Daming 1805

Faced with his grandfather's rhetorical question, Zhu Jingyuan didn't directly answer yes or no, but began to explain another judgment:
"During the agricultural era, due to traffic restrictions and the scope of business was limited to farming, the scholar-bureaucrat group was naturally regional.

“Local scholar-bureaucrats and court bureaucrats of local origin formed a natural party-oriented group, and formed groups at the court to compete with township parties in other places.

"Although groups of scholar-bureaucrats in different regions have the most basic common interests, this interest is not enough to truly bind them together.

"The emperor can coordinate checks and balances, control the scope and intensity of party disputes, and then control the bureaucracy and rule the country.

"The regional party struggles in the Ming Dynasty may have started from the Yongle Dynasty, and it has run through the entire Ming Dynasty.

"However, in the industrial age, regional natural faction divisions are likely to become invalid quickly.

"One, the owners of the manufacturers can operate various businesses in the entire Ming Dynasty, or even in the whole world.

"Secondly, manufacturers from all over Ming Dynasty and even the whole world can use roads, railways, airplanes, and telegraphs to join together very conveniently and coordinate to deal with any possible enemies.

"In fact, the royal consortium is a limit state of this kind of development.

"If it weren't for the legal restrictions of Ming Dynasty, which handed over a large number of industries to the royal consortium for monopoly, these industries are likely to have a super consortium in the entire Ming Dynasty.

"After the opening up of the six major industries, it is also possible for manufacturers of this scale to appear within the six major industries.

"For example, myself, if I am not born in the royal family, but the child of an ordinary merchant, then all my inventions and creations must belong to the merchant family's property.

"These inventions and creations, based on a certain amount of capital and not too bad operating capabilities, can rapidly expand to a level of horror that most people can't imagine.

"For example, I monopolize the manufacture of automobiles and engines in Ming Dynasty and even the whole world, I monopolize the manufacture of aircraft engines, and I monopolize the patents, manufacture and sales of civil aircraft.

"When my industry spreads all over the Ming Dynasty and even the whole world, to what extent will my influence on the local and central bureaucratic systems reach? What kind of officials can resist my erosion?
"I think that the expansion speed of factories and commercial firms in the industrial age, as well as the upper limit, may far exceed our imagination.

"Regardless of Ming Dynasty or Taixi, the strongest merchants in the agricultural era were all attached to the monarch and nobles.

"Commerce at that time was a by-product of agriculture, and commerce could not replace agriculture, but industry could.

"With the advent of the industrial age, the bosses of the Thai and Western countries have gradually changed from being attached to the nobles to controlling the nobles.

"Even merchants control the imperial court, and then send representatives to form the imperial court, making the imperial court an internal platform for the bosses.

"At that time, bribery can even be legal, because this kind of court itself is a field of capital wrestling.

"Essentially a world where every penny is equal to power, it is completely fair from the perspective of money.

"Whoever has more money has more power, but he must pay bribes in accordance with the regulations, which can be called political donations.

"Although there is no essential difference between the social structure of the agricultural era and the agricultural era.

"However, effective management and checks and balances in the agricultural age may become ineffective after the industrial age.

"Because the 'order of magnitude' of transactions to manage changes.

"We have to adjust the extent of the restrictions on the bureaucracy..."

Zhu Jingyuan knew that during the second industrial revolution, capitalism entered the era of imperialism.

Times really have changed this time.

The era of monopoly has come, and giant monopoly companies have begun to appear.

The existence of the royal consortium limits the production of manufacturers of this level.

Private monopoly is of course not good, but too much suppression of this development tendency is also limiting the improvement of Ming's production capacity.

Zhu Jingyuan felt that there should be relevant explanations in the pamphlet left by Emperor Shizu.

Sure enough, when Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jianyan heard Zhu Jingyuan's description, they immediately showed thoughtful expressions.

Zhu Zhongliang nodded slowly:

"If you say that, you really need to let go of the rein..."

Zhu Jianyan said in a strange tone:
"From the beginning of our Ming Dynasty, the emperor was constantly struggling with the civil service system.

"From the Yongle era until the Renwu dynasty, the emperors were constantly failing.

"The authority of the emperor, passed down from generation to generation, continues to weaken.

"By the time of Tianqi and Chongzhen, the resources controlled by the scholar-bureaucrats had already threatened the status of the emperor.

