Nie Sishen only worked for Hantian Textile Company for a few days, and he deeply felt that this government-run enterprise was different.
To put it mildly, it is down-to-earth. Basically no one in the company regards itself as a government-run enterprise, and there is no arrogance or anything like that. Instead, it is for the sake of the market and profit to lose face and compete in the market.
This is rarely seen in other government-run enterprises, especially those medium and large enterprises directly under the Ministry of Industry.
For example, Hantian Machinery Company. In fact, a large part of this machinery company's business is supported by civilian products. The various textile equipment it produces are the best choice for major domestic textile companies, with high efficiency, low failure, and smooth operation. The cost is also low, and textile equipment using water power has recently been introduced, and its efficiency has once again been explosively improved compared to manual equipment.
It's just that these hydrodynamic textile equipment require a large investment and are not easy to maintain. They require large-scale factories to make great determination before they can invest money in them. For example, Su Qin Textile Company and Hantian Textile Company, those small and medium-sized textile companies that want to develop large-scale The production of hydrodynamic textile equipment is still relatively reluctant.
In addition, Hantian Machinery Factory's various civilian iron products are also very popular. Its famous Hanpot is the flagship product of Hantian Machinery Factory.
Don't think that a mere iron pot is nothing, but in fact it is one of the most popular iron household products in modern times.
This thing is a necessity of life.
Its market size is the same as that of farm tools such as hoes and sickles, which are essential items for every household.
With its excellent quality and relatively low price, Han pot has completely disrupted the market of Guangdong pot and other traditional iron pots a few years ago. It is not only very popular in China, but also competes with cloth, silk, Like traditional advantageous export commodities such as porcelain and tea, they became the advantageous export commodities of the Chu Empire and were transported by large numbers of merchant ships to Fuso, Nanyang and other places for sale.
In addition, it was also transported by land by merchants and sold to various parts of the Western Regions.
In addition, Hantian Machinery Factory has used its technological advantages and production capacity advantages to be quite successful in other fields. Whether it is hoes, sickles, or other types of farm implements, cooking utensils, tools, etc., Hantian Machinery Factory produces various civilian products. Iron products are quite popular.
However, such a government-run enterprise that relies on civilian products to support its main sales still maintains its pride as a government-run enterprise. Business is business, but it will never be humble, let alone do something that is not on the table.
This is true for Hantian Machinery Company, not to mention other government-run enterprises.
How should I put it? The managers of these companies do not regard themselves as businessmen, but still regard themselves as officials. Since they are officials, they are naturally different from ordinary businessmen.
They focus on giving priority to completing the tasks assigned by their superiors, such as ensuring production capacity and ensuring quality. Especially those in charge of factories in defense-related industries, they basically do not consider market issues. Anyway, what they produce is basically Other government-run factories purchase or directly supply the army.
Therefore, they did not regard themselves as businessmen, but still regarded themselves as officials.
Under such circumstances, the government-run enterprises of the Dachu Empire were actually different from ordinary private enterprises. This was not a question of whether they were good or bad, but to achieve different purposes with different means.
Although these government-run enterprises basically have problems such as strong bureaucracy and disconnection from the market, you must know that the Dachu Empire did not establish these government-run enterprises to make money...
It is to lay the foundation of industry and increase the scale of industry so as to supply enough guns and ammunition for the army.
And when various construction and production tasks are ordered by the superiors, the people in charge of these government-run factories basically do not need to consider any economic benefits. They only need to consider how to produce things and improve the quality, even if they lose money!
It was precisely because of this system that the Chu Empire was able to quickly build a large number of factories, forcefully promote industrialization in an unreasonable and even contrary to market rules, and produce a large number of guns and ammunition.
If it were purely businessmen's thinking...give them another hundred years, they would not be able to produce such a large-scale production of guns and ammunition!
Because many government-run factories are losing money!
If you ask businessmen to do it, they won't do it!
In addition, even if they want to do it, businessmen can't do it because the investment is too high!
Even if they want to do it, businessmen are unwilling because the income is too low and the time to pay back the capital is too long, and they don't have the patience.
