Chapter 442: The Emperor's Studies

“Port? I don’t think they have that yet! I remember this stuff became famous later than Cognac!” Liu Xiang asked doubtfully.

Qian Shuixie leaned close to Liu Xiang’s ear and whispered, “Lord Lu’s vineyard has produced its first wine this year! The semi-fermented grape juice is directly mixed with brandy imported from Europe. I don’t know if this Port is considered local or imported, hehe.”

Liu Xiang also knew a little about wine. After hearing this, he immediately gave a thumbs-up and praised, “Fierce! Willing to put in the effort and capital! But I remember that later Port, Sherry, and the like were all directly mixed with alcohol.”

Qian Shuixie said with a look of disdain, “I wouldn’t drink that kind of black-hearted wine even if you paid me! Besides, ‘brandy imported from Europe’ is a big gimmick. The special supply stores are all counting on this to get their currency back. Minister Hong is jumping up and down, preparing to go all out.”

“You mean his No. 82…”

“That’s right, it’s been approved,” Qian Shuixie nodded. “Of course, it’s still under the name of the General Office for now.”

Hearing that it was that Minister Hong’s private project, Liu Xiang nodded and didn’t go into detail about it. He just joked, “Why don’t you just ‘invent’ glass bottles and corks and start exporting wine! In the future, Port wine will have nothing to do with Oporto!”

There was no need to hide this sentence, so his voice was louder. Sonia, who was sipping her wine, pricked up her ears and heard the familiar place name “Oporto.” She stared at the two Elders for a long time, then shook her head in disappointment and said, “Oporto and the entire Douro Valley produce good wine, but none of them have this kind of taste. Besides, I can’t imagine transporting wine across half the globe to the Far East… Shipping local wine from the nearest wine-producing region to the New World, Madeira, to Pernambuco, takes about 60 days with a favorable wind. It’s a blessing from God if half of the barrels don’t turn into sour and smelly waste…”

Liu Xiang smiled slightly. “That’s because you neither understand why wine turns sour nor have you mastered more advanced navigation techniques.”

As Liu Xiang spoke, he picked up a bone-in lamb chop from the plate. As a foodie who couldn’t live without meat, how could he not eat meat with his first bite?

“We do have a method for long-distance transportation of wine, and it’s not a strong liquor like brandy, but a newly brewed sweet wine. But this is a major commercial secret. You can imagine the interests behind it. Not to mention the Far East and colonies all over the world, just shipping it to England, to Northern Europe, the profit is enough to create countless rich people,” Liu Xiang said, blowing smoke while chewing on the meat. “As for navigation technology, the two Spains, oh no, the entire Iberian Peninsula, has begun to fall behind comprehensively. Just a dozen years ago, a medium-sized ship transported some Puritans who refused to recognize the Church of England to the northern frontier of the New World, and it only took 66 days! And you are still using heavy galleons that are as slow as turtles to climb the Atlantic…”

For some reason, Liu Xiang’s desire to show off was particularly strong today. The topic quickly shifted from the clumsy shape of the galleon to the disastrous defeat of the Spanish Armada “last century,” and then from the development of ship types in Britain and Northern Europe back to the Nordic trade during the Hanseatic period. Then he ridiculed the bizarre policy of taxing ships based on deck area that was currently in place in Europe, and then praised the Fluyt, a ship invented by the Dutch “at the end of last century” specifically to deal with this policy. Finally, he talked at length about the advanced nature of the deep-V hull design and watertight compartments…

Qian Shuixie was secretly puzzled. Why was Liu Xiang showing off these things so desperately? Did he have some ideas about Sonia? Looking at the naturalist’s face full of admiration, he couldn’t help but worry secretly: Old Lin would probably strike him down with lightning.

By the time Liu Xiang said that he had brought back a “design” model of a high-speed ship that could “get from Lingao to London in just 90 days,” Qian Duoduo had finished her food in a few bites. Then she strongly demanded to see the 66-centimeter “Blouse” model that Liu Xiang had just shown off. Sonia also expressed that she must see it… In short, by the second half of the meal, only Liu Xiang, Qian Shuixie, Little Zhang, and Little Lin were left at the table.

After the bragging was over, the topic stopped, and it seemed a bit awkward. What was even more strange was that Zhong Xiaoying was sent away by Zhang Yunmi in the end. What was this for?

The scene was quiet for a while, about the time it takes to eat two lamb chops, before Zhang Yunmi finally organized her words.

“Liu… Teacher, I remember you taught us economics in class before!”

Liu Xiang winced when he heard this—he had “taught economics” at that time. Because of this issue, he had been criticized several times in Qiming, accused of “poisoning the next generation of Elders.”

“Why is this girl bringing this up now?” Liu Xiang wondered in his heart.

