Chapter 599: Taking Stock of the Economy

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During the period of waiting for the arrival of Sun Chuanting and others, Zhu Youzhen first learned about the economic situation of Qin Wangzhuang from Rui'er and Zhu Cunqi. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Now several major industries in Qinwangzhuang have slowly stepped into the right track. First of all, cotton planting and textile industry, in the summer and autumn of last year, Shaanxi was as dry as ever and had little rain, which was very beneficial to the growth of cotton, which likes drought and is afraid of rain. Under the unified arrangement of the Jingyang Business Gang, the vast majority of the 50,000 or 60,000 mu of land in Jingyang County that was included in the "land reform" was planted with cotton. During the autumn harvest, the average yield per mu is between 150 catties and 200 catties, and a total of nearly 10 million catties of seed cotton are harvested.

Zhu Youzhen felt a little unsatisfactory about this result, because in the previous life, the yield of cotton per mu should have been four or five hundred catties, and the good ones could reach 1,000 catties. Compared with this, the output of more than 100 catties is also a bit miserable. However, if you think about it carefully, in this era, there is no chemical fertilizer and no pesticides, and Jingyang is the first large-scale cotton planting, and it is not easy to achieve an output of more than 100 catties under the condition of relying on manpower. Once it is grown and twice ripened, it will be planted again this year, and there should be a lot of room for improvement in yield.

Of course, even if it is 10 million catties, it greatly exceeds the production capacity of the textile factory. The seed cotton is grouting to obtain lint directly used for spinning, and this exchange ratio is about three to one, which means that the textile mill has obtained more than three million catties of raw materials.

The textile mill has nearly 1,000 spinning wheels, running three shifts a day, people do not stop, and each spinning wheel can spin ten catties. In this way, the consumption of raw materials in one day is not more than 10,000 catties, and more than 3 million catties of raw materials are enough to cope with a year's full production.

In this era, cloth and cotton clothing were expensive and scarce goods. Since Qinwangzhuang began to produce a large number of cotton cloth and cotton clothes, merchants from all over the world came to visit, and the products were in short supply, so that the buyers needed to pay for the goods before they could wait in line. Now the market price of lint has reached one or two or two cents a catty, and the price of deeply processed cloth and cotton clothing is even more expensive. For this alone, the monthly income is more than 500,000 taels of silver.

Zhu You couldn't help but sigh with emotion when he heard this, thinking that if he didn't count the "three salaries" that were added, the annual income of the imperial court in the whole country would only be four or five million taels of silver. Even if you add the "three salaries", it is only at the level of 10 million taels. And Jingyang, a small county, can now earn millions of taels of income every year, what does this mean?

Explain two points: one is that the tax is levied in the wrong place at all, and you can't squeeze much oil and water even if you squeeze the field, and the focus of taxation should be industry and commerce; Second, there must be a large amount of money circulating outside the control of the imperial court, and a large amount of wealth accumulated in the hands of wealthy and powerful households, but it cannot be used by the imperial court. In the long run, this will inevitably lead to a financial crisis in the country, which in turn will exacerbate the crisis in other aspects, and eventually lead to the collapse of the country.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen is still just a prince, and he just wants to take care of the court, and he doesn't have this qualification. Moreover, Jingyang County is his mining town, and all the tax income belongs to the royal government, so Zhu Youzhen naturally honestly and unceremoniously put all this silver into his own pocket. If it is handed over to the imperial court, I don't know how much it will have to be embezzled by those corrupt officials.

In addition to textile mills, brick mills, quarries and construction teams are another important source of income. Now the capital construction of Qinwangzhuang is nearing completion, but because of the rampant thieves in Shaanxi, the city walls of various prefectures and counties have been in disrepair for many years, and the defense function is not optimistic. Although the imperial court could not afford to repair it, there were some dignitaries or wealthy merchants in every city, but they were terribly afraid of the thieves, for fear that the city would be breached, their entire families would be slaughtered, and their property would be plundered.