Just like those guns, the army's demand is very huge, and the demand is very urgent. There are orders for hundreds of thousands of pieces at every turn, and they are required to be delivered within a time limit.
Private enterprises can naturally invest huge sums of money in building production lines, but what happens after this batch of orders is produced?
You have to know that the war will not continue forever, it will end sooner or later!
By then, the military's orders will be significantly reduced, and the production lines with huge initial investment will have vacant production capacity. This also means that the recovery of costs is far away!
Therefore, there is actually no way to rely on private capital to do many things, because private capital naturally pursues profits!
We can only rely on government capital to do it, because official capital does not need to make a profit, it only needs to complete the tasks assigned by the superiors.
Luo Zhixue, as the master of the empire, is also very aware of this!
He knows the pros and cons of government-run enterprises, as well as the pros and cons of private capital, so he adopts differentiated policies, such as allowing government-run capital to invest in some enterprises represented by heavy industry; as for light industry and other general industries, such as textiles, After the policy was adopted, it was left open to private capital to make its own decisions.
In addition to these factors, there is another very important reason why the Chu Empire promoted a large number of government-run enterprises, which is to forcibly stimulate industrial demand, thereby promoting technological progress and industrial development.
Take military orders as an example!
The order volume for both muskets and artillery is very huge. In order to ensure the supply of such a large quantity, the arsenal must adopt mechanized production on a large scale. Otherwise, manual production will last until the end of the year of the monkey.
However, with mechanical production, the initial investment is huge, and the initial production cost will also be very high.
Especially compared to manual production!
Labor costs are very low these days. Even a senior skilled craftsman only earns about ten taels of silver, and an ordinary craftsman only earns a few taels of silver.
However, mechanical equipment can easily cost tens to hundreds of taels, especially some large or precision equipment, which can easily cost thousands or tens of thousands.
The reason why the price is so expensive is mainly because the R&D investment is relatively large and the output is relatively low, making it difficult to dilute R&D costs.
In addition, production is also troublesome. The yield rate of some special parts used in equipment is extremely low, and it often takes a lot of hard work to produce a qualified part.
For example, the difficulty of producing the special tools that are most commonly used in various machine tools is still too high for the basic industrial capabilities of the contemporary Dachu Empire.
Therefore, when the Chu Empire was building various industrial zones in the early days, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were thrown at them at every turn!
In this way, if we really calculate the cost, the guns produced by the Ming Dynasty or the Dongji people are actually cheaper than the guns produced by the Chu army.
People can produce an imitation version of a Yuan Nian style matchlock gun with only three or four taels of silver, but the Chu army basically needs more than five taels of silver to produce it themselves.
Not to mention the 2-year-old flintlock gun. The early cost was more than 20 taels. Even now after mass production, the military's purchase price still requires 15 taels of silver.
This price is very high compared to the contemporary price level. If it were the Dongji people, they would probably be able to make flintlock guns, and they probably wouldn't produce them on a large scale because they can't afford them...
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From a business perspective these days, hiring various craftsmen to hand-produce artillery is the cheapest these days!
However, the production capacity will be greatly limited, because it is too difficult to train craftsmen, and so many craftsmen cannot be trained in a short period of time, so the production capacity cannot be increased.
But on the Da Chu Empire side, in order to ensure production capacity, the Da Chu Empire directly spent money to build government-run arsenals, and then forcibly increased production capacity.
At the same time, in these processes, it is also believed that a huge market for huge machinery and equipment and raw materials has been created!
Further promote the development of steel, machinery, mining, shipping and many other industries.
This chain of links directly forcibly gave birth to a huge industrial market!
The Chu Empire's annual military expenditure of tens of millions of taels is not only used for fighting, but also a huge lever to promote industrial development!
The two major items of armaments and infrastructure are the most powerful tools to stimulate industrial development, and they are also the most powerful tools to stimulate war!
Many wars in modern times are basically inseparable from economic crises, because after economic crises, they often stimulate the economy through armaments or infrastructure construction and other similar means. Under floods, if there are no low-lying areas such as colonies to release pressure, then basically all wars will The only option is to take the path of war.
