If someone says that Qin was a purely backward agricultural country, this statement is not very appropriate.

After decades of Chengping development, in the territory of Qin, there are a large number of handicraft workshops, workshops, mines, iron-smelting furnaces, and large factories that have introduced advanced machinery from the Qi State, in terms of industrial and commercial scale and economic activity, it is far more than the pre-Ming period, which also makes the number of non-agricultural population very large.

For example, there are more than 80,000 craftsmen in Jingdezhen, more than 150,000 fibermen on the Yangtze River, and more than 100,000 weavers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. There are also more than 100,000 sugar ginning workers in Lingnan and Yizhou; There are also countless craftsmen and commercial burghers in the big cities; The number of miners in the southwest region is also as high as one million.

"There are no less than fifty or sixty iron furnaces in Guangdong Province, and there are no less than tens of thousands of helpers ......."

But the vast majority of these belonged to craftsmen or mere coolies, without machinery and without mechanization.

Of course, there are some large factories in Songjiang, Denglai, Guangzhou and other places that produce by machines, but judging from the huge size of the Qin State, the number is still too small.

More than 50 years ago, when the Ming and Qin dynasties were replaced, when some court officials witnessed the influx of Qi goods and utensils, they were still very disapproving, and their attitude was quite disdainful. ”

When the Xinyou Palace changed and the Queen Mother became regent, she issued an edict to start a new policy of reform, which pointed out that "the way to govern the country lies in self-improvement, and judging the situation, self-improvement is still the first to make tools." ”

At that time, various localities began to introduce all kinds of "utensils" from Qi on a small scale, set up factories, and develop modern industry.

As a result, the introduction of the machine opened the skylight of the ancient iron house, and in the struggle for power and violence, in the alternation of inferiority and conceit, and under the torment of loss and madness, the ancient Chinese Shenzhou faltered and gradually embarked on a not so willing industrial road.

However, due to the Confucian tradition and the limitations of knowledge, in the eyes of many court officials and gentry, "Qi Xue" was only regarded as a supplementary knowledge, rather than a way to understand the world.

There was a great Confucian saying, "The husband is immutable, and the discipline is also unlawful; The Holy Way is also not a device; Mental art, non-craftsmanship also".

Because, in the Shenzhou continent, which has been influenced by thousands of years of culture, there is also a deep-rooted ideological anti-commercialism, which greatly hinders the great development of industry and commerce in the Qin State.

In the "Chinese Jin Language", it is said that "the public eats tribute, the doctor eats the yi, the shishi eats the field, the people eat the power, and the industrial and commercial food officials", which makes the private business of successive dynasties follow the rules of officialdom more than the laws of the market.

Even the influential traditional merchant gangs in Daqin (Hui merchants, Jin merchants, Shaanxi and Gansu merchants, cotton merchants, salt merchants, etc.) and a number of wealthy Qian Zhuang, as well as overseas merchants in Liangguang and Fujian, were not the same as the trading companies and factory owners in Qi. To a certain extent, these commercial organizations lack their own independence, and their business activities are dominated by market monopolies formed by the leasing and sale of power, let alone technological inventions and innovations.

In the ancient land, the Confucian jar contained too many things, and also with its strong influence (binding force), shackled too many things.

In contrast to the adventurous spirit of exploration in Europe and the Western world and the spirit of scientific competition that gradually took shape in the Qi Kingdom on the Han continent, the tradition of the Chinese Shenzhou emphasizes simplicity and non-action, which is prominently reflected in some Confucian scriptures.

For example, "If there are many sharp weapons, the country will faint; There are many people and skills, and strange things arise; Laws and regulations are abundant, and thieves are abundant."

Another example, "Those who are good in the past will not be foolish to the people." The people are difficult to govern, and they are wise. Therefore, the country is governed by wisdom, and the thief of the country; If you don't govern the country with wisdom, the blessing of the country".

The so-called "inaction", "indisputability", and "non-virtuousness", this kind of moderation embodies the oriental wisdom of the traditional era, and it itself is beyond reproach.

It is precisely for the sake of long-term consideration, for the sake of the stability and long-term stability of the dynasty, that we will be more or less vigilant and cautiously oppose the technological revolution that "challenges nature".

To borrow the words of Mencius, "it is not for it, but it is not for it."

If utilitarianism aside, it is difficult to say that this reservation and conservatism is not a form of wisdom.

"It is in harmony with heaven and earth, bright with the sun and moon, in order with the four seasons, and good luck with ghosts and gods."

In traditional Chinese culture, "the metaphysical is the way, and the metaphysical is the instrument", "virtue is up, art is down", "the middle of the day is a loss, the moon is a loss", "the prosperity must decline, or the pole is Tailai".

In the "Ximing" of Mr. Zhang Zai, the former Song Hengqu said: "The people, my compatriots; Things, I and also. ”

What does that mean? It means that man and man, man and all things are one.

The Rausch steam engine and the big iron ox are just sharp weapons planted in people, and they are small.

