New Shun 1730

When the carriage they took arrived at the town, which is pronounced as Ratnapura and translated as Jewel City or Treasure Island, the first thing that caught their eyes was the bustling streets and shops.

Some soldiers patrolled the streets, and there were also some women dressed up in fancy clothes. You don’t need to ask what they do.

The road on the street is very special, flashing a different blue, and under the sun, it has the color of the sea, which is indescribably brilliant.

The driver who kindly gave them a ride smiled at the two people staring at the road with strange eyes, saying, "This gem city was rebuilt later. At the beginning, all the houses were built with coconut wood. These stones were not valuable at the time. They were white and looked a bit like moldy coconut meat. They were all slag left over from the gem mines."

"As a result, a big fire later burned all these wooden houses. Guess what?"

It was like the old man commonly seen in Dashun Village or the city. After keeping the suspense a little and earning enough expectations, he said, "As a result, after those wooden houses burned down, the ground was hot for a long time, and these originally white and gray paving stones turned blue like sapphires."

"But, after all, they are not real gems and are still worthless. But if you use them to pave the road, they are pretty good-looking. After paving, they are blue and look like broken glass all over the ground."

In this era, broken glass all over the ground may be one of the most beautiful scenes in the eyes of many people or what they can imagine.

But this scene of paving the road with a little bit of colorful stones is indeed shocking enough.

In fact, this kind of broken stuff is called milk stone in later generations. It is aluminum oxide like ruby ​​and sapphire, but it looks ugly and covered with a layer of titanium dioxide. It is ugly. In later generations, technology has improved. If you control the temperature and burn it, it actually has the potential to be a sapphire.

Now, it is just a beautiful legend of Dashun occupying Ceylon's gem mining industry, and it is not worth much.

After the fire, the houses here were all made of brick and stone, and a street of shops was formed along the street.

While introducing the wonderful scenery here, the driver said something to the special practitioners who were posing next to him. This is a mining area, and naturally it is not as vulgar as the atmosphere of Yangzhou City in the past.

When they arrived at a shop, the driver stopped the carriage, and the two people in the carriage went to buy cigarettes. Only then did they notice that the carriage was loaded with bags of flour. There was a bun shop next to it, and the buns were also fried, probably to meet the miners' taste for big oil and big meat.

The driver took the cigarette and said, "Many of the miners here are from northern Jiangsu and Dengzhou. They are not used to eating rice, and flour is expensive here, so they have to rely on shipping from outside. Anyway, these people have money and are not hungry. After getting paid, they either go to find women, gamble, eat, and drink."

"Otherwise, these people are difficult to serve. The Tamils ​​are willing to work as long as they are given some rice and some curry and onions."

"But there are imperial supervisors here, and only Tang people are allowed to be employed. The inspection is much stricter than that of the plantation. If each work group knows about it but does not report it, they will be punished by the baojia system, and they are required to pay money on time every month, hey..."

Although the driver is just a driver, he doesn't know why he sympathizes with those who run the mines and thinks that the imperial court is really a bit harsh on them.

I don't know how these news or ideas are spread.

In short, it is unlikely that he thought of it himself.

These words really surprised Zhao Liben. He thought it was really strange. He had worked in a mine before...

"Brother, are you serious? You are not trying to trick us into working in a mine, are you?"

With deep fear of gold, silver and gemstone mines, Zhao Liben asked subconsciously, thinking that he had said the same thing when he was tricked into being a slave in the Huanglongfu Black Gold Mine.

The driver said, "Brother, what are you talking about? You can earn a lot in the mine, but the risk is also great. The mine cave will collapse if you are not careful. It rains a lot here, so people die every month. This is a place where you exchange your life for money. Come if you want to, and leave if you don't want to."

"To be honest, it's easy to make a living on this island now. Go and rub cinnamon, or go to catch pearls from clams. If that doesn't work, go to the plantation. You can't climb trees to pick coconuts, but you can pick coffee, right? But even though they know that the mine is risky, so many people still rush to come. The mine doesn't recruit many people, so why should I lie to you?"

Zhao Liben thought about it and it seemed to make sense. He apologized. The driver smiled and said, "In fact, most people can't do this."

"Go forward and you'll reach the mining area. It's surrounded by wood. , just to prevent people from taking things away privately."

"When you get off work... you have to come out naked. Not only naked, but also have to open your mouth like checking livestock."

"Finally, you have to lie on the ground, spread your buttocks and stick them up, and pass by one by one, for fear that someone will get out with something stuck in. Last time, someone did this, his legs were broken, and he was hung up and beaten."

"But I heard that someone still brought something out, I don't know how he did it, but he said he bought a boat and went out to do business. I don't know if it's true or not."

Zhao Liben sounded true, and he felt much more relaxed, and smiled: "That's right. There are always rumors of this or that in any mine, but few are true."

"To be honest, brother, I'm here to look for someone. My brother seems to be working here, where can I find him? Brother, can you show me the way?"

The driver hummed and said, "Actually, I knew you were here to look for someone. The gentleman next to you is dressed and speaks in a way that he must be from Dengzhou Prefecture. He is dressed like a soldier, an inspector, or a secret investigator."

