But no matter what happened to Zheng He.
The affairs that the Ming court had to deal with still could not be delayed, and Zhu Yunxu still had many things to worry about.
Land reform is proceeding in an orderly manner. Although there have been some hiccups, they have been resolved and countless Zhejiang officials have been dismissed.
With the help of a mature and prudent veteran like Wang Dun, Zhu Yunxu hardly needs to worry.
What Zhu Yunxuan is really worried about now is the price problem after he continues to issue more banknotes and continue to distribute money to the people.
On Zhu Yunxuan's way back to the capital from Yangshan.
Everything he saw and heard clearly told him that prices in the capital of the Ming Dynasty had begun to soar uncontrollably!
Just because sweet potatoes are also being promoted rapidly, there are still some grain reserves in Daming.
Still within the acceptable range.
But if it continues, prices will inevitably rise to a level that is unacceptable to the people! Perhaps... the story of the Third Reich will be repeated in Ming Dynasty!
The matter of five hundred thousand marks for a piece of bread might really happen in the Ming Dynasty!
And at that time... all it takes is a mustache-like figure to stand up and shout, and the Ming Dynasty will disappear in the blink of an eye!
This is not alarmist, but a fact that is entirely possible!
But Zhu Yunxuan couldn't tell anyone these things. He could only bear it silently and try to find a way out for Ming Dynasty.
If you want to suppress prices, the first choice is naturally to enrich Ming's material output.
The money received by ordinary people and landowners can be spent.
As long as the money has purchasing power, there is no problem of depreciation.
However, this was temporarily impossible to implement because of Zheng He's loss of contact, so Zhu Yunzhen could only resort to the next best thing and find a way to consume a large amount of wealth.
Let all the money in the hands of the landlords be spent.
Otherwise, the landlords and gentry have large sums of money in their hands, but they cannot find a place to use it, and they are watching the prices soar and the money in their hands continues to depreciate.
They will also be anxious!
They have literally lost the land to sustainably produce food!
But what you get is banknotes that may depreciate into waste paper at any time. Who can take care of this?
Therefore, Zhu Yunxuan must find a way to find some way out for these landlords.
Invest money in sustainable and profitable material production.
Let them see hope.
And the way Zhu Yunzhen helped them think of was to let them transform!
From the land, move to other directions.
From the original landlords and gentry, they became capitalists one after another.
Although none of the capitalists are good, we have to admit that capitalists are quite progressive and superior to the landlords and gentry.
Capitalists are of great help to the circulation of social wealth!
Zhu Yunxuan could only help them transform into capitalists and shift their goal from hoarding more land to acquiring more wealth.
Only then can the money in their hands be put to work.
Instead of hoarding it in warehouses and eating ashes, let the money circulate to the market of ordinary people and compete with ordinary Ming people for food.
Let the price of food soar.
As for how to transform landlords into capitalists, Zhu Yunxuan mainly set two directions.
The first direction is for the court to contract road construction projects to landowners, allowing these landowners to actively invest in road construction, and then obtain profits from the court.
This can be said to be a solution that offers the best of both worlds.
One is that the cost of building roads for the court is definitely more expensive than for landowners and gentry to build roads.
After all, after landlords transform into capitalists, they will definitely squeeze the labor force.
Let the labor force work overtime as much as possible to obtain more benefits.
As a result, the construction period is getting shorter and shorter, and the efficiency is greatly improved.
On the other hand, if the court were to do the construction, it would not be able to urge the people to work overtime because of concerns about public opinion. In this case, wouldn't it be similar to the original corvee?
It may make the people resent the imperial court.
The landlords and gentry had no such concerns. The court used the hands of the landlords and gentry to transfer this level of resentment to the landlords and gentry.
The more the people hated him, the more they relied on the court.
The imperial court only needed to punish a few landlords and gentry at the critical moment to quell the public's anger.
Isn’t it beautiful?
Secondly, the court's expenditure on road construction must be much more than that of the landlords.
Firstly, it is unavoidable to be greedy in all aspects, misappropriating a little here, a little there, and generally exceeding the budget by a little, but there are almost the same problems.
On the contrary, the more stringent the review, the more it delays the construction schedule.
Let the pace of road construction be much slower.
This is not cost-effective in any way.
So it is better to just set a price, hand it over to the landlords and gentry, let them contract the project, organize the workers yourself, and let them be responsible for building the road.
At that time, the imperial court can completely let go and carry out land reform.
Reduce a lot of clutter.
It’s even cheaper and time-saving, so why not do it for the imperial court?
As for the landowners and gentry, they can get a lot of money from building roads, which is a considerable profit, and it also gives them a suitable destination for their money.
Let the landowners' money flow.
