The strong expansion of the Chu Empire in Southeast Asia brought huge returns in a short period of time.

This return is naturally a rich market!

Although the market needs time to respond, even if the Chu Empire powerfully opened up most markets in Southeast Asia, it still takes time to prepare goods, transport them, and then sell them.

However, the large influx of orders from overseas was feedback in advance and gave the empire's upper echelons great confidence.

In the winter of the 13th year of Chengshun, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce reported that the empire's export volume this year is expected to increase by 50% compared with last year, and by 105% compared with the year before.

In just two years, export volume has more than doubled!

Of course, this was due to natural growth, but the empire’s strong expansion in Southeast Asia also had an indispensable impact.

These increased export goods will bring more gold and silver revenue to the empire, and will be used to purchase a large number of various overseas products, especially cotton, wood, saltpeter, sulfur and other industrial raw materials, as well as rice, spices, ivory, etc.

Consumer goods can also gradually increase the gold reserves of the Chu Empire.

More importantly, the rapid increase in overseas orders and the continued increase in domestic demand orders have further stimulated the development of the domestic business community.

With the development of industry and commerce in such a good situation, many people even think that they can make money just by opening a factory...

A large number of wealthy landowners dug up the gold and silver buried in their cellars, and invested the funds raised from selling off land in large quantities into industry and commerce.

Industry and commerce have become a hot investment spot for the Chinese gentry class, instead of buying land as soon as they have money as in the past thousands of years...

Now in the Da Chu Empire, land does not make money or even maintain its value.

Because the Da Chu Empire has implemented a tiered agricultural tax rate across the country, the more land it retains, the higher the agricultural tax will be. When it reaches a certain level, the land will not only make no money, but will also lose money...

In addition, the imperial government has been suppressing large landowners for more than ten years, forcing landowners to continuously sell their land. This has also resulted in the fact that there are very few medium and large landowners in the empire.

Nowadays, a large number of traditional gentry have poured into the industrial and commercial circles.

To a certain extent, the remaining gentry class in the Chu Empire completed their status changes in just a dozen years.

They are no longer the traditional landlord class, but have become the merchant class.

And these changes are what the empire's top officials like to see, and they are what they actively promote... Well, those who refuse to change are basically dead!

Let capital reach out from the land, return the land to farmers, and invest funds in industry and commerce.

In this way, farmers have land to live and settle down, the gentry can make money, and the government has obtained the most important stability and tax revenue.

Triple win!

Well, it does not include the large number of traditional gentry families that have been attacked by the authorities for various reasons in the past ten years or so and their families have been destroyed!

They stood on the opposite side of the times, so they were mercilessly crushed!

The industrial and commercial development of the Chu Empire has further developed due to the stimulation of overseas markets.

As for the imperial officials, they withdrew the fares for Southeast Asia expansion early...

The military fought three wars of varying sizes in the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, and even the previous Kingdom of Myanmar. In addition, there was no war, but the Kingdom of Annan still signed an agreement.

The empire also received a lot of direct benefits from it.

Not to mention expanding the territory and gaining a comprehensive market, the Dachu Empire also received a large amount of compensation, trophies, and other economic benefits.

The compensation includes 5 million Chu Yuan compensation from the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, 800,000 Chu Yuan compensation from the Cambodian side, and 1.2 million Chu Yuan compensation from Myanmar.

Then, in terms of spoils of war, in the Battle of Siam, the landing troops of the Great Chu Empire evacuated the capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom... Official statistics of various spoils of war amount to at least seven million Chu Yuan.

Then in Cambodia, they also took over other people's royal capitals in one pot. The spoils were less, but there were still millions.

There is not much loot over there in Myanmar...

And don’t think it’s over yet… It’s not over yet. The Chu Empire has issued loans worth tens of millions of Chu yuan to the above-mentioned countries, including north and south Annan, through various messy means such as loans and weapons sales.

The interest rates on loans these days are not low. Finance banks generally charge between 20% and 10% off external loans, and the annual interest rate can often reach between 20% and 30%. It depends on the situation, but basically

It will not exceed this range.

In this way, Dachu Empire Finance Bank is actually quite conscientious in lending money to foreign countries... It's not that the interest rate is low, but that they dare to borrow!

Bankers, wealthy businessmen and even countries in other countries rarely borrow money from other countries. If you don’t have any strength, if you dare to borrow, they will just swallow it up.

However, the external loans of the Dachu Empire Finance Bank generally come with a lot of additional conditions.

The most important of them is the political conditions. In addition to the political conditions, there are other accompanying conditions, such as limited use.

It is either used to pay compensation or to purchase various ordnance or other commodities from the Chu Empire.

Especially loans for purchasing ordnance are very tricky. Matchlock guns that cost less than three taels of silver in China are often exported for more than ten taels, and you can still buy fifteen taels in certain areas.

Artillery is more expensive. A two-and-a-half-pound field gun can cost more than 800 yuan, and a five-pound field gun can cost more than 1,500 yuan.

The value is so expensive. What, you said it’s too expensive?

It's nice to think about it, but it's not something you can just say you don't want.

The soldiers of the Dachu Empire put their guns to your forehead, do you dare to say no?

