Bringing the Railway to Daming

After watching this part of the video, Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly disappointed.

He thought that future generations would have some unique tricks for farming in such a cold and harsh place, but he didn't expect that Iceland's geography and climate were so special that Luo Huangdusi couldn't learn it even if he wanted to.

As for that greenhouse cultivation, I can ask Liu Kuan what it is about later.

After describing Iceland as an extreme geographical example, the video then lists two other European countries for comparison.

One is Denmark, which is located between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, with a small territory and low terrain; the other is Ukraine, which has European black soil and excellent natural farming conditions.

Although Denmark had poor natural farming conditions and experienced labor loss after industrialization, its court, through a series of appropriate policies, made the country the granary of Western Europe, and farmers lived a fairly prosperous life.

Although Ukraine has good natural farming conditions, due to various political factors, the existence of domestic oligarchs, and the intervention of foreign capital, farmers are unable to make ends meet, and agricultural development is in a dilemma.

After watching this segment, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but pause the video, looked at Zhu Biao sitting to his right and Zhu Xiongying sitting behind him, and said, "See? The difference in agricultural development between Denmark and Ukraine is the difference between a capable and incompetent court."

"If the imperial court can act and formulate a series of useful policies, then even if the natural conditions are poor, there will be abundant harvests and the people will be prosperous."

"On the contrary, if the imperial court is incompetent, then even if you own a fertile land, famine may still occur, and the people will still suffer!"

After a pause, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly called out Zhu Tan's name.

"Old Ten, you've been choosing a place to build your vassal state. Thinking that simply choosing a good location will build your vassal state well is a mistake."

"No matter how good a place is, if you fail to implement good policies, manage the military and civilians well, or even take the lead in committing evil, your vassal state will not be able to develop."

"Even if we rely on our advanced culture and technology to achieve temporary prosperity, it won't last. Let alone passing it on to future generations, your generation might not even be able to maintain it!"

Zhu Tan felt very innocent.

He was just watching a video, why did he get scolded?

Besides, if he wanted to establish a vassal state overseas, why would he choose a place with good natural conditions instead of one with bad natural conditions?

Isn't that stupid?
No matter how much he complained in his heart, he didn't dare to retort.

So he obediently replied: "Your Majesty is right, I will definitely remember this."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he knew that Zhu Tan's agreement was perfunctory, but he was too lazy to say anything more.

Success or failure depends on yourself.

If Zhu Tan really behaves recklessly overseas in the future and ends up killing himself, or even causes his vassal state to be occupied by others, the worst that can happen is that he can send an army to take over the place and make it the property of the imperial court.

If there is a qualified one among his sons, he will let his son take over the vassal state; if not, other vassal kings who want to establish a vassal state overseas will be sent there; or the court can simply establish an overseas military governorate to directly govern it, which is also acceptable.

Then, Zhu Yuanzhang touched the screen to continue playing the video.

The video camera was seen moving up to the sky again and turning to the West Asia region which looked sandy and yellow, as if it was all Gobi and desert.

"The Euphrates and Tigris rivers flood regularly every year, bringing fertile soil to their banks. As a result, the Mesopotamian region became one of the birthplaces of human agriculture."

"Irrigation systems have existed in the Mesopotamian region since 4,000 BC. The construction of water conservancy projects required large-scale human collaboration, and irrigation agriculture led to a significant increase in population."

"Thanks to the mutual promotion of agriculture and social organization, mature writing and numerous city-states emerged here around 3000 BC, creating one of the earliest civilizations of mankind."

"Five thousand years later, the two rivers still flow, but the modern country of Iraq, built on them, has declined..."

The video then tells the story of how the Mesopotamian Valley has undergone five thousand years of environmental changes. The area of ​​arable land has already been greatly reduced, and due to unreasonable irrigation, the land has become severely dry and salinized.

When Iraq was preparing to build water conservancy projects and use modern technology to change this situation, it encountered war. A large amount of funds was used for the war, and Iraq's agricultural reform naturally became a castle in the air.

Unable to survive, many farmers abandoned their land and became militiamen or bandits, leaving more land barren and creating a vicious cycle.

The area of ​​arable land currently being used is less than one-third of the total arable land area.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, Iraq's agricultural problems were mainly caused by external factors - of course, it must have something to do with its court.

Throughout Chinese history, there are many examples of countries that faced powerful external enemies but were still able to develop well internally and accumulate enough strength to defeat the external enemies.

The video continued to play and talked about the agricultural problems in the two African countries of Egypt and Tanzania.

Egypt's agricultural problem is actually a population problem - its arable land area is not large, and the population is exploding. Even if the limited arable land is cultivated carefully, it is difficult to meet the needs of the population, so food can only rely on imports.

This is equivalent to handing the country over to others, and the outcome will definitely not be good.

As for Tanzania, judging from the video, this country is purely poor and backward, but it has great potential. It needs long-term and sustainable development for its agriculture to take off.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the agricultural examples of later Iraq, Egypt, and Tanzania were of little reference value to the Ming Dynasty, so he naturally did not pay much attention to them.

However, when the video entered the last part, which talked about Indian agriculture, he suddenly became alert because the video started with a term that was quite new to him: resource misallocation.

