After the imperial exercise, Luo Zhixue inspected the local development situation nearby.
The first two days focused on the rural situation and agricultural development in surrounding areas.
The agricultural development in the Anlu area is still good, and the grain output has increased significantly. Especially after the artificial diversion of the Yellow River, coupled with the large investment in basic water conservancy projects in the Huaihe River Basin for many years, the flood situation in the Huaihe River Basin has been greatly improved. From the past, there were minor floods every year, and three years of major floods have turned into smooth weather.
The Huaihe River Basin has truly become the source of development for the area north of the Gaoguan River in Anlu.
This has also led to faster agricultural development in the Anlu area and a huge increase in grain output.
Luo Zhixue inspected the agricultural production conditions of several counties along the railway line and expressed his affirmation of the agricultural production work of the Anlu Governor's Yamen.
At the same time, it also affirms the series of small industries that Anlu Province has developed around rural areas in recent years.
This increase in grain production has fed the people, and we must find ways to further increase farmers' income.
How to increase the income of farmers is a very huge and even difficult problem.
There are various methods, such as promoting higher-yield cash crops, organizing redundant rural labor force to export labor services to economically developing areas, etc. In fact, they are all one of the methods.
However, the most effective, but also the most difficult, way is to develop industry and commerce locally, increase local jobs, absorb local rural surplus labor, and allow local farmers to obtain more additional income.
How can it be so easy to just develop industry and commerce and build factories?
Governments all over the country are doing it, but to be honest, not many can actually do it, especially in Anlu... the geographical location is a bit awkward!
Anlu spans both sides of the Yangtze River, and the empire's industrial layout on both sides of the Yangtze River perfectly bypasses Anlu... To the west of Anlu is the Daye Industrial Zone of Hantianfu, and to the east is the Dangtu Industrial Zone of Yingtianfu... and again In addition, Jiujiang and Nanchang are developing fairly well.
Not to mention that the Jiangnan region further east is like a super whirlpool, absorbing funds, talents and various resources from surrounding areas.
Then in recent years, Xuzhou, a new industrial city, has emerged in the northeastern area of Anlu. Even Zhengzhou in the northern Central Plains is also developing very well.
Only Anlu... has completely missed any industrial take-off in the Chu Empire in the past thirty-five years!
Things were fine in the early years. The development of industry and commerce was still in its infancy. Anlu had built a Huainan coal mine and a Tongling copper mine. Coupled with the development of some piecemeal light industry, the economic data could be seen.
Well, everyone was not doing well in those days, and there were still a large number of northern provinces that were in the post-war recovery stage. For comparison, there were some remote and backward provinces in the southwest that were at the bottom.
Therefore, in the first ten years or so since the founding of the Chu Empire, although there was no major development in the Anlu Province area, with the advantage of early development, coupled with the advantages of Yangtze River water transportation, etc., the development was barely okay, and the total economic volume was at its best. , once in the eighth position.
The top ones are Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Yingtian, Hantian, Chubei, Chunan, Jiangxi... Just looking at this ranking, you know that even very early on, Anlu's economic development was already very embarrassing!
Because if you look closely at this ranking, you will find that except for Zhejiang, all of these areas are along the Yangtze River... And among the Yangtze River Anlu area, Anlu's economic development is at the bottom!
Anlu's economic development has been in a very embarrassing state for a long time... This is especially obvious in industry.
At present, in the Anlu area, except for a Huainan coal mine and a Tongling copper mine, there are no large-scale enterprises that can make a difference.
These two companies are still typical mining companies...the kind that mine and sell resources.
As for machinery manufacturing, these are not doing well, and the development of light industry is not good either.
The entire industrial layout seems to have everything... but nothing is great.
As a result, the development speed is naturally not very good. Although the overall economic aggregate continues to grow, other provinces are increasing faster.
Not to mention several economically powerful provinces/regional governments, such as Jiangnan, Yingtian, Hantian, Guangdong, Hebei and other places, even ordinary provinces are developing at a very fast rate of economic development, leaving Anlu behind.
Such as Chubei, Chunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places.
Even Shaanxi, which had suffered huge damage, relied on the geographical advantages of the important land in the northwest to develop Xi'an and built a heavy industrial base in the northwest. The economic data quickly surpassed Anlu...
There is also the latecomer Liaodong Province, which was a desolate place more than 20 years ago. It has developed rapidly relying on the rich local resources and has now become an economic powerhouse in the entire northern region.
You are developing quickly, but others are developing faster, which means you are falling behind!
This is the case in the Anlu area. It seems to be developing well, and the economic data is also growing every year. However, unknowingly, it ranks lower in the economic rankings of the local provinces...
Some pessimistic people even believe that if the current situation continues like this, some provinces in Nanyang that have been newly included in the empire's hinterland may be surpassed in a few years... For example, Malacca Province has developed very fast in recent years.
There are fewer people, more land, abundant resources, and the geographical location is very advantageous. If nothing else, a Singaporean family can make a good living by running a port trade business.
Faced with this dilemma, the Anlu area has also explored many different development paths in recent years.
