Chapter 109 Capital monopoly is too scary (please subscribe)
Three days later, at the canal dock in the east of the city, Zhu Cixiang came to see him off with Queen Zhou and his younger brothers and sisters. None of the civil and military officials were left behind.
On the pier, there were more than 400 ships of various sizes docked.
The 20,000 carefully selected elites have all boarded the ship. With the newly made weapons, armor, and uniforms, and the addition of uniforms from the 100,000-strong army, the 20,000 men no longer look like beggars.
Accompanying him this time were a thousand female soldiers from the Red Lady, the second-in-command of the Dongchang Jinyi Guard, a large number of factory guards, and nearly 30,000 boatmen.
"My beloved, do you remember everything I told you?"
"Well, I have recorded them all in the notebook. Your Majesty, please take care of yourself..."
The red lady nodded, her voice choked with sobs. She had never been so pampered by anyone since she was a child.
Thinking that I would not see this little emperor for more than a year in the future, my eyes became moist at this moment, and my face was full of reluctance.
"Take care, my beloved concubine, I will come to Jiangnan within a year at most."
Zhu Cixiang was also a little reluctant to let go, wishing he could keep her by his side and love her every day, but apart from the Red Lady, there really was no one he could trust.
The two of them talked for a few more words. Seeing that Queen Zhou and Zhang Yan had finished saying goodbye, Zhu Cihong came to Zhang Yan and said: "Auntie, I have to work hard for you this time. Don't worry, the child will come to Jiangnan in person within a year at most."
Take the answer, from now on the child will definitely be filial to you, and in the future the child will even take you back to your hometown in Henan to visit relatives!"
"Well! Xun'er is interested, and I have nothing else to ask for. I just want you and your father to reconcile as soon as possible." Zhang Yan nodded, obviously she still couldn't let go of Chongzhen in her heart.
"My child will obey his father."
"This lady is relieved."
Then Tai Kangbo also brought a group of family members to say goodbye to Zhang Yan.
Apparently he was released not long ago.
As for those nobles captured at the beginning, all of them will be sent to Qiongzhou after Jiangnan is stabilized.
As for Tai Kangbo, he and Zhou Guozhang are also going to Qiongzhou, but the treatment is better.
Zhang Yan simply said hello and got on the boat with the help of the red lady.
It is obvious that she has relatively indifferent feelings towards these relatives. In her heart, she is not as good as her uncle Chongzhen and her nephew Zhu Cixiang.
As the fleet left, Zhu Cixiang took Zhou Hou and his younger brothers and sisters back to the palace.
The civil and military officials also dispersed one after another. On the way back, they still cursed the little emperor in his heart for being so shameless.
They even sent the Queen Mother Yi'an and the imperial concubine to Nanjing together. It was obvious that they wanted to use soft and hard tactics, and use both civil and military forces.
However, while everyone was scolding, they also had to admire the little emperor's skill. Although it was a little shameless, the effect was definitely the best.
…
In the next few days, Zhu Cihong took over the red lady's errand and went to the military camp in the west of the city every day to personally supervise the training of the soldiers.
At the same time, he was busy planning the city of Beijing.
After more than a month had passed since Jiannu was defeated, merchants from the south finally arrived by ship.
The boat was loaded with rice, flour, salt, cloth, and other daily necessities.
Obviously he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to make a lot of money.
There is a royal shop for rice, flour and salt, so everyone has no choice but to temporarily hoard it and not sell it.
But the price of cloth keeps rising again and again.
In just a few days, the worst cotton cloth was sold for three taels a piece, and the better ones were sold for four or five taels. As for silk and satin, it was sold for dozens or hundreds of taels a piece, and even the dignitaries could not afford it.
Although he knew that as the number of merchants increased, prices would definitely drop, but Zhu Cixiang was still very angry, but he could not arrest them, otherwise they would not come. After all, Jiangnan had not been recovered yet.
"Xinlan, aren't there merchants and farmers in the capital who are weaving and spinning?"
"Back to Your Majesty, according to my slave's investigation, during the Jiajing period, farmers near the capital no longer weaved or spun yarn, and most of the cotton was shipped from the south of the Yangtze River.
