Some people say that Japan's economic growth after the First Sino-Japanese War was due to the war reparations, which has a certain amount of truth, but if we analyze it directly, the reparations of the First Sino-Japanese War were mainly used in the military field, so the growth of the military industry may directly benefit, and it is seen that the fastest development after the First Sino-Japanese War is not military production, but the civilian field. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The three major elements of economic development will never change, that is, labor, capital and market, Japan, like China, is a country with a surplus of labor, which is not lacking, capital is reflected in the First Sino-Japanese War in terms of capital, mainly Japan established a stable gold standard through compensation, and at the same time formed a modern financial system composed of more than 700 modern banks, but the biggest change brought about by the First Sino-Japanese War is the change in the market, Japan opened the door to the Chinese market through the war.

In just a few years, Japanese cotton textiles have replaced British goods in the Chinese market, and British products have become high-end products specially supplied to urban middle and upper class consumers, while the middle and low-end are monopolized by Japanese companies, and behind the monopoly is the continuous expansion of Japan's industrialization.

The economic development of the Ming Dynasty is not unrelated to the opening of the Manchu market, through the construction of two railways, the goods of the Ming Dynasty can be sent to the Manchu inland all the way, and through disaster relief, it has indeed bought a large number of people's hearts, everyone knows that their lives are saved by the Ming Dynasty, this subconscious goodwill, will bring about the effect that all aspects are deliberately unattainable.

In addition, after the railway led to Shanxi, it was connected with the network of Jin merchants, and through the network of Jin merchants, the goods were transported to the northwest, southwest and other places where the national power of the Ming Dynasty could not penetrate, which extended the influence of the railway.

There is also the development of the Northeast, which is also a big market, in the case of the Northeast has inexhaustible land, the local people can not take care of the cottage industry, so they concentrate on the production of grain, soybeans and other products, the degree of division of labor is relatively high, the degree of commercialization of various items is relatively high, this is the advantage of the comparative division of labor, so here is a rising market, there are more than 10 million farmers with a better economy, constantly consuming Daming goods, providing a steady stream of driving force for Daming industry.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, another major change was the mentality of investors, the privileged merchants and daimyo who had accumulated huge wealth in the past in the shogunate period were actually very unsuitable throughout the early period of the Meiji Restoration, some privileged merchants lost their privileges and went bankrupt, and most of them lived by accumulation, and few invested in modern industry and commerce.

These people actually have a lot of power, not only in terms of money, but also in terms of connections, channels and influence, and the relevant Japanese literature shows that in the late 1890s, the old rich in Japan opened up their mentality and began to boldly invest in new industries.

In fact, this is what Zhu Jinglun has always wanted to do to reverse the consciousness of the old elite class and promote the new aristocracy and Junker class of the Ming Dynasty.

Now it can be said that it has achieved initial results, in the past 20 years of continuous encouragement of the squires to set up industry and commerce, mainly tea and silk reeling industry, so that the mentality of the squire class began to change, there have been thousands of industrial squires, such industrial squires, their influence on the society, not only limited to a few more factories, but through their social status and influence, to dispel more people's resistance and rejection of the emerging industry and commerce.

Shunde County has the Wen family such a famous family driven, industrial development is always better than Nanhai County, even if Nanhai County has the Ministry of Industry Shangshu family to promote, but in the promotion of the people, has always encountered great obstacles, obviously the reversal of the old class of the worldview, the new dynasty of the Ministry of Industry Shangshu is not as good as the typical old-style official eunuch family, three generations of Beijing officials Wen Zishao family.

Through investigation, Zhu Jinglun found that many concepts have changed, but combined with local thoughts, there have been some changes that Zhu Jinglun could not imagine.

It is common for the squires to run factories, but there are also some landlords and gentry who lease land to capitalists to set up factories at high prices, and enter this field, which is a kind of change, both of which are quite normal, and what is not very conventional is that there is a phenomenon that the local clan squires do not operate their own factories after they build factories, but directly rent the factories to the capitalists and charge high rents, and it is also very common.

