Humans were social creatures, but they were also selfish creatures. If you said to a person, please contribute your strength for a great goal — you would definitely be treated as a fool.
But if you said, "I'll give you money, and you'll give me work," it would be natural.
When productivity continued to increase and wealth was privatized, class was created.
The gap between the rich and the poor would widen the gap between classes, increase a large number of irreconcilable contradictions, and eventually lead to the outbreak of war …
What we need to discuss is, of course, not the social form and contradictions. What we need to discuss is the role of wealth in society.
In the eyes of many people, wealth was wealth. It was a symbol of a person's status and power. With wealth, you had everything.
This idea was right, but also wrong.
Wealth was a symbol of status, but this idea was too narrow-minded.
Wealth could be used to buy labor.
For a person who only focused on the front and had a narrow vision, occupying wealth was just to occupy more social resources so that he could live a better life and enjoy life.
For a ruler, wealth was a catalyst and lubricant for society. The country under his rule was constantly developing because of the circulation of wealth. Everyone contributed their labor and creativity in order to make more wealth.
However, for a truly ambitious person, wealth was actually a kind of power to redistribute social resources.
With wealth, he had the qualification to distribute social resources.
When a person had enough wealth, he had a certain right to speak on the direction of the development of the entire society.
Through the adjustment of the direction of the circulation of wealth, he indirectly guided the structural transformation of the entire social industry, so that the society could develop in the direction he wanted.
In fact, in the process of human development, this kind of influence had always existed. It was just that many people did not realize it.
For example, the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War made the Soviet Union's society completely inclined to the development of heavy industry. The complete disconnection of light industry and agriculture led to the final tragic outcome.
After all, most human beings were short-sighted. They would only instinctively pursue the interests in front of them. It was too difficult for them to have foresight and consider the overall situation.
What Tang En was doing in Prandal was actually the same.
Through inspiration and technology, he created a monopoly in the industry. Through this monopoly, he made a lot of wealth. Then, through the redistribution of wealth, he guided the development of society in the direction he wanted …
In this process, accumulating wealth was important, but it was not the most important thing. The most important thing was how to spend the money and where it should be spent.
Ellington's industrial foundation was getting more and more solid. The products they produced were getting more and more numerous, and the quality was also getting better and better. From the mint candies and mint essential oil soaps in the beginning, to the various magical furniture and the unique Harley Davidson motorcycle, the Datang Chamber of Commerce's product line spanned from low-end to high-end products.
However, although high-end products could greatly promote the development of society, if the per capita income was too low to afford the price of such products, it would be very awkward.
Therefore, what Tang En needed to do was to build factories in various cities and then hire a large number of employees to work for him. At the same time, he needed to raise the overall salary level so that people's income could be further increased quickly.
The higher their income, the stronger their sense of identity with Tang En. The wider the sales of those products, the better their development.
"If you want to expand the factory, you can consider transferring some of the low-tech products to other places for production."
Tang En reminded Fiona, "Just like our glass factory, it's much better to build it in Stone City, Preston, than in Ellington."
Fiona said proudly, "The residents of Preston are now very grateful to the Datang Chamber of Commerce. The jobs we provide provide for nearly one-third of the poor there. Now, glass has become one of Preston's specialties. Count Haydn has proposed more than once to further expand the production capacity of the quartz mine and glass factory."
Tang En laughed involuntarily, "He wants all the unemployed people in Preston to work in the glass factory."
"After all, other than us, no other Chamber of Commerce can provide so many jobs."
Fiona was telling the truth. In Prandal's current social environment, apart from large-scale industrial production that would use so many people, only the mines and farms would need so many people.
But mining in the mines? The mortality rate of miners who entered the mines without protection was as high as 30%!
Those people would rather work in the fields.
The situation of the quartz mine in Preston was much better because Ellington had provided a complete set of magical mining equipment, from rails, miner's helmets for lighting, to magical drilling rigs, and so on. With these equipment, the mining speed of the quartz mine had more than doubled or tripled, and the safety level had also increased by a lot.
Count Haydn was, of course, happy.
"Since the effect is good, let's continue doing this."
Tang En knocked on the table, pondered for a moment, and said, "Ellington's future development is mainly inclined towards heavy industry. Oh, I mean magical machinery and precision processing industry. What we need to do is to lead the development of the entire Prandal. As for the light industries, such as food, textiles, leather, paper, daily necessities, cultural, educational, sports, and other related industries, we'll gradually shift production to other cities, pushing each city to have its own unique industry to strengthen its ability to respond to the market."
