In the spring of the 19th year of Chengshun, in the past few months, there had been no major events in the Chu Empire. It was peaceful and stable internally, with no major disasters and high-level politics tending to be stable.
In terms of the external situation, there are no medium- or large-scale wars. As for small-scale armed conflicts, there are many of them, but they have little impact.
After all, those armed trading companies are fighting with people outside every day, especially after Nanyang Trading Company and more than a dozen other armed trading companies involved in trade in Indo-West Asia reached a strategic cooperation agreement for collaborative market development and benefit sharing last year.
Whenever there was an opportunity, they went to the Indian peninsula to fight with the local indigenous kingdoms. Today they made a market opening agreement, and tomorrow they forced the indigenous people to open ports and so on. In the winter, they also established a concession on the east coast of the Indian peninsula.
In addition, the Alliance of Armed Trading Companies fought with European colonists such as the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company every day, and various 'pirate attacks' occurred very frequently.
There are too many of these things, and the scale of the war is also very small, and it is limited to the level of armed trading companies, so the empire's senior officials generally don't pay much attention to them.
Relevant colonial affairs were basically entrusted to the governors of Nanyang and India.
Governor of India, this is a position established only last year by the Chu Empire. Its full name is "Governor of India, Burma, West Asia and other civil affairs and vassal affairs"
This position can handle the civil affairs of the local overseas territories by itself, and also handle the diplomatic relations with the indigenous kingdoms in West Asia, India, Myanmar and other places; handle the diplomatic relations with the European colonial companies by itself, and also has the power to declare war, but there is still no transfer The power of the army and navy.
Not only did the governor of India not have the authority to mobilize troops, the governor of Nanyang also did not have this authority.
Governor of India and Governor of Nanyang, these are two overseas territorial governorships established by the Chu Empire, which have broader powers than domestic governors.
Basically, except that they cannot directly mobilize troops, they basically have other powers.
This is because the overseas territories are too far away from Jinling, and they can only rely on sea transportation. This can last for several months or even half a year. When the speed of information transmission is too slow, Jinling must handle everything. The decision is too slow.
However, in order to balance the power of the governors of overseas territories, Luo Zhixue also strictly formulated the structure of military power in overseas territories.
The post of Governor of the Nanyang Army as 'Governor-General of Army Military Affairs in Various Regions of Nanyang' was established. This position is concurrently held by the commander of the 22nd Army, usually a senior lieutenant general.
The post of Governor-General of the Nanyang Navy was established to oversee the naval affairs in various parts of Nanyang. It was concurrently held by the Commander of the Nanyang Fleet and comprehensively coordinated the naval affairs in various parts of Nanyang.
In other words, taking the Nanyang region as an example, there are three systems there, namely the Nanyang Governor who is responsible for all administrative and diplomatic affairs, the Army Nanyang Governor who is responsible for army affairs, and the Navy Nanyang Governor who is responsible for naval affairs.
There is also a similar team in the Myanmar-India region.
Specifically, the Army still has garrison commanders in overseas territories. Currently, there are Jiulongjiang garrison commander, Bangkok garrison commander, Malacca garrison commander, Sumatra garrison commander, Myanmar garrison commander, Arakan garrison commander, India garrison commander... Well , basically all overseas territories under direct rule have established a garrison headquarters organization and corresponding commanders. Of course, the size of the C-class garrison troops under their jurisdiction is different, and the commanders' military ranks are also different.
As powerful as the Malacca garrison commander, the garrison commander of a province in China is basically the same, with an army major general as the commander, while the Bangkok garrison commander has only three to five hundred troops...the commander is just a major!
The above-mentioned are C-level garrison troops, while the main field forces are the combat-ready A-level divisions and the standing B-level divisions, which are under the jurisdiction of the field headquarters.
For example, the command structure of the 'Twenty-second Army of the Da Chu Empire Army' is established in Shicheng. The strength of this army is not fixed, but is sent to the country in turns to garrison. It maintains a force of about 30,000 people all year round. The forces under its jurisdiction are respectively Garrisoned in the Malay Peninsula, eastern Sumatra Island, Bangkok Province, Kowloon River Province, Cam Ranh Bay and other places.
In Dagon, Myanmar, there is the 'Burmese Dispatch Force of the Great Chu Empire Army', which also rotates troops sent from the country to garrison, maintaining a total strength of about 8,000 people.
It is stationed in Dagon, Chittagong and several new leased port cities in Myanmar. It is fully responsible for combat affairs in Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal. It is also temporarily responsible for the defense of the United Cities on the east coast of India.
