Emperor Chongzhen didn't like hot air balloons at all. If he wanted to get on a horse, he would just get on a plane.
In fact, this condition is almost mature.
The internal combustion engine was hand-built last year, but it was only used in agricultural machinery, so it was still getting familiar with it.
As the most important component of the earliest aircraft, it is the internal combustion engine. Once the Ming craftsmen have accumulated enough experience and made breakthroughs in the petrochemical industry, they will no longer just use unsafe fuels such as gas, then the aircraft can
Invented.
Not to mention anything else, just being able to fly in the sky is definitely a very shocking thing, definitely no worse than a steam train or a wired telephone!
However, there is another problem that is troubling Emperor Chongzhen today: in summary, it is still money!
Although productivity has been greatly improved, the income of the imperial treasury has reached as much as 20 million taels a year. However, the imperial court also has many places to spend money.
Apart from anything else, years of war, even if you win the war, will cost you a lot of money.
For example, if the army wins a war, it needs a reward, right? This is a huge expense, which exceeds the casualty pension.
The dividends of the war will not be reflected immediately because of the population.
For example, after liberating Liaodong and occupying North Korea, there are basically no people in these two areas. It is not known how long it will take for production to resume.
Of course, after regaining this place, military expenditures in these two areas will definitely be reduced in the future, and prisoners can also use them for free. There are also mineral resources, because Liu Weichao exists, and he can know where and what is there.
However, if these are to be realized, they cannot be realized immediately.
In addition, the country is undergoing large-scale infrastructure construction, building cement roads and railways, which also costs a lot of money.
Especially now that the expansion to the west is mainly for military and political purposes rather than economic goals, the cost of building railways and roads is even greater, which cannot be made up from other places and consumes a lot of money from the national treasury.
.
There is also support for geophysics, and the research expenses, especially for the navy, are even more staggering.
And so on, Emperor Chongzhen decided to invent these inventions in the order they were actually needed, rather than launching them all at once.
Within just two days after the successful telephone experiment, Emperor Chongzhen's desk received memorials from government offices at all levels, all of them applying for the installation of wired telephones, and the reasons were more convincing than the last.
Emperor Chongzhen was also speechless about this.
The current wired telephones are actually very expensive to install. The cost will only come down if they can be mass-produced in the future instead of relying on hand-made parts.
With money needed everywhere, Emperor Chongzhen still had a bit of a headache when faced with the new need to spend money.
At night, he casually mentioned this matter to Liu Weichao.
Unexpectedly, Liu Weichao laughed out loud after hearing this.
When Emperor Chongzhen saw it, not only was he not angry at all, but he was ecstatic and asked quickly: "Do you have a way? Is there a way to make money? Is it time for me to dig some gold mines?"
After hearing this, Liu Weichao nodded with a smile and said, "Yes, you can dig gold mines!"
"What gold mine? Where is it? Is it easy to dig?" Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen asked quickly, asking questions like a barrage of questions.
Seeing him like this, Liu Weichao shook his head and said, "This gold mine is different. It's not underground, but among the people!"
"Ah?" Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but be a little surprised when he heard this. Then he thought about it seriously and said with a slight frown, "Then let me think about it and see if there are any other rich people who are unkind for their wealth. Let me see if I can copy...
…”
Liu Weichao was speechless when he heard this. He could only imagine that this comrade, the emperor, was so used to confiscating homes that he directly thought of doing so.
So, he spoke quickly and interrupted Emperor Chongzhen's words: "Stop it, stop it, I didn't let you ransack your home. It's time for you to change your behavior!"
"Oh?" Emperor Chongzhen was a little surprised when he heard this, and asked with curiosity, "If we don't confiscate the houses, how would the private money get into the hands of the imperial court?"
Liu Weichao shook his head when he heard this, and said to him: "Stupid, this method has been used before, have you forgotten it? When you opened a glass factory!"
Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was enlightened. He remembered how the glass factory was built in the past!
However, the reason why the glass factory did that at that time was because he had no authority at that time and had not yet taken control of the military, factory guards, etc., so he followed Liu Weichao's advice and tied up the interests of the officials to do things.
But now he no longer needs to think about this!
While he was thinking, Liu Weichao became serious and said to him: "I think you should use financial means to raise money at this time. This can be divided into several situations!"
Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen's expression became serious, and he listened with rapt attention.
