New Shun 1730

"Beauty comes second."

The young man from the "Shaofu Supervisor" on the side laughed and deliberately raised his voice: "Now Tieniu does not need to rest for twelve hours a day. As long as there is coal, he can keep raising brine without getting tired."

"Just mentioning the braised meat is ten times better than the previous Guniu."

“And this is one of the reasons for planning development.”

"Some people say: Gas comes from the west and brine comes from the east. Although this is not absolute, sometimes when a well is dug, it is true that there is only brine but no gas; and sometimes when a well is drilled, there is only gas but no brine."

"Nowadays, steam engines extract brine, and the brine is increasing several times every day. In the past, the only valueless gas wells were gas but no brine, but now they are very useful."

"And every time a well is dug, it is a gamble. Now the capital is strong and the shareholders are equally divided."

"In the past, if an individual worked alone, there would be profits and losses for each individual."

“But now, capital is guaranteed to make profits without losing money.”

"I don't need to elaborate on the truth. If the capital as a whole is not profitable, then it is impossible for so many people to come to gamble on the well in recent years."

These words are indeed said in the right place.

From everyone's point of view, it is true that some people may go bankrupt digging wells, and then not even a pound of brine can be recovered.

From a more macro and concrete capital perspective, if the expected profit rate and average return rate were not so high, it would be impossible to attract so much capital to come here.

Now that individual capitals are gathered together to form a large capital, each investor can obtain a basically predictable average return.

Not getting rich overnight.

Of course, there was no such thing as a night of destitution.

Relying on the imperial court to come forward to integrate, various production factors were brought together.

Those who had technology before may lack capital; those who have capital may lack technology.

The significance of the court's intervention was to combine capital and technology, including land, but the land issue was solved by violent means.

The young man from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce mentioned the key point, and the businessmen nodded in agreement.

I had already made up my mind to invest, and now after seeing this model, they all set their sights on Yin Niu Congyun of Xuzhou Prefecture.

Now, technology and capital have been solved.

So, what about land?

Niu Congyun didn't know what these people were waiting for, so he said sternly: "As for the land, the Yamen has issued a general regulation."

“There’s a saying for wasteland.”

“There is a saying for farmland.”

"The land that was occupied in advance was neither cultivated nor had a well. This is also a different story."

"Only those who take the initiative to take shares in existing salt wells are your internal shareholding matters and I have no control over them. And for those who are unwilling to take shares, don't force them. Those who are willing to take part can do so, and those who are unwilling to take part can do so. Yes, you just need to slowly squeeze them out in the future.”

"The imperial court will not intervene in this kind of thing. In business competition, there will be profit and loss, bankruptcy and bankruptcy. It is natural. As long as it does not violate the "Da Shun Law", you can do whatever you want."

The firm regulations were given, and the businessmen cheered.

If the land is enclosed, the money will be paid according to the fertile land, not to mention forty years, even four hundred years, which will be cheaper than the previous monopoly land rent.

As for those small salt wells that were unwilling to take shares or could not negotiate at all, these businessmen were not prepared to negotiate at all.

What's there to talk about?

From now on, the imperial government will conduct commercial sales, undertake production according to capacity, and increase the salt tax. It will be easy to bankrupt those small households.

Nowadays, all the big businessmen with capital have invested in the company. Even if those small households want to expand their operations in the future, they will not be able to borrow money.

It is simply too easy to make people bankrupt without violating the "Great Rules".

From the perspective of these big businessmen, I am afraid that some Qingtian lords, adhering to the traditions of past dynasties, or the strong tendency of petty bourgeoisie after the unification of Confucianism, all Qingtian lords must be naturally oriented towards small producers.

40% of what we do is true blue sky and 60% is true reactionary.

The businessman thought, as long as the governor does not act like a blue-sky boss who is weak and who is right, he will bankrupt the small handicraftsmen who do not take shares and become destitute. The proletarian workers who come from the salt wells at home are no better than the iron-eating beasts. How difficult is it to make bamboo shoots?

