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When Spain obtained hundreds of millions of silver from South America, the Spanish royal family and nobles were able to squander it and live an extremely luxurious life.
They don't produce anything at all. Anyway, we have nothing but plenty of money, so we can just buy what we want from other countries.
In the end, the plundered wealth was spent, and Spain became dilapidated. Domestic industry and commerce not only did not develop at all, but continued to shrink, eventually leading to the overall decline of Spain.
In order to avoid repeating Spain's mistakes, Qin Mu felt that it was necessary to enact some laws to stipulate that the wealth plundered by the army from overseas should be used as much as possible in education, scientific research, and improvement of people's livelihood infrastructure.
In the end, he took a tough attitude and allocated half of his income as education funds. He launched a new-style education across the country, and promoted it nationwide using the model of the royal elementary school. All children from middle and lower families could go to school for free.
The only difference between them and the royal elementary schools is that the royal elementary schools provide students with three meals a day, while these official schools do not, only textbooks.
In a word, you only need to take care of your own food, and you don’t have to worry about anything else. Textbooks, teacher salaries, and classrooms are all provided by the court. All children from middle and lower-class families only need to bring their own food to go to school.
As for the upper-class households, most of them are officials, gentry, local owners and wealthy families. Since you are relatively wealthy, there will be no reduction or exemption for the time being. With your wealth, sending your children to school will not be a problem.
After repeated discussions in the court, this policy was promulgated throughout the country, causing an uproar. The people's support for the emperor reached an unprecedented level. Countless ordinary people set up longevity tablets for the emperor at home and burned incense in the morning and evening to worship him.
Chinese people have always attached great importance to their children's education. In every dynasty, many families who could not even afford to eat tried their best to send their children to school.
In short, if there is an opportunity, almost everyone will send their children to school.
However, in previous dynasties, taxes were heavy and the people could hardly even afford food and clothing, and only a few could afford to send their children to school.
In today's Qin Dynasty, everything has changed dramatically. Of course, the key is that Qin Dynasty has a good emperor, at least that's what the people of the world think;
From promoting new crops to ensure that the people have enough food and clothing, to promoting free education so that children from poor families have the opportunity to go to school, the people attributed all this to Emperor Qin Mu.
Qin Mu knew that if he wanted to spend the windfall, he had to convert it into dragon coins first. In fact, no matter what method he used, whether it was invested in scientific research or education, it would actually increase the total amount of domestic currency. If there was no corresponding domestic output, it could still lead to serious inflation.
The current tax rate for both commercial and agricultural taxes in Daqin is 1 in 30. The agricultural and commercial taxes combined are about 60 to 70 million dragon coins a year, which is about 40 million taels of silver.
Based on the current tax rate and annual revenue, we can estimate the country's gross domestic product. It should be around 1.5 to 2 billion dragon coins. Compared to this gross domestic product, it would be very dangerous to rashly put a huge sum of 100 million into circulation.
Moreover, what the navy will plunder in the future will be far more than this. There will definitely be tons of gold and shiploads of silver. If these riches are not properly planned, the consequences will be more disadvantages than advantages.
How to spend money when you have it? This is really a problem, right
If the money is spent by the government purchasing domestic goods, on the one hand it can boost domestic production scale, but on the other hand it will certainly raise the country's prices, which is beneficial to industrialists and businessmen but detrimental to ordinary people.
For example, originally a piece of cloth cost fifty cents, but after the government purchased it in large quantities, the price became sixty or even seventy cents. The people who produced the cloth benefited, but the ordinary people who consumed the cloth suffered.
So how much money should be spent and how to balance the two requires a more precise calculation. If the inflation rate is higher than the growth rate of GDP, then there will definitely be a problem.
In response to these issues, after the morning court session, Qin Mu summoned the cabinet ministers and officials from the Ministry of Revenue to the Huagai Hall for discussions, and even had a hasty lunch with the ministers in the Huagai Hall.
In this regard, there are many mechanisms that need to be improved, and a perfect solution cannot be negotiated in one day.
In the afternoon, the meeting came to a temporary end. When Qin Mu walked out of the Huagai Palace, Han Zanzhou ran up to him with a happy face and shouted from afar: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, it's done. The spinning machine has been successfully improved..."
"Really?" Qin Mu couldn't help but stop.
"Your Majesty is really a man of insight. Huang Sheng, the man who made the wooden dog, really improved the spinning machine. Your Majesty, how dare I, your servant, visit your Majesty..."
"Tell me quickly, how many spindles of yarn can a modern spinning machine spin at one time?"
"Your Majesty, a total of thirty-six spindles. Your Majesty, according to Huang Sheng, if further improvements are made, it may be possible to spin more."
"Thirty-six ingots?" Qin Mu couldn't help but show joy on his face.
Most people may not know that spinning actually takes more time than weaving. Nowadays, spinning machines can usually spin one yarn at a time, and people spend most of their time spinning.
Now all industries in Daqin are booming, but there is a shortage of labor. If the problem of spinning can be solved, it will save Daqin a lot of labor.
Qin Mu had people improve the textile machine early on and even offered a reward, but unfortunately no major breakthrough has been made over such a long time.
