Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 451 Philip's Magic Box
On October 18, Rudolf, Gustavus, a number of European monarchs, a large number of senior military generals, and more than 50,000 Spanish new troops entered Madrid. Philip organized a grand entry ceremony for them.
After the entry ceremony and a brief luncheon with the guests, Rudolf entered Philip's office, and then the twins dismissed the servants as usual and began their secret mission.
"Let me first talk about the overall situation of this war. Since our army joined the war, in the one and a half years, we in Spain have lost a total of 13,000 soldiers, and about 8,000 of them can never return to the battlefield due to injuries. The casualties of other countries in the Justice League are a little more than ours, but not much more."
"Yes." Philip nodded calmly and said, "So, the penicillin produced in Spain is quite effective?"
"Yes." Speaking of this, Rudolf's expression became obviously richer. "This time we have no less than 50,000 wounded on the battlefield. Because the penicillin imported from China was too expensive, ordinary soldiers could not afford it. According to the previous ratio, at least more than 30,000 people would have their limbs amputated. But this time, among the more than 8,000 people who could not return to the battlefield, not many had their limbs amputated. Most of them were caused by bullets in the lungs or limbs being broken directly by machine guns. By the way, Philip, how much is a bottle of our self-produced penicillin?"
"800,000 units, including glass bottles, water for injection and syringes, the ex-factory price is one silver dollar for five."
"Bang!" The huge hand slammed down on Philip's desk. "Mal dita Sea! How much money did that Chinese time traveler cheat us out of?"
"You can't say that." Philip looked at the documents and pens on his desk that jumped slightly because of the huge knock. After frowning slightly, he quickly laughed: "Dear Rudolf, this account is not so simple. Because we used to monopolize the import and sale of penicillin, although Chinese penicillin is very profitable, we also made a lot of money. But now, our penicillin can only be sold for 800,000 units per set of double columns in the European market."
"Ah? I remember we used to sell them for 50 gold coins a set? Now the price has dropped 500 times!"
"There's nothing we can do. We are the leader of Europe. As the leader, we must show the magnanimity of the leader. Besides," Philip smiled, "we don't have abundant human resources in Europe. If we want to fight a decisive battle with a country like China in the future, how can we not save enough people? Therefore, we must give up this profit."
"Okay." Shrugging, Rudolf suddenly became nervous again: "So, Philip, our treasury?"
At least you are not such a bastard, and you even know to ask the national treasury.
"Well... in fiscal year 1617, when steam engines first appeared, our country's total revenue was 44.7 million and its expenditure was 43.85 million. In fiscal year 1620, the total revenue was 88.35 million and the expenditure was 100.58 million."
"Hiss~" After taking a deep breath, Rudolph said in surprise: "In three years, the income has almost doubled. How did you do that? And the expenditure is so high. How come?"
"As for income, the growth in the American colonies is not much, only from 12 million to 13.5 million. I didn't dare to increase the annual fixed tax payment of local councils such as Portugal, Barcelona, and the Netherlands. The real substantial increase is domestic commercial taxes. Rudolf, I don't know if you have noticed that now all parts of Europe are using a large amount of woolen fabrics, cotton fabrics and various daily chemical products produced in Madrid. These are the main sources of tax increases."
"Okay, so this is what you said. After entering the industrial age, due to the significant improvement in productivity, social wealth will also increase rapidly, right?"
"It's not entirely about the increase in productivity. Changes in the mode of production are also important. At the current productivity level at the beginning of the industrial revolution, the value of what one million industrial workers and ten million farmers produce is about the same. But a large part of what farmers produce is consumed by the producers themselves during the production process, and the real surplus value is limited. Therefore, the country gets much more from one million industrial workers than from ten million farmers. Of course, although income has increased, the national finances have still become a deficit. You can guess the reason."
"How can I guess? Ah, let me think, is it because of the increase in military spending and the construction of railways?"
"Haha, it's mainly these two aspects. After we got this machine gun, we really can't afford to consume so many bullets. As for the railways, we have indeed built too many. The railway from Madrid to Paris has been built, but it is only a single line. I plan to lay a double track for this road in the fiscal year 1621, and build a railway from Paris to Berlin at the same time."
"Well, you told me before that the establishment of the alliance was a tool for us to suck the blood of European countries, and the railways were the blood vessels. But, did we lose so much by building railways?"
