Zhao Yan basically doesn't need to deal with any problems in Shandong, and there is basically a standardized system for government affairs in Shandong, and most of the affairs can be handled by subordinates, as long as Zhao Yan patrols from time to time.

For matters other than Shandong, the Ministry of Administration and the Ministry of Commerce are now jointly responsible for the disaster, and basically he does not need to deal with it.

In terms of military affairs, there is no need for Zhao Yan to come out.

The operational command can replace Zhao Yan to command the operation, but the operational command can only mobilize troops and horses within a certain range, and has no right to mobilize within this range.

Whether it is political or military, Zhao Yan has created a tight system, which can operate well.

So now Zhao Yan is only responsible for supervising scientific and technological research and development, financial revenue, and facility construction, as well as some strategic affairs.

In addition to going to scientific research units, I usually inspect the work everywhere.

On this day, Zhao Yan inspected the steel technology research and development base.

This base is not used to produce steel, but to study the technology of steel production, and is improving the technical level of blast furnaces and open hearths.

At the same time, the rolling process is also studied here.

When Zhao Yan inspected the steel base, he found that the steam engine had been used in the rolling of steel bars and steel plates, and it had been finalized.

Rigidity is a building material, which used to be more expensive. Today, open-hearth furnaces are used for steelmaking, and the cost of steel rolling has been reduced by 70% after the use of steam engines.

At the same time, the rolling of the steam engine for the rail has been almost successful, and once the rolling is successful, the cost of the rail will be greatly reduced.

With the current steelmaking technology, the cost difference between using rails and rails is not too big, and rails are definitely more durable than rails.

In the processing of steel, from stamping to grinding, steam engines can be used.

At present, only the Ordnance Bureau is equipped with a steam engine, while other agricultural tools and the like are not equipped with a steam engine.

The steel base is expected to finalize the rail rolling process and the rolling process of train wheels and other components within half a month.

But it's the rails that matter.

At present, the construction of railway embankments on Shandong-Beijing-Liaodong, Shandong-Shanxi, Shandong-Pukou, and these lines has already begun.

It will be completed by the end of the year!

90% of these lines are on the plains, and the railway embankment is very easy to build. The rail production line will be built within this year, and the railway will be laid on a large scale next year, and it is estimated that it will be opened to traffic the year after next.

With railways, goods can be shipped out, raw materials can be brought in, and troops can be quickly deployed.

After inspecting the steel base, Zhao Yan inspected the shipyard.

The shipyard in Longkou has become more and more huge, and the number of workers has reached more than 100,000, and the number of clippers and frigates under construction in Longkou alone has reached more than 300.

And the orders are still increasing, and they are all orders from some merchants.

The manufacturing capacity of the Longkou shipyard is not yet full, so it can also receive some private orders, in addition to the shipyard in Liaodong, it is also expanding.

The current shipbuilding industry is developing rapidly!

Because of the opening of maritime trade, many merchants have long been jealous, so the expansion of the shipyard is very fast.

The production capacity of the shipyard depends on whether there are orders.

If there are enough orders, the shipyard can be continuously expanded. In the case of those orders from the Navy and the Ministry of Commerce, the production capacity will be expanded as much as there is money.

And the businessman placed an order for the shipyard, and the shipyard had money, so it could naturally continue to expand its production capacity, mainly a matter of how much money there was.

If there is enough money, more manpower and material resources can be mobilized, and the speed of shipbuilding will naturally be faster.

…… The mutual criticism in the newspapers ended with Zhao Yan's victory, and the matter also came to an end, and the 20 million project money was quickly distributed to the engineering team.

Shandong immediately set up more than a dozen engineering teams.

There are people in water conservancy, Shandong has not repaired water conservancy in vain over the years, and a large number of interns have followed each time they repair water conservancy, and now many interns can already take on engineering tasks.

The engineering team is mainly composed of technical personnel, and there are also some workers who have mastered some skills, but most of the workers are recruited when they arrive at the construction site.

At the same time, each engineering team is equipped with 300 to 1,000 soldiers to ensure the smooth construction of the engineering team.

