Zhu Yijun's words were quite serious, but he had a good grasp of the situation, because he did not directly believe the statement in Gao Pragmatic's hand, but first said that he would send factory guards to verify it.
Gao Pragmatic is not only not annoyed by this kind of behavior, but also appreciates it very much, because according to his concept, speaking of evidence means respecting facts. This is the main premise for doing things. Without this premise, doing things will only fall into illusion and become a trap. Quixote fights the windmill.
"If you clarify the problem of chicken and monkey, you will find that the seriousness of this matter is even more prominent." Gao Pragmatic said: "This means that the imperial court has been manipulated by the plutocratic forces to some extent - or at least infiltrated. .
Your Majesty, if senior officials at the cabinet and ministerial levels have been seriously influenced by the plutocratic forces, and even fail to report when the plutocratic forces take actions that endanger national security, pretend to be deaf and dumb, and even take the initiative to cover up for the plutocrats and deceive Sheng Cong. , how serious will the consequences be? "
Zhu Yijun's brows furrowed into a deep frown. The green bamboo leaves in his hand seemed to be no longer fragrant. He held the wine glass without moving it for a long time. After a long time, he asked: "Pragmatically, why do you think the Jiangnan plutocrats are always dishonest? Taizu imposed heavy taxes on Suzhou when he founded the country. As a result, Suzhou's wealth is still the highest in the world, and it has spread from Suzhou to most of the Instead, the power of the Jiangnan business gang continued to grow, and in the end it became what you call a chaebol.
Once this chaebol is born, it becomes even more dishonest. In the past, I didn’t understand why officials in the south of the Yangtze River insisted that the sea ban could not be opened, while officials in the north, such as Duke Lingbo Wenzheng and Gao, agreed to open the sea. Only later did I understand the complexity of this.
The Jiangnan plutocrats requested a sea ban in the early years, but they were dissatisfied that the imperial fleet was all done by the Tianjia, and almost all the income from the tribute trade went to the Tianjia. They received almost nothing, so they were naturally jealous and opposed.
Later, the sea was banned, but they started smuggling. By banning the sea and banning their competitors, they made a lot of money one by one. Naturally, they were even less willing to allow the government to open the sea. This led to the emergence of Japanese pirates, which caused chaos along the coast for decades, far surpassing those real Japanese pirates who made small troubles during the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The imperial court was weak on the left and right, but finally trained a few elite soldiers in the war, selected a few talented people, and quelled the Japanese pirate rebellion. At this time, someone finally stood up and said that the intensification of the Japanese pirate rebellion was not caused by anything else but the maritime ban. From this, the court continued to have disputes until Wen Zhenggong made the final decision and tried to use Zhangzhou Yuegang to open sea trade.
And you quickly joined in, and after the opening of Yuegang to the sea achieved practical results, you persuaded Wen Zhenggong to build additional ports. In just a few years, the Japanese pirates disappeared, and the proportion of customs tax revenue in the imperial court's annual revenue increased year by year. Finally, the imperial court was gradually able to accumulate surplus, adjust border affairs, open vassal bans, and conquer the Northern Yuan Dynasty, until now.
However, these Jiangnan plutocrats are still dishonest and actually do such things! If they dare to instigate the Cao Army today, tomorrow they will dare to instigate the guards, the squadrons, the border troops, and even the Imperial Guards! "When Zhu Yijun said this, he slammed the table with his right hand, and then drank the wine in the glass in his left hand in one gulp, with no hidden anger and evil spirit in his eyes.
It seemed that the investigation was an investigation, but deep down in his heart, he had already believed that the Jiangnan chaebol would never be able to escape its involvement in the Cajun riot. The so-called investigation is nothing more than to firmly control the criminal evidence.
However, regarding the emperor's question, that is, "Why are the Jiangnan plutocrats always dishonest?" Gao Pragmatic was a little hesitant whether he should give him a detailed explanation. From what the emperor said, he seemed to think that the locals in Jiangnan were inherently evil. This was obviously nonsense.
The ancients said that people with practical knowledge know etiquette. This sentence is correct, but it is incomplete. In fact, human society is essentially an economic society, and humans naturally become economic animals, and all behaviors cannot escape the influence of economic laws. If people in a certain area have something in common, it cannot be caused by genetic genes, but must be related to the local location in the entire large market.
This relationship is very interesting. It is like a saying in later generations called the division of labor within the world trade system, which refers to the country's position in the world economic chain.
Anyone who knows a little bit about economics knows the "smile curve", which is a curve in the shape of a smiling mouth, with both ends pointing upward. In the industrial chain, the added value is more reflected at both ends, that is, design (R&D) and sales. , and the manufacturing added value in the middle link is the lowest.
