Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 167: The Difference Between the East and the West, Imperial Power Controls Capital [Subscribe]

Industrial Revolution?
When Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao heard this word, their expressions changed slightly and they even frowned.

The term "Chinese revolution" can be traced back to its earliest historical source, the "Book of Changes", which says: Tang and Wu's revolution was in accordance with the will of Heaven and in response to the will of the people.

The "fate" here generally refers to the will of heaven. Therefore, the ancients believed that the king received the mandate from heaven, so when the king changed his surname and changed the dynasty, it was called a "revolution."

Today, it is their Zhu family that rules the world, and it is Zhu Yuanzhang who is the emperor. When he hears the word "revolution", he is naturally wary and even disgusted.

But the two soon realized that Liu Kuan was talking about the Industrial Revolution, not the dynastic revolution.

Zhu Biao hesitated and said, "My brother-in-law means a change of dynasties in industry?"

Liu Kuan naturally didn't want Old Zhu to misunderstand him, so he nodded and said, "You can understand it this way. A more accurate explanation of this term is that the times have brought about earth-shaking changes in industry."

"Before the advent of machines like the steam engine, people in both the East and the West relied mainly on human and animal power for food, clothing, housing and transportation."

"Even with the help of tools or even simple machines, efficiency will not be greatly improved. In the production process, human and animal power are always the determining factors of output."

"But that changed when more efficient machines, like those powered by water and steam, came along."

"At that time, various machines were constantly being invented. Coupled with steam engines as power and the assembly line production method, production efficiency would increase by tens or even hundreds of times."

"At that time, wealthy people only need to buy a set of machines, hire a few workers, and open a factory. In the same amount of time, they can produce products that previously required dozens or even hundreds of craftsmen."

"Later generations called these products industrial products. The faster and more industrial products were produced, the lower their individual costs were. If the machinery and craftsmanship were good enough, the quality of the products could even surpass that of ordinary handmade goods."

"At this time, industrial products will inevitably be sold at lower prices to seize the market share of handmade products."

"Take the textile industry as an example. As I said at the Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, when textile factories sprang up everywhere, women weaving at home didn't simply earn less money, but they were unable to sell their handmade cloth."

"Manufactured goods are cheap and high-quality, so people naturally flock to them. Plus, they're produced quickly and in large quantities, so naturally, the market for handmade goods disappears."

"At that time, if women wanted to make money, they had to leave home and find other jobs."

"To make money, factory owners often try to expand production. Although machines are highly efficient, they still require workers to operate them."

"The work on the assembly line, which is made up of machines, is often simple, requiring only a simple set of operations to be competent. As a result, many women who have lost their livelihoods will go to factories and become female workers."

At this point, Liu Kuan paused, then changed the subject and said, "Your Highness, please guess what will happen in the West, where the Industrial Revolution will take place in the future, after it reaches the stage I just described."

Zhu Biao pondered and said, "According to what you said, if many wealthy people opened textile factories, most women who need to make money could find jobs in factories again."

"This way, they can earn a salary in the factory, which is no different from before. In fact, if the factory pays a higher salary, their family's financial situation will be better."

Liu Kuan shook his head. "Historically, the situation in the West was not like this. In fact, for two or three hundred years after the Industrial Revolution, the lives of workers in factories like textile mills were always miserable."

"They may no longer starve to death due to famine, but their life expectancy will be significantly shortened, their families will become a mess, and it will be difficult for them to feel happy."

"If we say they lived in the human world before entering the factory, although they suffered hardships, hunger and cold most of the time, they could occasionally feel sweetness, warmth and happiness."

"Then, once they enter the factory and become workers, their lives are practically hellish, with both their bodies and minds tortured. It's difficult for them to find happiness, and they eventually die in agony."

"Why do you say that, brother-in-law?" Zhu Biao frowned. "You said before that women working in factories might improve the family's situation."

Seeing that Zhu Biao didn't understand, Liu Kuan reminded him, "Your Highness, what I said in the Machinery Manufacturing Bureau was a prediction, or a plan, for the future when there are more textile factories in Daming."

"And the scene I just described is the actual situation in the West after the First Industrial Revolution in later history."

Zhu Biao finally understood, but he was still puzzled. "Why did the real situation in the West become like that?"

Without waiting for Liu Kuan to answer, Lao Zhu spoke.

"Biao'er, you've forgotten what I warned you about earlier—never underestimate the ugliness of human nature."

"You say workers' lives will improve after entering the factory, but that requires factory owners to be willing to pay them higher wages. But what if the factories generally refuse to pay them?"

Not giving?

Zhu Biao was slightly stunned. "If I were a weaver, and the salary offered by the factory owner was too low, I would go work elsewhere."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "What if all factory owners pay their workers very low wages?"

"Then I will find another job. I don't believe that I can't earn money to support my family." Zhu Biao is Zhu Yuanzhang's son after all, and he has a stubborn temper in his bones.

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, "You think it's easy to find a job that can earn money to support your family? When the world is good, it's possible. But when the world is bad, humph, don't even think about earning money to support your family. You can't even protect your family."

Zhu Biao was silent for a moment.

