Chapter 576 Engineering and Currency

Daye 13 years, September 11th.

Zheng Sen announced the relocation plan of the Governor's Mansion to the territory through the radio station, moving from Nantong County in Huduzhou to Wuzhou City, Songjiang Prefecture.

At this time, in Wuzhou City, except for Linjiang Restaurant, which was renamed Lingnan Office, all other private properties have been confiscated.

The Song Clan residence of Linjiang Restaurant is currently the only diplomatic institution officially approved by the Human Revolutionary League. Of course, as a price, the Human Revolutionary League will also send personnel to Panyu to build its own office.

The governor of Songjiang Mansion is Qin Mo. He has made a lot of contributions in advancing the reform work, so Zheng Sen appointed him as the governor of Songjiang Mansion.

In Wuzhou City at this time, after the aristocratic families were cleaned up, a large number of mansions were left behind, and these mansions were quickly used and transformed into various facilities.

Compared with the rough planning of urban functions in the classical era, the Human Revolutionary Union has made a lot of strict regulations on the internal function planning of the city.

For example, residential areas, commercial areas, industrial areas, education and administrative office areas, road specifications, water supply facilities, public toilets, urban rivers, drainage pipes, landscaping, etc., all have clear and strict regulations.

The reason why ancient cities were prone to plague outbreaks was because domestic garbage, human and animal excrement, and sewage were not properly treated.

Song Shidao and Song Yuzhi, brothers and sisters, walked on the street with a few followers, watching everything that the Human Revolutionary Union was doing curiously.

On the street ahead, a wall of a large mansion has been demolished, and a large number of people are working hard with sweat. The engineers are constantly measuring on the construction site with measuring tools and building according to the drawings.

"Brother, what are they doing?" Song Yuzhi looked around curiously.

Song Shidao walked to a wooden board, on which was pasted a planning drawing and a brief description of the project.

"Public toilet in the south of the city? It turned out to be a latrine..." Song Shidao was a little confused. Why did he change a big mansion into a latrine? Could it be to humiliate the Jiangdong family?

And along the way, he found that Wuzhou City was under construction everywhere, and the scale was really huge, but this corvee...

wait! Didn't the Human Revolutionary League declare that they would never recruit corvée? Is it just a slogan?

Song Shidao looked at the construction site suspiciously, but he was also very puzzled. Why were the people working so hard? Why were the people working so hard?

This situation puzzled him,

For a son of a powerful family, Song Shidao still retains the old-fashioned idea that official projects can only be constructed through the collection of corvees.

But he doesn't know the operation mode of the Human Revolutionary Union. If he has read "Public Works and Economic Cycle" written by Zheng Sen, he will understand the economic principles.

The more natural disasters and man-made disasters are in the year, the more it is necessary to start a large-scale project to digest the excess labor force through large-scale projects, and to pay labor wages or materials so that the people can obtain a relatively stable source of life.

This mode has preconditions.

First, the government has sufficient material reserves.

Second, have sufficient management capabilities at the grassroots level.

Only after these two conditions are met can the investment and construction of large-scale infrastructure be carried out to stimulate the economy to circulate.

And the corvée in ancient feudal dynasties was a public project like killing chickens and taking eggs. It required horses to run and not let them graze. It would be hell if the corvée project could be maintained for a long time.

In fact, the government-run factory model of the Western Han Dynasty was very good. If the model of paid labor can be introduced, large-scale infrastructure projects can be carried out by virtue of the government-run factory and Maoling system of the Western Han Dynasty.

It's a pity that many advanced systems of the Central Plains Dynasty are always caught in an endless cycle of people dying and government changing and changing dynasties.

At this time, Song Shidao just couldn't figure out why the People's Revolutionary League could make the people happily accept "corvement".

He didn't know the answer until he walked to a supply and marketing cooperative that had just been remodeled.

In front of the supply and marketing cooperative, a large number of women were lined up at this time, everyone was carrying a bamboo basket, and some women who knew each other were discussing in groups.

"Cuihua, your old man is no longer a porter?"

"He went to work in the Dafa Temple in the west of the city, 80 crystal coins a day."

"I heard that there is more money to repair the pier, but I can't go home casually."

"Didn't those nobles say before that the new dynasty will confiscate land and food..."

"Hehe... Those who have a large field in their home will be confiscated if they commit crimes, and we haven't broken the law."

"I just told my children that Mr. Xuetang wants them to study more, so as not to be deceived in the future."

"Those landlords and rich people know how to collect rent, and even colluded with tolerance to bully us. It's better for the new dynasty!"

Amidst the gossip of Wu Yin, Song Shidao realized that what he thought was a "corvet" was actually paid with money, no wonder the people were so happy.

It's just how to supply the money and food of the Human Revolutionary Union?

Although he knew that the NRRL raided the Jiangdong family, he must have reaped a lot of money and food, but the food will always be used up one day, and the mu catty tax is the fundamental policy of the NRRL, how will the money and food be obtained in the future?

