"To rule the world together with people from industry and commerce," Wen Yuan lowered his head in thought after hearing his father's question. Min'er thought for a while and said, "It is a good thing for the people. After all, workers in factories and shop assistants usually live a better life than others."
Farmers in the countryside are better off. However, if factories close down, shops close, workers or clerks lose their livelihoods, and they can't find new ones for a while, life will be very difficult. Now it seems that the people who have the best life are porters. No matter they are
The porters on the docks and the porters in the city are not employed by any factory or shop. As long as the overall business in the city is booming and the market is prosperous, they don't have to worry about losing their livelihood and they can earn more."
"As for whether it is good or bad for the clan, my daughter can't say. According to the fourth aunt, if you want to satisfy the merchants, you must continue to capture new places. But how can new places be so easy to capture? As the new places that can be captured become more and more
If the emperor comes less and less, the merchants will no longer be satisfied, and may want to replace someone else as the emperor. It seems that it is not good for the clan. "
After listening to Min'er's words, Yun didn't say anything, and looked at Wenyuan. Wenyuan kept frowning in thought, and after a while he said: "Dad, Fourth Aunt, the person who opened the factory and the person who sold the goods, and...
Although people who run banks can all be considered businessmen, they are different."
After hearing Wen Yuan's first words, Yun's eyes lit up. However, Wen Yuan did not notice and continued: "Opening a factory requires space, machines, and many workers; selling goods also requires space and workers.
But the space needed is much smaller, there are far fewer clerks, and there is no need for machines, and the vehicles and ships that transport the goods can also be taken away; those who run the bank only need a small space and a few clerks, which is simpler."
"Moreover, setting up a factory is laborious and sometimes labor-intensive. If the goods cannot be sold, there is a risk of bankruptcy; merchants travel all over the country, even risking their lives; but opening a bank seems very easy, and the only thing you have to worry about is letting out the money.
Can the debt be recovered? But if you don’t pay back the money you owe, you can still ask the government for help, especially for a bank that joins the bank’s head office. Making money is too easy.”
"The factories opened in fixed locations are under the eyes of the government. They dare not hide weapons in private or resist the government. The workers in the factories are also good citizens. As long as they have food to eat, they will not go against the government; trafficking
The goods need to travel all over the country, and some places are not very safe. Most of them have people who dare to fight and kill, and they are not necessarily afraid of the government; as for those who run banks, they can run around with money and only need a few people to protect them. "
"So when you open a factory, you have the closest connection with the local area, you have the most contact with the government, and you have the most deferential attitude towards the government; selling goods has nothing to do with the government except collecting taxes; running a bank has a closer connection with the government, but
If something happens, you can move out at any time."
"So my son thinks that even if we want to rule the world together with merchants, we must be different. Merchants who run banks can only be appointed, and they cannot be made nobles; merchants who sell goods are indispensable. Without the goods produced in their factories,
It cannot be sold, but only a small number can be accepted as nobles; those who should be accepted as nobles are the businessmen who set up factories."
"As for accepting merchants who opened factories as nobles and co-ruling the world with them, whether it is good or bad for the court, it is difficult for my son to judge. However, among the past dynasties, the longest Tang Dynasty lasted only three hundred years, and there were also the Anshi Rebellion and decades of
With the landowners as the ruling class, the dynasty could only last for less than three hundred years at most. It was appropriate for my father to find other ways to delay the Ming Dynasty. In any case, due to the war in the early Ming Dynasty and the migration of many Han people overseas,
Nowadays, there are fewer people and more land in the Central Plains, and the people have enough to eat. No matter how we reform, the people will not rebel." Wenyuan finally said.
"How did you come up with this?" Yun asked after his son finished speaking.
"My son got the idea from his father's distributing the shares of the steel plant to nobles," Wenyuan said.
"Not bad." Yun said with a smile.
Wenyuan's words were a bit confusing and I didn't quite understand them, but Yun understood what he wanted to say. What Wenyuan said was actually the difference between financial capital and industrial capital. Simply put, industrial capital is the capital for operating physical commodities.
Opening factories and selling goods are both industrial capital; financial capital is the capital that makes money.
Whether you are setting up a factory or selling goods, you need space and a lot of manpower. Moreover, these sites cannot be moved. It is not easy to move from one place to another, so they have a closer relationship with the local government.
, the relationship with the host country is also very close, and the interests of capital and the interests of the country overlap to a certain extent. There are indeed differences between opening a factory and selling goods, but in most cases, they complement each other.
