New Shun 1730

In Paris, Liu Yu's reputation, especially among Paris salons, was quite good. Here, it's completely different.

In the European "salon" world, basically, before the Lisbon earthquake, Liu Yu, who was still alive at the time, was like a "prophet" and criticized the Catholic Church and the Jesuits. After that, at least in Europe, he was in the salon of Paris. During this period, he has become the "Eastern standard-bearer" of the Enlightenment.

This matter is just a trivial matter in Dashun, no matter how trivial it is.

But in the European Enlightenment, it was a big deal.

On the one hand, Liu Yu acted like a "prophet" in advance and satirized what the Jesuits and Catholics might say after the earthquake. But this was indeed the case. After the Lisbon earthquake, the Jesuits indeed claimed that this was divine punishment.

On the other hand, Liu Yu’s aggressive comments and vaccinations in advance cooled down Leibniz’s optimism, an important pillar of the early Enlightenment.

This was very important in the European Enlightenment. According to the European tradition of religious infiltration of people's hearts, rationalism can easily go to extremes, and extremes can easily be confused when faced with the Lisbon earthquake: After all, this is thousands of things. Among all possibilities, the world that is the least bad is chosen by God, but when the bloody scene of the Lisbon earthquake really comes into view, it is impossible to believe that this is "the least bad world among thousands of possibilities."

After the so-called "Year of Acceleration of the Enlightenment", issues such as the Lisbon Earthquake were used as triggers, which eventually detonated the Jesuit issue and the relationship between various countries and the Holy See, leading to the dissolution of the Jesuits. This was regarded as the Enlightenment Movement. a major victory.

In addition, France, as an important position of the Enlightenment, was different from the absolute rationalist Enlightenment of Germany. They were more radical and ultimately more inclined to atheism.

And abandon Leibniz's optimism - although there is evil in the world, it is a kind of balance. After God created thousands of programs, he found that this is the one with the fewest bugs and the best, relatively speaking. The one that accelerated the radicalization of the French Enlightenment to anti-church, anti-religion, and even finally destroyed the Four Old Ages and transformed Notre Dame into a sexual temple was very important.

Since the Enlightenment is a great movement, it must have two conditions.

One: Criticism of the status quo.

Two: Outlook for the future.

It’s not that there is nothing else.

Rather, if you want to be great, these two things are necessary.

Then, looking forward to the future requires a certain world perspective.

Therefore, the free trade advocated by Liu Yu, coupled with the theory of natural order, can naturally be part of the outlook for the future.

Including said.

There was a famine in France in 1967, but the Physiocrats believed that it should be ignored and should wait for the adjustment of the natural order.

Is this the Enlightenment?

Certainly part of the Enlightenment.

This is like saying that Voltaire and Rousseau are at odds with each other all day long, so you can't expel Rousseau or Voltaire from enlightenment just because they have different opinions.

Dashun is now in a state of being able to advance and attack, and retreat and defend.

This is not about military or geographical issues, but about "culture".

The external expansion faction of the Dashunshi School adheres to Liu Yu's original decision of "disguising the world as national."

This is an offensive method.

But the same.

Dashun cannot accept Christianity, and naturally Europe cannot accept Dashun’s many traditional cultures of the old era.

Therefore, this "natural order" and "Tao follows nature" are Dashun's best means of attack.

First of all, don’t worry about this thing, nature, who created it. It doesn't matter if it's God, Jehovah, Pangu, or something else. Whoever you think is who you are. The key is nature, not who created it.

Secondly, this thing is a vision of the future. The Enlightenment naturally includes a vision for the future, and this vision must be worldwide. It cannot be said that this thing is right here, but it is wrong elsewhere.

Finally, before the Battle of Dashun, Liu Yu described a bright future: free trade among all countries, giving full play to the absolute and comparative advantages of each country, and the entire human race working together to prosper.

This thing, in the previous Dashun, was actually not that influential.

But in fragmented Europe, the influence is much greater than that in Dashun.

People cannot shoot in vain.

In Dashun, when it comes to economic issues specifically, the direction of the previous spray has been a continuation of several things in the Salt and Iron Theory: it is nothing more than whether salt should be completely liberalized and merchants can operate it; whether it is necessary for the imperial court to mint money for Why not delegate the minting of money to private individuals?

As for other things, there is really no way to complain. For example, Dashun really did not say before that Shaanxi should increase 100% tariffs on Songsu silk to protect Shaanxi's silk weaving industry; nor did it say that legislation prohibits people from being buried wearing Songsu cotton when they die...

Therefore, within Dashun, to be precise, absolute advantages and comparative advantages exist on their own. This thing is originally black. Are you going to complain that this thing is not black?

Therefore, the influence of this thing in Dashun is really completely different from that in Europe.

Let’s put it another way.

