New Shun 1730

While the speculators in Songjiang Prefecture were preparing to make money from the imperial court, the emperor in the capital was thinking about how to make money.

During this period, the emperor was troubled by the reform discussions.

At this time, I couldn't calm down when I read Liu Yu's sixth memorial on salt policy reform. I didn't know what to give Liu Yu's reply for a while.

At first, Liu Yu was not concerned about salt policy reform. The emperor knew this in his heart. He may have supported it in his heart, but he had not taken the initiative to mention it. At most, he was a silent minority in the court. In fact, these silent minority were opposed to the current salt policy and supported the reform, but they had no idea what to do. The reform was contrary to the mainstream opinions of the reformists in the court.

The emperor has long thought that reforms are not that simple, and it can only be implemented with just a piece of paper orders, which can only be considered a delusion.

But it is true that the difficulties of reform were underestimated.

It is not just a matter of the implementation of the reform, but also the detailed changes brought about by the reform, the supporting policies, and the almost re-division of the salt industry areas in Hunan, Hubei, Henan, and Jiangxi.

There are also changes in the positioning of provinces, changes in the key tax areas for imperial taxation, and re-examination of salt transportation and anti-smuggling routes in each salt tax area...

Every day, I have to face a huge amount of memorials from Beijing officials, local officials, the army, and the internal affairs office.

You won’t know if you don’t change it, but you won’t know until you change it that there are so many problems that need to be addressed.

Of course, most of them are details, and the significance of the existence of the six governments is also reflected.

What the emperor is really worried about now is that he doesn't know how to reply to Liu Yu's sixth memorial.

After the establishment of the Privy Council, the staff included strategic staff and tactical staff. In the emperor's opinion, Liu Yu's memorial was still the strategic staff. There were not many details discussed. It mainly talked about the general outline of the imperial reform.

In the previous five consecutive memorials on salt policy reform, the emperor praised Liu Yu's comments: either he had a great idea or he had a sudden enlightenment.

Including the transfer of salt from Sichuan to the two lakes, the transformation of northern Jiangsu into agricultural areas, etc., there are no problems.

But the sixth letter left the emperor a little unsure whether to support or oppose it.

Roughly speaking, Liu Yu's sixth memorial is still about the development of industry and commerce.

It provides a reference, saying that the development of the British glass manufacturing industry and wool textile industry led to the coal mining industry, and the development of the coal mining industry led to the introduction of the heavy steam engines of the naval dockyard in Dashun.

The general idea is to focus on Sichuan's salt boiling industry and drive up Sichuan's industry and commerce, especially heavy industries such as coal mining.

There is nothing wrong with this idea.

Anyone who is an emperor in Beijing knows the importance of coal.

Whether it is Meng Yuan, Ming Dynasty, or Dashun, if the emperor does not know how important coal is, then the emperor will soon be over.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, when Zu Dashou's adopted son presented Hou Jin with strategies for besieging the capital, he said that as long as the canal grain and Xishan coal were cut off, the capital would soon collapse.

For the Emperor of Dashun, the most intuitive thing is that in the past few years, the coal mines in Mentougou and other places have been tightened. Fuel panic immediately broke out in the capital. In winter, when coal is the most expensive, one pound of rice is exchanged for one pound of coal. situation.

The reason for tightening control is not the so-called dragon veins of metaphysics.

Increased control was the reason why the coal panic occurred in the capital in the past few years, and it was precisely the reason why the emperor today saw Liu Yu's sixth memorial and didn't know how to respond.

To put it simply, eight words.

Just grab it and it's done.

It'll be messy as soon as it's released.

And Liu Yu's approach to industry and commerce is precisely to let go.

Not only must it be released.

And let it go completely.

Overkill.

However, the emperor had lingering fears about "letting go".

In the 23rd year of Chenghua in the previous dynasty, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites suggested that the trees around the capital be the best natural barrier against nomadic cavalry, and suggested that the capital abandon charcoal and use coal.

Encourage mining.

In less than seven years, during the seventh year of Hongzhi, there were people writing about the horrors of liberalizing mining.

[Luring and plundering the children of good families, or taking in lost children, driving them into the kiln, carrying coal in and out every day, cutting off their return, like falling into a well. Anyone who escapes will be hunted down and killed]

As for the black coal kiln, it's very easy to understand.

Dashun almost went over the issue of coal in the capital during the Chenghua and Hongzhi years of the Ming Dynasty.

There is a lack of fuel. If there is no fuel in this place in the winter, we will freeze to death.

Encourage mining.

Let go of control.

Then……

[The miners all sent people hundreds of miles away to lure poor people into caves to mine the coal, promising huge sums of money. At night, they are trapped in the place where they sleep and eat. They build high walls with stones and add thorns so that no one can cross them.

【Two meals a day, nothing else. Those who were stubborn or wanted to escape were killed with huge stiles and thrown into a pit, where their bones accumulated more than seven feet]

To put it simply, something happened. A few years ago, a case was solved, which had a huge impact because a "thousand-person pit" was dug.

Hundreds of people, either liars, beggars, or others, were deceived into digging coal. After being almost dead from exhaustion, they were thrown directly into the waste pit.

The lucky one escaped and reported it. When the people from the court went there, they were frightened.

After all, officials in this field have not fought in a war for many years. Where have they seen such a battle? The pit was full of corpses. We mobilized the workers in the capital to sort them out and put the bones on about three acres of land.

What is sprouting? What is primitive accumulation? Counting from what happened in the seventh year of Hongzhi, this is called bloody accumulation.

But this kind of budding, this kind of primitive accumulation, Dashun really can't tolerate it, it's too appalling.

For a while, public opinion was rife, and officials were sacked. Then policies were introduced to increase control.

The old three things of the feudal dynasty: baojia, official supervision, and printed rosters.