But financial capital is different. Financial capital does not require much fixed asset investment and can be easily moved to other places, even other countries. Therefore, financial capital is not closely connected with the country, and has very little overlap with national interests.
Moreover, the generation of any wealth is based on the production of physical objects. But financial capital does not produce any physical objects, so it does not create wealth. All the wealth owned by financial capital is plundered from other people.
.
Real powerful countries are also countries with strong industry. The United Kingdom can become a world hegemon by virtue of its industrial output accounting for 40% of the world's total. The Royal Navy is also supported by strong industrial strength; and when Britain's industrial strength increases
Slowly and gradually weakened, after the capitalists began to play the tricks of making money, his hegemony was shaken. When Britain lost its hegemony, financial capital went to the next world hegemon.
This is why Yun dislikes financial capital. It is enough for the entire Ming Dynasty to have an emperor plundering wealth from the people. If financial capital plunders wealth, isn't that taking food from his mouth? How could he be willing?
Of course, the financial industry is also indispensable to society and cannot be completely eliminated. If it could be eliminated, Yun would have shut down all the banks. But even if it cannot be eliminated, it must be restricted. He will leave it to future generations in his letters.
After the entire country entered capitalism, later emperors tried to nationalize the financial industry and build a capitalist system with Ming characteristics. Specifically, what Yun wanted to establish was a system controlled by the state, or specifically the clan.
The financial capital, combined with the large industrial capital controlled by the nobles, jointly controls the country's capitalism.
In history, no Eastern country has spontaneously entered capitalism. They were all forced to enter after opening the country with the guns of Western countries. It is hard to say whether the capitalism native to the East that Yun envisioned can be realized. Perhaps in the fierce struggle, the capitalists
Lost to the landlords, the Ming Dynasty failed to enter capitalism, and instead became a feudal empire with a little capitalism like Russia; or worse, it was no different from the Ming and Qing Dynasties in history. But this is not what is allowed.
He was under control. All he could do was to reform the Ming Dynasty according to his own ideas, and fully tell the prince his purpose of doing so. As for the rest, he could only watch in heaven after his death to see what future generations would do.
"It is true that people who open banks cannot be made nobles, and we cannot rule the world with them; those who want to rule the world together will be those who open factories; but it is not everyone, but businessmen who open factories with large scale and high thresholds.
.Because the bigger the factory, the more the court is needed.”
"As for whether this is good for the people. In the long run, the lives of ordinary people will definitely be better than they are now. But in the short term, it may not be, and I can't say." Yun explained his thoughts to Yunzhi and others.
After talking for a while, he finally said.
"Third brother, if all the nobles are businessmen who run factories, how can we maintain the Ming Dynasty clan as a clan?" Yunzhi asked.
"It's easy. Wouldn't it be enough to turn the Zhu family into a family that runs factories?" Yun said with a smile: "The rules of the industrial era are completely different from those of today. Even if the final situation forces us to abdicate and replace others with being the emperor or the country,
If there is no emperor anymore, we will not kill all the previous clan members. With the capital left behind, we can always maintain a prosperous life for the family members. As for if each generation is a coward and the ancestral property is ruined, then they deserve to be poor."
"A country without an emperor? How can there be such a country?" Yunzhi was startled and said.
"Of course there is." Yun said: "The three republics of Venice, Genoa and Florence have no kings."
"These three countries don't have kings?" Yunzhi had heard of these three countries, but she didn't care about Fu, and she didn't know about these three countries in detail. She didn't know that they didn't have kings, so she hurriedly asked these three countries in detail.
Yun and Wenyuan answered the question. Yunzhi sighed: "There is actually such a country. The country only has a population of 100,000. It was founded on business, but it is a powerful country, more powerful than many countries with a population of one million.
"
"But, doesn't this mean that if the Ming Dynasty rules the world together with merchants in the future, the king will definitely be deposed and turned into a republic?" Yun Zhi immediately said again, with a not pretty expression on his face.
"That's not necessarily the case." Yun said: "These three republics are just small countries with small populations and little land. If a big country like the Ming Dynasty was dominated by commerce, it might not be like this. However, the neighboring countries of the Ming Dynasty and the Chinese dynasties have also been from
There has never been a country like this; no one can say how it will change. I can only imagine."
"I hope this is a good change for the clan." Yunzhi sighed again and said.
"It will definitely be a good change for the clan." Wen Yuan said firmly.
"Well, it will definitely be a good change for the clan." Min'er said with a hopeful tone.