At the request of Zhao Yan, the Denglai Institute of Science and Technology set up a scope research group.

The study of sniper rifles is on the agenda.

At present, this black powder is not very suitable for sniper combat, because after the gun is fired, smoke will come out of the barrel, which will expose the position of the sniper, and it is easy to kill the sniper.

However, it does not hinder the application of sniping, and the effective shooting distance of 680 meters is completely beyond the imagination of this era, so it can even snipe enemy generals in front of the battle.

…… Shandong's reform has been continuing, and by the end of the year, all work has basically been implemented, and Shandong's population has also been counted.

Tang Zhengze submitted demographic data to Zhao Yan at the end of November.

3.5 million in the eastern three prefectures and 2.1 million in the western three prefectures, a total of 5.6 million. Of these, 15 per cent are urban dwellers and the remaining 85 per cent are rural.

Among them, 1.4 million are young and able-bodied men.

After the reform, 850,000 people participated in military training.

In terms of population distribution, the number of people in the western three prefectures is already less than that in the eastern three prefectures, and in the past three years, people have been relocated from the western three prefectures to the eastern three prefectures.

In addition, the population of Handan is 630,000, and the population of Yingzhou is 760,000.

The area around Yingzhou is expanding westward, with the support of Zhu Dadian, and he has not done anything earth-shattering, so he has not been paid much attention to.

The military expansion in the Handan region has been halted because the current demand for steel has increased greatly, and if the military is expanded again, it will cause a shortage of labor.

Therefore, only Yingzhou continued to expand, while Handan maintained its original strength and only played a supporting role in suppressing bandits in the northwest.

In mid-November, Zhao Yan felt that a slightly tricky problem had erupted.

In response to the massive outflow of silver and the industrial impact of Shandong, the Tokugawa shogunate introduced a new silver coin, which contained 8% lead, and at the same time, issued several restrictions on Denlai's textiles, which shrank the profits of Denlai's textiles again. Negotiations between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Tokugawa shogunate were unsuccessful, and the two sides did not reach a common agreement, and the Tokugawa shogunate insisted on their policy, which led to a semi-stagnation of trade with the shogunate.

Historically, there have been such trade disagreements with North Korea, and with the continuous outflow of his own silver, a silver coin containing lead has been introduced, which has brought North Korea's trade to a standstill, and Chinese goods are relatively cheap because they are luxury goods, but now they are obviously targeting Denglai's products.

"I'm not stupid!" Zhao Yan smiled bitterly after receiving the news, originally thought that the large output of textiles would achieve the effect of boiling frogs in warm water, which would cause turmoil in Yue, but now it seems that Yue himself is not so easy to play.

"This year, we have made a total profit of 32 million taels from the trade, of which 29 million taels of silver have been shipped back from the capital, and 4 million taels of brass worth of silver have been reduced by half of the silver on the market, and most of the brass has been transported away by us as soon as it is mined, and it is also in a state of exhaustion." Zhao Quan, who was in charge of the maritime trade, said to Zhao Yan: "I said that I poured lead into the silver coins and made up my mind to take advantage of us, but in the arms trade, after they bought more than 300 artillery pieces and 20,000 muskets, they no longer bought arms from us. ”

"Now we don't have time to repair myself, let's temporarily reduce the share of trade next year! In another two years, when we pull out our hands, we will slap him hard again. Zhao Yan thought for a while and said, after a long period of contact, Zhao Yan discovered a mentality of Yue Ben, saying that he was trying to get rid of the influence of the Ming Dynasty, and he was no longer willing to be a little brother.

Especially during the Tokugawa shogunate, it was trying to get rid of the radiation core of the Ming Dynasty, and the reason why it was able to negotiate with the group led by Zhao Yan before was because of the problem of arms.

Now that the arms have been bought, the Tokugawa shogunate naturally has no needs, and it is said that the book is already under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the Tokugawa shogunate does not need too many arms, as long as their military strength can form an absolute advantage over other daimyos.

Therefore, if you want to force Yue Ben to follow Zhao Yan's trade methods, it is not simply to drive a warship to Yue Ben's port and put a few cannons, which is likely to cause a large-scale conflict before Zhao Yan is ready, thus causing danger to the lives of those in Yue.

