Chapter 8 5. The industrial revolution fell from the sky

After the establishment of the capitalist system in Western Europe and North America, it greatly promoted the development of the economy. Capitalism entered the era of free competition. The main reason for the development of capitalism to this stage is the industrial revolution. The premise of the Industrial Revolution was the establishment of bourgeois rule in Britain.The first condition of the Industrial Revolution is capital, that is, money. The money came from overseas trade and colonial plunder. It is not right to say how the British money came from, because it was all robbed.The cotton textile factory ran out of raw materials, and the workers were in a relationship with the factory, but the factory owner said to wait, and I went to China to snatch it, which is impossible!How long will it take to get it back?These things are really stolen. According to our current fashion, money must be laundered and bleached, so the capital comes from overseas trade and colonial plunder, not all of them are stolen.

The second condition is raw materials and markets, which are indeed obtained through colonial expansion. The third condition is free labor, which is obtained through the enclosure movement, not black slaves. Industrial development must have sufficient free labor. The fourth condition is technological accumulation. Before the Industrial Revolution, Britain was the country with the most developed handicraft industry, so it had a profound technological accumulation. The fifth condition is market demand, which is also the direct cause of the Industrial Revolution in Britain.Because the supply of my products is in short supply, I will try my best to improve the production technology and let it develop further.If the supply exceeds demand, I would be crazy if I didn’t switch jobs quickly and expand production.

The necessary conditions for a country to develop capitalism are capital, raw materials, markets, and labor, and these necessary conditions were the most in China during the prosperous Qianlong period in 1760.At that time, the silver used in China accounted for half of the world, and all the silver from Latin America was shipped to Europe, and Europe shipped it to us in exchange for our silk, porcelain, and tea.We also have the most labor force, who can compare with us in China?Not to mention the market, with such a large population, how much does it cost each person to buy a handkerchief?At that time, China really had raw materials. Unlike today, all energy needs to be imported.Then why didn't China have an industrial revolution?The reason is that there is no prerequisite.The imperial court has closed the country again and again, focusing on agriculture and ignoring business. If you don't pay attention to this, of course it will not develop.

From 1760 to 1840, Britain took nearly 80 years to complete the industrial revolution, and the Opium War broke out as soon as the industrial revolution was completed. In the movie "The Opium War" released in 1997, Queen Victoria cut the ribbon for the newly opened railway. The minister reported: "Your Majesty, another railway in our country has opened to traffic." The Queen clicked the scissors and the whistle blew.As soon as the camera is changed, China’s 600 mile plus fast horse, how do your four meaty hooves compare with other trains?One is the industrial age of the 19th century, and the other is the agricultural age of the 16th century. Is there any reason for this war to be won?Machine factories replaced manual workshops, marking the completion of the industrial revolution.Originally it was "field", and later it was "factory". This is a change in nature.

During the course of the British Industrial Revolution, there were many inventions, starting from the cotton textile industry, to the mining and metallurgy industry - coal mining, metal smelting, and then to transportation, the most typical ones being trains and steamships.The industrial revolution first started in the cotton textile industry. This sector requires a small amount of investment, low technological content, and is closely related to people's lives, so it is given priority to develop.Since the invention of the hydraulic loom, it was necessary to manufacture the machine, and once the machine was manufactured, the development of metallurgy naturally began. In 1785, Watt improved the steam engine, and mankind entered the steam age.As soon as the steam engine was invented, coal was needed. In this way, the mining and metallurgy industry developed, forming a virtuous circle.In order to transport products to the market as quickly as possible and bring back raw materials as quickly as possible, transportation needs to be improved.The earliest innovations in transportation were powered by coal, leading to trains and steamships.

