Chapter 20: 130 million yuan
It seems like a win-win solution, but one company actually loses. Nothing else. They are the landowners in the north.
After this turmoil, the landlords who collected rents and used other related profits to operate their businesses no longer exist.
There are several reasons.
The landlord's income is actually not just land rent. In fact, the land rent only costs a little.
The landowner's income includes land rent. No matter whether it is a year of disaster or a year of famine, it cannot be changed. Secondly, the tenants' unpaid labor means that the landlord can let the tenants work for him at will. Under normal circumstances, there is no reward. The third is financial exploitation. Through usury, the tenants were completely exploited, turning them from tenants into domestic slaves.
Became the property of the landowner.
Now, first of all, He Xi has raised labor prices in the north a lot during his years in Beijing. So much so that He Xi's military expenditures have become too high. The average military pay is twenty taels. Although there are many generals who are paid very high salaries, most of the soldiers are also paid more than ten taels. You must know that the army's salary in the late Ming Dynasty was only this amount.
But the price of silver in the early Ming Dynasty was completely different from that in the late Ming Dynasty. After all, from the Wanli period to the end of the Ming Dynasty, the West imported at least 600 million taels of silver.
Even if He Xi finds a way to issue more currency, one dollar today will be worth more than one tael in the late Ming Dynasty.
It's not that He Xi doesn't want to reduce military expenditures, but the wages given by some factories have already reached twelve taels a year. Even some skilled workers can do more. People who go to the battlefield are not as good as workers, right?
If that's the case, who is working for the imperial court?
As a result, if labor prices increase, land rent cannot be high. If it is high, there will be no race.
Then there is the addition of new farm tools, which improves labor efficiency. Many tenant farmers went to work on their own. Just grit your teeth and have your own land. The cost of land reclamation is reduced.
The only place where landlords could make excess profits was through loan sharking.
After all, the risks of agricultural production are too great. To be honest, although there have been wars in the past few years, the weather has generally been smooth, with no major droughts or floods. But even so, the floods caused by Fu Youde were still unbearable for many tenants.
It is difficult for tenants and even homesteaders to resist the risks of agricultural production. Once this happens, the landowners can come out and reap the benefits with usury.
Now there is no way for loan sharks to operate.
Land became much less attractive to landowners.
Farming has almost become an unprofitable business. This is despite the high price of food.
In fact, if you really study the prices of ancient grains, you will find that in terms of land prices, farming is not a profitable business at all. Just like real estate, if you expect to rent out the house and collect rent to recover the cost, it will be almost impossible within decades or hundreds of years.
Therefore, most landowners do not want to recover their costs through farming.
On the one hand, they count on the power attached to the land. On the other hand, many landlords obtained their property from official circles. They don't expect to make money, they just want the land to preserve its value.
Now the financial attributes of land are gone.
It is impossible to exploit tenants through rights attached to land, and it is impossible to preserve its value. Without him, with the implementation of new agricultural tools, a large amount of land is being cultivated. It is a good thing that the price of land does not fall. I also want to appreciate and preserve the value, which is a beautiful idea.
As a result, the landowners have only two options.
First, it is the heirloom of Zhen Gengdu.
That is to say, participate in labor. Because farm tools were updated, the land that everyone could cultivate increased. If you become a farmer, you can actually make money. Scholars don't have to work personally, but they can organize labor. That is, becoming a business landlord.
Not rentier landowners.
After all, if you grow food, it will be difficult for the land to recover its original cost. This is only limited to those who grow food. If it is a cash crop. But it's a different scene.
The land in Jiangnan later did not produce food for the same reason. As for what kind of cash crops to grow, it depends on the situation. But now if you grow cotton in Beijing, you will definitely make a profit.
After all, the Jie family is very short of cotton.
The second is to give up the land and change careers to do something else.
For example, go into business.
