Therefore, the first wealth-raising product he wants to launch must meet the following conditions:
First of all, the production cost cannot be too high. Otherwise, if he wants to directly open a shipyard and take advantage of the "Longqing Opening of the Sea" to engage in overseas trade, this cost is obviously not something he can afford with the thousand taels of silver on hand. This rule determines that his first money-making product can only be a "gadget".
Secondly, the product should have a certain technical content but be inconspicuous. Otherwise, it will be too easy to imitate and cannot maintain profits. If it is too eye-catching, it will attract excessive attention from the outside world.
Thirdly, the audience of this product cannot be too narrow, otherwise even if this gadget can rely on technological monopoly and sell for a relatively considerable price, it will be difficult to promote because the audience is too small. As a time traveler in the commercial era, Gao Pragmatically knows that the total profit of industrial products without economies of scale is difficult to ensure the rapid development and growth of his company - wasn't Rolls-Royce also acquired by BMW? Doesn’t Ferrari also have a parent company called Fiat? Is it because the Rolls-Royce and Ferrari brands are not valuable? Obviously not, it’s just that the audience is too small and the size of the product is not enough, so it cannot compare in scale with brands with a wider audience. This is the same reason why Porsche forced the launch of the Cayenne amid skepticism - as a company, it needs to create profits.
Again, this product would best cover the upper class downwards. Because once the upper class recognizes the product, it can greatly increase the added value of the product and drive the middle class to use it, thus forming a trend that will continue to increase profits over time.
Finally, to launch this product, it is best to have a partner. This partner must be able to largely dispel the desire of some people with ulterior motives to covet the profits gained from its technology monopoly and marketing.
The problem of which products to produce is easier to solve - as for time travellers, under the technical conditions or the technical conditions that can be created, various high, middle and low-end products that can be produced have been written about in so many novels. Just pick a few. It’s not very difficult to remember one yourself.
Even if this first product has to meet various requirements in terms of cost, technology, audience, etc., it is not too difficult for Gao Pragmatic. For example, Chuan Chuan's favorite soap can meet these conditions. Of course, it is best to make soap directly. After all, it is to cover the upper class society downwards. Although making a soap for washing clothes is also very practical, it is far inferior to making it for royal nobles, high-ranking officials and dignitaries. The soap used by his family is of high quality.
However, when it comes to partners, you need to think carefully about being pragmatic.
Theoretically speaking, with Gao Wushi's current special status, if Gao Gong can be persuaded to nod, then it should be the most convenient and safe way to recruit a group of "Gao Party" elements to cooperate in setting up a factory. However, Gao Jingshi didn't want to associate the "Gao Party" with his first product - Gao Jingshi felt that before he passed the Jinshi exam and entered the officialdom, his first purpose was to break up the Gao trio two years later and create a foundation for Gao Gong. During the Wanli period, he continued to govern and created conditions. As for Gao Dang... To be honest, as long as Gao Gong is in office, Gao Dang will always exist, and there is no need to rush to combine interests now. On the contrary, if Gao Gong falls, Gao Dang and others will be doomed.
If the skin is gone, how will the hair be attached?
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic hopes that this first product can be used to complete his initial plan to make money, and at the same time, it will also play a certain role in breaking up the Gao trio.
Among the top three, Zhang Juzheng does not need to consider wooing him. This is completely useless. Although the political struggle does not need to be filled with smoke, the level of life and death is even more than that of war, so Zhang Juzheng cannot be "used for me." Moreover, although many so-called experts and professors of later generations desperately touted that his reforms largely extended the life of the Ming Dynasty for decades, in fact, his reforms did not touch a deeper level at all, so they were not thorough. Later generations also have a public opinion. It is said to be a reform, but in fact it is at most an improvement. Even Gao Pragmatic had great doubts about Zhang Juzheng's actual role in the Longwan Reform and the effectiveness of the reform.
For example, the abolition of the shift system for craftsmen was started as early as the eighth year of Jiajing, and it obviously had nothing to do with Zhang Juzheng. The first reform of the weaving system started in the 10th year of Jiajing. By the Longqing period, it was already "viewing fields as traps" and "the rich reduced their capital in order to reach the end" (source: "Records of Muzong of the Ming Dynasty"). It can be seen that The effect of a weaving method has already appeared. Therefore, on the whole, the main achievement of the legal reform is not Zhang Juzheng's. Even Gao Gong can only say that he inherited the correct line of his predecessors and continued to advance.
So what did Zhang Juzheng do? Well, he forcibly promoted a weaving method across the country, instead of depending on the situation in each place like during the Jiajing and Longqing years. Is this merit? I'm afraid not. For the southern region where industry and commerce are developed and land annexation is already relatively serious, it is suitable to reform the one-line law, which has been changed during the Jiajing and Longqing years. The areas Zhang Juzheng promoted were precisely the northern and Sichuan regions where land annexation was not serious and industry and commerce were not developed. In fact, it was not suitable for this reform.
In addition, Zhang Juzheng also promoted the forced collection of silver. One of Jiajing's legal reforms has always been to maintain the payment of grain instead of money, because this can prevent self-cultivating farmers from being repeatedly exploited by official, merchant and landlords. Zhang Juzheng's forced collection of silver not only increased the space for officials to force the landless people to pay 2 taels of silver - because if they were to pay grain, the landless people had no harvest, it would be much more difficult for officials to cheat - but also gave officials, merchants and landlords 2 taels of silver per year. An opportunity for a second windfall.
