Zhu Jingyuan is the king of the Dashi Kingdom. It is definitely a big deal for the Dashi Nation to leave the capital and palace and go on a "tour" to distant overseas "colonies".
Of course, it's impossible to just leave. You have to prepare ships and escorts in advance, and arrange things after you leave.
Zhu Jingyuan immediately summoned the main ministers of the Great Food Kingdom, the heads of Daming Airlines and several laboratories.
Half an hour later, relevant personnel arrived at the palace one after another and met at the Qingshu Palace, which is similar to the Wenhua Palace in the Forbidden City.
Zhu Jingyuan has made special arrangements. In the summer, officials do not need to wear formal robes and can wear shorts.
But even so, there are fans in the meeting places several times, and the summer in the big food country is still very difficult.
After everyone arrived, Zhu Jingyuan directly explained his thoughts without any ink:
“The eastern area of Mozhou where Meng County is located has been assigned to our Dashi Country.
“Moreover, the industrial zones under construction around Meng County will be the future textile and clothing industrial base of the food country.
“It’s very important to the country, and it’s very important to me.
"Today I received news from Lin Zexu that the new military equipment I designed has basically completed trial production.
“So I am planning to visit Meng County and eastern Mozhou in the near future.
“Personally understand the local situation and express condolences to the officials, craftsmen, and workers who are working hard in Meng County.
"Local matters will be left to you to handle on your own for the time being. If there is nothing particularly important, you don't need to notify me specifically."
The officials and craftsmen were stunned when they heard this. They did not expect that Zhu Jingyuan summoned everyone for this matter.
Everyone was obviously very surprised by this, but they did not expect that Zhu Jingyuan was going to escape the summer heat.
People who have never lived in central Mozhou will not immediately realize that the summer there is cooler than that in northern Mozhou.
But there are still people who instinctively resist Zhu Jingyuan leaving.
Liu Zhixin, the chief minister of Zuo of the Dashi Kingdom, subconsciously said:
"Your Majesty, the eastern part of Mozhou is a newly annexed land, and there must be many barbarians who are dissatisfied with the king's transformation.
“And there may be miasma there, full of poisonous insects and diseases, and there are many Ink savages.
"This kind of place is really too dangerous. Your Majesty must never get involved in danger."
Zhu Jingyuan immediately waved his hands with a smile and said:
"Old Liu, you are so ignorant. The ancient name of Meng County is Manbasa, which is a thousand-year-old name.
“So everywhere is ripe land, not a miasmatic place.
"I am just going to visit our own factory and will not go deep into the interior or where the savages live."
Liu Zhixin still instinctively didn’t want Zhu Jingyuan to leave:
"Your Majesty is the king of our great food country and our backbone. How will the court function after you leave..."
Several other ministers from the Great Food Country also subconsciously followed suit.
In most kingdoms, this is a very natural thing. How can the king go out and run around casually?
Even if you have to patrol or travel, at least keep it in your home country.
Just like the original monarch of Toyohara Kingdom lived in Nagasaki for a long time, the ministers of Toyohara Kingdom were not well.
Zhu Jingyuan is going to a colony, which means he has to cross thousands of kilometers of sea.
Just like the Ming Emperor who is going to visit Jiangnan, most of the old gentlemen in the court will not try too hard to persuade him.
Whether you take a boat or a train, you won’t waste time and money.
But if the Ming Emperor wants to go to Tiannan Continent, everyone will definitely try to dissuade him.
Among the feudal kingdoms, the Big Food Country itself is also outrageous, with a large land area and a long distance between the two parts.
The land in Mozhou is like a colony.
The ancient food kingdoms in history, and later the Sultanate of Oman, all established colonial strongholds there.
Facing this group of ministers, Zhu Jingyuan waved his hand seriously again and said:
"Everyone, please stop trying to persuade me. Have you forgotten that I am not just the king of Dashi Country?
"I am also the prince of the Ming Dynasty. My current stay in the Kingdom of Ming Dynasty is actually a state of administrative training.
"At the earliest by the end of this year, and at the latest after the Chinese New Year next year, I will have to leave the Big Food Country and go somewhere else for training.
