Fearing that prices would rise again, people flocked to the shops to demand exchange. How can there be so many goods in the shop?

The debt-ridden shopkeeper hurriedly closed his door, the angry people smashed the shop, and five or six out of ten shops closed down in Suzhou.

Because he had never seen such a scene, he had to resort to strong measures, ordering all shops to collect coupons within a time limit, and the closed shops were returned to the government, and a few mobs who provoked trouble were killed.

This is Wei Bao's favorite story of the economy in the late Ming Dynasty, from this story you can see the degree of economic development of the Ming Dynasty at that time!

In fact, this already has the germ of capitalism.

The premise for the emergence of capitalism is a sufficient proportion of the commodity economic environment and the mode of production for the purpose of exchange, and whether it is capitalist or not is judged by employment relations.

The employment relationship is a manifestation of the commodity economy, and what appears here is the exchange relationship between labor and money, so labor is also a special commodity.

The instinct of capitalists is nothing more than to reduce costs and increase profits, so if possible, they want all the workers to be slaves, which is why slave labor appears again and again.

If the flourishing of handicrafts and commerce is called "the germ of capitalism" or "primitive capitalism", then there was a widespread revival of handicrafts and commerce in Western Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries.

As a result, no matter how we define "capitalism", we need to admit that the industrial revolution of the 19th century would not have been possible without a series of fundamental innovations and accumulations in Western Europe from the 15th and 16th centuries onwards.

At the time of American independence in 1787 and the French Revolution in 1789, both the United States and France were predominantly agrarian, and with the benefit of hindsight, it makes sense to say that such countries stood at the gates of "capitalism," although only a handful of Americans and French were vaguely aware of it at the time.

When the English Civil War broke out in 1640, England was still a certain distance from the Industrial Revolution and capitalism, and in Wei Bao's view, the Ming Dynasty had little to do with capitalism when it ended in 1644.

At the end of the 18th century, Western Europe and China were not fundamentally different, nor did they have any institutional and inevitable priorities.

The success of Western Europe was due to some rather fortuitous factors, such as Britain's easy access to coal resources.

According to this theory, China will also find it difficult to start the industrial revolution because it does not have these factors, such as the Yangtze River Delta region's distance from coal resources.

Why did Western Europe undergo fundamental changes in politics, economics, science, literature, painting, and other fields in the 15th and 16th centuries?

There are many favorable factors that can be listed, such as generally high literacy and labor productivity, a more liberal and regulated labor market, the revolutionary promotion of the spread and accumulation of knowledge by the printing press, the change of attitudes towards the world by the great geographical discoveries, the lack of centralization conducive to competition and development in various places, the institution of marriage breaking the control of the extended family over its members, and the medieval parliament conducive to the rationalization of the legal system.

These elements, in turn, may be causal to each other, or subject to other elements that have been sufficiently discussed or remain undiscovered.

And if we discuss the development path of a particular country in more detail, we can also find more seemingly accidental factors that have a long-term effect: a severe plague wiped out a small half of the country's population, led to a more open labor market in Britain, and at the same time led to the re-serfdomization of Eastern Europe, a war thousands of miles away could lead to the closure of international trade lines, the lack of coal resources, and the use of steam engines had no economic value, resulting in the Netherlands not joining the industrial revolution.

Therefore, to select certain elements in isolation, and to place the success of "modernization", "capitalism" or "industrial revolution" above these factors underestimates the complexity of the problem.

The path of modernization and industrialization in Western Europe is an isolated case and an isolated case, and the inability to achieve modernization and industrialization spontaneously is a common phenomenon in almost all countries.

In fact, even in the 21st century, there are still quite a few countries that have not yet embarked on the path of modernization.

Therefore, Wei Bao is relying on his personal ability to sow this kind of sprout in Weijiazhuang and southern Liaoning, so that the small society he created can spontaneously form industrialization and modernization!

Generally high literacy and labor productivity, a more liberal and regulated labor market, the printing press revolutionized the spread and accumulation of knowledge, the great geographical discoveries changed the attitude towards the world, the absence of centralized power was conducive to competition and development in various places, the institution of marriage broke the control of the extended family over its members, and the legal system was rationalized.

These are all available in Weijiazhuang and Liaoning!

Moreover, both Liaonan and Weijiazhuang are rich in coal and iron ore resources!