In ten years at most, not a single handicraftsman or petty bourgeois in charge of the salt industry in southern Sichuan will be reduced to abject poverty.

So these businessmen who were most afraid of Master Qingtian all knelt down and shouted to Niu Congyun: "Master Qingtian!"

Niu Congyun smiled bitterly and said: "People in the Song Dynasty said: Ruling the world with scholar-bureaucrats is not the same as ruling the world with the common people. That made it clear."

"As for now... Now I am the grand master of you big capitalists, but I can't be the grand master of those small-scale producers, nor can I be the grand master of the local land gentry."

"Small farmers, small producers, big businessmen, and gentry see the Great Master Qingtian differently. There seems to be no one in the world who can make small farmers, tenants, small producers, big capital, and landlords regard him as the Great Master Qingtian." ”

"I can only choose one."

After smiling bitterly, Niu Congyun thought about the "Enclosure Regulations" he had formulated, knowing that this matter would definitely cause an uproar in Dashun.

When he was in southern Jiangsu, he read more translated Western political and history books, and he was very clear about the difference between Dashun and the British. He also understood how many people would criticize the land enclosure law in Dashun.

Dashun is different from the UK.

Dashun basically has no public land.

In a sense, mountains, rivers, lakes and marshes are public lands, but the tradition since ancient times is that mountains and marshes are not prohibited. If anyone prohibits mountains and marshes, his reputation will be similar to that of Xia Jie, Shang Zhou and Zhou Li Wang.

In the UK, in addition to the enclosure of land where capitalists offer higher prices to drive out tenants, there is another way to enclose public land.

The capitalists offer higher prices to make the landlords drive out tenants.

This is easy to solve.

In Dashun, it is not a problem at all. The difficulty is how capitalists can rent land at high prices, because capital cannot offer higher rent than tenants.

The other way, enclosing public land, involves the difference between Dashun and British land ownership.

For example, a small farmer in the UK has his own arable land. In addition to arable land, there are large tracts of village public land.

These public lands may be grasslands or forests.

One acre of land can raise a cow, and then graze it on the public land.

Therefore, the problem with enclosure in Britain is that even if the enclosure is public land, the living standards of small farmers will inevitably decline - they could originally go to the public land to graze cattle and cut grass, but now they have to rely on their own arable land. Is it enough to eat shit?

Enclosure in Britain is simpler than that in Dashun.

Because of the existence of public land, it can be enclosed through public opinion.

Public land is both yours and mine. At that time, the minority obeys the majority, of course, the majority that owns the land.

If you agree to enclosure, it will be useless even if you oppose it.

If the public land is enclosed, you will have no place to graze and cut grass to feed the livestock, and you will not be able to survive. You can either sell the land to become an agricultural laborer or sell the land to the city, which is all voluntary.

Dashun is different.

Dashun is a standard land private ownership empire.

The standard extreme kind.

There is no public land.

The land does not belong to the court, but to each citizen.

In this case, everyone has the right to decide on their own land - provided that there is land.

So, in this case, if you want to occupy land for mining, road construction, etc., it will be very difficult.

In the UK, the minority obeys the majority and encloses public land. Public land is neither yours nor mine, but everyone's.

In Dashun, all land is privately owned. What's yours is yours, and what's his is his. If the railway is really built according to the plan, how to calculate the land occupation?

What if the other party refuses to sell the land?

Niu Congyun is very politically sensitive and has seen the dawn of a new era, so he knows very well that there will be more and more such salt well enclosures in Dashun in the future.

Building roads, railways, opening coal mines, copper mines, iron mines, etc., etc., all of these will inevitably involve the issue of enclosure.

His own "Enclosure Regulations" will surely become the starting point of Dashun's enclosure incidents in the future. If other places want to do similar things, they will definitely take out his enclosure regulations for reference.

