Once the agricultural subsidy of 65 million taels was announced, it quickly aroused a huge response.
Many of them doubt the authenticity of this matter.
It's not that I doubt the authenticity of the agricultural subsidies provided by the Da Chu Empire, but I doubt whether the Da Chu Empire can spend so much money on subsidies.
After all, that was 65 million taels of silver. Looking at the Ming Dynasty, let alone tens of millions of taels, even millions of taels could not be obtained.
So if we switch to the Da Chu Empire, can they come up with so much money?
At this point, the worries of the outside world are obviously unnecessary.
First of all, this batch of money belongs to the total expenditure. Specific expenditures will be shared by the local and central finances. For example, subsidies for factories and workshops that produce agricultural tools, part of the local finance subsidy, and part of the central finance subsidy.
This does not mean that all expenditures come from the central government.
Furthermore, the central fiscal revenue of the Da Chu Empire was considerable.
On December 28th, the Dachu Empire had just finalized its financial budget for next year, the fifth year of Chengshun.
The revenue budget is 61 million silver coins.
It is predicted by region that the pan-Jiangnan region will contribute most of the fiscal revenue next year, including northern Zhejiang, Jiangnan, Yingtianfu in Zhili Province, and Wannan in Anlu Province.
These places alone are expected to directly contribute approximately 35 million taels of central fiscal revenue.
In addition, Jiangxi, Chubei and Chunan can also contribute about 10 million taels of fiscal revenue.
In the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, there are very few in Guangxi with only two million, and in Guangdong there are probably more than four million, which adds up to about six million.
Finally, there are Jiangbei, Anlu, north of Gaoguanjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other places. The fiscal revenue of these places is not high. At the same time, in order to restore the local people's livelihood, Luo Zhixue is also in the above-mentioned provinces, dealing with some people whose livelihood is serious. Local governments have decreed that agricultural taxes are exempted, so regardless of the tax imposed by these places, next year the above-mentioned places combined will probably only contribute about 10 million taels of central fiscal revenue.
This adds up to a central fiscal revenue of 61 million taels.
If divided according to tax types, then agricultural taxes account for the bulk, which is about 30 million taels of silver, accounting for about 50%. Then there is salt revenue, which is about 15 million taels. (Including salt tax and profits turned over), then there are various industrial and commercial tax revenues and profits turned over by enterprises affiliated to the Ministry of Industry, which is probably about 10 million, and finally there are miscellaneous incomes such as customs duties and minting revenue of several million.
From this, we can see why the Chu Empire launched a large-scale crackdown on illegal salt in Jiangbei and other places in the autumn. This salt revenue alone can contribute about 15 million taels a year. It is more than the combined income of all the industries and commerce in the Da Chu Empire...
During the Ming Dynasty, the income from the salt industry fattened countless powerful salt merchants and turned Yangzhou into a prosperous city with a population of hundreds of thousands.
In the Da Chu Empire, revenue from the salt industry became an important pillar of finance.
The above are only regular fiscal revenues and do not include various confiscated revenues that may be obtained next year.
At the same time, the money that the Chu Empire can spend is not only limited to these fiscal revenues, but also includes the fiscal surplus of hundreds of millions of taels of silver in the treasury...
Such a large fiscal surplus is not generated by tax collection, but by successive confiscations in recent years.
In the third year of Chengshun's reign, during the Eastward Campaign, the Department of Taxation raided Jiangxi, Jiangnan, Zhejiang and other areas and made confiscated revenue of tens of millions of taels. After spending part of this money, there was still a lot left over.
In the fourth year of Chengshun, that is, this year's Northern Expedition, coupled with a new round of suppression operations launched in autumn and winter, the gains were even greater. Tens of millions were confiscated in Youzhou City alone, and then in Luoyang as well. A lot of money was confiscated. In the end, tens of millions of funds were confiscated in Yangzhou and Huaihe. In the last year of busy work, more than 100 million were confiscated.
Even though the expenses of the Northern Expedition were huge, the Da Chu Empire itself had a regular fiscal revenue of more than 40 million taels of silver last year, so in the end, there was a surplus of more than 120 million taels of silver in the treasury.
Such a large treasury surplus also gave the emperors and ministers of the Chu Empire the confidence to launch large-scale agricultural subsidies.
To put it bluntly, in the five-year agricultural subsidy plan, half of the central government’s expected expenditures, about 30 million taels, can be directly used from the existing treasury surplus, and there is no need to use regular fiscal revenue at all.
Today's Da Chu Empire is rich and willful, so it dares to boldly launch a five-year agricultural subsidy plan.
In fact, in the next five-year development plan, agricultural subsidies are only a relatively important part of it. At the same time, several development plans announced by the outside world have not been equally used, and the expenditure is not expected to be small.
