The arrival of Richelieu was a great benefit to the Ming Dynasty: the higher-level intelligence source was only a secondary aspect. The biggest benefit was that this was a senior politician in Western civilization.

The civilization of the Ming Dynasty at this time, due to the decay of its dominant Neo-Confucianism, had indeed begun to lag behind in general. Although Zhu Youdong tried every means to shape a new cultural trend for this country, to see the results, he still had to

It takes a long time.

At this time, if we use Western civilization to impact it appropriately, there are actually many benefits.

However, the missionaries who came to the Ming Dynasty in the past were actually just the middle and lower classes of society in Europe. Now that Fangshan Research Institute has been on the right track, they can no longer help the Ming Dynasty much.

But Richelieu was different. He was very knowledgeable and had good political skills. What was even more valuable was that he traveled all over Europe and the Ottoman Empire because of the Spanish twins. The arrival of such a figure would bring great consequences to the literati class of the Ming Dynasty.

A brand new brainstorm.

Therefore, after cordially receiving Richelieu, Zhu Youdong was very happy to invite the cardinal to follow him to visit the northwest of Ming Dynasty, and then take him to Beijing to discuss his new position in Ming Dynasty. And Richelieu also

I happily accepted Zhu Youdong's invitation.

In short, although recent domestic affairs have caused him a headache, Richelieu's arrival still made him very happy.

Well, he will be happy now. But his counterpart, Philip of Spain, can no longer laugh now.

August 1, 1628, Madrid, Spain.

"Your Majesty, we have calculated the revenue and expenditure of the last fiscal year. In general, in the last fiscal year, our government's total revenue was 173 million double pillars and expenditure was 203 million double pillars.

The deficit is 30 million. Including the deficits of the year before and the year before that, the Royal Government currently owes a total of 46 million double bars to the Bank of Madrid, the Bank of Milan, the Union Bank of the Netherlands and other banks."

"Yes." Nodding slightly, Philip asked without expression: "My Prime Minister, can you tell us where the main expenditures go?"

"Okay, Your Majesty." Osvales opened another booklet: "The main expenditures include the following items. First, project construction. In the last fiscal year, the Suez Canal project officially started after completing the exploration.

, we mobilized 200,000 local Arabs and transported 100,000 craftsmen from Europe, and also transported 100,000 black slaves from south of the Sahara. A total of 400,000 workers worked there, and the daily consumption of fresh water and food was extremely high.

Astonishing. Your Majesty, the Suez Canal project alone cost us more than 12 million yuan in revenue last year. In addition, we are still building more railways, roads, and heavy industries such as steel plants, gun factories, and shipyards. In short,

Last year, the Royal Government’s expenditure on project construction alone was close to 30 million.”

"My Prime Minister, please continue."

"Yes, the second largest expenditure item of the Royal Government is education. In accordance with His Majesty's decree, in recent years, we have built the University of Madrid, the University of Barcelona, ​​the University of Lisbon and three normal colleges, as well as 25 new middle schools.

One hundred and thirty-five primary schools. There are also thirty middle schools and two hundred and seventy-five primary schools under construction... The construction cost of these school buildings is not much, but due to the need to ensure that teachers' annual income is not low

At 500 double columns, all school students can enroll for free and have free food and accommodation. Therefore, the more schools there are, the higher the maintenance costs. In the last fiscal year, the Royal Government allocated 28 million to the Ministry of Education. In the end, the Ministry of Education only had

More than seven thousand pairs of columns."

"The third largest item is military expenditure. The Army's total military expenditure last year was 16 million, and the Navy's was 11 million."

"The fourth major item is officials' salaries. The fifth major item is payment of part of the principal and interest of the previous year's arrears. The sixth major item is scientific research. The seventh major item is the construction of public hospitals. The eighth major item is support for poor members within the alliance.

Support. Item 9, alliance dues. Item 10..."

Osvalles read with an expressionless face, and the expressions of the senior officials attending the meeting naturally varied.

With an annual income of 170 million, he still has such a high deficit. Our Majesty, the Son of God who was born under the guardianship of an archangel, is really good at making money, but he is also very good at spending money.

In fact, judging from the major expenditures of the Kingdom of Spain in the past, if there had been so much income when Philip III was in power, the national treasury would definitely not be able to hold on to it: at that time, the royal government would not be doing any major projects, such as compulsory education.

of.

Of course, all the high-ranking officials in Spain who are stubborn have been defeated by His Majesty Philip IV. Those who are still sitting here are all those who have expressed their obedience to His Majesty's ideas: those who receive income from the Royal Government.

How could such a rapid growth be achieved without those railways and factories? And if we need enough technical talents to support those factories, how can we do it without a large amount of education?

Therefore, no one in this conference room stands up and says that in order to reduce the deficit, we should simply stop running schools and stop digging canals.