A steamboat is also called a ship, why is it called a ship?There is a paddle wheel next to the ship, and the steam power turns the wheel, and the ship moves forward.Ships still have sails, which are propelled by sails when there is wind, and by steam engines when there is no wind.This boat looks weird. When it was sailing at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, the audience agreed that it couldn't start. When the boat started, the audience agreed that it couldn't stop.As a result, the ship took 29 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and if it took more than 3 months for a sailing ship, it shortened the time by 2/3.Today's ship may cross in six or seven days, which is even more serious.Fulton presented this invention to Napoleon. Unfortunately, Napoleon, who was an artillery officer, knew nothing about it and thought that another scammer had come to me to cheat money.Because Napoleon was going to conquer Britain at that time, many inventors gave him all kinds of strange ideas. Some people suggested that he use balloons to carry troops across the strait. 125,000 troops, tens of thousands of horses, and thousands of cannons were transported by balloons. How big is it?What if a gust of wind blows to Iceland?So Napoleon regarded all inventors as liars.If Napoleon had accepted this invention, as soon as French troops landed in England, the British would have to speak French.Ships are not used on warships, because the part of the paddle wheel that rotates on the water is useless, and at that time, the artillery of warships was installed on both sides, and there was a big wheel that blocked the cannons from being loaded, so they couldn’t be fired by themselves. It is easy to be knocked down by the enemy, and the wheels are round, like targets.Therefore, during the Opium War, the British warships were still sailing battleships, and the transport ships had steamers.At that time, we in China also built ships, and put the ship on two wheels and let people pedal it, which is the same as the principle of a bicycle.It startled Britain at first, and the Chinese will also build ships?When they seized it, they almost dropped the dentures on the floor. It turned out to be a pedal boat.

The reason why trains are called "trains" is because coal is burned. Today's "trains" are actually trams.When I was a child, I played with model trains that were pushed on the ground. Adults took a puff of cigarettes and sprayed them on the train. Look, the train was smoking.Do you still see smoking trains today?It was on fire.The first time I traveled far away was by train, from Beijing to Shijiazhuang.I was very impressed. In addition to the driver, there must also be a fireman who is responsible for shoveling coal. On this road, several brothers shovel coal into the furnace in shifts.At that time, the trains were crawling like tortoises. The speed of forty to fifty kilometers per hour was very slow. You want to reach the current speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour. Are you kidding, burning coal?It's useless to fill in the brothers.

After Britain completed the industrial revolution, it was followed by France. Although France is the second industrialized country after Britain, there is a big gap between the second and the oldest.Why is it so big?Because of the hindrance of its small and medium-sized enterprises, small-scale peasant economy and usury capital, it has caused its slow development. What products are the best in France?Perfume, wine, and LV are the best. Can these things be mass-produced?Produce 100,000 LVs a day?That was in China. The production of LV in China is definitely larger than that in France. People who squeeze the subway and walk in the morning market all wear LV, but that is not true.Those things are of aristocratic quality in France, and they are purchased in limited quantities. Look at your passport and sell you two, one big and one small. Register your passport number, and you will not be allowed to buy it again. It is everywhere, no. Noble quality.There are often Chinese people who pour this bag there, buy it back and sell it at a high price, 600 euros there, 12,000 yuan back home, the price can double.The French are very enthusiastic about producing this kind of thing. A package sells for the price of a car. If you forget that I copy you, what do you do?We don't buy real ones, and if we buy real ones, people will think they are fake, so we just buy fake ones.Can high-tech products be copied?If I paste a plane with paper, who would dare to sit on it?This is why France's national strength is not commensurate with its ambitions.Now, 40% of the products exported by France every year are luxury goods, which are mainly sold to Asia, Japan, South Korea and the Greater China economic zone.