For example, the He family in Shabian Township, Shuitengbao, Shunde County, did not operate the silk reeling industry themselves, but founded a construction company, "collecting shares to buy the dike-pond and then building a silk factory to rent out to the clansmen". The family also issued a proclamation asking the public to maintain the safety of the silk factory: "The silk factory is set up by a series of ancestors and clansmen to raise shares, and its status is fully guaranteed. To the shop tenants to rent each of the tenants to benefit Taizu and the eight squares, the shop customers will be greatly moved, and the eight squares will be subsidized for more training funds. All our people are responsible for protection, then the guests and hosts will be at peace, and the benefits will be endless. Thick Hondo Kai. ”

The land on which the factory was built was the sacrificial public land of the clan ancestral hall, which used to be rented for the purpose of interest, and was left to future generations by the ancestors of a certain generation, for example, when Wu Bingjian divided the family, he allocated millions of taels of fixed assets to the public court as a sacrificial industry.

Now, according to old traditions, these clans see the factory as a subsistence industry as if it were the land of the past. It's a huge shift in thinking.

What makes them have this change of mind, ordinary interests can never do it, according to the market, the landlords rent out the machine reeling factory at an annual rate of 10% of the investment. "Most of the silk factories belong to the villagers who try to taste the business and rent to the silk reeling merchants. The rent is calculated at 1 cent, and the income from the rent goes to the villagers. And with various relationships with customs and habits, there are few people who invest in the construction of silk factories in the name of private individuals. ”

Obviously, 10% of the investment amount can be recouped as a fixed rent interest every year, which is much higher than renting land for cultivation, so high that they can change their traditional beliefs.

But why are the capitalists willing to give such a huge profit to the local clan as rent every year, isn't it more cost-effective for them to buy land and build factories on their own, the fact is, they can't do it.

The complex rural society also involves the issue of local protection, as large as the two sides fighting for the quota and land of the local people, and as small as the two villages fighting for water, all of which are the embodiment of this kind of local protection.

A businessman who does not have a deep background in the countryside wants to operate on the territory of the squire, and it is difficult to get the support of these big families and clans. Therefore, behind this high rent, there is also a taste of buying access qualifications from others, and even it is not good to say that it is called protection money, which is why some clans will demand in the name of the ancestral hall that "all my clansmen are responsible for protection, then the guests and hosts will be at peace, and the profits will be endless." Thick Hondo Kai. ”

This kind of protection fee is not only reflected in the high rents, but also in other places protectionism, and the survey also pointed out that in some places, "the local gentry, the clan elders, must pay high rents for the land selected by the silk factory; After the construction of the chimney, it was said that the chimney hindered feng shui and was blackmailed; All silkworm pupae in the silk factory should be underwritten locally,...... Wait a minute. ”

In some places, the powerful squires, after leasing land or factories to merchants at high prices, were not satisfied, and continued to extort them, with the purpose of underwriting the silkworm chrysalis of the silk factory, which is the same reason that in later generations, when the country built railways and highways through certain villages, it was necessary to hire the local village chief or secretary as a foreman, so that the project could be carried out smoothly.

In addition to rents and underwriting of silkworm cocoons, the local tycoons also levied taxes on factories. Some silk factory operators must pay a variety of donations, such as mulberry donations, cocoon donations, chrysalis donations, holiday donations, etc.; The local tyrant charged the silk reeling factory a protection fee, 10 yuan per year for each basin; Silk mill operators are also forced to pay a certain amount of protection fees when they buy cocoons and recruit workers elsewhere; The local tyrants also levy service fees in Mulberry City and Silkworm Market, and use this revenue to fund the local public bureau.

This kind of blackmail and underwriting phenomenon implying the nature of the gangster, obviously a huge burden on the development of industry and commerce, now the Ming Dynasty uses machines to replace manual work after the huge efficiency improvement, but also to meet these layers of deprived interests, but once the efficiency dividend is eaten, these rural industries will not be able to continue.