While thinking, he was dragged by Song Yuzhi into the supply and marketing cooperative.

This supply and marketing cooperative is actually a large supermarket.

The products inside are dazzling, not exaggerated but really dazzling.

Especially the glass products and glass mirrors on the shelf, it simply attracts everyone's attention.

Song Shidao carefully picked up a green glass cup: "This is made of Yaoyu, it's so cheap."

The price was marked on the shelf, and a label with a number was pasted on the cup. In the past few days, he had learned about this special number symbol in "Building the Foundation" published by the Evil Revolutionary Union.

A glass cup costs 27 crystal coins.

On the shelves of glass products, in addition to glass cups, there are also glass teapots, glass thermoses with bamboo shells, colorful glass headdresses, bracelets, pendants, and imitation jade pendants.

And glass mirrors that are extremely expensive in the field. .

Song Yuzhi picked up an emerald green glass bracelet, which was almost as good as the emerald bracelets in China, and she couldn't put it down.

Putting the bracelet in the bamboo basket provided by the supply and marketing cooperative, she continued to choose accessories.

Song Shidao walked through the glass products area and came to the grain sales area. There are a lot of husk-removed rice, flour made from wheat, and sun-dried soybeans and broad beans.

"One kilogram of old rice 12 crystal coins? One kilogram of new rice 16 crystal coins?" Song Shidao was a little surprised, the price is indeed not high.

However, the purchase of food is restricted, and it is impossible to hoard food.

Moreover, Song Shidao also saw Champa rice, and the sign on it said [Champa rice-indica rice-spring rice (suitable for fried rice), the price is 13 coins per kilogram].

After passing the grain area, you enter the seasoning area.

Several women picked up small shovels, shoveled up the snow-white and delicate snow salt, put it into a small kraft paper bag beside them, and discussed the price in a low voice.

"Snow salt 65 crystal coins per kilogram..." Song Shidao was really surprised.

This is the cheapest seasoning, followed by snow sugar, rock sugar, brown sugar, and very expensive pepper, rattan pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, tangerine peel, nutmeg and the like.

The only kind of seasoning that is relatively cheap is a bright yellow sun-dried spice that says [Shennongjia yellow pepper (spicy), 273 crystal coins per kilogram].

The reason why yellow pepper and salt are cheap is because they can be produced in the Human Revolutionary Union.

Many people think that the origin of chili peppers is Central America, but in fact this is a big mistake.

In fact, East Asia and South Asia also have native peppers.

For example, the yellow peppers collected by Hei Yiwei near Shennongjia, the millet hot peppers in Nanzhao area, and the devil peppers in Tianzhu, these are all native Asian peppers.

Hao Jian's Black Clothes Guard has a very wide range of businesses, not only in charge of intelligence espionage, but also in investigations of species, minerals, hydrology, and topography.

The discovery of yellow pepper is just one of the gains.

Now two islands in the Zhoushan archipelago that cannot grow rice have been transformed into pepper planting bases, and they are planning to introduce Daliuqiu in the past.

This batch of dried chilies was only put into the market to test the waters, which is why they are so cheap.

Don't think that the price of dried chilies, which is more than ten times the price of food, is too high. The price of spices in this era is astonishingly priced by the metaphor of one or two peppers and one tael of gold.

Song Shidao's family has maritime trade channels in Nanyang, and the price of imported pepper is still high. There is no way for the big family to eat pepper every day.

In the condiment area, there is another alternative product, which is edible oil.

There are only three main cooking oils here: soybean oil, whale oil, and lard paste.

The prices are relatively low, around 200-300 crystal coins per kilogram.

After looking at the glass, food, and seasonings, there is the vegetable and fruit area. There are only vegetables and fruits produced in Jiangdong, and the only relatively novel thing may be cheap kelp.

These seaweeds were created by Tang Feilin. He previously set up a seaweed plantation in Hudouzhou, specializing in the production of seaweeds, and Zhoushan's seaweed, which are two high-profile products.

The quantity of other vegetables and fruits is very small. For example, the bananas produced by Da Liuqiu can only be cut in advance before the bananas are fully ripe, and then transported to Jiangdong by transport ship.

Those vegetables and fruits that are not resistant to transportation cannot be transported by sea at all.

Even though there were only a dozen kinds of vegetables and fruits, Song Shidao was still very surprised. It was unimaginable in this era that he could mobilize so many fruits and vegetables.

In the vegetable and fruit section, the most popular things are soybean sprouts, leeks, sunflowers, and fresh mushrooms and fungus.

Shiitake mushrooms and fungus are also Tang Feilin's achievements. These two large fungi, which are the easiest to cultivate artificially, have already achieved industrial production.

Song Shidao walked into the meat products area like a horse on a horse, and besides fresh pork and river fish, there were also wild hairy crabs, a specialty of Jiangdong.

