On May 20, 1663, in Baode County, one or two hundred kilometers away from Dingjun Town, the military management committee member Shao Yaoguang was inspecting the Blacksmith Township, Xindendi Township and Shangwei Township in the south.

Anyone who knows a little about the history of the East Coast knows that it was originally a lawsuit from Chief of Staff Mo from the Portuguese. These places were from the beginning where handicraftsmen gathered. At that time, they made profits by exporting candlesticks, fish hooks, knives, ropes, parcels, wooden barrels, containers and other handicraft products to the East Coast. At the same time, they imported food and other commodities from the East Coast to the Portuguese Brazil. Trade was once very prosperous and the population began to gradually increase.

Later, after the East Coast people acquired ownership of the land, due to the poor religious policies of the East Coast Republic of China (not allowed to believe in the Roman Catholic Church, only the East Coast people's own Catholicism) and the incitement behind the Portuguese Brazilian colonial authorities, some Portuguese immigrants left the settlements with their families and property, which made handicraft production in the three places a great depression.

Fortunately, the East Coast government organized some immigrants to come, and at the same time, through various low-interest or interest-free loans, they encouraged the remaining handicraftsmen to merge the industries left by those who left, and recruited more apprentices to restore production capacity as soon as possible. It was also with their efforts that the handicraft production in Baode County was quickly restored, and relying on the vast markets such as Ping'an County, Dingxi County, and Yiling County in the south, it has gradually grown. Now it has almost become a famous handicraft production center in the Dingjun Mountains, with a large annual production capacity.

The number of goods sold in the south and north Yazihu ​​area has hundreds of thousands of people, which brings convenience to the lives of the people, and has also earned a lot of income for themselves. Some of the more successful local craftsmen have now expanded the scale of workshops, purchased some new machinery and equipment, and upgraded the previous pure manual production into semi-mechanized production. Haven’t you seen that in the central power workshop invested and built by the government, there are almost every day that there are manufacturers queuing up to rent steam power. The industrial production capacity of the entire Baode County has been greatly developed.

Today, Shao Yaoguang came to the industrial zone in the south of Baode County (there is a river that can directly lead to Ping'an County, and can sail 72-ton inland steamer, which greatly reduces transportation costs). In fact, it is mainly to see their operating conditions. After all, this is the largest source of taxes for the Baode County government and the most economically active area in the county. We must be cautious. Another point is that the sanitation conditions of these industrial zones are also difficult. The superiors demanded renovations. Shao Yaoguang thought that this matter could not be delayed, so he was going to come to talk to them about this matter. The government distributed some funds and then mobilized some manpower to mobilize these workers. As for these workshops, each household also distributed some money. Everyone worked together to improve the environment of this industrial zone, which would benefit everyone.

"Oh, the production cost is too high now." An iron smelting workshop owner who was born in Portuguese but spoke very well in Chinese sat on a ragged pine chair. When he saw Shao Yaoguang's face, he sighed and said: "I caught fire in the wooden house workshop last time. Later, I wanted to build a solid factory made of bricks and stones. But when I went to the village to inquire, the wages of bricklayers and stonemasons generally increased by 10%. I heard that the county is building a large barn, and the village is also building a small and medium-sized barn. Isn't this a fool..."

When Shao Yaoguang heard the complaints from the workshop owner, he looked dark. There are so many non-national labor workers now, including many professional skills. The daily wages of masons, stonemasons and carpenters in the East Coast Republic have not been moved for a long time. It has only been barely increased by 10% over the years, and this is caused by the fact that there are many large-scale government infrastructure projects. The wage level may still be lowered after the project is over. Non-national labor workers suppress the wage level of the East Coast so that they cannot move for many years. You are not satisfied and still shouting here. How careless is this!

"The time wages of printers and typists are too high now. Since the war broke out, it has increased by 15%. I originally wanted to expect a drop this year, but it seems not easy." Another workshop owner who mainly engaged in printing business came up to express that this person's workshop is quite large. He buys various colors of paper and ink from the Jingjiang Paper Factory in the south every month, and then starts to print a large number of books, newspapers, impurities and government documents, popular science materials, etc., and with the increase in the literacy rate of domestic people, his business is becoming more and more prosperous.

