auspicious".

The emperor's evaluation of this was [If the land in the world is like this, this dynasty can hope to have a foundation of 800 years like the Zhou Dynasty].

This evaluation is already the highest.

Because since the legend of "stop when encountering good luck and have a foundation of 300 years" was circulated in the previous Ming Dynasty - this saying existed before the uprising, not made up later - basically, even if they shouted that it would last for thousands of years, their hearts were like a mirror: 300 years of foundation is the limit, and Zifang's 400 years of prosperity in the Han Dynasty and Taigong's 800 years of prosperity in the Zhou Dynasty can only be dreamed of.

The "auspicious signs" that the Academy of Sciences' agricultural science has produced so far include wheat yielding 600 kilograms per mu; corn cobs as big as a baby's arm; intercropped peas and wheat yielding more than 1,000 kilograms per mu...

What can basically be regarded as a "disaster year" in later generations, at this time, all are jaw-dropping auspicious signs.

Liu Yu's dream is industrialization.

His dream does not require imagination, because he just follows it.

In fact, in recent years, the emperor, under Liu Yu's deception, also has the dream of "industrialization with feudal imperial characteristics".

Basically all depends on thinking:

Several large canals that do not need water - that is, railways - station the elite in the capital, and quickly suppress any trouble wherever it occurs.

Steam engines with Tianlong cars are popular in North China, and the official controls the pumping stations of steam engines and Tianlong cars, so there is no worry about floods and droughts.

If we can get saltpeter mines and produce 500 kilograms per mu, no one will rebel. If we can create the miracle of Ji Zhou for 800 years, or even 600 or 500 years, even if Dashun is destroyed, there may be something like "Golden Knife Prophecy".

People cannot imagine things they have never seen.

Industrial production of these things is definitely impossible now, but the "model" of the Academy of Sciences is very good. It is easy to make a model of steam car, railway, dragon car and saltpeter fertilizer.

So.

Where does the money come from?

India collects taxes.

Where does saltpeter come from?

India mines.

Where do miners come from?

India labors.

What do miners eat?

Indian rice.

As for Liu Yu's idea of ​​destroying India's small peasant economy and pulling it into the capitalist system, etc., the emperor can know or not know. In short, it is: if you want to play, play secretly, we will not affect each other, and there will be no conflict for the time being.

At least before occupying India, we are on the same path.

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