Chongzhen Undergraduates

Therefore, the level of the second meeting is higher, almost an enlarged cabinet meeting.

"Chen Zilong, have all the improved varieties of crops been handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture?" Zhu Youjian asked first.

"All the handover is complete, but there are many things in it that I have never seen or heard of." Chen Zilong, who is in charge of agriculture, instantly took out a large book from his side, which was full of illustrations.These are all rare things brought back from overseas this time.

The first sheet of the brochure is easy to identify, it is chili.This thing has become popular in Ming Dynasty, and under the impetus of the emperor, it has already entered the homes of ordinary people.Especially in places such as Huguang and Sichuan, it is very popular.

But some other species in the brochure were indeed unfamiliar to the Ming officials.For example: cabbage, squash, green beans, zucchini, tomato, cauliflower, onion, celery, pineapple, strawberries, papaya and of course apples.

Except for Zhu Youjian, none of the officials present really knew Quan.

Seeing the above list of names, I am afraid that many traversers said that it is better not to travel to Ming Dynasty. The type of ingredients alone can make you complain before Ming Dynasty.

"Uh, I'll explain this question to you tomorrow." Zhu Youjian was already too old, and he had to instruct this job himself.It seems to be a simple matter, but it is easy to take a detour without him as a time traveler. This is the role of a time traveler.

The good breed is just an appetizer, and the rest is the real deal.The real question is, which industry should be the first to make a hole in Daming's commodity production.

As mentioned in the previous chapters, the first industry Zhu Youjian chose was shipbuilding.Daming can no longer just confine his eyes to the inland, but should cross the ocean and look at the world.Then the shipbuilding industry must catch up with Europe.

How well-developed the European shipbuilding industry was during this period, many materials have been disclosed.Take the Netherlands as an example, there are more than 8000 ships in the small Netherlands alone wandering in various oceans.

"Liang Jiu, how many ships can the government-run shipyards build in a year?" Zhu Youjian turned his attention to Liang Jiu, the most authoritative craftsman in Ming Dynasty who was in charge of all the government-run shipyards.

"My lord, I can now build 300 big ships every year, and 500 fishing boats every year." Liang Jiu said that he was quite proud of this achievement.After hearing this, all the ministers in the room put joy on their faces.

Compared with the previous data, it can be said that it has increased many times.If calculated according to the traditional Fuchuan, the shipbuilding capacity of the entire Ming Dynasty did not reach the level of [-] ships a month.Not to mention building a large ship suitable for ocean sailing.Even if the Zheng family has been in business for decades, the large ships they put together are not as large as the current annual output.In other words, it is an exaggeration that Ming can now build a fleet a year.

But compared with the Dutch, it will take at least 30 years for this number to be equal. Can Zhu Youjian wait for 30 years?And how much is the whole of Europe?

"Not enough, far from enough." Zhu Youjian shook his head and muttered to himself.

Not enough is just a word from the emperor, but it does not solve the fundamental problem, because it is not enough to blindly build more, and it is a waste to make so many that are not used.What's more, the cost of shipbuilding is very high, and the national strength cannot afford it.

"Your Majesty, the current construction scale is already very large, and it cannot be increased any more." Zuo Maodi reminded Zhu Youjian.

"I asked you today to come up with a way to build more sea-going ships without harming the foundation of the country," Zhu Youjian said.

"Does the emperor mean that the imperial court will send larger missions overseas like it did when Chengzu was born?" Someone immediately asked.

Daming has sent missions to Europe twice in a row. Although the scale is much smaller than that of Zheng He's period, and the two trades did not suffer a loss, the overall current income does not take advantage.If it weren't for the small size of the fleet, I'm afraid most of them would also be trading at a loss.Of course, it must be cost-effective in terms of long-term benefits.

"No, what I mean is that it will be several times larger than Zheng He's. I will have at least [-] large ships sailing on the sea all day." Zhu Youjian said in a tone looking forward to the future.

