The first thousand five hundred and fifty-four chapters of the royal industry in name only
With despair, Hawkins left, but he still did not give up, but chose to continue to fund John Freeman's research on steam engines.
Coincidentally, this is not just the case in England. In fact, any country with a bit of ambition these days is trying every possible means to develop a steam engine.
This is true in Portugal, Spain, England, and even the Ottomans are very interested in steam engines.
The only ones who don't have much interest in steam engines are probably the Tatars. In recent years, they have been obsessed with imitating the flintlocks and howitzers of the Tang Dynasty. Well, they are also very jealous of the plate armor technology of the Tang Dynasty!
Datang is naturally indifferent to this. The technology blockade has been implemented anyway, but no matter how awesome Datang is, it cannot be said that it does not allow others to imitate and develop on their own.
That's not right. The Tang Dynasty really did this. When Beihai Province was still the Fuso Islands, they did this kind of thing. Those famous families at that time who wanted to make their own weapons and develop industry would immediately attract big names.
Landing attack by Tang troops.
It's just that Europe is too far away to fight now.
If given the chance, Datang probably wouldn't mind sending a fleet to bring the Marines to London, and then directly kill John Ferroman and other people in England who were researching steam engines.
But then again, even if the Europeans come up with low-pressure steam engines now, it will have little impact. At most, these low-pressure steam engines can only be used in mines to barely lift water. I really want to use them in industry.
Production has to go further.
As for transportation power, whether it is a train or a ship, it requires a high-pressure steam engine, which is another level of technology.
It is estimated that when the Europeans come up with this kind of steam engine, Li Xuandu will lead the Tang Dynasty King to conquer the world.
It is even said that Europe is still facing the threat of the Tatars. It is hard to say whether this can stop the Tatar attack.
Not to mention the reaction and response of European countries to steam engines and the Tatars, let’s talk about Shanghai.
The Holy Emperor ended his inspection of Shanghai after staying in Shanghai for five full days!
During these five days, Li Xuan inspected more than a dozen companies. In addition, he also made a special trip to the western suburbs of Shanghai to encourage local officials in Shanghai to take a longer-term view and be bolder.
On the eve of Li Xuan's departure from Shanghai, Shanghai's urban railway plan was officially approved.
According to the plan, Shanghai will build four urban railways in the city, one of which is the north-south railway, from the Second Industrial Zone in the south to the northernmost end of the North Bank Development Zone, with a total length of more than 30 kilometers.
The other three are east-west railways, running almost in parallel, with their east sides connecting the freight terminals of the North Bank Development Zone, the First Industrial Zone and the Second Industrial Zone respectively.
Among them, the two east-west railways in the First Industrial Zone and the Second Industrial Zone will extend all the way to the western suburbs of Shanghai and will be connected to the branch railways of the Jiangnan Railway.
The purpose of these four urban railways is very clear, that is, to solve the mid-way transportation in urban areas, and they can carry both passengers and freight.
According to the design plan, once this urban railway is completed, it will only take up to one and a half hours to travel from the Second Industrial Zone to the North Bank Development Zone.
It only takes an hour to go from the scheduled industrial zone in the western suburbs of the city to the dock in the first industrial zone!
The time is shortened, and more importantly, the freight will be greatly reduced compared to the original carriage transportation and other methods.
Based on this plan, Xu Chenbing officially launched the development plan of the West City Industrial Zone. The total planned area of the West City Industrial Zone will be the sum of the first industrial zone and the second industrial zone. If it can be developed successfully, the benefits are
Self-evident.
When Xu Chenbing officially launched the development plan for the west of the city, Li Xuan had already taken the royal train to Hangzhou. This time when he arrived in Hangzhou, he still stayed at the royal family's own property instead of staying in any hotel, official yamen, or private hotel.
Donated house.
His royal family owns a large amount of real estate across the country, including palaces, villas, mansions and the like.
The royal estate does not only refer to industrial and commercial enterprises such as the Royal Bank. The royal estate also owns a large amount of land, large farms, tea houses, etc. In addition, there are also a large number of real estates, mainly the confiscated vassal palaces and dignitaries' mansions in the former Qing Dynasty.
.
For example, the Forbidden City in Youzhou City belongs to the royal family. If nothing else, Li Xuan will also live in the Forbidden City when he inspects Youzhou.
Although the Forbidden City is now just an empty city, all the valuable curios and furnishings, and even some relatively expensive jade and wood, have been taken away and brought to Jinling City for use in the construction of a new palace.
