"Then let them decide on their own charter."
"Well, the Ministry of Industry has also submitted some reports on local projects, all of which benefit the country and the people."
"Have the Ministry of Industry send someone to take a look, finalize the plan, ensure it's foolproof, calculate how much it will cost, and then ask major companies to bid."
"Yes, and the Ministry of Revenue."
Zeng Gongliang reported all his official duties to Zhao Jun one by one.
Naturally, there was division of labor among the many prime ministers.
The imperial court currently has more than fifty departments, sixteen first-level departments, and nearly thirty second-level and third-level departments combined.
There are twelve prime ministers, and basically each of them has to manage three to four departments. The departments they are in charge of are often the departments they held before becoming prime minister.
For example, Zeng Gongliang once served as the Director of the Firearms Department, worked in the wine business in his early years, managed the Commercial Tax Bureau, served as a Langzhong in the Ministry of Works, then as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and finally was appointed Prime Minister from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
So he currently mainly works in the Firearms Bureau, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Households, etc.
The others are similar. For example, Xia Song is now in charge of the Ministry of Finance, and also concurrently manages the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Culture, etc.
This is because he had edited classics when he was in charge of the Jixian Academy, had undertaken projects when he was the Qingzhou Pacifier, served as a deputy envoy when he was in the Sansi, and finally served as the prime minister when he was the Minister of Finance.
Therefore, the prime ministers had clear division of labor and each had his own responsibilities and expertise, so there was no situation where an outsider gave instructions to an expert. Zhao Jun was also in charge of the reviewed documents, so if there were any unexpected events, everyone could discuss them together.
This political system has resulted in a fairly reliable and efficient administration.
This is simply because Zhao Jun, as a political strongman, is trusted by all officials, and the system can only run perfectly around him. If his successor lacks prestige, wrangling and disagreements will easily occur, resulting in low administrative efficiency.
Fortunately, Zhao Jun just turned 40 this year and there is still a long time to solve these problems, so they are not the main contradiction at present.
The top priority now is to complete the national industrial accumulation as soon as possible and allow the national strength of the Song Dynasty to expand rapidly, to a speed that even if development stagnates, it will take the whole world a hundred years to catch up.
As for external conflicts, you can basically ignore them.
Zeng Gongliang finished his official report for today, returned to his seat, packed up, and went to the various departments below to prepare for inspection.
This is also a system.
I have finished my official business for today. If it is not time to get off work yet, I will go out for a walk. It is always a little more comfortable than sitting in the Constitutional Yuan.
"Hanlong, the Statistics Department has also submitted the data report for the first half of this year. Take a look."
Yan Shu handed over the document in his hand.
He had previously served as the Minister of Revenue, but the Ministry of Revenue was divided into the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Revenue. He was in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Statistics, the Ministry of Rites, etc.
Zhao Jun flipped through the data submitted by the Statistics Department.
Yan Shu then said, "Since steel production exceeded five million tons last year, our goal this year is to double it. Wu'an Steel Plant and Tangshan Steel Plant have significantly increased their production capacity."
"In the second half of last year, they hired more than 5,000 workers. In the first half of this year, they continued to expand their scale, striving to achieve an annual production capacity of 8 million tons."
"The steel industry in other regions is also developing rapidly. I estimate that this year's production should easily exceed 10 million tons, and we may even reach more than 12 million tons."
The first thing he talked about was steel production capacity. Since the development of steel technology, production capacity has been increasing every year through new steelmaking methods.
Due to the excellent performance of steel, it was quickly introduced to the market. A large amount of steel did not even flow into the private sector, but was absorbed by various newly built steel processing plants near major steel mills.
The result is that supply exceeds demand. As state-owned enterprises, steel mills continue to make profits, so they can naturally continue to expand their production capacity and increase output.
This is very different from the long-term losses suffered by steel mills in later generations in my country.
After all, due to some special reasons in the early days of my country, there was no commodity market in the country, and steel mills belonged to the pure service industry. It was naturally difficult for them to grow due to the lack of profits.
Today, the domestic market of the Song Dynasty itself is huge, with a population of more than 100 million and strong demand. Coupled with the prosperous productivity and developed economy, once the problem of money shortage is solved, the people will only become richer.
The demand for various steel products naturally increased, not to mention that the imperial court also needed a large amount of steel for infrastructure construction. It would be strange if it could not make a lot of profit and continued to expand production capacity.
"Um."
After hearing Yan Shu's words, Zhao Jun flipped through the official documents and said, "We should proceed steadily and pursue efficiency. Too fast a development of the steel industry is not good. Too much production capacity will overwhelm the market, and a large amount of waste steel will just sit there and rust. Too slow a development is not good either. Steel construction will be needed everywhere, causing steel prices to soar, affecting people's livelihoods and the construction speed of the imperial court. The current situation is the best, just enough to meet efficiency requirements. However, I believe that starting next year, we must expand production capacity again, from 10 million tons to at least 50 million tons."
"So soon?"
Yan Shu was surprised.
In the 11th year of the Qingli period, the production capacity was only 2 million tons, but last year it reached 5 million tons, which is 2.5 times the previous level.
If it increases 2.5 times this year, it will be almost 12 million tons. However, it will reach more than 50 million tons by next year, which means it will increase fourfold.
"Um."
Zhao Jun nodded and said, "The reason we doubled our growth rate every year is because the Song Dynasty's national strength and GDP growth rate were already so high before. It would be meaningless to increase it too much. But starting this year, our growth rate will explode, so we naturally have to keep up with the pace."
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