Looking at Qiu Tian's speech, Jiang Tian smiled noncommittally, and waited until the other party said a lot about the benefits of Jin merchants undertaking transportation tasks, and with Qiu Tian's breath, he sighed unhurriedly: "I remember, Brother Qiu should be the same villager as Lord Song, but I didn't expect you, a person from Jiangnan, to be so familiar with the northern border trade!" ”

Jiang Tian's words made Qiu Tian, who was still ready to continue preaching, almost choked to death, only to find that he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, so that people could see his little abacus. But he still has a trace of luck, in case this young prince and master don't understand the unspoken rules of officialdom. But then Jiang Tian's words made him completely give up this idea.

"It's not easy for these old Xi'er, the door has come to your side, but even I admire their sensitive noses, you can see the opportunity to turn over in just a few words, I only heard that Shanxi people have bright minds, it seems that what they said is true, if they are so smart, just find someone who can talk and talk about other things."

This is a naked hint, I, Jiang Tian, can get you out of the ban, but how can I talk to me? What about your sincerity? Having said that, Qiu Tian was relieved, no matter what the final outcome of the negotiation between Jin Shang and this Master Jiang was, he could be regarded as having an explanation, because his task was to be responsible for matchmaking.

It's just that before he could get happy, he heard Jiang Tian continue: "Brother Qiu, Lord Qiu! I heard that you took your wife and children to the capital a few years ago, and I am deeply ashamed that I was entangled in official duties and could not visit my elders in time. I also know that the capital has also recovered the momentum of the national capital in recent years, and the housing prices are naturally bullish, and I have no respect for the younger brother, so I have to prepare two hundred taels of congratulations to express my heart, and the brother has the right to accept it, but with all due respect to the younger brother, although you have not yet been released, but Your Majesty is thinking about you, a capable minister, don't live up to the grace of God! ”

Rao is cold winter, Qiu Tian's forehead is still oozing Cen Cen's sweat beads, and the fool can also hear that Jiang Tian is warning him not to accept bribes, and he has nothing to say for a while, so he has to take a deep look at Jiang Tian, which can be regarded as thanking others for reminding him.

After Qiu Tian left Jiang Mansion, Jiang Tian was still sitting in front of the hall in a daze, he never thought that the Jin Chamber of Commerce would find Qiu Tian's line to go through the back door, and he had mixed feelings in his heart, and he couldn't tell whether he felt sorry for Qiu Tian or sighed at the vitality of the unspoken rules of officialdom. When I thought about my previous life, I once commented on Taizu's strict punishment and strict law to rectify the rule of officials, but in the end, he became the same as Zhu Yuanzhang's corruption and self-government. Now that he thinks about it, he really doesn't have a backache when he stands and talks, looking at the ill officialdom in front of him, he really doesn't know what else to do but hold up the butcher's knife.

"Rare and confused?" Zhang Huan looked at the not pretty words on the rice paper, and then tilted his head to look at Jiang Tian: "Sir, is this a feeling?" ”

This year's students came to pay New Year's greetings, as usual, Zhang Huan took the lead, and after the routine process, those gentlemen still refused to leave for a long time, but fortunately, these people are also considered regular guests in the house, and Jiang Tian has no dignity in front of them. So Zhang Huan saw the four big characters on the desk.

"Sort of." Jiang Tian said perfunctorily: "Do you guys have anything to ask?" ”

These people looked at each other, obviously the real prince didn't plan to come out this time, and the fake prince couldn't talk much, so in the end, Tian Xuhai couldn't help but ask: "Sir, this southern grain transportation to the north has been abolished and changed to the sea, and even promised that the civilian merchant ships can undertake the transportation of grain, why is the grain and grass supplied to the northern army also to be carried by merchants?" If there were those unscrupulous people who did things with food, wouldn't it hurt the great cause of the Northern Expedition? ”

As a traditional Confucian student, it is also an academic habit to naturally look down on businessmen, but why didn't Zhang Huan come out to answer questions, this kid should know the ins and outs of the whole thing?