As for the navy, it follows the domestic example of setting up local fleets, basically focusing on overseas territories. Each overseas territory will set up a local fleet for long-term garrison to carry out offshore patrols, port protection and other tasks.
For example, the Annan Fleet is responsible for the coastal defense of Annan and Cambodia;
The Siamese fleet responsible for the defense of the Gulf of Siam;
The Malacca Fleet is responsible for the defense of the Straits of Malacca and the coast of Sumatra;
The Burmese fleet is responsible for the coastal defense of areas north of the western end of the Strait of Malacca, that is, the waters of the Bay of Bengal, the coasts of Si Kafu and other places, and the coastal defense of Myanmar, the Arakan Khanate and other places.
However, the scale of these local fleets is actually very small, and the ships are basically offshore patrol vessels. A considerable part of the troops are coastal defense forces. Their main tasks are offshore patrols, port protection, garrisoning naval bases, garrisoning coastal defense forts, etc.
The real main force of the navy is the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Nanyang Fleet, which are respectively responsible for major combat affairs such as ocean patrol, escort, and mobile operations in their respective sea areas.
In addition, since the Nanyang Fleet went south to take charge of southern and other maritime affairs, domestic maritime defense was basically handed over to the Beiyang Fleet. With the expansion of its jurisdiction, the Beiyang Fleet has actually been fully responsible for all the way from Guangzhou to the Heilongjiang estuary, including the Fuso Sea area. All the main maritime combat affairs have become a local fleet...
In addition, there is a 'Da Chu Imperial Navy Reserve Fleet' that is used for training and as a reserve force when necessary. The attached warships are mainly training ships. In addition, some retired and sealed battleships are also managed by them.
As for offshore patrol and coastal defense affairs, they are handed over to the coastal fleets, such as the North Sea Fleet (Whale, Sea of Japan), which is responsible for coastal affairs in Tsushima Strait and North Sea;
The Yellow Sea Fleet is responsible for coastal affairs in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea;
The East China Sea Fleet is responsible for the coastal defense of Jiangbei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places;
The South China Sea Fleet is responsible for the coastal defense of Fujian, Guangdong and other places.
Then we have to count several local river and lake fleets, namely the Yangtze River Fleet, the Heilongjiang Fleet, the Pearl River Fleet, the Yellow River Fleet, and a small 'small sea fleet' on Lake Baikal.
Xiaohai, this is the official name of Lake Baikal by the Great Chu Empire, and it is also the traditional name of the Central Plains Dynasty since the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
As for the North Sea, it was called the Sea of Whales and the Sea of Japan in the Chu Empire.
Therefore, the North Sea Fleet of the Great Chu Empire does not refer to the naval fleet active in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, but specifically refers to the fleet active in the Sea of Japan in the waters north of the Tsushima Strait.
After all, from a geographical perspective... the Sea of Japan in later generations was considered the North Sea to the Chu Empire... As for the Bohai Sea, it was an inland sea...
Of course, all the local fleets in the local coastal waters mentioned above are actually not very good. The ships under their jurisdiction are basically offshore patrol ships with a displacement of two to three hundred tons. There are also some old frigates retired from the navy's ocean-going fleet. Waiting for a cruiser or something.
Within the naval system, on the one hand, it is used to train naval officers and soldiers, cultivate the younger generation of officers, and then place some unlucky ones who failed to compete for the main fleet positions or failed in the struggle... It is almost the same concept as the garrison command in the army.
Anyone who joins the garrison force in the local garrison fleet or the army is basically at the end of their journey to the army. There is no hope of being able to climb up in this life.
Therefore, for some young and middle-level officers in their prime, being kicked into the garrison is no different from being demoted and exiled. Except for a few who endure the humiliation and bear the burden and hope for a comeback, there are basically few others. It would take a few months, maybe a year or two more to apply for retirement.
Of course, there are still some people who come to provide for the elderly. These are basically people who have reached their age, but they cannot be promoted in the main force. This situation is very common at the brigadier general level. When many brigadiers are about to retire, they go to the garrison. Serve as a garrison commander in the army for two or three years to achieve the rank of major general in the army.
After all, there is a big difference between retiring with the rank of major general and retiring with the rank of brigadier general. The difference in pension annuity after retirement is quite big.
The Chu Empire had been established for nearly twenty years, and various political structures had become very mature, especially the military-political balance, which was Luo Zhixue's key focus.
Whether it is good or not is another matter, but the balance between powers is very good. At least there will be no local feudal officials who are dominated by one family, or even the possibility of rebellion.
At the same time, it is difficult for generals who lead troops abroad to obtain support from civilian officials. Even generals who lead troops abroad are divided into garrison generals and generals of the main field force, and they are not subordinate to each other.
