Railways are the lifeblood of a country. This is definitely not nonsense.
When China was bullied by foreign enemies in later generations, the great powers were keen to build railways in China. This was not because they wanted to help you with construction or to contribute to you, but because they wanted to rely on railways and rely on railways as their lifeline to plunder China's wealth.
and resources.
Its importance is self-evident.
The points mentioned by Liu Jin are just one of its most basic functions. In fact, the benefits that railways can bring to a region and country are countless. They can revitalize the entire country like blood vessels.
all aspects of.
"This is like a cement road, which facilitates transportation and facilitates the circulation of people and materials."
Xie Qian thought for a while and then said.
"Yes, but the transportation capacity of trains is much greater than that of roads, but the cost is also higher. It requires the laying of special railways and tracks."
"The Beijing-Tianjin Railway alone cost tens of millions of taels of silver. It was almost built with silver."
Liu Jin nodded solemnly and said.
"The railway is so important and related to the lifeblood of the country."
"So in terms of railway construction and operation, the court must achieve unified standards, court operations, and a combination of public and private matters."
Then Liu Jin also put forward his three views on railways.
"Unify standards, run by the imperial court, combine public and private affairs?"
When everyone heard this, they immediately began to think a little.
"What is a unified standard?"
Liu Jian thought for a while and asked.
"The so-called unified standards mean that all railways and trains built in the Ming Dynasty in the future must comply with unified specifications and requirements."
"The width of the track of this train, the construction structure, the structure of the train station, the sales of train tickets, the system and standards of operation and management, etc., are all unified."
"This is because if the standards of each railway are different, then there will be no way for different trains to run on different tracks, and there will be no way to achieve unified dispatching across the country."
"Actually, the simple understanding is that cars should be on the same track and books should be on the same page."
Liu Jin thought for a while and explained.
"That's it~"
As soon as everyone heard the explanation, they immediately understood and nodded accordingly.
This is easy to understand. If there are no unified standards and various regions and businesses build randomly, then the Ming Dynasty's railways will not be able to achieve intermodal transportation, which will greatly affect railway operations.
"How do you understand the operation of the imperial court?"
Li Dongyang thought for a while and asked again.
"Railway is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and is related to the lifeblood of the country."
"Such an important thing must naturally be in the hands of the imperial court, which will be responsible for overall planning and operation."
"This is one aspect, and the other aspect is that there are differences between railways. For example, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway must be very busy, with dozens of trains running every day without any problems."
"But when we build railways in Ming Dynasty, we must not only build railways in prosperous areas. In the future, we must build railways to remote areas. Railways in remote areas are more expensive to build. At the same time, they have small populations and higher operating costs."
"This means that building railways to remote areas actually does not make money, but the court cannot not build or operate them just because it does not make money."
"So this requires the imperial court to coordinate the operation and management of railways. Even in remote areas and border areas, railways still need to be repaired and operated."
"Because this is no longer about making money, but about the stability of the country's borders and promoting the development of remote areas."
"I suggest that a special railway office be established under the Ministry of Industry to be responsible for coordinating the construction and operation of railways across the country."
Liu Jin explained again.
In fact, this is easy to understand. The high-speed rails of later generations are all loss-making, but the country has always insisted on building high-speed rails and building them in poor areas. This itself is absolutely a loss-making thing, but it still needs to be done.
Because the existence of high-speed rail can promote the development of remote and backward areas, at the national level, many things cannot be measured by economics.
But if the railway is privately owned and businessmen pursue profit, the private enterprise will never engage in loss-making business and will never build railways in areas that have no value.
This is also true for electricity, postal services, highways, etc., which are coordinated and planned at the national level, regardless of economic gains and losses.
"well said!"
After hearing this, Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but praise.
Liu Jin also impressed him again.
Liu Jin was very rich, but the impression he had given Emperor Hongzhi all along was that Liu Jin was not a person who loved money. He spent all his money on useful things and almost none on his own enjoyment.
Setting up schools, setting up factories, setting up trading houses, building roads, and now building railways, these are all things that benefit the country and the people, especially when it comes to running schools, Liu Jin is very generous, spending millions of taels of silver every year, eyes.
Without even blinking.
But I don’t know how many schools Liu Jin founded. There are more than a dozen high-level colleges and universities in the southern suburbs of Beijing, including textile schools, mechanical schools, bridge construction schools, medical schools, shipbuilding schools, and music schools.
