My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 327 The Siphon Effect Has Already Appeared
Could it be that Lao Li has a different understanding of labor?
Zhu Yuanzhang pinched his eyebrows with his fingers, trying to clear his thoughts and make himself more sober.

But after thinking about it for a long time, I still couldn't figure it out. Forget it, I'd better just wait and see how Lao Li explains it.

“What we just talked about is called physical labor, which is the most extensive and basic labor. Without the physical labor of the general public, the cornerstone of the world we live in will disappear.

The counterpart of physical labor is mental labor.”

Mental work?

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this word, he felt as if the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining, and his thoughts seemed to be suddenly opened up.

"In fact, mental labor is easy to understand. Just like if you, Zhu, want to govern the entire Ming Dynasty, you use your brain, which is mental labor.

Of course, the scope of mental labor is not limited to this, such as the creation of poetry and songs. Of course, there is a more specific example that you can understand better, which is the various creations of Ming Dynasty researchers. For example, the Long Yu Tian Ji Furnace is a typical representative work of mental labor.

Therefore, we can simply summarize that mental labor is more inclined to management and creation. Isn't it because of the creations of many mental workers that the world becomes colorful? "

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but feel excited. In Lao Li's view, he is also a worker, because of his existence, the world is more colorful.

“By abstractly dividing people into manual laborers and mental laborers in terms of their labor, we can better understand how people exist as resources.

Of course, when we talk about the concept of people as resources, we must distinguish it from the concept of people that you usually think of. People are actually a combination of many concepts. If you simply think of people as resources, then you are no different from a ruthless tyrant. "

Makes sense!
Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little relieved. It seemed that Old Li was not as he had just thought. He really did "treat everything as a straw dog".

So the reason why Lao Li told himself that people are resources is probably to make himself aware of the diversity of resources and the special status of people in economic activities from the perspective of economic development.

“Now that we understand what resources are, we will get to the point.

The construction of a railway network will inevitably accelerate the circulation of resources. After the activity of trade, resources will be redistributed, which is the process of resource reintegration.

During this process, Lao Zhu, you must pay attention to the siphon effect! "

Siphon effect?

Lao Li has come up with a new term again. It seems that this concept must be very important, otherwise Lao Li would not have laid a lot of groundwork before mentioning the siphon effect.

“In the process of resource reintegration, resource concentration will inevitably occur. That is, in the process of trade, more resources, such as wealth and human resources, will inevitably flow to richer places. The consequence of this is uneven regional development. To put it simply, the rich places will become richer and the poor places will become poorer.

When most of the society's resources are concentrated in a certain state capital, or even in the hands of a few oligarch-type wealthy businessmen, guess what will happen, Mr. Zhu?"

Wealth, or more precisely, money will cease to circulate!
Zhu Yuanzhang almost blurted out the answer. He was so impressed by the examples Lao Li gave when Lao Li explained the principles of currency and trade to him.

Therefore, while developing industry and trade, he was also deeply alert to the phenomenon of hindering the circulation of currency. "We have already talked about the consequences before, but before that we only mentioned currency, and the siphon effect is to concentrate all resources in one place.

In fact, this is easy to understand. As the saying goes, water flows to low places and people go to high places. People will go where they can make money and get rich. This is the truth.

A wealthy state capital is the paradise where the people dream of getting rich, especially after the railway network is built!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded unconsciously. He couldn't agree more with this point of view. Go wherever there is profit. This has been true for everyone from ancient times to the present, especially businessmen.

“It’s human nature, but if it’s not coordinated well, it can be a potential crisis.

As I mentioned earlier, people are the most important resource. When human resources from all over the country are concentrated in one state capital, the consequence is that the wealthy state capital will be overwhelmed. Even if it has more manpower, if it cannot provide enough jobs, the extra manpower will no longer be a resource but an unstable factor.

Old Zhu, you must have a very deep impression of the refugees, right?

In contrast, those state capitals that are at a disadvantage in development will experience an accelerated loss of their own resources, especially personnel, after the railway network is built.

The fewer people there are, the less wealth there is, and the less wealth there is, the more likely people will leave in search of places where they can obtain new wealth.

If you don't want me here, there will be other places that will want me. This sentence can be regarded as a joke when it applies to a single person, but once it happens to a group of people, it will be a horrible nightmare for the local state government!"

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang almost broke out in a cold sweat. He had thought that there would only be refugees when natural disasters or wars occurred, but he did not expect that refugees would also be generated in the process of economic prosperity and development!

And Mr. Li is not exaggerating. In fact, the siphon effect has already occurred and is still continuing.

Since the beginning of industrialization, more and more people have been concentrated in Yingtian Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture. In Yingtian Prefecture alone, the population increased by nearly 50,000 households in the first half of last year.

This was totally unimaginable before!

But at that time I didn't realize that this was a problem at all, because the increase in population brought more labor to the factory, and Yingtian Prefecture was large enough, so no one realized that this would be a big problem.

And as Lao Li said, once the population of Yingtian Prefecture reaches saturation, it will be a crisis that no one can predict!

Fortunately, Lao Li reminded me. It seems that I was too naive before. Only with Lao Li's protection can I stay on the right track. Otherwise, if I make a mistake, all of them will be wrong, and eventually it will reach a point where there is no room for recovery.

So how to deal with the siphon effect?
“Of course, in the early stages of industrial development, the concentration of human resources is not a bad thing, because it can provide the industry with sufficient labor, improve production efficiency, and produce more products.

The reason why I want to tell you the concept of the siphon effect in advance is to cooperate with the construction of the railway network in the Jiangnan region to avoid excessive siphoning of the surrounding areas by the economic center, which would lead to irreversible consequences.

So, Mr. Zhu, what measures do you think should be taken to avoid excessive siphoning? The method has always been in your hands. I told you a long time ago. "

(End of this chapter)