After meeting Meyer, William felt that he needed to focus more on finance and industry. These two industries can be regarded as the most important components of a country.
In 1776, James Watt of England built the first practical steam engine. After a series of major improvements, it became a "universal prime mover." This invention started what was later called the first industrial revolution.
the prologue.
The first industrial revolution can also be called a product of the times. Its origin can be said to be forced. The British bourgeois revolution in the mid-17th century overthrew the British feudal autocratic system and established an alliance between the bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy.
The basic constitutional monarchy system. The bourgeoisie used state power to accelerate the implementation of policies and measures to develop capitalism, which promoted the rapid formation of various prerequisites for the Industrial Revolution.
Through large-scale external plunder and the national debt system and consumption tax policy implemented at home, the bourgeoisie accumulated huge wealth and provided the necessary monetary funds for the Industrial Revolution; the large-scale enclosure movement provided a large amount of "
free” labor force and a vast domestic market.
Here it is necessary to explain what enclosure movement is:
In the process of the disintegration of serfdom, the emerging British bourgeoisie and new aristocracy used violence to drive farmers off the land, seize farmers' allotments and public land, deprive farmers of land use rights and ownership, and limit or cancel the original common farmland.
The land was encircled and turned into large private pastures and livestock grazing rights. This was the "Enclosure Movement" in British history.
Maybe what we see now is just a brief introduction, an ordinary sentence, but here is an example:
According to survey reports in 1630 and 1631, Leicestershire in England enclosed 100,000 acres in two years, accounting for about 2% of the county's land. Most of the enclosed land was turned into pasture. The main enclosures were squires.
From 1485 to 1550, the area of their enclosures in Leicestershire accounted for 60% of the total enclosure area. A large number of farmers were forced to sell their land, move away from home, or wander around, falling into extremely miserable conditions.
After the British bourgeoisie won a decisive victory over the royal power, urban industry further developed and the urban population increased sharply. Therefore, the demand for agricultural products increased day by day. In order to produce meat and commercial grain to supply the needs of the city, the landowners and nobles expanded investment and improved
The productive capacity of the land was increased, and land enclosures were accelerated at the same time.
The bourgeoisie strongly encouraged enclosure. The government legalized enclosure through parliamentary legislation. The landowning aristocracy relied on state machinery to force farmers to obey the enclosure bill. Peasants were unable to afford the cost of enclosure, or were unable to maintain production and production due to the loss of public land use rights.
To survive, they were forced to sell their land. With the invention of the seed drill in 1701, a revolution in agricultural production technology began.
It is precisely because of the extreme greed of the bourgeoisie for land that a large number of farmers have lost their land, and these farmers are the "free" labor force.
The vigorous development of the factory handicraft industry has cultivated a large number of skilled workers with rich practical experience, creating conditions for the invention and application of machines; the development and achievements of natural science, especially Newton's mechanics and mathematics, have laid the scientific theory for the emergence of machines.
Base.
The booming factory handicraft industry has accumulated rich knowledge of production technology and increased output, but it is still unable to meet the expanding market demand. Therefore, a revolution in production methods is about to happen.
The Industrial Revolution first appeared in the emerging cotton textile industry in the factory handicraft industry. In 1733, the machinist Kay invented the flying shuttle, which greatly increased the weaving speed, and cotton yarn was suddenly in short supply. In 1765, the weaver Hargreaves invented the "Jenny"
The "Spinning Machine" greatly increased the output of cotton yarn. The emergence of the "Jenny Spinning Machine" first triggered a chain reaction of inventing machines and technological innovations in the cotton textile industry, which opened the prelude to the industrial revolution. After that, in the cotton textile industry
Machines such as mule looms and water conservancy looms appeared in the textile industry. Soon, machines were also produced in many industrial sectors such as coal mining and metallurgy.
With the increase in machine production, original power sources such as animal power, water power and wind power could no longer meet the needs. In Birmingham, England, in 1785, an improved steam engine made by Watt was put into use, which provided more convenient power and was rapidly promoted.
, which greatly promoted the popularization and development of machines. Human society has thus entered the "steam age".
Thinking of Watt, William suddenly wanted to meet this legendary figure. There are more than 50 roads named after Watt across the UK. There is also a Watt monument in Westminster Abbey in London.
In the book "Human Achievement" by American writer Charles Murray, he once conducted a survey. Among the 229 most famous inventors in history, Watt and Edison tied for first place.
William suddenly had an idea, why not invite Mr. Watt to come to Prussia? Watt should be joining forces with Matthew Bolton, the owner of a foundry in Birmingham. It must not be difficult to invite Watt to come to Prussia.
However, the Industrial Revolution cannot be controlled by one person. It requires taking into account many walks of life. It is the responsibility of King William to sort out these confusing relationships.
There is also the financial industry, which refers to banks and related capital cooperatives, and the insurance industry. In addition to industrial economic activities, everything else related to the economy is the financial industry.
The earliest bank to appear was the Bank of Venice, Italy (1580). In 1694, the United Kingdom established its first joint-stock bank, the Bank of England, which established the most basic organizational form for the development of the modern financial industry. Since then, various capitalist countries have
The financial industry has developed rapidly and played a huge role in accelerating the accumulation of capital and the concentration of production.
Commercial banks are the earliest and most typical form of modern banks. City banks, deposit banks, industrial banks, mortgage banks, trust banks, savings banks, etc., all engage in financial business, but the nature of their business is often quite different. Moreover, financial authorities
Often there are restrictions on their business scope.
Modern commercial banks generally operate a variety of financial businesses comprehensively. In addition to having a large number of branches in their own countries, large commercial banks often also have branches abroad, thus becoming world-wide multinational banks.
Modern large commercial banks are usually the financial centers of large monopoly consortiums. Shareholding companies have become an important organizational form in the financial industry of contemporary developed capitalist countries.
Specialized banks are different in nature from commercial banks. Specialized banks are generally funded or supervised by the state (government). Their business, especially credit business, mostly focuses on one or several industries, and focuses on supporting certain industries.
Development is the business purpose.
The establishment of the central bank is a milestone in the history of the development of the financial industry. In the modern financial industry, the central bank occupies a dominant position. It is the currency-issuing bank, the government's bank and the bank's bank. It is responsible for formulating and executing the country's financial policies and regulating currency.
Circulation and credit activities are generally also the management and supervision agencies of financial activities.
Prussia currently has only one Royal Bank of Prussia, which can barely be called a central bank.
PS: Comrades, it’s not that I don’t want to update, it’s just that writing a book now seems to be a difficult problem. Every time I write a word, I have to weigh it in my mind for a long time. Don’t worry, I will definitely work hard. In addition, I will recover during the Chinese New Year until around the tenth day of the first lunar month.
Regarding the speed of previous updates, I hope everyone can give me more encouragement and support. Thank you all again.