New Shun 1730

The development of industry and commerce was the biggest crisis for the traditional feudal dynasty.

On this point, both the emperor and Liu Yu had a consensus on the conclusion.

There is consensus on the conclusion.

However, the reasoning processes of the two people are completely different.

This is another step back to the connotation of the four words "emphasis on agriculture and light on business".

From the emperor's perspective, what was the origin of the dynastic crisis caused by the development of industry and commerce?

This is due to the rapid accumulation of capital by industry and commerce, which has resulted in accelerated land annexation. In other words, the root cause is the problem of free buying and selling under private ownership of land.

From Liu Yu's perspective, what is the origin of the dynastic crisis caused by the development of industry and commerce?

Due to the development of industry and commerce, a new class was born. The power of the new class will expand rapidly, causing the new class power to enter the historical stage, thus completely breaking the old logic of the feudal dynasty of small farmers and landlords.

Or rather.

From the emperor's perspective, issues such as industrial and commercial development, capital accumulation, land annexation, etc., buried the Dashun Dynasty.

But the logic of the dynasty's operation remains unchanged. However, the next dynasty may not be named Li. Since Dashun was spreading rumors in the market that the Li family was coming to take revenge on Zhu Wen, maybe some people would also spread in the future that the Yang family was coming to take revenge on the Li family.

From Liu Yu's perspective, with the development of industry and commerce, a new class entered the stage of history, burying the feudal dynasty. It is not a question of the Li family replacing the Zhu family, and the Yang family replacing the Li family.

If we say that the emperor has a materialistic view of history and a class view of history.

So, no matter how Liu Yu deceives, it will be of no use. If the emperor understands historical materialism and class history, he will definitely oppose the development of industry and commerce, because from this historical view and where his butt sits, a very clear answer can be drawn, that is, he will resolutely oppose the continued development of industry and commerce.

However, the emperor is not.

In Liu Yu's words, the emperor was the brains of a "variant Westernization Movement".

In other words, it is a "historical view" of space opera, a "historical view" of magical steampunk, or an abstract historical view of technological progress - that is, technological progress does not take into account the adjustment of production relations and changes in social relations. Instead, we use the social relations and production relations at this moment, and imagine that the world after technological progress will run according to the social consciousness at this moment.

The two people have different views on history.

However, regardless of whether they are sincere or not, the two people stand on the feudal dynasty and feudal imperial power and have similar "conclusions" about the development of industry and commerce and the imperial power and feudal dynasty.

However, differences in historical views and reasoning processes have also led to the implementation of Liu Yu's "radical capitalist transformation under the cloak of feudalism" in recent years.

And back to the issue of industrial and commercial development.

To consider the problem according to the emperor's view of history, logic, and reasoning, we must "think from others' perspective, put ourselves in their shoes, and prescribe the right medicine."

Simply put:

Why did the emperor oppose the development of industry and commerce?

Due to the private ownership of land and free trade, industry and commerce accumulate funds too quickly, leading to accelerated mergers and harming the interests of small farmers.

Small farmers were the real ruling foundation, basic base, and source of strength of the feudal dynasty.

How to get the emperor to support industrial and commercial development?

Nothing more than two points.

First, find a way, even if it is deception, the deception must focus on "there is a way to develop industry and commerce without invading small farmers, and to maintain the cornerstone of the empire."

Second, use technology to describe the future and tell the emperor, or let the emperor see, that technological progress can stabilize his rule - this is why if you showed a nautical clock to the feudal emperor in 1760, the feudal emperor would definitely think it was a miracle. The technology is clever; if you grab a handful of fertilizer and show it to the emperor, the emperor will think that technology is beneficial.

Because the biggest problems faced by the traditional feudal dynasty in this era were precisely the problems of land, yield, food, and population - of course, you can say that this is a problem of land ownership. But it should be noted that the subject here is the feudal dynasty, not China, the Chinese nation, or any other subject. This means that, without considering the emperor's own rebellion, from the perspective of the feudal dynasty, the biggest problems are the issues of land, yield per mu, food, and population.

Since the feudal dynasty is the main body, we must consider: First of all, the emperor is not interested in colonies tens of thousands of miles away, because the emperor knows that the empire's ruling territory has reached its limit, and places farther away have nothing to do with the dynasty, but are Countless historical experiences have proven that places that are too far away will definitely be separated; secondly, the feudal dynasty will not take the initiative to complete the reform of the land system, because the ruling class itself is the beneficiary of this land system.

Taking these two issues into consideration, we can take the right approach and use conservative and even reactionary forces to develop productive forces and pave the way for the birth of a new era. That is to say, let the mother of the old age eat and drink enough to increase her physical strength to avoid dystocia, and also raise the baby of the new age, who will inevitably devour the mother, in her belly until it is strong enough to not die young.

