The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

Zhang Yinghao said directly: "Inflation is simply understood as more money in the market, so the price of everything increases. People are afraid that prices will continue to rise, so they will definitely go shopping while things are cheap. So the Qing Dynasty

If there is less money, the Qing Dynasty will fall into a state of deflation. The whole place has less money, and everyone has less and less money. Who dares to spend money recklessly?

Without the circulation of the economy, the Qing Dynasty would have no taxation. Without taxation, the Qing Dynasty would have to support a large number of bureaucrats, nobles, the Eight Banners Army, and the New Army. Think about what would happen to the Qing Dynasty?

"We can't afford to support these people." "Disarmament."

…….…"

"Yes, so the Qing Dynasty will be easily disintegrated by us? It may even collapse on its own!"

When everyone heard this, they felt a tingling sensation on their scalps, but the enthusiasm for the discussion did become even more heated.

"Chairman, can't the Qing Dynasty transfer silver from other places to Beijing?" "That's a good question. Everyone knows that the Qing Dynasty royal family cannot collect gold and silver by themselves. They have no money. Then there are only two ways. The first is to transfer silver from other places to make up for the shortage of silver in the capital. The second is to plunder silver from the people. But no matter which method is used, it is actually a way of drinking poison to quench thirst.

In the past, the Qing Dynasty exploited the entire country, barely managing to survive. But now, the Qing Dynasty only has a few coastal provinces left, and its money is concentrated in these few key areas. This is what the feudal court called "strong roots and weak branches, strong trunk and weak branches." In other words, they relied on transportation lines and cities to rule the entire region. Therefore, if one of these points or lines failed, the entire Qing Dynasty's economy would be in serious trouble. If a central point like the capital failed, the entire situation would collapse.

The Qing could indeed extract money from other sources to supplement the capital's shortfall, but comrades, think about it: once all the money from these cities has been extracted, will the Qing actually have any chance of survival? If they want to rely on plunder to make up for the capital's financial shortfall, then isn't the Eight Banners' departure from the capital a prime example? The current uprising in Shandong is the best proof of this. Plundering will inevitably lead to public resentment, and the Qing's downfall will be even faster. This is a completely unprofitable proposition."

"Chairman, the Qing imperial family has ruled the country for over two hundred years. Even though we sell so many things to the Qing, there's no way we can put them in a complete crisis, right?"

"Haha, what do you think a country is? Why did powers like Britain and France open China's doors even when they were going to war? It was because the silver surplus was unbearable for them! If anything wants to exist for a long time, there must be inflows and outflows, and it must form a cycle. When we suddenly withdrew a large amount of currency from the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty's original cycle was immediately broken.

We knew, of course, that the Qing Dynasty was running low on silver. These merchants traveled thousands of miles to the north to transport the grain the Qing needed, all for the sole purpose of profit. Could the Qing provide us with relevant products? No, so these merchants immediately repurposed the money to purchase goods produced in our liberated areas. This money ended up in our liberated areas, leaving the Qing's small pond. Our goal was to create a cash shortage in the Qing-ruled territories. After the Qing government lost its ability to drain the nation, it fell into a widespread depression. We kept the price of grain we sold to the Qing very low precisely to facilitate trade with them.

Every ounce of silver, every copper coin, once it falls into our hands, is completely gone from the Qing dynasty. A shortage of money will lead to a lack of demand, ruthlessly destroying markets and trade across all regions of the Qing dynasty. This destruction of trade will not only harm the Qing imperial family, but also the Beiyang Army, the Eight Banners, and even the entire population of the Qing-ruled lands.

"Chairman, you said you wanted to create a cash shortage in the north. Although the Qing Dynasty is weak, it has accumulated over a hundred years of wealth and is likely not short of this little money. Even if we sell grain to the Qing Dynasty, we can't plunge the entire region into crisis."

Zhang Yinghao said calmly, "What is currency? Currency is a general equivalent. How many means of making a living do the Qing people have? The common people don't have many. Seeing that money is getting less and less, how can the common people dare to spend it? They work hard all day and still can't earn enough to feed their family, and their families will still go hungry. The Qing royal family may indeed have money, but they can't share their money with the common people, right? Therefore, the money shortage is not about us digging all the money to us. It is just about reducing the amount of money circulating in the trading market."