By the time of Wanli, there were very few farmers weaving fine linen in the entire north, and almost 90% of the cotton and satin products came from Jiangnan. In the past ten years, there were not even a few dyeing shops in the capital."
Liu Xinlan explained patiently.
"Forget silk and satin, but cotton can be grown anywhere, so why is it monopolized by Jiangnan? Don't merchants in the north organize farmers to weave and spin?"
Zhu Cixi also looked shocked. In ancient China, men farmed and women weaved. If these women didn't even weave or spin, then what's the point? How could they not go bankrupt and rebel?
"My servant has also asked about it. It is said that there are large workshops in the south of the Yangtze River, focusing on weaving and spinning. The looms and spinning machines seem to be faster and better.
At the beginning, the cotton cloth in Jiangnan was sold very cheaply. The cotton cloth produced in the north was not only not as good as that in Jiangnan, but also more expensive. Naturally, it could not be sold. If the price was reduced, it would not make any money, and it would even lead to losses.
As time went by, no merchants were willing to buy cotton cloth woven from the north. Without the support of merchants, farmers were unable to weave and spin yarn. At this time, the price of cotton cloth from the south of the Yangtze River began to rise again, becoming more expensive almost every year.
The price has never been lowered again.”
After Zhu Cihong heard this, his scalp felt numb.
No matter how this sounds, it sounds like the basic operation mode of capital in order to monopolize. It first uses its strong financial resources to fight a price war, drive the other party into bankruptcy, then implement a monopoly, and then raises the price.
What's more, Jiangnan also has a technical advantage. If it can compete with others, it will be crazy.
Take a peek and discover the whole picture.
Zhu Cixi also realized that the reason why the Ming Dynasty collapsed was probably closely related to the serious economic imbalance and the concentration of all manufacturing industries in Jiangnan.
The key is that Jiangnan merchants do not pay taxes and bury the money they earn underground. This will cause money from all over the country to be continuously absorbed by Jiangnan, and the court cannot control it.
Coupled with Zhang Juzheng's whipping method of collecting taxes and only collecting cash, prices skyrocketed, and silver became more expensive than copper. As a result, farmers in the northern provinces went bankrupt.
The situation in the barren northwest was definitely the worst and was the first to go bankrupt. This explains why the uprising in the late Ming Dynasty started in the northwest.
He guessed that if Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands had not continuously provided blood transfusions and money to the Ming Dynasty, they might not have been able to survive long ago.
"No, for food, clothing, housing and transportation, cloth comes first. No matter what, cotton cloth must not be monopolized by Jiangnan. The north must produce it on its own."
Zhu Cixiang said solemnly, in ancient times, besides grain and salt, cloth was the largest mobile commodity, and it was also an indispensable thing for the people.
Linen and cotton correspond to ordinary people. As long as cotton can be produced in the north, it can avoid being sucked by Jiangnan.
If cotton cloth could be monopolized by the north, then the economy of the north and south of the Ming Dynasty would most likely be able to maintain a balance.
"But Your Majesty, I'm afraid no one in the north can spin and weave cotton now. Moreover, the spinning machines and looms in the south are better. Even if we can weave it, I'm afraid I won't be able to sell it to them!"
"If you don't know how to spin and weave, you can learn to do it. If you can't sell it, we will build better spinning machines and looms with higher efficiency. If it doesn't work, I will send people to Shandong to forcefully purchase cotton."
After Zhu Cihong's Dragon Hammer case, he had decided that no matter what, he had to put cotton manufacturing near the capital, and then radiate the entire north to form an industrial chain. If he couldn't compete with commercial means, don't blame him for cheating and interfering with administrative means.
Immediately, Zhu Cixi drove to the manufacturing prison. He did not want to wait for a moment longer. Every moment he waited, a large amount of money would flow to the cellars of the gentleman merchants in Jiangnan.
But the dyeing and weaving workshops in the palace only produced high-quality silk and satin, and did not weave cotton at all. Fortunately, the principles of the loom and the spinning machine were similar, but they were more refined.
Looking at the original spinning machine with only one spindle, Zhu Cixi also remembered that historically, it seemed that the British invented a spinning jenny in the 18th century with more than a dozen spindles, which greatly improved the efficiency of spinning.
More than ten times.