And then the army and navy still don’t deal with each other...
Generally speaking, the strategy of military and political balance, land and sea balance developed by Luo Zhixue initially ensured the internal stability of the Chu Empire.
This will also allow Luo Zhixue to have more time and energy to develop the domestic economy and people's livelihood.
In the spring and February of the 19th year of Chengshun, something big or small happened in Jinling City.
The Jinling Stock Exchange was officially opened and stock trading began.
There are five companies listed in the first batch, and the most eye-catching one is undoubtedly the Lee Iron Company!
After all, this company is already very famous, and it is also the company with the strongest strength, the most impressive performance, and the most promising prospects among the first five listed companies.
Therefore, some industry insiders who learned the news immediately snapped up the company's shares.
It is worth noting that the new thing of stock exchange is still very unfamiliar to ordinary people. In fact, few ordinary people participated in stock trading on the first day. They were either financial institutions, various funds, or A professional who is wealthy and has done small-amount stock trading before.
As for ordinary people, they don’t even know what stock trading is, and they rarely get involved in it right away.
Because of the popularity of investment institutions, the stock price of Lee Steel Co., Ltd. soared by ten percentage points on the day of listing, triggering the daily limit mechanism.
In order to avoid sudden rises and falls, stock exchanges have a limit-up and limit-down mechanism, with a limit exceeding 10%, so that investors can calm down and wait until the next day to trade.
The price limit rose on the first day of listing, causing the market value of Li's Steel Company to soar from more than 5 million Chu Yuan before the issuance to just over 6 million Chu Yuan, and judging from this value, it will continue to rise in the future!
And those who were the first to buy stocks at the issue price on the exchange found that in just one day, their direct stock assets increased by 10%... This money was earned faster than robbing money.
This news spread quickly, not only attracting the attention of more investors, but even the shareholders of Lee Steel are now regretting it!
The issue price is low. If I had known earlier, I should have raised the issue price.
In this issuance of stocks, the total market value of Lee's Steel Company was 60 million shares, of which 3 million shares were issued at a price of 0.1 Chu Yuan per share, with a total value of 300,000 Chu Yuan.
The shares were underwritten by Dachu Imperial Commercial Bank and sold to various investment institutions and powerful individual investors. This price has actually increased compared to before, because when Guangzhou Iron and Steel Company made a strategic investment in the stock, the price per share was still low. Less than 0.1 Chu Yuan.
But looking at the price increase now, Lee's Steel Company feels that it has suffered a loss, and thought that it might be able to push the price higher when it was originally issued.
Pity!
As for the current rise in the stock price, it has little to do with Lee's Steel Company for the time being, because all the circulating shares have been issued and are now in the hands of various investors. Today's stock trading is actually conducted among these investors.
After the stock price rises, Lee Iron and Steel Co. cannot get more money... Of course, it is definitely good for shareholders. If the stock price rises, the price of the non-tradable shares in their hands will also rise. If the shares are transferred later If so, you can sell it for more money.
However, it is also good for Lee's Iron Company's subsequent financing, because according to Lee's Iron Company's plan, if this stock issuance goes smoothly, another batch of circulating shares will be issued in a few months for further financing.
The value of the second tranche of issued shares and the amount of funds that can be raised depend on the stock price.
The stock price of Li's Iron Company hit the daily limit as soon as it was listed, and this limit lasted for five full days... Even after the fifth day of listing, the stock price of Li's Iron Company reached 0.146 yuan per share.
One Yuan of Chu Yuan is equal to ten jiao, which is equal to one thousand Wen, and 0.146 Chu Yuan is one jiao and forty-six Wen.
The market value of Li's Steel Company skyrocketed from 6 million to 8.76 million yuan in just a few days.
It’s crazy!
Just looking at the market value, it probably exceeds that of a large number of other domestic companies.
Although the stock prices of the other four government-owned enterprises have not risen so exaggeratedly, they are still growing gratifyingly.
Stock prices rise, investors make money, and companies raise funds.
This gave the Finance Department more confidence, and they planned to strike while the iron was hot and launch a second batch of listed companies. This time, they were also a combination of government-run companies and private companies, with a total of twenty-three companies.
Let’s not talk about government-run enterprises, let’s talk about private enterprises, including Suqin Textile Company, the largest textile enterprise in the country.
This kind of leading enterprise has naturally been favored by the capital market. It has been trading at the daily limit for several days since its listing. Investors are no less enthusiastic about Su Qin Textile Company than they are about Li's Steel.