The comrades present here have heard Zhang Yinghao explain the concept of "money as an equivalent of exchange." Everyone knows that finance is a profound subject. Many of them have also run businesses in local areas and understand how incredibly difficult and complex it is. The Forward Party's theoretical framework for economics is so profound that it exceeds the wildest imaginations of many comrades. They simply can't resist.

But asking when you don't understand is a tradition of the Progressive Party.

"If the capital is short of money, will the Qing court transfer money from all over the country?"

"That's right. The Qing Dynasty's allocation of money from various regions will give the impression that they are already facing a widespread shortage of money. Comrades, how do you think the various regions will deal with this widespread shortage of money?"

"this....…"

Some comrades frowned.

"If everyone feels short of money, then naturally they won't spend money."

Zhang Yinghao smiled calmly and said, "That's right. If everyone holds their purses tightly and dares not spend money, the currency circulating in the market will only become less and less. The less currency in circulation, the less people will dare to spend money. The less they dare to spend money, the more deflation will continue, and oh, that is, the less money there is in the market. Without taxation, the Qing Dynasty will have to rely on force to rob people of their money, and its fiscal revenue will become less and less. But the Qing Dynasty still has such a heavy burden as the bannermen, bureaucrats, and indemnities. Can the Qing Dynasty last? They think that the bannermen are the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. As the foundation of the Qing Dynasty, the bannermen also need to eat and drink. They don't farm, don't make a living, and if they have no money, it is definitely impossible to let them starve to death, right?"

That's why I've always said that working hard will ensure a well-fed life. Our Progressive Party works alongside the people, and labor creates value. The example of the Qing Dynasty shows that unless it can maintain self-sufficiency, this problem is simply unsolvable. However, the Qing's burdens only made it increasingly difficult. They lacked the ability to drain the rest of the country, and relying solely on themselves was completely unrealistic. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty would not last long and would naturally collapse unless the great powers were willing to provide it with financial support.

"What a vicious plot!" The comrades who understood it couldn't help but think in their hearts, and their eyes looking at Zhang Yinghao changed unusually!

Chapter 600:

Zhang Yinghao understood the Qing Dynasty's current predicament better than anyone else. Though not an economics major and possessing limited knowledge of finance, he had experienced the whirlwind of information technology and navigated the volatile A-share market for years, ultimately becoming a seasoned expert. Few in China today understand the power of economics and finance better than Zhang Yinghao.

Zhang Yinghao smiled and continued: "I have many things I dislike about the Qing Dynasty, such as their servile culture of kneeling on the ground. Of course, the servile culture really started from the Mongols, but the Qing Dynasty carried it forward. The Qing Dynasty also signed unequal treaties with servility and weakness. According to Chinese history, when the emperor was forced to leave the political center, it was the end of a dynasty. Once the political center was taken down, the dynasty was almost overthrown. Therefore, in fact, the Qing Dynasty should have perished long ago. It is not wrong to call the current Qing Dynasty a foreign court, because it was the support and permission of foreigners that the Qing Dynasty could continue to exist. So, comrades, the incompetence of the Qing Dynasty has reached an outrageous level. We only use If such simple trade tactics could bring down the Qing Dynasty, how could such a Qing Dynasty lead China to independence and even prosperity? China under Qing rule was like a lamb being milked by the great powers. Once it could no longer produce milk, the great powers would inevitably kill the lamb for meat. Comrades, the Qing Dynasty did not understand construction and only knew how to treat the symptoms. For two hundred years, productivity had hardly developed. Of course, in reality, building a country well is not a benevolent government, and ensuring that the people live a good life is not good governance. There is actually nothing to brag about in terms of ensuring that the people have enough food and clothing, because this is the responsibility and obligation of a government that serves the people and the most basic requirement of our Forward Party. We should do this, and if we fail to do so, we should be overthrown. Why should we talk about reasoning here?

Zhang Yinghao felt a little off topic when he got to this point, so he quickly got back to the point.

He continued: "What is the essence of human society? In fact, the essence of society is to possess resources and then exchange them. Money is just to facilitate transactions.

Individuals obtain all their needs through exchange. Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty experienced a cash shortage, internal transactions would cease immediately. All those still under Qing rule would be unable to obtain the means of production and life, and they would lose confidence in the Qing Dynasty. This is what the feudal era called "luck" or "people's hearts." Once these people lose confidence in the Qing Dynasty, we can easily reap the fruits of their labor.

