The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 296 New Production Method

"Boss, the workers in the factory seem to be in a bad mood."

Ye Liansheng and his eldest son had just entered the factory when Cui Xingjun, the manager in charge of daily management, hurried forward to greet them. After they arrived at the office on the second floor, he reported on the situation in the factory today.

"What's the reason?" Ye Liansheng asked without raising his head as he flipped through the account book slowly.

"The workers believe that it is unreasonable to extend the working hours by another half an hour..."

"Tsk..." Ye Liansheng sneered, "Look at the factories outside, all of them have working hours of twelve or thirteen hours, and some even have fourteen hours. Why, I asked to extend the previous twelve working hours by half an hour, and the workers are not happy? If they are not happy, get out! These days, there are plenty of workers who want to be recruited, and there is no shortage of those cheap guys!"

"Boss..." Cui Xingjun stood there awkwardly, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

To put it bluntly, although he was the manager of the "Shuntaixing" leather factory, he was just a high-level "cow and horse", no different from those workers. If he offended his boss, he would definitely be "kicked out".

However, if you don't take care of the workers' emotions and comfort them a little, if they don't work hard and the goods in the factory are not completed on time, you will be the one who suffers in the end.

Recently, "Shun Taihang" received two batches of military orders to produce military boots, belts, and marching backpacks for Shunguo and Qingguo. The time is tight and the task is heavy. In order to deliver the goods on time, the workers can only be asked to work overtime and extend the established twelve working hours by another half an hour.

However, the boss only exploited the workers' labor process without offering any compensation, which immediately caused strong dissatisfaction among the workers in the factory.

It's true that we are cattle and horses, but you have to give us more fodder!

"What's the matter? Is there a problem?" Ye Liansheng looked at Cui Xingjun's embarrassed expression and his face darkened.

"Boss, if you rashly replace workers because of their dissatisfaction, it will do more harm than good to the entire factory!" Cui Xingjun tactfully advised: "Although most of the processes in leather processing and production rely on machines, there are still many areas that require skilled workers. If we replace them with a new group of people, I am worried that the many orders in the factory will not be delivered in both quality and quantity!"

"Hmm?" Ye Liansheng couldn't help but reveal a serious expression after hearing this. "You mean, you want to temporarily give some benefits to appease those workers?"

"Boss, you are wise!" Cui Xingjun felt relieved when he saw that his boss was interested. "The workers are not unwilling to do the extra half an hour of work. The key is to let them get a little advantage and think that the extra working hours are rewarding and cost-effective for them."

"Then how much do you think we should pay the workers, or give them some other benefits, so that they will be willing to extend their working hours by half an hour?"

"How about adding a few cents to each person? Or providing a simple meal for the workers every day? ... As for what benefits to give to the workers in the end, it's up to the boss to decide."

"Well, let me think about it." Ye Liansheng nodded slightly and said, "Go to the factory first to appease the workers and ask them to work hard and not let their minds run wild."

"Yes, Boss." Cui Xingjun bowed and turned to leave the office.

As soon as the man left the room, Ye Liansheng threw the account book in his hand heavily on the table, leaned back, sat on the soft leather chair, panting, and thinking about how to trick the workers so that the factory could get the greatest profit.

In fact, with the acceleration of Qi's industrialization process, the workers in the market were not as "plenty of workers to be recruited" as he said, and to some extent there was even a "labor shortage".

As early as the Shaoning period, the State of Qi abolished the policy of occupational restrictions, that is, implemented the principle of comprehensive "occupational freedom", and any citizen could choose any occupation they wanted.

Farmers can run a grocery store or buy a horse-drawn carriage to run transportation. If they have more capital, they can even open a factory and engage in overseas trade.

Of course, if you have no capital, no skills, and don’t want to stay in the countryside, you can give up farming, work in a factory in the city, and become an industrial worker.

Similarly, if you are unhappy working in a factory, you can also register with the Immigration Department, accept government arrangements, go to a place in Hanzhou or an overseas colonial territory, get a piece of land, become a farmer, and return to traditional rural life.

Taking into account that there are more and more young people (mainly locally born young people) who are unwilling to farm in rural areas, the government has also revised its original land policy, that is, the original upper limit of 40 mu of land that an individual can legally own has been abolished and raised to 500 mu.