Therefore, after hearing this buddy complain, Shao Yaoguang couldn't bear it. Brother, the county government's fiscal revenue has finally made some surplus this year, and he is planning to build eight primary schools and a junior high school across the county. All the teaching materials printing projects have been entrusted to your workshops; in addition, you can print popular science materials for medical and health care and agricultural technology. Even the 1,000 copies of the "New Tao Te Ching" that the Taoist General requires to be printed have been taken over by you. This business is so prosperous. Shouldn't we recruit more apprentices to expand production scale and raise wages to core veteran employees? Why do you only make people feel the greed and treacherous of capitalists? It's really a random piano playing!

However, there are also people who really come to complain, and most of these people are individual weavers. These people were originally from Italy, from Songjiang Prefecture or Suzhou Prefecture, Ming Dynasty. They were all weavers with certain specialties. They had one or more textile machines at home. They mainly produced special textiles on weekdays and lived a decent life. Even in those years of market prosperity, they had profits that were not inferior to other handicraft workshop owners, which was so powerful.

But as the saying goes, in Hedong and thirty years, Hexi, in the case of Ping'an Weaving Factory, Dayuhe Machine Textile Factory, Luoqia Textile Factory and other enterprises continuously producing lines, cultivating skilled workers with superb skills, and developing new products, the benefits of these people are getting lower and lower, because a large number of low-tech textile markets have been seized by mechanism products, and many people are squeezed to bankruptcy, and eventually they have to switch careers or pack up their luggage and simply go to work in large textile enterprises. Of course, there are also many weavers with superb skills or flexible minds who are still persisting. They rely on their own skills or talents to continue to compete with the machine industry in a tragic market. However, these people are just a few, and their total profits are actually slowly declining, and the situation is not very good.

Therefore, when facing the complaints of these self-employed textile businesses, Shao Yaoguang was really silent. How should he tell them? He said that you are human looms and are destined to compete for industrialized machines? But aren’t there some special textile products (usually textiles are weaving according to customers’ preferences) stubbornly living? Then encourage them to continue to persist, and the market will improve in the future? Sorry, Shao, who is not able to speak lies with his eyes open, and he will not use such obviously unrealistic things to cheat people.

It is so difficult to operate, how can you be embarrassed to ask them for money? But it is not possible to do so. These towns were originally Portuguese territory. After taking over the years, although the East Coast people carried out drastic reforms, they may not be able to improve in all aspects and corners of society. For example, the pollution and environmental problems of industrial areas that have become chronic diseases, such as the urban civil storm. Local Portuguese, Italian, and Scottish people often park their relatives' bodies in the yards, and many times they rent some non-national labor workers in these yards, which are densely populated; some people are also used to accompanying corpses, such as a few Irish citizens; in addition, their cemeteries are mostly located in the city, with a large number of decadent objects, which is extremely terrifying.

Establishing an urban sanitation system, building water supply and drainage facilities, relocating cemeteries located in urban areas, establishing domestic sewage treatment plants, etc., all require a lot of money. Due to the lack of government financial resources, a considerable part of it has to be paid to the urban residents of these towns. As business owners or workshop owners, they are naturally the focus of the allocation. Of course, this does not mean that rural residents can stay out of the matter. They do not have to pay money, but they have to pay labor. 45-60 days of corvee labor can't be escaped.

Therefore, after a long time of vain with these workshop owners, Shao Yaoguang finally "find out the picture". He talked about the harsh sanitation conditions and environmental pollution in the urban areas of these industrial towns, and then mentioned the "relative" funeral customs of the locals, saying that the government will spend a lot of effort to rectify these chronic diseases to better welcome future development. To this end, his military management committee member Shao Yaoguang, on behalf of the Baode County Government, promised to invest 30,000 yuan, and apply for a special fund of 30,000 yuan from his superiors to use the old urban area specifically for the renovation of these three towns. Of course, even if a large amount of labor force in corvee service comes to help, it is not enough to completely complete the environmental transformation in these three towns. Therefore, temporary environmental taxes are still needed to be imposed in urban residents and enterprises in these three towns, so there is sufficient funds to complete the old city renovation in these three towns.

