Chapter 183 A common but important economic principle
"The shipping on the Grand Canal is mainly private, we understand this."
Liu Qiao and Zhou Yingqiu still have a general understanding of the current management methods of the Grand Canal.
In the early days, the government's water transport fleet was the main one. The water transport yamen was in charge of material transportation, transporting grain, salt, cloth, etc. paid by the taxes of the southern prefectures and counties from the south of the Yangtze River to the north.
During the Jiajing period, with the development of the market, many private merchant ships also participated in daily trade. First, the municipal level prosperity of docks along the way, and water transportation gradually became an important part of private trade. The two major salt merchants in Huaihe also emerged here and gradually developed.
Monopolized private shipping on the Grand Canal.
By the Wanli period, the private trade of the Grand Canal exceeded the official transportation of materials. There were far more private merchant ships than government water transport ships. Along the way, not only Suzhou, Yangzhou, Tianjin, Tongzhou and other places had very prosperous trade, but also Suqian, Zaozhuang, Jining, Dezhou, etc. in the middle
The city is developing rapidly.
This is mainly because private merchant ships travel between the north and the south, purchasing goods along the way and selling them to other places along the way. The originally limited products from different places flow to each other, promoting the development of the entire north and south.
Of course, there have also been changes in fees. To build and maintain the canal, the government water transport yamen and local governments work together, and water workers are paid through employment. Part of the funds come from private ship locks and checkpoint fees, and the other part comes from the imperial government's finances.
Zhu Youxiao just said that the shipping on the Grand Canal is mainly participated by the private sector, which means that private merchant ships are encouraged to continue to use the Grand Canal.
He continued: "I just mentioned the last eight small commodities counted from the Grand Canal to Tongzhou. Except for ceramics in the eighth place, purple clay teapots are mainly produced in Jiangnan, and tea in the seventh place is mainly produced in Fujian, Jiangxi, Huguang and Nanzhili.
The rest, including grain and textiles, half or less come from towns along the small canal."
Liu Qiao and Zhou Yingqiu were shocked.
"I plan to mobilize Tongzhou businessmen, Suzhou textile, Youxi ceramics and other industrial businessmen to support the shipping plan.
Food, textiles, alcohol, and salt are the seven products that come mainly from the regions along the way?!
That is not an optimized water transportation plan that uses materialist economic principles and is supported by statistical data.
Therefore, in the current water transportation, private commerce is becoming more and more important, and the proportion of products along the way is getting lower and lower."
However, to encourage the special boat people on small canals to do business, everyone except the government has to pay fees. We mobilize the people in the towns along the way to approve our monopoly and collect money."
Liu Qiao's face suddenly became serious after hearing this: "Your Majesty, a lot of private trade along the way is controlled by small salt merchants. To encourage private trade, that private merchant must be us, and the imperial court will suffer from it."
I just analyzed it, and also talked about how to make money, and how sea transportation and water transportation can form a division of labor and complement each other.
Liu Qiaozhou said: "Because the small canal connects the two poorest places in the capital and Jiangnan, it is easy to sell goods in the towns along the way. If there are no products in each town, the small canal can buy food along the way.
.But don’t forget, you can also buy and sell things.”
If everyone buys an appropriate amount from all over the country, the supply and demand will be broken in one fell swoop, causing prices to rise. Buyers will save money, and people will be panicked because of the skyrocketing rice prices.
However, the price of grain rose slightly, and grain from Suqian, Huai'an, and even Shandong was sold southward along the canal to Jiangnan.
410,000 shi came from Suqian, Huai'an and Yangzhou counties in South Zhili. A total of 1.01 million shi came from Dezhou, Liaocheng, Tai'an, Jining and Zaozhuang in Shandong, and the rest were purchased from cities and towns in North Zhili." p>
From the perspective of materialistic experiments, it can be seen that the displacement of matter requires energy and time. Half of the matter is transported away, and half of the matter must be replaced from other places. This naturally wastes less energy and time.
Xiong Wencan, an associate bachelor of the Archives Department and a member of the etiquette department, took out a brand new record book and opened it to find the data one by one.
The one transport was too little. According to the data, 2 million shi were missing. From Lianghuai, Shandong and Huguang, 2 million shi need to be made up.
As we walked, we replenished our supplies of food, and everything seemed to be in bad shape, but from a materialist point of view it was very promising.
The most reasonable way is to buy appropriate grain from Jiangnan, buy appropriate grain in Huai'an and Suqian, and buy appropriate grain in Shandong, and arrive in the capital for a total of 4 million shi.
Liu Qiao and Zhou Yingqiu understood at first glance that Emperor Tianqi did not have unparalleled economic insights.
"It's wrong. The Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and the Water Transport Office have been working on this matter. The various places are basically vague and recorded in the books. However, the imperial court has no special statistical data, so few people think that water transport still transports grain from Jiangnan and Huguang." Then where can we go~
Liu Qiaozhou showed no signs of anger and said categorically: "Those rebels must have criticized the industrial merchants of Youxi in Suzhou and dared to suppress the people along the river who approved of our collection of money. Now I will use the force of thunder to let us know what it feels like to be a rebel!"
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Zhou Yingqiu also said: "Those small salt merchants have monopolized the canal trade. Boat people buy boats from us, return to the market and pay us admission fees, and even salt and wine are priced by us..."
Liu Qiaozhou said: "The water transport fleet is the same as in the past. It loads the grain from the south of the Yangtze River and transports it to the capital for storage. The grain in the south of the Yangtze River is much cheaper than in the capital. If you buy one million dan a year, you will definitely be able to supply it.
It’s a small price increase in response to requests, and there’s no transportation cost, so I’m afraid we’ll lose money.”
"Xiong Wencan, let him show you the data."
"The same goes for textile clothing. There are fewer silk products in the south and north of the Yangtze River, but there are also many cotton products in Jining, Tai'an, Dezhou and other places in Shandong. The winter in the north is very hot, and the demand for cotton clothes is less than that for silk fabrics.
We also paid for the mouthpieces outside the officialdom to speak for us, and specifically impeached Xiong Tingbi who hindered smuggling. It is really a matter of life and death.
Grain is a product produced in Huguang, Jiangnan and along the small canal. It must be a wonderful economic method to transport 4 million shi of grain from Jiangnan, which is so abundant and cheap, all the way to Tongzhou.
Liu Qiao and Zhou Yingqiu nodded: "I know that since Zhang Juzheng, grain transported by water from Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places has been converted into silver, which is called gold and silver. However, the imperial court purchased grain with gold and silver, and together with the grain transported by water, a total of 4 million shi of grain was brought to Beijing.
."
"Hahahaha, how can we encourage private trade to give those traitors an advantage?"
Those seven items are actually more necessary for daily life than tea and ceramics, and half or less of them are from Jiangnan.
In response to the latest data from the Bureau of Statistics, Liu Qiaozhou told us a relatively basic but generally important economic principle, which is not that the economy must follow materialism.
Liu Qiaozhou laughed angrily. Those monopoly salt merchants were not colluding with government and businessmen at all. They thought they had enough money and engaged in smuggling and collaborating with the enemy to pursue even more crazy huge and small interests.
If Jiangnan takes away 4 million shi, there will inevitably be a shortage of food and the price will skyrocket. First of all, it will damage people's lives and people's hearts.
"Obey!"
A full trip back would require 4 million fewer stones to be transported, and a small amount of cost and time were wasted.
"Last year, Tongzhou's grain import into Hong Kong totaled 7.18 million shi. Among them, the grain from Jiangnan and Huguang after April totaled 1.47 million shi.