The capital market's enthusiasm for these two companies is also related to the fact that they are both leading companies.
Lee's Iron is the largest private enterprise in the country. It ranks among the top five in many subdivisions. The accumulation of the top five in multiple industries has led to the birth of the giant Lee's Iron. .
As for Su Qin Textile Company, although their business is single and they are only engaged in the textile industry, their textile industry is large enough. In the textile field, whether it is cotton spinning or wool spinning, they have handed over Hantian Textile Company, which is directly under the Ministry of Industry. Suppressed to death.
Especially in the field of wool spinning, with the rapid increase in demand for various woolen materials in the domestic consumer market and the improvement of the export market, Suqin Textile Company's large investment many years ago has paid off, and its various wool textile products have Occupying a huge advantage, it is the largest wool textile enterprise in China.
This time Su Qin Textile Company went public to raise funds to prepare for a large-scale entry into the silk spinning industry.
The silk spinning industry in the Chu Empire still belongs to the category of handicraft industry for the time being.
Although machine spinning and weaving have been gradually introduced, the overall scale is still not large, and because of the particularity of raw silk, the production model is very different from traditional manual work, making it difficult to directly imitate the model of the cotton spinning industry.
Since a few years ago, Su Qin Textile Company has successively invested heavily in research and development of advanced production models using steam engines for production.
Su Qin Textile Company wants to bring the silk spinning industry from the large-scale manual workshop model directly into the industrial production model.
For this reason, they invested heavily in the research and development of more advanced reeling and spinning processes, and developed the steam reeling process, using steam engines to produce silk, etc. However, a series of new equipment were invested and developed by themselves. The equipment is not stable enough for the time being, and the technology It is not perfect enough and the cost is high.
They still need to invest a lot of money in research and development!
At the same time, we are also preparing to build an experimental production line, a steam reeling factory, and a steam weaving factory, but these require massive funds.
In addition, Su Qin Textile still needs to continue to invest in improving sheep pastures, establishing a wool supply system, and establishing more wool spinning factories to continue to stabilize and expand its leading position in the wool spinning market.
All these have led to Su Qin Textile Company needing a large amount of external capital investment, and the loan interest is also high. For strategic investment, it is difficult to find ruthless people who dare to invest hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands, not to mention that strategic investment can easily lead to controlling shares. of loss.
Unlike the Li family who gave up its controlling stake early on, the Suzhou Qin family of Su Qin Textile Company has always firmly held the controlling stake of the company, even though there have been several mergers and acquisitions and the introduction of strategic investors. , but the Qin family still holds more than 70% of the shares of Su Qin Textile Company, occupying absolute control.
So they are very cautious about introducing strategic investors... In the past, when raising funds, they would rather seek bank loans than strategic investors, but bank loan interest rates are also high.
In many cases, Su Qin Textile Company wants to go to the stock market to raise funds. Anyway, the circulating shares will be very dispersed and it will not have any impact on their holdings.
Other small shareholders are also happy to see the listing, and they will sell their shares to cash out when the price rises and leave... The Qin family holds the controlling stake too firmly, and does not listen to the opinions of small shareholders at all in terms of management. It is all what the Qin family wants. Just do whatever you want...
This makes many small shareholders dissatisfied, and many want to cash out and leave.
Although the shares of these small shareholders are not tradable shares and cannot be cashed out through the stock exchange, the stock price has risen and the market value has increased. It is easier to find investment institutions to transfer the shares outside, and the profits are greater.
Under such circumstances, Su Qin Textile Company was successfully listed. After this listing, the stock price still skyrocketed!
With the listing of Su Qin Textile Company, the top two private companies in the country have also been listed. In addition, all the listed government-owned companies are also large companies. Therefore, these companies listed on the Jinling Stock Exchange are not listed on the mainland. The Chu Empire was full of serious large enterprises, which also ensured the smooth rollout of stock exchanges and the smooth implementation of the corresponding stock trading system without causing any major troubles.
With the establishment of stock exchanges and the spread of stock trading, more professional investment institutions, that is, various funds, have also emerged.
The financial industry of the Da Chu Empire has entered a new stage.
However, these have little to do with Su Qin Textile Company. They took the money from the listing and financing, turned around and expanded their wool spinning production capacity, and at the same time continued to spend money on steam production of filament.
If they can succeed, Suqin Textile Company will grow into a real leading enterprise in the textile field, not only with a large comprehensive scale, but also occupying the leading position in the three major fields of cotton spinning, wool spinning and silk spinning. status.
Only in the characteristic textile industry and garment manufacturing industry does it lag behind Hantian Textile Company.