"Without money in the market, all industries will be depressed, and the country will indeed be unable to survive. If the Qing Dynasty also learned from us to print paper money, would it be able to hold on for a while?"

"If the Qing Dynasty also printed banknotes and forced them into circulation, there would indeed be no problem. However, printing money requires collateral. How could the Qing Dynasty guarantee the value of its currency? Moreover, the printed banknotes need to be recycled, otherwise it would be naked robbery. However, the Qing Dynasty itself does not engage in production, so how can the Qing Dynasty use any means to recycle the banknotes? Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty starts printing banknotes, it is actually better, because the areas under its rule will inevitably cause severe inflation, and the people will quickly abandon the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the Qing Dynasty will collapse faster, and even the great powers will not be able to save it."

“Is inflation really that scary?”

"Haha, severe inflation is far more terrifying than you comrades imagine right now. In times of chaos, we focus on the military, and in times of peace, we focus on finance. Political power comes from the barrel of a gun, and in times of chaos, our Progressive Party must firmly grasp the military and not let go. And when the country is at peace, or once our country is unified and there is no need for war in the short term, then we must control finance as strictly as we control the military. The use of finance to plunder wealth is far more fierce, rapid, and insane than war. Of course, if you want to be the world hegemon, you must know how to use finance to plunder the world..."

At this point, Zhang Yinghao suddenly recalled the painful experience of the A-share market in his past life. It was truly heartbreaking! Taking advantage of unequal rules, big capital predatoryly exploited retail investors, and it was incredibly satisfying. The United States relied on finance to reap the world's profits, while China relied on this to reap itself, alleviating the pain of excessive currency issuance. It was truly unbelievable.

Zhang Yinghao came back to his senses and continued, "Well... now it depends on whether the Qing Dynasty prints banknotes. If they do, comrades, you will see a big inflation drama. Let's get back to the point. Now that the Qing Dynasty has been blockaded by us, and circulation has been completely interrupted, countless people in the Qing-ruled areas will not be able to survive. However, in times of war, everyone's bottom line is particularly low. Just enough to eat and survive. Therefore, the lower-class people are just trying to survive. As a result, even less goods are entering the circulation field. The efficiency of the entire economic operation is very low...

"Chairman, if everyone cherishes materials, they will naturally maximize the utilization of all materials. The operational efficiency should be very high, right?" A comrade interrupted and asked.

Zhang Yinghao patiently explained: "Haha, the premise is that everyone does not need to eat or drink, and there is no consumption. If everyone does not need to eat or drink, then your assumption is valid. But as long as we are alive, we need to eat and drink every day, so we must take into account the price and consumption of labor. If one person can only transport 50 kilograms of grain at a time and 200 kilograms of grain at a time in the same amount of time, and the freight remains the same, the person who transports 50 kilograms will not make any money, and no one will do such a business. The price of labor will become almost worthless as the scale of operation decreases, making circulation even more difficult.

This is a huge operational waste. Think about the days before, when everyone worked desperately for a few kilograms of rice and noodles, or racked their brains to squeeze out the maximum benefits from a few kilograms of rice and noodles, such as exchanging them for coarse grains, etc., to seek longer survival for their families. But the actual situation will not get better. If the effort, energy and time spent are used in other value-creating places, the economic benefits that can be generated will be much higher. Everyone looks at our liberated areas. After the land reform, a large number of labor forces have been liberated. They have land at home and no longer worry about a few kilograms of rice and noodles. They go to work in factories, engage in construction, build roads, engage in transportation, and even open up wasteland. You can make money by doing anything and support your family. Isn’t this more efficient than painstakingly getting some food to survive?"

"Chairman, if the Qing Dynasty doesn't buy food and just relies on looting, wouldn't it be able to survive?"

"Haha, of course they can hold out. Just like when we fought against the local tyrants, relying on spoils can indeed sustain us. But how long can this short-term strategy last? Let alone the Qing Dynasty, we wouldn't be able to sustain ourselves for long relying on spoils before it would collapse. Furthermore, the Qing Dynasty has been in the glamorous world of the capital for over two hundred years. Do you really expect the Bannermen to immediately become hardworking and patient? As soon as the Qing Dynasty begins looting, the backlash caused by this looting will only intensify the opposition between the people and the Qing Dynasty. Didn't the Shandong uprising break out? The more the people oppose the Qing Dynasty, the more the Qing Dynasty will emphasize its bannermen's status as rulers. Thus, the situation continues to deteriorate, and eventually the Qing Dynasty becomes a traitor to the people and a dictator. There are countless historical examples of the fate of traitors and dictators. Discussing this is just a waste of our time."

