On the way back to the Ministry of Revenue from the palace, Gao Pragmatic kept wondering where the 300,000 shi of food would come from.
Because the autumn harvest has long passed, Taicang's income is a fixed value, and Gao is pragmatic and not an immortal. It is impossible to turn one grain of rice into two grains, so the 300,000 shi of grain can only be obtained from Taicang.
If Taicang takes 300,000 shi of grain, it will create a deficit. This deficit must be made up, otherwise something will definitely happen - there are only two sources for this grain, either to supply the army or to distribute Zonglu.
Food supplies for the army must be indispensable. Otherwise, if another rebellion breaks out in the northwest, not to mention that the imperial court will definitely be helpless under the normal situation. Even if he is highly pragmatic, he will be in trouble.
When people insist on not rebelling, Gao Pragmatic's reputation as "the best writer in the world" can indeed be a big deterrent. But when people really can't survive and have no choice but to rebel, then don't say that they are the best in the world. , it’s useless even if you are the best in the world, he can’t look back, he has no choice but to fight if he should.
Now the imperial court has to carefully calculate even its threats to attack Nurhachi, let alone another disaster like the Northwest Rebellion? We can never afford to fight. We can only ensure the supply of troops stationed in various places in advance to ensure that there will be no changes.
As for the clan lumi, if you have to say "can be deducted", it is true that it cannot be deducted, but this will also hinder the opening of the vassal ban: the clan members saw it, good guy, the imperial court can't even issue the ancestral salary to the same level as before. Now, how can we expect them to "buy out" according to the rules mentioned before?
When the people's hearts are broken, it will definitely be difficult to lead the team. Gao Shishi has known this for a long time, so the clan Lumi can no longer skimp on it now.
Three hundred thousand shi of rice, even if calculated based on the price of grain in the capital, is actually only a mere 180,000 taels. If Gao Pragmatic is willing to fund the filling of the hole, even if Jinghua is currently in a period of large-scale expenditure, it is not that it cannot be paid out - no Speaking of other things, simply cutting the construction of a purely military warship would be almost done.
Jinghua is starting to build a new first-class cruiser with a planned size (tonnage) of 2,400. It is a two-deck gun-type warship equipped with 52 guns of various types, with a capacity of 346 people. The cost of a single ship is 160,000 taels of silver.
The third-class sailing battleship currently being designed on paper is even more astonishing. The specification is 3200 materials, and it is also a two-deck gun. It is equipped with 72 guns of various types, has a capacity of 460 people, and the cost of a single ship is 240,000 taels of silver.
It is a pity that Jinghua is Jinghua, and the Ministry of Household Affairs is the Ministry of Household Affairs. It is impossible to be pragmatic and do not dare to separate public and private matters. This money can only be solved at the level of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Gao Pragmatic first thought about a question: Why does Jinghua have money but the Ministry of Accounts does not?
The answer is that the nature of their income sources is different. Most of Jinghua's revenue comes from industry and commerce, and production, transportation, and sales are all integrated. Only a few products need to share profits to some special people for terminal agency retail, so Jinghua's income is of the nature of more work, more gain.
The Ministry of Household Affairs is different. It is very clear how much it should collect into the treasury every year, and it will only be less and not more (for example, a certain place has not completed the collection quota). This is equivalent to a clean and responsible civil servant in future generations. Of course, it is impossible for him to make a fortune with only a "dead salary". His ability to live a worry-free life is all thanks to the implementation of the "high salary to support integrity" policy.
This is the trouble with the Ministry of Household Affairs. The income is relatively constant, but the expenditure is not. Once there is an unexpected situation in the court, and the funds originally reserved by the Ministry of Revenue to deal with emergencies are not enough to offset it, it will be over, as is the case this year.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic recalled that the Ministry of Revenue originally had a chance to get out of this predicament. The opportunity lies in the early days when ports were opened. Ports such as Shanghai, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou were all used by the Ministry of Revenue. If the Ministry of Revenue could operate them well, these official ports could provide a large amount of funds.
It was a pity that the Ministry of Revenue was not good at these tasks, and later packaged the port and sold it to Jinghua. At the time, this was equivalent to throwing away the burden, but looking back now, it was completely choosing sesame seeds and losing watermelons.
Now that Gao pragmatic himself has become the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he deeply feels that this situation is wrong and should not be done. Why can’t the Ministry of Household Affairs have its own other source of income? The central finance of later generations does not rely solely on tax collection to survive!
So two words suddenly popped into Gao Pragmatic's mind: central enterprises and State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
It seems that the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission does not need to worry, because the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development itself seems to have the power of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The key to the problem lies in the word "central enterprise".