"Go inside. You can't enter the mining area. Go a little further and there is a building, the company's office. If you are looking for someone, go there."

Zhao Liben thanked him repeatedly, feeling happy. Although his brother had the courage to go to Ceylon alone, he might not dare to hide gems.

As long as he is lucky and doesn't die of illness or die from a mine tunnel collapse due to rain, he might have a chance to see his brother.

Quan Zheshen was not as excited as Zhao Liben.

Although the road was paved with blue milkstone, there were shops on both sides, and the streets were full of vitality, it was even more humane than Seoul.

But a sense of ritual collapse, the end of the world, the loss of people's hearts, the decline of morality, and the pursuit of profit permeated the streets.

As a Confucian scholar, he naturally didn't like this kind of lively feeling.

But he just sniffed and followed Zhao Liben to the building in front.

Turning the street and walking a distance, they came to the place the driver said.

It was a very interesting building. I found the main door and pushed it open. There were two people sitting inside. When they came in, they waved their hands and said, "We are not hiring recently."

Zhao Liben quickly stated his purpose, reported his name, and handed over a dollar. The person sitting there skillfully took out a set of rosters.

Put the work group roster aside first, took out a set of rosters next to it according to the surnames, and searched there.

Quan Zheshen put his hands behind his back and looked at some things on the wall that made him very uncomfortable.

One was a time sheet, and the other was a clear salary sheet.

The miners would have three days off every month, on the first, fifteenth, and thirtieth of the month.

There were also fixed times for going to work and leaving work on weekdays.

The ore dug by the work group was also paid by piecework and commission.

The rest are some rules that need to be followed.

Quan Zhe was dizzy, he really had never seen such a situation.

After all, he was either a slave or a laborer in Korea, and he was not used to the strange working system here.

But it seems... it seems that life here is really good.

Quan Zhe thought to himself, could it be that the miners here all have the style of ancient gentlemen?

The Celestial Empire is indeed different.

However, in fact, he was wrong.

A gentleman with a hairy face.

The capitalists of Dashun are certainly not made of special materials.

This is purely forced out.

Of course, in addition to being forced, Dashun's technological progress has led to Dashun's excess profits from the gem industry, which is also part of the reason.

In fact, if the "Dashun Chartered Ceylon Company" is established, you don't need to use your brain, but use your tintin to think, you can also know that capital will not choose Chinese as labor, but will choose Tamils ​​with cheaper freight and lower resistance to the caste system.

The distance from Tamils ​​to Ceylon is not far from Nanjing to Shanghai.

The distance from Chinese hired workers to Ceylon is equivalent to the distance from Shanghai to Almaty.

The cost of transporting a Chinese is more than 20 times that of transporting a Tamil.

Moreover, the events in Nanyang and the Batavia Wushan Party also left a deep impression on the emerging class of Dashun: when the Chinese are forced into a corner, they are easy to rebel, and are far less docile than people under the caste system.

If capital is not constrained, which one will it choose?

From the perspective of pure profit, it can be said that the profit of government supervision and business management is definitely not as high as that of government supervision and capital is completely free... or "efficiency".

To a certain extent, Liu Yu's many reforms are similar to [objectively] completing a historically progressive cause, purely using the special situation of Dashun to complete a historical and productivity progress.

Liu Yu often stands on the side of capital, suppressing small farmers, suppressing uprisings, and sometimes escorting capitalists in the court, but it is definitely not true to say that Liu Yu really stands with them.

In fact, Liu Yu's logic is very simple:

Ensure that the profit of capital investment is higher than the rent collected by buying land in Dashun, and higher than the trust in land brought by historical tradition.

Capital pursues profit, just like water flows to the lower place, which is a basic law.

Including Dashun's land annexation, it is actually in line with the law of pursuing profit under land ownership.

Someone has long said that a family with a lot of money, losing it today and burning it tomorrow, is far less than land. After the war, the Zhang family is still the Zhang family, and the Li family is still the Li family. The return rate of rent itself is not low, and there is also abundant risk-averse investment.

Land ownership plus land trading is allowed, capital naturally runs to land and lending. Invisible hand.

So Liu Yu appreciates the "reflection" that "Westerners conquered the world with gunpowder, and Chinese used gunpowder to make firecrackers" very much-the reflection is wrong, which clearly reflects the market economy spirit and profit orientation that the Chinese people have had for a long time.

Galileo's mechanics research funded by the Venetian Armory and Lavoisier's chemical research as the director of the Gunpowder Bureau are clearly "evil paths" under the state control and government guidance that go against the market economy.

Liu Yu didn't think about relying on his mind, but just changed this law, imagining that if a capitalist is a nation, he will definitely give up profits for the rise of the nation and the world of great contention.

He was just using this law.

It is not a rule that water flows from A to B; it is a rule that A is higher than B and water flows from high to low.

That is simple.

You can raise B a little bit.

For example, in Songsu area, he carried out a comprehensive land inventory and standard eleven taxes to increase land prices, reduce the income from buying land and collecting rent, and convert it into monetary rent to lower grain prices and force tenants to quit and flee.