All the ministers gasped, and what everyone thought of was not joy, but horror.You must know that the size of Zheng He's fleet is the size of the current fleet of Ming Dynasty, in other words, it is the current year's shipbuilding volume of Ming Dynasty. More than 200 ships have been undertaken by the imperial court.How much money does the court have to invest in tens of thousands of large ships?I'm afraid I won't be able to get it all together.It is really not a matter of a day or two to catch up with Europe. The ideal is very full, but the reality is very backbone!With Daming's strength, he really can't slap a swollen face to pretend to be fat.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this won't be possible in the short term." Li Yan also stood up and said.

From the perspective of the overall strategy, Li Yan already knows Zhu Youjian the best, and in terms of vision and political means, he is better than Zhu Youjian, a traveler.What he thinks is difficult must be very difficult.

"I'm here to discuss with you!" Zhu Youjian also said that he softened, and he knew it in his own mind: "Of course it won't be possible in one or two years, we can designate a certain long-term plan, not three years but five years. But not more than five years. Okay?"

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian actually begged, which is the only one in the court.Think about the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, who was ever submissive?Who asked the minister?Zhu Yuanzhang knew how to peel skins, Wanli dared not go to court for 30 years, and Chongzhen did not leave the capital even if he was hanged.

"Total?" All the ministers glanced at each other, well, the emperor is like this, let's hurry up and work hard.

It is not feasible to save money to do such a big thing.Special policies require special means.Traveling can't violate the basic rules, even if you get an airplane or cannon, someone must be able to drive it, otherwise it's like a pile of scrap iron.It doesn't mean that if you build a bunch of planes, you can drive the enemy around. It is estimated that training plane pilots in Daming is not much less difficult than building steam engines.

Although Zhu Youjian couldn't formulate policies, at least he had a group of capable ministers and officials. Everyone got together for several days on this matter, and finally discussed a plan and came up with it.

6Chapter 17: Grab capacity and market

What kind of policies and measures should Ming take to catch up with Europe?It's definitely not throwing money at it, that's not chasing, that's bullshit.

Based on the existing strength, Li Yan believes that the emperor's shift of focus to the shipbuilding industry will not shake the foundation of the country.Because after the food problem is solved, internal contradictions have been eliminated.One is that the domestic population has been decreasing. War and immigration have stabilized the land, so there are no problems in the country.Second, it diverted the interests of nobles and divided the domestic forces.Even the Zheng family set their eyes on Hokkaido.Judging from these two aspects, the court can free up its hands to do other things.

Daming has already accumulated enough technical strength in the shipbuilding industry itself. Not only are new technologies and processes constantly biased towards the shipbuilding industry, but the addition of a large number of skilled technicians from Europe has also improved Daming's shipbuilding technology, but it has already begun to lead Europe in terms of technology. It's just that there is still a big difference in numbers.In the words of later generations, Daming can still achieve cornering overtaking.

However, it is not enough to be able to build ships, but also to make these ships generate economic benefits.Pure investment is something that only fools can do, it cannot generate income, and no one can afford it.

Therefore, the core of the problem is how to develop maritime trade and shipping.This is the solution that can digest tens of thousands of sea ships.

"Your Majesty, I think the fishing industry in the high seas can absorb part of the ships." Zhang Huangyan inspected.

"Aiqing is right." Zhu Youjian praised each and every one of them.

Fishery is a "school" for training seamen, and judging from the size of the population of Ming Dynasty, the consumer market for seafood is huge.Moreover, the current fishery resources are abundant, as long as Daming fishes on a large scale, the economic benefits will be absolutely astonishing.It can be digested in the country alone, and it can serve multiple purposes.

"My minister thought that our products could be sold at lower prices to Tianzhu, Persia and other places to attract more buyers." Chen Bangyan suggested.

This suggestion creates polarization. Many people think that selling goods at a low price will make less profit and is not worthwhile.Zhu Youjian also fell into deep thought. If people follow the way of people who travel through, they will generally carry out trade with iron and blood, and no one cares about the laws of the market.

Generally, time-traveling novels start the arms trade and profit from it.This approach is too Midi.But Zhu Youjian took a look at some areas that may have conflicts around this era. Except for Europe, he didn't find any big places where arms business could be done.