"India, separated from Tanzania by an ocean, is a prime example of resource misallocation. India has 1.7 million hectares of arable land, ranking first in the world, yet its most prominent agricultural development is in Punjab, in its northwest corner."

"The state receives less than 500 millimeters of rainfall annually, and its climatic conditions aren't ideal for agriculture. However, many tributaries of the Indus River flow through it, providing a natural source of irrigation water. After India's independence, when water conservancy facilities were underdeveloped, this gave it a clear advantage in agriculture."

"When India gained independence, Punjab was second only to Delhi and Goa in terms of wealth. Because there was a high proportion of Sikhs in the area, the Indian court offered a number of preferential policies to unite them."

"For example, India's agricultural subsidies are unevenly distributed, benefiting only 6% of farmers. However, farmers in Punjab receive relatively stable subsidies, so they take advantage of this opportunity to profit from the policy..."

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Tan, Zhu Xiongying and others were all a little confused.

I thought, what is the subsidy for trivial matters?
The video does not explain this, but it may be a common sense term in later generations.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not in a hurry to ask Liu Kuan, but continued to watch.

"Punjab's climate is relatively dry, making it unsuitable for rice cultivation. However, the Indian court set a purchase price of 150% of the cost of growing rice. Faced with huge profits, local farmers have adopted a water-intensive rice cultivation strategy."

"After years of continuous extraction, the local groundwater level has fallen below the critical value. The groundwater won't flow out on its own, and pumping it out requires electricity. As a result, 10% of Punjab's annual budget is spent on electricity subsidies..."

The video shows an aerial view of Punjab. There are dense farmlands below, but many of them are earthy yellow in color. They are obviously paddy fields, but they look like dry land.

Next, there is a scene of Indian farmers using pumps to extract river water and groundwater for rough irrigation of fields.

"On the surface, these policies benefit farmers, but in reality they are a misallocation of resources directed by the imperial court, and the costs are borne by the entire society, including industry."

"Due to the consumption of various subsidies, Punjab, which was among the top three richest states in the country at the founding of the People's Republic of China, has now become the most indebted state in India. The annual interest alone is equivalent to more than 20% of the state's income!"

"And the resource misallocation caused by this policy also made farmers dependent. When the Indian court tried to promote local agricultural reforms, angry farmers drove tractors to attack the Red Fort during the celebration, staging a protest drama with Indian characteristics."

Seeing this, the Zhu family was stunned, wondering what this was.

Are India and the Ming Dynasty really in the same world?

How could such a weird thing happen there?

"From a bird's eye view of agriculture, we see the rise and fall of civilizations, the power of technology, and the huge gaps..."

After a concluding explanation, the video ends.

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his gaze away from the vast fields being irrigated by technology in the video and asked, "Liu Kuan, what exactly does this Indian agricultural subsidy mean?"

Liu Kuan explained, "Your Majesty, many countries have entered the industrial society in later generations. Agriculture is no longer the main source of national tax revenue, but it is still the guarantee of food for the people."

"So, in order to ensure they had enough farmland, many countries in later generations not only abolished the land tax but also provided subsidies to farmers to ensure national food security."

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and others naturally understood such simple words at once, but they were still a little confused, or they couldn't wrap their minds around it for a while.

After all, for the past few thousand years, the source of the court's tax revenue has been agriculture, which has made Zhu Yuanzhang and others form inertial thinking.

Now Liu Kuan said that many countries in later generations not only abolished the land tax, but even had to provide subsidies to farmers. How could they adapt to this situation?
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor after all, and he quickly thought of the Ming Dynasty's rising commercial taxes and the income from various state-run factories that accounted for the bulk of fiscal revenue. In fact, the land tax in the Ming Dynasty had now fallen into second place in the court's fiscal revenue.

If what Liu Kuan said is true, as industry continues to develop, not only will the proportion of land tax in the court's fiscal revenue decrease, but even the people will leave the fields and go into factories or do other things in order to make more money.

Then it would be reasonable for the imperial court to subsidize farmers in order to ensure that the country has sufficient grain output.

It is similar to the current Ming Dynasty court subsidizing money and grain to set up garrisons and reclaim land for the future value of Luohuangdusi.

After understanding this, Zhu Yuanzhang accepted the policy of subsidizing India's affairs as shown in the video.

He couldn't help laughing when he thought about how the Indian court used this strategy incorrectly in later times.

Then he asked with a smile: "Xiongying, what do you think of the things about India mentioned at the end of this video?"

Zhu Xiongying said: "The imperial court, especially the imperial court of a great country, must be extremely cautious in implementing any policy. What is important is not how good the policy is, but whether it is appropriate and proper."

"If policies are not used in the right place, good policies will become bad policies, which will not benefit the people or the country."

"Haha," Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with satisfaction, "That's exactly what I mean."

Afterwards, Zhu's family discussed some other issues in the video. At the end, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered the questions left by the first example in the video.

"Liu Kuan, the video says that Iceland was able to develop a good agriculture and animal husbandry industry. In addition to relying on natural climatic conditions, it was also because its government vigorously developed greenhouse cultivation."

"Is greenhouse farming a technology related to agriculture in the future?" (End of this chapter)