Chapter 203: Iron Ambition (6)

The "Official Street" outside Beijing's Yongding Gate is adjacent to the "Kaihong Hotel" in the courtyard of the Ministry of Transport. The five or six-story archway-style main entrance is covered with shiny sapphire blue glazed tiles, which is really eye-catching from a distance.

Covering an area of ​​70,000 to 80,000 square meters, this high-end government hotel, surrounded by gardens and flowing water, and full of Chinese elegance, was originally a place to receive Chinese and foreign dignitaries and local officials. Shortly after the Empire entered the war, two cement pillars were painted vermilion below the archway.

On the side, two white plaques with ink characters on the "Ministry of Munitions" and "Economic Committee" were hung. From then on, this place became the location of the empire's wartime economic organs.

The "Qingyi Pavilion" in the center of the hotel courtyard is a two-story small wooden building surrounded by clear pond rockery and weeping willows. Compared with other exquisite buildings with carved eaves and painted eaves in the courtyard, it even looks a bit crude at first glance:

All wooden structures are uncarved

It was not even painted, but only coated with a few layers of tung oil. The texture of the logs was clearly visible, and the tiles covering the roof were the most ordinary earth-burned rough tiles. Only the security guards with guns and live ammunition were deployed tightly around the small building to reveal the difference.

The secret here.

In a living room on the second floor facing the ice pond and Lingliu, the current owner of this compound, Qirui Hou Ma Feng, was leaning on the railing and looking at the snow, speaking slowly in his usual elegant and calm tone.

"...the compensation in the Shimonoseki Treaty plus the redemption fee was only 230 million taels of silver. The additional compensation in the Xinchou Treaty was 450 million taels of silver, which was paid off in thirty-nine years, with a total principal and interest of 980 million taels.

, looks amazing, doesn’t it?”

"But do you know how much interest we paid in total on so much foreign debt we borrowed in the past 25 years? After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the net balance of foreign debt was only 40 to 50 million pounds. After the Asia-Russia War, it exceeded the 500 million pound mark.

Before the war, it had grown to almost one billion pounds. According to the average annual interest rate of 5%, it would cost 50 million pounds just to pay the interest every year, which was almost 1 billion pounds in the empire.

One-seventh of the fiscal revenue in 913 was equivalent to 304 million taels of silver based on the price of silver in 1894. According to the price in 1906, it was 375 million taels - almost equal to the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

The government's total budget expenditures, you know, the budget deficit that year reached 84.39 million taels, a new record since the Qing Dynasty."

"Four hundred million. The cumulative interest paid in twenty-five years exceeded 400 million pounds. Based on the 1906 price comparison, it amounted to 3 billion taels of silver, which was equivalent to six times the total fiscal revenue of the empire in 1902. It was almost equal to the British total revenue in 1910.

Ten times the total investment profits of India. How about it? The rising powers of the Chinese Empire

The interest income that the country earned from borrowing money was more than the indemnity squeezed from the decadent Manchu Qing Dynasty through invasion. Doesn’t it sound like a fantasy? On the contrary, one Treaty of Shimonoseki every year, and one hardship every three years

We still held on to the ugly treaty and rushed out to fight a world war. Isn’t this very obscene and nonsense?"

One of the audience members sitting around the table enjoying tea in the room, Yang Yuxiang, who was dressed in a dark uniform skirt, tight pantyhose and high heels, a charming and mature woman, commented with a smile: "Qi Ruihou is joking, borrow money to start an industry, and use the industry to support the industry.

Enriching a country and strengthening its military are two different things from unilaterally expropriating land and paying compensation."

Fang Tianhua, who was wearing a suit and leather shoes, gently twisted the tea bowl lid with one hand and flicked his fingertips on the square log table with the other hand: "Can you understand it this way, everything in this world is interrelated. On the one hand, we have a strong army and no one can bully us.

, so we don’t have to bear the reparations in history. But for the sake of development, and more for the sake of hegemony, we need to borrow more money than in history.

They borrowed more foreign debt and paid huge interest that was more than the compensation. If they fell behind and were beaten, they were robbed with guns and guns. To develop, they needed to borrow debt and introduce foreign capital, but they were robbed with capital. In the final analysis, they all have something to gain.

To make money, rather than as some people preach, when we develop, they will decline; when we make money, they will suffer losses."

Ma Feng turned around and nodded, shook his head again, and strolled back to the table: "It's not so absolute. After all, our own industry has developed. In that time and space, the profits made by foreigners from industrial products have finally come to an end."