However, these blackmail phenomena are all due to the traditional habit of rural autonomy, and Zhu Jinglun has fought with this habit many times, and each time he will bleed, and he will continue to do so after that. This is true for building railways and running education. Therefore, he does not intend to move the interests of these clans at a time when the current industrial development is good. To be honest, rural autonomy is not useless, at least the protection of the rural clans themselves is very strong. According to news from Shaanxi, the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui Rebellion had left the rich Guanzhong Plain barren and only a few powerful people had been preserved, and that only the large clans organized by the patriarchal system could survive in the face of the Hui people who were organized by a strict religion, and that the villages with mixed surnames had been purged as early as the first wave of genocide.

After the chaos, the Guanzhong Plain left a number of village names such as, "Zhangjiabao", "Zhoujiabaozi" and so on, obviously they are all military nature of the earthen fort for the protection of the remnants of the village, and such a soil fort is by no means able to be supported by individuals, it must be the collective behavior of a large clan.

Of course, there are these bad phenomena in the countryside, and there are also some phenomena that Zhu Jinglun can accept.

For example, in order to ensure the interests of the machine silk reeling industry, some clans began to condone certain deviant behaviors that were previously intolerable. For example, the growth of the self-combing female group was begun to be allowed or even encouraged to ensure that the machine silk reeling industry could get enough female workers and continue to develop.

The so-called self-combing girl is a unique phenomenon in the eastern region, many girls are reluctant to get married, mainly out of fear of future family life, worried about being bullied by their husbands and in-laws, so they comb their hair up, announced to become a self-combing girl, and do not go out for a lifetime.

Originally, this phenomenon was contrary to the tradition of men marrying and women marrying, but for the sake of profit, some of them had a steady stream of female workers for the sake of the family's silk factory, and some coveted the income that the female workers continued to bring to the family, and they began to think that it was not a bad thing for their daughters not to marry.

As a result, some clans not only acquiesced in the fact that women in the clan should be self-groomed women, but even began to encourage them, "Once the conceptual barriers were overcome, some clans even built aunt houses and rented them out to members of the sorority; A shrine was built to enshrine the altar of unmarried clan members. ”

For the wages of female workers, the construction of virgin shrines, and the use of traditional morality to fool female workers not to marry, this kind of abuse of moral discourse for the sake of profit, Zhu Jinglun is extremely despised, but he was touched by the impact of modern industry, traditional morality and concepts, can be transformed from such a depth, which makes him begin to believe that the power of the industrial revolution can reverse China's most stubborn traditional culture and concepts, when Chinese traditional culture began to adapt to the new culture born after industrialization, That is the real Chinese culture of the industrial age, which will not be like later generations, forcibly grafting too much Western modern culture, and incompatible with the whole society, and ideological conflicts will always erupt.

The reason why Zhu Jinglun acquiesced in the bad habits of rural autonomy to extort rents and taxes from businessmen is also to believe that the power of the market itself will eventually reverse this phenomenon, in the long run, commerce is fluid, and they will only endure this unreasonable extortion when it is profitable, once they feel that it is unreasonable, they will naturally withdraw, and under the natural game, it is natural that those clans with more self-disciplined behavior can continue to get the benefits of industry and commerce, whether it is to start their own industry. Whether it is to charge a reasonable rent to the merchants, at the end of the competitive game, the most efficient interest groups will certainly emerge to occupy the lion's share.

Zhu Jinglun does not intend to interfere in the process of this game, because it is part of the self-adjustment of rural autonomy.

The industrial revolution is a kind of revolution, under the impact of industrial interests, all strata continue to change their own concepts to adapt to the development of the industrial age, even the most traditional rural social concept is changing, those rich businessmen in the old era have no reason not to change, they are the most powerful group of people.

Therefore, thirty years after the Meiji Restoration, the phenomenon of the old rich turning to new industries also appeared in the Ming Dynasty.

In the past, those who operated traditional homespun cloth began to buy machines and set up factories to produce woven fabrics. Those who used to run the grain and oil business began to buy machines and open oil mills.

The wealthy people of the old era also began to dig up the silver from the cellars and put it into new industries, and many wealthy landowners in Shanxi applied to the local government to dig coal mines in Shanxi, which is a typical example.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was a group of people who made a fortune in the era of the Thirteen Elements, who had transformed into a merchant family that cultivated and read heirlooms, and quietly invested in industry and commerce again, which was an extraordinary economic force.