"I have three opinions on the issue of reduced grain production in the northern provinces that are generally affected by disasters."

"I respectfully request your Majesty's instructions."

"First, increase the purchase of grain. However, it is said that many places in the south have suffered floods this year. At the same time, in order to avoid purchasing too much grain in the south, the price of grain in the southern provinces has soared. Therefore, our focus in purchasing grain every year should be It’s in the countries of Nanyang.”

"I am preparing to report this matter to the Emperor later. Since the Emperor has mentioned it, I will first talk about Nanyang."

Wang Shaozheng stood up again and said: "As the emperor said, the Ministry of Revenue also plans to focus on buying grain from Southeast Asian countries. However, because Fuguo, Guiguo and even Japan have all experienced a reduction in grain production, so the above countries are buying grain from Nanyang countries. , so that the countries in Southeast Asia raised prices on the ground. Take the Zhou and Tang countries, which currently export the most grain in Southeast Asia, as an example. In the fifth year of the Apocalypse, the FOB price of grain in the two countries was one stone and four silver cents. In six years, it was five silver cents. In seven years, That is to say, this year, it has risen to eight silver cents. The Ministry of Revenue predicts that if next year is still a disaster year, the Ming Dynasty will need to purchase 13 million shi of grain from abroad to be considered safe. If grain prices continue to rise, households will The financial pressure on the ministry is really too great.”

"How brave!" The speaker was Xiong Tingbi: "How dare these vassals do this when I am in charge of Nanyang? Chen Shiji is a generous person, as his name suggests, and he is too lenient towards these vassals!"

"Your Majesty, Chief Sikou, and the Ministry of Revenue have negotiated with the Governor-General of Central and South China on this matter. Chen Zhijun said that the price of eight silver cents per stone is already the price achieved after the Governor-General's Office of Central and South China repeatedly suppressed the Southeast Asian countries."

"Dong~dong~", the sound of fingers tapping on the table came again, and when the officials heard this sound, they knew that the emperor was thinking habitually again. So everyone stopped talking to him for the time being, and instead started discussing among themselves.

Looking at the noisy venue, Fang Zhenghua, who was sitting behind Zhu Youdong and was responsible for recording, curled his lips and didn't pay much attention: The emperor couldn't hear the sounds outside at this time, so it would be better to let the ministers discuss it.

As time-travelers, Zhu Youdong and Philip actually have a lot in common in terms of governing the country.

For example, they all know that to develop industry, especially heavy industry, in this era, the first thing needed is original start-up capital.

As for the Ming Dynasty, thanks to a country that has been economically superior for thousands of years, the wealth accumulated by the people is extremely amazing. Therefore, Zhu Youdong took advantage of the situation and supported big businessmen to enter the industry. Later, after the light industry developed and taxes increased, The state invested heavily, the army ensured security, and capable officials were deployed to focus on the development of heavy industry.

As for Spain, it relied on gold and silver from its American colonies to complete its original capital accumulation, which was used as start-up capital for the development of industry.

After a large number of factories are built, the products produced must be sold. According to the theory of surplus value, due to the existence of profits, it is absolutely impossible for the wages of all the workers in a factory to buy the products produced by this factory. , every factory is like this, so overproduction is inevitable.

To eliminate this overproduction and avoid an economic crisis, we must either exploit our own farmers or open up foreign markets and use the hard-earned money of people in other countries to supplement ourselves.

Here, both Zhu Youdong and Philip chose the latter path.

After the Ming Dynasty defeated the Japan-Thailand Alliance and revitalized the tributary system with itself as the core, the entire Greater East Asia became a dumping ground for Ming Dynasty industrial products. However, due to the lack of a tradition of centralization, Spain could only respond with a loose European Union.

European countries suck blood.

On the surface, it seems that the Ming Dynasty has the advantage. But in fact, Spain not only sucks the blood of the countries in the EU, but also sucks the blood of the Americas. At the same time, in order to prevent the EU countries from being sucked too hard and causing the collapse of the alliance, it also helps them establish colonies in Africa.

, allowing your allies to suck the blood of Africa while being sucked by you.

Therefore, despite the fact that Spain’s native population is less than 20 million, which is only one-seventh of the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish government’s fiscal revenue is on par with or even slightly exceeds the Ming Dynasty. The root cause is that Spain sucks blood much more ruthlessly than the Ming Dynasty.

.

However, the Ming Dynasty could not be too ruthless in sucking blood from the countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia: these countries did not have as large colonies as Africa to nourish them.

In fact, shortly after Chen Shiji took over as the Governor of Central and South China, he submitted a report to Zhu Youdong. This report quoted a large amount of data and finally confirmed one thing: the ruling foundation of Zhou and Tang was not stable, causing this instability.

There are many factors for stability, but the main reason is that the quality of life of the Thai people under the rule of these two countries is much worse than that under the rule of Luo Jia Pagoda.