The United States has unique conditions for launching the industrial revolution, first of all, it has a vast land and abundant resources.The United States is really big and rich, unlike ours, which is "thin".Our piece of land claims to be 9.6 million square kilometers, with seven mountains, two waters and one field, most of which are not suitable for human survival.It is not terrible that there are many Chinese people, what is terrible is that the distribution is too uneven.From Heihe in Heilongjiang to Tengchong in Yunnan, there is a line connecting the two points. The east of the line accounts for 90% of China's total population, and the population of more than 4 million square kilometers to the west of the line is very small.Tibet is 1.3 million square kilometers, and there are not as many people as Beijing.The United States has two oceans, east and west, and no strong enemy in the north and south. The country is almost arable, with the Appalachian Mountains in the east, the Andes and the Rocky Mountains in the west, leaving a passage in the middle, which is the big granary in the middle of the United States.The industry and commerce on both sides of the strait are developed, and the resources and environment are particularly good.When Clinton was president, he signed an order that oil in the Gulf of Mexico was not allowed to be exploited before 2010 and should be left to future generations.After the Americans bought oil, they poured it barrel by barrel into the oil storage tank in the mountain. The oil storage tank was a stainless steel barrel, 3 kilometers long. When the war broke out and the import was completely cut off, the United States could still insist on 400 kilometers. More than 180 days in Japan, only a few dozen days in China.If a war breaks out, China's oil imports will definitely be cut off, and if they cut off the Strait of Malacca, what will happen to our tanks and planes?Tanks are not 5 fuel per 100 kilometers, but maybe 500 fuel per 100 kilometers. If you think about it, a tank with 1000 liters of fuel can only run 400 kilometers, so there is no need to supply civilian vehicles with fuel. All gas stations are closed and must be supported. The army goes to war.How to keep warm when there is no oil, how to generate electricity, let’s light wax.

The second condition for the development of the US economy is to suffer less damage from wars.In the American War of Independence, 6,700 people died in the eight-year war of resistance, and 18 million in China.The War of Independence actually lasted for 6 years, and more than 1,000 people died in one year.From the War of Independence to the Vietnam War, a total of 1 million people died. Among them, the Civil War killed 600,000 people, World War II 300,000 people, and the rest of the World War I, Korean War, and Vietnam War. Precious, life comes first.When we Easterners fight wars, victory is the first priority, no matter what the cost, people are on the ground.Americans don't see it that way, and Europeans don't see it that way either. Lost positions can be recaptured, lost weapons can be remade, and dead people cannot be brought back to life.