“At the same time, I also hold the post of Governor of Dashi, Daqinhai, and Mozhou regions for military, political and foreign affairs.
"For reasons and reasons, I should visit these places. If I don't go now, I won't have the chance."
Zhu Jingyuan had too many excuses to leave.
After Zhu Jingyuan said this, everyone suddenly realized that Zhu Jingyuan's identity was really not just the King of Food.
With so many excuses laid out, the officials of the Food Kingdom headed by Liu Zhixin had no reason to stop it.
Although I was very reluctant, I had to accept the reality.
Zhu Jingyuan looked at the officials at the scene and found that only Niu Jian's official title was not from the Dashi Kingdom.
So Niu Jian was assigned to accompany him and be responsible for arranging travel arrangements, including contacting the shipping company and liaising with all parties.
Niu Jian immediately stood up to accept the order, and at the same time asked a soul torture:
"Your Highness, the cost of this trip will be paid from the national financial allocation, or from your personal account?"
Zhu Jingyuan said subconsciously:
"Just use my personal account."
Liu Zhixin immediately said loudly:
"Absolutely not. When the king inspects the overseas territories of the Great Food Country, of course he has to take advantage of the Great Food Country's account."
A group of kingdom officials immediately echoed.
Niu Jian seemed to have expected this, and looked at Zhu Jingyuan with a calm and helpless expression:
"So...Your Highness..."
Zhu Jingyuan looked at Liu Zhixin and others:
"My trip this time is not only a business matter for Dashi Country, but also a personal matter for me, so I should pay for it."
Liu Zhixin refused to give in:
"The king is the king of the Dashi Kingdom. All the king's expenses should be borne by the kingdom, even for personal matters."
Zhu Jingyuan was speechless.
Emperors of all dynasties, as well as most of the Ming emperors, would usually find ways to deduct money from the court.
When it comes to the palace, royal family, and the emperor's personal expenses, the court will find ways to make the emperor pay for them himself.
In fact, most kingdoms are in a similar situation, and they all want to spend less money.
But when it comes to the Big Food Country, the situation is inexplicably reversed.
King Zhu Jingyuan and the court headed by Liu Zhixin both wanted to spend some money on their own.
From a special perspective, the reasons for these two situations are even the same, which is that the financial budget is not easy to do.
In the past, the income and expenditure of imperial courts and ordinary kingdoms were relatively fixed.
To increase an additional expenditure, it must be deducted from other fixed expenditures, and the corresponding projects will also be affected.
Which item to deduct is a question.
In the big food country, the income continues to grow at a high speed, but the expenditure items tend to be fixed or even declining.
If a large fiscal surplus cannot be allocated, we need to look for reasonable reasons and find ways to spend the money.
The main source of fiscal revenue for Big Food Country is the direct sales of crude oil.
In the past two years, the crude oil production of the big food country has been rising continuously, and the fuel demand of Ming Dynasty has also been rising at the same time.
Not only did oil prices not fall as production increased, but they showed signs of slowly rising.
Therefore, the crude oil sales revenue of big food countries has also continued to soar with production.
As for other sources of income, such as the business tax of individual industrial and commercial households, a small amount of import and export tariffs within the Ming Dynasty system, and the local sales of refined oil products that have just begun to make profits, the amounts are really inconspicuous compared to the profits from crude oil sales.
The source of fiscal revenue for a big food country is so single, but for a sparsely populated big food country, it is so abundant.
Correspondingly, the scope of the big food country's financial expenditure is also very limited.
In addition to transporting immigrants and purchasing daily necessities, it mainly focuses on various aspects of project construction.
The Ming Dynasty cannot provide many immigrants now. If the Great Food Country hires immigrants at a high price, it will definitely be very expensive.
But Zhu Jingyuan had planned from the beginning to control the scale of immigration from the mainland of the big food country.
After the number of immigrants in Liusha City reached 50,000, they no longer took the initiative to invite people.
Among the construction projects, the most important New Palace project was completed in the second half of last year.
The large-scale oil refinery was completed at the end of last year, and the oil pipeline connecting the oil refining industrial zone has also been built.
