Xinshun 1730

Chapter 551 Butterfly in Macau
When Fazaklei entered Macau, it happened that officials from Dashun came to check the population and make registers to ensure the jurisdiction over Catholics.

In the future, except for trade, Chinese Christians are allowed to enter but not to exit.

Or, quit Catholicism.

Or, go to Macau.

This is the only place in Dashun where Catholic churches are allowed to open, except near Weihai Harbor.

The hands of missionaries are not clean, and after the ban, they will quietly accompany others to preach in the interior and develop secret believers.

Japan has experience in this point. Missionaries who secretly sneaked into Japan to preach are emerging one after another. For Japanese missionaries alone, after being burned by the shogunate, those who were canonized by the church had to have a company.

Along with Japan's defeat in the tribute, he also made suggestions to Dashun on the issue of banning religion, and strictly guarded against local missionaries.

Check the population, control the Chinese in Macau, and strictly prevent them from leaving Macau to preach.Western faces are easily suspected in the mainland, and it is difficult to carry out missionary activities, while local Catholic Chinese are difficult to guard against.

Dashun officials came, and the churches in Macau rang the bells and kowtowed to the officials, all in accordance with Chinese etiquette.

Fazaklei was used to this point.

More than 20 years ago, there was a conflict in Macau over the issue of kneeling or not kneeling.At that time, the magistrate of Dashun came to ask for rent, and asked for bribes by the way.

All the members of the Macao Council, in accordance with the attitude of "subordinates pay respects to the superior", bowed down to the officials, and finally saved a special rent of 1000 taels of silver.

Ma Yu, the new No.30 and third governor, was very puzzled and angrily reprimanded this group of people for having no bones, kneeling down for a mere 1000 taels of silver.Christians only kneel to God, not pagans.Besides, what about the dignity of the country?

But the people in the council thought that Lao Tzu was here to make money, not to preach.Brazil has discovered gold mines, and the Portuguese royal family is rich now, but they don’t give Macau a penny, and Macau has to support the governor and soldiers they send. I don’t want to kneel down. The question is, will you give me the 1000 taels of silver? ?

So I said to Ma Yu: What Mr. Governor said is too reasonable, then, you can pay the 1000 taels of silver.Then……

Macau does not spend money from the Portuguese royal family, and the governor theoretically has no power at all.

Airborne from Goa, just a soldier.Moreover, the money spent by the soldiers is also paid by the Macao Council, and the governor is a fart.

With Dashun opening and closing trade, Macau can no longer monopolize trade, and its status has plummeted, which is already difficult.Besides, if you kneel down, you can save 1000 taels of silver. If you don't kneel, the local county magistrate will let you bleed 1 taels of silver.

Historically, in 1747, No. 40, the fourth governor, Menezes, wrote a letter to the council, accusing the customs in Macau of flying the flag of the Qing Dynasty, and should have the consciousness of not hesitating to shed blood and coexist with dignity. Cut down the flag of Manchu and Qing, hang the flag of Portugal, declare sovereignty, and show national dignity.But the council laughed at this, and wrote a letter directly to Goa, telling this "patriot" to leave immediately.

Four years before the kneeling incident, Dai Bingyu, the No.30 governor, wanted more military pay, but the council refused to pay it.Dai Bingyu thinks this is a simple matter. I will organize another council and declare the previous council illegal, right?
So, taking advantage of the opportunity of the meeting of the old council, he led his troops and threw two grenades into the hall of the council, killing the two members on the spot.Then let the army surround the council with cannons, hold the heads of the members of the council with guns, and ask them to admit that they are illegal councils.

This matter is not to blame for Dai Bingyu's recklessness, it is mainly due to his actions.

King Pedro II of Portugal came to power in a coup d'état, and he abolished his brother and married his wife. At first glance, he has the potential to be a hero.

Sure enough, luck was good after coming to power, Brazil discovered a gold mine, and even changed the inheritance law directly on the head of the noble council, announcing that the children of himself and his sister-in-law had undisputed inheritance rights.

The above is like this, but the bottom is naturally learned and styled.But the problem is that Dai Bingyu has only learned superficially, and Pedro II dares to hold the head of the parliament, because Pedro II has Brazilian gold and does not need to look at the faces of nobles.

