New Shun 1730

In fact, many things, when broken down, are just a matter of social relations. The land issue is even more obvious. Many policies exist to maintain a certain social relationship.

Feudalism is a social relationship, and capital is also a social relationship. In the end, it still has to go back to maintaining social relations that are beneficial to the ruling class.

For example, Russia's serfdom, of course, had to maintain this specific social relationship. Because the nobles fought for a long time and granted a lot of land, but the reality of Russia's wild land and sparse population, only giving a lot of land without giving people, it is impossible to maintain the social relationship of serfs supporting nobles, so it is necessary to establish serfdom, so that serfs are subordinate to the land, and the land is subordinate to the nobles. If you don't grant people to the land, it's the same as not granting the land.

For example, the original tenancy system of Dashun did not need to introduce too many laws on personal dependence, and even if you only look at the laws, it seems that the degree of personal dependence is gradually decreasing.

But the problem is that the situation of Dashun is here. For example, there is a legend that "there are fathers-in-law within 18 miles around" around some monk temples. The tenant said that the law does not have such obligations as power of expropriation or personal dependence. But the monk said, well said, you understand the law, then don't rent my land, starve to death.

When the contradiction between people and land reaches the extreme and industry has not developed, even if the law does not stipulate various subordinate and dependent relationships, most people will show a state of "voluntary" dependence. If this state of "voluntary" subordination cannot be achieved, it is necessary to introduce strict laws and special policies to maintain this social relationship with the state.

This is the case with Russia's serfdom, Hamilton's land block sale system is intended to be so, and the later Southern state black slave fugitive law is so, including Liu Yu's policy of monetizing the sale of wasteland in Fusang and forcing migrants to work as wage laborers for several years.

To clear the fog, we must see clearly what kind of social relationship these policies and laws are intended to maintain or forcibly create, and then we will know which class's interests these policies and laws are protecting.

Simply put, whose interests were protected by Liu Yu's land policy in Fusang?

Obviously, it was to protect the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie. Because, without Liu Yu's land policy, the migrants would not be subordinate to industrial capital, they would run away, instead of having to work there.

In Dashun, the situation was the opposite. Because of the huge contradiction between people and land, and the "relatively surplus population", the landless refugees would "naturally" be subordinate to industrial and commercial capital, if any.

So, when Li Li considered the problems after the railway was completed, he had to think clearly.

When the problems of railways, transportation, etc. were different from now; when the social existence in a few years or more than a decade would be different from now.

It is necessary to use the future situation to think about future policies, rather than formulating the policy ideas after the railway was completed in the future based on the current situation north of the Songliao watershed, the form of social relations, and the various kinds of subordination.

Otherwise, this is just a case of trying to find a sword by carving a boat.

For example, the new military nobles who rose from Dashun's voyage to Nanyang to the end of World War I.

At this moment, it is said that you have made contributions. According to tradition, you will be rewarded with land. The emperor said, I see that there is a lot of land along the Ussuri River. Let's give each family 10,000 hectares of land as a reward for their contributions. These new military nobles will probably curse in their hearts on the spot: If you have made contributions but don't reward, you are not a ruler. It is better to reward me 3,000 acres of land next to the capital than to reward me with 10,000 hectares of land.

However, if the railway is built, similar to the North American railway, 118 million acres and about 700 million acres of land will be awarded on both sides of the railway. Even if it is the same land as before, it will definitely be completely different.

Engels said that potatoes and potato winemaking saved the Prussian Junkers and enabled them to complete the transformation in the new era.

So, can we think that if the railway is built, the soybeans and soybean oil pressing and bean cake industry north of the Songliao watershed will give birth to a group of transformed military nobles in Dashun?

This is not a matter of whether Li Li wants to do it or not.

Rather, if he wants to do something, he is nothing.

He needs someone to support him. And if someone supports him or follows him, he has to give him something in return.

Of course, there may be some people in the practical school who take the world as their responsibility and think that if they continue to do this, they will be finished and must make in-depth changes. For this reason, they may support Li Li.

But such rationalists are a minority after all.

More people just want to get benefits and gain benefits.

If the bourgeoisie supports him, then he has to give benefits to the bourgeoisie. For example, if the bourgeoisie wants to occupy the land in the convenient transportation area near the railway to grow soybeans after the road is built, then he has to give policies.

If those people in the practical school follow him, they have to give some benefits.

Lao Ma said: [Fraudulent transfer of state-owned land, theft of village and community public land, and the plunder of feudal land and clan land, all of which are transformed into modern private property under unscrupulous terror, these are all methods of primitive accumulation. These methods give capitalist agriculture a field of activity. 】

Li Li supported Liu Yu's policy of immigration to Fusang and the development of capitalist agriculture in the "wasteland" area. Even his development ideas were capitalist.

However.

Liu Yu knew very well.