What Wei Bao wants to do now is to accumulate wealth and make the materials and wealth of this small society rich enough.

In terms of agriculture, Wei Bao now needs to expand in commerce, the development of the Yangtze River, the Pearl River, the Xiangjiang River and the Yingkou-Tianjin-Songjiang maritime trade, the establishment of a national market for grain and cloth, and the emergence of a large number of commercial guilds and hired workers.

In the handicraft industry, the phenomenon of employing free workers in the form of handicraft workshops and contractors is the phenomenon of employing free workers in the form of handicraft workshops and contractors in industries such as tea-making, tobacco-making, silk weaving, dyeing, kicking workshops, papermaking, printing, wood mining, iron smelting, coal mining, salt making, and sand boat transportation.

Only free industrial workers can push out capitalism, and slaves can't do this, which is why Wei Bao is not the biggest feudal lord or slave owner, he just collected more than 1,000 slaves in the early stage, these people are all locals of Weijiazhuang, most of them follow his surname Wei, and the people who come in later will not engage in these.

Moreover, the house slaves collected in the early stage have also evolved into a kinship relationship, rather than a master-slave relationship, they are free, and one is counted as one, and all of them have entered the Heaven and Earth Society.

"How do you feel after listening to this story?" Wei Bao asked.

Yang Xue, Xiong Xin'er, and Zuo Guozhu all felt it, but they couldn't say what they felt.

It might have been better if they had received a basic education in Weijiazhuang, but they didn't.

Moreover, after receiving Weijiazhuang's primary education and junior high school education, he could not fully appreciate the difference between the capitalist system and the feudal system, which at least required a theoretical foundation above the junior college level, and even Wei Bao himself could not standardize and explain it clearly.

Wei Bao is just hazy There is such a concept, Wei Bao is a modern ordinary person, whether in theory or in practice, it is very ordinary.

If he hadn't brought a ship from modern times with many samples of industrial equipment from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wei Bao might still be just a small wealthy family in western Liaoning.

It is far from possible to have the current pace of development.

"These are the relations of capital! Only generally high literacy rates and labor productivity, a more liberal and regulated labor market, the revolutionary promotion of the dissemination and accumulation of knowledge by the printing press, the great geographical discoveries changed the attitude towards the world, the absence of centralized power was conducive to competition and development in various places, the marriage system broke the control of the extended family over its members, and the legal system was rationalized. In addition, there are abundant coal and iron ore resources! Only with enough materials and wealth can we support the rapid development of a society! What we have to do now is to provide Weijiazhuang and Liaonan with these materials and wealth, and then Weijiazhuang and Liaonan will drive the big ship of the Heaven and Earth Society to expand externally! Wei Bao said.

Yang Xue, Xiong Xin'er and Zuo Guozhu nodded as if they didn't understand.

Wei Bao smiled slightly: "I know, now I am telling you that these are pulling out seedlings to help us, but we don't have professional economic talents, we are just crossing the river by feeling the stones." Weijiazhuang already has a lot of talents who are proficient in the money bank business, but they are not much different from the money bank talents outside, I hope you can guide them at a higher level and get familiar with the money bank business as soon as possible. ”

"Xin'er and I are women, can women do things?" Yang Xue was puzzled: "It's better to be in the president's secretariat, just contact and communicate with all parts of the Heaven and Earth Society, let us go directly to the money village to manage things, others will gossip,"

"You can disguise yourself as a man, and after you get acquainted with it, you will still stay in the president's secretariat. There is such a problem outside of Weijiazhuang and Liaonan, where men and women already have the same jobs, there are many jobs, and even women get much higher salaries than men. Wei Bao said.

This surprised Yang Xue, Xiong Xin'er and Zuo Guozhu, women's salaries are much higher than men's?

Although Yang Xue and Xiong Xin'er had heard Wang Qiuya talk about it, they hadn't seen it with their own eyes after all, and hearing it from Wei Bao's mouth would make them believe it even more.

Zuo Guozhu is like listening to the book of heaven.

"Okay, you'll all understand slowly, if you have any questions, you can ask me directly. I'm just going to train the three of you to be experts in economics. Wei Bao smiled: "Let's sleep for a while, I'll be busy when I get to Tianjin Wei." ”

The three of them nodded, but they couldn't sleep, all thinking about what Wei Bao had just said.

Wei Bao looked out the window through the curtains.

