New Shun 1730

First, there is the foreshadowing of what the "sum of national wealth" is.

Only then can the concept of "ineffective labor at the macro level" be introduced.

Ineffective labor at the macro level leads to the necessity of developing industry and commerce.

And the development of industry and commerce is ultimately to increase the "sum of national wealth after the establishment".

Therefore, Liu Yu quoted "The Wealth of Nations" out of context and cut it in two.

In Dashun, the definition of national wealth was left.

In Europe, the "advantage" theory was promoted, but it was the "relative advantage" revised by Ricardo instead of the "absolute advantage" in the original book.

It should be said that this kind of quote out of context is the most consistent with the original spirit of "The Wealth of Nations": national wealth is the goal, and in order to achieve this goal, the mercantilist policy of Britain is criticized because the mercantilist policy has restricted the development of Britain's productivity.

The spiritual core lies in "national wealth", and free trade is only a means, a means specific to the British policy at that time.

Liu Yu's quoting of The Wealth of Nations out of context is exactly the most close to the essence of The Wealth of Nations: national wealth is the goal, and what Dashun needs now is mercantilism, colonial expansion, high taxation policy, national strength, military expansion and shipbuilding, relying on military hegemony to obtain commercial hegemony to drive industrial development in the handicraft era, and these are the essence of how capitalism came about. These things not only do not restrict the development of Dashun's productivity, but on the contrary greatly promote the development of Dashun's productivity, that is, to achieve the goal of "national wealth".

The first point is "writing scriptures".

The second key point is: how to make the concept of per capita food have practical significance.

This is considered "interpretation of scriptures".

In short, can the rice in Nanyang be averaged with Gansu? Does the average calculated have any meaning for Gansu?

This is of course not a problem at all in later generations. Not to mention the rice in Nanyang, even the rice in Northeast China can be averaged with Gansu, and it is meaningful.

But now, this is a very serious problem.

If you can't even figure out the canal transport from Jiangnan to the capital, and it's causing public outrage, how can you possibly talk about the concept of [per capita grain ownership] thousands of miles away?

Era, that's how it feels.

Some things that are commonplace in some eras are huge things that cannot be ignored in another era.

So, at the second key point, Liu Yu took out a few things to let those who believed in the "scriptures" see the future.

Railways, is the first one.

The developed countries in the world at this time are desperately building infrastructure.

Britain is building canals, because Britain is suitable for canals.

France is building roads, and it is building roads with the labor system, which lays the foundation for a unified France after the French Reform.

Dashun is building railways.

Because Dashun is not suitable for building canals or roads in the north, at least under the current conditions and technology, it is not possible to learn from France to build roads, and it is not possible to learn from Britain to build canals in the north.

Steam engines, when Dashun appeared, Liu Yu did not foolishly introduce them directly to the textile industry.

Instead, from the very beginning, Liu Yu was leading in the direction of coal mines, salt wells, and steam cars.

Relying on the collapse of the ecology in North China, the urgent need for coal in the consumption city of Beijing, and the emperor's special attention to the stability of the capital, an experimental railway was finally built.

For now, the significance of the railway to Dashun is greater than its practical significance. At least for the time being, because the current power is insufficient, the transportation capacity is average, and it has not reached the level of shocking compared to the old traditions such as the canal boat.

This symbolic significance is more significant for those who believe in the future described by Liu Yu, "industry and commerce accommodate enough population".

It is not about the railway itself, nor about the magic of man conquering nature.

Rather, it makes it possible for the "scriptures" such as "per capita grain possession" and "national wealth, macro-ineffective labor" proposed by Liu Yu to be truly implemented.

What the railway brings to this group of people is that the "new era country" based on the concept of per capita grain possession can exist in reality in theory.

In simple terms, if there is a railway from Northeast China to Henan. Then, if Henan can theoretically grow cotton.

Because the Northeast and Henan are finally connected. The grain of the Northeast can appear in Henan at any time, and the price will not soar because of the summary of the iron ox-plowing era of "no grain trading for thousands of miles".

Of course, growing cotton is just a concentrated symbol, not a book that must be planted, or really planted.

Even from the perspective of feudal rule and traditional scholar-official thinking. The emergence of this thing also makes the traditional dream of the scholar-officials such as "fair sale" and "fair price" theoretically realized on tens of millions of square kilometers of land.

In addition to this technological progress, there are also many policies involving national power such as external expansion and foreign wars to plunder colonies and grab the world market.

This also makes the concept of "per capita grain possession" in Dashun realized in another way.

Building railways means that grain has no legs, and railways can allow grain to go to places where grain is scarce, achieving the meaning of per capita grain.

External expansion and grabbing markets means that grain has no legs, but people have legs. Food cannot gather near people because they have no legs; but why don’t people rely on their legs to gather near food?

Where is Dashun’s food?

In the sorghum fields of Kanto, in the wheat fields of Yezo, in the rice plantations of Nanyang, in the rice export in Siam and India, in the rice return system in Korea, in the Japanese daimyo who were short of money to sell rice and the in-kind taxes of the five officials and five civilians.