It seems that a flying shuttle loom was also invented, which also greatly improved the efficiency of weaving.
It's a pity that he only knows the name and doesn't know the principle and structure at all, but he believes that Chinese craftsmen are no stupider than the British, but this damn society limits their creativity and imagination.
When the Chinese used linen to dress, people in Europe didn't know whether they were naked or wrapped in leaves.
Thinking of this, Zhu Cixi also felt very angry. Farming and textiles have been China's strength for thousands of years.
Not wanting to wait any longer, more than two hundred women, including women who knew how to spin and weave, and carpenters who knew how to build looms and spinning machines, gathered together immediately.
He also selected 300 skilled carpenters from the Ordnance Supervision and established a special creation supervision.
"From today on, in addition to eating and sleeping, you will improve this spinning machine and loom. For every additional spindle produced by this spinning machine, each person will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver. The person who comes up with the method will be given a seal.
When he becomes an official, the same goes for this loom. Every time the efficiency doubles, each person will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver. The person who proposes the method will also be given an official title..."
After Zhu Cihong finished speaking, the eyes of more than 500 carpenters and palace maids were all wide-eyed, and they wanted to rush over to tinker with these two machines immediately.
After the announcement, Zhu Cihong gave some more instructions and left.
He couldn't help with this kind of thing, so he could only appoint an official and make a wish and let them think about improvements.
He doesn't expect to be able to produce spinning jenny and flying shuttle loom at once. As long as the spinning machine can double or triple the efficiency, he will be satisfied. If the loom can double the efficiency, it will be more incense.
And there are plans to develop the textile industry.
Zhu Cixiang also made adjustments to the planning of the capital city, and finally decided to expand three more outer cities.
An outer city will be expanded to the west, which will be used as an industrial area in the future.
He planned to use water-powered spinning to concentrate production and spin cotton into spindles after the spinning machine was improved.
Then they sign an agreement with ordinary farmers, provide them with spindles and looms, let them process and weave cloth at home, and then recycle it at a price per piece of cloth.
Finally, we searched for cooperation with merchants in various provinces and asked them to open dyeing workshops, while the royal shop was responsible for sales.
In this way, the initial production and final sales are all in his hands, and the cotton origin is in his hands, and the price is also in his hands.
The other two outer cities, one will be used as a residential area and the other will be used as a commercial area. The residential area will be built in the north and the commercial area will be built in the east.
In this way, there will be an outer city on all four sides of the inner city, with an area that is at least two or three times larger than it is now, and all the dignitaries of the inner city will have to be relocated to the residential area to the north.
From now on, no private residences will be allowed in the inner city except the imperial palace, various government offices, and academies.
As for the current outer city, it should be regarded as a slum. The buildings there are too messy and cannot be improved at all. Even if Wu Xiang tried his best to improve it, Zhu Cixiang went to inspect it several times and was not very satisfied.
After the winter wheat is planted, hundreds of thousands of military households in the three armies can start construction.
As one of the six ministries, the Ministry of Works finally had something to do.
After listening to Zhu Cixiang's instructions, the faces of all the officials changed dramatically.
"Your Majesty, such a project is too huge, and it should be planned slowly..."
"You don't need to worry about this. I won't let you be responsible for the construction. All you have to do is draw the drawings according to my requirements and improve them carefully. It is best to make a wooden model. Then you will be responsible for supervising the construction.
"
Zhu Cixiang waved his hand, interrupting the minister of the Ministry of Industry's verbosity, and then ordered in a stern tone.
"I obey the order!"
"It's just that Your Majesty, this salary has not been paid for more than half a year, and I really can't open the door to the problem!"
"Yes, Your Majesty..."
As a bold junior official said with a sad face, the rest of the officials nodded frequently.
Obviously, everyone now understands that this little emperor is not as cruel and bloodthirsty as he appears. He almost never kills people and punishes crimes indiscriminately, so he is more courageous.
"Okay, the Ministry of Industry will reissue one month's salary first, all in real money. However, I have said something ugly before. After receiving my salary, the time difference has not been settled. I will be punished one by one!"
Zhu Cixi waved his hand impatiently and then warned.
"Your Majesty, don't worry. I will do my best to satisfy your Majesty..."