As soon as the dozen or so engineering teams were formed, they were dispatched to begin surveying the environment in their respective areas of responsibility.

The amount of 20 million taels of silver, the water conservancy cost invested in Shandong, is only more than 10 million taels in a few years, and it is the type of repair that strives for excellence, generally in addition to irrigation canals, there are also wells. After all, there are many rivers in the south, and there is no need for too complex water conservancy systems to have strong disaster resistance.

Therefore, 20 million taels of silver are enough to repair the water conservancy in Huguang and the southeast to a similar extent.

…… In the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Huai River valleys, three engineering teams have already begun to control the waters, and the engineering teams responsible for the Yellow River region have selected more than 300 river sections that are likely to burst their banks and strengthened these river sections.

The scope of this treatment is from the meanders of the river to the estuary, while the area from Yinchuan to the Hetao has not yet been controlled.

The upper reaches of the Yellow River generally do not need to be governed, and it is known that the Yellow River is harmful and profitable, and the Hetao is not developed at present.

The amount of water in the Yellow River is not too large, but the large amount of yellow sand washed down from the Loess Plateau is a headache.

The continuous erosion of yellow sand will continue to increase the riverbed, and at the same time, the flood discharge capacity will continue to weaken, when the limit is reached, the Yellow River will burst its banks and divert its course!

The Ming Dynasty relied on manpower to pick out the silt in the riverbed, and in the past, it was a big pick every three years, and a small pick every year, but now basically no one does it.

Desertification control, nature is to be treated from the source, through the planting of trees or something, it is generally unlikely to prevent soil erosion on the Loess Plateau. When the Loess Plateau was very ancient, the rivers were turbid. In order to control desertification, it is necessary to build sand control dikes around the Loess Plateau, supplemented by biological means.

In addition to the sand control dams, it is also necessary to fill in the ravines on the Loess Plateau by blasting and other methods, as long as the Loess Plateau is turned into a plain, the general soil cannot be washed down. And the Loess Plateau has now entered a vicious cycle, with the more it rushes, the steeper it gets, and the steeper it gets.

However, the amount of work involved in this method of governance is relatively large, and it is not possible to carry out such a project at present, that is, there is no technical condition and no financial resources to implement it.

Therefore, the engineering team responsible for harnessing the Yellow River still intends to adopt the method of picking up soil on the issue of sand control.

In addition to controlling sand is to control water.

The reason why the water of the Yellow River is difficult to treat is because of the problem of sand, which is a fundamental problem, but at present, it is only to maintain the stability of the Yellow River for more than ten years or decades, and the problem of sand can be put aside and come back slowly.

If the problem of sand is eliminated, water control is relatively simple.

Flood discharge can rely on Hongze Lake, the Yellow River at the beginning of this year is from the south into the sea, and Hongze Lake is connected, so you can use the water storage function of Hongze Lake to drain the flood, and at the same time continue to raise the embankment, clean up the river in winter, do not encounter a major flood once in n years, basically there is no problem, and the usual breach generally does not occur.

At the same time, the team also submitted a plan for the construction of irrigation canals, which planned to build two large reservoirs in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The reservoir is also a dam, which is a facility that regulates the time and space of water, so that water is available during the dry season, and there is enough space for flood storage and detention when the flood season comes.

At the same time, irrigation canals will be built in the north and south of the reservoir, and it has been calculated that if the planned irrigation canal system is completed, more than 2 million hectares of arable land can be added to the water-scarce area.

But it probably needs to invest nearly 10 million taels of silver.

The engineering team obviously didn't have so much money, so they submitted the plan and waited for Zhao Yan's approval.

Zhao Yan naturally will not pass this plan, and now it is not that there is too much money to spend, he just needs to ensure that the Yellow River does not have disasters, as for the issue of increasing arable land, the last thing he lacks now is arable land, why should he carry out agricultural production in water-scarce areas.

You have to wait until you have enough money in hand, and at the same time when the technical conditions allow, and then to build the reservoir, and at this time irrigation is part of the Xingli, naturally to build, the reservoir has a lot of Xingli, such as power generation, irrigation, breeding, shipping, when the time is naturally to maximize the benefits.