The third condition is immigration.When the Declaration of Independence was published in 1776, there were 3 million people in the United States. From 1860 to 1861, when the Civil War broke out, it reached 31 million. The population increased by 10 times in 80 years, and the Chinese were not able to give birth like this.The vast majority of this 10-fold population increase is immigration.What kind of immigrant Americans want?One is skilled immigration and the other is investment immigration.Of course, there was also a shortage of labor at that time, mainly technology and investment.To immigrate to the United States today, investment immigration requires at least 800,000 US dollars.You have to spend 800,000 in the United States to create jobs for the United States. 600,000 to buy a villa in the United States to register for you, you said I put it in the bank, no way!The other is skilled immigration, which the United States is very interested in.When I first started working, there was a Chinese teacher in the school who was a doctor in the United States. I heard that his annual salary was 250,000 US dollars, which was equivalent to 2 million RMB. That was in 1994.We all feel that he is really hardworking, counting money every day is so tiring.Why is his salary so high?Because there are only a few people including his husband in the United States who can do that kind of complicated surgery. He finished his doctorate in China and went out, and he got a green card soon after arriving in the United States.The Chinese teacher went to visit relatives twice, and the third time, the American embassy said that you can no longer visit relatives, you can only do immigration.She said that I am a Chinese teacher, why should I go to America?Go to Chinatown to teach Chinese?Or washing diapers and taking care of the children, but the children are too old to watch, and I can’t get enough people to play mahjong. Why should I stay there?The embassy doesn’t care. If you want to see your husband, you have to immigrate to the United States. If you apply for a visit visa, I will refuse it.Because you have come twice, but only three times, what if you call your husband back to China the third time?Of course, it's impossible for her husband to come back, and instead of earning 250,000 U.S. dollars, earn 5,000 RMB?The Chinese teacher didn't want to go to the United States, because she had nothing to do there, but her husband was useful, and the value created would definitely be no problem to support her, so the United States wanted to get her away, so that her husband could stay in the United States with peace of mind.The United States doesn't want everyone, and those who are good for the country are warmly welcomed; those who come here with smugglers and smugglers are all rejected.Go back wherever you are, bye. The fourth is standardized production.What is the standardization of machine parts?Most obviously, there is an example of standardized production around you - McDonald's. It is difficult for Chinese fast food to surpass foreign fast food, because foreign fast food is standardized production, and one cook in the world is enough.When I was in college, there was no McDonald’s. I fried chicken at KFC. Put the chicken nuggets in the pot, and there was a watch next to it. After a few minutes, it would sound and the chicken would be taken out. Who can’t do it?No technical content is required.Pork and scallion buns will not do this.Can you shred the onion?That is definitely technical work; can you make buns?I love potato shreds, but the taste of potato shreds in each restaurant is different.But McDonald's french fries taste the same all over the world. They are produced in a standardized way, and Chinese food can't do it.I love this taste, but that restaurant doesn’t have this taste, so I’ll change to another; I love this restaurant, but it has changed chefs and tastes, and I have to change until I find a place that suits my taste, so the chef Most important in restaurants.Chinese recipes say to add a little salt, foreigners will get dizzy when they see it, how much is a little?One gram or two grams, the chef told me to tremble twice, if I tremble less, the dish might not taste good, and it is easy for the chef to make trouble for you.I have studied in the Chinese University of Hong Kong for nearly a month. I don’t like Hong Kong food. A piece of green vegetable is very long, not cut, and it seems that there is no salt. Personally, how do you eat this stuff?After eating for a week, my little body lost three catties.The men from the Northeast couldn’t bear it even more. The people who came to study were all teachers from all over the country, so they couldn’t bear it anymore.Later we protested to the school that we would die if we ate any more.The school said to subsidize everyone, 70 Hong Kong dollars a day, you can go out and eat.When I thought about how I could finish eating 70 yuan, I might have 50 yuan left to buy things with my appetite.I went outside and saw, well, a short fried dough stick costs 7 yuan, and 10 sticks is half full. It's over, and I will starve to death in Hong Kong this time.Then I saw that there is a McDonald’s in the Chinese University. I ate McDonald’s three times a day for two weeks. When I returned to Beijing, I didn’t even see McDonald’s. Whenever I heard people say these three words, I felt like throwing up. It took me a month to transfer over. .This is standardization, which was first invented in the United States. After France and the United States, the third country where the Industrial Revolution expanded was Germany.Germany is not the same thing as the Germany we talk about today, it is not a concept, Germany is English, German is Deutschland, and we translate it into Deutsche.Look at the license plates of EU countries, Germans have D, not G, Dutch have N, Niederlande, this is not English, it is the local language.Germany was only a geographical concept at that time, not a political concept.At that time, Germany was a loose confederation of 34 states and 4 free cities. The fragmented political situation hindered the development of the German Industrial Revolution. In addition, there are two rising capitalist countries, Japan and Russia, whose industrial revolutions have just started, and the two industrial revolutions are interleaved. The Industrial Revolution