It has just been six years since the Ming Dynasty was founded, and the situation in the Central Plains that is devastated and awaiting reconstruction has just improved. The state of almost all industries being state-owned can help provide the people with help with their most basic needs.
Such a state is naturally very beneficial when the country is in the recovery period.
During this period, the private sector was weak, with almost no capital, and a lot of waste was waiting to be developed. If many industries were left to the private sector to operate independently, they would not be able to take off in a short time without capital or technology.
That’s why the state needs to directly support these industries and provide the people with the most basic needs.
This is very necessary.
However, when the country enters a period of rapid development and the deposits in people's hands begin to increase, it is necessary to return some industries to private operations in order to stimulate the development of the private economy, enhance the country's economic vitality, and make the cake bigger. We should not continue to hold on to these industries.
It is actually not normal and unhealthy to always use state decrees to stimulate commercial production and demand. It is conducive to restoring national strength, but it is not entirely conducive to sustainable development.
Su Yonglin held a meeting at the Ministry of Finance at that time and suggested that the Ministry of Finance carefully study which industries must be firmly controlled by Ming Dynasty, and which industries do not need to be firmly grasped and not let go.
For example, the grain industry, mining, steel industry, military industry, shipping industry, construction industry, land, mountains, forests, rivers, etc. must be controlled by the state. It goes without saying that these must be controlled by the state and related industries must be state-owned.
Otherwise, the chaos of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period will return, and the original intention of establishing the Ming Dynasty will be lost.
In addition, the currently more important industries such as salt and fertilizers should also be dominated by state-owned enterprises to protect the currently vulnerable farmers who have not yet escaped poverty and to keep them fed and fed with salt.
The industries where the most powerful products in foreign trade belong to, such as silk, tea, porcelain, etc., are luxury goods and should be dominated by state-owned enterprises.
While making real money from the export of these luxury goods, we must also control their production scale and output to avoid reckless expansion of production capacity after private intervention. On the one hand, it will lower prices and cause vicious competition, and on the other hand, it will also destroy food production.
As for catering, personal clothing, transportation leasing and other industries, there is no need to hold them tightly. They can be opened to private entry when the time is right.
Just like the Song Dynasty, some industries such as catering, accommodation, clothing, transportation, leasing, etc. were also opened to private operations. Facts have proved that the development is not bad.
Needless to say, catering, stir-fried dishes began to rise in the Song Dynasty.
Needless to say, the clothing industry does not need to be state-owned.
Accommodation is not a big deal, the land is in the hands of the state, enough agricultural land is preserved, and the rest can be used for commerce and industry.
Transportation leasing is quite special, but the emergence of the "Didi Beat Donkey" industry in big cities in the Song Dynasty and the leasing of sedan chairs, rickshaws, etc. in later generations also prove the actual commercial demand and vitality of this area.
At the end of the fourth year of Hongwu, at the State Council meeting, Su Yonglin listened to the report of the Ministry of Finance and found that they were very interested in taking almost all industries into state-owned enterprises, and listed a series of plans in an attempt to turn all industries into state-owned enterprises. Nationalization of industry.
They believe that in this way, they can provide funds for national development to the maximum extent, and at the same time, they can also safeguard the interests of the people to the maximum extent and prevent profiteers and evil businessmen from hoarding and harming the people.
Some officials even put forward more extreme opinions, believing that all businesses should be state-owned to prevent the emergence of profiteers and allow business to completely become an auxiliary force of the revolution and serve the people.
Gu Qian
In past dynasties, hoarding by profiteers frequently occurred in years of famine, which caused untold misery to the people. Rice that was cheap in normal times could be sold at sky-high prices at that time. Many people sold their sons and daughters to break up their families, and how many people died because of this.
Many of the officials of the Ministry of Finance themselves have experienced the hardships of such things, and they deeply hate it. They believe that private businesses, as a symbol and component of the old society, should be completely eliminated and complete the state-owned transformation.
Only by not aiming to make money can we truly build the ideal society of their dreams.
This kind of idea has a very broad market in the Ministry of Finance, and many Ministry of Finance officials are trying to use this as a goal to create a real heaven on earth.
This is indeed a true ideal society, the highest level of human social form pursued by revolutionaries and people with lofty ideals throughout the ages, but... it is not possible yet.
Su Yonglin also yearned for such a high-level social form, but he also knew that he couldn't achieve it.
Now everyone can't do it even if they put everything together.
Of course, unlimited state-owned enterprises are not feasible, so Su Yonglin put forward his own opinions and suggestions at the State Council.
"Just like the restaurant and food stall industry, which is currently a private industry, it is very prosperous and dynamic, and can create many things that people like to eat. There is no need for state-owned enterprises. There is no need. They are doing a good job. Why? Want to get involved?
You plan to build a state-owned restaurant and open it all over the country in the future. You are talking about creating Ming Dynasty catering standards and improving people's appreciation of food... Is this necessary? I don't think that's necessary.
The country should focus on a higher level, related to whether the people can have enough to eat and whether they will starve and freeze, and ensure that the situation that happened in the past dynasties will not happen again. This must be guaranteed no matter what.
As for whether the food can be more special and how to eat it in different ways, it is not for the state to dictate. What can you do by running a restaurant? It is nothing more than squeezing the space for private profit and causing some businesses that make a living to go bankrupt. Is that necessary? "
Everyone in the meeting looked at me and I looked at you, but no one raised any objection to Su Yonglin's opinion.
Because there is really no need for this thing to be state-run. It won’t make you unable to survive just because it’s not state-run, and there won’t be huge problems just because it’s not state-run.
It's just that the Ministry of Finance has habitually put forward such an idea due to the development inertia of the state-owned economic policy that has been continuously promoted over the years, and because the current economic policy has brought huge help to Ming Dynasty's increasingly large fiscal expenditures, so everyone takes it for granted. The more state-run, the better.
But the economy is not that simple, and it cannot be done by being 100% state-owned.
After talking about catering, Su Yonglin also mentioned the Shui Bing Division.
"Cold drinks are a relatively luxury item now. Whether it's sugar or ice cubes, it's not easy to get. So now it's OK to be state-owned. But in the future, when our lives get better and technology improves, there's no need to have to be state-owned. .
Does being able to have cold drinks matter to national security? no? From a long time ago, nobles had cold drinks, which were not available to the common people, and we just hope that this kind of thing that was originally only available to the nobles can be eaten by the common people.
It is also the so-called king in the old days. He flew into the homes of ordinary people. Don't always make some weird things and become something that can only be enjoyed by princes and nobles but cannot be accessed by ordinary people. That is called being separated from the masses, that is becoming a superior person. .
Therefore, we set up the Water and Ice Department precisely to oppose this kind of privilege. If you can have cold drinks, you are the upper class, and if you can't have cold drinks, you are the common people. We don't want this kind of thing.
When technology improves in the future and sugar and ice cubes are no longer uncommon, then open up the private sector. If anyone among the private sector wants to operate these, let them do it. I think it’s good, what do you think? "