In short, it was by the sea.

Thanks to the development of navigation in recent years, the food by the sea was very abundant in the macro sense.

Since it is said that under this set of theories specially used for Dashun, there is enough food in the macro sense, then industry and commerce are a kind of "special way of distributing food".

Then, in the First World War, Dashun participated in it, won it, and retained the triangular trade system, but seized the identity of the "industrial product" producer in the triangular trade.

Therefore, industry and commerce were regarded as a "special way of distributing food", that is, "commoditization of food, participation in commodity exchange with silver as the medium", through the vast external market after the victory of World War I, while ensuring that the internal contradictions of the capitalist system did not erupt in a short time, the industry and commerce of the coastal advanced areas were fully developed.

Under the assumption of continued development, the general route of Fusang immigration was continued to realize the large-scale eastward flow of population.

Moreover, it was a large-scale eastward migration of population from the west coast of Fusang to the east of the Rocky Mountains, from the coastal areas to Fusang, and from the inland areas to the coastal areas, affecting the entire Dashun.

Railways are to add a leg to food.

World War I is to let people get closer to food.

If these two legs are connected, the practical school can truly see the dawn of the future, and the future advocated by Liu Yu will theoretically have the possibility of being realized.

Of course, the future advocated by Liu Yu does not involve more things.

It is just abstracted into an abstract industry and commerce that accommodates too many people, which is "not too harmful" in the eyes of feudal rulers.

As for whether the "extremely large industrial and commercial population" is harmful to the feudal rulers... It is not clear now, and when it is seen, it will be too late.

Therefore, Liu Yu and the emperor tried to talk about the immigration of Fusang, talking about the "benefits" of exploitation and surplus value, and talking about how these things "helped" the emperor solve the problem of too many people and insufficient land.

In fact, it is advocating the rationality of the "second type of private ownership".

As Lao Ma said very clearly, the second type of private ownership will grow on the grave of the first type of private ownership. To advocate the rationality of the second type of private ownership is actually to beat the drums and take precautions for the "destruction of the first type of private ownership."

As of now, the emperor neither wants to equalize the land nor has the ability to do so, and he does not want to directly toss out a Wang Mang reform.

Therefore, the emperor's idea is to rely on the cycle of the old dynasty. After calculating the time, it seems that there are still more than a hundred years. Then, as long as these hundred years can complete the explosion of industrial and commercial development and accommodate enough population, even if the land is equalized in the future, it will relieve a lot of pressure.

Of course, in theory, if industry and commerce are really developed thoroughly and accommodate enough population, there is no need to consider issues such as suppressing mergers, limiting land, and equalizing land.

At least the emperor now seems to have less trouble.

After all, even if there is a general idea, in the future, relying on the east to suppress the west, completing the equalization of land, and relying on the west to suppress the east to maintain the system, there is basically such an idea.

But ideas are ideas.

If it is really done, it must be extremely dangerous.

Not to mention that it will take a hundred years, maybe his descendants will have a situation like Emperor Hui of Jin.

Let's say that a hundred years later, his descendants are very capable, but if they play such a big game, they will be crushed to pieces if they are not careful.

This kind of reform related to equal distribution of land is also unprecedentedly successful.

The only one that is somewhat similar in appearance ended with his head being torn off and becoming the national treasure of the second dynasty of the Han Dynasty.

As for the issue of equal distribution of land itself, Liu Yu actually supports it very much, and believes that if there is no equal distribution of land, no restriction on the financial speculation attribute of cultivated land, and no reliance on equal distribution of land to offset the pain of the birth of a new era, the new era cannot be born smoothly.

However, Liu Yu will not discuss the issue of equal distribution of land with the emperor.

Since it has no meaning in terms of justice, this thing is not undiscussable in Dashun. At least it is in line with the mainstream political correctness of Dashun.

There is no practical significance. This thing, as for the current Dashun, is not a reform that can be completed. At least there is no hope now.

Relying on the feudal dynasty to equalize land... To put it bluntly, the rebels who fought all the way from Xi'an to the capital did not complete it, let alone now.

Talking about equalizing land is meaningless.

Talking about the development of industry and commerce is meaningful.

We will talk about the future later. When industry and commerce continue to develop and develop, the emperor and landlords cannot equalize land. There will be other classes to lead and equalize land.

Liu Yu just explained his "two legs" to the emperor, telling the emperor that the future of industry and commerce accommodating a large number of landless people, which "can solve the cancer of the feudal dynasty caused by land annexation and the uprising of the landless people", seems to be achievable.

Of course, Liu Yu will not tell the emperor the price: the cancer of the feudal dynasty can be cured, but the method of curing may be different from what you think.

The way to cure the cancer of the dynasty through the development of industry and commerce is the power born in industry and commerce, which turns into a noose and strangles the feudal dynasty. If the person dies, won’t the cancer stop spreading? This is also a treatment that treats both the symptoms and the root cause.