New Shun 1730

Liu Yu was very appreciative of Xu Heng's idea. Although he often scolded most businessmen, he could understand them in this matter.

Social consciousness lags behind social existence.

The thinking of these businessmen has not yet adapted to their new social identity of expanding outward and seizing the market from the ideas of traveling merchants, sitting merchants, and compradors.

It is really difficult for a group of people who used to sit at home and collect money to ask them to understand the market conditions in Europe.

How much tea is sold in the European market and how many people can afford it have nothing to do with them before.

Before, they only cared about what price Europe would set for tea when buying it from them.

Now the cargo ship of the Western Trade Company went to Europe for the first time and returned. It was also the first time that Dashun took the initiative to sell goods to Europe. Sweden does not count, because Dashun does not have absolute initiative in Sweden.

This time, the ship of the Western Trade Company docked in Amsterdam openly, and it was openly auctioning wholesale goods at the auction in the seven provinces of the Netherlands, and it really sold a batch of futures certificates.

Once you have the initiative, you have to consider more issues.

Previously, the Dutch East India Company lost a lot of money in the years when it competed with the Ostend Company for the monopoly of tea, but for the Dashun merchants at that time, this kind of profit and loss had nothing to do with them, and they still wholesaled tea at normal prices.

Now that their identities have changed, they must consider these situations.

It is too difficult for the old generation to expect them to change their minds.

They can only wait until they die.

Now it is the young people who put forward these ideas, which is something worth celebrating.

Seeing Liu Yu nod in approval, Xu Heng said again: "The Duke has never done such empty talk. I think the Duke must have sent people to collect the situation over there when asking this. Otherwise, the Duke would not ask."

"The Duke might as well tell us about the situation over there, so that everyone can judge whether to raise or lower the price."

The merchants suddenly realized and thought to themselves, yes, the Duke has never talked about empty talk when doing things. Since he asked this, there must be a reason to discuss it. Why didn't I think of it?

Liu Yu smiled and nodded, "That's right. But the question is, is this what I, as a regulator, should do? What is your board of directors for? If I don't speak up and don't do these things, what will you do? This is the key question."

"It's like raising a child. You said that when the child is in the cradle, you have to take care of him meticulously. When he grows up to 20, do you still have to tell him to eat when he is hungry and drink when he is thirsty?"

"It's been almost 20 years since we started cooperating with Sweden and trading with Japan. It's time for him to grow up, right?"

"But let's talk about the facts now. I will tell you what I have collected over there, and you can judge for yourself."

"The current situation in the UK It is similar to us, and is also a country that mainly relies on farming and raising sheep. After they enclosed the land, they did not rent small plots to maintain social stability, but hired workers. Those who could not work and were not used either died, went to sea, or went to work in the city. "

"Since we are talking about selling tea, we have to talk about the millions of agricultural workers. It should be said that at this time, any agricultural worker in the UK lives a better life than most people in the Celestial Empire. Beer belly and smiling face are standard. "

As he said, he took out the data collected by Tian Ping in the UK. It must be said that the agricultural workers in the UK and the tenants in Dashun are completely two different classes. They are all farmers, or they can all be called farmers, but they are really not the same thing.

"Let me read it to you."

"In the UK, sheep are raised and crops are grown, so the most expensive time to hire a worker is during the mowing and harvesting days. Wages are settled on a weekly basis, which is the Western way of saying that God created the world. A week is seven days and a month is four weeks."

"When mowing, a skilled worker's weekly wages are about 10 shillings. In a month, it is about 30 shillings, which is 1.5 pounds, equivalent to about five taels of silver."

"During the slack season, long-term workers must also be paid during the slack season. At that time, it was lower, averaging 6 shillings a week, 24 shillings a month, about 3 taels of silver."

"I will give you an example of the income of an ordinary agricultural worker. You can calculate it yourself. How should the price of tea be calculated?"

"A family of agricultural workers living in the Market Harborough area of ​​Leicestershire."