“Last week, Ma Dugong… Uncle Ma gave us a special weekend class on political economy. In the end, he left several economics articles for us to study and write our thoughts on…” Zhang Yunmi became more and more embarrassed as she spoke. After all, this was asking someone to do her homework for her.

“Yeah, yeah, the one for Little Zhang was even in the original bird language. It’s too pitiful…” Little Lin chimed in from the side.

“Special weekend class?” Liu Xiang looked at Qian Shuixie doubtfully. Qian Shuixie explained a little. This special class was on the “weekend,” which was actually a separate class held every Saturday for the young Elders. You know, the naturalized citizens only had two days off a month. The only ones who could have Saturday as a weekend holiday were the children from the original time. This day was mainly for teaching some content that was not suitable for large classes, such as all political, economic, scientific, and technological content related to the “history that has not yet happened” in this time. It was not expected that these young Elders would be proficient in these, but only to cultivate them, so that they would be closer in thought to the other “older uncles and aunts,” rather than becoming more and more like the local naturalized citizens. This could also be considered a “noble education” in another sense, or “emperor’s studies”?

Ma Dugong places great importance on the ideological education of the young Elders!

“What’s it about? You don’t understand it, or you have no ideas?” Liu Xiang responded.

Not understanding it was a matter of knowledge structure, at least a matter of professional vocabulary—if it was a document in a bird language, it would be very difficult for a non-professional to understand. But having no ideas was easy to solve. In the original time, if you hung out on a few high-level forums, economics was a hot topic, and you would know something about it. At least you could ask “did you pay taxes?” after someone smugly finished telling the story of the shit-eating economist.

“My several English articles are about neoliberalism in South America,” Zhang Yunmi had just finished answering when Little Lin chimed in, “Mine are all about South Africa.”

After hearing Lin Ziqi’s description, Liu Xiang and Qian Shuixie looked at each other, and found that the other’s eyes were also filled with confusion.

“Does Duoduo have to write too?” Qian Shuixie asked.

“Well, it seems to be a very niche topic. What was it, Fo… something?” Little Lin replied.

Qian Shuixie shook the silver bell on the dining table, and Qian Xuanhuang came in. After giving an order, it wasn’t long before Qian Duoduo returned to the dining room alone, very reluctantly.

“The one assigned to me is about the industrial decline of the Walloon region and the separatist tendencies of the Flemish people.”

Qian Shuixie was completely confused. “Isn’t this a bit too difficult?”

“Who else do you know?” Liu Xiang did not answer Qian Shuixie directly, but asked another question.

“Zhuo Xiaoshou… uh… Min’s is about the ‘Prussian Road,’” Little Lin accidentally let it slip.

Zhang Yunmi nodded and said, “The ones the other classmates have are about the Homestead Act, Northern Italy, and so on… Oh right, Uncle Ma also told us that if we don’t understand, we should go to the Great Library to read more materials, or ask other ‘uncles and aunts who understand economics and history.’”

Zhang Yunmi especially emphasized the latter half of the sentence.

“Dugong is really bullying people!” Liu Xiang called him by his nickname without any concern. “The logic is a bit convoluted. Yunmi, you should write this article in reverse. Don’t write about the medicine of ‘neoliberalism,’ but about the disease that this medicine is supposed to cure.” Liu Xiang then gave Zhang Yunmi a detailed explanation of the concept of “developmentalism” that was originally implemented in Latin America.

“…The fundamental goal is to industrialize and break the unequal ‘center-periphery’ international economic structure dominated by developed countries. Industrialization relies on three major means: large-scale investment, implementation of protectionist policies and strict foreign exchange controls, and adjustment of policies on taxation, wages, profits, and employment to encourage the development of domestic enterprises. In the process of industrialization, we must engage in ‘import substitution,’ get rid of dependence on the international market, especially on the products of developed countries, form our own production capacity, and achieve economic independence. It should be noted here that when Latin America began to engage in import substitution in the 1930s, due to historical reasons, foreign capital occupied a dominant position, unlike in China where it all ran away after a revolution. So China started from scratch, learning manufacturing without any foreign capital, while Latin America was engaged in substitution, targeting foreign capital.”

However, in this time, it seems that there is only one “foreign capital” that can export industry! The Senate in this time is not in the position of a Latin American country, but in the position of a developed country!

Has Dugong’s thinking changed?!

For some reason, the strange image of Queen Du with her eyes wide open, raising her sand-bowl-sized fist, with billions of rays of light bursting from it, suddenly appeared in Liu Xiang’s mind.

In fact, Liu Xiang knew from the beginning that no matter how much everyone on the surface approved of land reform, in the end, they were all willing to transmigrate. If they didn’t have some thoughts of “privately owning land,” Liu Xiang would absolutely not believe it. Don’t look at how everyone says land reform is great. But most people regard land reform as a “technique,” a “technique” used to establish the “human empire” of the Senate.