Just listen to Liu Weichao continue to say to him: "One method is to set up securities and stocks to raise funds. In fact, you have already done this method before, but you have not done it officially. The other method is to issue national bonds.
Come raise money."
Although Emperor Chongzhen didn't understand what he heard, he could already tell that there was definitely a gold mine here, a very large gold mine, so he quickly said to Liu Weichao: "Tell me both methods, I'll listen."
!”
Liu Weichao listened, nodded, and then gave him a popular science guide: "Let's talk about national debt first. This is the easiest to understand and simple. It means issuing bonds in the name of the court. Don't you already have a bank? You can definitely do it through the bank.
Issuance, stipulates how many years to repay the money, and how much interest there is. You can explain in advance what the national debt is mainly used for."
At this point, he paused and saw Emperor Chongzhen frowning, and then added: "For example, you set up a Ministry of Communications, mainly to lay out wired telephones. This requires a lot of money, so you issue national bonds and say it will be used
If you do this, the common people will definitely make money from this, and the court will not default on your debts, so they will buy your national debt to earn interest! This is probably the case. I can compile a piece of information for you later!"
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he nodded repeatedly and said with a smile: "So, I can use people's money to do this, and then make money from wired telephones, and then return the money plus interest to them, and this thing is done?"
"
Seeing Liu Weichao nodding to confirm his idea, Emperor Chongzhen was very happy and quickly asked: "Then there is another one, what securities and stocks, I don't understand very well!"
Hearing this, Liu Weichao explained to him seriously: "If we really want to talk about this, it will be very complicated, and corresponding laws will have to be introduced. But I can give you a brief introduction first.
"
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he nodded quickly and did not speak, but his eyes made it clear that he wanted to speak quickly!
So Liu Weichao explained to him: "Let's take the telephone as an example! You set up a company that installs telephones, then divide it into one hundred shares, and sell 49 of them to the private sector. The one with the highest price will get it. Based on the private sector,
If you estimate that the phone company will definitely make a lot of money, they will pay a high price to buy the shares. You can use their money to do things, and they will enjoy the dividends given to them by the company to achieve profits. In addition,
, and can also allow shares to be bought and sold, which will also be a way to attract them to buy shares!"
Without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen to ask questions, he picked up the tea cup next to him and took a sip of tea before continuing: "If the telephone company does well and its profits will be higher in the future, then the shares will definitely be more expensive in the hands of private shareholders.
The value of your shares is high, and you can make more money by selling them to others, which is one of the reasons that attracts them to buy your shares. Of course, if the company is not doing well, then it is not good to expect a fall."
After listening to this, Emperor Chongzhen thought for a moment and said to Liu Weichao: "The first method is to issue national bonds, and that is to repay the principal with interest; the second method, I only need to pay them dividends, then I choose
The second kind!"
Liu Weichao was very speechless. How could an emperor be so stingy?
But he also immediately remembered, maybe the emperor was afraid of poverty? He was so poor that he almost destroyed his country and his family!
Thinking like this, Liu Weichao said seriously to Emperor Chongzhen: "Actually, you can't choose this way. Both methods have their own advantages. For the national debt, there is no need to explain the purpose or announce the specific details, so you can
For military use, for example, if you are temporarily short of money to make weapons, you can do this. For stocks and securities, you need to issue a prospectus, and the specific situation must be stated."
At this point, without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen to speak, he immediately added: "However, stocks should indeed be developed. Not only can the imperial court set up companies to raise funds from the private sector, but even if ordinary people want to open companies, they can also do the same.
And for the buying and selling of stocks, the imperial court can collect transaction taxes. This is the easiest thing for the imperial court to control, and it should be a stable tax source for the imperial court in the future!"
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was very happy at first, but when he came to his senses, he shook his head and said, "It's just a commission, how much money can you get?"
Liu Weichao saw that he looked down on the money, so he put his mobile phone on the mobile phone holder, checked it on the computer, and then said to Emperor Chongzhen: "In my world, the tax on this stock accounts for one year of the imperial government's finances."
3.57% of income, do you think it’s small money?”
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he did a little calculation in his mind. Based on the imperial court's income of 20 million taels, this amount would be 710,000 taels. This was not a small amount of money.
But before he could be happy, Liu Weichao added: "Of course, this actually depends on the size of the stock market. There will definitely not be so many at the beginning, and this number is from more than 20 years ago. As long as you get bigger,
If the stock market is affected, then the tax will definitely be very large!”