For a long, long period of history, Chinese people didn't like to spend money when they had food. They would either save it or buy land to preserve their value. But when it came to the Revolutionary Army, they directly stipulated that land couldn't be bought and sold. Those who wanted to be landlords had to get out.
In later generations, many developing China tried their best to suppress farmers' income by using the scissors difference between industry and agriculture in order to accumulate funds in the early stage of industrial development. Through administrative means and raising the price of industrial products, they obtained low-priced agricultural products and used the export of agricultural products in exchange for foreign advanced industrial technology and equipment.
But this trick didn't work on the Revolutionary Army. The world's strongest industrial technology was Zhou Qingfeng's group. There was still a lack of convenient transportation these days, so it was very troublesome to get foreign demand. For example, when Europeans came to Asia to do business, they only had dozens or hundreds of ships in a year. These ships were not big, and the transport capacity was pitifully small.
If they relied on foreign trade, the factory would have to close down!
If Zhou Qingfeng wanted to develop the industry, he needed the market. If the external market couldn't be developed, then he could only develop the domestic demand. He didn't want to use administrative means to deprive farmers of the fruits of labor. He would rather spend money and trade the silver and copper coins from his stamping machine to millions of farmers in the territory, begging the latter to spend.
After the wheat harvest in 1617, the entire Revolutionary Army understood one thing, which was that the marshal had spent millions of silver dollars to purchase a large amount of grain. He started the propaganda machine and printed the good news in the newspaper, informing the whole world that the Liaonan Peninsula had a big harvest.
Now the Revolutionary Army's newspaper had a circulation of 20,000 to 30,000, and people who paid attention to the newspaper news were even as far away as Shaanxi and Sichuan. So the whole Central Plains knew three things. First, Grand Marshal Zhou didn't lack food; Second, the farmers under the Revolutionary Army had money; Third, Grand Marshal welcomed people from all over the world to do business with him.
When the people were still pondering what these three pieces of news meant, the Revolutionary Army began to organize one caravan after another, bringing the goods produced in their factories to sell in all directions of the territory. This seemed to be a process from the left hand to the right hand. But it was in this process that the goods and funds were circulating.
Zhou Qingfeng would rather lose some money to let the people at the bottom accept the impact of foreign goods and forcibly expand their horizons. The farmers had money but had no way to buy land. Some wanted to save it, but many still chose to spend it. For example, Old Li, who came to talk to Sang Carpenter at night, was dazzled by the goods provided by the supply and marketing caravan.
"Grandpa, let's pull a few feet of floral cloth. Authentic machine-made cloth, thick and comfortable. With it to make clothes, it won't be cold in winter. " The salesman of the caravan was shouting loudly as he held the cloth woven by the Revolutionary Army's hydraulic loom in his hand and continued to brag about it.
Ordinary farmer's cloth was very narrow, and the quality could not be guaranteed. The products of the hydraulic loom had a good consistency, and it could even produce cloth with a width of one or even two meters. It was refreshing to look at. Recently, Song Yingxing had been doing research and development in the steel plant. This old man had learned too many miscellaneous things. The first thing he did was not spring steel, but instead, he got a dye from the coking tar.
Ugh … the technology tree had expanded to chemistry, but the technology that came out should not be wasted. Therefore, the Revolutionary Army's weaving factory began to produce patterned cloth. Also because the production efficiency of machine-made cloth was dozens of times higher than manual labor, the price was really cheap.
Jiangnan's native cloth was beaten by machine-made cloth, which really forced a large number of rural women into a dead end. It also made the cloth merchants of Song Jiang Prefecture furious. But for the consumers who bought cloth, this thick and good-looking cloth was too practical.
"Give me one."
"A piece of cloth?"
"Yes, one of the indigo ones. There are a lot of people in the family, and everyone needs new clothes. "
Old Li gritted his teeth and generously took out a few silver dollars to buy a whole piece of cloth. However, the salesman saw that the old man was very rich, so he specially recommended, "Grandpa, why don't you buy ready-made clothes directly? We have ready-made clothes for adults and children here. The style is also good, the stitches are very fine, and the price is not expensive. "
The Revolutionary Army's development of the garment industry had recently encountered trouble. The people liked to buy cloth to make their own clothes too much, thinking that it saved money. Therefore, except for the large number of orders from the army, the sales of the garment factory were bleak, and the recruitment of a large number of female workers into the production line was about to fail. This was related to the promotion of the status of women. In order to solve this problem, Grandpa Zhou raised the butcher knife of price …
The price of machine-made cloth was lower than any kind of cotton cloth on the market, so Zhou Qingfeng simply lowered the price of the ready-made clothes to the same price as buying cloth to make his own clothes. When the salesman revealed the price of the ready-made clothes and the price of the cloth, Old Li could immediately calculate the benefits of this — Yeah … This was equivalent to someone making clothes for me for free.
"Grandpa, don't think that it's more cost-effective to make clothes for your wife and daughter-in-law. In fact, it's not cost-effective at all. Nowadays, women can also come out to earn money. Instead of making clothes at home, it's better to find some work outside, and earn more. Moreover, our ready-made clothes are really cheap, and this design is not available in other places. You won't lose out if you buy it, and you won't be fooled if you buy it! "
With this encouragement from the salesman, he conveniently took a few pieces of children's clothes from the caravan and showed them to Old Li's grandchildren. Needless to say, the children's clothes made in the garment factory were really good-looking. Old Li laughed out loud when he saw this, and he couldn't even close his big mouth that lacked teeth — Buy it, buy it, buy it all!
