Time soon came to April of the 21st year of Chongzhen.
This is already the fifth year that Chongzhen has traveled to this world, and his age has reached 38. However, because Chongzhen has been exercising, his physical condition is very good.
Gaizhouwei and Dagukou are still in a state of confrontation.
Small-scale raids and hunting battles with scouts take place every day.
But battles involving more than a hundred people are rare, and battles involving more than a thousand people are even rarer.
Zhu Cijiong also began to vigorously attack North Korea. After sending 30,000 rebels to Gaizhou for hard labor, he then sent 50,000 craftsmen and 100,000 female workers to Nanjing.
The navy made many trips back and forth before transporting it to Nanjing.
All of these 100,000 North Korean female workers are women of childbearing age.
The news that one hundred thousand North Korean women came to work in the Ming Dynasty was quickly published on the front pages of various newspapers.
The workers working in various factories in Nanjing were overjoyed when they heard this. The Holy Spirit was really worried about their needs and thought of what they were thinking. He knew that they were short of wives, so he specially found 100,000 Korean wives.
Most of these workers come from rural areas and cannot afford to marry girls from the city.
It's better now. With so many Korean wives, we can really settle down and establish a career in the city.
In fact, these bachelors think too much, and the 100,000 North Korean women are not found for them at all.
Li Xiangjun actually won consecutive battles in the Sichuan battlefield. After pacifying Yuan Tao and Wu Dading, he also pacified several rebel groups such as Cao Xun and Fan Wenguang, and liberated Dongchuan, Mahu and Jiading Shufu.
Now, the frontline of Li Xiangjun's native soldiers has been directed towards Meizhou.
Zhang Xianzhong once again became an ant in the hot pot and thought of evacuating to northern Sichuan.
Jiangnan's industry and commerce are still developing vigorously, and their scale is expanding rapidly.
This can be evidenced by the expansion of the assets list of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In just one year, the total assets of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have soared from 300 million to 400 million, with a growth rate of 33.3%! This is pure growth.
As mentioned earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs controls almost all industries.
The average shareholding of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in various industries is around 35%.
From here, we can roughly estimate the total industrial and commercial output value of Ming Dynasty.
By the 21st year of Chongzhen, the total industrial and commercial output value of Ming Dynasty was approximately 1.2 billion yuan.
This value seems huge, but it is actually on par with agricultural output value.
Today, the total area of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty is about 500 million acres, the average yield per mu is about 2 shi, and the total harvest is about 1 billion shi. The average grain price in the Ming Dynasty is now about 1.2 yuan, or 1.2 billion yuan.
In other words, the total output value of the primary industry and the secondary industry in Ming Dynasty was 1.2 billion yuan each.
There is no way to calculate the total output value of the tertiary industry, and at most it can only be estimated.
Estimated according to the stage of economic development, the output value of the tertiary industry in the Ming Dynasty at this time is at most half of that of the secondary industry.
From this we can conclude that the Ming Dynasty’s gross domestic product, or GDP, in the 20 years of Chongzhen was 3 billion yuan.
According to this GDP value, the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty this year should be considerable, at least two to three hundred million.
But in fact, the Ming Dynasty's annual income this year was less than 20 million yuan, more than half of which came from the revenue from the Hubu Market Exchange and the Hubu Bank, and the remaining half came from grain taxes.
Twenty million yuan may sound like a lot, but it's actually not much.
At least for today's Ming Dynasty, this amount of money is really not enough.
The reason is also very simple. The stalls of the Ming Dynasty were also larger than before.
Relying on the income from the Hubu Market Exchange and the Hubu Bank, the Sixth Cabinet Department had a very good life for two years.
As life got better, various expenses also increased, such as official salaries, and the Ministry of Industry also spent a lot of money to rebuild the Forbidden City in Nanjing, so it soon began to make ends meet again.
As the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality.
Unable to reduce expenditures, the government had no choice but to increase revenue, so the cabinet came up with the idea of levying a commercial tax.
Lu Zhenfei took Liu Lishun, the Minister of Household Affairs, to find Chongzhen and put forward a suggestion: "Your Majesty, now that all industries are prosperous in the Ming Dynasty, but the court's expenses are increasingly insufficient, can we consider levying industrial and commercial taxes?"
Chongzhen was stunned. The world was really reversed. Civil servants actually shouted that they would levy commercial taxes.
Back then, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty wanted to levy commercial taxes, but they were all firmly resisted by the civil servant group. But now the civil servant group actually takes the initiative to ask for the levy of commercial taxes.
If Emperor Sejong and the others knew anything about it, they would probably be confused.
But actually there is nothing surprising, everything is inseparable from the word "profit".
In the past, the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty were basically in the hands of the civil servant group. The imperial court's imposition of commercial taxes was equivalent to cutting off the flesh and blood of the civil servant group, so the civil servant group would naturally not participate.
But now, industry and commerce are basically in the hands of the new civil servants.
What is the new civil servant group? To put it simply, it is the group of diligent scholars.
This refers not only to Prince Qin, but also to the entire interest group surrounding Prince Qin, such as the Zheng family in Shanyin, the Xu family in Xinchang, and the Qian family in Jiashan.
Therefore, to levy commercial tax now is equivalent to cutting off the flesh of the scholar group.
How could Chongzhen agree? The imposition of commercial taxes would not only harm the interests of the Qinwang scholars, but also the interests of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the royal family. After all, the Ministry of Internal Affairs accounts for nearly 35% of the shares in various industries.