It is worth mentioning that Hantian Textile Company also has a mechanized garment manufacturing department that is rarely operated by textile companies these days. This is not to sell clothes to the civilian market, but purely to meet the needs of the military and uniforms for workers in surrounding factories. need……
At present, the ready-made clothing market in the Dachu Empire is basically concentrated on various uniforms, such as military uniforms, uniforms of patrol police, tax patrols and other military and police personnel, and then there are uniforms of workers in various enterprises.
Except for these uniform markets that require a high degree of uniformity, the size of the ready-made clothing market in the ordinary private market is not large... No, to be precise, the market for industrially produced ready-made clothing is not large.
There is actually a private ready-made clothing market, but it is all self-employed and scattered and not large-scale... The ready-made clothes on the market are basically hand-sewn, either in general sizes, ready-made clothes for bachelors; or they are advanced customization for high-end customers. Ready-to-wear.
The overall market is actually very small, because ordinary people don't buy ready-made clothes at all... they just buy cloth and sew it themselves, it doesn't matter whether they have money or not...
Even wealthy families buy high-end fabrics, silks, etc., and then have their maids or professional high-end tailors sew the clothes.
Not to mention ordinary middle-class families and even lower-income families, it is normal to buy fabrics directly and have the women of the family sew them. Buying ready-made clothes directly does not fit, and there is no money to go to tailors to customize them...
The pattern of men farming and women weaving still exists in the society of the Great Chu Empire, not only in rural areas, but also in cities... Even the daughters of wealthy families usually learn to be nuns, and then embroider wedding dresses for themselves. of.
How can a small sewing needle from Lee's Iron Company become their company's flagship product, earning as much money as shipbuilding?
It is because these days sewing needles are essential household items, just like kitchen knives, tableware and chopsticks, which are indispensable in every household.
This also led to the fact that the ready-to-wear market in the Dachu Empire was not big, and they were basically uniforms. At the same time, even the ready-to-wear uniforms produced by factories were actually not much lower than the cost of being sewn by housewives stitch by stitch!
Because there are no industrial sewing machines these days, there are sewing machines, which are small hand-operated sewing machines developed by Hantian Textile Company.
The cost of this thing is high, and the efficiency is not very good. Although the cost of ready-made clothes produced by this small hand-operated sewing machine is not high... but how can I put it, no matter what, it is more expensive than buying cloth directly...
Therefore, even if the cost of ready-made clothes is only a little more than that of cloth, the private market will not accept it... because in many families, idle time is idle anyway... How much money can be saved by sewing clothes in one's spare time? It's also good.
Quite a few families in rural areas do not buy cloth, but directly buy cotton yarn to spin their own cloth. Some farmers even grow their own cotton, and then directly spin the yarn and weave cloth... They don't even buy cotton yarn!
In terms of production costs, it is definitely higher for farmers to grow their own cotton and weave cloth, but you have to know that the time of many farmers in rural areas is not valuable.
Especially during the off-season, there is nothing to do, and there are no opportunities to do odd jobs... Even if you are tired, growing cotton, spinning and weaving may seem very costly, but in fact it is cost-free!
Therefore, when you talk to farmers about production efficiency and cost, it is nonsense...
Unless you give it away for free, no matter how cheap you are, no one will buy it!
This is true for the cloth market, and the same is true for the ready-to-wear market!
Therefore, these days there are very few companies that set up a garment factory specifically to produce garments. Although some large companies have a need for workers' uniforms, they often set up small garment workshops in-house and then recruit the workers' female dependents to sew the clothes on the spot. .
Or simply release the materials and let the workers take them back for the women at home to sew.
Hantian Textile Company, that is an exception... Even though they are responsible for the production of a large number of military and police uniforms in the country, they have to do it if they don't want to.
In order to make things even better, they even came up with a primitive hand-operated sewing machine.
Now, seeing that they have failed in the cotton and woolen markets, and that the raw silk market is not easy to operate, they have begun to shift their attention and want to make a splash in the ready-to-wear market.
They not only want to sell the ready-made clothes produced in the factory to the government and factories as uniforms... they also want to put the ready-made clothes directly on the market so that ordinary people can buy them, to be precise, the middle-class group.
They have a certain purchasing power, but it is not to the extent that they can ask professional tailors to customize clothes... Although the women in the family can also sew clothes, the women in the middle-class family are not like the women in the lower-class families. In order to save a few Just sewing a copper plate all day long...
If ready-to-wear clothing that meets everyone's aesthetic taste, is of reliable quality, comfortable to wear, and fits well appears on the market, they can also purchase the ready-to-wear clothing directly.