As soon as Mr. Shao said this, the faces of the corporate representatives present collapsed. He said that Member Shao was not here to care about everyone's production and operation conditions, but to collect taxes from everyone to complete his municipal reform plan, which disappointed many people. However, disappointment was disappointment, as the direct supervisor of everyone, everyone still had to keep some mercy. Therefore, after hesitating for a long time, some business owners expressed that they would pay the so-called environmental tax. As for the specific amount, they would follow the specific charter. In short, the form will be first.

With the first group of people, there were no psychological barriers behind the people. Many people expressed their pledge one after another, which made Shao Yaoguang feel relieved. The troubles that had been hanging in his heart for many days. It seems that he is finally going to be solved. The business owners in this county still have a high awareness. Well, perhaps this is related to his strong letter to ask for a central power workshop in each of the three places, and this "charity" project with a total investment of more than 25,000 yuan has indeed increased his prestige among these business owners or self-employed people, and it was reflected at this time.

However, after saying that the prescribed environmental tax would be paid in full, these business owners also elected two representatives and asked Shao Yaoguang whether the county could ask the superiors for instructions and abolish some inappropriate consumption taxes, such as consumption tax imposed on beer, liquor, wine, sugar, tobacco, tea, coffee, cocoa, spices, silk fabrics and other commodities; in addition, whether the import quota restrictions on La Plata beef, tallow, cream, cheese and other commodities can be lifted, as well as the tax rates of the two tax cards located on the river channel leading to Ping'an County, etc. In short, all of them are very practical suggestions for reducing production, logistics and labor costs, and are also the most concerned parts of business operators.

Of course, the suggestions made by these business owners are too "high-end", so high-end that Shao Yaoguang has no right to argue with him. Therefore, Shao Yaoguang, who does not want to deceive everyone, can only force himself to say that he will write a special report to respond to his superiors in these situations. As for the consequences, it is not something he can influence. He reminds everyone not to have too much expectations. The reason is very simple, and the central government does not have surplus food, so policies that may reduce the national fiscal revenue will probably not be introduced in the short term.

The business owners also expressed their understanding of this, perhaps because they didn't have much hope at all, so they were all very calm. However, this is probably the first time that people from the business community in Baode County have made demands to the government by electing representatives. It is actually quite commemorative, because it may mean the formation of a stable class. The young military management committee member and acting county magistrate Shao Yaoguang's answer was quite normal, which not only reflects the attitude of paying attention to everyone's opinions, but also tactfully shows the difficulties of the government and handled them more appropriately.

On June 1, 1653, after all the funds were basically in place, Shao Yaoguang, who was in Baode County, waved his pen and signed his name on the plan for the renovation of the old towns in three towns, which undoubtedly meant that the environmental transformation plans of the three places were about to enter a substantial operation stage.

At this moment, an unexpected surprise also came to the Taoist Federation Yu Zhenren, who came to Baode County and heard that Baode County would relocate the cemetery in the city and reform the old funeral customs, expressed that they were willing to undertake this matter and build the City God Temple and Public Welfare Cemetery outside the city area to specifically resettle the relocated corpses. At that time, those who are willing to live in the public welfare cemetery can move into the public welfare cemetery, and those who are willing to convert to the Heavenly Lord and live in the City God Temple can go to the City God Temple. In short, it is not forced, and everything depends on voluntary.

Of course, Shao Yaoguang understood what these people from the Taoist Association had made. He took the opportunity to force infiltration and expand influence among Christians, which was an old routine. However, since they promised not to force local residents to convert, they had nothing to worry about. On the contrary, because there was a "subordinate" who was willing to pay, he could save a lot of money. So why not do it? Therefore, he waved his pen again and agreed to the Taoist Association's request.

Well, since the Taoist Association has helped a lot of money, the saved funds can be used elsewhere. In fact, the superiors had just sent a telegram to the county town a while ago, pointing out that in August of the second half of the year, a group of immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture with a population of about 5,000 will pass through Baode County and go to the area south of the Wujiang River to settle down and reclaim the land. Therefore, Baode County needs to temporarily prepare a batch of food, agricultural tools, seeds, livestock, clothing, big trucks, tools and other items to support them in the land, but the expenses are still unpaid. Shao Yaoguang was worried about where to get the money. Unexpectedly, the Taoist Association's genius came to the door to deliver the money, which solved his urgent need.
Chapter completed!