has had a profound impact on the development of human history. First, it promotes the development of productive forces and consolidates the order of capitalist rule.The industrial revolution has brought about a rapid increase in productivity. What is the concept of a rapid increase in productivity?From Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty to Emperor Qianlong of Emperor Gaozong of Qing Dynasty, China's gross national product doubled in two thousand years. It can be considered that China's traditional agricultural society is basically a stagnant society.In the Han Dynasty, there were three to four hundred catties of rice and one to two hundred catties of wheat per mu of land. In the Qing Dynasty, there was no significant improvement. It was because of the arrival of potatoes and sweet potatoes that they were able to feed so many people, not by wheat and rice.During the British Industrial Revolution, the gross national product doubled in 80 years, and it is obvious that industrial civilization has a huge advantage over agricultural civilization.China's agricultural civilization has developed to the extreme, so during the Qianlong period, the GDP of a country was as high as that of a continent in Europe, but people stopped playing with us in agriculture, changed the course, and switched to industry, leaving us behind. Second, it promotes the development of liberal capitalism. In 1776, the 41st year of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the year when the American Declaration of Independence was published, the British scholar Adam?Smith published "The Wealth of Nations" and raised the banner of free capitalism.Is there still unfree capitalism?Yes, it is called mercantilism.In the period of primitive accumulation of capital, capitalist countries intervene in the economy in order to complete the primitive accumulation of capital. They can only export, but not import. Gold and silver flow in and out of commodities, leaving money behind. All countries do this.You also want to sell things, I also want to sell things, everyone wants to sell things, and they all come to grab the market.The market is in the colonies, so countries fight for the colonies, and there are many wars, such as the Second Hundred Years War between Britain and France, which is mainly for this purpose, so mercantilism is the state's intervention in the economy.After the industrial revolution, the bourgeoisie wants to sell goods outside and buy raw materials inside, thinking that the state should not interfere with this. If I need to import raw materials, I have to import them. If I want to sell goods outside, I have to sell them outside. Under the domination of this kind of thinking, Liberal capitalism developed. Third, the industrial revolution formed the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat in society, and the socialist movement rose and developed. Fourth, the process of urbanization has begun.The agricultural society is a slow-paced, idyllic way of life. The family is a production unit first, and a living unit second.After the Industrial Revolution, a large number of rural laborers flooded into cities and began the process of urbanization.People's pace of life has accelerated, the size of the family has shrunk, and the family has changed from a production unit to a living unit. Fifth, the East is subordinated to the West, the capitalist world market is initially formed, and nationalism is on the rise. In the first half of the 19th century, many parts of the world were colonized by European powers. After the emergence of nationalism in Europe, Asia also emerged. Java, Afghanistan, Iran, India, these long-oppressed regions all had nationalist uprisings.After the Industrial Revolution, three major trends of social thought emerged in Europe, namely nationalism, socialism, and liberalism. At that time, Europe represented the most advanced pace, and the trend of Europe was the trend of the world. The Industrial Revolution in Western Europe and North America also promoted the development of rural capitalism.There are two roads to agricultural capitalism: one is the large farm represented by the United Kingdom, and the other is the small farm system represented by France.Britain established the capitalist ranch through the enclosure movement.The United States has also established capitalist large farms through the Westward Movement and the Homestead Act.Germany is also a typical capitalist ranch, transforming the semi-feudal Junker manor into a capitalist ranch. Large-scale capitalist farms are characterized by large scale, which inevitably requires mechanized production. The higher the degree of mechanization, the less labor force is employed, and the faster the agricultural development speed is.The development of a country's capitalist industry requires capital, raw materials, labor, and markets.Large farms can provide sufficient raw materials, labor, markets, and even some funds to promote the development of industry in this country. The opposite of large farms is small farming.France established the capitalist small-scale peasant system through land distribution, and Russia is also a capitalist small-scale peasant economy. Serfdom was abolished in 1861, and farmers could get a piece of land, which had to be bought at a high price.When farmers are free, the state will give you a piece of land. If the state has no land, the landlord will give it to you.If you were a landlord, what land would you sell to farmers?Not even cacti grow!Some may be forests, some may be swamps. I sold them to you, but you have to buy them at a high price. If you have no money, the state will loan you money, and you have to repay usury, which will be paid off in 49 years.Peasants borrowed 650 million gold rubles in 1861 and repaid 2.5 billion gold rubles by 1910.The gold ruble does not depreciate, the state makes a fortune, and the landlords give the most useless land to the peasants.The worst thing is the peasants. How can they make a living if they have a piece of land where no cactus grows?How to pay off the country's arrears?You have to rent land from landlords.In other words, Russia is a typical small-scale peasant economy, and even you can hardly call it a capitalist small-scale peasant economy, because it still retains landlords.Of course, because Russia is too big and the