There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 339 Agriculture
October.

The cabinet compiled a list of agricultural development plans for the coming year submitted by local officials and presented it to Nie Yu.

Liu Jun took the lead in reporting: "Now, under the rule of our Great Han, we have Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, southern Anhui, as well as the three prefectures of Kuizhou in Sichuan, Guizhou, and several provinces including Liannan in Guangdong. Currently, the Jianghan Plain in Hubei and the Dongting Lake Plain in Hunan are the main grain-producing areas of our Great Han. Next year, they will still be the main grain-producing areas of our Great Han."

"In western and southern Hunan, there is little arable land on the plains, which is not suitable for growing grain. Originally, the officials in the two places wanted to promote the cultivation of poppies, but now poppies have completely destroyed the fields. Therefore, the officials in the two places have settled for second best and requested that tobacco be planted on a trial basis in the mountainous areas of southern and western Hunan."

Strictly speaking, tobacco is not a good thing either. Although it is not as troublesome as poppy, the Han Dynasty still strictly controlled the cultivation and promotion of tobacco.

Especially since the opium poppy craze had just subsided, local officials in southern and western Hunan were eager to request that the previous opium poppy fields be converted to tobacco cultivation.

It's not that they're stubborn; the Hunan region, especially the Xiangnan and Xiangxi areas, is just too poor. They're truly impoverished and barren, with not even a decent plain suitable for farming.

Without plains, it's impossible to cultivate land and grow grain. Relying entirely on mountains for grain cultivation is not only inefficient but also prevents the people in the mountains from becoming wealthy.

If the mountain people remain poor, the local officials will fail their performance evaluations, and those who fail will not be promoted.

Therefore, all the local officials of these great Han dynasties racked their brains to make the people rich. Only when the people became rich could the local population prosper, tax revenue increase, and only then could they be promoted.

It turns out they were promoting the cultivation of poppies because poppies are both easy to grow and easy to sell. People can even take a few puffs when they're tired from working, which gives them a real boost.

Unfortunately, the poppy, on which they had placed such high hopes, turned out to be poisonous, and even a little bit would lead to immediate and irresistible addiction.

No wonder poppies sell so well; how could such an addictive drug not sell well? Even though poppies can no longer be grown, local officials in southern and western Hunan are still not giving up, so they have turned their attention to tobacco, which is paired with poppies.

Since poppies were grown in the mountainous areas of southern and western Hunan, tobacco must have also been grown, although on a much smaller scale than poppy fields. Moreover, after poppy cultivation was banned, tobacco was also controlled by the government.

“Tobacco should be grown in the mountainous areas of southern and western Hunan,” Nie Yu said after a moment’s thought, then posed the question to the cabinet, “Do you think the tobacco restrictions in southern and western Hunan should be lifted?”

"I believe it is permissible to lift the restrictions," replied Wu Taining, the Minister of Commerce, who was also a former Vice Minister of Works.

Nie Yu nodded: "Tell me more about it."

Wu Taining said, “Poppy is harmful and should be banned, but tobacco is different. Tobacco is harmful because it is consumed together with poppy. Since the introduction of tobacco in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has been regarded as the same as poppy. But tobacco is not poppy, and the two should not be considered together. I dare not make any grand pronouncements, but I will only say that planting tobacco can enrich the people of southern and western Hunan and save countless lives!”

To put it simply, tobacco cultivation can enrich and revitalize the people, making tobacco a profitable and lucrative economic crop that can be developed.

Nie Yu knew, of course, that this stuff was harmful if ingested in excess, but he couldn't tell his ministers and the people.

Moreover, the evaluation of whether tobacco is harmful cannot be based on one aspect alone; it must also be considered from the perspective of national development. Although later generations promoted the harmfulness of tobacco, tobacco was never truly eradicated.

To put it bluntly, tobacco can increase tax revenue, and a huge amount of it at that. According to statistics from later generations, tobacco alone can account for one-ninth of the national treasury's total revenue.

What terrifying tax revenue!

From the perspective of national development and improving people's livelihoods, tobacco is indeed more beneficial than harmful.

If Nie Yu were to forcibly ban tobacco, the officials and people of the Han Dynasty would certainly not understand, and might even feel that the court was being overly cautious and competing with the people for profit.

"Tobacco..."

After pondering for a long time, Nie Yu finally decided: "Since tobacco can benefit the people and enrich the country, then let Hunan and Hunan promote its cultivation! The cabinet should come up with a plan as soon as possible to allow its promotion, but it must not be unscrupulous, and rice fields must not be destroyed to grow tobacco for profit."

