The court's finances were enough to develop industry.
But when it came to importing military equipment, no amount of money would ever be enough.
When the cannons roared, ten thousand taels of gold vanished.
The equipment exported by others included labor costs, material costs, shipping fees, and monopoly profits. Their profits were often several times, even dozens of times, the cost. How many battles could you sustain by relying solely on purchases? Besides, during wartime, transportation became drastically more difficult. Out of every three shipments, two would be sunk.
In the feudal era, one could still fight wars by buying weapons. In the industrial era, that was absolutely impossible.
Without the ability to manufacture their own equipment, without their own industrial system, no amount of funding could sustain a modern war.
The capable people at court quickly saw through this.
Even the Qing Dynasty had carried out a Tongzhi Restoration. How could the Great Cheng court, currently enjoying an age of prosperity and abundant finances, lag behind? Thus began grand plans to build armories, establish private factories, and introduce Steam Engines.
Two years passed.
Quite a few factories had been built, but problems emerged as well.
The state-run factories passed off inferior goods as quality products. The more they produced, the more they lost. Both the navy and army discovered that their costs were even higher than buying equipment outright...
How the hell were they supposed to keep this up? After the memorial was submitted, Lu Zhi was at least someone who had come from the modern age, and she could still hear their inner voices.
The money for producing guns, cannons, and warships in state-run factories all came from the court. They faced no market pressure. As long as they met their quotas and fooled their ignorant superiors, they