These landowners and gentry could even be allowed to bear the cost of road construction first, and the court would eventually distribute it.
Alleviated the financial pressure on the court.
There are almost no disadvantages to be seen!
The only drawback is that there may be collusion between officials and businessmen, which will breed a large number of moths and make corruption rampant.
Just like in the previous life, if you want to contract for a certain project, you have to give gifts.
As a result, a large number of official culture and wine table culture were derived.
Who doesn’t know that engaging in projects and engineering projects is the most profitable?
But what is different from later generations is that Zhu Yunzhen still has Jin Yiwei in his hands! And the sharpest knife ever!
Zhu Yunzhen had only one word for these corrupt officials: kill!
"Grandpa Huang is right. That's what the Jin Yiwei is for. When all the officials are killed and resentful, then the Jin Yiwei commander will be replaced."
"No matter how serious it is, just replace Jinyiwei with Dongchang and Xichang."
"This is really a knife that is extremely easy to use!"
Having made up his mind, Zhu Yunzhen directly issued his order without further delay.
"Let the people from the Advisory Office sort out the progress of the national highway construction and check to see which roads have not yet been repaired."
"Report everything."
"And report the price to Gu Gu as well."
Soon, an official document was presented, followed by Yang Jing, the minister of the Advisory Office.
Yang Jing held a map in his hand, with the official map of the Ming Dynasty drawn on it.
There are also lines connected one after another with various markings. Obviously, the lines above are the national highway lines to be built.
Zhu Yunxuan checked it carefully.
The most perfect road built today is the section from Songjiang Prefecture to Yingtian Prefecture.
And there is another way, although it is intermittent.
But most of it has been completed, and that is the road from Yingtian Mansion to Peiping. This is a national road that can go directly from Yingtian Mansion to the border between Daming and Beiyuan!
"Not bad." Zhu Yunxian first confirmed the progress of the construction of the national highway.
Then he said: "I plan to contract the road construction work to the landlords and gentry to take over."
"The technology is still led by the imperial court, but the specific construction is all organized by the landlords and gentry who contracted it."
"Forget it about roads like these that are being built."
Zhu Yunxuan pointed to the national highways under construction on the map, and then pointed to the national highways that had not yet been constructed and were only planned, and said: "National highways like these that have not yet started construction."
"Let's put it all together, set a total price, and contract it out."
"It is tentatively scheduled to hold a bidding conference in half a month."
"Let all landlords and gentry who are interested in bidding come to the capital. As long as they are confirmed to have the ability, they will be contracted out."
"Everything from now on will be done in accordance with this charter."
"The imperial court invites tenders, the gentry bids, and the projects are contracted to the landlords and gentry."
Zhu Yunxuan was not discussing with Yang Jing, but giving orders directly in a commanding tone.
Although Yang Jing has many questions in his heart.
But he didn't dare to ask any more questions, so he had to accept the order, turn around and go down to do what His Highness Taisun wanted.
But Yang Jing couldn't help but think... let the landlords and gentry contract to build roads? Is this possible?
His Highness Taisun's orders are always unheard and unseen.
And after Yang Jing left.
Zhu Yunxuan still did not stop thinking. Letting landowners contract to build roads was just one of his ways to solve the problem of rising prices.
To put it bluntly, the fundamental reason for rising prices is that people have too much money.
And there are not enough goods available for purchase and consumption.
Food is just one of the commodities!
Zhu Yunxuan cannot conjure food out of thin air now, but commodities... it is possible!
In response to rising prices, Zhu Yunzhen's second measure was to open a factory! Let the landlords and gentry who are unwilling to contract to build national roads invest money in setting up factories!
Get involved in production and construction!
There are more and more commodities circulating in the Ming Dynasty market.
It can also slow down price increases.
By maintaining the purchasing power of banknotes, although it cannot suppress the rise in food prices, it can slow down the depreciation of banknotes.
When there is sufficient food in the future, the rise in food prices will be just a normal market fluctuation.
It's harmless.
It will naturally return to stability in the future.
Increase the Ming Dynasty people's confidence in paper money. After all, paper money, to put it bluntly, depends on the people's confidence in the court!
With strong confidence, no matter how much money is issued, the people will be willing to pay!
But if confidence is weak, just a slight price fluctuation may lead to tragic consequences!
"It's time to open a factory... But if you want to open a factory, given the current size of Jinling City, it is not suitable."
Zhu Yunzhen was thinking silently in his heart.
The capital must be expanded!
Zhu Yunxuan planned to open the first batch of factories in the Ming Dynasty in the capital.
After everyone realizes the benefits of factories, they can then focus on the Magic City and open factories in large quantities!
Manufacture goods and dump them abroad!
(End of chapter)