"It wasn't until the Renwu Dynasty that the situation was reversed in the hands of Emperor Shizu.

"Now... Yasushi, you want us to turn around and let go or even strengthen the bureaucracy?
"Although the reasoning is indeed reasonable, this kind of thing makes me feel a little hard to accept...

"I am very worried whether this choice is correct..."

Faced with his father's worries, Zhu Jingyuan did not directly persuade and guarantee, but tried to analyze his father's concerns:

"The bureaucratic system is not the emperor's enemy, and if the system had its own will, it certainly would not wish to become the emperor's enemy.

"Because the emperor himself is the supreme leader of the bureaucracy and the leader of the entire ruling group.

"The members of the bureaucracy are also representatives of the ruling class, members of the ruling group.

"The two parties belong to the same group, and the fundamental interests are actually the same, and the contradictions between the two parties belong to the contradictions within the class.

"The emperor put the bureaucracy on the opposite side, which is absolutely wrong thinking.

"It's just that, as the head and leader of a group, the emperor hopes that his organization and group will become stronger.

"But I don't want any of my subordinates to be able to threaten my status.

"But at the same time, he also needs to distribute resources to his subordinates in exchange for capable subordinates to help him maintain his rule.

"Before the Renwu Dynasty, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty kept losing in the struggle with the civil service system, and his authority continued to decline. The root cause was not the victory or defeat of the superficial struggle in the court.

"The most fundamental thing is the loss of control over land and population.

"The foundation of the agricultural era is land and population, and the time when the authority of any emperor is the strongest is when the land and population it controls are the largest.

"But for the emperor to control enough land, he needed to rely on the functioning of the bureaucracy.

"How much interest and power is given to the bureaucracy, and to what extent they are allowed to expand, is difficult to grasp.

"Before the Renwu Dynasty, the resources that the emperor took out, although there was indeed a possibility of recycling.

"For example, seizing the title and stealing the house.

"But most of the time it's just out and not in.

"Because Daming's Spyker is not only hereditary, there is no such thing as descending from generation to generation.

"At the same time, because of restricting nobles to influence the government, a large number of people are not working with resources, wasting resources in vain.

"In addition, the personal abilities of the emperors before the Renwu Dynasty...compared to the later ones can only be relatively limited.

"As the emperor continued to reward and canonize, the resources in his hands became less and less.

"With the continuous annexation of private land, some landlords have more and more land.

"During this process, the ratio of the resources controlled by the emperor as the head of the group to that of the group members gradually reversed.

"When the land and population that the emperor can actually control are reduced to a certain extent, and the land and population controlled by non-government forces are concentrated to a certain extent, the emperor will no longer be able to command the bureaucracy.

"The benefits that the bureaucracy got from other sources gradually exceeded the benefits that the emperor could give.

"The nominal leader of the Emperor, the resources in his hands are no longer enough to suppress all members of the group.

"Master Wei Temple (Chongzhen Zhu Youjian) is of course more capable of controlling the harem and eunuchs than Master Xi Temple (Zhu Youxiao Tianqi). He lived to the Renwu Dynasty.

"However, his murder at the court was not enough to affect the actual situation, but made the bureaucracy even more alienated.

"Master Wei Temple regards the civil service system, the entire delegation of the ruling class, and his own kind of landlords as enemies.

"Of course the civil service system will not willingly assist it to rule the country.

"The interests of the entire bureaucracy and the emperor have deviated.

"Before the Renwu Dynasty, according to the official household registration statistics, the population of our Ming Dynasty had no real growth at all during the 300 years.

"The land not only did not increase, but decreased by a large amount.

"It is generally believed that there are at least a population equivalent to the number of household registrations, and they are hidden under the wings of those scholar-bureaucrats who cultivated and studied family heirlooms.

"That's why Emperor Shizu first completely prohibited any form of enslaving the Ming people.

"Then let the land resources form a standardized system.

"The two most critical points are the land transaction Huangzhuang priority purchase system, and the traditional system of assessment and inheritance of titles.

"The former curbs the concentration of land among the people and prevents other individuals within the ruling group from secretly becoming bigger.

"Let the transferred land go back to the emperor, and make sure that the emperor always controls as much land as possible.

"The latter ensures that the ruling clique always retains the ability to rule, at the least cost.