But Dai Bingyu is just a soldier, without Brazil's gold to support his back, the Governor of Goa can only compromise and transfer him away.

After this incident, there were actually two councils in Macau.

One is towards the "center" and the other is towards the "place".

In fact, Macau has "three powers", military power, political power, and religious power.

When the accident happened, the religious power and political power stood on one side, and the military power was backed by the Governor-General of Goa.

But at this moment, the situation has changed again.

Dashun banned teaching.

Just from the fact that the people from the Macau Council worshiped Dashun officials, it can be seen that this group of people in the council didn’t want to provoke Dashun at all, they only wanted to trade and make money, and they didn’t care about banning religion at all. Just take back Macau.

At that time, I didn't see clearly, and I was on the wrong team, and Macau almost disappeared.Now as long as the eyes are not blind, they also know which side to stand on.

This has led to a reversal of the power struggle within Macau.

As a local force, the regime wants to embrace Dashun. As long as Dashun guarantees Macau's current status and autonomous status, everything is easy to talk about.

Expel Macao citizens back to Macao, not allowed to stay outside to prevent preaching?Easy to say, accept; demolish the churches built by the Chinese outside the legal concessions in Macau?No problem, support; Prohibition of buying and selling Chinese slaves, especially the prohibition of forcing Chinese slaves to believe in religion?Yes, release; the Baojia system supervises the Chinese Christians in Macau?Obey, cooperate.

The church said in its heart that when Dai Bingyu besieged the parliament with cannons, if we hadn't brought holy elephants to force Dai Bingyu to kneel, you would have died long ago.

Don't you miss your old love now?Sure enough, the businessman was ruthless, and the whore was ruthless. He immediately decided to establish a good relationship with the governor, hoping to use the power of the military to balance the power of the council.

When Matteo Ricci came to Macau, he said with emotion: "Some of the Chinese doing business and selling food here have already converted to Christ. These people have left the darkness of paganism and touched the light of the Lord."

But now, Dashun has actually started to completely ban religion, which makes the Macao Dharma King at this time have to sigh.

[God actually allowed the persecution of heretics to extend here.Several Chinese officials were ordered by the Jiedushi to prohibit the baptism of Chinese slaves.Doubtless the members of the council did not see the viciousness, the blasphemy of the faith, of this order, and they accepted it. 】

With the development of Dashun’s foreign trade and the stabilization of direct onshore transactions in Songjiang, Zhangzhou, Guangzhou and other places by the Netherlands and other countries, Macao’s economic status can be said to be like that of an old lady during the New Year, and it is not as good as every year.

Originally, during the Ming Dynasty, this was the only place where foreign trade was possible, and it naturally prospered.But this deformed prosperity was gradually broken.

In terms of sea power and trade capacity, it cannot compete with the Netherlands.Portugal's ability to trade with China at this time can only be said to be limited compared to France.

In terms of commodity sales, Portugal signed the "Methuen Treaty" with the United Kingdom in order to become independent from Spain. The tariffs on British woolen textiles were reduced by half, and the remaining British products were also exempted from tariffs. The impact is over.

It’s the feud between Britain and France. The British reduced or exempted Portugal’s wine tax in order to drink. Now Portugal doesn’t even have enough food, and many lands have been planted with grapes. The British people say that my textile industry can’t beat India and China. Are you Portugal?I don't make wine myself anyway, so it's better to buy yours than the French.

As soon as Macau's status as the only transit port was lost, Macau's pillar industries have visibly moved in a strange direction in recent years.

That was the slave trade, or human trafficking.

There are a large number of deformed populations in Macau, such as Catholics, who are monogamous and are not allowed to take concubines.

However, if I don't give the bride price, isn't that considered a concubine?As a result, a large number of "contract maids" appeared, instead of giving money at once, they paid monthly, and the money was calculated on a monthly basis, and the Catholic Church did not say that they would not be allowed to find maids, so this kind of deformed "contract maids" Become an important local "trade".

In addition to maids, there are also a large number of "boys", that is, Chinese slaves, who are usually bought children and used as slaves for the master's family.In addition to local use in Macau, because Chinese children are more intelligent and obedient, they are also "exported" in large quantities.The Chinese "children and slaves" in Macau are very popular.