Li Xi, first of all, could not be a great bourgeois revolutionary who fought for the establishment of a capitalist order in the world or in Dashun.

Secondly, he could not be a man who worked for the welfare of the 300 million people of Dashun and fought for the improvement of the living standards of the small farmers of Dashun.

So, even if he supported, or even said that he pioneered ideas, it was obviously a capitalist style that was against the practice of Lao Ma.

However, his purpose was not the two goals mentioned above.

Even if we do not consider his own ambitions, or even if we think that he is not a pure careerist.

Then, his ideas are still clear:

The contradiction between people and land in Jiuzhou is already like this, and if we continue to rule in the old way, it is bound to end.

Once it is over, he, who is serious about "resting with the country", will definitely end with it.

Li Xi did not recognize class contradictions, or he did not consider the problem in this way.

He condensed the problem of Dashun into an abstract "contradiction between people and land", that is, the contradiction of "insufficient land per capita".

In this way of thinking, his idea of ​​"Wang Xie Yan, the people's home" is essentially the same as that of the old emperor.

It's nothing more than that the old emperor believes that the per-acre yield should be increased; and he believes that increasing the per-acre yield is not realistic now, it is better to increase the total amount of land.

So, why does he support capitalist agricultural development? Why is the idea like this?

It's not because he is a great bourgeois revolutionary who wants to establish a capitalist order for the world, or even his own "new ritual law" for the world.

It's because this way of relocating people is the most efficient.

The purpose is to relocate people.

How efficient it is.

Is capitalism efficient compared to the self-migration of small farmers?

As for the several reforms that Liu Yu had done before, whether it was going to Southeast Asia or moving to Japan, it was obviously very efficient. Compared with the spontaneous migration of small farmers, it can be said to be dozens of times more efficient.

So, is there a more efficient way?

In theory, there is.

The radical faction of practical learning relies on the state to control the huge land income as capital, and the whole focus of the state's administration is on immigration, reclamation, and land occupation.

However, Li Li could not accept this theoretically more efficient way, and he absolutely dared not accept it, and he absolutely could not become a thorn in the eyes of the old gentry, scholar-bureaucrats and landlords in the world.

He may envy Liu Xiu and Zhu Di, but he would never position himself as Wang Mang.

Therefore, he would choose the relatively efficient capitalist agricultural development model, so as to try to quickly solve the "biggest contradiction he thought" in Kyushu - the problem of people and land.

Why did he think so? In addition to the fact that he was a representative of those who saw the crisis in the ruling class, there was another more important reason.

At this time, the "Zhong" in the word China.

Especially after Dashun went to Southeast Asia, won the first war, and drew the line in the Appalachian Mountains.

This "China" is not a simple national concept or geographical concept.

This "Zhong" is indeed the "center" of the "international political order".

Whoever controls Kyushu and stabilizes Kyushu will be the emperor at the center of the world political order.

To use some very traditional tribute systems.

Whoever can unify Kyushu will be the emperor of the world. Vassal states such as Korea will pay tribute spontaneously.

The core of the emperor is the emperor of Kyushu.

As long as Kyushu is not in chaos, everything is a small matter, as Dashun has won the war and drawn a line in the Appalachian Mountains.

The west coast of Fusang is now just an appendage. Nanyang is completely tied to Kyushu.

Therefore, the key to everything lies in Kyushu.

And what is the biggest problem in Kyushu, in Li Li's view?

The contradiction between people and land.

Therefore, everything starts from "solving the contradiction between people and land in Kyushu".

For this purpose, the best choice is to be as fast and efficient as possible without causing chaos.

As for what kind of model, whether to follow the "Prussian Road" or the "American Road" mentioned by Ilyich, it doesn't matter.

How fast, how to do it.

How to stabilize the situation quickly, how to do it.

How can we quickly achieve the goal of moving hundreds of thousands of people from the core area of ​​Kyushu every year?

That is to say, no matter what, Li Xi wants to "improve" the living environment of small farmers in Kyushu. Whether it is light taxes, or redemption of self-cultivation, or anything else, it is possible.

However, once you leave the basic base of Kyushu, go to Fusang, go to the north of the Songliao watershed, and go to Nanyang, you can do whatever you want there.

To put it bluntly, if there is slavery there, Li Xi may have to support slavery, and he may even take the initiative to sell people to Fusang to make money. Of course, this may be a heart-breaking argument. After all, there is no such condition in reality at this time, but his thinking is very clear in Liu Yu's view.

That is, the hidden difference between him and Liu Yu: he has not experienced the future, so he subconsciously does not believe in the future that Liu Yu said that industry and commerce can accommodate the majority of the population.

And his thinking about development is a standard capitalist agricultural thinking. However, this is a means, not an end, and his goal is still to solve what he considers the "people-land contradiction". To some extent, he may think that if each person has 30 mu of land, then even if there is a tenancy system and land annexation, it will not be a big problem.