Just when Jiang Tian was puzzled, Liu Baokai stood up again and asked: "Actually, it doesn't matter who transports the military rations, but is the reward for this salt introduction a little high?" If you want me to say that it has been more than 2,000 years since the official sale of salt and iron, even if the price of salt is not as good as before, there is no need for ordinary merchants to set foot in it, and even if the market is to open, it should be planned safely. ”

Before this kid finished speaking, Jiang Tian already knew what they meant, in fact, the nobles and ministers were eyeing the huge profits of Yanyin, and wanted to directly intervene in the cake.

Jiang Tian glanced at Zhang Huan, the two princes pretended not to know, and they were still looking at their calligraphy works there, and then looked at Song Yi, this kid has nothing to do with himself, anyway, his family is based on new learning, there is no need to wade into this troubled water.

"Huan'er, what do you think about the exchange of grain for salt?" Jiang Tian thought to himself, since you want to see the jokes, I can't make it so easy for you.

Zhang Huan is no longer the ignorant teenager who didn't understand anything a few years ago, as soon as he heard Jiang Tian ask him by name, he regretted that he shouldn't have stayed to watch the fun: "Although the word Mr. is simplified, the charm has been ......"

Before he finished filming, he saw Jiang Tian squinting at himself, and now he understood the true meaning of "rare and confused" in an instant, but this question has to be answered by himself: "According to the student's simple opinion, what the imperial court wants is for merchants to traffic materials to the north, and what the army wants is for the timely supply of military food, as long as the grain is finally transported to the place, it doesn't seem to matter who transports it." ”

He compromised his two classmates in disguise, no matter what, he can be regarded as a classmate, how can he do it if he doesn't take care of himself. But is this the answer that a prince should say? Wu Yuan shook his head quietly.

Liu Baokai and Tian Xuhai were naturally overjoyed, you must know that in the two major factions of Wen and Wu, how many people are looking at this piece of fat with their eyes.

Jiang Tian listened to Zhang Huan's answer, and could only sigh: "How many times have I told you, any monopoly behavior, unless it is an official camp of the imperial court, will inevitably end up being a big move, and it will eventually be broken up." Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and only by mastering this productive forces can it be possible to create the highest economic value. The price of salt in our dynasty is lower than that of the previous dynasty, and even the price of refined salt is similar to the price of coarse salt in the former Ming officials, do you think that Your Majesty lowered the price in order to take care of the people? It is not because of the reduction in costs after the new salt production method that it is guaranteed to be profitable at this low price. ”

Song Yi knew what Jiang Tian wanted to say, but because of Zhang Huan's identity, he couldn't say it too bluntly, so he hurriedly interjected: "What Mr. said is right, there are so many patented technologies in the Academy of Sciences, just buy two and go back to open a factory, it is also promising." ”

Jiang Tian looked at Song Yi, he thought that this kid was peddling the technology of the Academy of Sciences that no one bought, but fortunately, there was such a person who did not compete for fame and fortune. can be regarded as reluctantly biasing the problem, but I didn't expect the latter sentence to be: "Anyway, the two of you are not short of money, after buying out a patent, the things produced are not how you want to price them." ”

I don't know why, the Chinese bureaucrats, who were supposed to be gentlemen, were the most successful capitalists in ancient China in terms of the means of accumulating wealth, not only relying on their rights to monopolize the means of production, but even relying on speculation to influence the core values of the state to achieve the goal of monopolizing production activities, not to mention that they themselves were the actual behind-the-scenes manipulators of many business groups.

Just look at the Ming Dynasty officials, in order to actually control the small peasant economy, did not hesitate to preach the theory of the uselessness of navigation, and stifled all possibilities of export-oriented economy. In the middle and later periods, although it was no longer possible to close itself off from the country, because most of the actual productivity of the primary industry had been controlled by it, the majority of China's export profits still went into their pockets.

Judging from this example, perhaps not all the civil officials who shouted for seclusion were conspirators, but judging from the final result, they closed the country and gradually annexed the land, monopolizing the most important means of production at that time! After that, even if the trade is switched off, how much will the country gain from it? Moreover, the consequence of monopoly is that wealth comes too easily, which leads to the stagnation of production technology and increases the resistance to social change.