Traditional Confucianism emphasizes human introspection, and it is the "mind" rather than the "matter" to be conquered.

Throughout history, Chinese Confucian civilization advocates the middle way and neutrality, and this spiritual resource of the unity of heaven and man is undoubtedly a revelation for the longevity of human civilization.

The so-called industrial spirit, or industrial civilization, preached by the Qi State is not worth boasting about and introducing, but is just an "accessory" brought by them in their quest to conquer the flood and famine, defeat barbarism, and act hegemonically, and it is a "distorted" reality problem that has attracted to the Chinese civilization.

In the years of the regent of the Empress Dowager of Great Qin, Bisongjiang and Denglai were "economic innovation zones", and they were also listed as the direct subordinate mansions of the imperial court.

However, decades later, as the Empress Dowager withdrew from the center of power and returned to power under the Qianyuan Emperor, without the support and support of the supreme ruler, the hundreds of private workshops and workshops established in the above two places gradually withered and withered, and even many factories became subordinate to officials and businessmen.

Some factories lack funds and management means, and their operations are deteriorating; some are difficult to continue because of the forced buying and selling of the imperial court and local officials, and the payment for goods is in arrears; Others were forcibly invested by the imperial court, and became jointly run by officials and businessmen, or changed to official supervision and business offices.

The so-called official supervision and business management is nothing more than a means of using officials to invade and suppress businessmen, so that businessmen and factory owners cannot obtain real economic independence and freedom.

Since the Song Dynasty, whether it is the former Ming Dynasty, or the Qing Dynasty who briefly ruled the mainland, or even the current Great Qin, there has never been a strong elite class other than scholars, who can place their power above the state (or participate in it) in various ways, or limit the monarch's power to a certain range, and achieve a balance of power that supports and restricts each other.

The merchant class of Great Qin had no political status and lacked sufficient influence over politics to form a powerful force to participate in the functioning of society. In order to survive, businessmen can only bribe and cling to officials, or bring in the power of officials.

Confucian morality was not only a legal constraint of the dynastic regime, but also a powerful ideology.

It can be said that successive dynasties can collapse, perish, or be conquered, but the power structure of the new dynasty will not change.

For the sake of the "weak people", the autocratic power naturally chooses the "agrarianism" that benefits from one hole.

"The people and farmers are simple, the simple is easy to use, and the easy to use is the border is safe, and the lord is respected."

As for some "utensils" and some advanced factories, they are more like a beautiful "patch" to maintain the rule of the dynasty.

The reason why the Qi country is strong, how it is diligent, and why it dominates the seas is all about "raising the people" and "teaching the people", in the implementation of universal compulsory education for decades, and in the attention and reliance of public opinion inside and outside the court and on science and tools.

However, in the decades of the Great Qin calendar, those who talked about the "Qi Law" in the world only focused on fine manufacturing, munitions, and wide equipment, which was just the last thing.

During the regency of the Empress Dowager, she tried out a five-year compulsory education in Songjiang Prefecture, taking the Qi State Improvement Textbook as a model, and the "Xinxue" scholars as teachers, recruiting young children, but after only seven or eight years of implementation, it was limited by financial weakness and few students (many children from poor families needed to help their families with work, or came out to do child labor), and finally dissipated into nothingness.

Some people of insight who have returned from studying in Qi have also pointed out, "Qi people build a country, have their own roots, although the education and culture (Confucian culture) is far inferior to my Great Qin, but tame to the rich and strong, have physical use, educate talents in the school, discuss politics in the pardon court and the cabinet, the monarch and the people are one, the top and bottom are united, pragmatic and abstain from hypocrisy, plan and then move, this body is also." Cannons, muskets, railways, machines, all sorts of things. And I, Daqin, left his body and re-sought its use, no matter how hard he went, this sincerity is not related! ”

Under the inherent power system of the Celestial Empire, some factories in Daqin that introduced advanced machinery and equipment could not play their due benefits at all because of traditional thinking and backward management methods, and the input and output were much inferior to those invested and set up by Qi State.

Non-Qin people are not difficult, but they are shackled by invisible hands.

Technology comes from innovation, but innovation does not necessarily create something out of nothing, but most of them are improvements to existing technologies, that is, many old technologies are integrated into a new technology, resulting in "1+1>2".

For a new country like Qi, which had been struggling with a shortage of manpower, the most important invention was not a machine, but the idea of producing maximum productivity in the most labor-efficient – of course, gradually transformed into cost-saving.

Later scholars once said that the significance of science is not "useful", but the need of reason and the instinct of thought.

In the Qin state, which had a huge population, many "useful" sciences were reduced to small tracts, and extremely efficient machines became vassals, because people were "abundant and cheap", and machines would sometimes be regarded as harmful and unprofitable, especially when more than 90 percent of the population had to rely on labor to survive.