The force of the compelling of Yue Ben must wait a little longer, now Zhao Yan's sea power is indeed not strong enough, and he also has to deal with the main enemy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and when he draws his hand, Zhao Yan does not mind fighting a few more battles and signing a few more unequal treaties.

The Tokugawa shogunate was obviously not honest enough, so it was not so easy to control the Tokugawa shogunate as a puppet, and it was necessary to first make the tokumoto chaotic, and then support a puppet political axe that obeyed his word.

As long as he restricts his navy, he will never want to break out of the island country, because he has no resources, and a mineral standard country, no matter how in-depth development is, it needs a lot of imports.

The ideal is that it should be a cheap labor market, specially for the Ming Dynasty to export hard labor, concubines, etc., but this takes time, and it will not be in a hurry for a while.

Zhao Quan said worriedly: "If we can't reach a solution with Yueben, our profits from sea trade next year will shrink significantly." ”

"Next year, the main trade target will be aimed at the Franco, and when it comes to this trade, stop it! Anyway, the money can't run. Zhao Yan was not in a hurry, "The end of the year is coming, this year's financial summary will start to be liquidated tomorrow!" ”

The huge profits of trade are not in themselves long-lasting. This kind of profit is based on the fact that there are many silvers and brass in this book, and the reason why the silver in this book looks like a lot is actually because their gross domestic product is not high, when the trade is carried out frequently, this kind of profit has become like the trade between the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, in the distance, the distance from Fujian to Shandong and this is not much different.

Therefore, even if it is forced, there is not much potential to be tapped, so it is better to stop for a while, let the gold and silver accumulate more, and take it later.

The Spaniards, unlike the Portuguese, were the ones who really had the potential to trade. At the same time, the shrinking profits after the cessation of trade also exposed the problem of insufficient number of ships.

Trade with the Spaniards and Portuguese next year will not be so simple, the road will have to beware of pirate attacks, and the distance is long, and the round trip is not as close as that from Shandong to Benben, the profits will certainly shrink, but the profits obtained every year will continue to grow.

Zhao Quan nodded and went to gather people to summarize this year's financial revenue.

This year's financial revenue is exciting, Zhao Quan thought of the silver earned this year, and couldn't help but show a smile on his face, although the profits of maritime trade may shrink by half next year, but with the bank's fundraising, the finance is still very abundant.

…… At the end of another year, the financial summary began under the leadership of Zhao Quan.

The biggest highlight of this year's financial growth, is the steel industry, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, a total of 2 million taels of silver, all kinds of steel products in the Ming Dynasty is very popular, in the book is even more popular, in addition to a sword casting process more than the Ming Dynasty, other industrial capacity is very weak, like steel needles these things have to rely on imports.

In addition to the 2 million taels of silver, Handan's steel mill also exported a large amount of steel to Denglai, which greatly reduced various costs. It is really rare to be able to afford the steel demand of Denglai, plus the cost of smelting, and earn more than two million taels of silver.

In addition, there are banks, after the opening of Denglai and Jinan, more than 10 million taels of silver have been raised, and almost every household in Denglai has put money in the bank, and before the end of the year, the bank has been spread out in various counties in Denglai.

The current Denglai Bank is actually similar to the Shanxi ticket number that appeared soon after the history, and the Shanxi ticket number also has deposits and interest things, both of which are also for fundraising.

Under this kind of interest, the people are very willing to deposit the silver in the bank, especially when Zhao Yan has a good reputation in Denglai and even the whole of Shandong, the people are even more willing to deposit the silver in the bank to eat interest.

At present, the bank has also earned more than 300,000 taels of silver, and of the 10 million taels of silver raised, 5 million taels have been loaned to textile mills.

In terms of income, the bank's income is dispensable, as long as it can maintain good operation to achieve the fund-raising function, it is considered successful, and Zhao Yan does not expect the bank to make much money, but how much money the bank can raise.

The income of sea trade was more in the first half of the year, and the second half of the year plummeted. The main reason is that the target of maritime trade is only one place, and with the influx of a large number of commodities into the capital, the silver continues to flow out, and the profits are getting lower and lower. Therefore, after more than 20 million taels were recorded in the previous year, more than 10 million taels were recorded in the second half of the year, totaling 32 million taels.