The scale of the large-scale seawater desalination plant is already sufficient, and there is no need to expand it without increasing immigration.
The construction of large terminals has basically been completed, and there is no need to invest in them in the short term.
Although the profitability of the big food country's own refineries is limited, it offsets the big food country's expenditure on refined oil imports.
Although Liusha City's railway trunk roads connecting the Red Sea, Da Shi Sea, Da Qin Sea and the two river basins have not yet been completed, these railways are not Da Shi Country's own projects.
The railways in the areas directly under the jurisdiction of the Dashi Kingdom were borne by the Dashi Kingdom itself, while the railways in the surrounding areas under the jurisdiction of the Chief Envoys were shared between the Dashi Kingdom, the Chief Envoys, local governments and the central court of the Ming Dynasty.
The proportion that big food countries have to bear is calculated based on the local indigenous population.
Since there are basically no indigenous people in these places, the big food countries basically do not have to bear the relevant costs.
The railways in Dashi Country's own areas directly under its jurisdiction are now almost complete, and investment has basically ended.
In other words, the money earned by Big Food Country is still increasing, but large-scale construction expenditures are decreasing.
Therefore, the fiscal revenue surplus figures began to rise continuously.
This makes the officials of the Big Food Country very worried. Their most important task now is to spend money.
For a political entity, fiscal revenue is just data in its account, which is equivalent to holding a pile of IOUs from Wuxi.
If the numbers on the account are not used, it means that the money is not earned.
We must spend them and turn them into infrastructure, means of production, and daily necessities through the hands of citizens and workers. Only then can we truly make a difference.
Even if it is spent wastefully, it can promote market circulation and activity, making it easier for citizens to earn more money.
Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan studied petrochemical products, built petrochemical plants, and built synthetic fiber textile factories and clothing factories, and the imperial court fully supported him.
The Ming Dynasty gave the eastern part of Mozhou to the Great Food Kingdom, and this became the latest investment direction of the Great Food Empire.
Zhu Jingyuan wanted to build railways and factories in the eastern part of Mozhou, and the imperial court of the Dashi Kingdom also fully supported it.
But these construction projects are also long-term and will not be accomplished overnight. The key is probably to start making money.
The cost of rayon products is actually very low, but some products can be sold as luxury goods for a period of time.
The rate of spending money still cannot keep up with the rate of making money from selling oil, so we have to find ways to spend money in other ways.
Zhu Jingyuan is going to Mozhou for an inspection, and the imperial court of the Great Shi Kingdom is also very happy to spend this money, which just solves part of the expenditure pressure.
But Zhu Jingyuan himself is rich.
After the peace talks in Xiyang Cape ended, Zhu Jianyan gave Zhu Jingyuan 30% of the royal dividend from Xintianfu Imperial Village, and also gave several pieces of overseas land, all of which were Zhu Jingyuan's personal income.
Zhu Jingyuan also obtained the Baku oil field from Persia. After Zheng Fuguang led a team to drill out the oil well, he handed it over to the Royal Petroleum Company for management and sold it to Lucia and other European and American countries. Zhu Jingyuan personally took the income directly as dividends.
Daming Airlines holds the patents for flying machines and the Aviation Industry Association. The Governor's Office of the Five Armies is overwhelmed with military orders. Civilian orders are also continuous. There are also advance payment orders with long delivery times from various countries in Europe and the West. The profits are also very considerable. .
There is also the Dashi Clothing Trading Company managed by Chu Yuqiang. Its scale is getting bigger and bigger in Western Europe, with more and more branches. It has spread all over most big cities in Western Thailand. The clothing for businessmen and nobles is also very profitable. Outrageous.
As the Prince of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jingyuan's personal income has reached the point where he can't spend it all without wasting it.
The key is that Zhu Jingyuan has basically no personal expenses. As for the kingdom's living expenses, they are all provided by the imperial court of the Great Food Kingdom.
The places where they can directly invest money currently are Daming Airlines and clothing stores, but their own profits can fully meet their own normal expansion.
The income from Xintianfu Huangzhuang and Baku Oilfield is just a pure number wherever it is placed.
