Zhu Yuanzhang decided to break the system, and Gao Pragmatic has no way to change it yet. However, since the problem mainly lies in money, Gao Pragmatic feels that this is a professional counterpart - the characteristic of this bank is that it is good at solving money problems!
In fact, Guangxi has always been famous for its poor land and poor people, making it difficult to support a large army. Very early on, an official said: "Today's barren soil is called troublesome, and who can do it in western Guangdong?" There are three main reasons for this:
First, the thalassemia is sparsely populated and does not have the basic conditions for developing an agricultural economy. As the saying goes, "There are many ravines, no water veins, and no land for farming; the grains are lonely and dangerous, and no dogs are heard, and there are no people to farm. Nine counties are called counties, and they should not be one or two counties in the southeast; they are called towns. Seven out of seventy are not enough for one or two large cities in the southeast."
Secondly, traffic congestion is not conducive to economic development. "Thousands of mountains are intertwined, the road is lonely, and three rivers pinch it out, making it difficult for the boat to sail. If the road is robbed today, the road will be blocked; if the river is robbed tomorrow, the boat will be difficult."
Third, frequent wars have further worsened local finances. "Somewhere it is discussed that the eagles should be suppressed, and that in other places it is discussed that they should be pinched and suppressed. There are many people who need military pay every day... This is the saying of the deacon: if you use it, you must not be short of it. You must not add more and you must not not add it. You must use it. It cannot be insufficient but cannot be sufficient, as it has been difficult for those in western Guangdong since ancient times."
Comparatively speaking, the economic strength of Guangdong and Huguang is significantly stronger than that of Guangxi. Taking the number of cultivated land and summer taxes and autumn grains paid in the 15th year of Hongzhi as an example, Guangxi has about 90,000 hectares of farmland, 3,380 shi of summer wheat, and 436,987 kilo of autumn grain. There are about 210,000 hectares of farmland in Huguang, 130,910 shi of summer wheat, and 2,036,995 shi of autumn grain. There are about 260,000 hectares of farmland in Guangdong, 6,007 shi of summer wheat, and 1,018,337 shi of autumn grain.
And this is the data for the fifteenth year of Hongzhi. After Gao Gongqing's landownership, the gap became even greater.
For example, after the Qing Dynasty in Huguang, the number of acres increased by 550,000 hectares, more than tripling!
Although Guangdong is not so exaggerated, it has increased by more than 90,000 hectares, which is equivalent to adding another Guangxi!
But how much did it increase after the Qingzhang of Guangxi? 769 hectares…
You read that right, Guangxi Qingzheng’s farmland increased by less than 800 hectares, which is almost negligible.
This is a hardware gap, and it is a huge gap! [Wufeng's Note: The above data comes from "Records of the Ming Dynasty". ]
Huguang has nearly 800,000 hectares of farmland, nine times that of Guangxi. How can we make up for this gap in grain production capacity?
Although Guangdong only has more than 350,000 hectares of farmland, it is four times that of Guangxi. Moreover, Guangdong's commerce and handicraft industry are far more developed than Guangxi's. Especially after the opening of the sea, the "import and export tax" of Guangzhou port alone is as much as one year. If it exceeds 100,000 taels, what can Guangxi compare with?
The reason why Liu Yaojie is willing to use Guangdong's money to subsidize Guangxi is precisely because Guangdong's fiscal revenue has increased year by year, and now he has no shortage of money. Therefore, he, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi who also serves as the governor of Guangdong, is happy to be a favor and show off. Check out his generosity.
But as the old saying goes, if someone is short-handed and soft-spoken, Guangxi will take money from Guangdong, and the governor of Guangxi will not have the confidence to speak on his own territory. Whether to set up floating officials or native officials in the Bazhai area was originally an administrative matter of Guangxi Province, but now Liu Yao was able to intervene. Isn't this one of the manifestations?
Therefore, if Guangxi wants to speak tougher words, it must first take off its poverty hat. Not to mention comparing with Huguang and Guangdong, but at least we have to be self-sufficient!
It is best to prescribe the right medicine for the disease. Now that the disease has been found, Gao Pragmatic, as the governor of Guangxi, must consider how to prescribe the medicine when the governor is seriously ill and can hardly handle affairs.
