The Chu Empire's strong expansion in Southeast Asia brought huge rewards in a short period of time.
This return is naturally a rich market!
Although the market needs time to respond, even if the Chu Empire has powerfully opened up most markets in Southeast Asia, it still takes time from stocking to transportation and sales.
However, the large influx of orders from overseas was feedback in advance and gave the empire's upper echelons great confidence.
In the winter of the thirteenth year of Chengshun, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce reported that the empire's exports this year were expected to increase by 50% compared to last year, and by 105% compared to the year before.
In just two years, export volume has more than doubled!
Although the reason for this was natural growth, the empire's strong expansion in Southeast Asia also had an indispensable impact.
These increased export goods will bring more gold and silver revenue to the empire, which can be used to purchase a large number of various overseas products, especially various industrial raw materials such as cotton, wood, saltpeter, and sulfur, as well as rice, spices, ivory, etc. Consumer goods can also gradually increase the gold reserves of the Da Chu Empire.
More importantly, the rapid increase in overseas orders and the continued increase in domestic demand orders have further stimulated the development of the domestic business community.
With the development situation of industry and commerce being very good, many people even think that they can make money just by opening a factory...
A large number of wealthy landowners dug up the gold and silver buried in their cellars, and invested the funds collected from land sales in large quantities into industry and commerce.
Industry and commerce have become a hot investment spot for the Chinese gentry class, instead of buying land as soon as they have money as they did in the past thousands of years...
Now in the Dachu Empire, land does not make money or even maintain its value.
Because the Dachu Empire has implemented a nationwide agricultural tax ladder, the more land it retains, the higher the agricultural tax. When it reaches a certain level, the land will not only make no money, but will also lose money...
In addition, the imperial official has been suppressing large landowners for more than ten years, forcing landowners to continuously sell their land. This has also resulted in the fact that there are very few medium and large landowners in the empire.
Nowadays, a large number of traditional gentry have poured into the industrial and commercial circles.
To a certain extent, the remaining gentry class in the Chu Empire completed their status changes in just a dozen years.
They were no longer the traditional landowning class, but became the merchant class.
And these changes are what the empire's top officials like to see, and they are what they actively promote... Well, those who refuse to change are basically dead!
Let capital reach out from the land, return the land to farmers, and invest funds in industry and commerce.
In this way, farmers have land to settle down, the gentry can make money, and the government has obtained the most important stability and tax revenue.
Triple win!
Well, that does not include the large number of traditional gentry families that have been destroyed by official attacks for various reasons in the past ten years!
They stood on the opposite side of the times, so they were mercilessly crushed!
The industrial and commercial development of the Chu Empire has further developed due to the stimulation of overseas markets.
As for the imperial officials, they withdrew the fare for Southeast Asian expansion early...
The military fought three wars of varying sizes in the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, and even the previous Kingdom of Myanmar. In addition, there was no war, but the Kingdom of Annan still signed an agreement.
The empire also received a lot of direct benefits from it.
Not to mention expanding the territory and gaining a comprehensive market, the Dachu Empire officially also received a large amount of compensation, trophies, and other economic benefits.
The compensation includes 5 million Chu Yuan compensation from the Ayutthaya Kingdom, 800,000 Chu Yuan compensation from the Cambodian side, and 1.2 million Chu Yuan compensation from the Burmese side.
Then in terms of spoils of war, in the Battle of Siam, the landing troops of the Great Chu Empire evacuated the capital of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya... Official statistics of various spoils of war amounted to at least seven million Chu Yuan.
Then in Cambodia, they also took over other people's royal capitals in one pot. The spoils were less, but there were still millions.
There isn’t much loot over there in Myanmar…
And don't think it's over... It's not over yet. The Chu Empire has issued loans worth tens of millions of Chu yuan to the above-mentioned countries, including north and south Annan, through various messy means such as loans and weapons sales.