32,000,000 taels is a net profit, and more than 30,000,000 taels of silver are shipped back from this book, because the goods themselves need costs, and the profits contained in these costs are earned by the merchants and workshops who supply the goods.

The textile industry is also very strong, earning 5 million taels of silver in a year, including the sum of the profits of yarn, cotton, and hosiery, and the capital accumulation has reached 10 million taels, plus the bank's loan of 5 million taels, and the working capital has reached 15 million taels.

In terms of the profit of glass products, the income of glass mirrors is in a steady rising stage, with an average monthly income of more than 100 million, and 8 million taels throughout the year, which is related to the gradual reduction of the price of glass mirrors.

Of course, there are exceptions, Shanxi Jin merchants are as stingy as ever, and few pay to buy glass mirrors. The income of other glass products has increased, and the total income for the year reached 2 million taels.

The income of the salt industry is also on the rise, with the inspection of private salt in the five northern provinces, the market of Shandong salt continues to expand, and the income is 9 million taels, in addition to the 5 million taels handed over, there are more than 400 taels left.

There is almost no income in agriculture this year, because this year there is no grain for sale, except for the sweet potatoes that are transported to various places for soup kitchen, not a single grain of grain is sold, and all of it is stored in the warehouse.

This year, the fishery caught 60,000 tons of fishery products, with an output value of more than 800 yuan, and a total of more than 300 taels of fish tax.

The total income reached a staggering figure of 55 million taels.

Most of the income of 55 million taels is the profit taken from the capital, and there is a lot of silver overseas. In fact, there was a lot of silver in the Ming Dynasty, and most historians in later generations believed that the large-scale silver inflow was the Kangxi period, but if you carefully observe the situation in the late Ming Dynasty and the Kangxi period, it is not difficult to see that this view is wrong.

First of all, the interval between the late Ming Dynasty and the Kangxi period was not long, this period was the most serious period of the sea ban, and it was impossible to flow in such a short period of time a huge amount of silver.

As for why silver depreciated, it was obviously because of the decrease in GDP, after all, they had just experienced the impact of the massacre, and there were only twenty or thirty million Han people left, so silver seemed to be naturally more.

At the same time, a large part of the reason why there was not much silver in the late Ming Dynasty was that the upper class such as merchants, landlords, and officials hid silver in warehouses.

There are nearly 200,000 large and small landlords in the entire Ming Dynasty, and there will definitely be no less than tens of thousands of imperial relatives, officials, and businessmen. The other is those merchants, the Jin merchants are very rich, but they are very reluctant to spend money, and they all hide their silver. The Jin merchants are relatively alternative and cannot be regarded as the style of all merchants, but even if other rich people are poor and extravagant, they are also carried out under the condition of sufficient treasury, and even the Shandong merchants who cooperate most closely with Zhao Yan also hold the business style of 'keeping the foundation to the end'.

What does it mean to be 'at the end of the book'? This means that a small part of the money is used to go to business, and most of the money is kept at home as a 'capital'.

In general, there is a lot of silver in the Ming Dynasty, but the gap between the rich and the poor is serious, the silver has not been put into circulation, and the gross domestic product is relatively high, so it causes the phenomenon of deflation.

Wanting to get money from these rich people, in addition to selling luxury goods to them, Zhao Yan also prepared a bank for them, and took out their silver to circulate in the market, so as to promote production, so that they would not hide it in the warehouse, which was no different from scrap iron.

Most of the businessmen and landlords in Shandong put some money into the bank, but they did not put all the money into it.

They are still afraid that the silver will be swallowed by Zhao Yan, although Zhao Yan's reputation has always been very good, but it is difficult to guarantee that there will be any problems in the future, such as swallowing the silver when the money and food are urgently needed after the defeat, the general assumption is that it is possible, so in addition to the people's deposits are more enthusiastic, those rich people rarely deposit all the silver in the bank.

The entry of 55 million taels of silver also made Zhao Yan's hands extremely relaxed.

There is almost no need to consider the issue of military spending, even if Zhao Yan wants to increase military spending, he doesn't know where to use it, after all, there is only so much population, and expanding the army will have an impact on production.

Others have money because they want to build palaces, but Zhao Yan wants to build roads when they are rich, and with roads, commerce can be smooth. How to spend the 55 million taels of silver, but you have to use your brains well.

(To be continued)