And, there are two "recruitment companies" that traffic people from Macau to plantations and sugar factories in Southeast Asia and South Asia as slave labor.In fact, it is the slave trade, and Southeast Asia prefers Chinese slave labor.

This is similar to some ship owners in Fujian who went to Batavia for trade.

The Dutch monopolized some trade products in Batavia, and the Netherlands began to trade directly in Songjiang, Guangdong, resulting in nothing to sell in transit trade.

Many ship owners began to deceive people to go to Nanyang and sell them to the locals as slave labor, so as to ensure that the ship would not be empty when they went, and buy some tin blocks to send to Suzhou Prefecture to make tin foil for the dead in order to maintain their business.

Dashun pursued a policy of allowing Westerners to come ashore for trade, which actually brought about a great change in the trade pattern of the entire Asia.

It can be said that Macau’s transformation towards the slave trade and the surge of Chinese slave labor in Batavia are all changes brought about by Dashun’s allowing Westerners to go ashore for trade. Every Chinese ship is very polite, giving money and gifts, and giving woolen cloth before leaving, and the governor treats guests to dinner. I hope to come again next time.

Although the ship owners didn't like to go to Batavia at that time, they preferred to go to Manila, where the price was high, but they didn't think about "selling" people.No matter how little Batavia earns, it's still more profitable than selling people, and besides, this thing also has a short lifespan.

But once the industry with higher profits fails, most people will choose the former if they are chasing profits or strictly adhering to the moral bottom line.

For example, the Council of Macau now supports Dashun's plan to "drive out Catholics to Macau".

A large number of people, for their faith, come to Macau, a place where they can touch the "Light of the Lord".

However, there are not so many jobs in Macau. With the opening and closing policy of Dashun, Macau's export monopoly has disappeared, and its prosperity has ceased.

People have to eat. With such a large population, aren't they all potential "contract maids", "boys and slaves", and "introduce you to a good job of digging gold in Nanyang"?

Done, how not to exchange a few 10 taels of silver?
This will inevitably conflict with the church. After all, how to say, there can be a few true believers on the church side, who may take care of these believers who "escaped the persecution of heretics".

There are a few people on the church side who are on the line and do not approve of slaves, maids, children, slaves, etc.; and many people in the council are counting on this to make money.

The church hoped not to succumb to Dashun's pressure and resisted the pressure to maintain missionary work; the Council did not want to provoke the Dashun court at all.

The church hopes to give some benefits to the new church members; the members of the council ask where does the money come from?
In this way, the council directly broke with the church.

Today, the attitude of asking the church to ring the bell to welcome Dashun officials, and the council’s subordinates to meet with the superiors is not only for Dashun, but also for the church.

As for why the church can ring the bell, the reason is also very simple.

money.

The church’s money is allocated by the council, and even the bishop’s annual salary of 280 taels is also provided by the council.

Even the church bell ringers are paid by the council.Now Macau is very introverted, and so many Chinese Christians have poured into it.

If you don't ring the bell, someone will do it for you.Ringing the bell is not a good job, but it is better than going to "introduce you to a good job in Nanyang to dig gold and make a fortune", right?
Although the church is close to the governor of the military, Dashun has a naval base and a marine garrison around Macau.

Dashun officials, on the other hand, do not recognize that there is a "governor" in Macau, but only recognize that there is a "chairman of the barbarian chamber of commerce". The governor in the celestial dynasty can only be appointed by the emperor, and the court officials don't remember that the emperor once appointed the governor of Macau .

Furthermore, the Jiedu envoys and defense envoys of Guangdong are also very sensitive to the title of "governor" - the Seventh Prince is the governor of the navy, and he can be regarded as the justifiable governor of Dashun. Dare to call the governor?Don't we want the face of Jiedushi and defense envoys?Besides, you have a county-level subordinate unit called the governor, which is also over the limit. According to this ratio, the county-level subordinate unit is called the governor, so the Jiedushi cannot be called the emperor?

The council is now very strong, kicking away the churches that were allied with them and helped them in the past, and firmly standing on the side of the interests of the local people in Macau.

In the official document for Dashun, the governor was directly translated as "Dutou", and even the name of the governor is now translated into Chinese - Gaodianyu, Gaodutou.

Fazaklei almost witnessed all the farce and chaos, and he also understood why the Chinese rebels in Batavia chose to meet in Macau.

(End of this chapter)