This word is very interesting. Even before Gao pragmatism crossed over, many people had a skeptical attitude towards central enterprises. Some even criticized them as state monopolies and should be gradually abolished.
But in fact "monopoly" itself is a neutral term and has nothing to do with ownership. Looking at the anti-monopoly laws of various countries around the world and the Red Dynasty, they do not call private enterprises and state-owned enterprises with high concentration of production and operation monopolistic enterprises, but only oppose price alliances, bundled sales and other monopolistic behaviors in production and operation, and We are not opposed to the higher concentration of production and operations in the context of economic globalization.
At that time, economic powers such as the United States, Japan, Germany, and France all had multiple private "monopolies" with highly concentrated production and operations (for example, the only very large company in Singapore was the state-owned Temasek Company).
Generally, large and medium-sized enterprises are actually unable to enter these fields, thus forming a modern enterprise organizational structure in which a few large companies and many small and medium-sized enterprises coexist.
The organizational structure of enterprises with the characteristics of the Red Dynasty should not be all ordinary large and medium-sized enterprises. Instead, it includes very large state-owned enterprises and many large, medium, small and micro enterprises (the vast majority of which are collective, cooperative or private enterprise) coexist with the modern enterprise organizational framework.
The statement that does not oppose Chinese and foreign private enterprises, but only opposes the high concentration of production and operation of state-owned enterprises in the Red Dynasty, is inconsistent with the corporate organizational structure required by modern market economy and economic globalization competition; the so-called state-owned enterprises in the Red Dynasty Public accusations of interfering with global resource allocation and international trade are also unobjective.
In fact, many very large state-owned enterprises during the Red Dynasty had state capital injections and certain "monopoly privileges". At the same time, they also assumed social responsibilities that private enterprises would never be willing to bear.
Even in rural areas with few residents, the State Grid will certainly not refuse to supply power to you. Would you try the same situation in the United States? I am a private company, and it will take 100 years for me to pay back my money by connecting you with power lines. Do you think I am willing to connect this line for you?
To ensure the basic electricity needs of the people? Are you kidding me, am I a charity? I am a private company and what I want is to make money!
Of course, this is also the difference between limited liability government and unlimited liability government.
But in this case, why can’t the unlimited-responsibility government of Ming Dynasty follow suit?
Oh, yes, the Ming Dynasty originally had official businesses, but most of them failed and very few succeeded. Even the salt and iron monopoly, a system that was obviously a money-making system, the income of the Ming Dynasty was not as good as that of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
However, Gao Pragmatic feels that this problem is not a human problem, but a policy that is too stupid: starting from Zhu Yuanzhang, none of the rulers of the Ming Dynasty understood economics at all. They could not even think of a professional brokerage system, let alone a professional brokerage system. Incentive method.
Is this the way normal people should think about letting a group of administrative officials who have studied sages and sages to manage enterprises?
He is so pragmatic that he doesn’t care about Jinghua’s specific operations! The specific operators of Jinghua have been professional brokers (major shopkeepers) trained by the Gao family from the beginning, and promotions are also based on their business performance. Gao pragmatism can at most find a few people with professional talents in his own family to take charge of certain aspects, such as Gao Guoyanzhi, who is responsible for financial audit.
However, Ming Dynasty was so indiscriminate, as if he really knew everything after reading some sage books. In fact, when he was responsible for specific matters, he shut down all kinds of things, especially government-run workshops, mines, etc. In addition to the civil servants who read the books of sages, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty also always participated in these government-run "enterprises"... which made it even more difficult.
Therefore, the officialdom itself is not the problem. The problem lies in the employment system, which does not allow professional people to do professional things. If the Ministry of Revenue can change this situation in the future, even if it does not open other government-run projects, it can at least turn many government-run workshops, factories and mines in the Ming Dynasty from losses to profits.
Thinking of this, Gao Pragmatic not only secretly said: Good guy, I never thought that I would actually reform the state-owned enterprise system for Ming Dynasty.
However, now that he has thought of this, Gao Pragmatic has to think of another related issue. After the state-owned enterprises of the Red Dynasty developed to a certain stage, they found that state-owned enterprises should "grasp the big ones and let go of the small ones." Now, is the Ming Dynasty also doing this? Should you refer to it?
The premise of grasping the big and letting go of the small was that there were so many state-owned enterprises at that time, and because the vast majority of state-owned enterprises were iron rice bowls, their work efficiency was low, their products were very competitive, and they suffered long-term losses with no hope of turning around.
The current Ming Dynasty official camp also seems to have this problem, and the nature and situation are more complicated and worse. For example, the Ministry of Household Affairs has some mines and coal fields controlled by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Ministry of War has control over health factories, mining industries, and even various small workshops through the five prefectures.