In other words, for example, if you find a rice field, do you rob it once, or come here every year to collect rent?The core of trade is not to rob directly, but to harvest continuously.The porcelain and silk of Ming Dynasty are good, but in this era, they are equivalent to luxury goods such as Chanel, and the market is still limited.

It was not possible to sell at a reduced price before because the sea route was not safe and the risk of doing business was very high.Now that the sea and land have been almost wiped out, are they still sold as luxury goods?Besides, there are more varieties of Daming products.

Lowering prices, obtaining a larger market, expanding domestic production scale, and expanding the scale of shipping are all positive, and they do not harm the ultimate purpose of making money.

I would rather make less money at a time, and let more ships go out, which is in line with the current situation of Daming.This is the slogan put forward by Zhu Youjian.In other words, Daming now needs to seize capacity and seize the market.

The third promotion policy is of course the arms trade, which is a well-known means.But the arms trade is not as easy to do as imagined. For example, warships. With European shipbuilding capabilities, Zhu Youjian dare not rush to launch more advanced warships and bring them to the international market for trading.

What is their own foundation? Your so-called advancement is just a matter of paper. Once the technology is mastered by the other party, their shipbuilding speed can be faster than that of Ming Dynasty. This is shooting yourself in the foot.On the other hand, there is not much demand for warships in other countries, so the money they can make by selling them is really not that much.After all, it is not a warship of later generations, and the profit is not so rich.

After much deliberation, it was the army weapons, such as guns, that Daming had the upper hand on.This is because Daming's smelting technology is more advanced than Europe's now, and Europe can't catch up for a while, so it can only import.According to this principle, Daming's front cannons, flintlock guns, can be delivered vigorously, and the supply is almost unlimited.

The last policy was formulated by Zhu Youjian and Li Yan, that is, the slave trade on the table cannot be discussed.But this slave trade is not from Africa to America, but from all over Southeast Asia.As we all know, there are still many aborigines in Southeast Asia, but everyone knows the character of these people.In order to develop Southeast Asia, Zhu Youjian wanted to buy labor from South Asia to work as coolies on the Southeast Asian islands.

For the people on the island, they should not be wasted. It is just right to catch them and transfer them to other islands as coolies.For example, those from Luzon are sent to Sumatra, and those from Sumatra are sent to Australia. This is much more civilized than the barbaric way of the West.In the meantime, a large amount of transport capacity is also required between the islands, which also promotes the development of Southeast Asia.

In short, in Southeast Asia alone, Zhu Youjian believes that it can accommodate at least three or four thousand large ships; the fishery can absorb at least a thousand ships; and the sea trade should also have more than three thousand ships.And the American region that Ming Dynasty will soon develop, as well as the entire East Asia strategy, can absorb nearly a thousand ships.In this way, even if the European market can't be squeezed in, it must find a way to cultivate a trade scale that exceeds the volume of Europe.

"Your Majesty, will this involve too many people?" Li Yan held a stack of materials and was surprised to see the numbers on it. According to Zhu Youjian's assumption, if it was true, Daming was building ships and The directly employed population in maritime trade will exceed 300 million, and the indirect population will be close to 800 million.The population driven by relevant industrial and commercial development is at least 2000 million.

Daming, when did the industrial and commercial population reach this size?

"Not much. After 50 years, the population of Ming Dynasty will at least triple." Zhu Youjian patted Li Yan on the shoulder and said something even more frightening.

Li Yan was startled, he never dared to think of such a large number in his dreams.The current population of Ming Dynasty is more than 1 million, and if it doubles again, it will be close to 50 million. Is it possible in [-] years?

possible.This is Zhu Youjian's view.Stimulated by extreme population growth, with a base of 20 billion, [-] years is almost a generation.Regardless of the environment in which life can be opened up, Zhu Youjian believes that [-] million is conservative.

Because the chassis will be large enough to carry such a large amount.If 50 million people cannot immigrate to the Americas within [-] years, it will be a blasphemy for him to travel once.What's more, Zhu Youjian is still desperately absorbing young women from other regions.

"The only thing I'm worried about is the situation in the Japanese country. It has affected my lofty goals!" Zhu Youjian said looking at the sky.

Chapter 648: New Drugs Appeared in London