Zhang Yinghao finished his speech with a mocking sneer on his face. Seeing Zhang Yinghao's sneer, many comrades felt a chill in their hearts. As an enemy, he had such a deep understanding of the Qing Dynasty and could make such a profound strategic judgment. These comrades could only mourn for the Qing Dynasty in silence.

"Chairman, if these words were to reach the ears of the Qing court, what would happen if the Qing learned about them..."

Zhang Yinghao smiled and said, "We are all comrades, and we must be honest with each other. The laws of the development of things are there, and anyone can learn them. So what if the Qing Dynasty learned them? Anyone can learn them. I have said before that if the Qing Dynasty had not been so turbulent, it might have lasted a little longer. The more it turbulently struggled, the sooner it would have ended. Of course, since we understand this, we naturally want to teach it to more comrades. We are comrades, and we must make progress together. I did things and then kept them secret. What good would that do to everyone?"

Do I need flattery or do I need to be wary of my comrades? Since neither is necessary, I will naturally teach everyone what I have learned. Another ridiculous or shameful thing about the Qing Dynasty is that it does not tell the truth. The Qing system forces people to tell lies. They practice flattery. Therefore, they are fundamentally different. The more the Qing Dynasty learns, the faster it dies. That's why I always say that we must seek truth from facts. Whether you can do something or not, whether you can do it well or not, depends on your ability. If you lack ability, you can improve it through continuous learning and hard practice. But if someone deceives me and lies about the facts, then it is a problem of character. As for such people, once they are found out, our Progressive Party will not tolerate them... "

"Chairman, does more money mean more prosperity for all businesses?"

"First, you need to understand what money is. Gold and silver are the best natural carriers of general equivalents. But the legal tender used in our liberated areas is also money. As for gold and silver, having more of them doesn't matter, as they have storage value, and their circulation will gradually decrease. But if we issue too much legal tender, what would happen if rice, which costs 20 cents a pound today, becomes 50 cents tomorrow, and 1 yuan the day after tomorrow?"

"If there's too much money and inflation is too severe, prices will skyrocket. Factories will soon close, and people will suffer. If you don't spend the money you earn today immediately, you won't be able to buy much more tomorrow. Our Progressive Party prints more money by creating more wealth, not by printing more money to exploit the masses. Printing more money does not create wealth. Everyone must understand this clearly."

"Chairman, then why are some people saying that our money is becoming less and less valuable?"

"Well, the first reason is that moderate inflation is beneficial to economic development and the circulation of currency. The second reason is that while the total wealth of society has increased, individual wealth has not increased accordingly, so naturally people feel they don't have enough money to spend."

"Chairman, please explain."

"Let me give you an example. Let's take the railway from Wuhan to Changsha that we are currently building. During the construction process, our total wealth is constantly increasing. When this railway is completed, if it is valued at 60 million yuan, then it is equivalent to an average increase of 20 cents in assets for each person in our liberated area. However, in reality, this money is not distributed equally to everyone, but becomes this railway. However, this railway asset is a real asset and increased wealth. So when a person's income increases by 20 cents out of thin air, then he has kept up with the rate of increase in social wealth. When a person's wealth does not increase by 20 cents, then he will feel that his money has become less.

So, the principle is actually very simple: labor creates wealth, and the wealth of our liberated areas will continue to increase. This is beyond doubt. When an individual's wealth grows slower than the rate of social wealth growth, then their life will feel increasingly difficult. When an individual's wealth grows faster than the rate of social wealth growth, then they will no longer feel that life is becoming difficult. Currently, development is not evenly distributed across the country, especially in areas that haven't yet benefited from development. This feeling will only become more acute. Coupled with the currency devaluation caused by inflation, most people will only find their lives increasingly difficult. Of course, the reality is that everyone's life will basically only get better, because the wealth of society as a whole is constantly increasing, and infrastructure will continue to improve.

How many roads are built daily in our liberated areas? How many products are produced daily? How much water conservancy work have we built? Much of this increased social wealth has actually been absorbed internally, offset by cheap labor. If all this increased wealth were converted into money and released, many of our people would have long since been unable to bear it. Therefore, our liberated areas must maintain stable food prices and implement a policy of unified purchase and marketing to ensure that every working person, as long as they work, can afford to eat and wear clothes...