At the same time, because no one has lived in it for more than ten years, and not enough funds have been invested in repairs, the Forbidden City now looks a bit dilapidated.
However, although most of the buildings are relatively dilapidated, some royal garden buildings are still relatively intact, such as the Xiyuan, while others are not in good condition.
When Li Xuan arrived in Youzhou, the place he planned to stay was also in Xiyuan, not the huge buildings in the palace. Those buildings are now covered with spider webs and cannot be accommodated at all.
There is no way, the size of the Forbidden City is too large, and the funds required for maintenance alone are not a small amount every year, and the national treasury is responsible for this money, and the royal family needs to pay for it themselves.
The royal estate only uses limited funds to maintain the repairs of Xiyuan. As for other huge building complexes, they are basically demolished and used as long as they can. If it doesn't work, just leave them there.
After all, although the royal family has many industries, its expenses are even greater. It is impossible to invest huge amounts of money every year to maintain an unused palace. Moreover, because of the special nature of the Forbidden City, it is impossible to use it for other purposes, such as serving as an official palace.
It is even more impossible to open the yamen of an institution or a military camp as a museum or the like.
After all, it was a royal palace. Although it was the palace of the former Ming Dynasty, it also had special significance. It was impossible for the Tang Dynasty to use it for other purposes. It would rather leave it there and let it slowly deteriorate than let ordinary people
Go in and take a look.
But that was in the past. As for now, Li Xuan has decided to let the royal family invest more funds to maintain the Forbidden City.
He thought that the entire northern railway line was now open, and that telegraphs would be available in the future. By then, he, the emperor, would be able to travel frequently. This tour was only the first. Although it was a massive effort, it was
In the future, there will be no need for such a large scale.
By that time, he will go north to live in the Forbidden City every few days. Of course, the main purpose is definitely not for tourism, but to show the importance he attaches to the northern region and balance the development of the north and the south.
It's not just Youzhou. When the time comes, he is also planning to continue going north to Lake Baikal to see how to organize a large army for exercises and hunting.
Therefore, he instructed the Royal Industrial Department to maintain the maintenance of the Forbidden City and not let it really deteriorate. After all, it was a palace with a history of hundreds of years, a proper civil and military one, and it was still Li Xuan.
How can we really turn it into ruins if it's a trophy?
It's just Li Xuan's instruction that makes the Royal Assets Section quite difficult. Although they seem to be huge and have a lot of money, they cannot handle a lot of money casually, let alone use it to repair the palace.
For example, they wouldn’t dare to use Royal Bank’s money even if I gave them a hundred courages!
Because the royal family has basically never embezzled a penny from the Royal Bank over the years.
The Royal Bank is not only a commercial bank belonging to the royal family, but also a pillar bank and policy bank in the financial industry of the Tang Empire. It needs to assume many financial stability responsibilities and also bear some political responsibilities.
For example, when a natural disaster occurs and huge disaster relief funds are needed, it is difficult for the government to collect them at once. At this time, the two banks, Royal Bank and Empire State Development Bank, need to step forward and provide interest-free funds to the government.
Used for disaster relief.
There are also many infrastructure construction projects, such as railways.
Where did the hundreds of millions of funds used to build railways over the years come from?
Not even the loans provided by Royal Bank and Empire State Development Bank!
There are many royal industries like the Royal Bank that nominally belong to the royal family, but in fact the royal family does not receive a penny. Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard, several trading companies, and some heavy industry companies, etc., these industries actually occupy the royal family.
A large part of the industry, but the royal family has never drawn dividends from these enterprises.
Therefore, many royal properties such as the Royal Bank only belong to the royal family in name.
In fact, the royal family has not received even a penny from these enterprises in recent years. What really provides a large amount of funds to the royal family every year is some light industries, such as textiles, daily chemicals represented by perfumes and soaps.
As for the large amount of land owned by the royal family, which is the largest landowner in the country, it is actually a thing of the past.
In the early days, the royal family indeed occupied more than 10% of the country's arable land. However, now most of this land does not even belong to the royal family in name.
Because these royal fields, together with the official fields back then, were all under unified management, even the land rent collected was directly handed over to the tax department as agricultural taxes, and the royal family never received a dime!
Moreover, these royal lands and government lands have gradually been turned into private lands during the rent-to-purchase policy that has lasted for more than 20 years. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Agriculture, in at most ten years, under the control of the royal family and the government, as many as
The huge land that accounts for more than 30% of the country's cultivated land will all become farmers' private land.