Qin Mu himself didn't know what the spinning Jenny looked like. This thing had long been out of use in later generations, and not many people really knew what it looked like. Qin Mu was the kind of person who had only heard of it but didn't know what it looked like.
"Take me to see it quickly."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Qin Mu left the government affairs aside and followed Han Zanzhou to the Internal Supervision Research and Development Department. This was the Nanjing Xingren Department in the Ming Dynasty, located on the west side of the Meridian Gate. The Qin Dynasty streamlined many central agencies, such as the Xingren Department;
This vacant compound has now become the scientific research site of the Internal Supervision Research and Development Department, gathering nearly 270 top talents to conduct various types of research.
Huang Sheng was from Wu County, Suzhou, a young man of about 26 or 27 years old. His family asked him to concentrate on his studies, but he liked to tinker with some "strange skills" by nature. The barking wooden dog last time shocked Qin Mu greatly. He felt that this was a rare talent, so he asked Han Zanzhou to send someone to find him. Unexpectedly, after more than two months, he really succeeded in improving the spinning machine.
The people in the R&D department knelt on the ground. Qin Mu personally went up to help Huang Sheng up and said, "Huang Sheng, where is the improved textile machine? Take me to see it."
"Your Majesty, this way please."
Huang Sheng took Qin Mu into a small courtyard where there were two spinning machines. One was very small and old-fashioned, while the other was much larger and relatively more complicated.
"Your Majesty, please see. In fact, the biggest difference of the improved spinning machine is that its spindle is no longer horizontal, but vertical. Your Majesty, please look here... Originally, only one yarn could be spun on the same shaft. After the spindle is vertical, one shaft can drive many spindles to rotate at the same time without affecting each other.
Another thing is that the way of feeding yarn has been improved. Your Majesty may not know that in the past, spinning was done by hand. Ordinary people used one hand to turn the spinning wheel and the other hand to feed the yarn, and could only feed one yarn at a time. If it was a pedal-operated spinning wheel, only two or three yarns could be fed at a time.
Now after the improvement, Your Majesty, please see, this is a leather roller core and a leather roller iron, with gears installed on the side. When it rotates, the leather roller core and the leather roller iron can clamp the cotton up and spread the yarn in front, so there is no need to feed the yarn one by one by hand..."
While Huang Sheng was explaining, he asked someone to demonstrate it to Qin Mu on the spot. Sure enough, as long as the big wheel next to it was turned, the yarn flake, leather roller core, and leather roller iron would rotate together through the power transmitted by the gears.
Thirty-six spindles rotate one by one and spin thirty-six yarns at the same time. Since the cotton is evenly clamped by the leather roller core and the leather roller iron, the yarn spun is more even and of better quality than that spun by hand.
Huang Sheng continued, "Your Majesty, as long as the power is sufficient and the gears provide uniform transmission force, theoretically, as long as the length of the clamping rod and the number of spindles are increased, more yarn can be spun at a time. Fifty or even a hundred is possible. I am preparing to make further improvements."
"Good, very good, Huang Sheng, this is a remarkable improvement." Qin Mu praised him highly and generously gave him a seventh-rank official and a reward of 5,000 dragon coins.
Even though 5,000 dragon coins may not seem like much, if converted into the RMB of later times, it would be equivalent to the purchasing power of at least 2 million RMB, a huge sum that ordinary people would find difficult to earn in several lifetimes.
What's more, he was appointed an official of the seventh rank. Most people who passed the imperial examination would only be appointed officials of the seventh or eighth rank at the beginning. This was what made Huang Sheng grateful.
His family had always wanted him to study and take the imperial examinations. Now, he could not only do what he liked, but also overcome the difficulties of the imperial examinations and become a seventh-rank official granted by the emperor, thus fulfilling his family's wish to bring honor to the family.
"Huang Qing, from now on you should concentrate on scientific research in the R&D Department. If you have any results, I will not be stingy with rewards. If you don't want to do scientific research, I can also transfer you to other departments such as the Ministry of Industry after you are familiar with it. In short, the weight of this seventh-rank official is no less than that of a successful Jinshi."
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace. Thank you, Your Majesty..."
Huang Sheng was so excited that he didn't know what to say for a moment, so he prostrated himself and kowtowed repeatedly.
Qin Mu turned to the other staff members of the R&D Department and said, "This is the same for you. No matter who you are, as long as you have achieved results, I will treat you equally and reward you."
More than 200 skilled craftsmen from the R&D department were all delighted when they heard this. In the past, the status of a craftsman was very low, and no matter how great a contribution you made, you were still a craftsman, a craftsman looked down upon by others.
Now Qin Mu has opened up a bright road for them. Even if they do not pass the imperial examination, they can still become officials as long as they have made significant achievements in scientific research. This is a subversive innovation for all dynasties and will inevitably encourage more people to devote themselves to scientific research.
This matter would certainly be opposed by many ministers in the court, but Qin Mu didn't care and just did it without saying anything.
Anyway, there won’t be many people who can produce major research results, which means that there won’t be many people who can be appointed as officials.
Occasionally, a title would be conferred, and if the ministers objected, the matter would be resolved by some compromise.
. (To be continued..)
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