"Yes." "We've covered Huguang, what about the other places?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Jun continued to turn to the next page of the memorial: "Jiangxi has been newly occupied for a year, and the local officials are basically in place. After a year of on-site investigation, the Cabinet believes that the agricultural planning for Jiangxi should focus on cash crops such as tea, cotton, ramie, and tung oil, especially tea, cotton, and ramie."

Nie Yu raised his hand, signaling to continue.

Liu Jun continued, “Let’s start with tea. Merchants value profit over parting, and last month I went to Fuliang to buy tea. Fuliang County in Raozhou Prefecture is a major tea-producing area in Jiangxi. It not only produces tea, but also porcelain from Jingdezhen, all of which are specialties of Fuliang County.”

“Jiangxi is covered with mountains, which is very suitable for promoting tea plantation. Moreover, Jiangxi is the largest cotton-producing area in the south, and cotton cultivation here is extremely prosperous. Our great Han has just launched the Xinghua spinning machine, which can be used to process the large amount of cotton produced in Jiangxi and stimulate the people's livelihood and economy in Jiangxi.”

"Aside from cotton, ramie is the most important crop in Jiangxi."

"Like tea, ramie is well-suited for planting in the mountainous areas of Jiangxi. Even in barren mountains and wild fields, ramie can be easily planted and harvested in abundance. Moreover, the summer cloth woven from ramie is breathable and cool to wear, and has multiple uses, so there is no need to worry about sales. Planting ramie is more economically beneficial than tea or cotton, and the harvest is also faster."

Of course, ramie cultivation also has its drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that ramie is very easy to grow, and the yield and economic benefits are also very high. The ramie fabric woven from it is breathable and cool, and can even be used to make natural medical bandages.

However, the process of weaving ramie into summer cloth is extremely troublesome; even the word "troublesome" comes from the fact that the ramie weaving process is too complicated. Similarly, the "achievement" in the term "success" originates from the "spun cloth" process of weaving ramie into summer cloth, a process that is cumbersome and time-consuming to produce even a foot of "spun cloth."

However troublesome it may be, it's also very profitable, and Jiangxi ramie must be promoted!

“Hmm,” Nie Yu nodded slightly, “I have no objection. There are too many mountains in Jiangxi. Simply clearing land to grow grain will only be counterproductive. Ramie, tea, and cotton are very good and can complement the spinning machines of our Great Han. In addition to these cash crops, there is also Jingdezhen porcelain, which can also be restarted. Porcelain does not have to be used only by the government; it can also be sold to the people and overseas.”

Since we've already traveled through time, how can we not take the opportunity to sell our expensive porcelain?
These European bumpkins think that anything they don't understand must be good.

First, tea was sold at exorbitant prices, which led to the development of a special afternoon tea habit and even triggered the "Boston Tea Party" a few years ago, directly accelerating the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

Porcelain was even more impressive. Because so little Chinese porcelain flowed into Europe, Augustus II, an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, ordered people to imitate Chinese porcelain.

He actually managed to create a semi-finished product – a Meissen porcelain.

Meissen porcelain was highly sought after by European royalty as soon as it was introduced. Even though it was pure white and quite rough, basically a copy of Chinese porcelain and could be considered a knock-off, it still sold for exorbitant prices in Europe.

If Nie Yu could sell Jingdezhen porcelain to Europe, he would hardly need to engage in a price war; he could completely crush and squeeze out Meissen porcelain in one fell swoop.

Do you even know what a genuine product is?

How can a knock-off piece of junk, a cheap substitute, compete with Chinese porcelain?
After discussing Jiangxi's agricultural plan, we'll move on to southern Anhui.

Since southern Anhui only accounts for one-third of the province, there's basically nothing to change there; you can just plant whatever you normally would.

It is worth mentioning that at the end of the Qianlong era, Anhui merchants introduced corn and sweet potato crops to the coastal areas, especially corn, which was widely cultivated in the mountainous areas of Huizhou.

Corn is a double-edged sword. While it can feed a large number of people, excessive cultivation of corn in mountainous areas can also damage the slope structure, impair soil fertility, and cause natural disasters such as land desertification and landslides.

By the way, Huizhou Prefecture also produces peanuts and tea. The peanuts are a given, as Huizhou is a major peanut-producing area in Jiangnan. And the tea is even more remarkable; Huizhou's Songluo tea is a famous tea of ​​Jiangnan.

Taiping Prefecture and Ningguo Prefecture were the main cotton-producing areas in Anhui Province. Cotton production had already begun in the Ming Dynasty and reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty.

The remaining three prefectures of Guizhou, Liannan in Guangdong, and Kuizhou in Sichuan were all newly conquered by the Han Dynasty. Local officials had not yet all arrived, so the cabinet had not yet prepared any agricultural plans or contingency plans; for now, the status quo would be maintained, and things would continue as usual.

(End of this chapter)