New Shun 1730

Of course, does this mean that the problem of Dashun only needs to be solved after the "logistics cost" is solved, and then "all the conditions" for the development of capitalism can be achieved?

That's not what I'm saying.

Rather, social consciousness originates from social existence.

No one can think in front of a blank piece of paper.

Just like Adam Smith, he personally experienced Britain's almost perverted mercantilist policies and extremely strict business regulations, so he wrote "The Wealth of Nations" against all of this.

Quesnay and others have personally experienced the various restrictions of France's Colbertism, experienced the John Law scam of the financial industry's collapse, and the disputes between French aristocrats and royal power, so he can propose the [Natural Order Doctrine] for the French situation. 】.

Turn around and look at Dashun.

The precocity of civilization has made Dashun go through too much.

The central government gives up the right to mint coins, and local powerful people mint coins on their own? The so-called currency decentralization?

The Han Dynasty had experienced it, and the elite of Dashun knew what it meant.

Will the central government give up control over mines and salt and allow businessmen to develop them?

Experienced, and in the late Ming Dynasty, the elite collectively opposed and continued to miss Liu Shi'an's salt law, and were quite dissatisfied with the salt policy reform during the Wanli period.

Abandon the anti-annexation policy?

Not to mention this.

Is the central government completely incapable of controlling local areas?

It was also experienced during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. The petty officials who wanted a salary increase but could not get it killed all the provincial officials in Henan and blocked the Yellow River water transportation. However, the central government did not know about it for several months. This is not an unexperienced experience.

Under such circumstances, it is ridiculous to talk about free trade with people like Dashun.

Can the Dashun court's ability to control business match that of the British? In other words, does Dashun have a "Commodity Enumeration Law" and a "Subsidy Enumeration Law"? Did the Dashun court ever restrict or subsidize any handicraft industry?

None.

What's more, Dashun's tariffs, apart from the function of "taxation", do not have any "protective effect on domestic industries" at all.

Not even a little bit.

You can't expect people to understand something they've never experienced.

It is even more impossible for people like Dashun to understand why "protectionism" is needed, why industrial protective tariffs are needed, and why the concept of "trade deficit" exists without going to Europe.

The enlightenment of "economics" among Dashun people came from the "abolition of canals and reform of seas".

It is precisely because of the abolition of canals and the reform of sea that the economic structure of Dashun has undergone great changes in just twenty years.

This led to the enlightenment thinking of "economics" among Dashun elites.

Moreover, this kind of enlightenment also has a strong color of Dashun's social existence - logistics costs.

Don't think that mercantilism and regulating trade are a very simple matter.

You can say that the Dashun court did not understand or was simply incapable of engaging in mercantilism and regulating trade.

But we can never say that a court that doesn’t even have the right to mint money, doesn’t even realize the significance of protecting industries with tariffs, and doesn’t even have subsidies for key industries, actually engages in protectionism and mercantilism.

Both "The Wealth of Nations" and "Physiocratic Natural Order" were born out of "mercantilism."

Conversely, without the ultimate mercantilism of Britain, free trade would not have been born; without the Colbertism of France, the Physiocratic Natural Order Theory would not have been born.

Same goes for Dashun.

Because Dashun has too little control over the economy, and it can even be said that it didn’t care about the issue before. This is the same as the Meng Yuan’s control over local areas. It can be said that this is a technical job, and if you want to manage it, but you don’t have the ability, you can’t. not understand.

However, in terms of traces, it just doesn't matter.

This gave rise to the strong restoration of Zhou Rites, the revival of Jing Gong's new learning, and the re-examination of the theory of salt and iron.

"Yi Feng" says: When the sun is at its midpoint, it will be dark, when the moon is full, it will be eclipsed, and when the heaven and earth are full and empty, there will be news from time to time.

"Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" says: If it is complete, it will be lacking; if it is extreme, it will be reversed; if it is full, it will be lost.

That's the case.

The Wealth of Nations was an extreme rejection of British extreme mercantilism.

The theory of natural order is an integral part of French Colbertism.

Similarly, the restoration of Zhou Rituals, the revival of hegemony, and the re-examination of the Salt and Iron Theory in Dashun are also a completely laissez-faire economy that started in the late Ming Dynasty.

This is the general background.

As for the specific environment, that is, the abolition of canals and the transformation of seas, which led to the legendary changes in the sea and the sea, which occurred in just twenty or thirty years.

Under such circumstances, how could the so-called elite in Dashun not think of the problem in terms of "logistics costs"?

Are logistics costs a problem that Dashun faces in its continued development?

yes.

So, are logistics costs the only problem that must be solved for Dashun to continue to develop and capitalism to continue to sprout and grow?

no.

So why are both conservatives and radicals in the Practical School focused on this issue? Are they all trying to solve the problem that Liu Yu said: "The poor cannot afford to go, but the capital refuses to go"?

