Chapter 299 Always likes to accomplish more with one stone
Chapter 299 Always likes to accomplish more with one stone
Taoism and fertilizer have nothing to do with each other, but they are now related because of Zhu Houcong.
There is no need to think about chemical fertilizers. The technical threshold is quite high. However, Jin Kaila himself tried to mix many things into his fertilizers and the results were good, which provided Zhu Houcong with new ideas.
If several effective ingredients of this primitive compound fertilizer are determined under Zhu Houcong's "inspiration", then a lot of things can be done in the name of seeking those raw materials and preparing those raw materials.
It would be faster to empty out the experience of the alchemy Taoist priests in conducting "heating reaction experiments" and then use the scientific method of quantitative analysis to train new disciples - there is no way, Zhu Houhuang can't be a chemistry teacher.
Without seeking to develop a complete subject system, I will study the preparation of some non-industrial fertilizer raw materials for practical purposes.
In addition, the struvite stone must also be put on the agenda. The reason why Zhang Lun and others were involved in this matter was naturally to use Zhu Houcong's hidden unit in this reform that was not very conspicuous - the Maritime Transport Bureau.
Benefits from overseas must be seen by more people.
The smugglers had already seen it, but what they saw was money.
The important officials of the imperial court are not short of money, they want status and reputation.
With the power of the overseas struvite and the original compound fertilizer of Jinqiao, if someone can really make the people of the Ming Dynasty have full stomachs, how much fame and sense of accomplishment will it be?
For them, this is the real "profit" overseas!
…
Xue Lun, Marquis of Yangwu, suppressed the overall situation in Sichuan two years ago. Although he did not participate in the Huguang rebellion, his contribution was not small.
He is also getting older. At this military affairs conference, the candidates for the commanders of the provincial capitals were determined. Xue Lun submitted his resignation in advance - five years after Jiajing, a large number of new people promoted by the emperor would take over. For example, in Sichuan,
For example, Guo Zan, the guerrilla general of the Shenji Battalion who had outstanding achievements in the battle against the rebellion and was newly awarded the title of Jianing Bo, was Ji Weimin.
He knows how to advance and retreat.
What's more, it's not like there aren't areas where you can make great contributions.
But that would not be Xue Lun himself, but his son Xue Han.
Now, he is instructing his son in the mansion: "The letter from Counselor Cui has arrived, and your Majesty has approved my resignation. I will wait for Uncle Jianing in Chengdu, and you will go to Hangzhou first. Remember to ask Mr. Pan for advice."
On the side, Pan Min, an old staff member who had been with him for many years, looked solemn.
"Father, why do you want me to go to the Maritime Transport Bureau to gain experience? Except for the General Manager Zheyang, the Maritime Transport Bureau has only been reorganized into the Zhejiang General Manager. The only way to go is to the River Transport Bureau."
"Your Majesty's words are wrong." Pan Min said immediately, "What Your Majesty wants to see is that although the Maritime Bureau still has a branch in Tianjin, the main bureau has been moved to Hangzhou. The Nanjing navy left guard, right guard, and Longjiang left guard.
, Guangyang, Jiangyin, Yingtian, plus the five guards of Huai'an, Dahe, Gaoyou, Yangzhou, and Changhuai, plus the commander-in-chief of the Zhejiang Dusi of the Cao Army, the Maritime Transport Bureau is run by soldiers for the people, and in fact, many local guards in the south of the Yangtze River have been spared.
Military strength. More importantly, which one of Yang Getai, Jiang Getai and Yan Dutai did not go to Jiangnan with a heavy responsibility?"
Xue Han was still young and couldn't figure it out for a while.
"Wherever you go, do good deeds! Since you are not good at military affairs, and you are not willing to just do business like a British official, the Maritime Transport Bureau is the best place to go! The River Transport Bureau is just an enterprise your Majesty said. The Maritime Transport Bureau wants to prevent Japanese pirates, but it is also
Military and business!"
Because of his contribution, although Cui Yuan did not reveal any secrets about the planning of the Nanyang Maritime Great Wall, he still helped Zhu Houcong to say to Xue Lun: In the future, there will be great achievements at sea!
Xue Lun's great-grandfather Xue Lu was the first generation Marquis of Yangwu, and was given the posthumous title of Zhongwu after his death.
