Chapter 680: Real Combat Power (Fourth update, please subscribe)
Increase production to serve the country!
In the Ming Dynasty, this is not just a slogan, but an action that must be implemented.
"Every Ming family must have six children!"
Six children, that's the minimum.
If possible, what's the harm in just giving birth to a football team?
As early as the Nanhua period, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang did everything he could to encourage immigrants to have children. Not only did he provide various housing benefits, but in order to ensure the fertility rate, the second hospital built in Nanhua was a maternal and child hospital. Subsequently, every newly built city had to build two hospitals, one was the First Hospital and the other was the Maternal and Child Hospital. The latter hospital was free for women to give birth.
Even in the "housing system" formulated by the government and the company, only married men can apply for rental housing, otherwise they can only purchase commercial housing. As early as the Nanhua Company period, a special wage system was formulated - childcare allowance. Employees can receive an additional 0.5 yuan in childcare allowance for each child they give birth to until the child is fourteen years old.
You have to know that in the Ming Dynasty, one yuan was basically the living expenses of many people for a month. The 0.5 yuan childcare allowance was almost equivalent to the Ming Dynasty helping its people raise children.
But even so, Emperor Zhu did not think that the government was losing money. After all, through this encouragement, the daimyo obtained the most valuable manpower!
This is the most important thing.
In order to solve the problem of insufficient women, contract maids and contract female workers were used, and of course the "labor introduction system" has been implemented until now.
Why are we racking our brains to increase the marriage and birth rate?
Ultimately, it’s because of insufficient population.
The Ming Dynasty was too large and its population was too small.
Especially in the early days of Nanhua, facing the danger of invasion at any time, Emperor Zhu would wake up every morning and wonder how many babies had come into the world in Nanhua overnight.
Later, after annexing Chile and Argentina, Emperor Zhu would wake up every morning and wonder how many babies were born the day before.
Of course, that's the Hispanic and mixed race babies.
Babies are productivity and fighting force. This is definitely not a question of one increasing while the other decreases, but a question of survival.
The fertility rate is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's foothold in this land. If the Ming Dynasty wants to rule this land forever, it must have a sufficient population.
What is the population of Ming Dynasty now?
Twenty-three million!
That’s right, at the end of 1874, the population of the Ming Dynasty broke through the 20 million mark for the first time, reaching an astonishing 23.62 million.
Two years ago, the population of the Ming Dynasty was only 13 million, of which 3 million were Hispanics, Spanish-Indian mixed-race people, and Indians.
What was the cause of the Ming Dynasty’s population explosion?
Of course it’s the fertility rate.
In 1872, the number of newborns among the Chinese population in the Ming Dynasty was 2.13 million.
In 1873, the number of newborns among the Chinese population in the Ming Dynasty was 3.01 million.
In 1874, the number of newborns among the Chinese population in the Ming Dynasty was 3.8 million.
At the same time, the number of Chinese families in Ming Dynasty is about to break through the 4 million mark. In October this year, the number of immigrants exceeded the 1 million mark, including 610,000 adult men, 320,000 women, and 70,000 children...
"There are still 1 million bachelors in the Ming Dynasty!"
Looking at the increasing number of bachelors, Emperor Zhu was also very melancholy!
How can I not be sad?
Are the millions of bachelors a potential social security problem? But every year of delay means that the Ming Dynasty will have one million fewer births!
"My dear, what is there to worry about?"
Looking at Zhu Xianhai with a frown on his face, Charlotte, the Empress of the Empire, walked to his side with her bulging belly. This was her fifth pregnancy.
Emperor Zhu always took responsibility for his own actions. Over the years, in addition to the four children he and the queen had, Elizabeth gave birth to five for him, Malena gave birth to three for him, Monica gave birth to six for him, Maria gave birth to two, and even several palace ladies or maids in the ladies' homes gave birth to seven children.
As the father of twenty-seven children, no, he is about to have thirty children. Monica is pregnant again, and there is Song Bing, Elizabeth's Chinese teacher.
In short, he was an emperor who was conscientious and responsible, and not someone who just shouted slogans.
“It’s so frustrating!”
Emperor Zhu rubbed his brows and said.
It's worrying.
"We are worried about the lack of population!"
Looking at Charlotte's bulging belly, Emperor Zhu stroked it gently and said.
"The Quadruple Alliance has been established, but we are the weakest link in the alliance. I'm not referring to industry, but population. France's population is only 37 million, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is 34 million. The most populous country is the Russian Empire, which has a population of nearly 90 million. Population... is combat power!"
Once again, Emperor Zhu was a little jealous of Russia, but there was nothing he could do about it, there were so many people!
Why did Germany replace France as the most powerful country in Europe? Their population was their biggest advantage. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, Germany's population had soared to 41 million, while France had only 36 million. Since then, the population gap has continued to widen. Historically, by the eve of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, France's birth rate had dropped to a very scary 18%, while Germany's birth rate had long been maintained at around 50%. Therefore, William II's empire had a population of 66.9 million, while the Third Republic, which was in opposition to it, had only 40 million.
The population gap meant that France was destined to become a second-rate power, and the population of nearly 70 million was the basis for the German Empire to dare to challenge Britain, which had a population of only 45 million at the time.
In the competition among major powers, industry and technology are certainly important, but in the industrial age, population is also a "non-renewable" and valuable resource.
"And what about us? We only have a population of 20 million!"
In Emperor Zhu's population arithmetic, non-Chinese people were never included. In fact, the reason why the Ming Dynasty has not established a congress until now is, in the final analysis, to avoid the non-Chinese population from accounting for too large a proportion and occupying seats in Congress.
Yeah, that's right.
The Ming Dynasty was a monarchy, a special one at that. What kind of parliament did it need?
"With such a small population, we can't do anything. Any country in the alliance can crush us. I mean the population."
Charlotte, the Queen of the Ming Empire, rolled her eyes when she saw her husband's gloomy expression when he mentioned the population.
"Forget it. A few months ago, I remember Zuo Zongtang excitedly saying that the population structure of the Ming Dynasty was good and that the number of adults far exceeded that of European countries. Didn't you agree with him at that time?" "Uh..."
His wife's words made Emperor Zhu the Great become mute.
Indeed, to a certain extent, the population structure of the Ming Dynasty is indeed very good. After all, in the past 14 years, those who immigrated to the Ming Dynasty were basically young and middle-aged people. There are almost no immigrants over the age of 45. Even until now, there is no Chinese population that meets the retirement standards, and there are only a handful of people over the age of 50.
How many adults are there in Ming Dynasty now who are aged between 16 and 50?...9.2 million!
Moreover, 90% of them are young and middle-aged men and women under the age of 40. If you calculate this way, the population situation in the Ming Dynasty is indeed not that serious.
"That's different. After all, our Ming Dynasty is truly vast and sparsely populated! South America has 3.4 million square kilometers, and North America has more than 3.8 million square kilometers. It's a big country with 7 million square kilometers of land. Twenty million people is not enough!"
The insufficient population of the Ming Dynasty is definitely directly related to the vast land and sparse population. Emperor Zhu selectively ignored the reality that most of the land in Alaska, the Northwest and the North Sea regions is not arable.
"Who said that? Four million families give birth to four million children a year, which means the population will be 20 million in five years. Six million people will immigrate in five years, forming 2.5 million families and giving birth to two million children. In twenty years, the population will exceed 100 million..."
Charlotte said, looking at the emperor in front of her who was worried about the population with a smile.
"My dear, as the emperor, you should now consider the education of millions or even tens of millions of newborns every year in the next few years. After all, the Ming Empire implements compulsory education!"
I have set up a book club: 335260551. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