The loan interest rates are not low these days. External loans from financial banks are generally delivered at 20% to 10% off, and the annual interest rate can often reach between 20% and 30%. It depends on the situation, but basically It will not exceed this range.
In this way, Dachu Empire Finance Bank is actually quite conscientious in lending money to other countries... It's not that the interest rate is low, but that they dare to borrow!
Bankers, wealthy businessmen, and even countries in other countries rarely borrow money from other countries. If you don't have the strength to borrow, they will just swallow it.
However, Dachu Imperial Finance Bank's external loans generally come with a lot of additional conditions.
The most important of them is the political conditions. In addition to the political conditions, there are other accompanying conditions. For example, limited use.
It is either used to pay compensation or to purchase various types of ordnance or other commodities from the Chu Empire.
Especially loans for purchasing ordnance are very tricky. The domestic cost of matchlock guns has been as low as less than three taels of silver, and the export price is often more than ten taels. In certain areas, you can still buy fifteen taels.
Artillery is more expensive. A two-and-a-half-pound field gun can cost more than 800 yuan, and a five-pound field gun can cost more than 1,500 yuan.
The value is so expensive. What, you said it’s too expensive?
It's nice to think about it, but it's not something you can just say you don't want.
The soldiers of the Dachu Empire put their guns at your head. How dare you say no?
Therefore, it is a scam for these Southeast Asian countries to seek loans from the Chu Empire for military purchases...
Basically, the Da Chu Empire sold the arms that cost ten taels of silver to them at a price of thirty or even fifty taels. If the arms trade did not increase three to five times, then why would they still say that they were selling arms?
Then they look for a loan from a financial bank to pay for the goods. For this reason, they will bear a debt of more than 60 taels of silver... This debt also has an annual interest rate of more than 20%... In the end, the repayment amount will be hundreds.
What, if you want to repay it early, you can, but you will also have to pay interest during the contract period if you repay it early.
In order to ensure repayment, the Chu Empire would take over their tax agencies such as customs or salt tax.
Of course, these are all false. The most important thing is that the huge military power of the Chu Empire is the guarantee for the repayment of these indigenous countries.
If you don't pay back the money, your country will be destroyed in minutes.
Colonial empires are so domineering and shameless.
Through such troubles, the Chu Empire's expansion in Southeast Asia, even excluding the profits from subsequent market expansion, was able to withdraw a large amount of funds through compensation, loot, loans, etc.
Several big bosses in the empire picked up their abacus and plucked at it. Oh my god, after deducting military expenses, they actually made tens of millions.
This made the senior officials of the Dachu Empire blush...
Ever since the Civil Unification War, how long had it been since there had been so much extra income... After the domestic war was over, the houses of the clans of the former Ming Dynasty, various dignitaries, and the landlords had basically all been ransacked.
Now that there are no more targets for confiscation, even the tax department is forced to lay off employees... It is also very expensive to keep so many losers. After there are fewer targets for confiscation in the country, it is natural to lay off employees to reduce the cost of tax collection.
After the Civil Unification War, the main fiscal revenue of the Chu Empire was basically limited to regular fiscal revenue. It seemed that there was a large amount of fiscal revenue every year, but the expenses were also large, including military expenditures and various administrative expenses.
In addition, in those few years, the Chu Empire also engaged in agricultural development plans and plans to restore people's livelihood.
If I hadn't accumulated a fortune in confiscated income in the past few years, I would have been unable to survive.
Therefore, in the late period of the Unification War, the empire actually began to increase revenue and reduce expenditures. Every year, they shouted that they would cut military expenditures. Even during the Eastern Campaign, they said they would cut military expenditures.
After the Eastern Capture was over, the empire's top officials finally made up their mind and wielded a machete at military expenditures without hesitation, forcing the military to tighten their belts to live.
In order to save military expenses, the army farmed their own fields, raised pigs and vegetables... Who is the largest settlement group in the Northeast? It's not immigration or anything like that, but military settlement.