Now, His Majesty has posthumously awarded Yu Qian the posthumous title of "Zhongwu" in the new dynasty, and he is worthy of enjoying the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
Xue Lun still has the desire to make meritorious deeds, but he is already old.
After reprimanding his son with a straight face, Xue Lun said: "Remember! When you go to Hangzhou, ask Mr. Pan more for advice, listen more to Yan Dutai's plans, and listen more to President Ma's orders! The Shipping Bureau is not like
It’s as simple as you think!”
Xue Han didn't know how difficult it could be, but the first month had passed a long time ago, and it was time for him to set off.
He really wanted to stay in Sichuan with Guo Zan. His father Yu Yin was still there, and it was easiest for Xue Han to accumulate qualifications in Sichuan.
To put it bluntly, in the future, if you become a noble, you may be able to lead any country.
Now, he is inexplicably going to work in some company.
It was still a reform of the Cao Army, which could only supervise food supplies and could not fight at all.
Xue Han thought so, but in Hangzhou, the establishment of the Maritime Transport Bureau affected the hearts of countless people.
The reason is a bit simple: after the Cajun Army restructured the River Transportation Bureau and the Maritime Transportation Bureau, the River Transportation Bureau only supervised the transportation of grain taxes from the north of the Yangtze River and the purchases by the palace and the imperial court to Beijing. However, the Maritime Transportation Bureau was not only responsible for the grain taxes in the five provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi.
It will be transported by sea to Beijing and delivered to Jizhou, and it will also carry the part of Huangmingji's goods that are transshipped by sea.
Although Huangmingji also has its own transshipment company specializing in land transportation.
And what is Huangmingji? It is the only enterprise legally engaged in maritime trade in Ming Dynasty after the Zhejiang Shipping Department was abolished.
What is even more imaginative is why Yan Song went to Ningbo for nearly ten days after returning from the national policy meeting in the capital, and why he brought with him the president of the Maritime Bureau, the former Shandong Metropolitan Commander and the top leader of the Shandong General Administration of the Cao Army.
Clear?
Ningbo, that’s where Zhejiang Shipping Company was originally located!
What they didn't know was that what Yan Song and Ma Cheng were going to see was an inconspicuous and even somewhat puzzling thing.
But because the emperor personally confessed it, neither Yan Song nor Ma Cheng dared to treat it lightly.
Now, the two of them walked around and returned to Hangzhou, with several boxes in front of them.
"I wonder if this is what your Majesty is looking for."
In the box, there are gray-white or gray-brown stones that look quite rough.
Ma Cheng is one of those who "dedicated his crimes and made meritorious service". Now he is the president of the Maritime Bureau. The order passed by the emperor in the first month of the year is indeed a bit heavy: searching for and purchasing large quantities of this kind of stone from overseas will be a strategic task behind the Maritime Bureau.
"It's not wrong, right? Struvite... As the name suggests, it should be this kind of thing."
After the national policy meeting, Yan Song did not immediately set off to Zhejiang. After Zhu Houcong saw Jin Kaila at that time, he thought of struvite and mentioned it to Yan Song, because he remembered that there were many islands in the sea in Zhejiang, and he might be able to find them first.
Experiment.
"If it is really this thing..." Yan Song frowned, "Your Majesty, if this thing is really miraculous for our crops in the Ming Dynasty, the quantity needed in the future will be huge! I heard from your majesty that this thing is mostly produced on the vast sea islands.
, because birds often look for islands to settle in the sea, and it took many years to form this stone. Since most of them come from overseas islands, it is a bit difficult to find a large amount of these struvite stones..."
Being produced on an island means that mining requires manpower and transportation is a big problem.
And this thing is just a stone. If it is not in large quantity, it is not worth much. If it is expensive to purchase, how can it achieve the effect of high-quality and low-priced fertilizer that the emperor said?
At any time, cost is something that must be considered. Since His Majesty wants to see if it can benefit millions of farmers like iron hoes, iron plows, iron rakes and other items in the future, it must be cheap.
The background of Yan Song's visit to Zhejiang was that the Japanese tribute incident occurred in Zhejiang. The emperor wanted to lay off the Zhejiang Shipping Department first, and Zhejiang needed stability.