During this period, in the territory of Qin, under the leadership of people of insight, there were still new inventions and improvements in labor-saving techniques and tools, but they were basically only to adapt to the production of small farmers and sidelines, and had nothing to do with the large-scale production model.

The secret of modern industry lies in technological innovation, but the "creative destruction" brought about by new technologies and new machines will cause traditional workers to lose their jobs, cause unemployment and social instability, and may threaten imperial power in the short term.

For example, in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, some powerful cotton cloth producers have successively introduced large cotton spinning machines and looms driven by steam engines from Qi State, although the productivity has been improved, and the cotton cloth produced by Qi has a more crushing cost advantage, but the "creative destruction" it caused has attracted opposition from all sides, and there are even layoffs of workers to make trouble and destroy the machine.

If not, the local government and merchants would have brought a large number of weavers who had no place to live on the migrant ships through the way of immigrating the tooth people, opening a "vent gate", fearing that it would cause more civil unrest.

Tea has always been the main export commodity of Daqin, but it has been maintained in a heavy family and manual state, and has not been able to develop into large-scale operation and large-scale machine production. A few years ago, a merchant from Qi who had a good fortune found this business opportunity and brought in several tea kneading machines made in Hanzhou, hoping to sell them at a good price.

However, many tea merchants in the Qin State did not dare to put it into use for fear of causing a commotion among the tea kneading workers, which made the Qi people who were ready to make a fortune stunned.

In the thirtieth year of the Qianyuan Dynasty (1712), many merchants in Jiangnan joined forces with the Jiangnan Trading Company of Qi State to jointly invest in the construction of the Susong Railway (Shanghai-Wuxian). Unexpectedly, there was a huge controversy, and countless coachmen drove their vehicles into the railway construction site, obstructing the construction, fearing that the railway would affect their livelihood after the opening of the railway.

In the 35th year of the Qianyuan Dynasty (1717), when the cabinet of Great Qin set up a weaving layout under the Ministry of Industry, the emperor said, "Within ten years, only the countrymen and merchants are allowed to attach shares to set up factories." ”

"I am afraid of the machine, and there are many unemployed, and there is no way to place them."

Fan Bosi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, once said, "My way of self-improvement in Daqin is different from that of Qi. Qi is based on business, and Daqin is based on people's livelihood; The self-improvement of the Qi country lies in business, and the self-improvement of Daqin lies in loving the people. Qi has a small number of people, so they use machines, and Ju recruits the people of the country to make up for the lack of manpower; The people of Daqin are numerous, so they use fewer machines, and the poor people still have no way to make a living and more people go abroad. ”

The chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty bred countless homeless people, swarmed, and finally destroyed the Ming court, so that the Qing captives took advantage of the weakness to enter, and Shenzhou was ashamed.

Great Qin should be warned.

Those who broke away from the constraints and protection of the social order at that time, wandered between towns and villages, had no stable means of livelihood, were forced to make a living, mainly sold their physical or mental strength, and also obtained the means of subsistence by improper means, can be regarded as "vagrants".

Wanderers are at the bottom of society, and they subconsciously change everything they have only in the midst of violent social conflicts. They ignore order, crave conflict, and even welcome violent social conflicts and social unrest.

In the ancient feudal dynasties, the so-called "nomads" were largely landless peasants, or the remnants of an agrarian society.

Didn't the Qi country produce "nomads"?

Naturally, there are, but before the "nomads" have yet to swim, most of them are forcibly stuffed into overseas territories by the government, so as to precursor to the king and open up more space for ethnic survival.

The Great Qin Dynasty, wrapped in Confucian culture, always paid the most attention to the consolidation of imperial power, the stability of the dynasty, and the fixation of the system.

"Among the four people, most of the farmers live, men and women weave, each with their own profession, the foundation of public security, nothing more than this. …… The machine is gradually moving, the people are no longer popular, and the unemployed are gradually numerous, and the world is a nomad, and the harm is beyond words! ”

Alas, all history will eventually point to the system itself, the foundation of consciousness.

Human nature is to seek wealth and hate poverty, everyone is an "economic man" who "maximizes profits", and the people of ancient China are no exception, and they are not exempt from vulgarity.

Sima Qian said: "Seeking wealth with poverty, agriculture is not as good as work, industry is not as good as business, embroidery is better than relying on the city."

The emergence of merchants has broken the balance of wealth, and the power of money has formed a threat to political power.

"It is in the king to give, it is in the king, it is in the king, it is in the poor, and it is in the king. The people of the deceased are like the sun and the moon, and the prince is like the parents", "Those who benefit from a hole are invincible in their country".

Because of the death of the Queen Mother and the mourning of the whole country, the Yangzhou salt merchant on Yanfang was worried that he could not take away the delicate "thin horse" he liked, and when he was still depressed, he received a news from the Salt Administration Department of the Ministry of Household that made him extremely depressed.

For the funeral of the Queen Mother, the state is insufficient, and the co-investment is huge, thinking that the royal family is loyal!

Wait for businessmen, make money quickly!

(End of chapter)