Peng Zhicheng sat in a clean and clean office on the second floor of the Canyon Township Railway Station, holding a document in his hand. This is a programmatic document on the next stage of the country's development just issued by the Policy Research Office of the Government Council. The document lists the current status of industrial and agricultural development in the East Coast Republic. Both achievements and existing problems are written on it in detail. At the same time, the report also looks forward to future development and puts forward the idea of ​​developing some industries in a forward-looking manner.

This document was issued to township-level cadres to collect as much opinions from some grassroots practical cadres as possible. This will also be of great benefit to the formulation of policies of the country. The cadres below can better understand the intentions of the central government when they implement them. Peng Zhicheng is a retired army veteran, a special consultant of the State Council, a national railway supervisor, and a special commissioner of the Yihe Region. He is naturally qualified to read this document.

"The war has entered its third year. In these 16 months of war, our army has achieved brilliant achievements. With less than 2,500 casualties, it has conquered many Spanish cities, basically annihilated the two enemy fleets in South America, and obtained extremely rich spoils. However, the huge military victory cannot cover up the stagnation of national economic development in the past period of time, or even regression..."

"According to statistics, in the last full fiscal year (1647), the national fiscal revenue achieved a total income of 2.152 million yuan, a decrease of 5.6% from 1646. Among them, the collection of various domestic taxes has increased, so the proportion of tax revenue in the national fiscal exceeded 10% for the first time, reaching 10.8%; the main factor for the decline in total national fiscal revenue is that the trade profits paid by state-owned enterprises have dropped sharply, down 8.6% from the same period last year. Among them, the continued decline in sales of my country's textiles in the French market is the main reason - the Kingdom of France has raised tariffs on imported Chinese textiles for the third time. It has now hit a new high of 20%.

"Compared with income, fiscal expenditure last year was 3.23 million yuan, a 45% increase over 1646. Among them, military expenditure accounts for 67.5% of total fiscal expenditure, also a 64.2% increase over last year. I believe that with the continued consumption of military capital in stock, the total military expenditure will increase significantly next year."

"To sum up, the fiscal deficit for the whole year in 1647 was 1.078 million yuan. With the deepening of the war and a series of economic construction, it is expected that the government's fiscal deficit will exceed 1.6 million yuan next year. If the war is delayed for a long time, the national finance will definitely fall on the brink of collapse..."

After reading this sensational opening, Peng Zhicheng slapped the document on the table and then laughed silently. The group of people in the Policy Research Office were really making a big deal. Not to mention anything else, this year, the first batch of immigration ships returning from the Far East carried a total of 1.2 million silver dollars minted. These silver dollars minted by Dabo coins took more than two months to mint were one of the main "political achievements" of Mo Dashuai. After all, the Executive Committee he had done in the Far East could only understand from the words in the report, so naturally the impression could not be too deep.

But the money brought back from boxes of the Far East is different. At the moment when the national fiscal deficit reached a record high, the effect of the 1.2 million silver dollar is extraordinary. At least the officials in the base camps of the civil service system, such as the Ministry of Finance and Civil Affairs, who were originally disliked, have improved their views on him at this moment: the country's investment in the Far East will never exceed 250,000 yuan per year (not counting as shipbuilding). Mo Dashui actually sent 1.2 million yuan in cash to the local area, and almost collected all the investment in the Far East over the years. Such cadres are capable cadres and good cadres of the country!

In addition to this money, the Army Department also sent nearly 900,000 yuan of gold and silver coins of various types harvested from La Plata to the central government. In addition, more than 60,000 cattle (the number continues to increase) and nearly 20,000 other livestock (sheep, horse, pig, llama, donkey, mule, etc.) transported from La Plata in previous times can also be cashed out. If some other materials such as leather, hardwood, grain, jewelry and other easy-to-money materials are included, there are about 700,000 to 800,000 yuan.

If this is not enough, don't worry, the loan of 10 million bank lira (more than 1.64 million yuan) promised by the Genoese will soon arrive. All of this money is enough for the East Coast Republic to continue the war for two years. As for what to do in two years, cold salmon! Take care of it first, let's talk about it. Maybe export trade will flourish again in two years?

"...For the current plan, we must vigorously develop the country's economy and restore export trade. With the cooperation agreement signed with the Genoese and the Dutch West India Company, we will vigorously promote the export of goods in emerging markets - Brazil, the Caribbean, North America, West Africa, and even Italy and Spain. If the east is not bright, the west is bright, and if the French market sales decline, it will be compensated by emerging markets. If the textile trade volume declines, it will also be compensated by other commodities. To this end, the State Council has formulated a development outline for the next few years."