Then, the situation of "one pound of coal is equivalent to one pound of rice" appeared immediately. Although the officials who reported it habitually used exaggerated rhetoric, it was definitely not cheap.

The emperor knew the reason very well and increased supervision. The responsible officials saw the situation of the predecessor in the case of the thousand people burying before, and they should understand that whether to increase the number of mines is a small matter, and it is a big matter if such a murder case occurs again.

The former can only muddle through at most and cannot be promoted; the latter will lose their heads directly, and someone must come out to appease the people's anger.

Since the 23rd year of Chenghua in the previous dynasty, the coal mining industry in the capital has experienced such a back and forth cycle.

Release - the bloody primitive accumulation immediately played out like a textbook - arrest - coal price increase, the population of one million in the capital can't support winter consumption - release - performance - arrest - expensive - release

From a normal person's perspective, such a big thing happens every now and then in Mentougou, near the capital.

What would happen if the emperor was really allowed to go free?

Facing Liu Yu's sixth memorial, the emperor did not reply with approval like he did in the previous times.

Instead, after reading Liu Yu's entire logic, he replied to the first question with a red pen.

"My dear minister, let the merchants compete to promote Sichuan's industry and commerce."

"I have a question. If we let the merchants compete, whoever has the lowest cost will make more money and sell better."

"If the cost is low, the case of thousands of people being buried in the capital will happen frequently. This is one concern."

"Second, A will be paid enough for three meals a day; B will collude with lawbreakers, arrest villagers, and lure them into the well to lower the cost."

"Over time, I am afraid that B will become rich and A will become poor."

"If the world is like this, isn't it encouraging evil?"

"Capital is in pursuit of profit, and it must do evil by all means. Good will perish and evil will flourish. This is not the right way."

"My dear minister, textile, glass "I think all the things like glass are good."

"However, mining is the darkest place in the world. Killing and confinement are in secluded places, unlike textile glass, which are all in densely populated places."

"As in the Xishan story a few years ago, if they were in a textile factory, they could escape such abuse. But in the mine, there is nowhere to escape."

"Gold mining in Liaodong, coal mining in Xishan, mercury in Gansu... Such things happen frequently."

"If capital is prosperous, evil will prevail over good, and we must pay attention to it."

After the red pen approved, the emperor turned around twice, sat down again, put on glasses, and read Liu Yu's sixth memorial again.

This sixth memorial is not only a summary of the previous five memorials, but also a plan for the strategic transformation and re-layout of Dashun.

The entry point is the salt administration reform.

The transformation of northern Jiangsu from a salt area to an agricultural area is not mentioned.

The subsequent entry of Sichuan salt into the two lakes is the western focus of the entire strategic layout adjustment.

And within this layout, it is a very standard logic of Liu Yu, a logic that the emperor could not feel and was hidden by Liu Yu - pretending to help the court, but actually creating conditions for the growth of capital.

Learning from history, it is clear that the coal industry developed first, then the steam engine, and finally the improvement of the steam engine.

The emergence of the steam engine is for pumping water from coal mines.

Britain was founded on the textile industry, so why did Dashun have to industrialize the textile industry first? Whether it is the Jenny machine or the mule machine, it is a dead end in Dashun, and this road cannot be copied.

Then, the development of light industry promotes the progress of heavy industry, and as long as this light industry meets two conditions, Dashun can also popularize the use of steam engines in another way.

These two conditions are:

1: This industry requires power, and there are ready-made machinery, just need to change the power source from cattle and horses to iron cattle and horses.

2: This industry needs energy, and it needs energy very much. It cannot develop without energy, and this energy needs to be mainly required in the form of burning heat.

Condition 1, promote the development of steam engines.

Condition 2: Promote the development of coal mining.

These two conditions can promote the development of heavy industries such as iron smelting, railways, and cement.

At the beginning, many British steam engines were used in coal mines or in the glass manufacturing industry to grind glass and crushed materials. The glass manufacturing industry just meets these two conditions.

Of course, for Dashun, it is best if this industry does not have the situation of "millions of canal workers' food and clothing".

Then, obviously, the most suitable one is Sichuan's well salt.

The first two crucial conditions are not mentioned, and because of the strength of the Lianghuai salt area, the well salt industry now has no "millions of canal workers".

The million canal workers in Lianghuai were resolved by Liu Yu's behind-the-scenes pusher.

That is, the development of the navy, the capture of Nanyang, the abandonment of the canal, the abandonment of the transportation of sand and sand, and the repair of the Huaihe River. If the Huaihe River can be simply repaired this year, then the agricultural conditions in northern Jiangsu will be directly solved.

The salt people in northern Jiangsu can be transformed into farmers.

Or, go to Nanyang and cut sugarcane in the plantation.

Therefore, the reason why Liu Yu's sixth memorial made the emperor hesitate was due to this idea: relax the control of mining in Sichuan. Use the profits from the salt of the two lakes to support the salt wells; use the coal demand from the salt wells to support the miners; use the demand from the mines to support the iron smelters. Form a cycle and quickly popularize the technologies of the Academy of Sciences that "do not compete with the people for profits."

Of course, Liu Yu's argument is that Sichuan, as the axis of Tibet, Southwest China, Miao and other places, must have a strong industrial and commercial foundation, so that Dashun can completely complete the great cause of reforming the southwest from the Ming Dynasty, so that Dashun has a larger base and can withstand the turmoil - at worst, if there are Wang Zicheng and Sun Xianzhong in the future, the Li family can run back to their hometown Qinchuan and follow the example of Emperor Gaozu of Han who won the Qin Dynasty and took Sichuan and Shaanxi and conquered the world. The sincere and innocent heart, loyalty to the emperor and love for Li, are beyond words, and every word is evident.