With this in mind, it is not difficult to analyze future developments.

"In my opinion, even if the Ming Dynasty followed the learning machine, it would not take the same way as us." He told Theodora: "Of course, there may be nothing wrong with that...... They're so big that they can get used to it with a little bit of a little bit of accommodation. ”

"I don't know how they're going to solve the cost problem." Theodora hesitated.

"It probably doesn't need to be resolved." "According to businessmen's view, competitive advantage can only be achieved by lowering the price of hired labor, but in practice this is not necessarily the case – at least for Seris." ”

"Oh? Is there an example of this? Theodora asked curiously.

"They work the same as they fight." Guo Kang made an analogy to make it easier for her to understand: "The money given is small, although the cost is low, but the craftsman has little motivation, and the things made are purely a waste of materials." It seems to have a competitive advantage, but in fact it is very inefficient and even outweighs the cost. ”

"That's ......"

Guo Kang nodded in conviction.

The current Ming Dynasty can't be seen, but in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, this can be regarded as the most typical situation.

One of the reasons why the ordnance produced by the imperial court itself was simply unusable, and the reason why the musket could not be replaced was that the quality of the barrel was too poor, and the arquebus replaced with a slender tube would directly become a "blasting canister". Armor, artillery, etc., also have their own problems.

In response, some officials offered to go to Macau to find the Portuguese to buy firearms. To this end, the Ming Dynasty purchased several batches of ordnance from the Bugarao Cannon Foundry in Macau, which were very popular because of their good quality.

But what is more funny is that the Bugarao Artillery Factory is actually not an "original" pure Western-style ordnance factory. At that time, the metallurgical technology of the Ming Dynasty had advantages over Europe in many aspects, especially in cast iron. Therefore, the Bujialao Artillery Factory not only absorbed a lot of Ming Dynasty technology, but also many of the craftsmen in the factory were directly hired from Guangdong.

Their weapons, especially iron guns, were the Ming Dynasty's own technology. The workers who produced ordnance were also craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, why did they change places and the quality was very good, selling well in East Asia and even returning to Europe?

The reason is actually very simple, that is, because the Portuguese were still relatively "rustic" at that time, and basically did as much as they wanted. And the Ministry of Industry's own ordnance factory, after a series of complicated profit distribution and exploitation by the court and the princes, there is no money that can be distributed to the grassroots level. If you don't have enough money, you won't be able to make something reliable.

It's the same with armor. The armor technology of the Ming Dynasty was not backward, and the armor of Zheng Chenggong's department left a deep impression on the Dutch. In the accounts of the Dutch, Zheng soldiers wearing heavy armor were even able to shoot at Dutch soldiers in the face of constantly hitting bullets. However, the Ming army's own armor has never had any outstanding performance, and its biggest effect is to drag its feet in wartime.

In the final analysis, this situation is not actually a technical problem, but a simple money that is too greedy and not enough......

In the end, the Portuguese in the south, the Zheng in the southeast, and the Houjin in the northeast...... Anyway, it's a force, and it's better than the Ming Dynasty itself.

This example is easy for Guo Kang - because that phenomenon was too famous at that time.

"On the other hand, if they give enough money, they are not afraid of the cost." Guo Kang thought about it and found that the other direction also made sense: "The method of reducing labor costs may be the most suitable for the good-for-nothing European slave laborers, but for a large number of professional craftsmen in the East, it is estimated that this is not the case." ”

European factory owners try to keep labor costs as low as possible and also use machines. But even so, in the early days of industrialization, their production efficiency was very poor, and even compared to the handicraftsmen in Jiangnan.

In 1844, the British came to Fujian to investigate, collected samples of various local cotton cloths of different textures, recorded the price, and sent them back to England for comparison. Upon their return, the British merchants were surprised to find that at the price they had marked, the factory in Manchester could not be made. And Fujian was not the most developed and efficient place in the textile industry at that time.

If this is the case in the UK, it will be even worse for other countries. For example, in the 19th century, the United States could only rely on exporting large quantities of gold and silver in exchange for Chinese goods.

Between 1805 and 1844, the trade deficit between the two countries was as high as 39 percent, and in the decade from 1805 to 1815 alone, the United States exported $22.7 million in gold and silver, while China exported only $10 million in goods during the same period, and almost all of them were low-end products such as crops and minerals.

In addition, at that time, the United States was introduced to the Qing Dynasty by France (Louis XVI had a good relationship with the United States and the Qing Dynasty), and the Qing Dynasty even believed for a long time that the United States was a vassal of France and an African country that specialized in providing raw materials to France.

American textiles were inferior to British goods, so much so that by 1850, the American consul was still complaining that large quantities of American cloth were backlogged in the port and could not be sold at any price.

So, this leads to a very counterintuitive conclusion: sweatshops are actually very inefficient. Even though the Jiangnan craftsmen were much better paid than the English workers, they still did not fall significantly behind in terms of cost. This idea of forcibly reducing labor costs, although in line with the simplest and most direct thinking, is not correct, like many other "common sense".

"In this way, we can actually keep a promotion channel in the slave factory." Thinking of it, Guo Kang added: "Don't force it too hard, and with incentives, it will be more efficient than simply driving slaves." ”

"Even if it's an English slave?" Theodora said suspiciously.

"Even if it's England." Guo Kang nodded affirmatively.

In the early 19th century, the Englishman Owen did an experiment. He bought a plot of land in the United States in an attempt to build a utopian settlement. In the settlement, there is a factory where people only work 10 hours a day, according to Owen's vision. In other factories of the same era, there may be no upper limit to this time.

Due to the overly idealistic design, the utopian settlement ultimately failed. But this factory alone has not only run it, but also made money. This was a big surprise to the people at the time. It was also on the basis of this discovery that Owen continued his experiments, which led to the idea of an eight-hour workday.

"It's a bit of a strange conclusion." Theodora admits: "If reducing working hours increases overall efficiency, why do all businessmen like to let their hired workers do more?" ”

"Because this conclusion is reached through scientific analysis, and science is counter-common sense in many cases." Guo Kang replied: "Moreover, if a person is in business only to make money, then he is a saint in the business field." In normal times, it is impossible to have such a person. ”

"Idealized businessmen can accept everything in order to make money, while businessmen in reality ......" Guo Kang spread his hands: "They may make decisions just for their own well-being." A lot of unbelievable decisions appear like this - then again, if you are not happy to be a boss, you are not a slave to money. ”

"It seems to be the same...... It seems to be similar to ruling the country. Theodora thought for a moment and sighed, "Perhaps, the perfect merchant should be a slave to money, and should not think about anything else. The Perfect Ruler...... Shouldn't it be the same? ”

(End of chapter)