After sending away Jiang Xin and Ni Zhonghua, Gao Pragmatic began to enter "industrial thinking."
When he was in Siming Mansion before, Gao Pragmatic only considered how to control the chieftains in western and southern Guangxi through economic means. He had not yet considered the problem from the perspective of the economic development of Guangxi as a whole. But now he must make an overall plan for Guangxi. Considered.
In terms of agriculture, especially in terms of grain, there seems to be no good solution for the time being. Without the three high-yielding crops of potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, Gao Pragmatism can only think of "interplanting", "interplanting", and "rotation" that are commonly used in agricultural production in later generations. "These methods require a large number of manpower to teach them, and they also require vigorous publicity and cooperation from local officials, including chieftains. It is estimated that even if Gao Pragmatic is determined to do it, it will take three years to see serious results. .
So there is no need to rush this matter. After all, agricultural development is like practicing internal skills in martial arts. The effect cannot be seen overnight. You can only do it slowly, and time travelers cannot undo it.
So, what about industry? Or handicraft industry?
With Guangxi's current conditions, can it develop any large-scale industry or large-scale handicraft industry? It seems to be quite difficult, mainly because Guangxi has no large iron ore mines worth mentioning in the highly pragmatic impression.
There are a few coal mines, but their distribution is very magical: in addition to Nanning and northwest Liuzhou, which are in the hands of the imperial court, Guangxi also has three main coal mine distribution areas, one near Mingjiang, which is the territory of the Huang family; Near Tianzhou is the territory of the Cen family; there is an even better area, the Bazhai area...
In the northwest area of Liuzhou, the current transportation is very inconvenient, so there is no need to consider it; the Cen and Huang families take out the Bazhai area, so don't consider it for the time being, otherwise it will not be easy to control; so the only coal mine that can be considered is Nanning in later generations. coal fields.
The problem is, if there are no iron mines, what can I do mining coal in this era? Even if iron is not made in the north, it can still be used for heating. However, Guangxi is a province with an average annual temperature of 20 degrees. Winter is almost invisible in most areas. Even Guilin, the coldest place, is not that cold. I can’t sell heating coal. Death?
However, from the perspective of the direction of world economic development, in the next three hundred years, in terms of industry, light industry will focus on textiles, and heavy industry will focus on coal and iron. Without coal and iron... this is lame.
So can we start with textiles first? It’s not impossible. Guangxi is still suitable for growing mulberry, that is, it has the conditions for raising sericulture. However, the silk industry is an intensive industry, and it also requires skills (weaving, embroidery, etc.). I don’t know how many skilled workers it takes to train in this area. Year? Moreover, the current population in Guangxi is sparse, and there is no time to grow food. It is better to wait for sericulture.
If sericulture is not possible, what about cotton spinning? Oh, no, China’s cotton output in later generations is characterized by Xinjiang beating the whole country. As for Guangxi, I don’t know whether cotton is grown...
No, there is something wrong with my thinking. I can't first think about what can make money and then blame it on Guangxi. I have to think the other way around: What are the advantages of Guangxi that I can take advantage of now.
Well, Guangxi's mineral resources should be mainly non-ferrous metals. It's too complicated to remember. It seems that aluminum and tin are more famous.
There is no need to consider aluminum. Gao Pragmatic, a liberal arts student, knows a little about iron and steelmaking because of the "big steelmaking" in those years. How could he know about aluminum? He didn't even know what aluminum ore looked like. What's more, he vaguely remembered that electrolytic aluminum seemed to consume a lot of power... Goodbye.
The mining and use of tin ore has been mastered since ancient times, and it plays a key role in making bronze.
Even in the current eighth year of Wanli, bronze is still a very valuable strategic material because it is the material for casting cannons. Even the Jinghua Artillery Factory now uses bronze for cannon casting, because although Gao Pragmatic knows the time-traveling magic of "iron mold casting cannon", it is only gun mold technology after all, not real material technology. Gao Pragmatic or Jinghua We still can't make steel-cast cannons.
Besides, in the future, high-practical cast cannons will have a great use in being used at sea. The requirements for steel cannons at sea are even higher, especially in terms of corrosion resistance, and the advantages of bronze cannons in this regard are Most of the time, how many years did the British have to use their bronze naval guns?
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