Jiang Tian had discussed this issue with Zhang Tao at the beginning, and finally they came to the conclusion that even if the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not go south, even if there was no natural disaster of the Xiaoice River, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to survive another hundred years! Even if there is another round of peasant uprising, and the leader of the peasant army like Li Zicheng becomes the emperor, as long as the country's system remains unchanged, it will not take a hundred years, and the land contradiction that has been alleviated by the decline in population caused by the war will reappear. So in the end, it's just a matter of changing a Han Chinese to be the emperor and waiting for the West to come to the door again.

Zhang Tao and Jiang Tian were both troubled by this walking corpse-like status quo, so although the abolition of the privileges of scholars could partially dispel their enthusiasm for annexing land, but looking at Yongzheng's reforms, we can see that because of the promotion of new crops, the output of land increased, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, the total population doubled compared with the Ming Dynasty, but the social structure did not change greatly, but the landlord class increased the exploitation of tenants because they could not be exempt from taxes. Therefore, the second move adopted by Zhang Tao is to artificially increase productivity, launch an impact on the traditional economic structure, and force the primary and secondary industries to promote technological reform on their own in order to reduce production costs because of the increased competitive pressure.

However, both of them have a clear understanding on this issue, that is, they cannot expect capitalists to be good people, and they will not hesitate to reduce labor costs first, instead of thinking about how to improve production technology. Therefore, in order to keep the productive forces in a state of constant supply, it is necessary to create a situation in which the capitalists have demand from the workers, and Zhang Tao and Jiang Tian have each come up with a set of methods for this.

Zhang Tao believes that as long as manpower is used by the state in other aspects, then the current situation of labor shortage will force capitalists and landlords to treat their subordinates well, so he always thinks about waging war, not only to expand the territory and increase the security space, but also to hone the army so that they will not be abandoned because of too long peace, when the time comes, whether it is a landlord or a factory owner, in order to maintain production, they will inevitably pursue higher production efficiency, so that they can kill multiple birds with one stone to achieve their goals. The disadvantage is that the state is reckless in military force, which may drag down the healthy development of the country's economy and society.

Jiang Tian adopted a more moderate method, that is, to open up overseas sales channels for commodities and create a state where productivity is insufficient to meet the market, so that when the increase rate of labor force is lower than the market demand, it will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in workers' wages, and at the same time the value of exported goods will increase, and the silver can increase the purchasing power of the people, drive the liquidity of funds, and stimulate the farmers in the primary industry to flow to the secondary industry because they envy the income of workers, even if adult men will not change careers for the time being. However, with the gradual advancement of technology, women will inevitably be the next important source of labor for capitalists, and as women's incomes increase, their social status will inevitably change, which can also promote changes in the social structure. But this also has the disadvantage, that is, the capitalists may set the selling price too high because of the shortage of supply in the market, which leads them to be reluctant to expand reproduction in order to maintain the high profits of hunger marketing.

Now, when Jiang Tian heard that these proud disciples of his were still talking about monopoly at every turn, he knew that in the eyes of social inertia and those in power, using the power in their hands to monopolize one or two industries was the result they were most looking forward to. In ancient China, peasant uprisings were the resistance of the exploited class, but after the success, the peasant army immediately became the exploiting class. The revolution in Europe, although it appeared that capitalism had abolished the feudal monarchy, in fact it was nothing more than a transfer of the right of exploitation from the hands of the divine monarch to the hands of the big capitalists, and its essence remained unchanged. So when there was an economic crisis in capitalism, a man named Karl Marx saw through the essence of capitalism.

What is the essence of capitalism? In Jiang Tian's words: When a feudal woman with small feet was spurned as feudal dross, she decisively changed into a man's clothes, put on a pair of fat shoes, and pretended to be a normal person to spurn other small-footed women with others, but her "big aunt" who visited regularly exposed her true identity, and she happened to be seen by Marx's classmates changing sanitary napkins, and later wrote a paper exposing her changing women's clothes into men's clothes......

