"Selling medicine?"

Jian Chen nodded and said, "Sell medicine." I think so, judging by the price, there is no problem in exchanging a shipload of this herb for a large amount of silver and the rest of the handicrafts. We can also achieve a monopoly and support more of the things we have to do, at least on the issue of the factory system, we can have a solid economic foundation to stick to our bottom line, and we can also have more time to discuss these things. Otherwise, we have to make a quick decision, and it would be good to have more time to think about it. ”

A man in charge of establishing a trading post with the local aborigines at the mouth of the coastal river north of the Great Wilderness City thought about it for a moment and said, "This is a solution. Nowadays, trade with the indigenous people is also mainly based on furs. If we can get them to help collect herbs, let's buy ...... If it is really as expensive as you said, the income of the trading post can support the immigration expenses of more than 10,000 people every year, or the expenses of some schools in Min County. ”

Jian Chen smiled: "Buying wild from the aborigines is a bit inefficient. I wondered why we didn't plant it. You see, we now have potash fertilizer, sulfuric acid workshops can properly produce some phosphate fertilizer, once the saltpeter mine is mined, these three mineral fertilizers are still a little expensive, and the profit of growing food is not high, but is it not possible to grow this kind of thing? I guess that in the wild state, it must grow slowly. If planted with mineral fertilizers, in the temperate plantation pattern, they may grow as fast as yellow radish. ”

What do I mean by this? That is to say, I support us to continue to maintain our bottom line, and we can't give up the bottom line because of the purpose. There are many ways to make money, and I can also focus most of my energy on this in the past few years, which can be regarded as self-recommendation, and I think I have the time, energy and ability to serve as the financial commissar. ”

"Again, about the matter of the Great Wilderness City, I have an idea, everyone will express their opinions."

Everyone stopped what they were doing, Chen Jian took out a small notebook, flipped through it, and said: "Now Minjun is in a special situation, when I passed by the street yesterday, someone rushed over and spat on me. Why? Because he used to work on the farm, since some horse-drawn threshers and other things appeared, he had no job, he couldn't support himself, and he poured into Mincheng, and this thing started because of me, and it was understandable that he spat on me, and it was good that he didn't rush over and assassinate me. ”

"Now there are more and more homeless, unemployed, and homeless people in Min County, and we can't turn a blind eye to this matter, we must solve it, this is our belief."

"How to solve it? Relief? I don't agree with us putting too much money on handouts, it doesn't make sense. As time goes by, all walks of life develop, and after this period of change, more and more people will be needed. The key question is how to get through this period of change? ”

"It's a good choice to immigrate to the Great Wilderness City, but now our funds are not sufficient, there are too many things to do, and it is impossible to invest all the money in things that have no short-term benefits, and we can't support it for too long."

"I think so, since we have established a new mining, metallurgical and infrastructure company with external capital, we can build some profitable canals, roads, and so on in Minjun. This would accommodate a large number of laborers and the unemployed, who now have very low requirements, as long as they can survive. ”

"Then we can use the means of extending the payment of wages, let these people participate in the work first, alleviate the chaos caused by the displaced people at this time, and avoid being used by some people to oppose the use of machines."

"There is food in the Great Wilderness City, but it can't be turned into goods circulating in the market, so as long as the people who can eat these grains appear in the Great Wilderness City, can the grain become a kind of goods with trading significance? We can use grain tokens and a small amount of relief to pay for the cost of digging canals, building buildings and ironworks, and after two or three years, we can migrate to the Great Wilderness City in batches, pay them the grain in the form of loans, and then repay them with the fruits of their labor. ”

"We can harvest roads, canals, and factories in Minjun, and at the same time, we can turn the grain of the Great Wilderness City into a currency that is advanced in advance, as long as we have enough ships to send them to the Great Wilderness City, it is equivalent to the grain of the Great Wilderness City participating in the market transactions. Roads, canals, and factories will continue to bring us long-term benefits. ”

"We don't have the energy and the ability to emigrate too many people right now, but will we be able to do so in three years? Since you can, why not find a way to survive in advance for those who can't survive in Mincheng? ”

"Once the company is formed, we can exchange our grain tokens for silver coins from the company to pay for our employees. And the fact that the hired workers get the money that they can spend in the future can also give them hope, and they will gladly accept it, as long as they don't starve to death for a while. This is equivalent to the social capital raised to exchange our food tokens, and the silver coins flow back into our hands, which can continue to build ships, or invest in the world of silver coins to continue to make profits. ”

"Including some officially funded renovations in Mincheng, we can undertake them. Those who have families can allow their children and wives to go to the Great Wilderness City first to do some cotton picking, picking, weaving, and other work. ”