"The head of the family is a thirty-seven or eight-year-old working An old hand, working as a long-term worker for a year, plus piecework, processing money during busy times, and doing extra work, his annual income is about 35 pounds, 100 taels of silver. "

"The eldest son is 19, young and strong, but in terms of work, he is not as good as the middle-aged men of 27 to 37. So he can get about 26 pounds a year. "

"The second son is 16, and he can earn 22 pounds a year. "

"The youngest son is 14, doing odd jobs, and he can earn 10 pounds a year. "

"His wife raises sheep and milks milk, and can sell it for 3 pounds a year; plus doing odd jobs during busy farming season, she can earn about 10 pounds a year. "

"Every year, the farmer also gives benefits, such as beer and coal blocks. If you save them, you can sell them for 3 to 5 pounds a year. "

"This is a very ordinary agricultural employee. If they have some industry, they will not have to work for others. How much does the family earn this year? "

"The family's income is about 100 pounds and 300 taels of silver. I won't mention this dynasty. I will just say that during my previous inspection of Japan, a Japanese landowner who was doing quite well and hired people to work at home, you guessed how much he could earn in a year. Can’t you just spend 300 taels of silver to ensure that you have rice every day?”

These simple numbers completely shocked the businessmen here.

They finally understood why Liu Yu was so keen on doing business outside. It was really because the people in China simply couldn't afford too many things.

The annual income of a family of employees is 300 taels of silver, which is really unimaginable for businessmen here.

Although they do not work in agriculture, they also know that the standard for "middle class" in Dashun is to serve as a soldier, which is about 3 to 4 taels of silver a month plus food and drink, which is equivalent to 50 taels of silver a year.

And this kind of income is enough to make many people flock to it, because the offer is too much. Even some court officials complained about the monthly salary of three to forty taels of silver given to soldiers.

Liu Yu didn't ask how the farmers in Dashun were doing, but only asked about Japan next door.

Many people are engaged in Japanese trade, and they know very well that even the "village sages" in the Japanese countryside may not be able to guarantee that they will eat rice every day.

And if a family can earn 300 taels of silver a year, they can at least afford rice for every meal.

After saying this, the businessmen present understood whether the price of this tea should be reduced or increased.

For a family of four, 300 taels of silver a year is equivalent to a family's monthly income of about 25 taels.

If a family's monthly income is 25 taels, then it is obvious that they will not buy Wuyi tea that costs 78 taels per pound.

If it drops to more than one tael of silver per catty, it should be said that for a family with a monthly income of 25 taels, this is a completely acceptable luxury.

...But what if it drops to 5 silver coins per pound?

I'm afraid, it will not increase tea shipments.

Those who drank tea before still drink it because they can afford it; those who didn’t drink tea before still don’t drink it because they couldn’t afford it before.

Of course, this is the price set by Dashun.

In fact, there is still a lot of room for "development" in the British tea market.

Because the British tea tax this year is about 120%, the price of non-smuggled tea through formal channels is still too high, which seriously restricts the growth of the British tea consumption market.

The businessmen present are not fools. As long as they are guided correctly and given data, they will naturally draw correct inferences.

Although they don’t understand the principles of economics, it’s just like before Lavoisier discovered oxygen, didn’t anyone on the earth have to breathe?

However, after a short period of sorting out their deductions, these businessmen all showed incredible looks on their faces.

Data can deduce the correct truth.

But is the data itself accurate?

The set of data Liu Yu spoke out was really shocking.

According to the national conditions of Dashun, the businessmen thought that the Duke of the country had made a mistake in his calculations, right?

A sharecropper's family can receive 300 taels of silver a year?

In China, not to mention tenant farmers, they are just squires with three to five hundred acres of land. Can they receive three to five hundred taels of silver a year?

Is there a gold mine in Britain?

Is there still Silversea?

Including Xu Heng, who raised this question, everyone felt that what Liu Yu said was a bit too ridiculous? Is there such a big gap between the lives of the people in China and the Yingyi?

Besides, this is totally unreasonable. Are you sowing gold? Can one person grow one hundred taels of silver a year? If you can't even grow a hundred taels of silver, how can you hire someone to return 100 taels?