College, School of Fine Arts, Imperial College, Imperial Chemical Industries, etc.
The founders of these new high-level schools were all Liu Jin, and almost all of the school's funding came from Liu Jin, plus the new schools opened in various parts of the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Jin is really very generous in this regard. As for himself, he has always been very simple.
Now hearing Liu Jin's views on the railway, this made Emperor Hongzhi feel that Liu Jin was really good, and he deeply realized the importance of the railway. He also realized that at the national level, the railway cannot be judged by whether it makes money or not.
built.
"Businessmen pursue profits. They will naturally build railways that make money, but they will definitely not build railways that make no money."
"But for the country, the more remote and border areas are, the more railways are needed to consolidate the country's rule in these places and promote the development of these places."
Li Dongyang also nodded solemnly and said.
"Well, let's continue and talk about this public-private combination and how it is a combination of public and private."
The smile on Emperor Hongzhi's face became even brighter.
As an emperor who grew up under traditional education, on the one hand, he wanted to understand new things, but on the other hand, he generally felt that he should not deal with them.
Taking this railway as an example, Emperor Hongzhi immediately realized the importance of the railway and its huge role in the entire country.
But how to manage the railways and how to build huge railways throughout the Ming Dynasty made him confused and didn't know what to do.
You must know that in the past, kings of all dynasties advocated governance by doing nothing. To put it simply, they didn't care about anything and allowed the country and people to grow like weeds.
However, this way of managing the country is obviously increasingly unable to adapt to the needs and development of the times. As for the railway, everyone immediately realized it after Liu Jin's brief explanation.
If the court does not get involved and just allows private individuals to build and operate railways, then many railways may be built in places with economic value, but in remote areas and border areas, no one may be willing to build railways.
.
This is obviously not possible. Railways are so important. The imperial court also needs to rely on railways to strengthen its control over various places and at the same time strengthen exchanges and exchanges between various places.
After listening to Liu Jin's words, Emperor Hongzhi finally had a clear idea of how to manage, build, and operate the railway in the future.
"The so-called combination of public and private~"
"It's worth it for the construction of the railway. The court should be involved, and at the same time, the power of the people should be actively used."
"This is mainly because the construction of the railway is too expensive. The distance between Beijing and Tianjin is less than 200 miles, but it cost tens of millions of taels of silver to build."
"Our entire Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and a vast territory. If we want to build a railway network covering the entire Ming Dynasty, the amount of money required will be astronomical."
"If we only rely on the financial resources of the imperial court for construction, no matter how much money the imperial court has, it will not be enough. The amount of money that can be used to build the railway in a year is probably only 30 to 40 million taels, which means that the money in a year is only enough to build the railway.
A thousand miles or so of railway.”
"If we can raise funds from the entire society through listing on the Tianjin Stock Exchange like the Beijing-Tianjin Railway, there will be no problem in raising hundreds of millions of taels of silver a year to build the railway."
"This means that in this way, the imperial court can build tens of thousands of miles of railways a year. It only takes a few decades for our Ming Dynasty to build railways covering various places and provinces. The entire Ming Dynasty will
Become one through these railroads."
"So I think that in the future, every railway in the Ming Dynasty will be planned by the imperial court, part of the funds will be allocated, and then it will be publicly listed on the Tianjin Stock Exchange to raise funds. In this way, it will be a combination of public and private, and the imperial court will be the major shareholder.
, and you can also get your own dividends from railway operations, which can be said to be a multi-purpose benefit.”
Liu Jin thought for a while and came up with the idea of combining public and private matters.
Although the Ming Dynasty now has money, it is far from being comparable to that of later generations. One of the most important reasons is that the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty is still very light compared to that of later generations. Even the commercial tax is very low. The second is that it has not mastered the printing of money.
The money printing machine is in the hands of the First Bank of Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, there is no way to release water. The financial resources are naturally limited. It is impossible to use the power of the state to overhaul the railway like in later generations. We must rely on private capital and strength.
The real richest people in the Ming Dynasty are the gentry, landowners, businessmen, etc. of the Ming Dynasty, not the Ming Dynasty court. It has been okay in recent years. If before, the Ming Dynasty court was so poor that rats could starve to death in the treasury.