The root cause of the difference is that in order to strengthen his control over the countries in Greater East Asia, Zhu Youdong only allowed these countries to develop agriculture and mining, and did not allow them to develop industry. With the rapid growth of productivity in the Ming Dynasty, countless light industrial products

Entering the Zhou and Tang Dynasties, a large amount of profits flowed to the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in recent years, food prices have risen, and Chen Shiji is also in a dilemma: if he deliberately curbs food prices, the already dissatisfied Southeast Asian countries will become even more dissatisfied. If he does not curb it, he feels that he has not fulfilled his responsibility as an official of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youdong deeply believed in Chen Shiji's report.

Of course, he knows very well which ethnic group he is from and which ethnic group he should work for. Therefore, the fact that people in countries other than the Great East Asia and the Ming Dynasty are living in dire straits will not cause him any uneasiness in conscience.

Besides, although this guy repeatedly claimed that he hates racists before traveling through time, he doesn't like Uncle Black nor the natives of Southeast Asia. In his opinion, in the future global war with Spain or Ottoman, he needs to be more...

When there were more troops, he would rather use Mongols, Jurchens, Japanese or even Koreans instead of recruiting troops in Southeast Asian countries.

Let's just grow food, rubber and mine for ourselves in that place.

However, if he crushes the Southeast Asian countries now, when he starts a global war with Spain or the Ottomans later, how much strength can the exhausted Southeast Asian countries use to support him? In other words, the squeeze is too severe.

, will there be a rebellion?

Therefore, it is still necessary to give appropriate profits to these guys. While helping Zhou, Tang and other countries to stabilize their rule, it also makes the lives of these indigenous people a little easier. In this way, they have some financial resources, and they can squeeze out the oil through deep exploitation in the future.

"My lords." As soon as the emperor spoke, the venue immediately calmed down.

"Grain must be imported in large quantities from Southeast Asian countries. As for the price, I will set a price. Within five years, the FOB price of each stone of grain shall not exceed eight silver cents. Starting from the sixth year, within the new five years, the FOB price shall not exceed one silver dollar.

.If any prince cannot do it, I will ask him to return to the Ming Dynasty and guard the mausoleum in Fengyang. If any vassal country cannot do it, I will let this country change its royal family."

"What the emperor said is exactly my Ming Dynasty's splendid demeanor as the sect leader, and I will obey the order."

"Okay, let me tell you the second point. This grain has been bought for disaster relief, so we cannot distribute the grain directly. It is still the old rule to use work instead of relief. I will not support lazy people in Ming Dynasty. This God will not give me the face. It is not right to let the land fail to harvest.

It’s the fault of the victims. But if you don’t want the job opportunity given by the court, you have to lie in bed and eat for nothing. Humph, there is no such thing.”

"Your Majesty." Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, stood up: "Today, our Ming Dynasty's Beijing-Tianjin, Beijing-Zhangjiakou, Jingluo, and Datong-Taiyuan Railways have all been completed. Currently, only Luo (Yang) West Railway is still under construction.

(An), Luoji (South) Railway... And on these two railways, there are some military households who changed their jobs during the process of turning military households into civilian households... In short, Chen's

This means that the number of jobs available on the construction site is extremely limited."

"Hahaha, Mr. Xu, I don't want these two railways to solve all the victims. Well, it just so happens that the imperial court has a lot of surplus over the years, and they will use it all to build railways across the country. The Ministry of Industry will come up with a plan.

At least ten new railways will be built. Among them, the railways from Shaanxi to Gansu and Gansu to Xinjiang are the top priority. In addition, water conservancy projects across the country, such as ditches in the north and flood control dams in the south, will all be dredged or reinforced!"

With such a request, as the minister of the Ministry of Industry, Xu Guangqi naturally agreed hurriedly, saying that the officials of the Ministry of Industry would work hard to come up with a plan as soon as possible. As for the Ministry of Household Affairs, Wang Shaozheng was not as tempered as Xu Honggang before. He looked at Xu Guangqi from his stool.

He was in high spirits, and after holding back for a long time, he stood up, opened his mouth, and spit out the words "The Ministry of Household Affairs will try its best to cooperate with the Ministry of Works."

Hey, this Minister of the Ministry of Finance is a good one. I like such soft-spoken ministers.

Zhu Youdong, who was in a good mood, waved his hand to Wang Shaozheng to sit down, and pointed his finger at Zhang Shize: "The third thing, headed by the six major newspapers, all departments of the imperial court, and government offices at all levels, must do their best to preach to the people and tell them about the weather in Xiaoglacier.

What is going on, and how many more years will it probably last? You have to tell them that the reduction in grain production and frequent natural disasters in recent years are purely natural phenomena. Huh, it’s divine inspiration, and the Donglin Party members didn’t talk about this after they went to Japan.

It’s all over the place, but there are only a few rotten scholars who are still clinging to this thing! Zhang Shize, in the newspaper, in addition to leading, preaching, and telling the people this truth, you also have to write a column to refute those nonsense!"

"Yes, I accept the order."
Chapter completed!