Therefore, it is a scam for these Southeast Asian countries to seek loans from the Chu Empire for military purchases...

Basically, the Da Chu Empire sold the arms that cost ten taels of silver to them at a price of thirty or even fifty taels. If the arms trade did not increase three to five times, then why would they still say that they were selling arms?

Then they find a financial bank loan to pay for the goods, and for this they will be saddled with a debt of more than sixty taels... This debt also carries an annual interest rate of more than 20%... In the end, the repayment amount will be hundreds.

What, you want to repay early, you can, but if you repay early, you will also have to pay interest during the contract period.

In order to ensure repayment, the Chu Empire would take over their customs or salt tax and other tax agencies.

Of course, these are all false. The most important thing is that the huge military power of the Chu Empire is the guarantee for the repayment of these indigenous countries.

If you don’t pay back the money, your country will be destroyed in minutes.

Colonial empires are so domineering and shameless.

Through such a setback, the Chu Empire's expansion in Southeast Asia, even excluding the profits from subsequent market expansion, was able to withdraw a large amount of funds through compensation, loot, loans, etc.

Several big bosses in the empire picked up their abacus and plucked at it. Oh my god, after deducting military expenses, they actually made tens of millions.

This made the senior officials of the Dachu Empire blush...

Ever since the Civil Unification War, how long has it been since there was so much extra income... After the domestic war was over, the houses of the clans of the former Ming Dynasty, various dignitaries, and the landlords had basically all been ransacked.
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After there are no more targets for confiscation, even the tax department is forced to lay off employees... It is also very expensive to maintain so many losers. After there are fewer targets for confiscation in the country, it is natural to lay off employees to reduce the cost of tax collection.

After the Civil Unification War, the main fiscal revenue of the Chu Empire was basically limited to regular fiscal revenue. It seemed that there was a large amount of fiscal revenue every year, but the expenses were also huge, including military expenditures and various administrative expenses.<

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In addition, in those years, the Chu Empire also carried out agricultural development plans and plans to restore people's livelihood.

If I hadn’t accumulated a sum of confiscated income in the past few years, I would have been unable to hold on long ago.

Therefore, in the late period of the Unification War, the empire had actually begun to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Every year, they shouted that they would cut military expenditures. Even during the Eastern Campaign, they said they would cut military expenditures.

After the Eastern Conference was over, the empire's top brass finally made up their minds and wielded a machete at military expenditures without hesitation, forcing the military to tighten their belts to live.

In order to save military expenses, the army farmed their own fields, raised pigs and vegetables... Who is the largest settlement group in the Northeast? It is not immigrants or the like, but the settlement of the military.

It can also be seen from this that the financial situation of the Chu Empire is actually very tight.

He seemed very wealthy. In the 13th year of Chengshun's reign, the central government's fiscal revenue reached an astonishing 110 million yuan.

But again, the more you earn, the more you spend.

Military expenditures are tens of millions, administrative expenses are thousands, and various infrastructure constructions, such as official roads and various ports, are also very expensive.

The water conservancy facilities for flood control and irrigation are like a bottomless pit, constantly devouring funds from the imperial treasury.

And this cannot be stopped, nor can it even reduce construction efforts, because supporting agriculture and solving the food problem are the basic national policies of the empire that were finalized many years ago.

Before the reunification of the country was completed, Luo Zhixue had already shouted the slogan that food is the most important thing for the people. The most important task of the empire is to feed the people.

As for having enough food, everything else is nonsense. You just need to have enough food.

In modern times, it is troublesome to import food, and the freight is very expensive, so in the end, you have to rely on yourself to solve the problem of food and clothing.

As early as the fourth year of Chengshun, when the empire had not even begun the Northern Expedition, it had already begun to implement the first five-year agricultural development plan.

After the completion of the Chengshun five-year plan, the plan achieved great results, and the Dachu Empire took advantage of the situation and launched its second five-year agricultural development plan.

The goal remains the same: increase food production!

As for the large number of basic water conservancy facilities, whether it is flood control or irrigation, in fact, in the end, they are to ensure food production.

In terms of the current basic national policy of the empire, the large number of flood control and irrigation projects started to ensure food production will not be reduced, but will continue to increase in scale.

In order to increase grain production, the empire was so frantic that it was ready to proactively divert the Yellow River.

If the Yellow River continues to divert the Huaihe River into the sea, the vast Jiangbei region, and even the hinterland of the Central Plains including the large areas of Luoyang and Kaifeng, will not be able to guarantee the safe production of food.

There are minor floods every year and major floods in three years. If you can save your life, then there is no need to talk about increasing food production.

Moreover, drought continues in the northern region...it is still the Little Ice Age these days, and the climate is extremely abnormal, especially in the northern provinces, where droughts occur at every turn.

For this reason, the empire is determined to change the course of the Yellow River. On the one hand, it will prevent the Huaihe River area from being flooded every year. On the other hand, it can also divert the Yellow River water to the north to irrigate the cultivated land in the North China Plain.

After years of field investigation, the Yellow River diversion project has officially started in the autumn of the 13th year of Chengshun!
To be continued...