In a room in the daily newspaper, Qiao Guoqiang was giving lessons to a few backbones found by Chen Shaobai. Among these people wearing suits and short hair, there is one more Liu Yubai who is wearing a long shirt.

"The fall of the Ming Dynasty was fundamentally due to the financial crisis." "If the imperial court can't collect taxes, the army will have no salary, no money to build weapons, and no money to help the victims. And even in the end there was no money to maintain the country's postal system. ”

After Qiao Guoqiang finished speaking, he asked, "But, does Daming really have no money?" ”

"Yes!" He held up a finger and said, "The Ming Dynasty is very rich!" He drew a simple map of the world on the blackboard and marked Ming's location.

"The Celestial Empire itself produced very little silver. Since ancient times, the Celestial Empire has practiced the copper standard, that is, copper coins! He threw a couple of copper plates on the table. During the period of Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the development of the commodity economy, the existing copper coins were not enough to meet the commercial use, and paper money appeared in Sichuan-Jiaozi. ”

And in the early Ming Dynasty, especially in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang. Because Emperor Yuan Shun fled north, he took with him a large amount of hard currency such as gold and silver, as well as a large number of bronze objects. ”

"There is not only a shortage of gold and silver in the market for large-scale transactions, but also not enough copper coins for small and medium-sized transactions, so we have to issue paper money."

Later, during the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He brought a large amount of gold and silver to the West, and the later emperors abolished the Journey to the West and began to close off the country. The silver of the West is gone! ”

"But there is another place where gold and silver have replaced the gold and silver of the West." Qiao Guoqiang pointed to Japan: "Japan's Ishina Silver, most of the output of the Ishinama Silver Mountain flows into the Celestial Empire every year. ”

"Next, the Spaniards." Qiao Guoqiang drew several lines in Peru, Manila, Daming and Spain in South America. "The Spaniards dug silver from South America, transported it to Manila and traded silk tea and porcelain with smugglers in the Ming Dynasty, and then shipped the silk porcelain and tea to Europe for gold."

"The annual silver production of the Ming Dynasty was only about 300,000 taels, and the total stock at the beginning of the 16th century was 50 million taels, and during this period, overseas silver flowed into millions of taels every year, and the total inflow was about 200 million taels, which was about 4 times the local stock."

"But the money did not flow into the warehouses of the imperial court, but was embezzled by the merchants and gentry."

"In the late Ming Dynasty, even if the government could receive taxes in kind, it needed to convert a part of the silver to save transportation losses, and then use silver to purchase grain materials after arriving at the destination. However, because the government lacked any monetary policy capacity, merchants and landlords who controlled silver and grain began to take advantage of their own advantages to arbitrage the scissors difference between the price of rice, prices, and silver. In the end, most of the silver settled in their hands and could not flow into the treasury. ”

As the deflation of silver accelerated, merchants and landlords began to accelerate the collection of silver, so that silver continued to withdraw from circulation, which on the one hand exacerbated deflation, and on the other hand, made it more and more expensive for farmers who only had copper money and grain in their hands to pay taxes in silver. The government is unable to issue more currency or regulate the tax system, leaving only a dead end for continuing to raise taxes. In the end, the end of the fish and the net was doomed, the people rebelled, the emperor died, the soldiers died, and the merchants and landlords who were left with a large amount of silver greeted the final winner with a smile. ”

"To what extent did the treasury of the Ming Empire, which was in financial distress, dry up: In 1644, when Li Zicheng besieged Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen called for donations, and his father-in-law Zhou Kui was only willing to donate 10,000 taels, and finally only raised 200,000 taels of silver. Eight days later, Li Zicheng broke through Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, and at this time, only 170,000 taels of gold and 130,000 taels of silver remained in the treasury of the Ming Dynasty. According to the wild history, Zhou Kui was later copied out of 530,000 taels by the army in cash alone. ”

Qiao Guoqiang patted the small dots along the Yangtze River that represented the city, and sneered: "Later, the Qing army entered the customs and encountered resistance in the south, and the solution they chose was to slaughter the city."

"The Qing army was in the south, every time the Qing army captured a county, the Qing soldiers could scrape out hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and the Qing Dynasty's finances in the first few decades of entering the customs were supported by the spoils of war in the south of the Yangtze River."

"Having said this, I want you to understand how important money and finance are to the stability of a country!"

Looking at the thinking crowd at the table, Qiao Guoqiang asked, "Why are we falling behind?" Why did the Westernization Movement and the Wuxu Reform Law fail? This is the question we are going to talk about next, "Industrial Mass Production"

After a two-hour lecture, when it was time for lunch, Qiao Guoqiang walked out of the room and met Li Yutang.

"Mr. Joe!" Li Yutang clenched his fists.

"Boss Li!"

"I just heard Mr.'s theory of industrialized large-scale production and high added value of science and technology, which made Li like thunder!" Li Yutang asked, "If Li wants to change from a wholesaler to a manufacturer, what should he do first?" ”

"This..."Qiao Guoqiang wanted to speak and stopped.

Li Yutang looked at it and patted his head, "Look at it, it's my fault, how can I talk about such a big thing here." He pulled Qiao Guoqiang and said, "Let's go, Hongyunlou, I'll be the east!" ”

"No, no, I didn't mean that!"

"But that's what I mean!" Li Yutang took Qiao Guoqiang to Fuyun Building, found a private room and ordered a banquet.

"From the current point of view, if Boss Li wants to make money quickly, he can only invest in light industry." Qiao Guoqiang said that there are four industries: "textiles, flour, cigarettes and soap." ”

"These are industries with small investment, quick results, and good profits." Taking a sip of tea, Qiao Guoqiang recalled the knowledge in his memory.

"Japan developed its shipbuilding industry by exporting raw silk and silk fabrics and buying machinery from abroad, and then built its navy."

He broke the news to Li Yutang, "You definitely don't know that in the just-concluded Russo-Japanese War, Japan's warships that won against Russia were purchased with foreign exchange from exporting raw silk. “

"Silk?" Li Yutang said, "Silk has always been a traditional product of the Celestial Empire, why is the silk of the Japanese still so powerful?" They can exchange silk for money to buy warships, and so can we~"

"Because our silk technology is no longer as good as Japan!" Qiao Guoqiang said this, a little angry and a little helpless.

"Silk and tea have always been the fist products of our country's exports, but since the British stole tea from Zhejiang and planted it in India, and after Japan's Meiji Restoration increased investment in silk weaving research, the profits of silk and tea are no longer unique to us. At present, if we want to confront Japan in these aspects, we must adopt new processes and methods, and at the same time take advantage of the large population, low wages, and proximity to raw materials of our Celestial Empire, so as to obtain greater profits. ”

"On top of that, it's the industry standard that's more important!" Qiao Guoqiang gave Li Yutang an example: "In 1881, out of a "patriotic mentality of infancy", Shibusawa Eiichi led a boycott movement that united all the raw silk traders, but the result ended in failure, like Hu Xueyan.

What the Japanese see from their failures is very different from ours, and they don't see factions, chaebol disputes, or other personnel reasons.