Just as the French Physiocrats relied on the cloak of feudalism and advocated the importance of the landlord class, they were actually implementing the most radical bourgeois policies.

Liu Yu also relied on these things to use the power of imperial power to complete many reforms under the guise of "strengthening imperial power." It included salt policy reforms that were so radical that they wiped out small salt producers and led to the emergence of trusts; they also included reforms that abandoned the Grand Canal and considered building a railway from the capital to Hankou.

Similarly, in this discussion on "industrial and commercial development", Liu Yu always grasped this point - that is, the emperor is not a materialist or class historical view, so according to the emperor's historical view, what he worries about is not the real noose of the old era. What the emperor worries about can theoretically be avoided through ruling techniques, and the emperor cannot see the real noose.

In fact, including the jokes such as "Qian Xiaosi opposes steam engines", they are all imagined by people who use the same "space opera" historical view. Not to mention how Britain could allow steam engines to leave the country, even the French need to steal when they are so close, and the Russians have to rely on cheating. How could Britain take the initiative to send "productivity and civilization" to the world?

The actual situation is that Liu Yu's development of productivity in the salt industry made the emperor overjoyed - damn, he finally solved the problem of salt merchants controlling production and sales and the problem of private salt. It is much easier to manage the big salt industry than the fucking small salt households and salt merchants. If the price can be reduced by relying on the large-scale production of official salt, and those private salt vendors can be squeezed out, why would Liu Shian, Yuan Shizhen and others rack their brains for reforms?

Would the emperor worry about the life and death of small private salt vendors? How is it possible?

The emperor only cares about whether the salt tax can be collected and whether the cost of anti-smuggling can be reduced. As long as the money can be collected, a lot of salt tax. If private salt vendors and handicraftsmen resist, just kill them, wouldn't that save more money?

Take the salt industry as an example.

Starting from Liu Yan's reform, the idea of ​​the feudal dynasty was to control production but encourage merchants to circulate. Because of the characteristics of salt fragmentation, no one in the feudal dynasty could make salt go to the countryside in terms of circulation, and only relied on vendors.

Therefore, grasping this fact, learning from history, and understanding the true route of salt reform, can better "fool" the emperor and support the development of productivity-control production, relax sales, tax at the production end, encourage large enterprises, and facilitate taxation.

The rest of the problems are similar.

We must first understand the operating logic of the feudal dynasty.

Then understand the cornerstone of imperial power, the court's taxation, and the general direction of many reforms in the salt industry and other industries. Why did the great scholars in the late Ming Dynasty basically approve of Liu Yan's reforms on the issue of salt industry, rather than Yuan Shizhen's reforms? The difference between the two lies in who controls the production end or who benefits from the sales end.

Then, we must understand, for example, why Zhang Zhidong's mechanical weaving factory failed in history and why machine-woven cloth could not beat the family handicraft industry - break those nonsense-like ignorance, conservatism and other clichés, even if we use the most basic economics to consider why the awakened female workers are all spinners, why Lu Chaibang is a spinner, and why they are not weavers; to consider what "the dumping of Indian cotton yarn led to the peak of 560 million pieces of family handicraft industry in the old era"; and why many national light industries started with spinning, while the weaving factories were basically finished?

What is the social existence and productivity foundation behind this?

Instead of just talking about "Sang Hongyang", "Confucian scholars", "competing with the people for profit", "ignorance and conservatism", and "nationality" in the air.

Only then can we push forward with this idea.

Liu Yu's "two legs" on the issue of "per capita grain ownership" are to solve the theoretical problem of "whether industry and commerce can accommodate too many people".

Only if it can be done in theory, it is possible to continue to develop industry and commerce.

Liu Yu and the emperor's discussion on "internal and external division", "relying on the external market, letting capital eat outside, and controlling capital internally to prevent land annexation" is to solve the emperor's most worried problem that "industrial and commercial development will accelerate land annexation".

This worry, again, is the same as the saying: the emperor is imagining the future world with the current social consciousness, and the conclusion is that as long as the funds accumulated by industry and commerce are controlled and invested in land, the fear of the development of industry and commerce under the logic of "focusing on agriculture and neglecting commerce" can be solved; while Liu Yu is shaping the material basis for the existence of future social consciousness with the future social consciousness, and is convinced that the change of material basis will completely destroy the feudal dynasty, rather than the issue of Li family replacing Zhu family and Yang family replacing Li family.

In theory, industry and commerce can accommodate more people.

In practice, with many policies of feudal autocracy and imperial society, such as population control, mobility control, traditional means of suppressing mergers, and prohibiting developed regions from buying and hoarding land in the interior through household registration, etc., in theory, it is possible to achieve the fantasy of "only benefits and no disadvantages" of "industrial and commercial development to accommodate enough 'surplus' population, but without the rapid merger of land caused by industrial and commercial development".