Instead of his lavish European-style carriage, he was now riding in a wooden carriage with shock absorbers, which, although more comfortable than a regular carriage, were still bumpy.

Because they were all carriages and horses, the team traveled quickly, and no bandits dared to make trouble along the way.

First, there were a lot of people and horses in Weibao, and second, a large number of materials were not shipped.

It only took a day and a half to arrive at Tianjin Wei.

The Hejian Mansion has already received news from the capital, and has just learned the news of the abolition of the original Caoyun Governor Yamen and the merger of Hejian Mansion, Cangzhou Mansion, Shandong and Denglai.

The original Tianjin governor Li Banghua and Denglai governor Yuan Keli had been dismissed by Wei Zhongxian, but the governor of Shandong, Yamen, was still there.

The current governor of Shandong is Li Jingbai.

Li Jingbai in the forty-first year of Wanli Jinshi, the first Xiajin County Commander, at the beginning of the appointment to visit Zhuli Lao, knowing that the Yellow River old road people are very bitter, the sand does not harvest crops, the tax is a lot, he decisively pardoned the sand tax, a total of 270 taels per year. Set up a monument of "Removing the Shatian", and the people were grateful. He was promoted to the governor of Shandong, the right of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Palace, and the young master of the crown prince.

According to the information obtained by Wei Bao, Li Jingbai is a neutral faction with the color of the eunuch party, this kind of person is the most slippery, and at the same time has a certain attribute of the Donglin Party.

Li Jingbai built a shrine for Wei Zhongxian, burned incense to congratulate "Yao Tian is towering, the emperor is difficult to name", in the original history, after Chongzhen came to power, Li Jingbai will be impeached by the Donglin party, "befriending close servants, and inferiority, three years in prison, and redemption for the people."

Then get the hell out and go home.

Li Jingbai gave birth to two sons and one daughter, the eldest son Li Linsun, the second son Li Hesun, the daughter Li Jing married to Shenqiu, and the second son of Liu Hanru, the political envoy of Ming Zuobu.

Liu Yang's background is not small, he is the son of the former high-ranking official Liu Hanru, and now he is the general soldier of Shandong.

Liu Hanru is a native of Shenqiu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan. In the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing, there were fifty-nine Jinshi three first-class scholars.

At the beginning, he served as the magistrate of Huaxian County and Jun County in Henan, and he had quite a political achievement, and the villagers set up a shrine for him.

When he was appointed as a member of the Military Selection Department and the Arsenal Division, he participated in the compilation of the "Nine-sided Diagram" of the Ministry of War.

He served as the deputy envoy of Shanxi according to the judicial department, and participated in politics on the right, and accompanied Wang Zongmu, the squire of the Criminal Department, to inspect the Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi border defense.

Lingyun in the military constitution, reorganize the army, build a new castle, also known as Yong'an Fort.

The project started in March of Ming Yihai and was completed in December of the fourth year of Wanli after nearly two years.

Impeachment of Guo Hu, the chief soldier of Datong, and Guo Hu, the chief soldier of Datong, was demoted to the first level of his ancestral position with a lost charm.

He was re-appointed as the envoy of Zhejiang according to the judicial department and the political envoy of the right cloth, and in the tenth year of Wanli, the Hangzhou mutiny in Zhejiang, cooperated with Zhang Jiayin, the governor of Jiangnan, to quell the chaos.

Later, he was transferred to Fujian Zuobu political envoy, and died of illness during his tenure as political envoy of Zuobu in Yunnan.

The Liu family is a large family spanning Henan and Shandong, and several generations have been court officials.

When Wei Bao and his entourage arrived in Tianjin Wei, they did not go directly to the Tianjin Governor's Yamen, but went to Tianjin Wei's Tiandi Merchant Maritime Chamber of Commerce to rest and sleep.

"President, Liu Yango, Li Jingbai, Li Linsun, Li Hesun, and Li Jing have arrived in Tianjin Wei! And brought thousands of people. Lin Wenbiao waited for President Wei to come over as soon as he sat down and reported, "This is the news I just received." ”

"They are the officials of Shandong! Don't stay in Shandong, what do you do in Tianjin? Wei Bao thought about it and knew why, "They are unwilling to hand over administrative power and military power!" To prevent us from setting up the Yamen of the Governor of Haiphong! ”

"It should be, otherwise I wouldn't have brought troops over." Lin Wenbiao said.