For example, one of the great achievements of the French Revolution was the elimination of the Mosaic law in inheritance law, that is, primogeniture. In Europe, this would be exclaimed as a world-shattering act of creation.

But in the Dashun folk, this thing certainly does not deserve such great praise as "a stunning creation", because it is not surprising to ordinary people, but they think it should be taken for granted, right?

So, some of Liu Yu's remarks at that time were very prestigious in the European Enlightenment. Many people's hopes for the future, at least in economics, are that the natural order will bring happiness to all mankind.

There is another point.

Enlightenment scholars are basically off-duty.

They neither farm.

They do not weave.

Their feelings are different from those of the lower classes.

These factors undoubtedly make Liu Yu's reputation in Paris salons generally good.

Of course, if anyone really dares to pull Liu Yu's coffin to Lyon, it will really be opened by local textile workers, mutilated and hung on the church.

And in India.

Especially in Jijirat and Mahalaksha, the two areas that were first infiltrated, ruled and traded by Western colonists.

It can only be said that Liu Yu's reputation is really bad.

This is not to say that the European East India Company is a good guy and Dashun is a bad guy.

Rather, it is to say that before this, all the European East India Companies, according to the standards of later generations, were labeled as "compradors", which is not unfair at all.

The East India Company had to spend money, lobby in Parliament, and talk about "silver outflow is not necessarily a bad thing".

This was determined by the gap in productivity between the East and the West before 1760, when Dashun fought a war.

Including saying that when Liu Yu reformed, he clearly stated:

Dashun's handicrafts, advanced industrial capital, and East India Company have no irreconcilable contradictions. This is the basis for Dashun's cooperation with the Netherlands.

The real contradiction lies in two points:

First, the transit profit of East-West trade, which Dashun's commercial capital wants, but the East India Company does not want to give.

This is an irreconcilable contradiction, so we can only fight.

Second, the contradiction between European handicrafts, domestic industrial capital, and land nobles who rub wool after enclosure, and Dashun's handicrafts and advanced industrial capital.

This is also irreconcilable, and we can only fight.

Then you ask the British East India Company about its views on the "Cotton Prohibition Order". Do you think they support it? How could they support it?

But the huge wool land nobles and gentry in the country are also powerful. They were so powerful that many years later, when the Industrial Revolution came, they had the power to launch the "Corn Law" and caused such a big disturbance. How could the British East India Company, which had not even collected Indian land taxes and was defeated by France in India at that time and was in a passive overall strategy, push for the repeal of a series of mercantilist bills?

Besides, anti-mercantilism depends on free trade. Without justice, nothing can be done. And the East India Company itself is a beneficiary of mercantilism. How could it oppose its own "rules"?

Understanding the contradictions between Dashun and Europe, and the reconcilable and irreconcilable contradictions between Dashun and these East India companies in Europe, we can understand that Dashun caused a huge backlash in India at this time.

Since we are talking about contradictions.

It is easy to understand.

Is there a contradiction between Songsu textile industry and Jijirat textile industry?

Is this contradiction reconcilable?

Dashun, can you buy millions of taels of cotton cloth from Jijirat every year like the European East India Company did before?

This has nothing to do with morality.

Which merchant in Dashun has a brain bug? Go to Surat to buy a bunch of cotton cloth and sell it in Songsu?

The current situation is the so-called [wanting to be a comprador but not being able to].

This is the invisible hand.

And what about the visible hand?

Why did Dashun revolt in the past?

Because there was no food to eat.

So, will Dashun recognize the invisible hand policy of the French Physiocrats that grain prices do not need to be controlled?

At least, in terms of grain, it will not and it is absolutely impossible.

In particular, after the prince of that year caused the "rice ban" storm in Hubei, Dashun was even more concerned about the grain problem.

There is a truth in this.

What is the truth?

Grain actually grows from the ground!

And cotton actually grows from the ground!

Planting three or five kilograms of cotton more means that thirty or fifty kilograms of grain will be harvested less.

If there is a shortage of food, given the logistics situation of Dashun, if the inland areas are really short of food, even if we don’t consider the loss, when the food is really transported there, the hungry people may occupy the government office.

Therefore, the policy of Dashun is very clear.

Industry and commerce are good and should be developed.

Cotton textile industry is the pillar industry of Dashun industry and commerce and should be supported.

But food security must also be guaranteed.

So what should be done?

India grows cotton.

Doesn’t it mean that India is short of food and will lead to famine if India grows cotton?

That’s two different things.

If Henan grows cotton and is short of food, the rebels may cross the Yellow River and destroy the Forbidden City.

If India is short of food, can the Indian rebels cross the Himalayas and go all the way north to the capital?

As for the invisible hand...

I can only say that on the issue of food, the French Physiocrats have just set a "good" example: other things can be invisible, but food should be taken lightly.

It seems that if a person has no food, he will starve to death, which is a true principle in both the East and the West.

