During the Spring Festival of the eighth year of the Apocalypse, firecrackers rang out everywhere, the biting cold wind finally ended, and the soft spring breeze was ushered in, and people were in a much better mood in such a solar term.

More and more people are full of hope for the future, but for ordinary people, not everyone has a good Spring Festival.

Many peasants who have left their land, perhaps not in such a good mood. Many of them have just entered the town, and many of them have not yet adapted to the new environment.

However, the trend of the land enclosure movement has become irreversible in the northern provinces, and more and more laborers have left the land and engaged in industrial production and construction activities, which has become the mainstream trend at present.

But for most people, it's a good year.

In the context of economic prosperity, those who are willing to do things earn enough money to live on and have a surplus in their pockets. And those who have taken advantage of the development trend of the times, the lives of the people have been rapidly improved. For example, all kinds of mechanics, engaged in shipbuilding, machine manufacturing, etc.

Over the years, the economic development of the New Deal area has become more and more capitalized. With the development of industry in recent years, the various commodities exported to the south and overseas every year have been increasing the capital scale of the newly requisitioned areas. Iron and steel, coal, salt, machinery manufacturing, military industry, and glass were the dominant industries in the New Deal area in the past.

Nowadays, tanning, textiles and ceramics have also begun to become advantageous industries, and the tanning industry in Zhangjiakou has begun to improve rapidly with the intervention of state-owned capital consortiums. Leather raw materials also increased greatly with trade with Mongolia and the expansion of the production scale of Mongolian herders in the Ming region.

In the past, the textile industry could only rely on trade barriers to resist the textiles of those factory owners in the south of the Yangtze River, and relied on sea trade channels for exports. However, with the invention of chemical dyes, and the rapid development of textile machinery. The advent of high-pressure steam engines. Today's textile industry is already unrivalled in competitiveness. It has become a highly advantageous industry.

Although the ceramic industry is not comparable to the ceramic industry in Jingdezhen, in the low-end ceramic market, the ceramic industry in the New Deal area has begun to occupy an advantage, and began to export a large number of overseas markets.

In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the scale of Ming goods purchased by the Portuguese from Malacca rose again, reaching nearly 50 million yuan, of which military products were more popular with European countries, and the Ming flintlock pistol was of good quality. And it is reliable, and it also comes with a bayonet.

At the same time, the Ming artillery was also welcomed by the Europeans, and now the performance of the Ming artillery is obviously beyond the level of Europe for decades, these guns have a longer range, greater power, and are more lightweight, and almost all European countries have paid for some Ming artillery.

The export of flintlock pistols and artillery to the Europeans obviously did not threaten the Ming Dynasty, after all, the level of science and technology in this era was relatively low, and it was impossible for the Europeans to get these weapons to hit the Asian region.

Most importantly. These munitions factories were very profitable, and the imperial court could export these arms in exchange for a large amount of precious metals. The Portuguese were also very fond of buying these arms. These are definitely the most popular things in Europe today, and they can be sold for a high price when they change hands.

The Ming Dynasty also appropriately lowered the prices of military products, thereby expanding exports. For the Ming Dynasty, keeping the military industry running is the most important thing. Moreover, the export of these military products to Europe can hit the military manufacturing industry of Europeans.

Among the goods purchased by Europeans, the industrial products of the New Deal area accounted for the majority, and the largest export products of the southern provinces were tea and raw silk, but these goods were also purchased directly from the local by the state-owned capital consortium, and they could not earn export profits.

The chemical dyes that had just appeared were also welcomed by Europeans, and the Portuguese, who saw the business opportunities, directly bought a large number of chemical dyes and resold them to European countries.

Exports, consumption, and investment are the troika that drives the economy, and now exports have been greatly monopolized by state-owned capital, and those chaebols and businessmen in the south are a bit tragic, and this Spring Festival only feels that the sky is a little gray.

In the past, the economy of the southern provinces was mainly driven by exports and consumption, and exports were the main force.

In terms of investment, the Jiangnan area has been developed for so many years, and the gardens and other industries of those wealthy families have been built, and there are very few construction projects. And after the rise of Northern Industries, there was even less construction activity.

The chaebols and businessmen in the south are basically the type that only enter but do not leave, and after the money is in their pockets, they do not want to flow the money to the people at the bottom of the society.

This has also caused the economic predicament of the southern provinces today, and the economy is really sluggish. As a result of the sharp decline in the scale of commodity exports, a large number of people lost their jobs, which in turn led to a slump in consumption, and those chaebols and businessmen were unwilling to invest their money, and the economy of the southern provinces naturally did not prosper.

However, it can barely be supported, after all, the rise of northern industry has not yet driven out the production of commodities in the south, and there are still exports, and exports from all parts of the Indochina Peninsula and the South Seas can still be inserted. At the same time, after all, agriculture in the southern provinces is still relatively developed, and the planting area of various cash crops is relatively large, and these cash crops do not have to worry about the market at all.

For those businessmen, what they suffer at this time is not only that the broadsword of reform will be cut off from their heads at any time, but also that the current economic situation makes them painful.

Although the southern provinces have a high degree of autonomy, especially the Jiangnan region, no matter how autonomous they are, how to empty the power of the imperial court. But after all, it was the territory managed by the imperial court, and it was impossible for these merchants to set up local trade barriers within their own country like Zhu Youxiao, so they could only watch a large number of industrial commodities from the north continue to pour into the southern market, and watch one after another workshops and factories close down under the impact of northern commodities.

This process is too painful.

It is equivalent to reform is like a knife cut down, some people will be finished, but some will not. Without reform, it is like being slowly slashed by the dog emperor with a blunt knife.

The increase in the number of unemployed people in the Jiangnan area is indeed a big problem. Those scholars and chaebols in Jiangnan obviously want to do something to these unemployed people, such as inciting the people to revolt or something. But how could Zhu Youxiao let them get their wish, and the Civil Affairs Bureau had spread to all prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River in the seventh year of the Apocalypse.

People who can't survive can always get a bite to eat when they go to the Civil Affairs Bureau, and they will also arrange for them to emigrate or something. Or arrange them to work in the north, especially those technicians and intellectuals, who will not be able to find jobs at all when they go to the New Deal area, and the streets are full of job advertisements, which is simply crazy digging into the wall. (To be continued.) )