Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 805 Extra 2: The Tiger Dies but Still Has Its Might (2)

Some people, when they are around, are like air, so you can't feel their presence, as if everything is taken for granted.

However, when he was gone, the whole world seemed to be in chaos. Drinking water would get stuck in my teeth, eating would hurt my teeth, and sleeping would cause me to grind my teeth.

When Fang Qing was alive, perhaps the bottleneck of Ming Dynasty's development had not yet been reached, or perhaps those who were good at fighting did not have outstanding achievements. In short, everyone in the country went their own way, merchants made money and common people supported their families, soldiers guarded the border and made meritorious contributions, and scholars took the imperial examinations to become officials. Everyone was busy with their own things and there was nothing wrong.

However, the industrial crisis broke out the year after Fang Qing's death.

Goods were unsalable and merchants could not get paid, so they reduced the wages of their employees and even illegally bought slaves to work. The employees lost their jobs and had no money, and could not afford to consume the goods, so they lived frugally, which led to an increasing backlog of goods.

The overseas market was approaching saturation, because there were not many places to dump goods outside of the Ming Dynasty. For example, in Japan, when goods from the Ming Dynasty were sent there, only the rich and the noble could afford them.

Over the past few decades, productivity has continued to grow at a pace that is dizzying.

When Fang Qing was planning the business layout, he proposed the concept of "industrial clustering", placing shops and workshops in the same industry together. In the end, he forced these people to iterate their technology by raising Gu.

After decades of development, the textile industry of the Ming Dynasty had already widely used water-powered spinning machines and flying shuttles. In the second year after the victory over Tubo and the establishment of the covenant in Shibao City, He Baiwan, a wealthy merchant in Bianzhou, founded the first super textile workshop with the support of the court.

The government called it a "factory" and helped him establish the "factory system" which was later widely studied.

Later, under the strong advocacy of Fang Qing, the imperial court under Tang promulgated the first "Labor Law for Hired Workers", which stipulated the minimum monthly salary and the five-hour work system at the beginning.

It also includes not restricting the personal freedom of employees, regularly inviting medical officers to examine the employees' bodies, etc.

However, many of these regulations became mere formalities after many years, with only the five-hour work system and minimum monthly wage remaining.

On the one hand, it is because the hired workers are also human beings, not machines, and they really cannot work when they are tired. On the other hand, the minimum monthly salary is also an invisible contract between the hired workers and the wealthy businessmen.

This is the cornerstone of the stability of industry and commerce in Ming Dynasty society.

Afterwards, Li Sheng led the fleet to Southeast Asia, and according to Fang Qing's instructions, he searched for tropical crops and local specialties there, especially a plant that had white latex flowing out when the bark was cut.

However, three years later, Li Sheng returned with his fleet and found many rare and strange plants, some of which were even quite useful, such as the raw materials for brewing Sanlejiang.

However, I just couldn’t find the plant with white latex.

Fang Chongyong was greatly disappointed, and then he remembered that the plant came from America and was brought to Southeast Asia by the colonists.

However, maybe it was because hard work pays off, but this matter actually came to fruition in another way.

After the Hexi Corridor was opened up and trade with the Western Regions began, a Western Region merchant presented a very special local herb to the imperial court. When the branches and leaves were cut, a milky white gelatinous substance would cover them!
Ten kilograms of raw materials can produce two kilograms of "latex".

Fang Chongyong was overjoyed and named it "rubber grass" and promoted its planting in Hexi!

After that, technology achieved major breakthroughs, especially in sealing and waterproofing. Rubber, a product of rubber grass, was extremely effective.

In ancient Chinese technology, sealing was an absolute shortcoming. After this shortcoming was made up, industrial-related technologies began to develop rapidly.

New industries continued to emerge and the commodity economy also prospered greatly.

Because the country was so powerful that it had reached an unprecedented level since ancient times, Fang Qing was also honored as "Land Immortal" by the literati of the time.

However, after his death, all contradictions were intensified along with the "product oversupply crisis"! All the good things in the past seemed to be overshadowed.

The urbanization of the Ming Dynasty was partial urbanization, centered on Bianzhou, Yangzhou and Guangzhou, with the addition of "Damingfu", which was later renamed from Weizhou, and Chengdu in Shu.