Because this issue is the most easily noticed issue in the economic enlightenment movement after the abolition of the imperial capital and the reform of the sea.

Without knowledge, it is achieved overnight.

Adam Smith, as the originator of classical political economics, didn't just propose "absolute advantage". It was not until the Corn Laws problem that this problem became unexplainable that Ricardo developed "relative advantage"?

The economic enlightenment movement in Dashun is the same.

Incomplete.

One-sided.

Needs to be completed.

However, social existence determines social consciousness; economic base determines superstructure.

Before continuing to develop and complete, Dashun must continue to shape the economic base that can discover new problems and shape the social existence that can produce new social consciousness.

The idea of ​​free trade originated from trade between countries.

And it is because of trade between countries that there are tariff protection, mercantilism, domestic policy protection, etc.

Therefore, it can be said that the theory of free trade is impossible to appear in Dashun.

Unless one day, Dashun has a trade deficit, tariff protection, and industrial support.

Otherwise, this thing is impossible to appear in Dashun.

The same is true in reverse.

Did Adam Smith's free trade theory guide the operation of the British economy in 1760?

No.

On the contrary, although his doctrine is a prominent school, it is not used by the official at all.

And the same.

Is Dashun really a free trade? Liu Yu shouted it all day, but he was ashamed to say that it was not true.

However, the free trade theory could spread quickly in Dashun and was not rejected by the government.

Why?

Because the free trade theory based on trade between countries was not considered harmful by the Dashun government and allowed to spread. Because Dashun was a pure trade surplus country.

Any influential theory is based on the criticism of reality and is thought out in the criticism.

So.

The criticism of Britain's extreme mercantilism led to the free trade theory.

The criticism of France's national control and industrial substitution policy led to the physiocracy of natural order.

Similarly.

The criticism of Dashun's laissez-faire economic policy led to the elite class of Dashun starting to admire Guanzi, Salt and Iron, and Zhouli Xinyi.

The thinking of this group of people about Dashun is "not too much control, but too little control".

This is different from the fragmented, protectionist, fiercely competitive, and highly homogenized European thinking of "not too little control, but too much control".

But the origins are all based on criticism of reality.

It's just that the reality of Europe is not the same as the reality of Dashun.

Millions of hardworking people, with more than two thousand years of accumulated handicraft and agricultural technology, have put Dashun into a vicious circle on the issue of "economics".

Because there is no reality of industry being impacted by other countries, there is no soil for mercantilism in Dashun.

And because there is no soil for mercantilism, there is no soil for free trade born from criticism of mercantilism.

For example, "Guan Zi" talks about many routines of economic warfare.

The question is, since the Han Dynasty, who has this empire fought an economic war with?

Who is qualified to fight an economic war with the world's strongest small peasant economy and handicraft industry in this empire?

Is it Korean paper that forced Xuancheng paper industry employees to revolt?

Or was it Japan's ware that forced the craftsmen in Jingdezhen to die?

Did Italian silk affect the price of Hu silk?

Did Indian cotton cloth threaten Songsu cloth?

Did Dutch pottery threaten Yixing purple sand?

To protect some threats that do not exist at all is a mental illness, not a precaution.

To criticize mercantilism that does not exist at all and to demand free trade is no different from the ravings of a madman.

The "merchant" in mercantilism and the "merchant" that emphasizes agriculture over commerce are not the same at all.

You cannot say:

Britain's monopoly and the East India Company's exclusive franchise, killing smugglers when they are found, and the cargo companies on private merchant ships that secretly pass the Cape of Good Hope are half royal and half are high-end mercantilism.

The Ming Dynasty also had a monopoly. Under the official monopoly of Yongle, the spice trade in Southeast Asia was arrested once smuggling was discovered, and pirates who fled to Southeast Asia were also arrested. Private individuals were not allowed to engage in spice trade, which was a rustic [emphasis on agriculture and neglect of commerce].

So, when things developed to this point.

When Dashun really reached the Atlantic Ocean, held the commercial hegemony of selling goods in its own hands, and had this social existence.

It was natural for these people in Dashun to turn to reflect on "too little control before, and now more control measures should be used".

Dashun is not Britain. The perspective of the elite class should be focused on competing with France, suppressing the Dutch transportation industry, and protecting the country's textile industry.

Dashun is not France either. The perspective of the elite class should be focused on the impact of Caribbean sugar on local wine, the damage of Dutch smuggled goods to the country's industry, and the impact of Oriental goods on the country's handicraft industry.

Dashun is Dashun.

So, in the end, we still have to go back to the issue of "landlords and peasants".

Whether it is business or industry.

Whether it is Li Xi or the emperor.

Whether it is the conservatives or the radicals.

The final thinking is still centered on solving the problem of "landlords and peasants".

