Chapter 426: Planned Economy Is the Road to a Strong Country (Third Update, Please Subscribe)

“They’ll sign it!”

After receiving Buffett's secret message, although he was a little disappointed that he failed to acquire the entire Hudson Bay Company's 7.7 million square kilometers of land, being able to obtain one third of it was considered a consolation for his hard work over the past few years.

Besides, it’s not easy to get a bite of meat from Britain!

From ancient times to the present, it has always been Britain that has eaten the meat of others. It is difficult for others to have a sip of soup from Britain!

"Marshal, this place seems to be..."

Zuo Zongtang, who originally wanted to use the word "barren land" to describe the northwest region, changed his words when the words came to his lips.

“It seems even more remote than Alaska.”

To be honest, even though large coal fields had been discovered in Alaska and the fishing income was considerable, he was not very optimistic about the future of that bitter and cold land.

Not to mention him, even the Americans who bought Alaska were not optimistic about that place before the gold mine was discovered.

"It's a little remote, but I believe there must be a lot of minerals we need buried under that land!"

There is no doubt that the Northwest Territories has Canada's largest oil field and North America's largest uranium mine. As for common mineral resources such as coal, iron, and copper, they are countless. Of course, those mineral resources require manpower to mine, and Nanhua... lacks human resources.

But there is one in Tangshan!

There were either floods or droughts in Tangshan. Millions of people became refugees, sleeping on the streets, or even starving to death in the face of natural and man-made disasters. Bringing these people to America was truly a great deed.

"The Marshal has foresight, which is beyond our comprehension. When Alaska was in the hands of the Russians, it was just a money-losing commodity. The whole world thought we had made a loss-making business, but what about now? The annual fish harvest alone has paid off. After buying the Northwest Territories, there will definitely be unlimited prospects in the future."

Wang Yingjiu who was sitting nearby flattered him unintentionally. He had just returned from his post in Shanxi and was completely different from Zuo Zongtang. Having experienced the ups and downs in officialdom, he was able to become the governor of Zhejiang Province. This was not only due to his talent and knowledge, but also the skills of being an official in officialdom!

Moreover, in his opinion, expanding territory is the most boastful achievement of a country. Even though those lands were not conquered, they could be bought with money...which is more economical than fighting a war.

"What Yingjiu said is very true. I remember when we bought Alaska, the Marshal once said that it is definitely cheaper to buy a place than to conquer it. It is true. Take Brazil for example. They spent more than 600 million yuan and 100,000 people died to get such a small place. We only spent a few million yuan to buy Alaska, not even a fraction of theirs. Our war against Argentina seemed to be progressing rapidly and was almost a quick victory, but the military expenditure exceeded 30 million. When the war started, we prepared almost 100 million yuan for military expenditure. Although we didn't spend that much, it still costs a lot to fight a war."

Qian Deshan seemed to be agreeing with Wang Yingjiu, but everyone could hear that he was admonishing and persuading the Marshal to turn to internal construction.

"Indeed!"

Zhu Xianhai nodded and pondered.

"In the past ten years, we have been conquering all over the world. Why? It is nothing more than to create a safe external environment. Now that the external environment is stable, it is time to thoroughly digest the fruits of victory and then seize the great opportunity of the new industrial revolution and strive to surpass Britain in ten years!"

Surpass Britain in ten years!

In the study, Zhu Xianhai’s voice was not loud, but it was shocking - ten years!

Not to mention Zuo Zongtang, who had witnessed the power of Britain with his own eyes, even Wang Yingjiu, who had never been to Europe for inspection, knew how powerful Britain was.

It’s okay to take a bite of Britain by using some means, but to surpass Britain in ten years?

How is this possible?

Even the most ignorant people know how powerful Britain is - Britain's industrial output accounts for more than half of the world's total! And what about Nanhua? It's almost not worth mentioning!

Noticing that their expressions had become somewhat complicated, Zhu Xianhai spoke seriously.

"Why, you think it's impossible?"

"Marshal, isn't this a big step?"

If you take too big a step, you may easily hurt yourself!

Qian Deshan was thinking secretly in his heart.

"Ten years... well, that's a bit long, maybe ten to fifteen years!"

After a moment of thought, Zhu Xianhai said.

"If we use conventional means, ten years, or even fifteen years, will certainly not be enough. We can formulate a plan, an industrial economic development plan, for a period of five years, to state control important economic sectors such as railways, telegraphs, metallurgy, coal, oil, machinery, shipbuilding, and chemicals. These industries will be operated by special companies and receive special protection and supervision from the government."

In fact, the simplest translation is "planned economy". However, due to the limitations of the times, Nanhua did not have the ability to implement a true planned economy. However, it could fully implement a planned economy in major industrial institutions to stimulate national industrial development.

Perhaps the planned economy has many drawbacks, but there is no doubt that it can indeed enhance the country's industrial strength in the short term.

"plan?"

"Yes, that is, to formulate industrial plans, and then concentrate all the country's financial and power to promote key industrial projects, that is, to concentrate on major tasks. As long as the key industrial projects are promoted, the overall national strength will be improved. Well, in fact, we did this in the past, but it was under the control of the company, such as the Dahua Steel Company in Nanyuan."

When talking about Dahua Steel, Zhu Xianhai looked a little proud. Dahua Steel was the first large-scale industrial complex established by Nanhua. In fact, compared with European and American countries, Nanhua’s most advanced technology was not some technology introduced by Zhu Xianhai, but the enterprise development concept and scientific enterprise management that were ahead of their time.

Compared with modern factories in Europe and the United States that are still at the scale of "small workshops or township enterprises", in the past decade, Nanhua has established large-scale industrial enterprise consortia. The modern enterprise management mechanism has not only promoted the development of enterprises, but also improved the labor efficiency of workers. After all, the so-called "scientific enterprise management system" itself is the ultimate utilization of manpower.

Of course, it can also be said another way, which is the scientific and rational use of human resources.

"At that time, a large amount of financial, material and human resources were concentrated. When the first phase of the project was completed and put into production, our steel production exceeded 200,000 tons. Now its output is 900,000 tons. It is still the world's largest steel conglomerate. Currently, the UK's pig iron output is 6.1 million tons and steel output is 240,000 tons. Although our steel output is not even a fraction of its output,"

In fact, Zhu Xianhai is already very proud of his current achievements. This is a production of nearly one million tons. In this era when steel is the country's capital, such a large amount of steel is enough to stand out from the crowd.

"But we have the scale advantage that they don't have. What we need now is to concentrate our efforts, as we did in the past, to build a series of large factories and give full play to the scale advantage of industry. Then we will try to catch up with Britain in ten to fifteen years, at least in key industrial production such as steel, coal, metallurgy, shipbuilding, railways and machinery."

(End of this chapter)