Intimidation and inducement, familiarity with the road.
In the past ten years, or to be more precise, in the past six months, Gao Pragmatic seems to have been doing this kind of thing. I dare not say that he has reached the peak, but he should be called a proficient person.
Now that Annan's military power has been controlled, and the rights and obligations between Jinghua Group and Annan's Metropolitan Division have been basically divided, the next thing to do is to work on government affairs.
In fact, the importance of government affairs is really no less important than military affairs. And its top priority can be summed up in just four words: colonization.
In Gao Pragmatic's eyes, the Jinghua Group, especially when dealing with the outside world, is similar to the so-called "East India Company" of Europeans. Of course it wants to make a profit, but in the final analysis, it is a pioneer of colonial development.
Historically, British India was established by the "British East India Company". Before the company's demise, there were no less than 200,000 "Company Army" in India, mainly composed of Indians.
It would be foolish not to learn from such a good experience.
On June 23, 1757, in a village called Plassey on the bank of the Bhagirathi River at the source of the Ganges, the British and the prince of Bengal, Siraj Ud Dera, started a battle. The British
The commander-in-chief, Robert Clive, led a force of more than 3,000 men, including 900 Europeans and 2,200 Indians, while his opponent Siraj invested 35,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.
In the end, there were only more than 20 British soldiers casualties, while the Bangladeshi army lost more than 1,000 soldiers.
In terms of scale, this "Battle of Plassey" can hardly be called a big battle, but its historical significance is extremely important. After this battle, British influence began to penetrate into all levels of Indian government
, became the actual ruler of India. More importantly, this war represented that the East India Company officially became the "agent" of the British Empire to implement colonial rule in India.
Strictly speaking, as a historical term, "East India Company" does not specifically refer to the British East India Company. In the 17th century, the "East India Company" was a company model established by most countries in Western Europe to develop colonial trade.
Its trading partners are mainly India, Malaysia and other Asian countries located in the west of the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The reason why it is called "East India" is to distinguish it from the Americas, which was called "West India" by the West at that time.
At the beginning, among the East India companies established in Western countries, the most advanced and powerful one was actually the Dutch United East India Company. They adopted the model of a joint-stock company and operated with the goal of long-term management, so they were regarded by later generations as
He was the founder of the "joint-stock system". At its most powerful, the Dutch East India Company monopolized the entire spice trade in East India and completely suppressed the business of East India companies in other countries.
However, Gao Pragmatic has no interest in the "Dutch advanced company system" because the system he implemented in Jinghua itself is also a joint-stock system, but... it has too Chinese characteristics.
This feature is called political shareholding, and more popularly, it means that the powerful take control of the shares.
Gao Pragmatic has never made it clear what the "Jinghua Group" refers to in the Ming Dynasty, but in fact everyone will definitely acquiesce in this: Any industry controlled by Gao Pragmatic whose sign begins with the word "Jinghua" belongs to "Jinghua"
group".
This group is fully controlled by Gao Pragmatic, and there is no equity. But when it comes to specific industries, there are two other systems that are implemented at the same time, namely dry stock dividends and performance dividends.
There are two major categories of dividends from dry stocks: one is shares held by powerful people. This needs no explanation at all. The profit dividends received by Zhu Yingzhen, Zhang Yuangong, Li Zongcheng and other powerful people or their children from various industries affiliated to Jinghua are dry stocks.
You don't pay for shares, you enjoy profit dividends, but you don't have any decision-making rights - what is called voting rights in later generations.
The other category is technical stocks, and the Liu family's Baibao Xuanmingsan belongs to this category. However, a more important technical stock leader is Zhu Zaiyu.
Zhu Zaiyu improved some production equipment, such as coking and iron-smelting tools (Gao Pragmatic proposed the concept, and he was responsible for the design and calculation), sail shapes, pulleys, etc. Gao Pragmatic also arranged for him to pay dividends after the products were produced.
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However, because Zhu Zaiyu had no idea about money (historically, he even insisted not to inherit the throne), the dividend ratio given by Gao Pragmatic was also surprisingly low. However, because he had too many "patents", the money was finally collected together.
It's quite impressive.
Performance bonuses are given to daily managers in various industries, such as Gao Rui (Gao Xiaozhuang), Gao Mengnan, Shuai Jiamo, and Gao Sitang. In addition to formal salary, they all have performance rewards to receive.
However, for Gao Pragmatic's performance rewards, it is easier to get the "ministry living allowance", but it is difficult to get the subsequent higher levels. In order to divide this performance reward, Gao Mo's Internal Affairs Department and Gao Guoyan's Finance Department jointly worked together.
It took several months to roughly set a performance level. Of course, there is no need to go into detail.
But one thing to mention by the way is: "Generals" such as Gao Jue, Gao Zhang, and Gao Jing who lead troops on expeditions also receive performance rewards. However, these types of rewards are arbitrary by Gao Pragmatic himself, and they only go to Beijing.
account.
Therefore, the current joint-stock system of Gaowu Real Estate is a joint-stock system with "Chinese characteristics". It has both an advanced side, which is equivalent to the "equity incentive" practice of later generations, and a "rotten" side... which is equivalent to power-for-money transactions.