He grew up in the chaotic times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Although he had the protection of Zhu Yuanzhang, he still understood some of the sufferings of the world.

He understood that what Zhu Yuanzhang said was right. In the chaotic times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many people really couldn't even protect their families. Over the past few decades, countless families had gone to the underworld together.

At this time, Liu Kuan said, "Your Highness, those Western factory owners at that time didn't just offer low wages. To make more money, they often required workers to work 14 or even 16 hours a day." "Also, to reduce production costs, the factory environment was often very poor. Polluted air and sewage were common. The production processes of some factories even caused workers to slowly poison themselves."

"For example, at the cement factory, I require workers to wear dust masks and limit the working hours of each shift to four hours because cement production produces a lot of dust."

"The factory owners are still so heartless. They don't provide workers with dust masks and make them work long hours a day. It won't be long before these workers get tuberculosis."

"After the Industrial Revolution, there were many factories like this in the West. Even in normal factories, workers toiled for more than ten hours a day, and apart from eating and washing, they only had five or six hours of rest a day, or even less."

"Over time, even the strongest of men will break down. When workers break down, Western factory owners won't provide them with medical care or retirement care. They will simply ruthlessly fire them and leave them to die in pain."

Zhu Biao was shocked when he heard this and said, "How can these Western factory owners be so cruel?"

Zhu Biao is really hard to understand.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties in China, there were many large textile workshops in the south of the Yangtze River, many of which employed dozens or even hundreds of weavers.

Huang Daopo, a renowned figure in the late Yuan Dynasty, opened a textile workshop in the capital (Nanjing) in the early years of the Zhizheng era, employing hundreds of women. Although Huang Daopo has been dead for decades, the workshop still exists and is one of the top textile workshops in the capital.

Whether it was Huang Dao Po or other workshop owners, very few of them were regarded as bad people by people of the time, and most of them were even good people in the local area.

Because they treated most of the weavers very well, Huang Dao Po even took in homeless women so that they could settle down in the big city of Jinling.

Although some workshop owners are stingy, greedy and treat their employees badly, they are a minority and it is difficult for such people to expand their business.

So Zhu Biao really didn't understand why those Western factory owners could oppress workers to that extent.

Even Lao Zhu was a little surprised.

The Western factory owners Liu Kuan mentioned were probably only comparable to the worst landlords he had ever seen - these landlords were eliminated when he was conquering the world.

Liu Kuan said, "We later generations gave these factory owners a name: capitalists. They used land, money, and other assets as capital, and employed the people in their factories like cattle and horses, with the sole purpose of making a profit."

“Historically, in the hundreds of years after the Industrial Revolution, capitalists were crazy about pursuing profits.”

"Later generations used this phrase to describe this: once there is a proper profit, capital will become bold and reckless. When the profit reaches 10%, it is eager to try; when the profit climbs to 50%, it will take risks."

“When profits double by 100%, capital dares to trample on all laws in the world. And when profits reach 300%, capital dares to commit any crime, even at the risk of being beheaded.”

"In later history, British capitalists even launched enclosure movements in their own country in order to profit from the wool textile industry."

"They drove the farmers out of their homes, turned their fields into pastures for sheep, and forced the landless farmers to work in factories where they were exploited."

"Later, other Western countries followed suit – farmers lost their land and flocked to cities to become workers, which made it plausible for factories to lower wages."

"In order to lower production costs, capitalists even specifically recruit women and even children as workers, because women and children can be paid less."

"In Europe at that time, many female workers died in their twenties; and those child workers didn't even live to grow up."

Having said this, Liu Kuan stopped.

Zhu Biao frowned and said, "If the Ming Dynasty had an industrial revolution due to the invention of machines one after another, would those workshop owners also become like Western capitalists?"

Liu Kuan said, "If capital is not restrained, the imperial court and the workshop owners will collude with each other, and even allow their representatives to enter the imperial court and even control the country's power. I am afraid that it will become like the West in history."

"However, if the imperial court could formulate good policies from the beginning, restrain capital, restrict workshop owners, and even set minimum wage standards, welfare benefits, and health care for workers, etc."

"We can eliminate the harm of the Industrial Revolution and reap its benefits, thereby making the Ming Dynasty strong and its people rich!"

After a pause, Liu Kuan looked directly at Zhu Yuanzhang rather rudely, then bowed and said, "The reason I dare to bring all the inventions and technologies of later generations to the Ming Dynasty is because I believe that Your Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can use the imperial power to control capital and technology, so that they can all contribute to the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty!"

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, neither Zhu Yuanzhang nor Zhu Biao responded immediately, but fell into deep thought.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　Correct typos later.

　　[PS]

　　Time travel is a hypothesis, and the events in the book are all based on this hypothesis. It is normal for different people to have different views on some things, so it is impossible for all readers to agree with the views expressed in a book.

　　What the author can do is to try to make the views in the book reasonable, or to be moderate and not extreme, so as to gain more recognition.

　　Of course, the author welcomes those who have different opinions but are willing to continue reading - after all, it's just a novel, and it's not like they have become political enemies in the real world, right?
　　So if anyone wants to criticize me, please be gentle.

　　Thank you!

　　Correct typos later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)