The Progressive Party is about to enter a larger arena, one that will be even more turbulent and demanding of its members. Therefore, Zhang Yinghao can only work harder to train his comrades, improving their knowledge and abilities so that they can better adapt to their new work and understand the underlying principles.

During Zhang Yinghao's break, his secretary came in with some information and said, "Chairman, these foreigners from Britain, France, Russia, and other countries are already waiting for us in Wuhan."

"Haha, the Northeast is really a ripple effect, it's moving pretty fast. Let them wait."

There was no way to wait. Zhang Yinghao couldn't just appear in Wuhan out of thin air. Of course, if he really needed to get there quickly, there were ways to do it, such as by plane or airship. However, airships were too unsafe, so Zhang Yinghao wouldn't take them. Planes were still a secret, so even if they were safer, Zhang Yinghao wouldn't take them at the moment.

Zhang Yinghao finished speaking, picked up the courseware, and walked out of the rest area. The comrades had already taken their seats. Zhang Yinghao also said directly: "Let's continue the lecture. When we were teaching "Das Kapital" before, we talked about the problem that capitalists make profits by exploiting surplus value. But in our liberated areas, we no longer make profits by exploiting surplus value. Our Forward Party relies on exploiting labor to obtain higher returns.

How do we understand this? First and foremost, we acknowledge that labor creates value, so we must maximize the opportunities people have to work. Therefore, we must provide them with as many opportunities as possible. I've told you before that countless lives were lost as foreigners developed their industries, like the British practice of cannibalism, the triangular trade, and the massacre of Indians. Just like how British textile mill owners proudly declared that no worker in their factories would survive more than four years in good health.

We are a socialist country and must be responsible for all the people. We cannot allow such tragic things to happen. Therefore, we must manage all the people well, guarantee their lives, lead them, and create more wealth by allowing everyone in society to participate in labor. At the same time, we must continuously promote the development of our productivity.

Therefore, at this stage, under the premise of ensuring the basic survival of the people, the most important thing is to develop industry by exploiting the wealth created by the labor of our people, and accumulate enough wealth for our country through industry, so as to complete the construction of our country's industrialization system.

There are no shortcuts here. We can complete the process of industrialization by importing advanced science and technology from abroad. At the same time, after digesting and absorbing it, we can learn, research and innovate on our own, and finally improve our own technology. But where does the wealth from our trade with foreigners come from?

Wealth is created through the labor of our people. Everyone knows a little about our trade. How many pieces of clothing do we need to manufacture to buy a piece of foreign machinery? How many pig bristles can be exchanged for a foreign lathe? If we don't manage the people, and if we desperately extract the nation's wealth to buy foreign machinery, then many of our people will face serious problems, starving, freezing, or even dying of starvation and freezing. This is something our Progressive Party will absolutely not allow.

We need to develop industry and industrialize. However, we have no colonies to exploit, so we can only exploit ourselves and contribute the wealth of our labor to develop our industry. This process must be endured; there are no shortcuts.

If we can get through this, we will have a bright future ahead of us. If we can’t, our industrialization will fail, and we will continue to be bullied and it will be difficult for us to turn things around…”

Chapter 601:

Zhang Yinghao fully understands the concept of "endurance." Decades of endurance wouldn't be an exaggeration. Whether it's the Soviet Union's desperate export of raw materials for machinery and equipment, or China's exchange of shirts for airplanes, or even markets for technology, facts have proven that as long as one perseveres through the initial phase and fully invests the wealth earned through hard work into developing productivity, one will ultimately catch up with or even surpass these Western countries. Of course, this presupposes that this wealth is truly used to develop productivity, especially heavy industry, rather than being squandered through consumption. Otherwise, it would be a crime against the people.

In this era, Zhang Yinghao possessed an unparalleled advantage. It was still the early days of the Second Industrial Revolution, with electric motors and internal combustion engines only just emerging. International trade embargoes and blockades were virtually nonexistent, making this a truly untamed era. Zhang Yinghao knew that as long as he fully utilized China's human resources, catching up with the Western powers would be a relatively simple matter.