Therefore, in order to avoid being ridiculed by Marx and his followers, and also in order to make their disguised identities widely recognized, they had to reach a reconciliation with those who resisted more and more fiercely, and spit out a little bit of fat to their mouths, so that everyone could benefit from it and support themselves, although this little rebate was really insignificant, but fortunately, the proletariat was very satisfied. However, the more people do this, the less their competitiveness will be, so the capitalists have no choice but to embark on the line of increasing productivity and ensuring profit margins, and to put it bluntly, they have evolved from monopolizing the means of production to monopolizing the technology of production.

Time pulls back to the Chinese Dynasty, neither Jiang Tian nor Zhang Tao wants to go through such a revolutionary road again, so the monopolists can only be themselves, and they also happen to have the highest productivity in the world, so from Jiang Tian's point of view, he hopes that there will be a private research group that competes with the Academy of Sciences, even if only some of the technology can make breakthroughs, it can promote the whole society to trigger a virtuous circle because of competition. But so far, all this is just his beautiful fantasy.

Jiang Tian thought to himself, maybe what his predecessor said made sense, if China wants to gain momentum for progress, it can't count on internal metabolism, but needs to find an opponent externally, even if it's just a fantasy opponent!

Looking at the teacher's gloomy face, several people stopped talking, and even Zhang Huan didn't quite understand why his teacher was not very happy. After pondering for a long time, in order to break this embarrassing atmosphere, the fake prince had no choice but to ask, "Sir...... Forgive me for talking too much, I'm afraid this salt introduction may not be as simple as how much salt you can receive, right? ”

Looking at this student with the most sensitive sense of political smell, Jiang Tian nodded slowly: "Yanyin!" It's just a piece of paper, but because it says the amount of salt you can take, it's no longer a piece of paper! It doesn't matter if you want to take it to the salt factory to get the salt, whether you sell it or eat it yourself, but what if someone is willing to buy this piece of paper in your hand at a high price? What if the salt production is reduced due to bad weather, which leads to an increase in the price of salt in the market? What if the salt production in the market increases due to good weather, which leads to a decrease in the price of salt in the market? If this paper is obtained for transporting grain in winter, who knows whether the price of salt will be high or low in the summer? Are you going to sell the salt now, or are you going to wait and see in the summer? Can you figure out a thing or two about this knowledge? ”

If you are a modern person, I am afraid that you will suddenly think of stocks and futures. It is just a piece of paper, and its maneuverable space is simply unlimited, and the yield of any securities under financial leverage is beyond the reach of traditional trading. Even the government bonds with fixed interest rates in later generations have not been used by major banks and financial companies to carry out various leveraged operations. The doorway here is not enough for three days and three nights.

Of course, Tian Xuhai and Liu Baokai couldn't think so much at once, but they were not stupid, and they heard that the imperial court had unimaginable big moves on this salt lead, and it was by no means a simple matter of how much salt they could receive, and if they were operated properly, they could even obtain a value far beyond these salts. But when they saw Jiang Tian's gaze, they were timid again, because in this field where money is used to make money, who dares to say that they can play with him Jiang Tian?

Zhang Huan seemed to have an understanding, and after a moment of silence, he asked, "Sir, do you want to say that the person who holds the salt is just a fat sheep that can be slaughtered at will in the eyes of the imperial court?" ”

"Huh!" Jiang Tian, who had a sinister smile on the corner of his mouth, looked at them: "Aren't some people always thinking about using the power in their hands to make money?" Relying on the tiger skin of the official family to snatch it skillfully, what is the end is to damage the public fat and private, who cares whether it will shake the country's foundation! Well, if anyone wants this salt to go to the north to transport grain, I want to see if they are capable or have more means of the imperial court. ”

Listening to him say this, even Zhang Huan, the real prince, is also a spirit, there is no need to doubt Jiang Tian's methods, just some of the content they have learned, they can use the public power of the state to use non-administrative order means, casually rubbing the world's businessmen, in Jiang Tian's words, as long as the state violence organs are not controlled by the capitalists, just relying on the four words "macro control", he can play to death all those who want to challenge the authority of the state!