There is also a "flexible mechanism", that is, Gao Pragmatic can use "face" to find powerful people to raise funds, but this skill is a spare skill, and Gao Pragmatic has not used it yet - his "cash flow" has been sufficient so far.
of.
I just don’t know if this abundance can be maintained with the construction of Golden Port City fully launched and the construction of pure warships started. Maybe he will consider diluting a small part of the equity or exchanging face for money. We will see when the time comes.
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Since there is no need to learn the institutional systems of the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company, then the only things that need to be learned are business methods.
The reason why the Yongle Dynasty failed to control Annan was ultimately because they could not make ends meet and suffered too serious losses; European colonial rule was able to spread around the world largely because their colonial policies were profitable.
Another big reason why the colonies were profitable was the agent model similar to the East India Company.
The East India Company's first consideration is profit, and then it will consider continuing to develop colonies. The purpose of developing more colonies is to make more profits - only such "compounding profits" can be maintained.
So many commercial clauses in the "Beijing Sixteen Articles" are designed for this purpose. Even some of the clauses with strong political implications are essentially designed to protect these profits.
But Gao Pragmatic knew that whether it was the British or the Dutch East India Company, there was one thing that he could not learn at will, at least in Annan.
This is called a predatory colonial policy.
For example, the British East India Company maintained the privilege of zero tariffs for the Mughal Empire in India for a long time. Gao Pragmatic did not learn this. Although the "Sixteen Points of Beijing" were entirely based on Gao Pragmatic's decision, he left Annan with
I got a little comfort - Jinghua also has to pay a full 1% tax.
In history, after the British East India Company took control of the political and military power in India, it soon replaced trade with plunder as its main means of profit. Gao Pragmatic believed that this was the beginning of their downfall.
At that time, the East India Company had the power and could not wait to use it to achieve maximum plunder. Every time the company conquered a land, it plundered the treasury and blackmailed the princes and nobles.
In 1757, after the East India Company captured Murshidabad, the capital of Bangladesh, it snatched treasure worth 3.7 million pounds from the treasury of Siraj, the prince of Bengal. Subsequently, the East India Company supported Mir Jafar to become a puppet of Bangladesh.
The ruler, Mir Jafar, paid another 1 million pounds in "reparations" and 500,000 pounds to the British merchants in Calcutta. This wealth even exceeded the East India Company's total annual trade.
The initial peaceful business policy was abandoned and replaced by wars, territorial expansion, increased taxes, etc. The East India Company seemed to have more profits, but it was also dying step by step.
Waging wars, colonizing, plundering, and selling opium... The East India Company was engaged in highly profitable business. At the same time, due to the disappearance of competition, internal corruption was also increasing day by day.
Since Clive became the Governor of Bengal in 1764, "the company's once polite employees have now become extremely violent and greedy; the shareholders colluded with each other and bribed for election campaigns; the board of directors has completely become without leadership ability and cannot achieve effective governance."
, an institution full of strife.”
At that time, all employees of the East India Company began to enrich themselves and accumulate wealth privately. According to a report by the British Parliament, between 1757 and 1766, employees of the East India Company received gifts as high as 2.17 million pounds. In the mid-to-late 18th century, in
The rich "remuneration" for services in India makes its company stocks not only regarded as a conventional investment, but also capital that allows oneself or relatives to make a fortune in India.
If Gao Pragmatic evaluates these situations, it is "the transformation from a commercial company to a corrupt dynasty."
If we want to make some inappropriate analogies, this is like the combat effectiveness of the Tatars before entering the customs and their combat effectiveness after entering the customs. In just ten or twenty years, they can fall from the peak to the bottom; it is also like the Jintian Uprising, Yong'an Uprising, etc.
The Taiping Army when he was crowned king and the Taiping Army after Tianjing was established as the capital did not take more than ten years to degenerate beyond recognition.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic does not intend to let Jinghua Group follow the old path of the British East India Company. What he wants to learn mainly is the "first half of life" of the East India Company.
So what were the characteristics of the East India Company's behavior in the "first half of its life"?
It is to maintain business competition, maintain business reputation, and at the same time insist on giving priority to profits and not fall into endless crazy plunder.
All of the above combined can be described with five words that Gao is very familiar with: sustainable development. If we must add two more words, it would be: insist on sustainable development.
Killing chickens to obtain eggs and depleting the lake for fishing is definitely not a wise rule. Only conscientiously planting leeks for the purpose of harvesting leeks is.
Therefore, while Gao Pragmatic held the military and political power in Annan, he also established two ports in the north and south for Annan. At the same time, he also allowed Mo Maoqia to cooperate with Jinghua Group in business. All of this was "growing leeks for the sake of harvesting leeks."
Not only that, Gao Pragmatic was also afraid that the Jinghua Group would lack competition and vitality, so he built Golden Port as a free trade port. The new port located at the mouth of the Gang River in the north (roughly the Haiphong City of Vietnam in later generations) was not this kind of pure free port, because the north
Part of him wants to ensure that the Mo family and the old Annan forces related to the Mo family can be profitable.
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This can be regarded as gradually writing the "deep water area of reform". The more I write, the slower it is...
