Chapter 1993 The National Sensational Economic Development Conference
In the autumn of the 40th year of Xuanping, the Holy Emperor held a meeting in the imperial capital that would have a great impact on future generations, especially on the many overseas territories of the Tang Empire.
In this imperial meeting, not only the cabinet members, but also military generals attended the meeting. In addition to the civil and military parties, there was also a group of civil and military officials, but they had always operated independently.
Officials of the Import and Export Commission who were familiar to many imperial companies and had many complaints about them.
Even the Supervisory Office sent people to participate, and supervisors from several major overseas territories in the Tang Empire also came back from overseas to attend the meeting.
And throughout the world, countless people are paying attention to this meeting. Even the Tang Dynasty Daily published special issues for several consecutive days for the first time to report on this meeting, which is destined to affect the global situation for decades or even centuries.
s meeting.
The first day of the meeting had just ended, and the Tang Dynasty Daily organized reports that night and transmitted relevant information to other parties through the Tang Empire's wired telegraph system.
In the special issue of the Tang Dynasty Daily that was completed that night, it focused on the important ministers who participated in the meeting, and at the same time conveyed the main purpose of this meeting to the whole world: the Holy Emperor Li Xuan held this meeting specially with the people of the whole world in mind.
, explore how to better improve the living standards of people all over the world, so that everyone can have enough to eat, wear warm clothes, and live in a house.
The Holy Emperor proposed at the imperial meeting that the empire had been established for more than forty years and through the development of agriculture, industry and commerce, it had been able to ensure that most people had enough to eat, but people in many places still had difficulty eating and clothing.
, the problem of housing difficulty, the main energy of the empire in the future will be focused on solving the interests of the people, and will be on solving the problem of people's food, clothing, housing and transportation.
It also quoted the food index proposed by the Department of Economics of the Royal Institute of Technology, striving to reduce the food index from the current 58% to 50% within five years, entering the stage of food and clothing for all people, and reducing the food index to 50% within 15 years.
Forty percent, entering the stage of universal prosperity.
On the first day, the Tang Dynasty Daily popularized a brand new concept to the whole world, that is, the food index.
This index means the proportion of food consumption necessary to maintain life to total personal consumption.
Food is the most important thing for the people, and food is the basis for maintaining human survival. Therefore, when talking about the living standards of people in a place, it only needs to be the proportion of their consumption on food.
To put it simply, if a person consumes 100 Tangyuan in one year, but only 50 Tangyuan on food, then the food index is 50%.
The higher the income, the higher the available expenditure. At the same time, the lower the food price, the less money is spent on food, and relatively more consumption in other areas, such as housing, clothing, even education, travel, etc.
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Of course, this coefficient also has flaws. For example, in Songjiang Prefecture, many middle-income people have a high income and local food is not expensive, so their food index is very low, but their housing is extremely expensive.
Single-family apartments in the suburbs are not cheap, and coupled with the cost of commuting to and from the city, many middle-income people's small lives are not as comfortable as they imagined.
This is mainly because these people imitate other wealthy people who live in the suburbs. They also own private carriages, hire a servant, and take their families to restaurants and travel every now and then. They torture themselves to death just for the sake of dignity.
Come and complain that a small single-family house in this suburb costs several thousand Tangyuan...
But who asked you to buy such an expensive house? Houses in the city are much cheaper and convenient to work, so why do you have to live in the suburbs like the rich...
You said that there is heavy smog in the urban area but the air in the suburbs is good. You cannot live in the urban area. You must live in the suburbs for your health.
This is hypocritical, isn't it? Haven't you seen that people in many parts of the empire still don't have enough to eat? What's wrong with letting you breathe in the smog? Many people want to live in big cities and can't breathe in the smog!
The real poor will not complain that a small western-style building on the outskirts of Songjiang city costs thousands or even tens of thousands of Tang Yuan. What they complain about is that their family's food expenditure this month has increased by one or two Tang Yuan!
Therefore, in most cases in Datang, it is relatively accurate to use the food index to judge local living standards.
On the second day of the meeting, Professor Feng Yong from the Department of Economics of the Royal Institute of Technology gave a report on the imperial food products, food sources, prices, etc. at the imperial meeting. After the preliminary introduction, Professor Feng Yong looked around at the dozens of imperial people present.
The important minister said in a heavy tone: "Judging from the area of arable land in the empire and the current cultivation technology, the food output in the empire is difficult to meet the huge needs of the empire's hundreds of millions of people!"
"If we want hundreds of millions of people in the empire to truly live a life of adequate food and reduce the food index to 50% or even 40%, we must take a longer and farther view!"
"The arable land area of the empire only accounts for less than 20% of the world's arable land. This also means that there are still more than 80% of arable land globally. These lands are the only way to completely solve the problem.
The problem of food shortage in the empire!"
"Take North America as an example. In the North America under our empire alone, preliminary estimates indicate that the arable land area reaches nearly three million square kilometers!"
“As for the entire North and South America, the arable land area is estimated to be at least five million square kilometers!”
"Once developed successfully, it means that the empire will have dozens more Jiangnan Roads!"
"In addition, in Europe, including Eastern Europe, Central and Western Europe, there is also huge arable land dominated by plains, and there is huge potential for agricultural development!"
"The Indian Peninsula, Africa and other regions are undeveloped natural granaries. Among them, the Go River Plain and the South African Plain, which we have initially developed, are small in area, but they are extremely dense and have huge grain output."
After finishing a series of words, Professor Feng Yong announced the end of the report.
In fact, many of the things he said are known to the public and are not secret, but he said them at such an important meeting, especially when a group of important ministers heard that there are at least five million square kilometers of arable land in the Americas.
After looking at the area, everyone was thinking about how much food could be grown in such a large area.
How many people can this food feed?
Relying on these grains, the food index can be lowered to below 40% or even lower in minutes.
After Professor Feng Yong's report, the Geology Department under the Ministry of Industry made a report on the distribution and exploitation of resources in local and overseas areas.