The answer I got is that many people, especially the young and middle-aged labor force, have gone to work in Shanghai. Although this rural area is not deserted, there is no idle redundant labor force.
This made Li Kaiji feel a crisis. All these young and strong laborers were seduced away by the Songjiang Prefecture next door. In the future, wouldn’t the population of his Jiaxing Prefecture become smaller and smaller? If there is no population, how can we reclaim more wasteland and increase the food supply?
of total output.
Without grain production, would Jiaxing Prefecture still be considered the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River?
But for those idle laborers who go to Shanghai to work on their own, the local government cannot stop them. After all, you can't stop them from pursuing a better life, and you can't stop them.
However, now the companies in Shanghai are sending people directly to recruit workers, and they recruit thousands of workers at a time, so he can't bear it anymore.
Although Jiaxing Prefecture is a superior prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River and has a large population, it cannot withstand the loss of thousands of young and strong labor force.
In order to avoid the large-scale loss of young and strong labor force in the area, which would lead to the abandonment of land and other things, Li Kaiji also made up his mind and directly ordered the people below to find a random name and send those companies to
The people who recruit people are detained.
But what to do?
Now he can't decide to pay attention for a while.
Since these companies can go to Jiaxing to recruit workers, and recruit thousands of people, the scale of these companies is naturally not that small.
Behind this large enterprise, there must be complex interests among various parties. Maybe there are also interests in state-owned assets in the territory.
In this case, handling it hastily can easily cause unnecessary trouble.
Therefore, he only temporarily detained the person, but did not proceed with the next step.
As a result, as expected, the Huating government sent someone to inquire about the relevant situation.
Li Kaiji also felt extremely helpless at this time!
Because according to legal principles, the company is not breaking the law and is just recruiting workers. It is inappropriate for him to arrest people, but he cannot just watch the young and strong labor force in his jurisdiction drain away!
Therefore, he directly dragged Huating away without giving any clear answer, and then quickly sent a letter to the Zhejiang Governor's Yamen in Hangzhou, asking for instructions.
After receiving the relevant information, the governor of Zhejiang first issued a document to reprimand Li Kaiji and asked him to release him immediately. After all, he arrested the person for no reason, and these companies were all medium and large companies, and behind them were Huating and even the entire Songjiang Prefecture, and even
interests of the entire industrial and commercial sector.
If the Jiaxing authorities can arrest people at will and prevent companies from recruiting employees, then in the future, will local yamen prohibit companies from recruiting workers, or even simply prohibit people in the jurisdiction from going out to work in big cities?
If this is true, where will the workers needed for this factory come from?
It’s not enough to fill in all the existing urban population.
Therefore, when Feng Ni was writing about Jiaxing, Zhejiang, many companies in Shanghai actually got the news, and then they also launched relationships to put pressure on Zhejiang.
Li Kaiji didn't know it yet, but the governor of Zhejiang was actually under considerable pressure.
However, although the governor of Zhejiang asked Li Kaiji to release him, he also gave a warning to the capital, which explained that the young labor force in some counties such as Jiaxing and Huzhou was severely depleted.
At the same time, affected by the prosperity of the textile industry and the high price of silkworm cocoons, farmers in some areas began to plant mulberry trees, cotton and other cash crops on a large scale instead of growing food.
After this letter arrived at Jinling City, it quickly attracted the attention of the ministers in the imperial study, including Li Xuan.
The problem reflected in this letter is not just a problem of one or two counties, but a problem of conflict between industry and agriculture!
Especially in the Jiangnan region, this problem is particularly serious.
Because in other places, the development of industry and commerce is relatively average, and agricultural development is also limited, so the development of industry and commerce can just be able to absorb more people for employment.
But in Jiangnan, this place is extremely special. First of all, this place is the most important granary in China. Even though Huguang has developed very rapidly in recent years and grain output has increased year by year, it still cannot be compared with Jiangnan.
At the same time, relying on Shanghai, Jiangnan's industry and commerce developed extremely rapidly, and the scale was very large!
Among these industries, the textile industry is a very important industry, and the textile industry requires raw materials, and silkworm cocoons and cotton are the most important raw materials.
In order to obtain more cocoons and when competition is relatively high, merchants increase the purchase price. When the price of cocoons is pushed up, farmers will plant more mulberry trees to raise silkworms to obtain higher incomes.
At the same time, cotton cultivation follows the same pattern.
