Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 423: Labor Law First
In fact, since Zhu Youdong went north to serve as regent, especially after Cao Sanxi also went to Beijing to serve as the president of the Royal Bank and Wei Zhongxian entered the Internal Affairs Bureau to begin to reorganize the large number of eunuchs, the efficiency of Honghe Industry and Fangshan Grocery Store under his command began to gradually decline.
On the one hand, the subsequent responsible personnel are inferior in ability and ethics compared with the previous two. On the other hand, the industry of the regent or the emperor is actually a "state-owned enterprise" in this era. And state-owned enterprises always have various inherent problems. As the business is getting bigger and bigger, Zhu Youdong has no energy to manage it in detail. In addition, the production of light industrial daily chemical products does not require too much capital investment, and requires fine management and flexible scheduling. It is better to cut out all these light industrial daily chemical industries that only involve people's livelihood while opening up technology.
In the future, light industries that require little investment and have high output will be handed over to the private sector. Heavy industries that require a lot of investment and have a decisive impact on national security will be the main direction of the royal family's future operations.
As for the issue of giving away a lot of shares in the early stages of development in order to reduce enemies and strengthen itself, the royal family naturally merged with Zhu Youdong as the emperor, and other dignitaries and subordinates could be redeemed on the one hand, and on the other hand, they could be converted into new industries such as the arsenal and the Railway Administration.
Of course, none of the merchants who could sit in the golden hall of the bank at this time were fools. After Cao Sanxi said that the royal family wanted to cut off the ordinary factories and sales outlets in Honghe and Fangshan, almost all the merchants breathed harder.
Although everyone knows that the service attitude of Fangshan and Honghe has been getting worse in recent years, and internal corruption has occurred from time to time. However, Honghe in the north and Fangshan in the south have sales outlets covering almost all the county towns in the central and eastern provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and the southwestern and northwestern provinces have also achieved full coverage of the prefectural capitals! In addition, the sales of these two retail giants still use the channels of the Jinyiwei - this is the logistics channel and sales people!
Therefore, as long as the royal family is willing to sell it, we must buy it!
However, all the wealthy businessmen present here spent a large sum of money to buy salt mines a few years ago, and donated another large sum to the war fund. If they were to take over Honghe or Fangshan in a province or a prefecture, how much silver would it cost?
After all, although everyone here is the top businessmen in the Ming Dynasty, the money of these wealthy merchants is not unlimited.
Seeing the wealthy merchants below struggling with the dilemma of making a choice, Cao Sanxi smiled slightly, then knocked the gavel, making the venue quiet again.
"Everyone, what I just mentioned, such as technology development and sales channels, are all compensations made by the emperor in recognition of the support of the righteous merchants for the court in previous wars. Next, there are some restrictive regulations. Please remember them and don't break them. Otherwise, everyone will be in trouble, the emperor will be embarrassed, and I will be embarrassed too."
"...President Cao, please give us your instructions."
"Well, the first one is about factories powered by new steam engines. Apart from the mines involved, the court has only given three locations for the establishment of other factories. Specifically, the one in the north is Tianjin, and the one in the south is Suzhou and Songjiang."
As soon as Cao Sanxi said this, the difference in the level of the various wealthy merchants was immediately revealed: the inferior ones were lamenting why even the location of the factory was limited, while the more outstanding merchants' eyes lit up - what? The court was going to open even the mines to private individuals?
"Everyone, it is the emperor's idea to build factories for these new machines in a few places. The emperor said that if the new machines are concentrated together, the technicians from Fangshan School can quickly arrive to repair them if there is a problem, and the professors from Fangshan Power Research Laboratory can also easily extract data and listen to feedback from users for further improvement. This is one of the reasons.
Secondly, you all need to understand that although the steam engine has a complex structure and has special requirements for the materials used in the engine, as long as it is a machine, it is a physical object, and it is possible to be imitated. In this regard, all the craftsmen in China are gifted. Therefore, by centralizing the new equipment, we can strengthen management, effectively prevent the outflow of technology , and effectively protect everyone's interests. Although the structure of the machine will eventually flow out, you all must hope that this situation will occur as late as possible, right?
Third, you have to pay so much money to get new machines or new technologies. After getting these things, you must build factories to produce things, so as to get back the principal and make a profit. But to pursue profits, in the words of the emperor, logistics is the most critical. The raw materials needed for the factory to produce things must be able to come in quickly, quickly and in large quantities. The products produced must also be able to be shipped out conveniently. In this regard, Tianjin Wei, Songjiang Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture are the three places .