This time, each member of Old Li's family got a new set of clothes. The salesman was also happy, and the commission for selling ready-made clothes was higher — Zhou Qingfeng wanted society to continuously divide the labor. He wanted the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy to be completely destroyed, so that the people at the bottom could only master one or two kinds of work skills, and be a stable screw in the social system that he created.
They bought the clothes for the outside, but did they want the underwear inside? They bought the underwear, and they also bought the bedding. Winter was coming, and the whole family couldn't just nest in the haystack of Uralia, right? They definitely needed the bedding.
The garment factory of the 'Revolutionary Army' provided a full set of bedding, and these all had to be bought with money. They already had the bedding, and they also had a few pieces of winter clothes.
There was also food.
Salted salt was a must, and the sauce was also bought casually. A large number of dried fish were also very cheap, and some snacks that the children ate didn't cost much either. These non-staple foods were produced by several newly opened workshops, and the employees were recruited from the agricultural population. Because of the million-dollar market, the price could be lowered very low.
In the past, salted salt was extremely expensive and unpalatable, and the people were even reluctant to put salt in their dishes. Now that the 'Revolutionary Army's' salt field was drying salt on a large scale, and a few tons of salt were produced from a salt field, so the price of salt had plummeted.
Old Li looked at the refined salt wrapped in horse dung paper, and he couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. In the past, if you wanted to buy salt, you had to buy the government's black salt, and you had to buy it. Now, you could buy and sell as much as you wanted — since the 'Revolutionary Army' started the process of drying salt, salt smugglers had completely disappeared. Because this thing really couldn't be sold at a high price.
In other words, the 'Revolutionary Army' had become the largest salt smugglers, and they were armed and sold on a large scale.
The sauce was made of soybeans, and it was the only seasoning that the people could afford at present. Now, the diet of the ordinary people was extremely simple, and they would be very satisfied if they could eat their fill. There were basically no dishes, and just a little sauce would be very delicious. In addition, fish had almost become a special product of the 'Revolutionary Army'. The fish in the sea seemed to be endless, and adults and children could eat it.
In addition to these food and clothing, the caravan also brought a large number of daily necessities.
Iron pot, do you want it?
This is a good thing!
If the poor people had an iron pot, it would be a valuable property, and they could exchange it for a wife.
Needle and thread, do you want it?
This is also a good thing!
The poor people always needed to sew and mend. A set of clothes, new for three years, old for three years, and sewing and mend for another three years.
These needles, thread, pots, bowls, ladles, and so on, let's make a set.
Don't 888, don't 88, just 8.80 today, bring all the household necessities home. Today, we have a big discount, and we will also give you a set of wooden tables and chairs. If you buy our beds, we will give you another 20% discount.
The caravan sold things that the common people needed. This was especially true for the farmers who had fled here last year. They often lived in temporary wooden shacks without any furniture. Now that they had money, they couldn't make do with their lives anymore.
Oh … you don't need beds, you want a brick bed? That's easy. If you want a brick bed, you must build a house, or you can build a house as well. Now the building materials are very cheap, and the wood and bricks are all transported by carriage. As long as you pay the deposit today, the construction team will come to dig the foundation within half a month, and you will definitely live in your new home before the winter snow.
Building a house is too expensive? No problem.
Loan.
Low-interest loan, and you can pay it back with the crops in the future.
Can you not trust the credibility of the Grand Marshal? This is the 'Revolutionary Army's' own bank, and it's not usury. The annual interest is less than 20%, and you can definitely pay it back in ten years.
The salesman of the caravan talked a lot, and the 70 or 80 yuan that Old Li earned this year was soon reduced to a fraction. But a lot of purchased goods piled up around him. Seeing that his money was almost spent, and seeing that his family's assets were richer than before he fled, he didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing – it was like falling into the clouds, and it felt unreal.
The caravan provided a delivery service, and a lot of things that Old Li bought were delivered to his home. There was still food at home, enough to last until next year, so he didn't have to worry too much about his life. The whole family was happy, and the children were shouting and quarreling around the goods they bought.
"These days are really unexpected." Old Li sat at the door of his wooden shack, staring blankly at the food piled up in the corner, and the goods in the house. He had lived for more than 60 years, and he had never been so relaxed. "In the past, our family had a lot of people, but we didn't have enough land. There were a lot of wastelands, but they weren't ours. We wanted to plant more land, but we didn't have cattle or strength. "
A strong labourer who had an ox and farm tools was a completely different concept from a weak labourer who had nothing. Old Li was once young, but after a few decades, he watched the strong labor force of the whole family become weak under heavy pressure. He watched other farmers in the village constantly flee, and watched his family's food storage get smaller and smaller.
Seeing that his family was about to be destroyed, an escape brought new life to the whole family.
After a few days, the engineering team organized by the 'Revolutionary Army' began to solve the housing problem for the people at the bottom. Old Li's family had more than a dozen people, and they planned a plot of more than 300 square meters of land, preparing to build a two-story building with an earthen yard. When the bricks and stones were pulled over by the freight carriage, Old Li suddenly made a decision to the whole family, "I have to go thank the Grand Marshal, and give a gift to the Grand Marshal."
The whole family was happy for the opening of their new home, and when they heard their father's decision, they felt strange.
Give a gift?
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