For example, it focuses on the industrial development of Hefei, the new provincial capital of Anlu, and develops the local area by undertaking some industrial transfers from Yingtianfu and Jiangnan areas.
The industrial development in Yingtianfu and Jiangnan areas is very rapid, which will inevitably lead to rising costs for some local companies. The Anlu area itself is a labor export province, local labor is cheap, and Anlu itself is also a big market. Setting up a factory nearby can also effectively reduce transportation costs for companies.
This has also led to an increase in industrial development in the Anlu area in recent years.
However, what Luo Zhixue is most concerned about is not the Anlu Governor's Office and the way to build a new industrial city around Hefei.
There are already too many such so-called emerging industrial cities and key city strategies in the Chu Empire... Almost every province will find ways to develop industry, and for this purpose, they will not hesitate to relocate the provincial capital, focus on supporting one city, etc.
After the arrival of the railway age, many provinces have relocated their provincial capitals for economic development in the past decade or so... Anlu is not the only one.
In Northeast Liaodong, the provincial capital was moved from Liaoyang to Shenyang, the provincial capital in northern Liaoning was moved from Jilin to Changchun, the production of black water was moved from Shuangjiang City to Binjiang (Harbin), and the Donghai Province of the Koryo Peninsula was also moved from Pyongyang in the north to Pyongyang further south. Seoul.
The provincial capital of Jiangbei was moved from Huai'an to Xuzhou.
The provincial capital of Henan was moved from Kaifeng to Zhengzhou.
This situation is not special in the Great Chu Empire, it is even common... This is still talking about provincial capitals, let alone prefectures and county towns.
When many prefectures and counties opened railway lines, they relocated to prefectures or counties because the original prefectures or county towns were far away from the railway lines and the railway company refused to accommodate them, or due to other development factors.
Changing the provincial capital in the Anlu area is rare and common in the contemporary Chu Empire. Even if it is necessary in the future, it is not impossible to change it again...
It is normal to use railways for better development by changing provincial capitals.
It has also achieved certain results for Anlu Province. At least in recent years, the main industrial output value of the Anlu area has increased a lot, among which Hefei's contribution is very large.
It can be seen that the method of relocating the provincial capital and focusing on supporting the development of Hefei is still effective!
But again... Anlu is not the only province in the empire, and Anlu is not the only one who does this. In fact, most provinces do this, and they do it better than Anlu.
In such a comparison, Hefei, which has developed fairly well, is actually just like that in Luo Zhixue's opinion.
He even looked through the list of local companies in Hefei... but could not find the name of a large company that he was familiar with. This showed that after so many years of development, Hefei still failed to cultivate a large company with national competitiveness.
In today's Anlu area, the largest enterprise with the largest output value is still Huainan Mining Company, followed by Tongling Mining Company... The former mines coal, and the latter mines and smelts copper!
Not to mention, these two mining companies are doing very well. Huainan Mining Company is the largest coal mining company in the Yangtze River Basin of the Empire. It not only has large coal mines in Huainan, but also has many other places. Few coal mines.
Although the Tongling Mining Company has an inconspicuous name, it was actually the most important copper mining enterprise in the early and middle periods of the empire. In the 20th year of Chengshun, its copper output accounted for fully 1% of the country's total copper output. Twenty-three, but it has dropped significantly in recent years.
Its huge copper output was not only used to cast a large number of copper coins, but also to cast various bronze artillery pieces.
Even now, as copper mines are being discovered and mined in various places, Tongling Mining Company's copper mine output can no longer account for such a large proportion of national output, but it still cannot be underestimated...
It is precisely because of these two huge mining companies and the related industries they have driven that the industrial output value of the Anlu area is not so ugly... It has barely guaranteed its position in the middle reaches of many provinces in the empire. Otherwise, it will fall into decline in minutes. for downstream.
If we don't work hard, we will be overtaken by Guangxi in the south... In the early stages of the empire, Guangxi was still busy clearing out all kinds of messy chieftains. How could there be any time and energy to develop the economy... In order to clear out the chieftains, suppress In the early years of the turmoil, the empire even moved the provincial capital of Guangxi from Guilin in the north to Nanning in the south...for no other reason than to be better and closer to combat various chieftain forces.
After cracking down on all kinds of toasts, we started to engage in economic development... The development speed is also quite satisfactory, not very good, but not very bad... However, it is such an obscure development all the way, and the economy has been quietly destroyed. The total volume has risen to the mid-range level among many provinces in the empire, which is almost the same as the Anlu area.
After all, this Anlu is located in the hinterland of the empire, on both sides of the Yangtze River, and next door is Yingtianfu, the important place in the capital. As a result, the economic aggregate is about to be overtaken by Guangxi, the traditional southern wilderness area...
Even though it is located in the deserted area of southwest China, the economy has actually been developing very well and steadily in recent years.
In the early years, the industrial development in the governorate areas of Guangxi was actually not very good. There were all kinds of small and messy light industries, small machinery industries, etc., and there were no big companies. Industrial products were mainly sold internally. host.