Therefore, even if these people usually pick again, they are willing to donate silver to build the city wall at this time. But silver alone is not enough, a large number of workers and materials are needed to repair the city, and it takes several months or even a year or two for ordinary prefectures and counties to prepare these alone.

At this time, the construction team of about 1,000 people in Qinwangzhuang has a place to use, they have all experienced the construction of the two new cities of Qinwangzhuang and Jingyang, they are experienced, work quickly, and can bear hardships and stand hard work. The brick factories and quarries in Qinwangzhuang could provide ready-made materials for the construction of the city.

Therefore, under the recommendation and operation of Yang Sichang, the commander of Jingyang County, seven or eight county towns around Jingyang, such as Chunhua, Tongchuan, Fuping, Weinan, Lantian and other places, all hired the construction team of Qinwangzhuang to repair the city wall. Every time a city is built, the time is about a month, and even the work and materials can also have an income of more than 100,000 taels.

Zhu Youjian roughly calculated, the textile industry plus the construction industry has generated nearly seven million taels of income in the past year, which is more than the annual income of the imperial court! He was so happy that he almost jumped up, thinking that this was only a small county, if he could go to the whole country, why worry about the lack of food?

Rui'er and Zhu Cunqi saw that he couldn't close their mouths, and they both reminded with a smile: "You only look at the income, but you haven't looked at the expenditure!" As he spoke, he handed the account book to him.

Zhu Youzhen opened it and took a cursory look, and couldn't help but gasp. It turns out that although Qinwangzhuang has a lot of income, the expenses are equally amazing!

The first is military spending. Because the imperial court did not allocate a tael of silver and a grain of grain to Sun Chuanting, all the expenses of the Qin soldiers had to be paid by Qin Wangzhuang. In order to meet the needs of fighting the thieves, the size of the Qin soldiers increased a lot compared to the past, reaching nearly 10,000 people. And Sun Chuanting served as the governor of Yansui, and he also had 10,000 or 20,000 officers and soldiers under his command, all of whom were also seriously in arrears. In order to calm the morale of the army and prevent mutiny, the food and salary of this part of the army had to be paid somewhat, so Qin Wangzhuang was equivalent to raising 30,000 troops.

The salary of the Qin soldiers was very rich, and ordinary soldiers had ten taels per month. Although the rest of the officers and soldiers were much smaller, they also had one tael a month. In this way, the expenditure of silver alone will reach more than 100,000 taels per month.

But military spending is not only about money, but also about the purchase of weapons, ammunition replenishment, horse breeding, grain and grass, and clothing replacement. All of them are calculated at least 300,000 taels of silver per month, which accounts for half of Qin Wangzhuang's income.

The second major item is workers' wages. Now Qinwangzhuang has converted tens of thousands of people from peasant households to workers, and although they have gained valuable labor, they naturally have to pay their salaries accordingly. The monthly salary of ordinary workers is two taels, and the salary of skilled workers and craftsmen is even higher, the highest can reach twenty taels. The total salary also reached 123,000 taels per month.

The third major item is strategic reserves. According to Zhu Youzhen's request, the strategic reserve began to hoard important materials such as grain, coal, ammunition, and medicine from the day it was established. Especially for grain, in order to ensure the needs of the Qin soldiers and Qin Wangzhuang, after the channel for purchasing rice from North Korea was cut off, the Huanghai merchant gang had to grit their teeth to purchase high-priced grain, and the current grain storage is enough to eat for at least three months. The silver was spent in the sea, and it had to cost at least nearly 200,000 taels a month.

As for the other piecemeal expenses, although they may seem inconspicuous, they add up to a small amount. In the end, the general ledger can only barely make ends meet, and now Qinwangzhuang's deposit is still less than one million taels! I don't know how much effort it took Rui'er and Zhu Cunqi to put into this!

Zhu Youzhen stroked the dense account books, and couldn't help but affectionately say to Rui'er and Zhu Cunqi: "Qin Wangzhuang can have today, you two have made great contributions, please accept my worship!" ”