"These industries are basically controlled by the big Chambers of Commerce. They may not be willing to listen to our arrangements."
Tang En smiled slightly and pointed at the documents on the table. "Sometimes, the arm can't twist the leg. A piece of policy can make them obediently bow their heads, do you believe it?"
Fiona was stunned for a moment, and a moment later, she realized. "You want to control the transfer of industries by issuing city support policies?"
"Bingo."
Tang En said with a smile. "Don't forget, businessmen are after profits. As long as there are enough preferential policies, we don't need to say anything, and they will act on their own."
Fiona nodded and raised another question. "But now the city lords have a great deal of autonomy. The laws of the Imperial Capital may not be enforced by them."
"So," Tang En's smile became a little strange. "The technology we've just broken through can allow us to govern a territory thousands of miles away from the Imperial Capital …"
Of course, Tang En was talking about the development of the magic communication device based on the theory of miniature magic circles and magic waves. Once this modified version of the mobile phone appeared on the market, its function would be even more powerful than a telephone — this thing could come with a video call from the beginning!
Fiona heard this and finally understood the meaning of Tang En's constant urging of the research institute's research.
The backward means of communication led to the weak control of the central authority over the local government. A paper order between two cities often took several days, even if it was transmitted by flying magical beasts. This delay was very fatal.
If the message could reach the destination in an instant, it meant that the central authority's control over the local government was unprecedentedly strong.
"In other words, because of the breakthrough in our technology, you no longer have to worry about the city lords becoming independent after they become powerful, so you plan to increase investment in other cities?"
"You can understand it that way."
Fiona gently tapped the pen in her hand on her forehead, constantly thinking about the gains and losses in her mind.
If they only relied on Ellington, it was undoubtedly whimsical to achieve the industrial age that Tang En wanted. It would take too long, too long, and Tang En could not afford to wait.
Now that the technology of miniature magic circle replication had been broken through, the next step was to solve the problem of the central server and the problem of the laying of the signal tower. Then, the magic mobile phone could be launched to the market immediately.
Once magic-powered mobile phones were popularized, the information exchange of the entire Planar would instantly rise to a whole new level. The frequency and quantity of exchanges would greatly increase, and in this process, the collision of countless thoughts would bring great impetus to this world.
Every time he thought that all this was brought about by himself, Tang En would feel inexplicably excited.
"Okay, I'll remember it."
Fiona summarized the ideas proposed by Tang En. First, they would spend money to open a driving school in Ellington to train drivers and a group of driving school teachers. Then, they would spend money to open driving schools in other cities to prepare for the early stages of the Mana Sedan sales. Then, they would spend money to build buses, spend money to renovate the transportation system in Alinx, and then spend money to support the light industry in other cities to revitalize the overall economic situation of the Irus Empire.
To be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that the Harley motorcycles were about to be sold and that there would be a large amount of gold coins coming into the account, Fiona really wanted to reject all of these ideas.
Because the business was too big, and the funds were tight!
Don't forget, the Datang Chamber of Commerce was not only making money, it was also constantly burning money every day!
Although it was said that if you want to get rich, you have to cut trees … No, you have to build roads first, how many people knew the cost of building roads?
Although the cooperation with the Star Diamond Bank had saved a lot of money, the areas that needed to be spent in the early stages were not small at all.
Although the Magic Engineering Research Institute had developed many products, it also burned a lot of gold coins every month. Those expensive magic materials were not only provided by Tang En, but also bought from the market. It couldn't be helped. Tang En didn't prepare low-end materials at all, or rather, the gods didn't arrange for him to buy low-end materials that could be bought.
Also, the construction of Ellington might cost a lot of money. Don't think that the workers didn't need to spend money just because they worshipped Tang En like a religion. If you dared to delay the payment of wages, they would let you know how fragile this faith was.
In addition, there was also the monthly salary of a large number of workers. Now, the total monthly salary of the Datang Chamber of Commerce had exceeded the ten million gold coins mark. The Datang Chamber of Commerce had completely become a giant chain enterprise in Prandal, second only to the Star Diamond Bank.
No matter how unwilling Fiona was, the money had to be spent.
Fortunately, the Harley motorcycles were about to be listed, and the Datang Chamber of Commerce would have a large amount of income again.
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