These are definitely "small" and definitely not "big". If placed in the red dynasty of later generations, I'm afraid they will all be junk assets that need to be let go.
However, Gao Pragmatic feels that the current Ming Dynasty cannot be divided according to such standards. Not only can't it be "released", but it even has to be kneaded first.
On this issue, Gao Pragmatic plans to copy his own homework: follow Jinghua's style, first merge various scattered industries according to categories and regions, and cultivate local leading enterprises directly controlled by the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Now that the "Big Household Department" has not been completed, the Ministry of War will definitely not be able to obtain the related industries controlled by the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, and it will not be able to help them with restructuring.
But thinking about it the other way around, it seems to be a good thing. After all, this kind of thing also needs to be piloted. First, "practice" on the industries controlled by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and then promote it after achieving good results, both from the perspective of efficiency and the resistance it faces. There are benefits to all.
The idea seems good, but there are still some implementation difficulties: for example, how to find a professional agent, and if you arrange for a professional agent to manage it, will you encounter opposition at the court level? In addition, how should professional agents effectively supervise them? Etc., details like this have to be considered.
This is the general idea, but there is a problem. The above cannot be achieved immediately, and no matter how immediate the results are, it is impossible to collect the 300,000 shi of grain or 180,000 taels of silver in a short period of time.
For food or money, we still have to find another way.
However, the idea of this central enterprise just reminded Gao of pragmatism, especially the four words "grasp the big and let go of the small" gave him an excellent inspiration.
How will the much-needed funds come from? Selling assets!
Good guy, it would be too dangerous to do this kind of thing in the red dynasty of later generations. If you are not careful, you may "cause heavy losses to state-owned assets" and you may be sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, now in Daming, many things are completely different. Not to mention anything else, the Ministry of Revenue sold the official port to him in a package, and now the major ports are so fat that no one says that Zhang Xueyan's decision back then was incorrect.
Why? Because Tobe himself just can’t do it well! This is not just a problem unique to the Ministry of Revenue. How many government agencies, large and small, in the Ming Dynasty made money? When we sold Guangang, we recovered a lot of funds at once. How difficult it was to survive at that time. How can we look back now and say that Zhang Xueyan made a mistake in his decision-making and caused heavy losses to state-owned capital?
Therefore, if Zhang Xueyan can sell loss-making assets, Gao Pragmatic can certainly do the same.
When it comes to buying and selling, if there are only sellers, it is called price but no market, and if there are only buyers, it is called market but no price. So now that there is a seller, he has to find a buyer, and for this, the Ministry of Household Affairs must first determine what to sell.
This is not difficult, Gao Pragmatic immediately thought of it.
He had previously planned to bring the Shimadzu family of the Satsuma Domain of Japan onto his pirate ship. To this end, he came up with an idea, which was to let the Shimazu family reform the feudal government and develop glass products in the economic and industrial aspects, which required soda ash (see Chapter 175 of this volume, sugar-coated poison).
In East Asia, there are two major sources of natural soda ash, one is the oral alkali in Tumut, and the other is the currently undeveloped soda ash mine in Henan.
You must know that even before Gao Shi traveled through, there were very few countries in the world where natural soda ash mines were discovered. There were only a few countries such as the United States, China, Turkey, and Kenya, among which the Green River trona mine in the United States was the most famous.
However, the total reserves of "China's trona capital" located in Tongbai County, Henan Province reached 150 million tons, and the prospective reserves were as high as 300-500 million tons, accounting for 80% of the country's trona reserves, ranking first in Asia and third in the world. two.
And more importantly, although Tumut is already a strong supporter of the Ming Dynasty, in comparison, if it is imported from Tumut and then transported to Japan, the transportation cost will definitely exceed that of transporting from Henan to Japan - because Tongbai County is located in The southern part of Henan is almost the same distance from the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, so the trona produced in it can be transported by either the Yellow River waterway or the Yangtze River waterway. When it reaches the seaport, it is transferred to Jinghua's sea-going ships and shipped to Japan.
Tongbai County in later generations is currently a county under the jurisdiction of Nanyang City, and now it also belongs to Nanyang Prefecture. The mining area in Tongbai County, Nanyang Prefecture (the expected area) is not a military camp controlled by the five governments, which means that local assets can be sold with the approval of the local government, and the top-level supervision and approval power lies with the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Gao Pragmatic felt relieved now. He was able to kill two birds with one stone. Jinghua could buy a huge mine, and the Ministry of Finance could get a large amount of cash to tide over the difficulties.
As for the "significant loss of state-owned assets"... it's easy to deal with, just go to the emperor to agree.
After all, everyone in the world believed that the world belonged to him, and when the land was approved to be sold by him, naturally no one could say anything.
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