This is one aspect.

On the other hand.

Historically, Indian cotton yarn has indeed led to the development of the local handmade cloth industry, and created a peak of about 600 million pieces of local cloth.

This also led to the reality that Dashun is facing now:

The textile industry should be viewed separately.

The weaving industry can only rely on the external market, commercial hegemony and fleet decisive battles to promote the industrialization of the weaving industry.

It is really a fantasy to want to rely on the internal market of Dashun to directly industrialize the weaving industry. It does not understand what "men farm and women weave" means.

The textile industry is very different.

In fact, it is also very simple: in terms of prices, for the same amount of labor, is the labor of twisting cotton into yarn more "valuable"? Or is it more "valuable" to spin yarn into cloth?

The Indian raw cotton and Indian cotton yarn under the robbery system will naturally have an impact on Dashun's original economy.

However, this impact is bearable and even beneficial. The premise is that Dashun's navy can guarantee transportation; Dashun's bayonet can guarantee the low price of raw cotton and cotton yarn.

A large amount of Indian cotton yarn entered Dashun and then flew into the homes of ordinary people. There were not many workers in Dashun who were originally specialized in spinning cotton yarn. Most of them spun cotton, twisted thread and wove cloth.

Since weaving cloth can earn more than spinning cotton for the same labor time, this adjustment of economic structure can naturally be promoted.

On the one hand, Dashun solved the problem of "changing wheat to cotton", which had always been a headache for the court. Some people always think that the people are stupid and don't know how to grow cash crops by themselves; in fact, it is just the opposite. Since the late Ming Dynasty, the court has always been troubled by the problem of people spontaneously changing to cash crops, which has led to fluctuations in food prices.

On the other hand, this also laid the groundwork for Dashun's crisis at this time.

The previous thirty years of Indian colonization allowed Indian cotton and cotton yarn to replace local cotton and cotton yarn - after all, some things can be done in India, but not in Dashun. Liu Yu could only enclose land in the Lianghuai salt land to grow cotton and improve cotton varieties; in other places, with small peasant economy and extremely low organizational ability of the court... Let's put it this way, if Dashun can complete comprehensive cotton variety improvement, under the premise of the existing land system, it proves that Dashun's organizational ability no longer has any "difficulties" in any sense. If you want to build railways, build railways; if you want to immigrate, immigrate.

Of course, in India, some things can be done... For example, if the organizational ability and control ability are not good, then I can change my mind and transform large land plantations, right?

So, during these 30 years, Dashun has a huge internal market.

This internal market is the demand for cotton yarn.

Thirty years ago, Dashun did not have such a huge market. Because of the small peasant economy, people rub, spin and weave by themselves.

Thirty years later, the spinning industry, which has the least impact on small peasant sideline industries, has completed the impact on Dashun's internal market: [Indian yarn is used everywhere].

This market is so big.

So big that as soon as the spinning machine came out, Dashun's commercial capital and industrial capital immediately understood that this thing was going to make a fortune!

Because this market is not just the demand of weaving mills in developed regions for foreign trade.

There is also a vast market of more than 300 to 400 million people: Yes, my machine-woven cloth may not be sold, but the machine-woven yarn can be sold all the way from Songjiang to Gansu!

The market is so big and the prospects are so good.

Spinning is of course profitable. Without profit, who would spin?

So, why should the profits from spinning be taken by Indians? Why not directly import Indian raw cotton, transport it back for local machine spinning, and earn a surplus value in the process of raw cotton to cotton yarn?

This question has another meaning:

India, in these 30 years of transformation, has provided cotton yarn for the economic scale of more than 300 million people in Dashun. In other words, how many people in India actually survive by spinning and exporting to Dashun?

Dashun is very different from Britain in history.

Historically, Britain's population was just enough for the first industrial revolution, so Britain could allow the development of India's spinning industry. Because there are so many laborers, it is beneficial for Britain that Indians spin some yarn.

Britain wanted to destroy India's cotton cloth, but it didn't necessarily have to destroy cotton yarn. It even allowed some spinning mills to be built in India.

It wasn't out of kindness, but because the population was not enough, so if you could do this, you couldn't do that, so you could only choose the most high-end and highest value-added industries.

And Dashun...

Hmm.

What does it mean that there is a shortage of people to weave if you spin?

Dashun couldn't understand this question.

On the contrary, Dashun was ecstatic. Damn, it can accommodate at least a million unemployed people!

After all, spinning not only creates employment for spinners. There are also a series of industries such as machinery manufacturing, coal mining, transportation, steam engines, building materials, housing, lighting, glass manufacturing, etc.

Let's take the most inconspicuous example: you have steam engines and spinning machines, don't you work in two shifts for 24 hours? You work in two shifts for 24 hours, and work in the dark? Then your spinning mill must have glass, right? It must have lighting equipment, right?