"Recover the land resources occupied by the ruling group individuals who have lost their governance capabilities, and transfer them to new ruling group individuals who can provide governance capabilities.

"This mechanism is certainly not in line with the wishes of ordinary people, it is not in line with the wishes of ordinary members of the ruling class.

"But the emperor, who is the leader, has already taken the lead, and the sons of the emperor also have to be assessed to obtain the title, and the training system is stricter than that of Guan Xungui.

"The future emperors selected in this way can all be regarded as social elites.

"The nobles can only accept it.

"Because the assessment of inheritance is not a pure descendant, of course there is no inheritance right if you don't work hard, but if you are willing to work hard, you will have the opportunity to obtain the right of inheritance, so most people choose to work hard.

"This has led to our Ming's ruling group being introverted as a whole, and has formed a tradition of leaving if they can't do their jobs.

"At least so far, the system has worked fairly well.

"The energy of the bureaucracy is always tightly constrained.

"The royal consortium and private capital are expanding almost without limit.

"When running a business and opening a factory surpasses being an official and becomes the most desirable occupation for ordinary people, the power of the bureaucratic system will drop to freezing point.

"Since being an official is not as good as being a boss, why do the best elites come to work for the emperor?
"I think we're really going to let go of the reins now..."

After Zhu Jingyuan spoke for a long time, the two generations of emperors Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jianyan were silent for a long time.

After another long time, Zhu Jianyan didn't speak again, Zhu Zhongliang continued to ask:

"You've been thinking about it for so long, do you have a more mature plan?
"How to release it specifically? How to improve the status of bureaucrats.

"What should we give them so that they can more effectively resist capital corruption?

"At the same time, how to ensure that they are still under control in the future."

Of course Zhu Jingyuan had thought about it, so he spoke directly now:

"I think we should start from two directions, one is security, the other is honor, and the third is energy.

"First of all, guarantee, guarantee the living conditions of bureaucrats, protect themselves, their families, and their children's career paths.

"The imperial courts at all levels came forward to provide high-quality housing for all officials, with different scales according to different levels.

"When you reach a certain level, you will start to equip cars with special signs and special functions.

"The most grassroots clerks and book offices can also directly provide fuel mopeds (motorcycles), so that they don't need to ride bicycles to and from get off work, and they don't need to spend money on transportation.

"Comprehensively build specialized schools for the children of officials, and ensure that their educational level and educational resources exceed normal levels.

"After retirement, the imperial court will also issue relatively high pensions, provide almost completely free medical care, almost completely free funeral services, and set relatively high standards.

"A unified official cemetery can be built at all levels of yamen.

"As long as he becomes an official bureaucrat of the Ming court, he will no longer have any worries about the life and safety of himself and his family, as well as the learning and development space of his children.

"This saves bureaucrats from actively accepting capital investment for living conditions.

"We are not afraid of raising a family of professional bureaucrats. This kind of family is actually easier to agree with the emperor, because their status is completely determined by the emperor.

"Secondly honor, the direct solution is to generally and comprehensively open knighthoods to the civil service system.

"An old bureaucrat who has worked diligently in the bureaucracy all his life and has no obvious faults in his life should have the lowest honorary title when he retires.

"You can use the once unofficial gentry and gentry as names to clarify them and enjoy certain retirement benefits.

"Those who have made outstanding contributions can also be given to a fairly formal baron, and those who have made great contributions can be promoted in turn.

"Ordinary titles can be streamed titles, and those with special contributions can be awarded to Spykers. Of course, the inheritance is the same as traditional titles.

"Emperors and nobles are hereditary, and civil servants are not easy to be knighted, which is actually one of the underlying causes of corruption in the civil service system.

"Civil officials will feel that the emperor and nobles can inherit, but their own status cannot, so they should use their power to seek personal benefits for their own families when they are in power.

"The emperor and nobles' assessment of succession reduces the psychological incentives of the civil service system.

"Now they are also freed from the nobility restrictions, and then civil servants, military officials, and traditional nobles will be exactly the same.

"This contradiction can be further alleviated.

"At the same time, the civil title can maintain or even enhance ordinary people's yearning for official status.

"Eventually continue to attract the best people to become officials.

"The last is the energy, which is the most important part.

"Let the bureaucracy have the resources to counter royal consortiums and private capital.