Of course, it is only in theory.

This theoretical summary is that the emperor wants to build a powerful new "Great Wall" in terms of economy and national strength. Inside the "Great Wall", the old system was continued, the small peasant economy was preserved, and the industry was waiting for fertilizers to be developed, or for commerce to make Chile and Bangladesh saltpeter cheap; outside the "Great Wall", they participated in world trade and continued to develop. If there was no market, they would rob, fight, and seize.

The imperial power used the reactionary small landlords and aristocrats such as soldiers from the inland areas and good families as the military base; the navy was used as a bargaining chip at any time, the foreign trade of the developed areas must rely on sea transportation, the navy can cut off sea transportation, and the army can be stationed in large cities, etc., to control the developed areas.

At the same time, gold, silver and materials were obtained through external plunder, trade, dumping and monopoly of the developed regions. In this way, the economic power that the imperial power can control was strengthened. The imperial power consolidated its basic base by controlling the distribution of this powerful economic power; at the same time, it had the military ability to pull out soldiers from the mainland at any time through these economic forces to maintain control over the developed regions.

Otherwise... if we really want to create a unified domestic market and remove internal tariffs. Songsu region relies on the Yangtze River waterway and the upcoming steamship transportation capacity to directly deliver tariff-free goods to the mainland, using Indian cotton yarn to kill the cotton yarn in the Jianghan Plain; using Songsu cloth to kill the cotton textile industry in Hubei; using cheap sea transportation of grain from the Southeast Asia and Northeast to reduce labor costs to gain comprehensive advantages over the inland industry, what is this called?

Of course, what this is called can be defined.

But what it is called is not important.

What is important is that Sichuan is not suitable for growing cotton, and after Sichuan salt entered Hunan and Chu, hundreds of thousands of handicraft cotton textile families in Hubei relied on the "Sichuan-Chu" trade to survive.

Sichuan salt enters Chu, and silver flows to Chengdu.

Su cloth enters Chu, and silver flows to Songsu.

How can the fragile economies of these places survive?

The emperor did not talk about other provinces, but talked about Hubei, where the prince had gone to train before, and talked about a somewhat special topic.

This topic, in the words of later film and television dramas, is called "changing rice to mulberry".

However, based on the reality at that time, the problem is the opposite.

That is, it is not that the farmers are "stupid", do not understand the economy, and do not want to "change rice to mulberry".

On the contrary, they understand too much.

The development of the cotton textile industry in Hubei has led a large number of people in Hubei to "change grain to cotton" on their own initiative.

As a result, the prince made a big fuss in Hubei, which made some people who secretly wanted to see the prince laugh, see "big fun" - [It has been rainy for more than a month, and the floods have caused disasters. In addition, many people have changed grain to cotton, and even the price of rice in Chu has soared, making it difficult for ordinary people to get enough food... So he ordered civilian ships not to take rice and grains out of the country without authorization, in order to focus on people's food and maintain the overall situation].

If the Sichuan Jiedushi had not done his best to help, the prince's "rice ban" would have been a big deal.

Simply put, there was a problem with Hubei's grain - Hubei's population had exploded, and because of the trade of Sichuan salt into Chu, Hubei's textile industry sold back to Sichuan. The people were not stupid, and they would grow cotton when it was profitable, so they naturally changed grain to cotton.

Of course, in addition to cotton, there were also sesame, tea, etc. The prince's economic policy was too radical and he messed up - he only saw that Liu Yu's reforms in the Songsu area were too radical, but he was purely imitating others' steps and carving a boat to seek a sword. Among Liu Yu's reforms in Songsu, he first went to Nanyang, opened up the Northeast, borrowed from Korea to return the rice system, harassed Japan's in-kind grain tax, and developed sea transportation to ensure that the price of rice was lowered; but the prince did not think that it would cost one freight to transport rice and sorghum from Nanyang and Northeast China to Songsu by sea, but it would cost another to transport it upstream from Songsu to Hubei.

His radical reforms have achieved remarkable results in the short term and increased income. As a result, they played too radically, and another wave of natural disasters came.

There was no choice but to use administrative means to force rice ships not to leave the province. Even grain ships from Hunan were not allowed to leave Hubei.

Basically, according to historical books, the feudal rulers did not hear of any initiative to "change rice to mulberry". Instead, it was the people who took the initiative to "change grain to tobacco", "change grain to mulberry", and "change grain to cotton", which caused the rulers a lot of headaches and constantly issued policies to prohibit the change of grain to cash crops.

Because of the limitation of transportation capacity, the concept of per capita grain is not realistic in this sailing era from more than 10 million square kilometers of land.

And if people don't eat, they will die and revolt.

The key is that this time the game failed, and the prince was scared. All of a sudden, the radical economic policy was turned into a sluggish and conservative one.