Daming Military Empire

Chapter 168 Economic Colonization
When the news of Mysore's victory came, Zhu Cijiong was extremely excited. He had already had a series of colonial plans in his mind, and now he could finally start to implement them.He is not in a hurry to plunder the colonies. Now that the Daming Navy has not completed, even if the colonies are plundered, there is no security. His colonial plan is economic colonization and cultural colonization.

One advantage of cooperating with Portugal is that their homeland is now occupied by Spain, and their economy cannot develop, so they can only plunder gold and silver directly from the colonies, or force them to plant various spices and transport food to Europe to make money, but there are no cheap commodities to go to. Colonial dumping is tantamount to a huge overseas market, and now this market is blank, waiting for Ming to occupy it.

Mysore is only the first step in opening up this market. With the example of Mysore here, other Portuguese overseas nobles will definitely follow suit. You must know that they have no backing at all and can only rely on themselves.

During the period when the mainland was occupied, not to mention the colonization of Portugal, whether it can keep the original colonies is a problem. The natives of many colonies are rebelling. Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and other powers are also robbing their colonies. Their colonies is rapidly shrinking.

At this time, would they not be tempted to have a powerful ally like Ming Dynasty protecting them and even helping them develop colonies?Will they not compete to rely on Daming?

Some people want to say that instead of occupying colonies, they help others to defend colonies. Idiots, what good is it doing?Not to mention that Ming's navy is still unable to compete with the great powers in the ocean, and is unable to develop colonies by itself, let's just talk about the benefits.

The benefits are great. First of all, the arms business will definitely be booming. Now is the time to replace matchlock guns with flintlock guns. Portugal cannot produce flintlock guns by itself. What should we do?Then you can only buy it from others. In the past, they bought it from the UK. They used a lot of wealth to buy inferior and obsolete products from the UK, allowing the UK to rise slowly and catch up from behind. Now they will buy Ming’s as long as they are not idiots, because of Ming’s military industry. Advanced product performance, excellent quality ah.

Then, economic colonization can be carried out. Anyway, Portugal is unable to develop its economy now. As long as any governor asks Ming for help or buys arms, then their colony is equal to Ming's overseas market.

How many colonies did Portugal have? There may not be many in the post-colonial period, but the pre-colonial period is a horror. You must know that in the Age of Discovery, they claimed to divide the entire earth with Spain. Half of you, half of me, the western hemisphere belongs to Spain, and the eastern hemisphere belongs to Portugal. The number of their colonies can be imagined.Of course, most of these colonies were snatched away by the Netherlands and the UK, and Portugal could not keep many, but now that there is Ming, it will be difficult for them to snatch them.

Finally, cultural colonization can also be carried out. You must know that generally backward aborigines do not have their own writing system, and some even have an imperfect language system. Therefore, the three major languages ​​​​of later generations are Chinese, English and Spanish, and Chinese is the largest. It is because we have a large population but are concentrated in one area. If you want to say that English and Spanish are the most popular in the world, and even Portuguese has a wider spread than Chinese, these are all caused by the colonization of foreign powers.

Do you have a background in English, Spanish, and Portuguese?There is a little bit, but compared with the Chinese language for thousands of years, it is far worse. The comprehensiveness, diversity and artistry of Chinese characters are not comparable to other languages. To put it bluntly, there are only Chinese characters in the world. Calligraphy works can only be called works of art, and can be sold at a high price. For other characters, even if you write a basket, can they be sold for money? Does anyone want it?

Zhu Cijiong has a dream, which is to make Chinese a common language in the world, so cultural colonization is a must.

At the current stage, there is no need to rush the arms business. As long as the world’s leading performance and quality are maintained, more and more people will naturally come to your door. Cultural colonization should not be rushed either. This requires a foundation, and at least there must be a need for communication before it can be promoted. , there is no such demand for the time being; after much deliberation, what can be done now is to promote economic colonization.

There are many coincidences. Zhu Cijiong is now trying his best to develop the economy of Ming Dynasty. In order to develop the economy, he even resorted to the trick of building railways.What is the best way to promote economic development, such as speeding up infrastructure construction, vigorously developing industries, selling land, building commercial houses, etc., etc. These are all formal means, and the development is actually not fast, it is really the fastest The method is economic colonization!

We must know that before the mid-Ming Dynasty, all countries in the world combined had less wealth than Ming Dynasty. However, from the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, it only took a few hundred years for the great powers to surpass our thousands of years of accumulation. , What is it relying on, mainly relying on economic colonization, the speed is hundreds of times faster than formal means!
Of course, there is a faster way, that is to rob, but that has little to do with economic development, it is tantamount to building castles in the air, and in the end it depends on the economic foundation to maintain it, otherwise it will be a nouveau riche, rich only a few generations of.

To carry out economic colonization, you first need a large number of cheap goods, such as a piece of cloth. If the quality of the indigenous weaving is similar to yours, and the price is cheaper than yours, why would people buy yours?Only when the quality is better than others and the price is cheaper than others can they occupy the market. This is equivalent to having a market, but the cost must be controlled, the quality must be guaranteed, and the production capacity must be increased. Only in this way can we rely on economic colonization for rapid development.

That is to say, if the people of Ming Dynasty still use old-fashioned looms to weave cloth, then this economic colonization is actually meaningless.

