Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 102 Our Pirate King (Part 4)
Asking Cao Huachun to go to the Ministry of Justice to retrieve the files was actually just a formality. But he had to go in this manner.
Yan Siqi did not hide anything , that was his honesty. But Zhu Youdong, as the crown prince of the country, could not just wave his hand and say that the matter was over: if he did so, these guys would have no law and discipline in their hearts. Over time, they would be out of control.
As for whether the Nanjing Criminal Department has the case file, in theory, the murder case should be submitted to the Criminal Department for record. But now the ethics of officials at all levels in the Ming Dynasty...
In short, Cao Huachun’s reply the next day was that after investigation, what Yan Siqi said was true.
Zhu Youdong then happily stated that Yan Siqi would no longer have to call himself a criminal in front of him.
At this point, the conversation between Zhu Youdong and the two merchants (pirates) had the possibility of further deepening.
"Er Geng, you have done a very good job in Yuegang these past few months. Then tell me, how much money should Yuegang earn from the court each month?"
What is being said here is not "can" but "should". A smart person like Tian Ergeng immediately understood the meaning of it.
"Your Highness, the imperial court has clear accounts of taxes collected in Yuegang every month, and the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue should also have corresponding account books. What I want to say is that the imperial court only issues 100 trade passes each year. These passes are simply not enough to meet the large trade needs of our Ming Dynasty and overseas countries, so smuggling is still rampant. If our Ming Dynasty can open more ports and issue more passes. I think that through maritime trade, it will not be a problem to pay one million taels of tax to the imperial court every year."
"Yeah." After listening to Tian Ergeng's words, Zhu Youdong nodded slowly - it seemed that Tian Ergeng had only been in Yuegang for a few months, but he had already discovered that there were huge problems with the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade at this time.
Since Xuande, the Ming Empire gradually implemented a closed-door policy. However, at this time, the output of the Ming Empire's economy, especially the southern economy, had long exceeded demand. At this time, the Japanese and Portuguese had a demand for trade. Therefore, private smuggling came into being.
In any era, those who can really make the smuggling business grow are not ordinary people. There will inevitably be power-for-money transactions and collusion between officials and businessmen. During the Jiajing period, some of the biggest smuggling families in the southeast coast joined forces with wandering Japanese samurai to launch a Japanese rebellion of astonishing scale.
After Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, he deeply realized that the root cause of the problem of Japanese pirates in the southeast was actually the contradiction between the overseas trade needs of domestic and foreign merchants and the court's stubborn implementation of the policy of isolation. Therefore, in the first year of Longqing, the court opened Yuegang as a place for sea trade. This is the famous Longqing Opening.
From a geographical perspective, Yuegang was completely blocked by Xiamen Island and was not suitable as a trading port. Moreover, the official land road facilities in Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian were also very poor, which was not conducive to the transportation of goods from the inland of the Ming Dynasty to be concentrated here. However, it took the Emperor Longqing's best efforts to open such a poor port.
This is a struggle between imperial power and the gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Imagine: if the Ming Empire still implemented a policy of isolation and the demand for overseas trade continued, then smuggling would inevitably continue. And those who could lead smuggling must be the gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who controlled a large amount of means of production and local power institutions.
The Ming Empire opened the door at the policy level, allowing ordinary people and merchants to participate in overseas trade. The gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who had made a fortune from smuggling in the past would face fierce competition from the people. By then, the profits of these corrupt classes who had made a fortune by relying on the mistakes of national policies would inevitably be greatly reduced or even go bankrupt!
Therefore, these guys were the most opposed to the switch. The result of the struggle between the two sides was that a small window was opened in Yuegang, a place with no advantages at all.
However, the industrious Chinese, if you give them a little chance, will fight for great value. After Yuegang was opened, this place quickly became the most prosperous port in the entire Western Pacific region, with a large amount of goods shipped out and a large amount of silver flowing in. In the 31st year of Wanli, this port contributed 360,000 taels of commercial tax to the royal family. At that time, the total commercial tax in the country was only 457,000 taels.
But this amount of income is still insignificant compared with the value generated by the entire maritime trade (including smuggling) of the Ming Dynasty.
Before Zhu Youdong traveled through time, he had read many research articles on the opening of the Longqing Pass. These articles all pointed out that during the entire 70 years from the late 16th century to the early 17th century, at least 330 million taels of silver flowed into China from overseas. An average of 4.7 million taels flowed in every year. It should be made clear that this was only a trade surplus. If the Qing Dynasty in later generations imposed a tariff of at least 40% on all imported and exported goods in the era when tariffs were autonomous, then the court's customs revenue should have been more than 4 or 5 million taels every year.
Therefore, what Tian Ergeng said about the court making at least one million taels of silver in profit every year if maritime trade could be fully opened up was indeed true.
"My two warriors, does what Captain Tian said make sense?"
Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi looked at each other, and Yan Siqi stood up and said, "Your Highness, when I set sail from Zhangzhou Prefecture, I was just an ordinary farmer's son, and I didn't know the specific operations of the country in Yuegang. But from what I have seen in Japan over the years, although the court ordered our Ming merchants not to trade with Japan, our Ming Dynasty needs Japan's red copper, silver, gold, and sulfur, and Japan needs our Ming Dynasty's silk, tea, porcelain, and ironware. So although there are not endless merchant ships on the sea, there are always a few merchant ships docked in Hirado every day. Calculated in this way, the maritime trade volume between our Ming Dynasty and Japan alone will not be less than 3 million taels of silver a year. If the two countries each take one out of every ten, just the trade between the two countries can take 150,000 taels of silver a year."
"Your Highness." Li Guozhu stood up and said, "My Li family currently has 60 merchant ships, of which 40 are large sea vessels with a capacity of more than 2,000 tons (one ton is about 150 kilograms, 2,000 tons is 300 tons). Basically, these 40 ships are always busy every year, constantly traveling back and forth on the sea. Therefore, the estimates made by Lord Tian and Brother Yan are roughly correct."
"Yeah." After nodding slightly, Zhu Youdong looked at the three people, and then said to Wang Chengen: "Is Cao Sanxi here?"
"Manager Cao has been waiting outside for a while."
"Send him in."
While Wang Chengen was out calling for help, Zhu Youdong stood up and pulled out a map from the bookcase at the back. After Cao Sanxi came in, Zhu Youdong asked Wang Chengen to spread out the map, and then he cleared his throat: "This is a world map I drew myself based on the records in ancient books and the teachings . Based on this map, I will tell you my thoughts on the maritime trade of my Ming Dynasty.
First of all, we must know that although the Ming Dynasty also has some silver mines, the output is far from enough compared to the silver currently circulating in the market. Therefore, at least before the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, silver has never been the mainstream in market transactions.
So, why has silver become the mainstream of transactions in the market? Although the imperial court has never explicitly confirmed that silver is the official currency of the Ming Dynasty, why is it that the salaries of officials and soldiers are now paid in silver? Of course, a large amount of silver from overseas has flowed in.
When it comes to the influx of overseas silver, where did this silver come from? There are mainly two places. First, the Iwami Silver Mine in Japan. Second, the Spanish silver mines in America. Let’s not talk about the Japanese silver mines for now, after all, they are their own silver mines. The Spanish silver mines in America are very interesting.
...In short, because the silk, porcelain, and tea of our Ming Dynasty are unique in the world, the Red Barbarians and the Japanese can only take out silver to buy our products. But they can't sell us much, so this silver is deposited in our Ming Dynasty year after year. When our Ming Dynasty has enough silver reserves, silver will naturally become the main subject of transactions. "
"Hiss~~~ Your Highness, as you said, these Spanish are very powerful. A small army of a few hundred people dared to launch an attack on a country with a population of millions? The key is that they won?"
"Yes, the Aztecs had backward weapons. Secondly, the American continent was isolated from our continents for thousands of years. The people there had never had smallpox and were completely unable to resist smallpox..."
"Your Highness, so that means there is no silver in Luzon?"
The person who raised this question was Cao Sanxi who was listening in.
"Why, Boss Cao, did you also hear that when my royal grandfather heard that Luzon produced silver, did he ever think of going there? Luzon also produces silver. But the amount is very small. Luzon's silver mainly comes from America."
"Your Highness." It was Yan Siqi who stood up and asked, "Are these Spaniards stupid? From the world map that Your Highness just showed, America is obviously closer to Europe. Why didn't they ship the silver produced in America directly back to Europe, but shipped it to Luzon first?"
"Haha, that's right. Spain has vast colonies, and the output of each colony is different. So they have two permanent treasure fleets. One is called the Manila Fleet, which departs from Manila in Luzon. The ships are loaded with porcelain, tea, silk from the Ming Dynasty, and spices from Siam and other countries. This fleet crossed the Pacific Ocean and arrived at the west coast of Mexico. After that, there was another fleet called the Caribbean Fleet, which departed from the east coast of Mexico and transported the goods brought by the Manila Fleet and the things looted in the Americas back to the Spanish mainland.
Of course, everything on the Manila Fleet was purchased from the Ming Dynasty. So when the Manila Fleet returned from the west coast of Mexico, it must have been loaded with gold and silver from the Americas.
"I see!" Yan Siqi slammed his fist on his other hand. "Brother Guozhu, I heard that Captain Li was also in Luzon. If we can take advantage of the Spanish Manila fleet about to reach Luzon to take him down... Oh, Your Highness, please forgive me. I am still a thief and I am sorry for offending you."
"That's fine. You're not robbing the people of the Ming Dynasty. But speaking of it, what Yan Zhuangshi just mentioned has been done by someone for many years."
"Ah? There are actually such heroes on the sea nearby? How come we didn't know about them?"
"Hahaha, those guys didn't rob the Manila Fleet, but the Caribbean Fleet. The place where they robbed..." Zhu Youdong's finger slowly moved on the world map on the table, and then pointed to the west coast of Spain and France: "The place where these guys robbed is here!"