"As I've said before, the foundation of our society is trade, or exchange. This is also a prerequisite for our interactions with other countries: the principle of exchange must exist. There's no such thing as love without reason, and unwarranted kindness is either treachery or theft. Just like Germany lending us money now, it doesn't actually have any good intentions. We in the Liberated Area don't have any high-tech goods to exchange with foreigners, so we can only desperately export raw materials and primary processed products in exchange for machinery, equipment, and scientific and technological data from Western powers.

Even as our scientific and technological levels rise, the great powers will continue to advance. Therefore, the largest markets for our future industrial trade will be domestically and in regions currently without industry, such as Southeast Asia and Africa. When our productivity equals or even surpasses that of foreign countries, we will no longer suffer the same losses we do today in trade with them. This is the reality, and all comrades must remember that developing productivity is the fundamental pursuit of our progressive Party.

We've emphasized many times in class that land reform cannot generate excess wealth. We need to address the problems of being beaten and starving, and to solve the problem of peasant unemployment, so land reform is necessary. However, land reform can only alleviate hunger for our people. Land reform solves hunger, but it also aims to enrich our people. Therefore, we must now vigorously build roads to connect all our areas. Only through trade can our people live a good life. For example, areas like Yunnan and Guizhou are suitable for growing chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and tobacco!

In addition to developing as many terraced fields as possible in Yunnan and Guizhou, we are also looking for ways to sell what people grow. Our chili sauce, Lao Gan Ma, is selling well. We won't go into details about how many jobs the Lao Gan Ma company has created and how many chili farmers it has supported.

And the crayfish we imported from the US, I heard they're already flooding many places, right? Sichuanese people are all pretty good at spicy food, right? Wouldn't it be delicious if we made it into spicy crayfish? The market for this stuff in the city is huge. Many people have gone hungry, and you know, a single bite of shrimp meat could mean a life.

After listening to Zhang Yinghao's story, everyone had a sense of trade. Hearing about things like spicy crayfish, many people were already salivating. Zhang Yinghao wouldn't call himself a foodie, though he did have a preference for lobster and other seafood, but everyone shared a common love for good food.

"Now everyone knows, for example, buying chili peppers to make chili sauce, growing chili peppers does not mean you can sell them for money, nor does it mean you can make our "Laoganma". You still need a factory, and making chili sauce does not mean you can transport it to the city for sale. So even when we are fighting, we can't be idle for a minute, we must keep building. It goes without saying that we need to build water conservancy projects. Our roads are not easy to travel on, so how can we transport those agricultural products? So we have to keep building roads vigorously.

Railways and highways will remain our key development priorities for the next 100 years. We will connect all cities nationwide with roads and railways, forming a network. These cities are the most important foundation of our progressive party. During the industrialization process, these cities are our focus of development and the true core of our nation...

Therefore, we already have regulations in place: main roads in first-tier cities must be designed as eight-lane roads in both directions. National highways must be four-lane roads in both directions, and provincial, county, and rural roads also have corresponding regulations. In the future, we will also vigorously develop expressways specifically for driving. These roads actually have one purpose: to connect all parts of our country and form a circulation network for materials and personnel...

Zhang Yinghao's presentation of some very advanced concepts seemed to make sense to the comrades, but they seemed to have no idea what they were talking about. Everyone listened and took notes, and simply followed Zhang Yinghao's advice.

"Think about it, if a city has a population of 10 million, how much food does it consume daily? Assuming each person consumes an average of two kilograms of food per day, that's 10,000 tons of food per day, and 20,000 tons in two days. If there were no railways or roads, if something went wrong, the people in the city would be in big trouble..."

"Chairman, based on our experience in Chengdu, the small vendors at the night market make just as much as we do. What should we do? Furthermore, we're facing the problem of many small workshops going bankrupt because of the factories we've built. Of course, there are also many small workshops that are very profitable. There's a huge contradiction here."

The distribution of benefits is a very acute issue. Everyone wants as much income as possible. And those small workshops went bankrupt. Although the Progressive Party didn't intentionally bankrupt them, after the Progressive Party-run factories began production, many of the small workshops' products lost their competitiveness. What else could they do but go bankrupt?

"Let me make one thing clear here: we didn't deliberately make things difficult for those small workshops after they went bankrupt; they simply couldn't continue operating and went bankrupt on their own. As we all know, one of the philosophies of our Progressive Party is to promote the development of productivity. Think about it, how many times more efficient are our gasoline-powered rice mills than those of these small workshops? How much cheaper are our prices than theirs? This comparison clearly shows that these small workshops lack productivity and are bound to go bankrupt.

