"That's great too."
"Yes, I remember Hanlong said that many countries in the future would be very lucky if they could achieve single-digit growth every year."
"I am very satisfied with this growth rate."
Everyone was talking.
Nowadays, data is king, and Zhao Jun also takes data into consideration.
Although GDP cannot fully represent the development of a country, it does represent most of the development speed. Looking at last year's data alone, the growth rates of the three items are particularly obvious, especially agricultural taxes.
However, Zhao Jun knew why the agricultural tax increased. It was entirely due to the tax being distributed to the landlords based on the land tax system.
If it were a normal year, an increase from 24 million strings of cash to 28 million strings of cash would be considered good.
But after the land tax was equalized, landlords who owned a large amount of land across the country had to pay twice as much tax as before, which was naturally a significant increase.
"If this level of development last year had happened in ancient times, it would have been very impressive. However, our goal is not to improve on ancient society, but to look forward and progress towards the industrial age."
Zhao Jun pondered for a moment, then thought for a moment and said, "The Ministry of Statistics didn't count domestic steel production last year. This was an oversight on my part. I must add this information in the future so that we can measure a country's steel production."
"Although policies were relaxed last year and steel mills and cement plants were built across the country, the process of finding resources, selecting sites, and building roads and rivers is still ongoing. Currently, most steel mills and cement plants are still under construction and have not officially started production.
Yan Shu said, "So our current steel mill production still mainly relies on Wu'an Iron and Steel and other existing smelters. It shouldn't be difficult to collect this data. I'll talk to Wu Yu later and ask him to send someone to check it out."
"Um."
Zhao Jun said, "These steel mills should be back on track this year. The focus of the Political System Council should be adjusted this year to begin the era of mass steel production. Within five years, I want Song Dynasty's steel production to reach over 90% of the world's total, allowing Song Dynasty to officially enter the first stage of the Industrial Revolution."
"ah?"
Everyone was dumbfounded.
Song Shou was speechless and said, "Is this possible? Doesn't this mean that the Song Dynasty's annual steel production will reach more than a hundred times its previous level?"
"How is it impossible?"
Zhao Jun laughed and said, "After Britain's first industrial revolution, in 1850, annual steel production reached 2.5 million tons, accounting for half of the world's steel production. Global productivity had already increased significantly at the time, but annual global production was still only 5 million tons. Today, annual global production is probably less than 100,000 tons."
This is not an exaggeration, but a fact.
Some online later claimed that steel production had reached 150,000 tons during the Yuanfeng period of the Song Dynasty. However, this was actually a fabricated report by Song Dynasty supporters. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty," the annual output was probably around 10,000 tons.
You should know that according to the research of later archaeologist Mr. Li Jinghua, the total steel production during the entire Western Han Dynasty was only more than 40,000 tons.
It was not until the emergence of the steel-frying method in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the subsequent steel-pouring method in the Tang Dynasty that the annual output reached more than 3,000 tons. Even if the Song Dynasty had advanced technology, it would not be as exaggerated as an annual output of 150,000 tons.
Therefore, according to the records of "History of Song Dynasty", it was normal for the Song Dynasty to produce more than 10,000 tons per year.
At that time, the Song Dynasty was already the world's most economically advanced, technologically advanced, culturally advanced, and productive nation. Even the Song Dynasty's annual steel production was only a little over 10,000 tons, and it was unknown whether the rest of the world's combined steel production could even reach 50,000 tons.
Therefore, once steel mills are established across the country, the goal can be achieved by simply increasing steel production to one million tons per year.
Even though one million tons per year is just a fraction compared to our annual output of 1 billion tons in later generations, it is no exaggeration to say that during the Song Dynasty, China became the world's number one steel producer within five years, accounting for more than 90% of the total steel production.
"Hmm"
Everyone looked at each other and finally understood what industrial society was.
Once industrialization began, any previous data would be countless times larger than that of the industrial age.
"After the industrial age, steel production first increased, and then steel was applied to various industries, driving the development of other industries."
Zhao Jun said, "Railways, factories, and shipyards are all major components of the steam engine and steel industries. Ultimately, industrial development is inseparable from the four necessities of life: food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Therefore, the top priority for next year is to increase steel production while also promoting nationwide investment attraction and the establishment of various factories."
"Um."
Everyone took out pen and paper to record it.
After several rounds of Qingli New Deal reforms, the country's shortcomings were gradually eliminated.
Although there are still some affected areas, it has improved a lot.
The main development focus now should indeed be on the production of the industrial revolution.
"The steel mill on Jingxi South Road has been under construction since the year before last, and officially started production at the end of last year. They hope the court will allocate more funds so they can build their own railway."
Li Di said.
"It's a good thing that local officials are taking initiative. I'll send someone to inspect this matter. If there are no problems, I'll approve it."
"OK."
"Now that we've entered industrialization, it's time for us to set up a new department."
Zhao Jun pondered for a moment, then said, "Let's start establishing the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Railways this year. From now on, matters like this will be coordinated between the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Railways. Otherwise, if local governments have to wait for approval from the Constitutional Council for everything, it would be too inefficient."
There will definitely be more and more incidents like this in the future.
The Constitutional Yuan has such a limited staff, and its main focus must be the national development strategy. Local governments cannot apply for reports and still need their approval. It should still be under the jurisdiction of a directly affiliated department.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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