Although the current Ming Dynasty is said to be in the budding stage of capitalism, this smile curve can probably be applied to it. After applying it, you will find that at least before Jinghua rose in the north, the Jiangnan region was powerful to a shocking extent:
In the entire industry chain, it controls the design and R&D (intellectual property rights) with the highest profit margins and the market sales at the other end. At the same time, it even controls production!
Do you think what industries were controlled in the Jiangnan region of the Ming Dynasty at that time? Count them, there are silks (including other types of textiles such as brocade, satin, yarn, silk, cotton, etc.), porcelain, tea, papermaking, ships, sugar, salt... Apart from not growing food, what else does it do to make money? , and almost all reached the top. Even if Jiangnan is not the best place for wine making, it actually has a lot of famous wines.
What's this? This TM is the strongest in the entire industry chain, completely leaving others with nowhere to go! It means that in the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan will take care of other things. All you have to do is grow some grain and raise some pigs and sheep to provide us with good food and drink.
Is there any problem with this? In terms of future generations, this means that there was extremely, extremely, extremely serious regional development imbalance in the Ming Dynasty!
In this case, even if the people of Jiangnan thought that they were just doing their own thing, in the eyes of others, and even in the eyes of the emperor, it naturally turned into: "How old are you?" [Note: Internet meme: How? Is it always you? ]
Gao pragmatic thought for a while, organized his language a little, and said: "It's a long story. I wonder if the emperor has noticed that before the early Tang Dynasty, all the games in China were divided according to surnames. They are all members of a big family.
For example, in the Western Han Dynasty, Lu Pheasant and Lu Ze, Lu Lu, Lu Chan, and Lu Tai; Dou Yifang and Dou Changjun, Dou Guangguo, and Dou Ying; Wei Zifu and Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, and Huo Guang... But after the Song Dynasty, the game between surnames , but gradually turned into a battle between regions. "
Zhu Yijun was startled when he heard this, and subconsciously responded: "Oh?"
Gao Pragmatic knew at a glance that Zhu Yijun had not thought about this situation carefully, of course, it was more likely that he had not noticed it at all, so he said: "For example, the dispute between the new party and the old party in the late Song Dynasty, in my opinion, it was not a dispute of ideas at all. , but a game between southerners and northerners. If you check the resumes of the people, you will find that the old party bosses are all from the north and inland provinces, while the new party bosses are almost all from the southeastern coast. .
For example, among the leading figures of the old party, Han Qi is from Hebei, Sima Guang and Wen Yanbo are from Shanxi, Fu Bi is from Henan, and Ouyang Xiu is from Sichuan. In Wang Anshi's new party, almost all the big bosses are from the south. Wang Anshi and Zeng Bu are from Jiangxi, and Lu Huiqing, Zhang Dun, Cai Que, and Cai Jing are all from Fujian.
Even the later encirclement and suppression of the New Party turned into an alliance formed by various provinces. For example, the Shuo Party (Shanxi) represented by Sima Guang, the Luo Party (Henan) represented by Ercheng, and the Shu Party (Sichuan) represented by Sansu. Your Majesty, think about it, is what I said true? "
"Yes." Zhu Yijun nodded in agreement, but immediately asked: "But why is this?"
Gao Pragmatic sighed and said: "This is because starting from the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, the germination of capital developed rapidly, and plutocrats representing their own interests were formed within each province, and the politicians on the stage were just agents of the interests of various places, that is, It is rare for father and son to succeed each other.
Under plutocratic politics, various localities choose agents from North Korea and China to help them implement economic policies, and the games played by agents are also games between interests.
This situation is easy to explain from an economic point of view. For example, Wang Anshi's reforms suffered huge backlash. The essence is that the southerners implemented policies that were beneficial to the south but not beneficial to the north and inland provinces. Naturally, they encountered collective encirclement and suppression by the northern and inland provinces. . "
Regarding this matter, Gao Pragmatic once understood the difficulties of Wang Anshi's reform in his previous life when he was working: a southerner carried out a one-size-fits-all nationwide layoff. This measure may be fine in the South, because the South at that time was all self-employed and private business owners. But if the North at that time were all large state-owned enterprises and no private enterprises at all, what would be the result? Obviously, he will be scolded by the northerners.
However, even after this explanation, Zhu Yijun still maintained a certain degree of independent thinking ability. After thinking carefully for a while, he asked: "Pragmatically, what you mean is that before the Tang Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, the general trend in the world was that the clans were very strong. But in the Song Dynasty, the chaebols became very powerful... If so, I would like to ask, how did this change come about?"