That is to say, for every three dollars of commercial tax levied, one dollar is contributed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
How stupid does Chongzhen have to be to use money from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to subsidize the Ministry of Household Affairs? No way!
The money in the Ministry of Internal Affairs is the emperor's money, and the money that goes into the Ministry of Revenue is the country's money.
Chongzhen could spend the money from the Ministry of Internal Affairs as he wished, but it was not easy to spend the money from the Ministry of Revenue.
However, Chongzhen would not say this openly, he just sent someone to find Ma Mingluan.
Chongzhen really didn't have time for wrangling, so he should leave it to Ma Mingluan to waffle with the cabinet.
"Ma Qing." Chongzhen said, shifting the firepower, "Mr. Lu Ge and Da Situ proposed to me to levy commercial tax. You will discuss it with them on behalf of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and if it is appropriate, we will levy it."
Ma Mingluan understood and said: "I accept the decree."
If it is appropriate to impose a levy, then it is not to be levied.
At that moment, Ma Mingluan called Zhang Dai over again.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Now, Zhang Dai has become Ma Mingluan’s most capable general.
Chongzhen quietly came to Qingliang Mountain with his entourage to watch the test run of the first lathe. Yes, that's right, Gewu Ke has built the first lathe and it will be officially tested this morning.
At the gate of Gewu Ke, Chongzhen saw the 13-year-old Yongwang Zhu Cizhen.
"Father." Zhu Cizheng ran over and held Chongzhen's sleeves affectionately, completely forgetting that he was still choked yesterday.
Chongzhen touched Zhu Cizheng's head and asked: "Why are you the only one? Where is your elder brother? Why didn't you come?"
Zhu Cizheng curled his lips and said: "Eldest brother said that he would not come to accompany the father today because the Crown Princess was about to give birth, so he stayed in Nangong to accompany the Crown Princess."
"Oh yes, I forgot about that."
Chongzhen nodded and said, "Then don't come over."
At that moment, Chongzhen and Zhu Cizhen walked quickly into the workshop.
In the workshop, a horizontal lathe has been placed.
This lathe is almost one foot high and three feet long.
Craftsmen must use a five- to six-foot-high operating platform to complete the operation.
The bed frame is made of cast iron, but it is not formed in one piece, but is made up of multiple components.
Chongzhen's eyes fell on the steam engine next to the lathe. This was the first generation mass-produced steam engine of the Daming Steam Engine Factory. Compared with the prototype, there were many improvements. The biggest change was that it became much more beautiful.
The first prototype was really ugly, but this production machine looks like a machine.
Brothers Weng Zhiyi and Weng Zhiren immediately came forward: "Your Majesty, are we not delaying anything?"
"No, the steam engine factory can build the first batch of steam engines within five months, which is already very good." Chongzhen said happily, "I am very satisfied with your work."
After a pause, he asked again: "How many steam engines were built in the first batch?"
"Ten units." Weng Zhiyi said with a bow, "The other nine units have been sent to the Daming Arsenal, the Hubu Arsenal and the Longjiang Shipyard for trial use."
"Very good." Chongzhen said, "Try to build twenty more units before the end of the year!"
"Accept the decree." Weng Zhiyi's brothers bowed to the end, both with happy faces.
Chongzhen said to Fang Yizhi again: "Fang Qing, let's start testing the car quickly."
Fang Yizhi responded with a yes and immediately ordered the craftsmen of Gewu Branch to start testing the car.
The craftsmen of Gewuke first started the steam engine, and then used a "belt" to connect the driving wheel of the steam engine to the driven wheel of the lathe. The driven wheel of the lathe then started to spin, but the spindle of the lathe did not move at all.
"Why isn't the lathe turning?" Zhu Cizheng asked, "Father, isn't it broken?"
Chongzhen ignored this naughty child, but Fang Yizhi said: "Prince Yong, please be patient and you will be fine soon."
While they were talking, several craftsmen had already hoisted a cylinder casting onto the lathe via a "crane", then clamped it tightly with a huge special clamp, and then started correcting the mold center.
After correcting the core, the craftsman responsible for operating the machine tool adjusted the speed to 1st gear.
Fang Yizhi then introduced: "Your Majesty, the speed of the lathe is divided into three gears, and gear 1 is the slowest."
While talking, the craftsman pulled a handle, but there was only a click sound, and the lathe's spindle and the cylinder casting sandwiched between the clamps began to rotate whirringly, but overall the speed was still not fast.
"It's spinning, it's spinning." Zhu Cizheng felt it was fun and clapped his hands and cheered.
The craftsman then turns the handle on the tool holder, and the tool holder moves forward along the screw.
After a while, the turning tool fixed on the tool holder began to touch the cylinder casting.
Immediately, there was a squeaking sound in the work shed, which almost made people's teeth sore.
Chongzhen was not affected at all, but kept staring at the cylinder casting.
But all I saw was that circles of iron flowers had been peeled off from the inner wall of the cylinder casting.
In just a moment, a circle of smooth and shiny cylindrical surface has been turned by the turning tool.
"Beautiful!" Chongzhen couldn't help but clenched his fists hard. With this lathe, the Ming Dynasty truly opened the curtain of industrialization. The steam engine was actually just the foundation.
"Weng Qing." Chongzhen raised his hand again to signal Weng Zhiyi to come forward.
"One guest does not bother two masters, and the lathes are also made by the steam engine factory."
"So, the steam engine factory should be renamed Daming Machinery Factory."