But they also have a unique advantage, that is, the geographical environment is very suitable for the growth of sugar cane, and a very good sugar industry has developed from this.
As for sugar, let’s not talk about it in ancient times. Even in modern times, it was a very important bulk commodity, and the price was not cheap. Sugar cane cultivation and sugar production were both very profitable businesses.
The governor of Guangxi has been ruthless in developing the sugar industry and sugarcane planting industry. Now it has the largest sugar factory in the country. Well, the second and third places are also there... Guangxi is currently the largest sugar factory in the empire. An important edible sugar planting and processing base.
Relying on sugar cane planting and sugar refining industry, Guangxi's economic development has taken off rapidly, and a series of related industries have been developed.
Now Guangxi is still seeking to have its own outlet to the sea, trying to get Guangdong to cede Lianzhou Prefecture to Guangxi so that Guangxi can have an outlet to the sea... But this is probably not going to happen.
If it was the time when the empire was just established, there would still be hope through direct administrative intervention. Anyway, at that time, it didn't make much difference to which province Lianzhou belonged to, and no one had any opinions.
But now...the empire has been established for more than thirty years, and it will be very difficult to carry out such large-scale changes in administrative regions.
This is not just a random drawing on the map. There are many local interests involved behind it.
Today's Lianzhou Prefecture is not Lianzhou Prefecture in the traditional sense. There is also Guangning County... What does Guangning County have? It has the largest and best quality anthracite coal mine in the Chu Empire so far!
Guangning coal is the only priority coal designated by the Da Chu Empire Navy. Whenever there is an option, the navy's warships will only use Guangning anthracite.
At the same time, Guangning Coal is also the preferred thermal coal supplier for many shipping companies!
This Guangning anthracite is worth my money.
For this Quang Ninh coal, Annan surrendered and established Thang Long Province. Thang Long Province had been in litigation with Guangdong for many years, and wanted to take Guang Ninh County over.
Watching people digging coal next door to eat and drink spicy food every day, while he gnaws sand in the barren mountains and wilderness every day, Governor Shenglong will definitely have some ideas...
But people in Guangdong have been eating the fat meat of Guangning coal for more than ten years. How can they spit it out easily?
As the Lianzhou Prefecture that governs Guangning County, it makes a lot of money every year just from the Guangning Coal Mine, and its fiscal revenue is very rich.
Furthermore, Lianzhou's coal and Hainan's iron form the core foundation of Guangdong's own steel industry. If you want to dig away the Guangning coal in Lianzhou, it is equivalent to directly breaking a leg of Guangdong's steel industry. The governor of Guangdong I'm going to risk my life with you.
Thang Long Province wants Quang Ninh coal, and Guangxi wants Lianzhou seaport... This is basically impossible in the contemporary Chu Empire.
Even Luo Zhixue doesn't support it... This local structure has been established for more than 30 years, why are we still bothering... We are looking for trouble.
Therefore, it is probably impossible for Guangxi to have its own outlet to the sea, but this does not affect Guangxi's external transportation of goods.
Even if Lianzhou belongs to Guangdong, goods from Guangxi, especially sugar, can still be transported to Lianzhou Port by rail, and then shipped to various ports.
Guangxi has its own advantages and its own difficulties, but even so, economic development is still trailing Anlu Province's tail, and it has the momentum to catch up at any time.
This makes Anlu local officials extremely worried... If the economic ranking continues to decline, they are worried that it will affect their future, especially the Anlu governor...
It has only been four years since this man took office, and Anlu's economic aggregate ranking has already dropped two places... If it continues to fall further, he will have to worry about whether he will be directly dismissed.
To this end, he is also trying to find ways to develop the economy. In addition, he also wants to do something to highlight his political achievements.
If the total economic volume cannot be increased, then he will try to increase people's income... As a result, the so-called 'township small industry model' was born.
Through support, we encourage towns and villages to set up small-scale enterprises to develop the local economy, create a large number of jobs on site, and increase the income of local people.
This makes Luo Zhixue very interested!
Those big companies are important, but a variety of small and micro businesses are even more important!
Because the latter is actually the economic model that provides major employment and feeds a larger population!
You are a super company with hundreds of thousands of employees... But how many such super companies are there in the country? You can count them all on one finger, and they are basically comprehensive enterprises with production bases all over the country, such as Li's Steel and Suqin Textile.
And these super enterprises are basically concentrated in major industrial cities.
But there are so many cities in the Chu Empire...it's impossible for every city to have so many big companies.
The economic main body of the empire, especially the main body that provides employment and tax revenue, is actually a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises.
For example, there are many tertiary industries that are inconspicuous, but are actually very important in the economic system and provide a large number of urban jobs.
Not to mention the large number of small factories and even workshops.
Luo Zhixue, on the other hand, has paid more attention to the development of small and micro enterprises in recent years.
Governor Anlu has obviously studied His Majesty's political tendencies in recent years. The so-called township small industry model he created is obviously targeted at Luo Zhixue's preferences.