"First, it is to increase the proportion of non-textiles to export. After calculating according to the cost-effectiveness ratio, the State Council approved the five-year plan for the three industries of steel, shipbuilding and transportation proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. In the steel industry, the production capacity of Ping An Iron and Steel Plants dropped sharply last year, and it fell below 5,500 tons throughout the year, down 18% from 1646. However, the national demand for iron for use in the whole year was close to 6,500 tons, with a gap of as much as 1,000 tons, and the economic losses caused were huge.

The reason is that the war drew a large number of inland steam transport ships to La Plata to transport military funds, which caused the large amount of iron ore sand produced by Changshan Iron Mine (workers, hard-working camp prisoners, labor camp prisoners, and black labor workers combined with more than 20,000 workers) to be transported to Ping'an Port Wharf in time. In addition, dock workers were transferred to the front line to serve as military servants, and the terminal's throughput efficiency decreased, which is also one of the main reasons for the bottleneck of iron ore sand transportation."

"According to the plan this year, the section of the Northwest Railway Baiqiyabao to Hejinbao with a total length of nearly 110 kilometers will be fully opened to traffic, with a total of more than 5,000 tons of railway tracks and other types of equipment required. Other machinery, vehicles, boilers, steam engines, hardware tools, metal agricultural tools, arms, anchor chains and other various iron needs, the annual consumption may exceed 7,000 tons. If the losses in normal production are included, Ping An Iron and Steel Plant needs to produce more than 8,000 tons of steel throughout the year. The No. 1 blast furnace of the plant is designed to produce 35 tons of iron per day and 10,000 tons of iron per year. If the raw materials required for normal production such as iron ore sand, coke, soda ash and various additives can be supplied normally, it will be no big problem to complete the production task."

"But the bottleneck is in transportation now." Peng Zhicheng looked at the document and couldn't help but recite it quietly: "When I chatted with Lao Xiao last time, the 72-ton inland steamer under the Inland Transportation Company had only increased to 79, with a total transportation tonnage of less than 6,000 tons. Even if we had already retired and had re-used 35-ton inland steamer, the total tonnage of this inland transport will not exceed 8,000 tons. And a considerable number of these have been transferred to the front line to transport military supplies and personnel, and the domestic transportation capacity is even more tense. Coal, ore, building materials, grain, wood, machinery, etc., should not occupy a large amount of transportation tonnage. Now, the amount of fuel, ore and grain produced by coal mines, iron ore, and farms has not decreased, and there may even be some growth, but this backlog is enough to be transported without any means."

"Water transportation capacity is tight, and this road transportation with less efficiency is even more unbearable." Peng Zhicheng took the document again and thought while looking at it: "Highway transportation is still quite backward in China today. High-level highways (national highways, county roads) have a short mileage, less than 300 kilometers. There are no more than 100 trucks, and the total transportation tonnage is only about 1,500 tons. What can this save? Until now, it is impossible to even connect highways between counties. The Ministry of Transport is simply nonsense!"

In fact, as the war continues, the negative impact on the domestic economy of the East Coast is indeed getting deeper and deeper. Not to mention, the squeeze of transportation resources alone has caused a large number of domestic factories to be insufficient to start, production efficiency has decreased, and production capacity has dropped significantly compared with those before the war. This is particularly obvious in industries such as steel, construction, and wood processing, which are extremely dependent on energy and raw materials. The recession of these industries has quickly spread to downstream enterprises, causing the speed of industrial machines on the entire East Coast to decline, the level of productivity has decreased, and the efficiency of workers to create wealth has decreased.

In addition, the Spaniards have exerted their influence, which has caused a considerable number of countries or regions to refuse to export all kinds of materials needed for industrial production to the East Coast, which further makes various industrial production in the East Coast worse. Now the State Council can only give priority to the production of some key enterprises, such as textile enterprises, military enterprises, machining enterprises, etc. At the same time, last year, the domestic production of various non-essential commodities was compressed to save resources as much as possible to ensure the key industries supported by the country.

For example, after the double-digit growth rate of metal agricultural tools, hardware products and steel bars, which had been very popular in the past few years, the export value of such commodities fell below 5% for the first time in 1647, and the export volume even dropped by 10%, which was entirely due to the shrinking domestic steel production capacity.

In such a situation, it is not surprising that the large amount of raw coal produced by Ping An Mining Bureau last year was overflowing. In the middle of the year, the leader of the Mining Bureau had to order production cuts for the first time after asking the Government Council. Ping An Coal Mine, which had been increasing for ten consecutive years, fell by 8% year-on-year in 1647, which seemed to indicate a comprehensive slowdown in the East Coast economy.
Chapter completed!