There are a lot of handicrafts produced in these places, but they cannot be transported to remote areas at a low cost. The local market is already saturated, and those who can afford it have already bought it, and those who can't afford it can only watch. Even if the price of these goods is very low in the place of production, there are cases where the price is five times higher when sold to remote areas.

But it can't change the dilemma of poor sales.

Then why don’t big merchants give their goods to the poor at low prices or even for free?
It's not because they don't dare to do so, but it's not because they really don't want to.

But if they really did this, then those who had spent real money to buy their products would definitely come to their door to ask for an explanation. In this way, the losses would be compensated and there would be no need to continue this business.

Therefore, the government revised the "Employment Labor Law" to allow wealthy businessmen to employ slaves at almost zero cost, abolished the minimum monthly wage, abolished the five-hour work system, and changed it to pay according to the number of hours worked.

That’s right, the five-hour work system not only protects employees from damaging their health due to overwork, but also ensures that they have a stable monthly salary.

As for other benefits, none of them are mandatory, and the big merchants also cancelled them. There is no other way, life is unbearable, so what else can we do?
The old master encountered a new problem and didn't know how to solve it.

In the past, the method of ensuring the harvest of rural land was used a lot and the effect was very significant. The relationship between landlords and tenants also operated in the form of "lease", and the exploitation was more covert than before.

As a result, the price of grain was high, the cost of growing grain was high, and the price of goods was also high. The handicrafts in Bianliang City and other big cities were indeed cheap, but the villagers in these rural areas could not buy them!

How much stuff can you bring back after walking hundreds of miles to the city? You've spent a lot of money on the journey.

Small workshops closed down on a large scale, and the workers who lost their jobs returned to their hometowns, only to find that the land that was originally "entrusted" to a landlord in the village had been rented out to other people by the landlord, resulting in a disorderly property rights relationship.

On one side are the employees who lost their jobs, and on the other side are the tenants who live under someone else's roof, and neither side is willing to give in.

Problems that have never occurred before are erupting one after another.

In fact, every industry has its own industrial cycle. Ancient sages in the Spring and Autumn Period saw this, but there was no systematic explanation.

Since its establishment, the Ming Dynasty has been in a major industrial cycle. The surplus population that was bound to the land turned to work in cities, mainly in Bianliang City. Land conflicts were greatly eased, and the government administration was relatively clean.

Many things are like this. When things are going well, everything is good. There are fewer land conflicts at the local level, and the exploitation by clerks is less severe, because it is easy for them to make money in a relaxed environment, so there is no need to do things so drastically.

But now that the handicraft industry has achieved great development, there is a relative surplus of products.

No one, including the government, knew what to do! When Fang Qing was still around, he could point the way, and there were also capable officials such as Liu Yan, Yang Yan, and Yuan Zai.

The current prime minister and senior officials of the six ministries were all selected through the imperial examination. They are not lacking in knowledge, but they do not have the ability to handle complex affairs, and have never experienced war.

Various contradictions accumulated together and finally broke out in the second year after Fang Qing's death, which was the second year of Taiping Xingguo!
On the anniversary of Fang Qing's death that year, the bloodiness inherited from the Tang Dynasty by the poor family burst out!
All factories, workshops, shops and trading companies in Bianzhou went on strike. These people gathered on both sides of the main road in Bianliang City and shouted "Governor, help me!" and refused to leave even when the imperial guards drove them away.

That night, although the court imposed a curfew, under the guidance of some people, many hired workers who could no longer make ends meet gathered with torches, shouting slogans such as "Hang He Qianwan", and came to the mansion of He Qianwan, the richest man in Bianzhou.

This tycoon named He Qianwan is the son of the famous "benevolent businessman" He Baiwan.

When He Baiwan was dying, he once warned him: Money is an ominous thing. Keeping it or holding on to it will lead to death. You must share it with others.

He Qianwan only remembered part of it, so he shared much of the money he earned with court officials in exchange for their support for his growing business.

However, this tycoon never thought about sharing his money with the poor people working in his factory.

On the contrary, he always felt that it was he who gave those people a chance to survive, and those people should thank him.

However, tonight, those poor people he called came to the mansion to collect debts!

(End of this chapter)