To be honest, the original policy is no longer very meaningful after being implemented for decades. It was originally considered that the agricultural mechanization in Qi was not well developed, and even if you were given too much land, you would not be able to develop it. At the same time, although Qi was sparsely populated, land annexation must be curbed by rules from the beginning. In addition, the government wanted to keep more land in its hands to sell for profit, so the policy of limiting the amount of arable land that an individual could own to 40 mu was set.

As to whether the restrictions on the amount of land ownership will be completely abolished in the future and land mergers and sales will be fully liberalized, that depends on the political wisdom of the royal family and the cabinet.

Now the degree of agricultural mechanization in Qi State is increasing day by day, making it possible for individuals to cultivate more land. In addition, due to the current agricultural recession (affected by the plantation economy in the Nanyang region), the income of local farmers has generally declined, and it has been declining for many years. There are not many people willing to farm in rural areas. In this case, there is really no need to stick to the previous rules, so some changes were made appropriately, and the upper limit was raised to 500 acres.

Of course, in this case, it is inevitable that the government will further strengthen the construction of rural grassroots organizations and enhance the role of agricultural cooperatives. Otherwise, even if you give them more land, it will be useless. They simply cannot effectively develop it, face the market, and earn income.

With representatives of agricultural cooperatives collectively purchasing seeds, renting (purchasing) machinery, purchasing insurance, and selling products, farmers' production costs will be reduced to a minimum, which saves a lot of money. Considering that their per capita cultivated land area has greatly increased, the per capita grain output must have also greatly increased, which is also a lot of money. It is difficult for farmers not to increase their income by increasing their income while saving money.

Therefore, within the territory of Qi, a person's destiny is not static. As long as you dare to take risks, dare to fight, and dare to endure hardships, there will always be a path suitable for your development.

Although, in the field of industrial production, the "bourgeoisie" as factory owners has a relatively strong position and can ruthlessly squeeze and exploit workers to make them create a steady stream of industrial profits for themselves, but because there are more opportunities for choice, the workers of Qi are not willing to be squeezed and humiliated blindly, they will use their feet to make choices.

You've pushed me to the limit, so I'm going to break up with you and will no longer work for you factory owners.

At worst, I can go to an overseas colonial territory, apply for a piece of land, and become a happy and free farmer.

Or, why not go to India and become a superior person there?

You see, these workers cannot be completely controlled and have to obediently become beasts of burden, willingly being oppressed and exploited. This is really outrageous!

"Zhiang, what do you think?" Ye Liansheng felt quite depressed when he thought of this. Then he saw his eldest son holding a poster of an opera performance and looking at it carefully. He suddenly became angry.

"Dad, are you talking about the workers extending their working hours?" Ye Zhiang withdrew his gaze from the poster and looked at his father.

"What do you say?"

"Dad, for the sake of the continued operation of the factory, I think we should not be too harsh on the workers, so as not to escalate the relationship between us and the workers."

"Could it be that you give more of the money you earn to the workers? ... Humph, where does the money come from for your daily life of drinking, watching plays and listening to music, going on picnics and hunting?"

"Dad, I didn't spend money recklessly. It was for the factory's business and to build good relationships with the children of the rich and powerful." Ye Zhiang defended himself, "By the way, two years ago, there was an incident in Jianye Prefecture where workers gathered to destroy a factory. Dad should have heard about it, right?"

"What? Are you afraid of those workers causing trouble?" Ye Liansheng said disdainfully, "Do you really think that my Qi army and police are just sitting there doing nothing? In the end, the workers who caused trouble in Jianye Prefecture were all arrested by the police and military police and put in jail!"

"However, except for the two leaders who were sentenced to death, the rest of the workers were exiled to Yinzhou." Ye Zhiang said softly, "And the factory and its owner have since fallen into ruin and are no longer as prosperous as they once were. Dad, do you think they got a good deal?"

"They..., they dare?" Ye Liansheng's face froze.