"Hmph, they have soldiers, don't we have soldiers?" Wei Bao frowned: "Let the guards change into the clothes of the soldiers of the Yamen of the Governor of the Sea Defense!" From now on, you are the soldiers of the Yamen, the governor of Haiphong. ”

Wei Bao destroyed the Caoyun Governor's Yamen, and all the people in the Caoyun Governor's Yamen were dismissed on the spot.

The Yamen, the governor of Caoyun, was supposed to have 2,000 people, but more than 200 people were killed, and at least half of the others were paid empty wages.

The remaining 1,000 or so people saw that Wei Bao was so fierce, and they didn't dare to come to ask for money, so they went home directly to be ordinary people.

You can use this kind of unreasonable means against the Yamen of the Governor of Caoyun, but you can't use this method against the Yamen of the Governor of Shandong and the Yamen of the General Army of Shandong, but Shandong has an army of 100,000!

According to the intelligence of the Statistics Bureau of the Heaven and Earth Society, there are also more than 77,000 army and more than 6,000 sailors in Shandong!

There are not many vacancies.

Most of the reasons for this are because the original governor of Denglai, Yuan Keli, is not only highly respected, but also fair and honest, and does not deduct military salaries and eat soldiers' vacancies.

The reason why Wei Bao agreed to Wei Zhongxian's order to cut off 100,000 soldiers and horses in Shandong and Jiliao, and took the lead in doing this, was that on the one hand, he wanted to gain credit and the power of the Yamen, the governor of coastal defense, and on the other hand, Wei Bao also thought that it was useless for the Ming Dynasty to raise so many soldiers and horses.

It is the economy that relies on the economy to deal with Jiannu, and the economy can't stand it, so why do you raise so many people?

If the economy can't keep up, it definitely doesn't have the strength to take the initiative to attack Jiannu, and if it can't take the initiative to attack Jiannu, then it can only be based on defense.

Where do you need so many soldiers to defend?

Regardless of the vacancy, Jiliao and Liaodong are known as 150,000 troops, and Shandong is known as 120,000 troops, and these two sides add up to 270,000, as well as the border army in the Datong area of Jizhou, as well as the Beijing camp guards near the capital, as well as the imperial forest army in the capital, and a small number of men and horses from the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, plus the errands of Dongchang, Jinyiwei, and Shuntianfu, anyway, the seven or eight people and horses near the capital are gathered together, and there are as many as 50,000 or 60,000 alone!

There are 100,000 people in the entire Beizhili.

The 100,000 in Beizhili, plus the 270,000 in Shandong, Jiliao, and Liaodong, there are 370,000 troops to spend here.

There is also Nanzhili, as well as the soldiers and horses of the Ming provinces, although the Ming Dynasty's finances have been on the verge of collapse, but it has raised millions of troops, an empire with a population of less than 200 million, where do you need to raise so many soldiers and horses,

Therefore, Wei Bao agrees with Wei Zhongxian's opinion, raising so many soldiers and horses, it is useful to have a hair, it is better to cut most of them, as long as the capital is stable.

If Wei Bao is reborn into Zhu Youzhen and becomes Emperor Chongzhen in the future, Wei Bao will adopt the practice of the old woman Cixi, in addition to leaving more than 100,000 guards in the capital, all the bandits in various places will be trained by the local landlords themselves, and the central government will not have to pay for it, and it will be able to curb the riots in various places.

In that case, it is equivalent to consuming the resources of the landlord class and the resources of the common people, and the result is that no matter how weak the imperial power is, it can be stable in Mount Tai!

On the contrary, whether it is the peasant army or the landlord army, if you want to gain a foothold, you have to look at the face of the imperial power.

Facts have also proved that Cixi's set is very effective, and the Great Qing Kingdom was not overthrown by the peasant army in the end, but was overthrown by Beiyang from the inside.

This is still because the outside world has undergone earth-shaking changes, and the intervention of imperialism has brought down the Qing government, otherwise how long the Qing Dynasty can survive, no one can say.

Daming does not have these problems, Europe outside Daming is still poor to death, and the whole of Europe cannot catch up with the economy of Nanzhili.

Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands were still in the primitive accumulation stage, and the British Empire was still a child learning to walk.

"Bring Yang Xue, Xiong Xin'er and Zuo Guozhu here, let's discuss." Wei Bao said to Lin Wenbiao.

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