"Your Majesty, the above is the income and expenditure situation for this year."

"Yeah." Phillip nodded calmly and said, "What about the census?"

"Yes." Osvales stood up again: "Since July 1626, the royal government and our allies have jointly established the European Census and Statistics Bureau. After two years of hard work, the data are now as follows: Ibi

The actual population of the Spanish Peninsula (Spain, Portugal) is 19.8 million, the former French region and the Netherlands, 22 million, the British Isles, 9.2 million, the Germanic countries of Central Europe, including Austria and Denmark, 31 million, and the Apennine region, 8.55 million.

.Poland and Lithuania have 10.5 million. Scandinavia has 2.3 million. Above, the total native population of the entire alliance is 103.35 million.

In addition, preliminary statistics show that the total population of North Africa, which we newly included two years ago, is 2.1 million. In sub-Saharan Africa, the combined population of the countries in our alliance in their respective colonies is about 4.3 million. The Royal Government

The population in North and South America is 8.8 million.

After the initial completion of the census, the European Demographic Bureau not only provided identity authentication and registration for people across Europe in accordance with Your Majesty's prior arrangements, but also counted the population suitable for military service. In general, the age group across Europe at this time is between 16 and 25

For men aged 30, it is 12.8 million. If the upper limit is relaxed to 30 years old, it is 15.2 million."

"Hey, this population is not enough."

"Your Majesty? What's not enough?"

"Oh, it's okay. Then, Prime Minister, let's talk about the next item, food."

"Yes, last year the alliance's grain output was roughly 67.5 billion kilograms. There is no problem in self-sufficiency in grain."

"655 kilograms per capita, hey, it's still not enough." Of course, Philip did not say this.

The Little Glacier climate is fair to both Philip and Zhu Youdong. In fact, due to the higher latitude of Europe, the impact is greater: if it were not for Tianxuan's talent bonus, Europe's per capita grain output would be even lower.

But the advantage of European agriculture is that due to the generally mild climate, European agriculture uses both agriculture and livestock, rather than like China, where there is a clear dividing line between farming areas and livestock areas. That is to say, it cannot be calculated in this era. It really needs to be calculated.

It seems that the per capita calorie intake in Europe is higher than that in the Ming Dynasty.

But as a historian, Philip can also see things that Zhu Youdong can see: the current food production is just enough for food and clothing. If the natural disasters are more severe, or if the scale of the army expands sharply in the future, there will definitely be consequences.

Food prices are unstable and people at the lower levels do not have enough to eat.

"Okay." After gently holding up the bridge of his nose without glasses, Philip said: "Everyone, as senior officials of the country, the most important and basic thing for you is to control people, money and food. As long as this

These three things are abundant, so as long as we are a little more serious in our work, the whole country will naturally be on the right track. And now it seems that the kingdom, and even the entire alliance, have these three things.

It is a huge shortcoming that requires our hard work to make up for it.”

"Your Majesty, please give me your instructions."

"Let me talk about the kingdom's financial problems first. The government's fiscal deficit has reached close to 40% of the annual revenue. This is indeed very dangerous and needs to be reversed immediately. My solution is to establish the Suez Canal Construction Co., Ltd. and the European Railway Transport Co., Ltd.

The company will accept private capital investment on the premise that the Royal Government holds an absolute controlling stake. After the corresponding railways and even canals are completed, everyone will pay dividends in proportion."

"Your Majesty's method is excellent. I personally think that as long as stock trading is open, businessmen across Europe will enthusiastically subscribe. In this way, our deficit will soon be eliminated."

"Haha, Prime Minister, please sit down first, I haven't finished speaking yet."

"Okay, Your Majesty."

"In addition to railways and canals, rail carriages, public hospitals and even schools in various cities can accept private equity and then distribute dividends in proportion to a certain period of time. Everyone, don't think there is anything wrong with allowing private capital to enter these public products. Now

, it has been many years since Mr. Galileo's improved steam engine was put into practical use, and countless factory owners have accumulated considerable wealth. If we do not guide them to invest their funds in areas we can control, then they will take the extra money.

Hyping up, huh, hyping up luxury goods is fine, but if they were to hype up food prices or something like that, it would cause the country and the alliance to encounter huge difficulties!

In addition, aren't factory owners everywhere now complaining that there are not enough qualified technicians, resulting in unstable product quality and affecting their sales? In this way, the Asturias Laboratory can send professors to serve as teachers, and factory owners everywhere can individually, or

Let’s jointly fund a technical school in a certain place and recruit young people for short-term training.”

"Your Majesty's method is really full of wisdom. In this way, the two largest expenditures of the Royal Government, public works and education popularization, can have sharers! Your Majesty, please rest assured that I will work hard to ensure that the Royal Government's revenue and expenditure will be within the next fiscal year.
Chapter completed!