In this way, the scale of grain planting will inevitably be reduced, and eventually the grain output in the entire Jiangnan region will be reduced.
Jiangnan is the most important granary of the empire. If the food production begins to decrease, the impact will be huge and bad.
No matter how much money you make, it’s useless if you don’t have food!
However, the development of industry and commerce obviously cannot be stopped. Otherwise, there would be no way to start the industrial revolution.
Li Xuan felt a little headache about this. The competition between agriculture and industry for population and land had already begun to appear, and it appeared in the most important Jiangnan region.
If this matter is not handled well, there will definitely be big trouble in the future!
Either the industry cannot develop, or the grain production is greatly reduced, and Li Xuan does not want to see either of these two.
Finally, Li Xuan convened the ministers to discuss how to resolve the conflict between industry and industry!
You know, although it has only broken out in the Jiangnan region, in fact, this problem widely exists in areas with relatively developed industry and agriculture, such as the Pearl River Delta region.
The Pearl River Delta region is now one of the most important grain-producing areas in the South. At the same time, industry and commerce are developing very rapidly. There are also conflicts between industry and commerce, and there are many.
It's just not as serious as here in Jiangnan.
At the imperial study room meeting, many ministers also spoke to each other, and various methods were proposed!
Li Xuan, as always, only listened but did not speak. When the meeting was almost done, Li Xuan made the final decision. Since there was competition for land and population between industry and industry in some areas, they should be dispersed.
This dispersion is a broad concept!
Including the dispersion of grain production, that is, in the future, we should not rely too much on the grain production in Jiangnan. For example, we should increase the grain production in other areas of the empire, especially the Huguang area, and at the same time develop other areas suitable for production, so that the empire can use it for more granaries.
Avoid dependence on Jiangnan granary.
Secondly, there is the decentralization of industry. Although companies always like to cluster together due to cost and other reasons, Shanghai is the most typical example.
However, in the future, the empire will plan to support the development of industry in other regions, such as Tianjin. Tianjin has coal resources nearby, has flat terrain, and is close to the sea. It is also the political and economic center of the north, which is suitable for the development of industry.
For example, several other places, such as other cities along the Yangtze River, can also develop industry relying on the Yangtze River.
Finally, there is the dispersion of the population. This dispersion of the population means that when recruiting workers in industrial zones, one cannot focus on the population in the local area or nearby areas. This will not only push up labor costs due to competition for labor, but also increase labor costs.
This will lead to a large influx of local labor force into factories, which in turn will lead to an increase in the number of people engaged in agriculture.
Therefore, companies are encouraged to recruit workers from places with more people and less land, or to directly open labor-intensive factories in places with more people and less land. In fact, companies in many areas are eager to have companies settle in and open factories.
Unfortunately, most of the time other companies are unwilling to come.
To this end, the empire will make a series of policy adjustments, one of which is very important is that it is preparing to gradually cancel the large financial subsidies and preferential policies in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and other regions.
The advantages of these places are already great enough, and they can develop well on their own without the need for financial subsidies and policies from the central government.
On the contrary, other places are more in need of policy support from provincial highways and the central government because of their lack of attraction.
This series of decentralized policies is used to alleviate the pressure of major conflicts in Shanghai and Guangzhou, which have relatively developed agriculture and industry.
You must know that the empire has a population of more than 150 million, and most of the population does not have enough food and clothing. The workers needed by the factories at this stage are just an insignificant number compared to the huge empire population.
The crux of the problem is that factories are clustered together in very few places such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, which in turn causes conflicts between local population and land. However, many other areas of the empire are overpopulated but do not have enough land or employment opportunities.
, struggling.
The purpose of launching a "decentralized" policy is to maintain the rapid development of agriculture and industry!
Li Xuan made a decision, and the empire quickly began to implement relevant policies!
Specifically, when it comes to Zhejiang, after officials from the Zhejiang governor's office received the relevant news from Gyeonggi, they immediately started taking action before the formal official documents were issued!
They began to actively send invitations to Zhejiang factories in Ningbo, Hangzhou, Huzhou and other places, as well as factories in Shanghai, inviting them to recruit workers in southern Zhejiang.
He also promised that the local government would organize laborers to apply for the job.
Of course, the local government will not interfere in whether the company and the workers have reached an employment agreement. They are only responsible for making connections. How much the company will spend to recruit people, how many people will be hired, and whether the local labor force is willing to go, the government will not intervene.