land is vast and sparsely populated, it would be nice to be able to see neighbors when driving 300 kilometers. Maybe the land area occupied by farmers is not small. China is all at the level of landlords, but it is indeed a small-scale peasant economy, accounting for With so much land, the degree of mechanization is low, but it can't be planted. Among the major capitalist countries in the world, Japan is also the one that established the small-scale farming system.The Meiji Restoration in Japan allowed the sale of land and guaranteed the land ownership of emerging landlords.Peasants still have no land and can only rent and plant land from landlords. This is a typical small-scale peasant economy. Small-scale farming is characterized by small scale, low degree of mechanization, large labor force, slow agricultural development, and inability to provide sufficient capital, raw materials and labor for industry.China is also a small-scale farming system. At the beginning of the WTO negotiations, China was most worried about the collapse of agriculture, not the automobile industry. How can farmers with 2.65 acres of land compete with the products of American farmers with thousands of acres of land?But now China's hundreds of millions of farmers are unable to establish large farms. They can only rely on industry and service industries to absorb more rural labor, so that the per capita arable land area in rural areas will not decrease. After the completion of the Industrial Revolution, the strength of the industrial bourgeoisie grew stronger. In the 1860s and 1870s, Western Europe, North America, and Japan in Asia, capitalism developed in depth, and a series of revolutions and reforms occurred. Compared with the early bourgeois revolution of the handicraft era, there is a big difference. In the 1860s and 1870s, it was the era of large-scale machine industry, and the industrial bourgeoisie led the revolution and reform.The early bourgeois revolution was led by the big bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy, the liberal aristocracy in France, and the plantation owners in North America. The revolution in the 1860s and 1870s was led by the industrial bourgeoisie, and commercial capital no longer accounted for the main body. Where there are leaders, there must be those who follow and boo.In the era of the early bourgeois revolution, that is, the era of factory handicrafts, the main force participating in the bourgeois revolution was peasants, handicraftsmen, and the urban poor. The oppression of the dynasty, not how the boss exploited him, so they were the main force of the early bourgeois revolution. In the bourgeois revolution in the 1860s and 1870s, the proletariat participated, of course, industrial workers were not the main force. The task of the early bourgeois revolution was to fight against feudalism. The task of the bourgeois revolution in the 1860s and 1870s was to remove all obstacles to the development of capitalism, regardless of whether it was the remnants of feudalism or the remnants left over from the era of manufacturing and handicrafts. The targets are different for different revolutionary tasks.The bourgeois revolution in the early days was to overthrow the feudal autocracy. At this time, the bourgeois revolution struggled against the leading class of the revolution—the big bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy. In the United States, the planters belonged to the landed aristocracy.For example, did the plantation owners have meritorious service when it was established in the United States?Of course there is!The founding fathers and founding fathers of the United States were basically all plantation owners, including Washington and Jefferson. They made great contributions to the establishment of the United States, but then the American Civil War killed them all.The original leadership class hindered development at this time and became an obstacle, which must be cleared away. After the establishment of the United States, it began to expand its territory and at the same time carried out a westward movement.When the United States of America was just born, the flag was a hexagon with 13 stars arranged in a circle, similar to Israel's David's star, and a bit like the flag of the European Union.In the future, every time a state is added, a white star will be added on the blue background of the national flag. Because there are too many, the circular row will not fit, so it will be changed to a horizontal row, and the six corners will take up space, so it will be changed to five corners. Of course, the horizontal stripes cannot be added. Added to a zebra. The national flag has been changing, and the number of white stars on the flag has increased, representing the expansion of the US territory.The Americans bought Louisiana from France for $6.50 per square kilometer for $15 million; bought Alaska from Russia for $4.50 per square kilometer for $2.5 million; Purchased the south of the Rio Grande; purchased Florida for US$5 million, and the total expansion of the territory of the United States cost less than US$30 million. Of course, the US dollar at that time was worth more than today, but its area expanded by 10 times.The United States was originally located east of the Appalachian Mountains and along the Atlantic Ocean, but soon it became a country that straddled two oceans. In the process of expansion, the United States carried out a westward movement, and the native Indians were massacred, but the vast undeveloped areas were developed.This is actually the same as what we said earlier about the colonial expansion of Western colonists. Someone has to pay the price for the progress of history. If the Indians are still in that place today, that place may still be in the prehistoric civilization era. .Of course, today’s Indians in the United States, like our pandas, are rare and endangered “animals”. Indians are not required to perform military service or pay taxes when the country compulsorily recruits soldiers. The fog must be the Indians.Don't other Asians spray it there just because they are yellow faces, it's over, only Indians can.Americans feel guilty towards Indians, sorry for them.But the westward movement laid the foundation for the further development of the United States, especially for the establishment of bourgeois large farms.