From Chief to Ball

"father……"

The second word I have learned in this life, which I haven't called for a long time, just like that.Before going to Hegu, he left a letter for Chen Jian, but not for his father, because he would not give up the things he wrote, which his father asked him to declare as nonsense, and let him burn them.

There were tears in the corners of the old man's eyes and a smile on the corner of his mouth. He knew what his son wanted to know, and when he was about to lie to him that few people had died, he saw the corners of his son's chapped and pale mouth move.

The voice was very weak, and the old man moved his ears closer, and finally heard what he wanted to hear the most for nearly 20 years.

"I'm tired, I want to go home."

Chapter 43 Death in the Capital

Before new ideas bloom everywhere like wildfire, in the chaos at the turn of the old and the new, some of the bottom will always unite with the elites and vested interests of the old era, especially the group of people who sucked the bones and sucked the marrow. way after, even more so.

Mincheng was the first area to be impacted. The old economic system disintegrated, and it seemed to be thriving and making progress. However, the original pillars of the urban and rural areas, such as self-cultivating farmers and small handicraftsmen, were not doing very well. Four or five hours to live seven or eight years?Or self-sufficient with dozens of acres of land?Normal people with these two choices will make normal choices, and the "country" or "nation" with these two choices will also make normal choices, but obviously the two choices part ways.

For the first time, conservative forces have united a part of the lower class, which was unimaginable in the past, and it completely exceeded the understanding of change by many people who sympathized with the lower class.

About in the past, there was only one upper layer, but now there are two upper layers, and they haven’t merged for the time being, so the former seems to be a little better than the two shits, at least I’m used to it, and the old times still have feelings after all, and Not only the pure money relationship is left, but also room for dreaming, in case the gentlemen take pity on them.

This kind of change was difficult for Hu Lin to accept for a while. When he stood with Chen Jian vigorously and guided the miners to fight for their rights a few years ago, he could proudly and proudly say that he was for the bottom-level Chinese, but now he is for What?For whom?

Hu Lin, who was seriously injured, chose to be tired, to go home, and to not want to bother with all this.

Chen Jian, who went to the north, did not have such good luck. He could only endure all this, and he dared not and could not regress.

Before the ship arrived at the Port Acropolis outside the capital, it stopped briefly at a necessary port not far from the Coastal Defense City.

The news that he was about to arrive in the capital had already been conveyed to the capital along the fast land road. When the ship arrived and was about to head to the capital, the scale of the celebration team that greeted him was beyond his expectation.

At this time, what happened in Min City has not been reported here, and even a storm has just been brewing. Even if the capital is well-informed, it is impossible to know what will happen in the future.

So an exceedingly large-scale welcome ceremony was held in Haiphong Weicheng. The Minister of Rites personally appeared on behalf of the official, and there were [-] elite soldiers, as well as spontaneously organized crowds.

Although Chen Jian was not the first batch of republicans who sailed around the world, the scale of the welcome was the most grand among all the people who returned in batches.

Even before he set foot in the capital, the streets and alleys of the capital knew that there was a huge empire similar to them on the east side of the ocean, that a general from a country called Japan sent envoys to visit the capital, and even knew that The grotesque armor that the country gave to the King and the Council.

The fleets that came back in batches proved that the conjectures of mathematics and astronomy were correct. The earth is indeed round, which also indirectly proved the existence of gravity. It also allowed the magnet to attract iron nails centripetally rather than downward. Up and down are relative. Issues such as the concept of space are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, triggering an upsurge of discussion in restaurants and teahouses and newly opened shops for weird new drinks such as coffee and cocoa.

Different people pay different attention to this round-the-world voyage, especially some big families in the capital. They saw the envy and jealousy of the Nanyang Company's profit dividends in Mincheng, which made them repeatedly report on this round-the-world voyage. The words "India Company" that appeared are deeply memorable, and I am full of curiosity about the country of India.

This must be a rich country. Otherwise, why do countries like the Netherlands and the United Kingdom establish Indian companies instead of companies with other names?

They hope to learn more about India from Chen Jian, and they still want some face.Nanyang Company's monopoly power has only been exchanged for hundreds of thousands of silver coins and they have no shares, but they have been given the monopoly power for 12 years, and they can only wait until it expires before intervening.

But the earth is round, and across the ocean to the east there is a piece of rich land that even Europa envies. For military families and big families, this is simply a godsend.They hope to rely on the privileges and rights in their hands to establish a monopoly company, and they don't need to invest much money. They only need to put the monopoly brought by the rights there, and there will naturally be capital rent-seeking.

Moreover, they knew that their means of doing business were not as good as those in the south, and the handicraft industry north of the river was far inferior to that in the south.

But... isn't the easiest way to make money from land rent?Especially for these old families that rely on land rent and land support, this is the easiest way to think and accept to strengthen their strength.

Since it was the Europas who founded the Indian company, not India, it is obvious that India's navy is not good, and its ability to centralize power is also poor. Otherwise, the best choice should be to close the country to ensure the stability of such a large piece of land.

Only when there are a large number of real power fief nobles, can the business be done easily. Obviously, judging from the political wisdom accumulated by these families for hundreds of years and the various skills accumulated by the previous countries when they competed for each other, this is a piece of fat, and it is A big piece of fat for the navy, the army, the big family, and the recruiting of refugees from the bottom to serve as soldiers to ease conflicts and accumulate wealth.