"Dad, there is a saying that goes, 'Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes.'" Ye Zhiang said leisurely, "So the way of a sage is to be lenient but cautious, strict but warm, gentle but straight, fierce but benevolent. So, sometimes we can't oppress the workers too much, or they will backfire. After all, Confucius said, 'If you love bravery and hate poverty, you will get into chaos. If you are unkind and hate poverty too much, you will get into chaos.'"

“…” Ye Liansheng’s face turned dark.

This son read too much and became a handsome and elegant gentleman!
But his father became a black-hearted factory owner who disregarded the lives of workers.

"Dad, you must know that when birds are desperate, they fight; when beasts are desperate, they grab; when horses are desperate, they run away; when people are desperate, they cheat. If the workers are pushed to the limit, it would be fine if they quit, but I am afraid that these people will get excited and do something extreme, which will be difficult to reverse." Ye Zhiang said solemnly: "Looking at the past ten years, the government of Qi has successively issued a number of laws to protect workers. Why is it so? It is to ease the dissatisfaction of the workers, soften their radical attitudes, and thus ensure the long-term stability of the country."

"But this country is ultimately supported by factory owners like us." Ye Liansheng said with a gloomy expression, rather unwillingly: "If there were no factory owners like us, how would these workers make a living? If there were no taxes paid by us, how could the government function normally? If we did not produce a large amount of goods and earn a lot of gold and silver for the country, how could our Qi State rise to dominate the world?"

"Dad, that being said, whether it's the royal family or the cabinet, we in Qi still consider the will of the people and care about the stability of the country." Ye Zhiang said, "Moreover, once there is a factory disturbance or a labor dispute, the public opinion tends to favor the workers, which is very unfavorable to our public opinion. Therefore, we have no choice but to relax our control measures... a little. Even if we give the workers a few cents, we will only make a little less money."

"Heh..., I just earned a little less?" Ye Liansheng sneered, grabbed the account book on the corner of the table and held it in front of him. "You have been involved in factory management for some time. Don't you know how much the daily expenses of this factory are? Let's not talk about the various stamp duties levied by the government. The daily operating costs of the factory are a huge number, including the maintenance of machines, the purchase of leather raw materials, the consumption of coal, the wages of workers, the maintenance of business partnerships, the replacement of new equipment, and the arrears of sales accounts... Oh, yes, there are also official favors and festival tributes. Tell me, which one doesn't cost a lot of money? This machine, as long as it is turned on, it will be endless consumption and huge costs. Do you think it's easy to run a factory? Do you think I'm willing to calculate the workers so meticulously?"

"Dad, I know how hard it is for you. But we can definitely use a more effective management method to increase the factory's production efficiency to a new level without causing strong dissatisfaction among the workers, while ensuring that the workers' salaries do not increase significantly."

"That's easy to say, but how can there be such a good solution?"

"Dad, do you know the system of military merit advancement during the Former Qin Dynasty?"

"Is it the kind where by chopping off a head, you can be promoted to a higher rank and receive a corresponding house as a reward?" Ye Liansheng looked at his eldest son in confusion, somewhat confused.

"That's about right. Our factory can also implement a similar management system. That is, the more work a worker does within a certain period of time, the more money he will get. The less work he does, the less money he will get. If you want to make more money, you have to fully improve your labor efficiency and do more work."

"Is this something you came up with?" Ye Liansheng was greatly surprised by his eldest son's performance.

Although this method was not elaborated in detail, it sounded very effective. As long as this "merit-based promotion" system was implemented in the factory, the workers would no longer need to be urged and driven, and they would exert their greatest enthusiasm and work harder.

After all, the more you work, the more you get!

"Of course, this idea was not thought up by me." Ye Zhiang said with a smile: "A few days ago, I was having dinner and chatting with a few familiar companions. When we talked about how to improve workers' production autonomy and efficiency, someone mentioned a garment factory in Jianye Mansion that was implementing this piece-rate production method. All workers were paid based on the number of finished products they made every day, which doubled the factory's production efficiency. The factory's profits and workers' wages both increased significantly, making both parties benefit greatly."

"Very good!" Ye Liansheng looked at his eldest son approvingly. "You were able to capture such useful information from a conversation at a banquet, which shows that you are attentive to the factory. In the future, whether this factory can continue to expand and whether the family can prosper forever depends entirely on you."

(End of this chapter)