Before, he joked with Ma Haochuan that he would definitely be on "The Record of New Traitors Pointing Out Generals". At that time, he was still very humble and said that he would be at the end.

Now it seems that he is really humble.

Once this land enclosure regulation is released, the ranking will definitely rise in the future.

Even if you can't enter the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stars, you will probably be among the top few Earthly Fiends.

This regulation itself can only be infamous.

Because, just like the land enclosure in Yanjing, the landlords can collect 40,000 to 50,000 taels of rent a year without doing anything, so why would they be willing to force the land to be sold at a price of 30 taels per mu?

What if they don't sell it?

In addition to relying on the army and the yamen runners, is there any other way?

There are many reasons for the failure of the Qingmiao Law, but the stupidest one is that the court stupidly lent money on its own.

Don't think about the gentry lending money and forcing people to hang themselves and sell their wives, which is normal, and debts must be repaid; if the court lends money and really takes away people's cattle when collecting the money, it is a heinous crime, like Xia Jie and Shang Zhou.

The same is true for land enclosure.

As long as the court intervenes, it will be very ugly.

But if it doesn't intervene, this matter will never be done.

Do we really want the people who eat salt to pay the salt tax and the landlords' rent to be added to the salt?

Niu Congyun also thought that this matter was originally caused by the Duke of Xingguo. It should be the Duke of Xingguo who should bear the contradictions brought about by development and take this big black pot on his back.

But Liu Yu was either engaged in maritime trade or light industry in Songjiang Prefecture. He did not build railways or mines. He occupied land for large-scale construction because it was "needed by the court" - such as building naval bases and artillery platforms. Is this the same as letting a group of capitalists build factories?

In the end, all the troubles he caused had to be borne by himself, the governor of Xuzhou Prefecture who was pointed out by the emperor to take the blame.

If people died in road construction or conflicts arose in mining in the future, even if they were not in Xuzhou Prefecture or even in Sichuan, they would all be blamed on him.

He was the initiator, and this big pot was inevitable.

Therefore, Niu Congyun also had some thoughts when formulating the enclosure charter.

Since it is said that Dashun has its own national conditions.

Then, Xuzhou Prefecture also has its own prefectural conditions.

The profit of salt wells is too high, so high that the capital would rather gamble tens of thousands of taels of silver without any profit for ten years to dig wells.

Therefore, in his enclosure charter, the price of land compensation is very high.

Of course, it is relatively high. An acre of land has to be compensated with an average of thirty or forty taels of silver, plus future dividends, which is far higher than the price of arable land. It is definitely lower than the high rent of collecting salt rent and the salt of thirty days and a half months belongs to the landlord.

The advantage of this charter is that "Xuzhou Prefecture has its own prefectural conditions."

Will such a high compensation price affect the development of industry and commerce?

No matter, it will not affect the salt industry of Xuzhou Prefecture.

If other places want to build railways, open coal mines, etc., they will introduce their own land enclosure policies at that time, but don’t say that they are learning from me.

If you give 50 taels of compensation for one mu of land, you can say that you are learning from me.

But you say that the compensation of 50 taels per mu of land is not enough to build roads or open mines. The landlords hold the enclosure regulations of Xuzhou Prefecture and hope to handle it accordingly. However, the return rate of opening mines and factories is not as high as that of well salt. It is really impossible to do it at such a high land price, so it has nothing to do with me.

And this kind of small thought can be regarded as protecting the small farmers here.

The court can’t understand the affairs between landlords and farmers.

The court can’t understand the affairs between landlords and capitalists.

Since the emperor insisted that he come to test the waters, he must understand that he is just the governor of Xuzhou Prefecture. If he really wants to promote industry and commerce in the future, the affairs of landlords and capitalists will be managed by Tianyoudian and Pingzhangjun Guoshi.

Although this is the beginning of my own land grabbing, I still have to keep some tricks up my sleeve for future excuses.