In fact, the so-called "living a happy, joyful and prosperous life like us!" is almost the same rhetoric, just like what the United States often said in later generations, "We brought them freedom and MZ." It's just rhetoric, but it has to be said that this rhetoric sounds good.
When it comes to imperial expansion, having a lofty reason is always better than having no reason at all.
occupied?
What a joke.
That's liberation for us.
Compared with the dilemma of the United States, which was to be a whore and a saint at the same time, the Ming Empire was undoubtedly flexible. The empire did not hesitate at all. It just supported a puppet and then waited for three to five years before "uniting the country".
This operation can be done one, two, or three times.
Don't ask, the question is the people's choice.
In fact, on this point, Emperor Zhu has always been fully learning from the "successful experience" of the United States in another world. Although the United States has often been a whore and failed to establish a chastity.
To put it bluntly, the Ming Dynasty has now treated the woman as a whore and is also trying to set up a chastity archway for her.
Of course, compared to the war and destruction brought by the United States, the Ming Dynasty brought real changes to everyone's lives.
This is not Emperor Zhu's self-boasting, but is endorsed by someone else.
"…The industrial boom of the Ming Empire originated from the royal consortium, which is a model of industrialization similar to that under the leadership of the state. After the establishment of the empire, the leadership of the royal consortium changed to that of the state. Although such a model exists in other countries to a greater or lesser extent, none of them has gone as far as the Ming Empire. In the Ming Empire, we have witnessed how the empire promoted and developed this model. The imperial government first formulated an industrial economic development plan, established state-owned companies to drive the development of certain regions or industries, and guided the flow of private capital investment, fully mobilizing official and private capital, thereby promoting the development of the empire's industrial economy..."
Looking through the last work of his good friend Karl, Friedrich seemed to be in a somewhat heavy mood. The death of his good friend filled his heart with grief, but his good friend's last few years were undoubtedly fulfilling. He had been conducting investigations in the empire, and his investigations of this country had given him many answers.
"...Through my research on the farms in the empire, I found that the model of the farms in the empire is more like a joint-stock company than a farm. The farms of the Ming Empire have almost accompanied its early development. On the surface, it seems to belong to the company or the country, but in fact, the employees of the farms are the shareholders of the farms. The number of shares of each household is exactly the same. The management - the farm manager - is elected through the shareholders' meeting. And these shareholders are employees of the company. They supervise the operation of the management... These farms are actually employee-owned companies. And their business is very prominent, that is, agriculture! It is not complicated at all. They receive various support during the operation, such as providing land - using land as equity, the state as a shareholder member, sending accountants to be responsible for finances, and auditing farm operations. At the same time, special companies are set up to purchase agricultural products, and banks provide low-interest loans, etc. Therefore, the operation of the empire's farms has always been very successful..."
As Frederick sat at his desk and flipped through his friend's posthumous works, he knew that he had dealt with farms a lot in his business over the past few years and naturally knew that those farms were very successful.
"The importance of farms to the Ming Empire has often been overlooked. The world only sees the empire's rapidly growing industry. What allowed them to surpass Britain in just 20 years? Was it simply because they seized the Second Industrial Revolution?"
"…For a long time, the farms attracted a large number of workers. The vast land of the New World allowed them to have enough land to settle immigrants. The sufficient population was one of the reasons why the Ming Empire was able to rise rapidly."
"Second, the farm raised enough funds for its industrialization. Through the study of the import and export situation of the Ming Empire in the past twelve years, it can be found that the funds supporting the industrialization of the Ming Empire, in addition to direct investment from the private sector such as the imperial consortium, the official investment of the empire was obtained through the profit dividends of the farms. In 1880 alone, the official statistics of the empire showed that the farm dividends were 534 million Ming yuan. In the same year, the official industrial investment of the empire was 780 million yuan, and two-thirds of the investment came from farm dividends.
It is agriculture that truly supports the industrialization of the Ming Dynasty!
As early as the Nanhua period, its export products included a large number of agricultural products - beef, milk, leather, palm oil, wheat, flour, etc. In 1870, the total export value of agricultural products in the empire exceeded 100 million pounds, accounting for more than 75% of its exports! At the same time, the imports of the Ming Empire were also almost 100 million pounds. If there were no such agricultural products, the Ming Empire would have to bear a deficit of more than 30 million pounds, or 100 million Ming yuan, every year..."
What are these numbers?
It was Karl's research on the Ming Empire. In the past few years, Karl had been studying and observing this country seriously. Even Frederick had shifted his work focus to this country - he had been doing business here in recent years.
"In 1881, the steel output of the Ming Empire exceeded 10 million tons for the first time, marking that the empire's industrial economy surpassed that of Britain. As early as 1878, the empire's gross national product had surpassed that of Britain... Although no one in the world noticed it at the time, it was in that year that the Ming Empire left traditional European countries such as Britain far behind. It was not until 1881, when the steel output of the Ming Empire exceeded 10 million tons, that the world was surprised to find that the empire had far surpassed them. When the whole world was paying attention to its amazing industrial achievements, it seemed that everyone had intentionally or unintentionally overlooked one point - the Ming Empire's emphasis on workers' welfare far exceeded that of any other country!"
Workers' welfare.
When seeing these words, Friedrich's eyes looked a little complicated. When Karl and his companions were in Europe, they had repeatedly called out for the welfare of workers, but what did they get in return?
Eight-hour workday?
Although Karl and others had proposed the "eight-hour work system" more than ten years ago, it was just a loud call, and no factory owner would accept it.
But in the Ming Empire, everything was completely different.
"Before the invention of the electric light, the average working hours in factories were more than 12 hours. After the invention of the electric light, the average working hours in factories were extended to more than 14 hours. When European and American workers were physically damaged by heavy and long work, the Ming Empire, as the country that invented the electric light, did not extend the working hours of its workers because of the invention of the electric light. Instead, it continuously reduced the working hours from a maximum of 12 hours to 10 hours, and even included an hour for meals..."
Later, Karl's manuscript mentioned the Ming Dynasty's pension insurance and medical insurance systems, and even the Ming Dynasty's public rental housing system.
"We often say that the rule of the empire is corrupt and destined to be eliminated by history. But here, what is presented to the world is a completely different kind of imperial rule - just as Emperor Qi Shengde said - the responsibility of the empire is to make all citizens live a happy, joyful and prosperous life!"
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