He has been stable in Zhejiang for more than two years. During this period, Zhang Fuking went from Guangdong to Shandong and helped the emperor run the Confucius family. What did Yan Song do in Zhejiang?
Naturally, there is no fault, but it cannot be said to be a great achievement.
But now, although Zhu Houcong just asked him to find some struvite to experiment, with Yan Song's brain, he clearly saw the opportunity.
Although the new law will encourage commerce, the Ming Dynasty is still based on agriculture. Otherwise, why would the emperor pay personal attention to the matter of fertilizers?
If this is accomplished, all the people of the Ming Dynasty will praise you.
Goal: Cheap, large-volume and easy-to-use fertilizer.
Yan Song pondered for a while, and his brows gradually relaxed: "I have ordered that all prefectures and prefectures should not wait until the selection of village sages are completed before reporting. Now that each prefecture and county has candidates, I will ask for a list!"
After that, he spread out the paper and prepared to spread it out together with the found struvite stones and send them to Beijing.
…
It is one foot high and one inch wide. It has dragon pattern lace and cyan paper made of mulberry stems. There is the word "一壹" in the middle, and below it are several strings of copper coins, and below that there are "The Ministry of Household Affairs has approved the printing of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes..." and so on.
words.
This is a Ming Dynasty treasure note.
Next to it is Copper Coin Tongbao. From Hongwu Tongbao to Hongzhi Tongbao, the texture visible to the naked eye has become more and more different.
In addition, there are various privately minted copper coins, as well as various broken silver, silver ingots, and silver ingots.
To this day, the Ming Dynasty officially does not allow silver to circulate. Even the legal status of copper coins is not as high as that of treasure banknotes, but treasure banknotes are basically no longer used. In addition to many tax collections, the banknotes are still rigidly implemented, and some salaries are also issued with banknotes.
.
"In this way, the biggest trouble with demonetization is that the taxation involves the gentry and wealthy households, and the financial and food pressure caused by the full and uncompromising official salary. Acknowledging the status of silver in line with the current actual situation will bring a lot of pressure to ordinary people.
?”
After looking at their plans for a night, Zhu Houcong asked questions in the State Palace.
In the past, grain taxes were paid in kind, and many taxes were also paid in kind. However, some practical conditions were also taken into consideration, and there were also ways to convert banknotes and silver.
Gradually, the salaries and rations of officials, clan members, and relatives were basically distributed with discounted banknotes.
Treasure notes are worthless, so why do people with status want them? On the contrary, local people who have to pay taxes are willing to find ways to collect some treasure notes so that they can be folded and handed over.
The Ming Dynasty's banknotes are ridiculously liquid, but now those who are rich and powerful are involved.
On the contrary, the subsequent new law wanted to reform taxes, corvee services, unify the laws and regulations, and only use bank transfers, but it would bring some inconvenience to the people.
I don’t have many copper coins, so if I want to have money to hand over, I’m afraid I have to think of ways to sell something.
The trouble also includes: Ming Dynasty is currently short of copper and silver.
This will only mean that if ordinary people need to find money to pay taxes, they will have to sell more to get it together.
"I think there are two ways. One is to print new banknotes and exchange the old banknotes for the new ones. With this method, if the court wants to rebuild the people's confidence in the banknotes as your Majesty said, it will temporarily have to bear more pressure.
If you want to be trustworthy, one needs to accurately fold more banknotes within a few years to collect taxes, and the other is as Your Majesty said, Huang Mingji Department Store and others need to collect banknotes to sell goods, so be honest and bear the losses at your own risk."
Fei Hong and others have taken many lessons from Zhu Houcong, and they have understood and recognized that the essence of money is credit, and it is necessary to be able to guarantee physical transactions at any time.
Now that the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are hopeless, can we regain our confidence by changing the shell?
"Second, quasi-bank pass, Baoyuan Bureau casts Jiajing Tongbao and Jiajing silver ingots, and officials and people exchange banknotes for treasures and silver. This method requires a huge amount of silver and copper, and the fire consumption and cost are even greater.
A sum of silver. I'm afraid the common people still can't exchange these official treasures and silver ingots. When taxes start to be paid in silver next year, I think there must be something to do with money being more valuable than rice."
No matter what, Da Ming Bao Chao needs to wipe his ass.
If you just throw it away and don't acknowledge it, there will be no way to build monetary trust later.