"In the industrial age, the resources that can provide this kind of energy are the means of production, that is, large factories and businesses.

"So, we should establish a government-run consortium that is owned by the imperial court and whose managers have formal bureaucratic status.

"With the government-run consortium, the bureaucracy has the ability to confront private capital.

"The point is, it creates a natural tendency for the two sides to be antagonistic.

"The emperor can coordinate checks and balances in the middle.

"In the future, the capital power of Ming Dynasty may be divided into three parts: the royal family, the court, and the people.

"The mutual balance of these three parts is the prerequisite for maintaining the stability of Ming Dynasty.

"The final decision-making power of two of them is in the hands of the emperor, so it is also the basis for protecting and maintaining the emperor's authority."

Zhu Jingyuan paused a bit when he said this, thinking that the two emperors should understand his purpose.

The two generations of emperors indeed nodded silently there.

The two originally thought that Zhu Jingyuan wanted to delegate power, but they didn't expect that except for the last project, the rest would not involve fundamental things.

In fact, guarantees for bureaucratic identity, status, and life are available now, and have existed since ancient times.

It's just that it wasn't as comprehensive as Zhu Jingyuan said before.

As for the last item, the two emperors who had read Shizu's posthumous articles immediately thought of a word:

"State capitalism."

The two of them didn't need Zhu Jingyuan to continue to explain in depth, and Zhu Jingyuan also knew that he shouldn't need to explain.

State capitalism does not mean ownership by the whole people, and ownership by the whole people does not mean ownership by laborers.

State capitalism can be regarded as owned by the bureaucratic system, or in other words, by the civil service system, or by the imperial court.

The factories and commercial firms owned by the imperial court cannot directly protect the interests of the lowest people.

But it is the basis for the imperial court and bureaucracy to maintain relative neutrality when facing employers and workers.

If there is no government-run consortium to make weights, if the imperial court formulates some new labor-related laws, requiring manufacturers to produce according to certain regulations, and requiring manufacturers to provide workers with certain protections, employers may respond in the same way that scholar-bureaucrats used to fight against the emperor.

You can prosecute and disobey, you can resign from office and go on strike, and you can find a lot of reasons that seem very reasonable.

In the past, it was "the imperial court cannot compete with the people for profit", now and in the future it will be "the imperial court cannot deprive workers of their right to become rich through labor."

If the imperial court dealt with certain individual manufacturers in particular, other similar manufacturers might join forces to resist or go on strike, or even instigate or even instigate workers to riot against the imperial court.

Just like the local scholar-bureaucrats in the past, they could find someone to kill the tax collectors sent by the emperor, and if they died in trouble, they could write a "Tombstone of Several People" to ensure that the cause they did was just.

It's a pity that in the Qing Dynasty, there was no way to write this kind of tombstone. The list was too long to write, and there was nothing to write.

With the consortium run by the imperial court, it is equivalent to the imperial court directly controlling part of the resources and directly controlling a large number of people.

The management and use of these resources and population do not need to go through the owners as an intermediary.

When the bosses disobeyed the management, or obstructed it, the imperial court could use the government-run consortium to fight against them.

The imperial court enacted a law requiring the implementation of a ten-hour work system, which could be implemented first by the government-run consortium directly managed by itself.

Relatively favorable working conditions and treatment, government-run consortiums will attract workers from private manufacturers.

This in turn forced private employers to offer better conditions to retain workers.

Just like the Ming emperor used the bureaucratic system to check and balance with the imperial consortium.

Most importantly, the existence of government-operated consortiums has created a competitive relationship with private capital.

Members of the bureaucratic group include members of the official consortium.

Therefore, the existence of government-operated consortiums has become an obstacle for the bureaucratic group to negotiate peace with private capital.

Most of the government-run consortiums are the basis for the bureaucratic system not to completely fall to the bosses.

A dam that restricts private owners from controlling more social resources.

No matter what considerations the bureaucracy is in, it is vetoed to protect the most basic interests of the bottom laborers.

The existence of the government-run consortium provides them with the possibility to make choices.

If there is no government-run consortium directly controlled by the imperial court as a check and balance force, it will be as difficult for the imperial court to ask manufacturers to directly protect the interests of laborers, just as ancient emperors asked literati and bureaucrats to protect the interests of farmers.

They can talk nicely, but most likely no one will actually do it.