This set of data really shocked their hearts and made it difficult for them to accept it for a while.

"My lord...could this statistics be wrong? How can a sharecropper earn so much money in a year?"

Liu Yu laughed, but instead of explaining directly, he told a story.

"There is a story in Feng Menglong's "Words of Warning". It is said that one day Wang Jinggong wrote a chrysanthemum poem, saying: The west wind passed through the garden last night, blowing down the yellow flowers and covering the ground with gold."

"After Scholar Su saw it, he felt that Duke Jing was just talking nonsense. Will your chrysanthemums fall all over the floor and be covered with petals? So he wrote a poem: Autumn flowers fall no more than spring flowers. Let the poet recite it carefully."

"People who have never been to Huangzhou will not understand what chrysanthemums in Huangzhou look like."

"For the same reason, why do you think that the peasants of Yingyi and the peasants of this dynasty are the same 'chrysanthemums'?"

"Have you ever thought about why the same landowners, the British landowners, support foreign expansion, while the gentry of this dynasty always say they are militaristic and opposed to expansion?"

"Is it really because of people? The British and foreign landowners are strong in martial arts, but the gentry of this dynasty are weak?"

"The British textile industry can't even keep up with Suzhou Prefecture. The real powerful ones are the landlords. Why is it different?"

This sounds like politics, but in fact it is still business and interests.

Liu Yu turned around and erased the two lines of poetry on the curtain board, and wrote down Sima Qian's famous lines: All the prosperity in the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit.

It is difficult for people in Dashun to understand the enclosure movement, because village communities and public fields were completely disintegrated in the late Spring and Autumn Period. In fact, the enclosure movement was completed two thousand years ago.

Let a group of people who grew up in a country where land has long been privately traded understand what it means to encircle villages and communal land; let a group of people who grew up in a country where land has long been privately traded understand why the fight for land ownership to individuals takes place. Wave after wave of uprisings.

It's really hard.

But after skipping this step, the remaining issues will be easy for these businessmen to understand.

The special environment in the UK has created a special group of landowners.

Landlords - wool - woolen goods exports - land rent - Spain has gold and silver but no industrial capacity - the navy ensures woolen goods exports - wool prices rise - land rents increase - maintain land rents rise - continue to expand the sale of woolen goods.

Fundamentally speaking, we are still pursuing profit.

But for the gentry of Dashun, this was different.

Gentlemen - the war costs money - the money is collected from them in taxes - the northern frontier is not worth a dime to them.

It is still to defend one's own interests.

The starting point is the same.

National conditions are different.

Leading to consistent expansion, a conservative.

For the Jiangnan gentry, would it be of any benefit to Dashun to wage war against Rakshasa and conquer Junggar? The land in the Western Region was given to them for free, but they didn't want it. Even if we invest money in development there and produce a bunch of grain and cotton, how can we transport it out and sell it for money? If you can't sell it for money, what else can you do with the food besides feeding the dogs?

But for the British landowners, the benefits of going to war over Jenkins' ears and the navigation regulations were great.

The market expands—British woolen exports rise—the price of wool rises—land rent rises.

This is not a matter of national martial virtues, nor is it a difference between Confucian culture and Protestant culture, but driven by class interests.

For the gentry of Dashun, will land rents rise as they expand abroad?

More recently, when you can make money from raw silk tea at home, why expand?

If Britain did not expand, French wool, Dutch wool, Spanish wool, and German princes' wool would all squeeze the British wool industry and reduce the land rent income of British landowners.

If Dashun does not expand, will the land rent of the gentry decline?

On the contrary, in the eyes of the Jiangnan gentry, what was the result of the imperial court's abundant military virtue and external expansion?

As Dashun controlled Nanyang and Southeast Asia, Dashun changed the monetary tax on rice, and Dashun's navigation technology developed rapidly, the price of rice in Songjiang dropped from one tael to 7 cents. After the gentry's land rent was monetized and calculated, it was still less than It dropped before…

If they support external expansion, they will really be sold out and paid for others.