Land rent can make more money than trade, at least for now, and it can also strengthen the power of various families, why not do it?

So those who are really in power need to welcome Chen Jian, who are convinced of the accuracy of the judgment he has shown before.

In addition to this practical interest reason, there is also a part of the glory of the republic.

After Chen Jian's ship arrived in Fujian, another ship went to the capital to tell the good news that Chen Jian had discovered the southern continent.

If there's one thing that frustrates the people of the Republic, it's that they weren't the first people to circumnavigate the world, and the first people predate them by more than 100 years.

Whether it is China, Japan, India or Africa, this is something that the vast majority of countries in the world already know and exist. Fly in the ointment, it is inevitable to regret.

Of course, the Southern Continent existed long ago, but it was only discovered rather than existing because of the discovery.But since there is no country there, it is only a part of the geographical world, a new continent of the civilized world-the republic does not recognize the concept of a new continent in Europe, and does not recognize that the world without the republic is called the world, and this concept has long been accepted by the world for a year. The officials of the Ministry of Rites who went to Europe for negotiations and stationed there brought them to the courts in Europe, with a clear stand.

Going around a small circle of the concept of "world", the people of the Republic, especially those who love to talk about state affairs in the capital, suddenly discovered that No. 1 who actually discovered the New World came from the Republic, not Europa, because the so-called South American New World by Europeans They don't recognize the New World, so that's not it.

Thinking about it this way, it suddenly became clear, and naturally everyone was excited, and firecrackers, gongs and drums blew together.

In addition to the interests of a few families and the fanatical confidence of the ethnic group, there are more important, direct, and closely related things that are closely related to the lives of countless people.

For example, the promotion of corn, the promotion of hand threshers, and the promotion of the common sense of the corn planting manual written by Chen Jian in Dahuangcheng.

These three all-in-one things bring a brand-new feed grain.Straw and corn kernels are good feed. Many large-scale breeding factories have been set up because of this, and the actual benefit is that many people in the capital can eat pork and chicken.

For example, the promotion of two high-yield crops, potatoes and sweet potatoes, has given many large land growers a good opportunity to make a fortune.

The cheaper, inferior, but larger-selling potato starch wine and sweet potato wine have made some winemaking workshops that use the original food crops unable to operate in just two years, leaving only high-end fruit wine and cellar wine , the low-end wine market in the capital is almost monopolized by this high-yield crop of this wine.

Just like the soy sauce sold by Chen Jian in Mincheng ten years ago, the low price and low quality are enough to make some people go bankrupt, but it is also enough to let some people enjoy things that were difficult to enjoy before.

There are more and cheaper alcohol in the capital, which also creates more drunkards and many family tragedies.

Alcohol has only caused some family tragedies, and the impact is mainly on some wine workshops that were originally undercapitalized.

Although drinking is not good, it is still a very beneficial thing for the middle and bottom layers who like to drink, and basically it will not have much impact on those big families.

But another crop caused conflicts of interest between some big families, that is, the beet bumps that some people brought back from Europe, which looked like radishes.

This unremarkable thing directly announced the destruction of the maple syrup monopoly franchise.

Regarding sugarcane, the big families in the north couldn't reach it, and it was too late when they reached out, and they were not at all the opponents of those operating capitalists.

Therefore, the matter of sucrose can still be unanimously disclosed to the big family. After all, they can't make money, so it's better to let the closely related family with the monopoly of tree sugar profit.

But once the beets came out, the whole problem went sour.Beets can be grown here, sugar prices are rising in the north, the habit of adding sugar to tea, the introduction of tropical drinks such as coffee and cocoa, and new sweet and spicy dishes brought about by pepper planting...

Sugar is expensive, and expensive enough to benefit from some family land operations.When the interests were too great to override those feelings, the "Bet Beet Prohibition Act" was not passed in order to prevent "competition with the people".

This is completely different from the form of the northern sugar consumption tax levied on the pretext of being unfair to the "maple sugar monopoly" when the Nanyang Company was established.Although the people from Nanyang Company proposed that they could help pay the taxes and fees for this maple sugar monopoly franchise, but that didn't work - how much is the franchise fee?How much profit?How could it be accepted.

The many seeds and planned promotion directions brought by the voyage around the world and the previous South Seas exploration are like a catfish thrown into the loach, which disturbs the handicraft industry foundation and the advantages of transportation to Europe and colonies. The land issue has brought out more capitalist factors, and a new round of land mergers is also quietly going on.

Originally, the income from growing grain was not too great, and there have been no large-scale disasters in the past few years. Although some accidental accidents will cause speculators to manipulate grain prices, the overall grain price is low.

However, with the emergence of various new crops, new management methods, and new profits, the profit of land management has already exceeded the traditional land rent near the capital.

I dare not say it in other places, but the capital city is a huge consumer market, and there are rivers, so it is inevitable that a large number of land products will be commercialized and monetized.

The position of normal ground rent has become very awkward, and it is obviously not as beneficial as investing in capital management, and small leases have become an uneconomical method.

A few years ago, a pamphlet was circulated in the youth home in the capital, discussing the issue of land rent and profit, which convinced the operators of large tracts of land leasing without land rights but with capital that the rent is high, and the profit is low. Obviously, those of us who have no land but have capital have conflicts with your landlords.

This commoditized change always takes place first in the places closest to the big cities and with the most developed river transportation.These theories are also most popular in such places, and have the most violent influence.