At present, Zhao Yan only seeks stability, first stability and then in-depth development.

…… In contrast, the Yangtze River management is mainly carried out around 'water', and raising the dam is also the main method, which is simpler in comparison, without considering the problem of sand, and using some auxiliary means, the probability of flooding can be reduced a lot.

With 20 million taels of treatment costs, a reservoir will be built on the Yangtze River in the Han River section, and an irrigation system will be built on the Han River Plain.

The water conservancy in the Han River Plain is mainly carried out around lakes, and there are many lakes here, and the irrigation system also uses water from the lakes.

…… Under the money thrown by the cabinet and Zhao Yan, the north and south of the Ming Dynasty are building projects.

The construction of railways, river management, and water conservancy projects all required a large number of workers, but this time the construction project was different from the previous ones, and this time the workers were not paid by forced labor.

Generally, a worker is paid one tael of silver a month, but as various places were affected by disasters, these construction sites began to provide relief through work in order to cooperate with the disaster relief.

If you go to the construction site to do what you can, you can get food, how much you do is not mandatory, and you can become a regular worker after a month, and you can receive your salary.

The workers on these construction sites are all recruited from the surrounding areas, creating many employment opportunities for various places, and many young and strong people have gone to work on the construction site.

In addition to the salary of one tael of silver a month on the construction site, he also manages two meals a day.

The number of workers increased day by day, and after the planning of the water conservancy repair project was completed, the number of workers gradually increased to one million.

The cabinet's water conservancy project and Zhao Yan's railway project have fed millions of families in this year.

…… The water conservancy project in the Jianghuai Plain is relatively easy to repair, after all, there is a foundation, and the water conservancy project in the Hanjiang Plain, the money may not be able to repair it.

If you follow the original model of conscription, tens of millions of taels are enough to repair.

But Zhao Yan did not want to build the project at the expense of the interests of the people, poverty was the main cause of the turmoil, and the silver was smashed down, not into the pockets of the rich, but into the pockets of the lower classes, the money was spent without loss, helping to ease the gap between the rich and the poor, and at the same time, the people had money in their pockets, and the goods produced on Zhao Yan's territory could also be sold.

According to the report submitted by the engineering team, Zhao Yan felt that the money in his hand was probably not very coping. In addition, this year's budget accounts for a large share of the expenditure on education, and Shanxi has also been incorporated into the scope of management, as well as Liaodong and North Korea, which will increase next year with the increase in immigration.

So work hard to earn money this year! Broaden the sources of fiscal revenue.

What is the most profitable?

Of course, it is the seigniorage that is the most profitable, the so-called seigniorage, commonly known as printing money.

Simply put, it is the proceeds of issuing currency. A $100 bill may cost only one dollar to print, but it can buy $100 of goods, and the difference of $99 is seigniorage, which is an important source of government finance. To use the currency of another country is to voluntarily give up a large amount of wealth.

It is estimated that during the period from 1960 to 1973, the seigniorage revenue of developed countries accounted for 6.11% of the total revenue of the political axe, and then from 1973 to 1978, the seigniorage revenue accounted for 5.9% of the total revenue of the developed countries. It is also estimated that during the period from 1971 to 1990, the seigniorage of 90 countries in the world (not counting China) accounted for an average of 10.5% of the total revenue of the political axe. It can be seen that in both developed and developing countries, seigniorage revenues have become an important source of compensation for political axe expenditures.

Seigniorage refers to the income obtained by the political axe through the monopoly of the right to issue money, and it is one of the important means for the political axe to make up for fiscal expenditure. Many economists have emphasized the role of seigniorage.

In addition to relying on taxes, national debts and foreign debts, the government axe more often uses the means of seigniorage to finance the government axe.

In the era of the use of precious metals, the cost of seigniorage was high and the profits were not so lucrative. For example, when gold coins are minted, only a small amount of seigniorage can be charged after the gold is processed into gold coins, and this method is to add some other metals to the precious metal.