"That's a good question. Your Majesty's question can be regarded as tracing back to the source." Gao Pragmatic praised first, and then said: "The transformation from a clan to a chaebol is determined by many reasons, two of which are particularly interesting: One is the imperial examination system that was fully implemented in the Song Dynasty, and the other is the principle of 'not killing scholar-bureaucrats' pioneered by the Song Dynasty."
When Gao Pragmatic mentioned the imperial examination system, Zhu Yijun didn't have any big reaction, but when he said "not killing scholar-officials", Zhu Yijun was surprised and said with a surprised look on his face: "Isn't it right not to kill scholar-officials?"
"This is not a question of right or wrong." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "Before the Song Dynasty, officials and landowners had no personal and property safety guarantees, so they could only rely on clans that were powerful enough to compete with the imperial power in order to preserve their lives. They and their property were safe. However, as the Song Dynasty gave preferential treatment to scholar-bureaucrats, the landlord class quickly lifted its shackles and formed an independent political force.
Similarly, in the past, the nine-level Zhongzheng system since the Wei and Jin Dynasties made it possible for talents to advance upwards only through attachment to the clan, while ordinary people were tightly bound to the land and had no chance of upward advancement. However, the full spread of the imperial examination system gave the landlord class a way to directly participate in politics.
Therefore, the reforms in the political field in the Northern Song Dynasty actually allowed the imperial examination system to "liberate the productive forces" in the economic field, giving ordinary people, especially the landlord class, an additional step to advance. Not killing scholar-bureaucrats was equivalent to "protecting private property" ', allowing people to operate with confidence and not having to rely on others - such as powerful people. "
"You mean this is not good?" Zhu Yijun was obviously a little confused, because his thinking was much more pragmatic than Gao's, so after hearing this, the first thing he thought of was: Didn't your family also pass the imperial examination? Why would you object?
"Your Majesty, please listen to what I have to say." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "I often say that the economic base determines the superstructure. After the rise of the landlord class, there began to be an imbalance of power between them.
Well, I previously explained to the emperor why the north has become increasingly colder in recent decades. Does the emperor remember it? "
"Remember, you said something about... cycles, the Little Ice Age, rainfall lines, etc." Zhu Yijun nodded.
"Yes, in fact, this problem also existed in the Northern Song Dynasty. Of course, it was not as serious and obvious as it is now." Gao Pragmatic explained: "As the rainfall line moved southward and the temperature dropped in the Northern Song Dynasty, the population and economy of the Jiangnan region grew rapidly. Only then was the new party represented by Wang Anshi born.
After these interest groups are formed, they will inevitably seek to tilt the court's policies towards them. Therefore, they will form fierce policy conflicts with those economically backward regions in the north and west. And as the economic development gap further widens, they will gradually evolve into irreversible Reconcile contradictions. "
Although Gao Pingshi asked the emperor to hear what he had to say, the emperor couldn't bear it anymore and interrupted with his hand: "Isn't this still a bad thing?"
Gao pragmatic was a little helpless, but fortunately he had a special status in front of the emperor. At this time, he simply acted willfully, spread his hands, and said angrily: "The imperial court collected almost 1.7 million taels of silver from the southern ports last year. The emperor feels that Is this also a bad thing? If I say that with the current level of prosperity in Jiangnan, as long as the court operates properly, it is possible to collect tens of millions more every year without affecting the peace of the region, does the emperor also think this is a bad thing? "
"Uh... this must be a good thing." Zhu Yijun said angrily. He glanced at Gao Jingshi again and found that Gao Jingshi had an unhappy look on his face. He quickly poured him a glass of Qiulubai with an apologetic smile, and then raised his own glass: "I was rude just now. Don't be offended by Jingshi. Please continue."
The emperor took the initiative to admit his mistake, and Gao Pragmatic stopped pretending and explained: "So this kind of chaebol itself is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they will promote the rapid development of the economy, and on the other hand, they will also unconsciously lead to social problems." Unbalanced development quickly intensifies conflicts."
When it comes to double-edged swords, Zhu Yijun's experience can come into play, and he suddenly said: "Oh, that is to say, I need to find a balance point between their two... two performances, and strive for as much as possible. Is this what you mean by giving full play to their role in promoting economic development while minimizing their impact on intensifying conflicts?"
Of course that's what it means. Your way of thinking has been deliberately instilled by me over the years. How can it be wrong?
"Of course." Gao Pragmatic affirmed as expected.
Zhu Yijun breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately frowned: "But where should I start? I...I suddenly heard about this, and I really have no clue!"
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