Now the dominant products of Ming Dynasty are military products and high-end luxury goods, but these are sold to the big powers, not to the natives of the colonies. Making money is very profitable, but this money is mainly made by him, Zhu Cijiong, which means that the country is making money. The profit is high, but the scale is too small, and the promotion effect on economic development is not very great.To put it bluntly, Zhu Cijiong has made a lot of money now. After a year, he can earn almost hundreds of millions of taels of silver, which seems to be a lot of money, but on average, it is less than one tael of silver for every citizen of Ming Dynasty. , One tael is equivalent to more than 100 yuan in later generations. How meaningful is this to the development of a country.

So Zhu Cijiong is going to set off an industrial revolution in Daming, spread steam engines to all walks of life, vigorously increase productivity, produce a lot of cheap goods, quickly occupy overseas markets through economic colonization, and let Ming regain the world's largest economic aggregate. , use the economy to promote military development, and then use strong military strength to escort economic development, so that Ming can truly rise.

This is a very important topic, and he can't think about it alone, so he had to call a group of cronies again to discuss it.

Of course, this time it was a letter, and those generals were exempted. The people he called mainly include:
Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Etiquette, Chief Assistant of the Cabinet;
Bi Maokang, Secretary of the Ministry of Industry;
Wang Zheng, the left servant of the Ministry of Industry;
Song Yingxing, the doctor of the Ministry of Industry and the Cleaning Department;

With the addition of Luo Yangxing, the commander of Jinyiwei, it is almost the same.

Why did you call Shangjin Yiwei's commander, Luo Yangxing?He is just a spy chief, does it have anything to do with economic development?Don't forget, everyone, he is still the big boss behind the Rixinglong Company. He doesn't care much about being the commander of Jinyiwei, but he is very excited to make money. Now he can be regarded as a small economist.Zhu Cijiong called him here because he wanted to hear his experience in making money. Economic development not only depends on technology and the market, but also depends on people. Someone must take the lead and lead everyone to make money. This kind of person is the so-called boss. Now Daming's biggest boss is of course Zhu Cijiong, but he only works part-time, and his main job is still being the emperor.This stuff is reversed, the main job is to be a boss, and the side job is to be the commander of the Jinyiwei, so now the biggest private boss in Daming should be him, the commander of the Jinyiwei Luo Yangxing!
Zhu Cijiong waited for everyone to arrive, and immediately threw out the big topic of economic development, allowing them to speak freely and offer suggestions.

The first to speak was of course the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet Xu Guangqi. He mainly focused on agricultural development. When it comes to making money, it is not impossible to make money from developing agriculture.For example, if you increase the grain output, this grain can make money. Now Daming’s grain yield per mu can be said to be pitifully low, only about three shi. There are over one billion mu of arable land, and this profit is terribly huge.

Of course, the development of agriculture is not only to increase food production, but also to vigorously develop economic crops. There are many lands that are not suitable for growing food, but there is no problem in growing economic crops. For example, in dry places, you can grow cotton, cinnamon, star anise and other spices. These are economic crops with relatively high profits. There is a lot of this kind of land in Daming. Just because of drought and inconvenient irrigation, there are nearly [-] million mu of land that are not included in the scope of cultivated land and counted as wasteland. If all economic crops are planted, the profit Equally terrifying.

There are also planting mulberry and silkworms, raising cattle and horses, making bonsai and so on, all of which are economic growth points. In short, agriculture has great potential.

Zhu Cijiong was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that Xu Guangqi was not only a master of western learning, but also knew so much about agriculture. These are indeed ways to make money. As long as he implements the Ming Dynasty's GDP, he can at least double it.However, where did Xu Guangqi learn so many things?There is no speed at the moment, where did he find so many things, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help asking the question in his heart.

原来徐光启正在编写《农政全书》，《农政全书》分为12目，共60卷。12目中包括：农本3卷、田制2卷、农事6卷、水利9卷、农器4卷、树艺6卷、蚕桑4卷、蚕桑广类2卷、种植4卷、牧养1卷、制造1卷、荒政18卷，他说的这些在《农政全书》里都有记载。

Good stuff!Zhu Cijiong immediately asked Xu Guangqi to intensify his compiling efforts and mobilize a large number of personnel from the Imperial Academy to compile the "Agricultural Encyclopedia" as soon as possible.

Then Bi Maokang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, Wang Zheng, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Industry, and Song Yingxing, a doctor of the Ministry of Industry, also put forward their own opinions on the promotion of steam engines. There are many things that can be promoted, such as the shuttle loom, which is already ready-made. Yes, you can also research and develop steam printing machines, steam milling machines, steam milling machines, and steam sawmills. The Ministry of Industry can organize personnel to develop them, but there is a problem. These can’t be given away for free. They must be paid for. I bought it, so much money from ordinary people!

Now it's Luo Yangxing's turn to come on the scene. If he has no money, it's easy to do. He borrowed money from Rixinglong Company. Is Jin Yiwei afraid that someone won't pay back the money?The interest alone is considerable, and they can also buy their products and sell them to overseas colonies, so that the development of Rixinglong will be even faster.

Well, the previous loan was not bad, and it is of the same nature as the bank loan in later generations.But regarding the purchase of products, selling them to overseas colonial areas is a blatant plagiarism of Zhu Cijiong's views on economic colonization, just another way of saying it, and Zhu Cijiong expressed strong contempt for him.

(End of this chapter)