"In fact, there is neither more nor less money, but the grain that we cannot turn into silver coins is spent in disguise, or in disguise, into silver coins, in exchange for the labor we want. Of course, in addition to labor, we still have to buy it with silver coins, but labor can create wealth, but it is the difference between whether the wealth created participates in the overall circulation. ”

"And once that slave city-state is transformed by us, and the effective working population surges, our workshop industry can also develop. Even if you don't participate in some external competition, internal consumption is still fine. The Great Wilderness City directly broke the model of small-scale farming, no matter what the people who set aside the newly cultivated land planted, they always had to wear clothes, always use iron, always buy glass, and so on, right? How can we say that our cotton mills can always compete for small households to spin on their own spinning wheels, right? Moreover, a large area of land exists, and it is no longer meaningful to engage in textiles for personal use, and the gains outweigh the losses. ”

Everyone discussed for a while and roughly agreed, and Chen Jian said: "When I come back from the capital, I will sort out my property and hand it over to the party property management." The annual income seems to be a lot, but it is impossible to invest all the money in the Great Wilderness City and in relief, which is meaningless in the long run. On the one hand, it is necessary to expand production, on the other hand, it is necessary to continue to invest in some industries that can only be rewarded for a long time in the long term, and on the other hand, it is necessary to invest a large part of the money to keep the education of Min County and several coastal counties in hand. ”

"Education is a bottomless pit. But over a decade or even longer, the implicit rate of return is the highest. ”

"Since we decided in our previous discussion that we will not build a paradise, or that a paradise cannot be built at all. Then the investment in education here is necessary, long-term, and long-term. Without enough young people who know the common sense of nature and our worldview, what we pursue will not be possible. ”

On the issue of investment in education, everyone was willing to support it, but Chen Jian only found an explanation that met the long-term purpose and necessity.

This means that a large part of the money is spent on training young teachers of enlightenment and natural knowledge, physics, chemistry, biogeography, and so on. Let this new type of teaching become a profession, open normal schools under the control of the party, and establish new schools supported by the profits of various industries.

A large number of new graduates trained in the previous years can serve as new teachers. But if it is not officially recognized, it can only be organized to pay for itself. There is no solution to this, there are not enough people who cannot be recognized, and enough people who are not recognized for the time being can only be recognized by the organization that spends its own money.

Learning from the new textbooks compiled by Chen Jian and others is bound to be different from the students who came out of the previous classrooms. Even without taking into account the implicit advantages of being more liberal and radical ideologically, the painstaking development of basic textbooks in natural sciences can give these students an edge in the competition in the future.

In addition to these reasons that can be directly said and will not cause violent debate, there is a more important reason for Chen Jian. Even if there is nothing to do here, he must ensure that there are enough precious metal reserves, and once the time is ripe, he will continue to support Wangbei City and infiltrate the Ming Empire. The graduates of these planned new-style normal schools will also become the seeds of the popularization of natural science education there, and they can be continuously transferred from Wangbei City to study and systematically train.

At the end of the meeting, the moderator came forward to read out the focus of the work in the past six months after the discussion.

Chen Jian and other people who went to the capital had their own things to do in the capital, and the focus here was to sort out the accounts of Chen Jian's industry, take the lead in establishing a joint company for mining, smelting and infrastructure, and send people to the capital as soon as possible to discuss overseas investment.

A large-scale iron-smelting plant based on a new pump blower was established in Minjun, and a large-scale joint enterprise was established for pig iron casting, wrought iron mixing, crucible ingots and mechanical assembly of farm tools and knives.

Construction of a much-needed canal connecting the iron ore and coal mining areas, and the development of the best excavation options from a cost and transportation perspective.

Send people back to the Great Wilderness City with ginseng and patterns, and organize a group of expeditions to go deep into the mountains between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude or ask the local aborigines to find this herb that can be exchanged for a large amount of silver or similar herbs.

Large-scale application of phosphate fertilizer in some non-potable river water in Mincheng is not very fluid, and efforts are made to cause some inland rivers and lakes in Mincheng to deteriorate violently within a year, causing water blooms and achieving the effect of stenching and unbearable, thus forcing the Minjun County Council to decide to build a new drainage system and renovate inland rivers to accommodate some of the unemployed.

Re-engage with the Progressive Alliance faction, which had already quarreled many times, and unite with them to get the Min County Council to agree to some infrastructure and appropriations for Min County in lieu of the original relief plan.

As soon as possible, the anger of the growing number of bankrupt small artisans and unemployed hired peasants should be quelled by means of infrastructure, and a transitional period of undercurrent of increasing danger and the possibility of a small-scale armed uprising of the utopians or the destruction of the machine faction at any time should be passed.