Wanting to take over is another huge financial pressure: even if the exchange is based on the current real ratio, Ming's unconscious "over-issuance" for so many years is already a terrible figure. Who knows that after the news is announced, the public will suddenly appear
How much money is there in total?
Also consider how easy it is to print counterfeit banknotes in this day and age.
Zhu Houcong could only say: "In the final analysis, the imperial court does not have that much copper and silver reserves to absorb the treasure banknotes that exist today, so it is impossible to say that private minting will be strictly prohibited in the future."
"The matter of private casting is mostly semi-public and semi-private. There is too much broken silver in the local area, and it is not easy to transport it. So I cast it into ingots locally and engraved the date on it for inspection. When casting, I also cast some copper coins and silver ingots.
It’s just ingots. There are also bronze and silverware used by the people..."
"In this way, there are a lot of problems with those two methods. At least if we do it now, there are a lot of problems." Zhu Houcong understood better than them the destructive power of messing up the monetary system. After looking at Fei Hong and others, he said
, "This cannot be achieved in one or two years, and force will not work."
Although Zhu Houcong gave this big task, Fei Hong and others are also very eager to achieve great achievements.
"I think we need to do five things first. First, the court collects banknotes, but it needs to calculate how much pressure it can bear each year, and then determine the proportion of convertible banknotes that can be taxed. Secondly, try its best to save silver and copper to
To meet the needs of the time. Third, only Jiajing Tongbao will be cast at first, and a group of people who cast copper coins privately will be punished using the opportunity of promotion. Fourthly, Baoyuan Bureau will be ordered to study and improve the casting process. The material and appearance of Jiajing Tongbao will be better in the future.
To prevent counterfeiting of banknotes, many things can no longer be done carelessly. Fifth, when casting copper coins this time, silver coins can also be cast. What I mean is that, like Tongbao, one piece is worth a lot of silver, and there is no need to weigh it. Just
Subsequent false casting and wear and tear must be taken into consideration.”
Zhu Houcong gave his own idea, and then said: "First let the people only recognize the money cast by the imperial court, and cut off the space for tampering with the local smelting of silver ingots, adding fire consumption and weighing. In the future, we will wait for the Emperor Mingji and many other
Official, it is easier for private and commercial banks to impose bans under the commercial law. Let’s try new banknotes again. When we discussed the new law strategy in the past, I and you all agreed that the money law should be put last. What we have to do now is just preparation, not a 35-year-old.
There will be results in the next year.”
Fei Hong remained silent. Although he felt the same way, he did intend to take back the Ming Dynasty treasures that the Ming Dynasty still has in the world at the minimum cost within at least these three years.
Now it seems that there is still no rush.
The rebellion has been put down, the prime minister has been appointed to delegate power, and the emperor is no longer in a hurry.
His current focus is on those long-term things that emphasize technical skills.
Is that why we declined important state affairs such as discussing money laws for the sake of fertilizer?
"I have to repay it. There are many discussions among the people that banknotes will be abolished this year and only banknotes will be used." Zhu Houcong solemnly told them, "Don't make the people panic. In the matter of collecting banknotes, the eighteen banks
Enterprises are more useful. They collect banknotes, fold banknotes and pay taxes, so this account is just a matter between me and the government, and the Ministry of Accounts does not have much physical losses."
"...then most of them will lose money this year?"
Fei Hong thought to himself, then you, the emperor, are mainly responsible for the losses. If a company like Huang Mingji sells goods and collects cash, the losses are actually useful goods.
Zhu Houcong laughed: "Tactical losses are not a problem. It is not a big problem for the time being. Besides, with those treasure banknotes in hand, when it is time to print new money and new banknotes, they will be able to redeem the most good money. At that time, the people will
Private coinage and counterfeiting of banknotes are capital crimes, but there is little money to spare, so there will be more opportunities to do business with these companies. If you have money in hand, they will do things well."
There is no formal bank yet, but when the new money is issued, won't these eighteen companies become one of the best flow channels?
And how much leverage can it have with the largest amount of good money? How many industries will it have a discourse effect on?
When the first ministers of the State Council discussed the first undecided matter after the beginning of the new year, they once again felt that the emperor had a deeper understanding in this regard.
He always likes to do more than one thing with one stone!