It can also be seen from this that the financial situation of the Dachu Empire is actually very tight.
He seemed very wealthy. In the 13th year of Chengshun's reign, the central government's fiscal revenue reached an astonishing 110 million yuan.
But again, the more you earn, the more you spend.
Military spending is tens of millions, administrative expenses are thousands, and various infrastructure construction, such as official roads and various ports, also cost a lot of money.
"The First Minister of the Ming Dynasty"
The water conservancy facilities for flood control and irrigation are like a bottomless pit, constantly devouring funds from the imperial treasury.
And this cannot be stopped, nor can it even reduce construction efforts, because supporting agriculture and solving the food problem are the basic national policies of the empire that were finalized many years ago.
Before the reunification of the country was completed, Luo Zhixue had already shouted the slogan that food is the most important thing for the people. The most important task of the empire was to feed the people.
As for having enough food, everything else is nonsense, just having enough food.
Since modern food imports are troublesome and freight is very expensive, we ultimately have to rely on ourselves to solve the problem of food and clothing.
As early as the fourth year of Chengshun, when the empire had not even begun its Northern Expedition, it had already begun implementing the first five-year agricultural development plan.
After the completion of the Chengshun Five Years, the plan achieved great results, and the Chu Empire took advantage of the situation and launched the second five-year agricultural development plan.
The goal remains the same: increase food production!
As for the large number of basic water conservancy facilities, whether it is flood control or irrigation, in the end they are to ensure food production.
Based on the current basic national policy of the empire, the large-scale flood control and irrigation projects started to ensure food production will not be reduced, but will continue to increase in scale.
In order to increase food production, the empire was so frantic that it was ready to actively divert the Yellow River.
If the Yellow River continues to divert the Huai River into the sea, the vast Jiangbei region, and even the hinterland of the Central Plains including the large areas of Luoyang and Kaifeng, will not be able to guarantee the safe production of food.
There are minor floods every year and major floods every three years. If you can just save your life, there is no need to talk about increasing food production.
Moreover, drought continues in the northern region...it is still the Little Ice Age these days, and the climate is extremely abnormal, especially in the northern provinces, where droughts occur at every turn.
For this reason, the empire is determined to divert the Yellow River. On the one hand, it will prevent the Huaihe River area from being flooded every year. On the other hand, it can also divert the Yellow River water to the north to irrigate the cultivated land in the North China Plain.
After years of on-site investigation, the Yellow River diversion project officially started in the autumn of the 13th year of Chengshun!
According to the plan, the Yellow River diversion project will subsequently divert the Yellow River water into the Daqing River in Shandong.
Of course, this diversion does not mean just messing around and just bursting the banks of the Yellow River. It actually requires a lot of preparation work.
In particular, the Daqing River section, which is preparing to receive water from the Yellow River, needs to be dredged on a large scale to straighten some of the curved river channels; narrow river sections should be expanded and diverted; flood storage areas should be set up to avoid impact on the downstream river channels, etc.
These are huge projects that require overall planning.
For future generations, many projects will not be insignificant even with the help of a large number of construction machinery. However, for contemporary civil engineering, which basically relies on the construction capabilities of hoes, these projects are very large.
But the Chu Empire is not afraid either... Such a huge project may seem expensive, but the Chu Empire has always had a tradition of providing relief through work.
More and more places are affected by disasters every year. As soon as any place is hit by a disaster, the imperial officials will almost immediately organize engineering teams or companies to recruit workers... I don’t dare to say that it will make you rich, but it can still be done to allow the victims to eat a mouthful of food and not starve to death. .
The Dachu Empire has always combined infrastructure construction and disaster relief.
As a result, you can often see that after a certain prefecture and county in the Great Chu Empire is hit by a flood, the empire will immediately launch a major project in or near the area... Basically, the city will build flood control structures and dig canals.
