On May 10th, the sugar cane harvest in Prince Manor was officially harvested on the 1st.
On the 13th, all harvests were completed and processed at the sugar factory.
In total, more than 55,600 stones of white sugar were obtained, and the total output was quite good.
In the early morning of the 14th, all the sugar was loaded onto a sea freighter and headed straight for Tianjin Port at a speed of 18 knots, and was expected to arrive in three days.
And this is just the first batch. There are six sugar cane manors belonging to the royal family. The sugar cane grown in the other five manors will also gradually mature during this period, and it is expected that they will bring no less than 50,000 shi of sugar. Multiply by six, a total of three
More than 100,000 stone is quite good.
Actually!
When the shipping cargo ship was just loaded with sugar, through wireless telegraphy and the postman's errand delivery, Emperor Zhu Youjian in the palace received the good news that the sugar cane harvest at Prince Manor No. 1 had been harvested and that the sugar had been shipped.
A total of 55,600 stones!
Baihuahua’s high-quality white sugar is available in such quantity.
excited.
Then he was so happy and excited that he couldn't wait to share this great news with Queen Zhou.
"Zitong, more than 50,000 shi of white sugar! The price of this thing is much higher than that of grain. The price of sugar here in the capital is 180 Wen/jin. The price of high-quality white sugar is even higher. It is calculated at 160 Wen/jin. If you put it in the imperial palace
If you sell them all in the store, you can earn as much as 1.11 million silver dollars. A mere 10,000-acre manor will bring in more than one million silver dollars. Six of them will be more than six million. Haha, okay, okay
Ah, the benefits are so impressive!”
Zhu Youjian said with a red face.
Today, there are a total of 24 royal estates in overseas places.
Among them, there are six sugarcane estates.
There are ten grain estates.
Two spice estates.
Two rubber estates.
Four fruit farms (all products are processed into canned fruits).
But so far.
In addition to the sugar cane manor on Taiwan Island, the ten royal grain manors on Hainan Island have successfully grown two crops of grain, with a total harvest of about 700,000 shi of shelled rice.
But the rice can't be sold at a high price.
I had to sell them all to Xujiazhuang at a price of 0.5 silver dollars per stone, and received about 350,000 silver dollars - this income is not enough to maintain the normal operation of the manor, let alone transporting rice thousands of miles to the capital.
It's a waste of shipping costs.
That is to say, the grain estate does not make money and is almost unprofitable. Unless the price of grain rises sharply in a certain year, it is possible to make a big fortune from grain.
The income from spices, rubber, and fruit farms can be very generous, but the return cycle is long. It will take at least three years to see returns, and even five years or even longer. It requires a lot of patience to reap the rewards.
Only the six sugar cane estates belonging to the royal family on the island of Taiwan are the ones that Zhu Youjian cares about and looks forward to most because they can harvest them once a year.
Now, the first crop of harvest has finally been seen.
Although today's sugar has become a mass commodity and is no longer a luxury product, it is no longer possible to sell it at a high price.
But a sugar cane manor has an annual income of one million silver dollars. What is there to be dissatisfied with? You must know that some poor provinces in the Ming Dynasty can’t collect more than one million silver dollars in taxes a year. A sugar cane manor with 10,000 acres actually exceeds the tax of a province.
Fu, this is simply a miraculous thing. After all, how big is a province and how big is a sugar cane estate?
certainly!
The money that can be earned from selling the sugar does not belong to Zhu Youjian and will not go into his internal funds. He only holds 15% of the shares and can only take a very small part.
The bulk belongs to the prince, prince and princess, they can get 50%.
even so.
Zhu Youjian was still very happy, as if he had made a lot of money. After all, he was the emperor and their father. If he occasionally encountered financial difficulties, it would be no problem to borrow some favors from them. If that didn't work, just follow them.
Eat, drink, spend money, and let your children provide for you in old age in advance. This is a matter of course.
"Your Majesty, this is indeed a great thing. The royal family has another good source of income. However, most of this income is not our own, and we should not spend it casually. In addition, the immigrants and eunuchs in the manor have paid a lot.
, we should reward them well, improve their living conditions, and strive to produce more sugar in the coming year. Secondly, we must carefully plan the use of these incomes. Only a small part of the dividends can be divided, and most of them must be saved or invested.
Establishing more overseas estates... must be carefully arranged and planned, so that money can make money, and the more we have, the more we can have."
Queen Zhou said.
"Zitong, you are absolutely right."
Zhu Youjian deeply agreed and said: "Ruling a country is like running a family. I have now noticed a problem. Whenever my internal funds are full, I am worried that the richer I am, the poorer I may be in the coming year."
, it is impossible to save some money. There will always be situations and problems that force me to spend money to solve them. The Ministry of Household Affairs has also become a bottomless pit. No matter how much food is put in, it is difficult to stay for more than half a year.
Time has always left unfinished holes, and the accumulated debts over the years have not been reduced much. I sent Lu Xiangsheng to thoroughly investigate the shortcomings of the household department, but I did not expect to find such a big problem."
good.
In March of this year, Lu Xiangsheng left the Tianxiong Army and entered the court.
Under normal circumstances, he would not be reused because of the serious suspicion, but Lu Xiangsheng was good at promoting himself, saying that he was proficient in financial management, and showed his outstanding business performance in Tianxiong Army, which impressed Emperor Zhu Youjian, so
Let him serve as the censor of the Supervisory Council and investigate the financial situation of the Ministry of Household Affairs. As long as there are major problems and shortcomings, vigorous rectification must be carried out, and no one can stand in the way.