For example, this is what they did before, and as a result, the value of their silver coins in Daming decreased, which made Zhao Yan very unhappy.

Seigniorage is a drooling income that is only possible if paper money is issued.

Zhao Yan immediately decided to issue banknotes, and the seigniorage tax on precious metals was too small, and he couldn't look down on it.

And now, he is already capable of issuing banknotes.

If Zhao Yan issued banknotes and banned the circulation of precious metals, precious metals would become like 'foreign exchange', which can be used in all countries.

Under the condition that the exchange rate remains stable, a country's political axe can obtain seigniorage in the following four ways.

First, under the condition that the inflation rate is zero, the decline in international and domestic interest rates has led to a continuous decline in the rate of currency turnover, and the demand for real money balances in society has increased, so that the private sector can sell foreign assets to the central bank in exchange for domestic currency, and the central bank can print money in exchange for foreign exchange reserves. In this case, the political axe obtained seigniorage by increasing foreign exchange reserves.

Second, in countries that implement a fixed exchange rate system, when inflation occurs in other countries of the world, as foreign prices rise, domestic prices derived from the theory of purchasing power parity will also rise, the real purchasing power of the nominal money balance will fall, and excess demand for money will arise, and the central bank will offset the rise in prices by increasing the money supply moderately, so that the real money balance will remain unchanged. In this case, the political axe collected seigniorage as the domestic price level rose and did not reduce any reserves.

Third, when the potential growth of a country's GDP causes a simultaneous increase in the demand for the real money balance, if the central bank increases the money supply just enough to meet the society's growing demand for real money without oversupply, the government axe can obtain seigniorage by issuing money without causing inflation.

Fourth, when a country's domestic goods are oversupplied and there is unemployment, the government implements an expansionary fiscal policy, which will cause an excess demand for real money. If the central bank's increased money supply is sufficient to meet the excess demand for real money caused by the construction of public works, there will be no excess supply of money, and the axe will receive seigniorage.

Within the scope of a reasonable seigniorage tax, what Zhao Yan can take at present is the third route, that is, to use a fixed exchange rate, and at the same time when the gross domestic product increases, and then issue additional currency.

And with the development of the economy, it is very likely that there will be some periods of economic depression, and this positive depression is mostly caused by commodity surplus and unemployment. At this time, you can take the fourth route, that is, to issue more money, so that the political axe is very rich, and then use this money to build infrastructure, consume the industrial crowd, and after the money is scattered, spend money through the political axe, and the unemployed group can buy goods after they have money, they can consume the surplus goods.

Zhao Yan, who decided to issue currency, immediately convened an economic meeting.

During the meeting, Zhao Yan asked Denglai Bank to open banks all over the controlled areas within one year. In addition, we have developed banknote styles and anti-counterfeiting technologies.

Internally, banknotes will be issued and precious metals will be banned.

Externally, silver dollars and copper coins will be issued, and the exchange rate will be determined with silver dollars and paper money.

Silver dollars and copper coins also have a certain seigniorage, although not too large, but the amount is also considerable.

The silver in the market not only needs to be weighed, but also to identify the fineness, and it will be very troublesome to exchange it with paper money, so it also needs a fixed circulation target.

Like the silver dollar in Europe, it was circulated in the Ming Dynasty, such as Fujian and Guangdong.

In addition to the issuance of banknotes, auxiliary coins will also be issued.

The so-called auxiliary coin, that is, a dime and two dimes of the kind of coin, this kind of coin is an important link in circulation, and it is also a highly profitable link.

Even if more coins are issued, the market reaction is generally slower, after all, those large transactions will not use coins.

In many cases, the auxiliary currency is widely circulated, but has the least impact on inflation, and will not cause a direct reaction like the main currency.

"The watermarking technology has begun to take shape, and we already have the ability to issue banknotes, as for what style to print, you can discuss it when you go back." Zhao Yan said to the staff of Denglai Bank, "As for the silver dollars and coins, we will use a steam engine to stamp them directly, and the banknotes can be slowed down a little, and the silver dollars will be immediately set up in specifications and production lines, and then they will be produced in full force." ”

(To be continued)