Germany, Japan and the United States are the most typical examples!
Today, the Great Chu Empire is actually following such a path, except that it was only an agricultural country before and did not have the option of economic crisis. Instead, it directly began to use armaments and infrastructure construction to forcibly stimulate the economy and promote industrial development.
Then the war will bear the cost of flooding!
Not just now, the Chu Empire did this before!
When they marched eastward to Jiangnan, the Chu Empire was on the verge of bankruptcy... But after taking Jiangnan, it not only gained a large amount of confiscated income, but also allowed a large number of government-run enterprises to gain access to huge markets in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River such as the Jiangnan region. Hantian The machinery company and Hantian Textile Company rose rapidly at that time.
The subsequent Northern Expedition followed a similar pattern. Although the Chu Empire spent more money, it earned more, so that it could maintain a very delicate balance.
Now in the campaign to conquer the East, the Chu Empire is still copying such a routine, but the senior officials of the empire, especially the officials of the Finance Department, have a relatively pessimistic attitude towards this.
They believe that compared with the previous wars such as the Eastward Expedition, the Northern Expedition and even the Westward Expedition, which were very profitable, the Northeast Campaign may be a loss...
Because there is not much population in that poor place, it will be difficult to bring about a larger market after it is conquered. The only thing we can hope for is to capture more by then, and then get some war horses, especially the Liaohe Tao to raise horses.
But if you want to rely on animal husbandry to make a comeback...it will probably take many, many, many years!
Luo Zhixue didn't say much about this!
Although the Northeast has a small population now, with only a few hundred thousand people able to survive, quite a few are still satisfied. After the war, there will probably not be a few barbarians left.
If you rely solely on the local market, there is no hope of recovering your capital.
However, there is black land in the Northeast and rich mineral resources!
In particular, the local area has a large amount of high-quality coal and iron ore. Iron is a hard currency these days. Especially for a country like the Chu Empire that is just in the early stages of industrial development, coal and steel are the top priorities, and no amount is enough. use!
Take the Northeast, then immigrate and develop the local black soil to grow rice or soybeans, then develop local coal and iron resources on a large scale, and transport them by sea to the hinterland of the Central Plains such as the Yangtze River Basin to produce various iron products.
With a two-pronged approach, Northeast China will become the hinterland of China in less than ten years, and it will also be a hinterland with rich resources and a large population.
Therefore, the Northeast War will not lose money.
To put it bluntly, we have to fight even if we lose money!
Is it possible that the Eastern captives can still be watching from the north?
It would be fine if the Eastern captives only occupied one part of the northeast. The worst they could do was to fight with them at Shanhaiguan. But the problem is that the Eastern captives also controlled Monan Mongolia!
From Jiayuguan in the west to the Bohai Sea in the east, such a long northern Great Wall defense line will be threatened by the Eastern Captives. If it is a long-term passive defense, hundreds of thousands of troops will not be enough...
The cost will also be huge!
Under such circumstances, it would be better to just kill them and be done with it, seize the Northeast and Monan Mongolia, build a large ranch, recruit their own cavalry, and prepare for the subsequent westward march into Central Asia.
Solving the threat from the north is something we must do even if it means losing money.
Besides, the Chu Empire will not lose money, and it can still stimulate the development of domestic industry no matter how bad it is.
So much tax collected every year has to be spent. It is better to use it to purchase guns and ammunition than to pay officials Zhang Fuli and make some messy things like this. At least it can stimulate the development of the defense industry.
The national defense industry these days is basically synonymous with heavy industry!
Therefore, for the Great Chu Empire, there are many benefits from conquering the East!
But these things are beyond the understanding of many ordinary people in the empire. Even Army Lieutenant General Bai Yangrong, who is commanding the army on the front line, actually does not understand the economic logic behind this war!
All he knew was that Dongduo was China's biggest enemy in recent decades and the biggest threat to the newly born Chu Empire.
It must be killed!
That’s what he thought, and that’s what he did!