Zhang Juzheng also instituted the entrance examination method. This entrance examination method generally means that no matter how you collect tax money or from whom, as long as you can collect it, your performance will be considered qualified. Otherwise, it will be negligent and lazy administration. You may have to lose your hat or exchange your big hat for a smaller one. Moreover, this examination method was continued. During the Chongzhen period, the bureaucrats tortured the landless peasants in Shaanxi, which was basically to inherit Zhang Juzheng's legacy. As a result, the result of Shaanxi's examination was to become Chuang Wang.
Zhang Juzheng also re-measured the land across the country, but what were the results of the measurement? Anyway, during the Longqing period, the tax-paying private land was more than 7 million hectares, and in the Wanli tenth year, the tax-paying private land was still more than 7 million hectares.
Finally, Zhang Juzheng actually gave the Donglin Party the soil for its emergence and existence. Official and business interest networks such as the Donglin Party can easily grow under the conditions that Zhang Juzheng excludes dissidents and curbs public opinion. Gu Xiancheng and Li Sancai both obtained bureaucratic power during Zhang Juzheng's time. Zhang Juzheng's so-called reforms were actually unfavorable to the poor peasants and probably did more harm than good to the dynasty. However, they were most beneficial to the group of officials and businessmen represented by the Donglin Party. Therefore, in the early years of the Apocalypse, as soon as the Donglin Party came to power, they Zhang Juzheng was immediately redressed.
Donglin Party or something like that, even if some of them are very popular, Gao Pragmatic, as a young cadre trained by our party in the Red Dynasty, has always been disdainful of people who only care about personal integrity and not the interests of the country - if you It’s okay if you’re an ordinary citizen and can’t “sacrifice your family for everyone”. But as a senior official of the country, you don’t even have this awareness. What use does the country need from you? Correspondingly, even though the Red Dynasty also had corruption problems, looking back, when the Red Dynasty was fighting floods and rescue operations, was there a danger that "the masses evacuated first, and party members came in first"? Is it "the secretary must withdraw from the secretary, and party members are not allowed to withdraw unless the secretary withdraws"? At least Gao pragmatically, as the secretary of a senior county official, always followed the secretary on the front line of flood control in critical moments, and could not go down the embankment for three or four days at times.
Rights should always correspond to responsibilities.
Of course, the real results of Zhang Juzheng's reforms must be affirmed by one thing: no matter whether the means are clever or not, at least the rats in the treasury will not starve to death.
Although Gao Pragmatic has always felt that the tax system of the Ming Dynasty had huge and complicated problems, in the final analysis, continuing to ask farmers to collect taxes is definitely a stupid way to quench thirst. Only by expanding tax sources, especially commercial taxes, customs duties, and even industrial taxes, can we It's right.
In the end, Zhang Juzheng's reform was still only about finding ways to deal with agricultural taxes, and in fact there was a situation of compulsory collection of monetary agricultural taxes. In Gao Pragmatic's view, it can only be regarded as a mixed success at best: it certainly contributed to the longevity of the Ming Dynasty. , but it also continued to overdraw the bottom of the people's hearts in the court, and after him, the Ming Dynasty went further and further along this wrong path, and became more and more hopeless.
Therefore, in comparison, Gao Pragmatic believes that Gao Gong will not do worse than Zhang Juzheng if he continues to be in power. If he has the opportunity to take over power in the future, although it is extremely difficult to collect commercial taxes, he is still confident that he can at least do better than Zhang Juzheng. Be good. In this case, I have to ask you, Mr. Zhang, to move your butt and cool down.
The only ones left are Feng Bao and Li Guifei. These are the only two people Gao Jingshi can find a way to break up.
Feng Bao's side is supposed to be relatively easy to handle. As for eunuchs, even if they usually like to decorate their appearance with culture, their love for money should be inescapable in their hearts. Feng Bao was not so impenetrable in history, right? Therefore, as long as it is done properly, there is still hope to win him over.
The difficulty lies in Concubine Li. The current Concubine Li is not the Empress Dowager Li who represented the imperial power to a large extent after the death of Emperor Longqing. At this time, she was living deep in the palace. Even though Gao Jingshi was a child, the palace was not the Gao family's back garden, so she could go there whenever she wanted. Didn't she meet this person when she had such a good opportunity to enter the palace last time?
Besides, so what if I saw it? Could you tell her: Oh, my dear, I have a sure-profit deal here, and the profits are extremely huge. Do you want to buy some stocks too?
It is simply the Tang Dynasty in the desolate world. Even if they want to take a share, according to the tradition of Chinese dynasties, the head of their family should do it - that is Emperor Longqing, and it is not Li Guifei's turn.
Gao pragmatic thought about it, but still felt that it was not easy to open the door to Concubine Li. But after all, he was a person who had been in politics in later generations, and he knew the truth that "if the leader can't handle things, he should handle the people around him."
Are the "leaders" surrounded by palace ladies and eunuchs? It doesn't matter, Feng Bao will find a way to get it done first, and then - get rid of Concubine Li's family!
Although Concubine Li lives deep in the palace, she still has a family, and history books record her father, Li Wei, who had countless namesakes in later generations.
The later Earl was originally just a mason in the countryside of Tongzhou. When his hometown was hit by an insect infestation, Li Wei couldn't survive in the countryside, so he took his daughter to the capital as a refugee. After a few months, he found that the capital was home. It was so difficult that she was about to starve to death on the streets, so she had no choice but to send her daughter to Prince Yu's Mansion to be a maid.
I have to say that this was the most correct decision Li Wei made in his life, because from then on, a broad road lay in front of him.