The emperor's "Wang Xie Yan, the common people's home" is like this. The emperor thought that with fertilizer, annexation can be suppressed.

The radicals' plan of 10 million immigrants is like this. The radicals believe that the billions of acres of land in North America and Australia can completely solve the domestic contradictions.

The development of industry and commerce of the practical school is like this. Under Liu Yu's concept of "per capita grain ownership", they regard industry and commerce as a "means of redistribution of grain", and finally let those landless farmers make a living through industry and commerce.

It's not that they are stupid.

On the contrary, because they are not stupid - given the current trade situation, whose head is rusty in Dashun to consider industrial protection? What needs protection?

The only way for silver to flow out is the three treasures of Donglu, and ginseng can actually be grown by itself, but it is just to aid France and engage in the economic cycle of Fusang immigration that it does not grow it by itself.

French Canada only replaced the trade status of Korea in the world system, because Korea used to raise deer, grow ginseng and sell skins.

Finally, when it came to Li Li, Li Li attributed the problem to "logistics costs", "lack of infrastructure" and "transportation problems".

So, what is his purpose?

In fact, isn't it still a large-scale migration? Isn't it still about solving the serious contradiction between people and land in Kyushu?

It's just that he inherited Liu Yu's idea of ​​"making capital profitable and every landless farmer can squeeze out several times the surplus value of the migration cost".

He couldn't find a gold mountain or a silver mountain - that was what Liu Yu did before. He didn't have the ability to reduce the transportation cost of crossing the Pacific Ocean to an extremely low level within 20 or 30 years, so he let capital dig for gold mountains and silver mountains, so that every migrant could squeeze out several times the surplus value of the ticket without reducing the transportation cost.

Li Li couldn't find a new gold mountain or a silver mountain.

Then, he could only focus on the problem of "reducing the cost of migration and transportation".

In the final analysis, the core is still the "contradiction between people and land", which is the first priority of the last dynasty.

Because the population of Dashun has soared to more than one-third of the world's population, this problem has become a problem of "even if the land is distributed equally, the per capita land is only three or five acres" after abstraction.

Therefore, the problem of landlords and tenants gave way to the problem of "per capita food shortage" in front of the Dashun Dynasty.

The premise is that Dashun won the war, took over Nanyang, and drew a line in the Appalachian Mountains. Dashun really had billions of acres of land to be reclaimed under the existing international order.

Not 100 million acres, not 1 billion acres, but really billions of acres.

When the problem of "per capita food shortage" became the first contradiction considered by the ruling class of the Dashun Dynasty, it was natural to move the landlords, or to say that Li Li was thinking about scraping some of the landlords' meat to build infrastructure and industry.

As Lao Ma said: [Napoleon used the new market he opened up with his bayonet and the plunder of the continent to repay the taxes he forcibly levied with interest].

Li Li was gambling. If he won the bet, he could return the principal and interest of the "forced landlords" in the future.

If you pay for the heavy industry today, I promise to return you ten times or a hundred times the value of the land in 20 years, which is suitable for tenancy or farm employment. I will use your money to create this "condition", so that those lands can be used for tenancy or farm employment and can squeeze out surplus value.

At this time, a piece of land in the Ili River Valley that is worthless only needs a railway to transport cotton and grain, and that piece of land will have the conditions to squeeze out surplus value.

Because, [How is surplus value generated? It is not generated from circulation, but it is realized in circulation].

Li Li is actually practicing the knowledge of Lao Ma in reverse.

What he wants to solve is the circulation problem of [surplus value is realized in circulation].

Production... is not the main problem for the time being. There is no technical barrier to randomly grabbing a few Dashun farmers who have lost their land and going to Fusang and Nanyang to farm. They will definitely be better than people in other parts of the world at this time.

The farmers here have actually completed all the technology points before the fertilizer era.

Ridge cultivation, crop rotation, intercropping, smoke and frost prevention, bean and wheat planting together... Even the technology of "re-grassing to prevent anti-salt" in saline-alkali land, a special terrain, was pointed out as early as the end of the Ming Dynasty.

It was because of the wisdom and labor efficiency of the working people that the Dutch fell into Liu Yu's Trojan Horse plan and wanted to transport the Chinese in Java to Ceylon instead of continuing to capture Tamils ​​to grow rice and build canals. These workers were the cornerstone of the Ceylon Trojan Horse plan, and Liu Yu's military intimidation only helped to facilitate this.

And now, Li Li's solution is to find a way to create [conditions] that can squeeze out surplus value with such a good labor force.

This is the essence of Saint-Simonism: under the condition of recognizing private ownership, lure capital to invest in industry.

In my humble opinion, it may be that the conversion between classical Chinese and the new era vernacular is too fast, coupled with translation problems, leaving a lot of thorns, which can easily lead to literal interpretation and preconceived understanding.