This aspect is mainly the industrial part.
In the next five years, the Dachu Empire hopes to increase its iron production to 200,000 tons per year and its coal production capacity to 2.5 million tons.
The main projects include the fourth phase of the large iron smelting plant, the third phase of the Dangtu iron plant, the proposed Guangzhou iron plant, and the proposed Tianjin iron plant, forming a pattern of four large iron plants, plus some Small and medium-sized iron smelting plants eventually reached an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons.
The main coal projects include the second and third phases of Pingxiang Coal Mine in Jiangxi and the first and second phases of Kaiping Coal Mine in Hebei. In addition, there are more than ten medium-sized coal mining projects across the country.
Coal and steel are the foundation of the national defense industry and the foundation of agricultural development. Therefore, Luo Zhixue focuses on the coal and steel industry in the early stage of industrial development and is preparing to launch a number of key coal and steel projects.
In addition to coal and steel, the machinery industry is also a key support project. The machinery industry is the foundation of various factories. Without the various types of equipment produced by machinery factories, it would be impossible to build them. In addition, the machinery industry is not only the production of equipment. In the Dachu Empire, , those that produce farm tools are also considered machinery factories...
Therefore, the Dachu Empire planned to build machinery factories of varying sizes throughout the country, according to local conditions and comprehensively considering local iron ore, coal resources and transportation conditions. Generally, they would be built in conjunction with iron smelting plants or coal mines nearby.
They are mainly small machinery factories. In addition to producing some machinery and equipment for local use, their main task is to produce iron products such as agricultural tools, cooking utensils, and household hardware. This is actually part of agricultural subsidies.
Without enough small machinery factories scattered all over the country, how can farmers obtain a large number of cheap iron farm tools?
In addition, we will focus on supporting the development of three machinery factories, Hantian Machinery Factory, Dangtu Machinery Factory, and Guangzhou Machinery Factory, to continue to expand their scale, conduct technology research and development, and upgrade mechanical products.
The chemical industry is currently a relatively pure national defense industry, mainly producing gunpowder. Currently, these ammunition factories are directly affiliated with the arsenal, so although there is some support, they will generally develop along with the development of the arsenal.
However, the follow-up involves industries such as dyes and paints. In order to prepare ahead of schedule, Luo Zhixue also instructed the Ministry of Industry to plan and build at least one large-scale chemical plant for the development and production of various chemical products.
Finally, some relatively subdivided industries will invest in new construction or support one or two factories.
For example, Hankou Telescope Factory in the optical industry, Xiangyang Bearing Factory in the bearing industry, etc.
Finally, after a preliminary summary, it was planned to support the expansion of 12 large factories, prepare to build six new large factories, and build or support 272 small and medium-sized factories.
Involves all current industrial classifications.
It is said that in order to formulate this five-year industrial development plan, the Ministry of Industry even created an industrial classification.
Including mining, smelting, chemical industry, machinery manufacturing, optics, shipbuilding, textiles, wood processing, paper making, tea making, grain processing, etc.
Basically, Luo Zhixue and others have included all the industries that can be thought of that are related to industry.
At present, there are six major categories and more than 100 sub-categories.
Then the Ministry of Industry will follow the classification to ensure that each classification has at least one government-run factory, and provide support or simply new construction.
Luo Zhixue's ambitions are still very high. He hopes to initially establish an industrial system in five years, even if this industrial system is still very primitive and does not even have a steam engine...
But as long as the system is in place, for the time being, we can only use water power or animal power or simply handwork... Then it will gradually develop in the future, and the steam engine will naturally appear.
If you don’t have a perfect system and just start building a steam engine, then you can only build a kettle... It’s hard to build a laboratory product, but it’s unlikely to be industrialized.
For example, for a steam engine, you need a cylinder, and the cylinder of a steam engine works under high pressure. You also have to ensure that it does not leak, which requires a lot of materials and processing.
If you don't meet the corresponding materials and processing levels, you can't make it even if I give you the drawings.
In the 21st century, various engines, especially those of advanced fighter jets, are the flower of industry and are extremely technically difficult.
So now in the seventeenth century, the steam engine, which is extremely crude in the eyes of later generations, is the flower of industry of this era, and it cannot be produced by a country without any ability.
What Luo Zhixue needs to do now is to first develop basic technologies, especially basic materials and processing.
Then, we will integrate the various industries that have initially developed to conduct a major technical research on steam engines, achieve zero breakthroughs in steam engine technology, and apply steam engines to all walks of life to improve production efficiency.
What outsiders don't know is that when Luo Zhixue was working on this five-year industrial development plan, he was already targeting steam engines.