As we continue to do this, the natural disasters in the Great Chu Empire seem to remain the same. There are droughts when they should be dry, and it rains when they should be raining. However, the losses caused by natural disasters are gradually decreasing every year.
This is extremely obvious in Shaanxi, Henan and Jiangbei regions.
The above mentioned places were basically hells on earth in the late Ming Dynasty... Thousands of miles of bare land and ten rooms and nine empty spaces are not exaggerated adjectives, but actual descriptions!
And now!
There are still many extreme climates in these places, but the population is gradually recovering, and many abandoned villages have resumed farming.
Although people are still hungry all year round, there is no large-scale famine.
Not starving people to death on a large scale is actually the biggest pursuit of the senior leaders of the Chu Empire and Luo Zhixue at this stage!
And it is not easy to do this!
Regardless of the fact that the empire's industrial development is now very impressive, and the army is beating down the surrounding areas... In fact, there are still a large number of people in the country who are hungry and freezing!
Why are the poor children of the empire so enthusiastic about joining the army now? I have to squeeze my head out.
Because I can have enough to eat after joining the army...
Luo Zhixue estimated that if he wanted the people of the empire to have enough to eat through his own labor, it would take at least several more decades of struggle!
This is a long and difficult project!
It can even be said that this is more difficult than fighting for world hegemony!
Because although the country continues to open up wasteland and restore people's livelihood, and food production increases during the holidays, the population is also increasing day by day. In peacetime, people's desire to have children is very great. In the past few years, the registered population of the empire has It has reached more than 110 million.
This does not include a considerable part of the unregistered population living in deep mountains and forests.
In just ten years, the population of China has overcome the natural and man-made disasters in the late Ming Dynasty, and has begun to recover rapidly. It is estimated that it will reach 150 million or even 200 million in a few years.
How to feed so many people?
Relying solely on traditional means will not suffice
But Luo Zhixue still has confidence. Where does his confidence come from?
Industrial Revolution!
Although the various industrial products produced in the factory cannot be eaten or drunk, even if they make money, the gold and silver still cannot be eaten or drunk.
You said you make money through industry and then use the money to import food? That only requires someone else to have extra grain to sell to you and be willing to sell it to you.
Relying on imported food to fill your stomach is equivalent to putting your neck into the noose on the gallows. Just pray every day that the executioner from another country does not pull the switch...
This is not how the Industrial Revolution works. For a nation, its real role is to increase domestic food production through the power of science and technology!
If this cannot solve the food problem, then guns produced in factories will be needed to seize more land for the nation to survive!
This is the true meaning of the industrial revolution to a nation!
Therefore, at the end of the 13th year of Chengshun, at the Imperial Council of Ministers, Luo Zhixue personally rejected the proposal of some civilian officials to further reduce military expenditures through disarmament and free up funds to develop domestic agriculture, industry and commerce.
The empire will never disarm!
Unless all the foreign races from other countries die and all the land around the world belongs to the great Chinese nation, the empire will never disarm!
Not only did Luo Zhixue not dismantle the army, he even personally finalized the army expansion plan and prepared to train a number of first-class divisions suitable for cross-sea landing operations and operations in tropical areas, and expected to be dispatched to overseas operations.
If there is not enough farmland, just grab it!
Southeast Asia is quite suitable for farming. Although most of the inland areas are terrible tropical rainforests and other bad lands, many coastal plains are extremely suitable for important land.
You know, even with the current garbage farming standards of the indigenous people in Southeast Asian countries, they can export a large amount of food to the empire. The scale of the rice trade between the empire and Siam is not small.
To be honest, it would be a waste to let these indigenous people farm in such a good place.
Not only here, the empire is also interested in the Indian peninsula... The Indian peninsula is still very suitable for farming. Even for a while, the empire cannot directly control the huge Indian peninsula and organize a large number of immigrants to farm there.
But it would also be great if you could control several colonies and obtain a large amount of food through colonization.