This time, Zhu Youjian is serious about it!
Lu Xiangsheng lived up to his expectations. With thunderous actions, in just a few days, he uncovered 38 corrupt individuals. None of them had less than 100,000 silver dollars. Together, they took away the money from the Ministry of Household Warehouse.
More than 20 million yuan in money and food caused violent turmoil in the court, and the public opinion of the Ming Dynasty boiled over. A commentator in the "Oriental Times" even said: The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty is rotten from the root, and killing them all will not save a few people.
They are unjustly accused. As long as they are around, Ming Dynasty will not be able to get better, and no matter how hard it tries, it will be in vain.
Although he felt ashamed and embarrassed, Zhu Youjian still agreed with that article very much. The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was indeed rotten, almost to the point of being hopeless.
what to do?
Can a large number of murders be solved?
Is it intimidating to learn from Taizu’s practice of peeling off the skin and growing grass?
Or should we set up an agency specifically to combat corrupt officials, establish reporting channels, send elite guards to conduct undercover investigations, and deal with them with an iron fist once the evidence is conclusive?
Zhu Youjian thought of many plans and methods in his mind, including extreme ideas. He wanted to kill someone many times.
but……
Difficult, very difficult.
Even if it can be effective in the short term, there is still a question mark as to whether it can be effective in the long term, because corrupt officials are never afraid of death before they are caught, and they will never regret it. They will shed tears of regret only after being caught.
Unless a complete anti-corruption system is established like in Xujiazhuang, once the amount of corruption exceeds a certain amount (such as 500 silver dollars), they will be immediately sent to the mine to mine for life without any amnesty. This will affect the next three generations to the point where they will not be able to compete for good positions and their pensions will be full.
None, the cost is extremely heavy, which can achieve a very good deterrent effect. In addition, the reporting mechanism is complete and is not easy to be interfered, so the potential deterrence is huge.
But if the crackdown is too severe, will anyone be willing to work for him in the future?
The problem of the Ming Dynasty has never been just official corruption, but many, such as the Xungui Group, the lords, the civil servants, etc., are all thorny cancers. There is no hardcore base willing to pay for their lives, and the royal family is seriously weak.
status.
Even the owner of Xujiazhuang, Xu Zhuang, is rumored to have said something: "If I took over the mess of Ming Dynasty, I would simply give up and either personally lead the people at the bottom to rebel, or send a large number of Ming Dynasty's population overseas to colonize
, only about 100 million will be left in the country, and any more will be sent out. Only in this way can we barely guarantee that the internal collapse will not occur."
inspiration.
Although it is not very pleasant to the ears, Zhu Youjian still got some inspiration and inspiration from these words.
I came up with a series of solutions that I thought were better.
The first is to regularly crack down on corruption, treating corrupt officials like leeks and harvesting them every three to five years. For example, this time, under Lu Xiangsheng’s crackdown, nearly 20 million in money and food lost by the Ministry of Household Affairs was recovered, and all of this money and food was sent to the
The money became a resource to strengthen the royal family.
The second is to cooperate with and support Xujiazhuang's overseas colonization strategy and migrate a large number of people out of the Ming Dynasty to reduce the burden within the Ming Dynasty, so that those gentry and powerful classes who want to oppress and exploit the people will not have many targets. Once too many people escape,
, the loser is themselves.
Third, the royal family will build more overseas manors in the future. It is best to increase the number to 100, 300, or 500. Even if each manor can only bring in 100,000 silver dollars per year, it is equivalent to a first-class manor in the Ming Dynasty.
The tax revenue of Fu County is still worthy of vigorous development.
Finally, that is stinginess. From now on, he must be a harsh and stingy emperor. No matter how the civil servants plead, extort, wail and wail, he will look like an iron rooster in front of these civil servants and will not give them a single silver dollar.
, spend all the money and food yourself, and at most only reward and reward those officials who are loyal to the royal family and capable of doing things. Incompetent and mediocre people can't even think about it!
The above points.
Zhu Youjian believed that as long as we adhere to these strategies and principles unwaveringly for five, ten or even longer years, the Ming Empire will definitely see some positive changes, and it should gradually get better instead of getting worse.
After all, only when the royal family and imperial power become stronger can they be able to lead the Ming Dynasty onto a good development path.
all in all!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with constantly working on food, money and resources, and learning more about the advantages of Xujiazhuang.
"Now among my internal funds, the financial support of 12 million silver dollars given by Xujiazhuang, due to frugality and my personal leadership in eating old grains, I have more than 8 million left."
"Lu Xiangsheng's recent crackdown on corruption has brought another 20 million yuan in money and food."
"The sugar from overseas manors will be delivered in a few days. The six sugar cane manors will bring in at least 6 million silver dollars in income. Even if nearly 40% of it has to be distributed as dividends, the remaining 3.6 million can actually be stored as internal money.
It’s in the money bank, but it’s better to deposit it in the royal financial account, which can also bring interest income.”
"All added up, it's 31.6 million yuan in money and food. Haha, not bad, very good. I finally have some capital and am not so poor anymore."
Zhu Youjian took stock of his assets and said with satisfaction in his heart. He never wanted to lose this solid and wonderful feeling, and he never wanted to become a debt-ridden pauper again, just like the state he was in after the failure of the food war last year.