Then there are rows of salted fish, which were transported from Hudouzhou by Clippers, and have only been salted for a day or two.

Many women who are greedy for cheap and don't want to buy salt will buy salted fish and eat it as salt.

In addition, it is all kinds of canned fish.

Song Shidao picked up a can of one kilogram of whale meat, the brand was called "Sai Beef". Through the dark brown glass bottle, he saw a large piece of lean whale meat inside.

"This thing is only 152 crystal coins?" Song Shidao was stunned to himself, holding the jar in his hand, he planned to buy it back and taste it.

At the corner, he met Song Yuzhi who had stuffed a lot of things in his basket.

"Little sister, have you bought too much?"

"This thing is too cheap. If it weren't for the purchase limit, I would have bought more."

Song Shidao, who remembered something, suddenly patted his forehead: "Do you have crystal coins?"

"..." Song Yuzhi froze.

Seeing her expression, Song Shidao knew the situation, and hurriedly went to the counter to ask if it was possible to use silver or gold. The answer was naturally no, and he had to go to a special bank to exchange gold and silver.

In addition, the checkout staff reminded Song Shidao that outsiders only have an exchange quota of 0.1 kg of gold or 1 kg of silver per month.

Many people think that the more gold and silver the better, in fact this is a wrong concept, even a fatal concept.

why would you say so?

Gold and silver are only general equivalents and do not have use value in themselves.

Some people may say, why are there still people willing to admit the value of gold and silver.

First of all, the reason why gold and silver are "valuable" is that they are rare and expensive, and secondly, human society endows them with "currency attributes".

Once the rarity of gold and silver is destroyed, or some regions do not recognize its currency attributes, the consequences will be very serious.

Don't think that the rarity of gold and silver is fixed.

For example, the Jinguashi gold-silver-copper complex mine in Daliuqiu has entered the mining stage, and can produce 50-80 kilograms of gold, 150-300 kilograms of silver, and 3-6 tons of copper every month.

Assuming that within the jurisdiction of the Human Revolutionary Union, the total productivity cannot be increased on a large scale in a short period of time, and gold and silver are allowed to circulate freely as currency.

What are the consequences of that?

The consequence is the crazy influx of gold and silver, which leads to a rapid increase in prices, but there is no way for productivity and citizen wages to follow.

This is inflationary poverty.

This fatal situation was encountered in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Western European countries such as the Spaniards, Portuguese, and the Netherlands transported gold and silver mined in Central America to East Asia, and then purchased tea, porcelain, silk and other products.

The Ming Dynasty did not need to purchase products on a large scale from Western countries, resulting in a serious trade surplus in the Ming Dynasty, but this trade surplus did not bring much benefit to the Ming Dynasty.

An astonishing amount of silver keeps pouring in. What else can it be used for besides raising prices?

You said I used gold and silver to buy food in Southeast Asia?

With the sailing speed and cost of that era, the price of grain transported back could not compete with the domestic rice in Dongting Lake Plain and Poyang Lake Plain, and the unprofitable grain trade, what would the Maritime Chamber do?

Gold and silver in the feudal era are equivalent to modern credit banknotes.

The circulation of currency must be linked to the total productivity of society, otherwise the currency will be overissued on a large scale, and the consequence will be soaring prices.

However, the gold, silver and copper coins in the feudal era had a big problem that many people ignored, that is, they did not have the function of "anti-counterfeiting".

Now the Human Revolutionary Union is operating in this way. It is strictly forbidden to use gold, silver and copper as currency in the territory. However, for trade in Southeast Asia, gold and silver coins are used in large quantities to purchase local grains, minerals, spices and the like.

The exchange of gold and silver for materials seems to be a win-win for everyone.

But don't forget that gold and silver themselves cannot be used as food and cloth, and can only continue to raise local prices.

During the migration process in the north, the Human Revolutionary Union also used a large amount of gold, silver or salt, food, cloth, and ironware, and decided not to allow them to flow out.

Zheng Sen will not allow external forces to use gold and silver to purchase strategic materials from within the country.

This is the situation encountered by Song Shidao and others. They can only exchange a small amount, and there is no way to obtain a large amount of crystal coins.

For the control of the market, prices, and currency, the inside of the Human Revolutionary League is extremely strict. Whoever dares to speculate will be caught and directly shot, and his family will be exiled to open up wasteland in the south.

Without such strict and meticulous management, with the extensive management of the feudal era, those aristocratic families could stir up trouble in the local area, making people's lives miserable, and then by guiding public opinion, they would blame the emperor and the court.

Zheng Sen would not play any tricks with the aristocratic family, and directly chose two options, either obediently and obediently, or completely destroyed physically.

Now that the Jiangdong area has entered a virtuous circle, it will soon become stronger and stronger, and it will become increasingly difficult for external forces to influence and infiltrate the Human Revolutionary Union.

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