First of all, these three places are all along the coast, which can effectively radiate to all coastal areas of the country and many vassal states of the Ming Dynasty overseas. Secondly, Songjiang and Suzhou are both on the Yangtze River, and can radiate to Yingtian, Jiangxi, Huguang and even Sichuan along the Yangtze River. What about Tianjin? The third phase expansion project of the Beijing-Tianjin Highway has begun, and the Beijing-Shan, Beijing-Zhangjiakou, Beijing-Luoyang and Luoyang-Changcheng highways have all been completed. In addition, the Ministry of Industry has now completed the exploration along the Beijing-Tianjin and Beijing-Zhangjiakou railways, and construction will start in the second half of the second year of Tianqi at the latest. Therefore, behind Tianjin, it can quickly radiate to provinces such as Northern Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Liaodong and even Shaanxi. Comrades, I feel that even if the emperor does not have such a rule, after a detailed investigation, there is a 99% chance that you will set up factories in these three places. "
After Cao Sanxi finished speaking, many businessmen present thought about it for a while and nodded frequently. Their resistance to Zhu Youdong's restriction on the location of their factories was also reduced by more than half.
For Zhu Youdong, as a Chinese time traveler, he has an instinctive belief in "concentrating power to accomplish great things". Moreover, at present, the Ming Dynasty is not really ready to welcome the arrival of the industrial age in terms of culture, thought, and market. It is also convenient for him to effectively control the factories as much as possible, so as to prevent the rapid increase in the level of productivity from causing too much harm to society.
Of course, Tianjin, Suzhou and Songjiang (Shanghai) are really geographically advantageous. In the future, Guangzhou will be added at most, and the light industrial centers in the north, east and south will be complete.
After watching the merchants below nod in agreement, Cao Sanxi continued, "Then let's talk about the second rule that the emperor has set for everyone. After you get the new machines and new technologies and go to the three places above to set up factories, you must effectively protect the rights and interests of the workers! The emperor has instructed the Ministry of Justice to draft the "Labor Law", which will be officially promulgated in the first month of the second year of Tianqi. This law clearly stipulates that the maximum daily working hours in the factory shall not exceed twelve hours, the daily wage shall not be less than five copper coins, and workers must be allowed to have a complete rest day every ten days. In addition, this law also makes clear provisions on the minimum age for hiring workers, the treatment and safety of female workers, and how to deal with workers who suffer work-related injuries."
"ah?!"
"President Cao, what's the reason for this?"
"Well, of course the emperor loves the people, but we are also good citizens of the Ming Dynasty. Why doesn't the emperor love us so much?"
"That's right, we are more than just good citizens, we are also righteous businessmen!"
"Oh, I opened a factory to provide these unemployed people with a place to eat, which is already a great favor. Why do I have to take one day off every ten days? I get up early and work late every day. Isn't it harder than these workers?"
“Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom! Everyone, be quiet!”
After all, President Cao has established considerable authority in the business community of the Ming Dynasty over the years. After he banged the gavel repeatedly with a stern face, the "indignant" wealthy merchants quickly quieted down.
"Everyone, the emperor once said something, and I am repeating it to you here. It is: 'Rest is to go a longer way.' If a laborer is exhausted every day, his work enthusiasm and efficiency will definitely decrease, and he will eventually be dismissed. His retirement may seem to be his own business, but in fact it is the destruction of the entire family that depends on him. You can estimate it yourself. After this factory is opened, which factory will not employ hundreds of workers? Let them work fifteen or sixteen hours a day and without rest all year round? How long can this last? One year or two years? If it continues like this, within twenty years, I am afraid that the factories in Tianjin and other three places will create millions of new refugees without food and clothing! By then, if Chen Sheng raises his arms and calls for action, won't the factories of all the bosses be turned into dust?"
Looking at the many wealthy merchants who didn't say anything but still looked disapproving, Cao Sanxi was helpless: As a businessman, how could he not know that merchants are all profit-seeking, how could he not know that the highest cost of opening a factory is labor? How could he not know that what merchants want to exploit the most is labor?
However, he recalled Zhu Youdong's advice to him some time ago, and had to continue to persuade many businessmen.
"Everyone, let's do the math. If you treat workers better, on the surface, they will work less and you will pay them more. But in fact, they will be more enthusiastic at work, and they will be more efficient after a good rest. And because their health is guaranteed, they can work for you for many years. This is a skilled worker! Isn't it much better than recruiting many novices and training them from scratch for two or three months? Only when workers have a stable and continuous income will their families be willing to consume. All bosses produce things to sell. If the country is extremely poor and no one buys, there will be no consumption, so how can there be production? Therefore, no matter from which aspect, treating workers well is actually the real way to make a lot of money!"