This also changed the economic structure of many bureaucratic families. Before this, it was the norm for a family to have someone serving as an official and someone at home guarding the land. But things are different now. The Jie family has given them new enlightenment, and the number of bureaucratic families like the Jie family has begun to increase.
But anyway.
There is one fact. In other words, the traditional scholar-officials no longer exist.
The economic basis of their existence has been destroyed.
Why is it so easy to do. In fact, it is also related to the fact that the north itself was not a place where scholar-bureaucrats flourished. But it also explains. Another class that can replace the scholar-bureaucrats, that is, the capitalist class, has grown to a certain extent.
Under He Xi's guidance, they already had considerable attack power.
It's just that many people in the game fail to realize this situation.
From now on, He Xi can already determine how this war will be written in future history books. This was not just a war, it was a revolution. A capitalist revolution.
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The far-reaching impact of this incident will be in the future.
Now, what He Xi, Zhu Xiongying, Yang Shiqi and others are most concerned about is how much money was made from this incident.
Yang Shiqi led people from the Ministry of Finance to make calculations and finally came to the conclusion, "A total of 130 million yuan."
"One hundred and thirty million yuan." Zhu Xiongying was shocked when he heard this figure. He already knew that a considerable amount of money would be raised this time, but he never expected that it would be so much. This was enough for the court to fight two or three battles.
A war like the Battle of the River.
If you win them all, it will be enough to drink from the Yangtze River.
He Xi said: "Okay. This matter is over. Now what we have to think about is how to spend the money. After all, the money is not given in vain, but also requires interest. We cannot let them lie on the account in vain."
In fact, He Xi was not too satisfied with this number.
He still has a lot at his disposal. But I think it’s better to wait.
The capital market cannot absorb too much blood at once, otherwise it will not be able to slow down.
It’s not too late to wait until you are short of money again in the future.
If you borrow something, you must repay it. It’s not difficult to borrow again. It is also possible to borrow new ones and return old ones.
However, He Xi also knew that the thinking of people in Ming Dynasty could not bear too high a deficit. This money must be paid back in the future.
"Yes." Zhu Xiongying said, "Yes, think about how to spend it. Can the money be used as military expenses to go south in one fell swoop and fight Nan Ni?"
He Xi pondered for a moment and said, "That's not good. After all, is it a good idea for us in Nanjing to ask Duke Wei to be their commander and really fight to the death?"
After Zhu Xiongying heard this, he suddenly fell into deep thought.
Facing the prestige of Wei Guogong Xu Da. Zhu Xiongying couldn't hold it either. In fact, he also knew that Wei Guogong was in poor health, and whether he could even command the battle was one thing. But no matter what, as soon as this name comes out, everyone will hesitate again and again.
Zhu Xiongying said: "What should we do?"
He Xi said: "I always have an idea, that is, the invincible lies with ourselves, but the victorious lies with the enemy. We must first be invincible before talking about other things. First of all, what I want to do is to build a railway. Go to the front line, so that the army no longer has to worry about its future. Even if it encounters a big defeat, it can still stabilize its position."
"Even if the Duke of Wei comes to attack, he won't be able to chew it down."
He Xi was afraid of Duke Wei, but not to the point where he would not dare to fight. It's just that he doesn't want to take risks. It's not like giving Nanjing a chance to make a comeback. In a word, what He Xi wants is an upright suppression of strength.
The firepower was several times greater, the combat power was several times greater, and the spending was also several times greater. Under such pressure, he did not believe that Wei Guogong could still make a comeback.
No matter how powerful Xu Da is, he is only a human being, not a god.
Zhu Xiongying nodded, admitting that He Xi was right. National affairs must be
Be careful, something can be risky at the tactical level. Even if you lose, the loss won't be big, but you can't take risks in terms of strategy.
But Zhu Xiongying was a little unwilling and said, "Are we not doing anything? Isn't this too passive?"
He Xi said: "I think it's not that I can't move, but I don't want to attack head-on?"
"How do you say this?" Zhu Xiongying asked.