"Hahaha, it's not just about building railways. There are also various roads, ports, warehouses, and heavy industrial factories. These are things that require huge investments but have slow results. They can only be invested in by the state."
"Philip, why do I feel like you are doing Hitler's thing?"
"Huh? Why do you have such an idea? I'm studying 19th century Japan."
"Learn from Japan? Japan during the Meiji Restoration?"
"Yes, light industry was liberalized, and the state invested in infrastructure and heavy industry development, while supporting the development of basic science. Rudolf, in the historical plane, after the industrial revolution, humans were free capitalists for a long time. The families that survived, developed, and grew in this process experienced brutal free competition, so most of them developed well in later generations. However, this process is too long, and we don't have time to wait for the market to slowly eliminate unqualified people. We must use the power of the country to accelerate the development of society, so that we can have a chance to win the decisive battle in the future."
"...Okay, I don't understand social development theory, and the formulation of national policies is your job. But now the national treasury is in deficit, how are you going to deal with it?"
"We cannot issue paper money at the moment, otherwise our economy will definitely be severely damaged by the Chinese time traveler. So, I came up with these two things."
After saying this, Philip walked to his seat and took out two boxes of beautifully packaged items from the drawer of his desk.
"Here? Cigarettes? Wow, you got all the cigarettes out?"
"Hahaha, Rudolf, you don't know this. Indians have been smoking tobacco for more than a thousand years. We Europeans have been smoking for more than a hundred years. It's just that tobacco used to be a valuable commodity, so it was not widely popular. But now, I plan to make it popular and become a flagship product of our Europe, thereby earning high taxes ."
"Okay." Rudolf shrugged indifferently and said, "Although I never smoke, I know very well the profit of tobacco. If the price can be lowered and it is widely sold in the territory we control, the tax revenue alone should be able to offset our deficit, right?"
"Not only will we make a profit, we will make more. Moreover, I plan to use the profits from tobacco to subsidize the price of medicines, so that drugs such as penicillin can be sold at a lower price. You have to know that although the price of penicillin has been reduced, many more people can afford it. However, ordinary workers are unwilling to spend a silver coin to buy penicillin. In fact, they prefer to rely on their bodies to bear the disease when they are sick. Therefore, after tobacco makes a profit, we have to try to set the price of medicines a little lower to ensure that more Europeans are healthy."
"Well! I approve of this with both hands. Now, Philip, what about this thing?"
"This." A wicked smile flashed across Philip's face: "This thing is made from poppy fruit..."
"Philip! Are you going to open this Pandora's box?"
Philip, who had been smiling warmly from the beginning, suddenly became ferocious after hearing Rudolf's roar, and his voice became much higher: "I opened this box just to sell these things to the Far East! In Europe, anyone who dares to use this thing outside of medicine, I will hang him!"
"Philip, no! We Europeans, especially Latin people, have very poor self-control in the pursuit of pleasure. Once this Pandora's box is opened, we may end up hurting ourselves!"
"Rudolf, you are wrong! The biggest reason why Latin America is full of drug lords and everyone is trafficking in drugs is because the United States sucked the blood of Latin America so hard that the local people had no choice but to sell drugs. But now, Europe under our leadership can suck the blood of America and Africa, so there will never be a drug epidemic. And!"
"and?"
"Also, although we no longer import drugs like penicillin from China, silk, porcelain and tea are rigid demands for Europe, and we have a trade deficit with China every year. In the last fiscal year, our trade deficit with China reached 32 million taels! Basically, our merchants are doing all the shopping in China, and we have almost nothing to sell! Although these losses were offset and there was a surplus after we resold these goods to other European countries, in the end, Europe's wealth flowed to East Asia! If this trade situation is not reversed, we will collapse without fighting. Therefore, we must get things like opium out, otherwise we will not be able to reverse the trade deficit."
"...Okay. Anyway, I will enforce strict discipline in the army. Anyone who dares to smoke opium will be shot! But, Philip, are the time travelers in China stupid? If they see opium, won't they take severe measures to ban it?"
"I've said before that Chinese time travelers are very powerful. So, if he knew about this, he would definitely forbid it strictly. Therefore, the method I adopted was to first infiltrate through China's newly established overseas states, and within three to five years, absolutely not allow drugs to be sold to mainland China. By the time he reacts, the officialdom and the people of Southeast Asia will have already become hugely interested in drugs. If he wants to ban it at that time, he will accidentally cause Southeast Asia, which he has just brought under his rule, to fall into great turmoil!"