In addition, as I mentioned earlier, if we want to ensure that all people in our liberated areas can survive, we must distort supply and demand. That is, the prices of many of our products are beyond the reach of ordinary people. For example, the clothes, sickles, hoes and other commodities we manufacture are sold to the people at extremely low prices. Our grain is even more so, as it is tied to our legal tender. Those small workshops buy grain, process it and then sell it, and they make almost no money. It would be really unfair if they didn't go bankrupt. "

Hearing Zhang Yinghao's words, everyone laughed in good faith. Zhang Yinghao continued, "I am reminded of a sentence in The Communist Manifesto: Some people accuse us Communists of wanting to abolish property earned by individuals, the property that is the basis of all personal freedom, activity, and independence.

What a labor-earned, self-earned, self-earned property! Are you referring to the petty-bourgeois and small-peasant property that existed before the emergence of bourgeois property? We don't need to eliminate that kind of property; the development of industry has already eliminated it, and it's being eliminated every day. So, if these small workshops can survive, we should regulate them and allow them to continue to exist. If they are about to close, there's no need to save them; let them disappear naturally...

"We are now striving to develop and transform capital into public property belonging to all members of society. This does not mean transforming personal property into social property. What is changing here is only the social nature of property. It will lose its class nature. We must be paid for our labor, and labor is divided into mental labor and physical labor. So what determines the level of this remuneration? In fact, it depends on the person's labor capacity and the different groups of people he serves.

What is labor capacity? For example, consider a general worker and a welder. The welder's pay is generally higher. This is true, right? Working on the assembly line is possible for anyone with no physical issues, but welding requires training and study. This difference in labor capacity determines the difference in pay.

For example, consider two chefs. One cooks delicious dishes, while the other cooks barely edible ones. If they run the same business, the chef who cooks well will naturally have a large number of customers, while the chef who cooks poorly will have few customers. Isn't it normal for them to have different incomes?

The second is the number of people served. Just like you said just now, how many people does a small vendor serve every day? If he can provide services to a hundred people a day, shouldn't he get the corresponding compensation? And how many services do some comrades provide to so many people in a day? So these small vendors deserve their income, and we just need to regulate them.

I've always said that we want to build a socialist state under the dictatorship of the proletariat. We are the proletariat, the people who earn their living through labor. If we don't work, we will starve to death. Because we are not an exploiting class, but proletarians. Whether these small vendors are proletarians or not is irrelevant; what matters is that they earn their living through labor and don't violate the law. That's all!

I personally like the saying that the greatest selfishness is selflessness. We proletarians hope that everyone can live a good life. When everyone can live a good life, how can we proletarians not have a good life? We proletarians can only liberate ourselves by liberating all of humanity. When all of humanity is liberated, won't we proletarians also be liberated? We hope that our children and grandchildren will all live a prosperous and healthy life. Then, when poverty is eliminated worldwide, won't your children inevitably live in prosperity?

The current situation is that we have a planned economy combined with a market economy, with the planned economy being the backbone and the market economy supplementing it. In the planned economy, for example, our own factories are not for profit; they serve the people. Therefore, these factories can even be non-profit-oriented, and naturally, wages are the standards we set.

On the other hand, with the vigorous development of the market economy, the income of ordinary industrialists and businessmen has increased rapidly. Under such circumstances, the phenomenon of income inversion has emerged. We who make artillery shells are not as good as those who sell tea eggs, and we who hold scalpels are not as good as those who hold razors.

The fundamental reason for this phenomenon is that we are enabling previously unsaleable or extremely low-cost laborers to earn money through their labor. For example, women, the elderly, and even some child laborers can now earn money through our organization's work, and quite a bit.

Take bamboo weaving, for example. These people, in addition to farming, once cultivated their craft, working during the busy season and earning money from their craft during the slack. Many of these skills are passed down from generation to generation. This skill is considered highly technical, but these people, previously hampered by supply and demand, could only make a small profit annually.

But after we organized them, their incomes increased exponentially. For example, in our silkworm farming industry, women, the elderly, and children, who were once extremely underpaid and responsible for picking mulberry leaves, caring for the silkworms, and cleaning, are now able to earn money in the silkworm factory. Those who work there year-round can earn a good salary.