Part of the competition came. According to rough statistics by scholars of the Republic of China in the 1920s, from the second year of Guangxu, which was 1875, to the ninth year of the Republic of China, which was 1920, four

In fifteen years, foreign trade imports exceeded 3.2 billion taels of silver, of which industrial products accounted for about 65% of the imported goods. This means that due to the sluggish industry in China at that time, in less than half a century

As much as 2.1 billion taels of silver were outflowed to foreign countries, which far exceeded the total amount of foreign reparations before the Qing Dynasty and was equivalent to twice the total foreign debt of China in the fifth year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1916."

"It's shocking." Fang Tianhua sighed with lowered eyebrows.

Ma Feng leaned forward and sat down. He held up the saucer with one hand and used the other hand to uncover the flower-colored tea bowl cover. He used a pure white glaze tea bowl cover. He brought it close to his mouth and took a sip.

He continued unhurriedly: "Before the Asia-Russia War, we also imported a large amount of industrial products.

In addition to some daily necessities, it mainly introduces transportation-related equipment such as railway tracks, locomotives, and steamships, and power-related equipment such as steam engines, internal combustion engines, generators, and electric motors. As for complete sets of metallurgy, machinery, and machine-making equipment, including the most critical machine tools

, not to mention..."

"These big-ticket gadgets cost a lot of money. They often couldn't compete with foreigners at the beginning of operations. The products were much more expensive than imported ones. In the later period, because of too much debt, they had to mortgage part of the tariffs. Tariffs are the most important shield.

It often fails to play any role. Therefore, it usually has to be given a privileged monopoly status, plus 'government' subsidies, to be able to maintain it."

"In the beginning, the main things that made money were daily necessities, such as matches, cigarettes, candles, soap, western medicine, electric lights, cement, small hardware, woven fabrics, and machine-milled flour. These investments are low and the results are effective.

In addition to the monopoly privileges of a few categories such as cigarettes and Western medicine given to political and commercial chaebols as a reward for close cooperation with the government, most of the fast light industry is open to small and medium-sized capital transferred from the land reform.

."

"The small and medium-sized landowners who were 'forced' by the land reform were accustomed to making a living by renting land. It was not too difficult to ask them to specialize in business and selling goods. It was not so easy to ask them to switch to industry. This is a technical job.

It’s not just about being able to settle accounts

In this way, the 'government' has to take the lead and build a few demonstration factories. The formula process and so on are not a problem. The patent is shared by our Future People Group - it can also be regarded as national, and we Chinese can use it ourselves.

Patent fees are easy to negotiate

It doesn’t matter whether the imported machines are a little more expensive or not. Once the scientific management methods of Taylor Manufacturing are popularized, coupled with our early labor cost advantages, the efficiency will come out, and the cost-effectiveness of the products will skyrocket.

Channeling. In the first few years, the shareholders of these demonstration factories made crazy profits. The effect of taking the lead came out, and people from all over the world flocked to learn from it. Within a few years, various companies using the same patents and operating models were similar.

Factories sprouted all over the country."

"Of course, if the things are well made, you can't prevent foreigners from stealing them. Most of them across the country are private companies, so you can't prevent them. If you have no other choice, just steal and learn. You can steal the recipes and processes.

, you can learn from your management methods, but are your manpower as cheap as mine? The per capita cultivated land here is more than three acres, farmers account for more than 80% of the total population, and there is so much hidden unemployment that we are dead. We Chinese farmers

Our endurance is one of the best in the world. We are used to seeing famines and famines, and we are used to having our bones broken and sucking out our marrow. Foreigners seem to be working hard like slaves, but we Chinese can take it as a serious job and enjoy it...well, maybe I can say that.

It's a bit harsh, but that's the fact. China's labor force is the cheapest, so under the same conditions, we can make the cheapest products..."

"However, the effects of land reform and agricultural construction gradually came out later. Farmers' enthusiasm for production increased. Production was organized by farmers' associations. Farmers' bargaining power improved a lot. The government also invested a lot of resources and energy in building construction projects.

Water conservancy, improved seeds, improved transportation, reclamation of wasteland, cultivated land area and yield per unit area have all increased.

After going up, the life of farmers was temporarily better for a while, and the advantage of cheap migrant workers was weakened. However, at this time, the urban population base also reached a new level, and the city's own population continued to expand. After going through a special period,
Chapter completed!