You can also dig another C, which is deeper than B.

For example, the large-scale development of Kanto and Nanyang; overseas trade, etc.

In northern Jiangsu, he brutally suppressed salt households, that is, the profit of investing in northern Jiangsu to reclaim wasteland is higher than the profit of buying land and collecting rent in Songsu.

Since the small producer salt households are blocking, then suppress them.

The gold mine plan he proposed in Mohe, Heihe and other places to settle in the border areas is another idea, that is, from the beginning when the Oriental Trading Company had to bear military obligations and the obligation to train sailors - even if you bear the additional expenses of various obligations, the profit return rate is still higher than buying land and collecting rent. You are not willing, but some people are willing to do it.

The pure pursuit of profit and return rate is a situation that can only occur after the bourgeoisie seizes power, becomes the ruling class, and formulates laws that conform to its class interests.

The bourgeoisie of Dashun is still far from becoming the ruling class.

When Dashun's handicrafts and industrial base have huge advantages over the rest of the world, efficiency or profit is not the first priority.

As long as it is higher than buying land and collecting rent in Dashun, then the more efficient profit return, in his eyes, or from the abstract national perspective rather than the perspective of commercial capital, is meaningless redundant profit.

Just like Zhao Liben's experience in the black gold mine, and the difference between the gold mine and Heilongjiang immigration plan that Dashun is currently carrying out.

From the perspective of pure profit, the black gold mine, slavery, a small number of guards, and the profit return rate of capital are higher.

From the perspective of national expansion settlements, it is correct to supervise business, reduce the investment return of capital, and carry military and civil obligations.

Although Liu Yu did not understand how the British East India Company, which ranked first in the income table for a long time, the Bengal agricultural tax, the salt tax, the opium monopoly tax, the fourth was the profit of the comprador dumping Indian cotton cloth to the country, and the fifth was the contracting of the country's salt permits, was understood as the benchmark of free trade, commercial spirit, and the great power of industry and commerce.

Even the two mainstream economic thoughts of this era, mercantilism and free trade, were not related to it.

A mercantilism that allowed the outflow of precious metals and dumping to suppress the country's industry?

A free trade that relied on monopoly privileges and was attacked by the free trade school as a negative example?

Although he did not understand these debates and ideological stamping things, Liu Yu understood that the most suitable model for Dashun was not the British and Dutch model, but the French and Spanish model.

Spain's colonial trade policy was wrong.

The reason for the mistake was not that the colonial policy itself was wrong, but that Spain was not Dashun or Ming, and did not have any approval for its own handicraft capabilities.

With Spain's handicraft capabilities, is it qualified to ban foreign goods? Can it be banned?

France's colonial control policy is also wrong.

The reason for the mistake is not that the colonial control policy itself is wrong, but that France has a good geographical environment and has no regard for the living standards of its own population.

During the Spring Festival, every family has a chicken in the pot. 26 million people are not registered, and 350 million acres of arable land and pasture are also worthy of immigrants to occupy land? Except for the Protestants who were hit by the "Fontainebleau Edict", who would be willing to go?

According to the evaluation of the Hundred Schools of Thought during the period of contention between various schools of thought, learning from the British and Dutch is not even a way to find a sword by carving a boat, but a pure way of waiting for rabbits by the tree.

The British and Dutch model could not save Dashun, and could not even guide colonization and overseas trade.

Perhaps the Song Dynasty was the only chance for the Anglo-Dutch trade model. The Song Dynasty coins spread all over the world, indicating that a large part of the Song Dynasty's tariffs should be import taxes; and it is really difficult for Dashun to spend silver to buy things now. With India, which cannot sell goods or even has homogeneous competition, Dashun has only two choices: "expand with all your strength to bypass India to grasp the Sino-European trade and destroy the Indian handicraft industry to expand the market" and "open one port to trade and collect money". There is no middle ground.

For Spain and France, the wrong policy is exactly the right choice for Dashun.

According to Spain's colonial trade policy, Dashun can guarantee the population of the colonies, and half of the foreign goods cannot be used, and it can't be a comprador.

According to France's geographical location and the distance from North America, Dashun can guarantee that in the past 100 years, at least 26 million French people in North America will be enriched, or even more than one, even if it is the form of the Dudufu plus the reform of the natives - the Northeast is too cold, the South Seas are too hot, and the temperate zone with the same latitude is too attractive.

So when capital was mocking the French royal power's control over capital, when capital was mocking the French king's ability to transfer the governor of the French East India Company with a single order, Liu Yu worked hard to learn French, prompting the leader of the Anti-Christian League, Dashun, and the eldest daughter of the Catholic Church, France, to reach a quasi-alliance and learn many French policies.

So Du Feng in Ceylon, facing the situation of Dupleix being transferred away, would feel an inexplicable sadness. He only needed a word from the court to get out, and he had to get out.

So, although capital would tend to choose Tamil Ceylon, the number of Chinese was forced to about 200,000 by Liu Yu, and it was still increasing. And there was no organization like the Dashun Ceylon Company and the Chartered Indian Company.