Chapter 1075

“In addition to the Imperial Central Bank, the Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank, and the Agricultural Bank have also been established. These specialized banks have their own functions and are responsible for providing loans to different industries. At the same time, the Imperial Stock Exchange is almost ready and will be able to officially issue government bonds and a series of other stocks to the public in April of next year.”

Yang Chengye flipped a page of the report and continued, “As for industry, under my supervision, industrial construction is in full swing in all major provinces. At present, all the upper prefectures have established their own large-scale industrial zones, and factories are also being established in middle and lower prefectures. The number of factories nationwide has doubled, which is a gratifying increase. As for the specific number of factories, it is too many, so I have compiled it in an appendix.”

Xiao Ming was flipping through Yang Chengye’s report. He turned to the end and saw that the more than thirty pages of paper indeed recorded the name, type, and scale of every factory in the Empire.

After roughly looking through it, Xiao Ming showed a smile. Unknowingly, the Empire’s industrial capacity had grown significantly.

Just in the Qingzhou area alone, many specialized machinery factories have been established during this period, such as factories that specialize in producing steam locomotives, bearing factories that produce bearings, bicycle factories that produce bicycles and tricycles, and motor factories that produce electric motors. It could be said that every time the research department led by Lin Wentao thoroughly understood a piece of machinery, a corresponding factory would immediately be established.

And after these factories appeared in Qingzhou, they would soon spread to other prosperous prefectures and counties.

After talking about the issue of factory construction, Yang Chengye also reported on the issue of commercial construction, which took a total of half an hour.

After Yang Chengye’s report ended, Xiao Ming had Song Changping, Chen Qi, Lin Wentao, Lu Tong, and He Dong report on the issues in their respective fields.

There was no need to mention He Dong and Lin Wentao. The internal combustion engine, automobile, telephone, and telegraph were their achievements. As for Lu Tong, although he was low-key this year, he had also done a lot. He had made good progress in petroleum refining, oxygen and nitrogen purification, and the production of various basic chemical agents.

These things may seem insignificant, but they are very important for the development of all industries.

As for Song Changping and Chen Qi, the two weapons experts, they were upgrading and modifying the Han-style rifle and the current Imperial Guard artillery, and the specific prototypes could be presented tomorrow.

After asking about the technological issues, Xiao Ming finally looked at Pang Yukun and had him give a general summary of all aspects of the Empire. This concluded the annual court session.

“Your Majesty, according to statistics, the total income from the Empire’s industrial and commercial taxes this year is sixty million gold dragons, and the agricultural tax is forty million gold dragons. In terms of tax revenue, commercial tax has exceeded agricultural tax and has become the main body of the Empire’s tax revenue. And in the industrial and commercial taxes, the taxes from state-run factories and the Chamber of Commerce account for sixty percent and are the main source of commercial tax.”

After a pause, Pang Yukun said proudly, “In addition to paying taxes, the profits submitted by state-run factories this year are also very considerable, reaching one hundred and twenty million gold dragons. The profits submitted by the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce are two hundred and eighty million. As for the war gains this year, the Empire has an income of ninety million gold dragons. These incomes mainly come from compensation from occupied areas and spoils of war.”

Among all the year-end reports, Xiao Ming liked to listen to Pang Yukun’s report the most, because at this moment he could clearly know the Empire’s financial situation for the year.

After talking about the tax revenue situation, Pang Yukun continued, “As of now, the total face value of the gold dragons issued by the Imperial Central Bank has reached ninety billion, which includes both paper money and gold coins.”

Xiao Ming showed a satisfied smile when he heard this. From this figure, he could conclude that the Empire’s tax revenue was normal.

“So does this mean that the Empire’s gross domestic product has increased by about three billion gold dragons this year?” Xiao Ming asked.

Pang Yukun was surprised. He said, “How did Your Majesty know that?”

Xiao Ming chuckled lightly. He said, “The Empire’s tax system was formulated by me. The total tax revenue will basically be one-tenth of the annual gross domestic product. I am still clear about this.”

Pang Yukun was shocked. He was already looking up to Xiao Ming, but he found that the more he interacted with him, the more he was unable to surpass this Emperor. He said, “Your Majesty is wise.”

He then said, “Compared to last year, the popularization of electricity has greatly increased the production capacity of factories, which is also the reason why the tax revenue is so high this year. And under Your Majesty’s governance, the people of the Empire are becoming richer day by day. Although the Empire has opened up many overseas markets, most of the goods produced by the Empire are still consumed domestically.”

“The Empire’s market is the biggest cake. There is no doubt about that. But with the current growth rate of the Empire’s industry, the domestic market will be saturated in less than three years. At that time, overseas markets will become very important,” Xiao Ming said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Kaiyuan stepped forward at this time. He said, “Your Majesty, based on my experience in overseas business during this period, the markets in the rest of the world combined can probably only be on par with the Empire’s. Their consumption power is too poor, and they simply cannot afford the Empire’s goods. If this continues, the Empire’s industry will inevitably encounter a bottleneck.”

“You have a very accurate view.” Xiao Ming said calmly. In this era, the world’s population was limited.

Moreover, most of the population was in a state of self-sufficiency. They had no demand for many industrial products at all. For example, people in Japan, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and Africa would not buy the Empire’s bicycles, and even in Europe, not everyone could afford them.

To make people in these places buy bicycles, there must be a wealthy class in these places, and at the same time, this class must have a demand for buying bicycles.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to infiltrate their culture and make the Chinese Empire’s fashion their fashion. Simply put, it is to establish the Empire’s cultural influence.

“To break out of this cage, we can only rely on the Empire itself. If other countries have no demand, we will create that demand. If they can’t afford it, we will make them able to afford it. The Empire’s colonial strategy from now on must be a little more refined.”

“Refined.” All the ministers looked at Xiao Ming.

Standing up from the dragon throne, he said, “Colonization is not just about military force. Cultural colonization and economic colonization are also forms of colonization. The Empire can now completely transfer polluting industries overseas and at the same time, establish its sphere of influence by exporting our culture.”

As he spoke, he looked at the gray sky of Qingzhou. The industry of the steam engine era required burning a lot of coal, which made the green mountains and clear waters of Qingzhou a thing of the past.

However, there was nothing that could be done about it, because this was the price of industrialization. But now that the colonies in Southeast Asia were under his control, he could completely transfer some heavily polluting industries there