Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 233 Obstacles to Active Capital Economy

Zhu Youxiao snorted, ignored Mao Yuanyi, and went directly to the Royal Weaving Bureau.

The entire Royal Weaving Bureau is like a large workshop. Dozens of Gui'an looms are placed in an orderly manner in the workshop. As soon as you enter the workshop, you can hear the sound of steam coming out and the roar of the machine running. Of course, coal The smell of smoke is also very strong.

In the entire workshop, there are technicians who operate the machines, as well as ordinary operators who add coal and water, but not many people are needed, and in a short while, countless spindles can be seen turning rolls of thin wire into fine and dense yarns after running at high speed. A smooth white cloth slides out of the machine.

And not long after, a weaving roll with a diameter of one meter rolled down from a smooth track. The specific dyeing and processing were performed by the female workers below. The whole process was orderly and efficient, which was carefully developed by Mao Yuanyi. The production process is also the most advanced production mode in Daming and even in the world.

Even Zhu Youxiao admired Mao Yuanyi's genius in steam power application, but because Mao Yuanyi was a military officer, he felt inferior in front of these civil servants in the south of the Yangtze River, and couldn't show him well. As the power of a celebrity in front of His Majesty the Emperor.

"Mao Yuanyi, you are now also the fourth-rank Jiangning weaving that I personally appointed. You are in charge of the Royal Weaving Bureau, which has a business worth several million yuan this month. You can also be regarded as the big steward of the Feishui Yamen. Why are your bones so soft? You murder and set fire in front of the Royal Weaving Bureau, and even beat the merchants who come to you to buy goods, but you don't kill their prestige!"

Zhu Youxiao looked at Mao Yuanyi with both eyes. Even though he was tall and mighty in the fourth-rank Yunyan civil official uniform, he looked dignified, but he always lowered his head. Now that Zhu Youxiao said so, he just Straighten out your chest: "Your Majesty's reproach is that I should be tougher. Now that the sales volume of the Royal Weaving Bureau is decreasing day by day, resulting in a backlog of goods, it is not unrelated to the increasing number of gangsters in Nanjing City. Many people in Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, etc. Merchants don't even dare to come to our Royal Weaving Bureau to buy goods."

"How much more can the output be increased now? Can we expand the scale and set up branch offices in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yiyang and other places?" Zhu Youxiao naturally knew that the obstruction of civil servants in Nanjing made it difficult for the Royal Weaving Bureau to rely solely on advanced productivity and low cost. When the weaving industry in the south of the Yangtze River opened up, he didn't say much about Mao Yuanyi's fear of civil officials, but asked whether the Royal Weaving Bureau could expand its scale.

After all, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youxiao set up large state capital enterprises not only to make money but also to solve the problem of employment, that is, the survival of the people. It is absolutely not enough to increase food production and land reclamation, and the Royal Weaving Bureau as Representatives of state capital naturally also have responsibilities in this regard.

Mao Yuanyi didn't think about the deep-seated reason why Zhu Youxiao asked this question, so she immediately replied:

"It's absolutely impossible, Your Majesty. Presumably, Your Majesty also knows that when the moon is full, it will lose money, and when the water is full, it will overflow. Now the demand for cloth in the entire Ming Dynasty can no longer increase. No matter how cheap it is, there is no way for Shengdou Xiaomin to buy it, and now the amount of silk fabrics that can be bought and used is almost enough;

If the scale is further expanded, there will be a backlog of goods, and then the silk fabrics will become worthless. The Royal Weaving Bureau will collapse by itself, and thousands of employees of the Royal Weaving Bureau will be unable to survive. The finance of the Ming Dynasty will also be deeply affected by this. . "

Zhu Youxiao understands that what Mao Yuanyi means is that the silk textile industry has become saturated, and the Royal Weaving Bureau can still obtain profits from this market with its current scale, but if the scale is increased, the supply will exceed the supply. The depreciation instead triggers an economic crisis.

Since the late Ming Dynasty, the world has been declining, and the rules of etiquette have been corrupted. If Zhu Youxiao now announces that the common people can also wear brocade clothes and red robes, the opposition will not be too loud, but it is estimated that the restriction of the rules on the common people will not be released. After all, as Mao Yuanyi said, not everyone is willing to spend money on silk clothes and wear them to farm. In Zhu Youxiao's view, the real driving engine of demand is overseas.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao asked again: "As far as I know, the aristocrats in Europa like my silk fabrics from Daming, and they have always been bestsellers. Many Western caravans travel thousands of miles. This is why you risked your life to come to my Daming."

With the popularization of social science knowledge by the Imperial Academy and the guidance of the Ming Daily, many Ming people, especially the scholar-bureaucrats and officials, are no strangers to the world. At least they know where England is, and some even know Elizabeth.

Therefore, when Zhu Youxiao asked this question, Mao Yuanyi could understand what he meant, and replied: "Reporting to Your Majesty, now my Daming Maritime Trade is almost controlled by Zheng and other pirates, whether it is my Daming Caravan who wants to go out or Western caravans had to get the consent of Zheng's fleet if they wanted to come in.

Now we can only export silk fabrics to Xiyangfan, but Zheng???s, because of its monopoly, deliberately lowers the price and only accepts a certain amount and does not easily increase the order quantity. Therefore, my Royal Weaving Bureau has been restricted now. Maritime trade earns very little profit. "

"I didn't think about this problem. It's a ridiculous thing in the world that my majestic Ming Dynasty's ocean trade is controlled by a few pirates!" Zhu Youxiao nodded. He suddenly realized that the Royal Weaving Bureau was not just the Royal Weaving Bureau. Including the difficulties that the Royal Industrial Company is facing now, not only the resistance of the civil official group, but also the suppression of the pirate group, which caused the two imperial merchants to be unable to activate the capital market of Ming Dynasty.

The pirate group must be eliminated as soon as possible, and the dominant position of the central government of the Ming Dynasty in maritime hegemony must be rebuilt. To do so, one must have its own powerful navy. Now that the Royal Weaving Bureau cannot be expanded, it can only find ways to solve the high unemployment rate in Nanjing City from other aspects.

Not only the high unemployment rate, but also the new gap between the rich and the poor brought about by the development of capital, as well as the protection of the rights and interests of ordinary workers and their survival guarantee. They were used by some people with ulterior motives and even encouraged them to do extremely destructive things.

However, the current Nanjing officials are often overstaffed officials, and even the promoters of the high unemployment rate and the gap between the rich and the poor. There are very few outstanding officials who are really hardworking or aware of the emergence of new class problems. The fact that good officials are hard to find is not only a matter of lamentation for the common people, but also for the ruler of the empire.

"Your Majesty, Jiangning county magistrate Ye Dingyi is here!"

At this time, a Dongchang Fanzi came with an official who was already in shackles. Zhu Youxiao looked back and asked directly: "Magistrate Ye, let me ask you, as the parent official here, Do you know how to govern this area, the daring little gangsters dare to beat merchants around the Royal Weaving Bureau and extort money?"

Ye Dingyi, the magistrate of Jiangning County, said aggrievedly: "Report, I am incompetent. There are too many gangsters doing evil in Nanjing City recently. The small cells are already full of people, and they can't be caught. Even the criminals The county government has also been sprinkled with dog blood and pig manure."

(End of this chapter)