Hearing what Zhang Yinghao said, everyone felt relieved. Yes, these factories support a large group of people, a large group of people who rely on themselves for their livelihood.

"Think about those small workshops. Their sole purpose is to make money. How much social responsibility do they have? Take apprentices, for example. Their wages in the workshops are extremely low. Even the simplest addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills are valuable knowledge that only the most talented apprentices can learn. After we raise the price of labor, these small workshops will not be able to hire labor at the original price. If they also raise the price, their profits will be reduced or even eliminated, and they will naturally be unable to continue.

Therefore, the policy currently implemented by our Progressive Party is to lower the price of labor, which was originally very high, and to raise the price of labor, which was originally very cheap. Coupled with the role of the market economy, the end result is that the small vendors you mentioned earn much more than us.

The income of our Progressive Party members is likely to fall short of that of an average worker, and this phenomenon is likely to persist for a long time. Now that I've explained the reasons, I hope you'll be mentally prepared. Of course, this is our most difficult period, but as productivity develops, these phenomena will naturally disappear. Our generation is destined to strive for the well-being of future generations...

After hearing this, everyone felt a sense of sacredness in their hearts, and immediately applauded Zhang Yinghao.

"Chairman, will the bankruptcy of these small workshops lead to social instability?"

"There will definitely be some minor problems, but they won't be major ones because our productivity will continue to grow, and this impact can be easily absorbed. Everyone, do you think we are short of people now? Or are we not?"

"We're short of people."

"We're not short of people."

"We are short of people in some areas and not in others. This is determined by the quality of the people working now. Generally speaking, there will be a long-term shortage of high-quality talents, and even ordinary laborers are sometimes in short supply. Generally speaking, we are short of people. We are building railways, with 100,000 people building a railway. Such a large scale can completely offset the impact of the closure of these small workshops. We have the ability to absorb all these unemployed people. As long as they are willing to work, they will not become unemployed. As long as we absorb these people, it will not affect social stability.

As for those workshop owners, as you said, even a small vendor has a good income. As long as they are willing, there is no place for them to make a living. Of course, if these people want to become counter-revolutionaries, we will have no choice but to use the iron fist of dictatorship to deal with them.

"Chairman, to what extent do we need to increase our productivity?"

"To what extent? Endlessly, until all resources are exhausted. Look at today's feudal landlords; they profit from exploiting tenant farmers, especially under the serfdom system of China, with no regard for the lives of slaves. And those factories of the past profited from exploiting both humans and machines, replacing human labor wherever machines could be used. Following this trend, with the development of science and technology, machines will increasingly replace human labor. We can transition from exploiting labor to exploiting machines. I think, at this point, this is the prospect we can see..."

Chapter 602:

Zhang Yinghao knew that productivity growth was virtually limitless. Unless the sun disappeared or the Earth's growth and consumption reached a perfect equilibrium, growth would continue unabated. Because of the material cycle, as long as there was sufficient energy, consumed materials could be regenerated. From this perspective, waste recycling was the world's longest-lasting business.

Zhang Yinghao came back to his senses and continued, "What does a communist society look like? It's one with extremely abundant material wealth, a greatly improved standard of living for the people, extremely complete infrastructure, and everyone enjoying high-quality public services. Why is a communist society definitely achievable? It's because a communist society is scientific and falsifiable. This issue has been discussed many times, so we won't discuss it here. However, no matter how beautiful the future is, it is the result of our hard work. We need to create a happy life with our own hands, so we can't fall into false imaginations. When you have time, read books like "Das Kapital" and "The Communist Manifesto" and understand the scientific principles contained therein. Now we still have to work hard to get rid of food and clothing."

Zhang Yinghao firmly believes that communist society is inevitable. This is because future scientific and technological development will reach unprecedented heights, and corresponding productivity requires a corresponding production system to coordinate it. Otherwise, productivity will never reach such heights. While continued capitalist development can also lead to communist society, and transitioning to communism doesn't necessarily require socialism, socialism remains the best system for social fairness and to ensure the development and happiness of all people.

Why does Zhang Yinghao support public ownership as the foundation? It's because public ownership is based on the pursuit and improvement of productivity. Any private enterprise needs to be profitable, and only through profitability can technological advancements be achieved. Therefore, these private enterprises have limitations. Only state-owned enterprises can disregard these limitations and leverage the power of the state to boost productivity.