Xinshun 1730

Chapter 760
"You're right."

Liu Yu is never stingy with compliments from his subordinates.

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Yu said: "Well, if you have any other ideas, we will hold a meeting to discuss it tonight. Also, regarding the construction of the Temasek city, I will also send someone to investigate as soon as possible and calculate the price."

"Within ten days, I will send people back to the capital to report the victory, and let the court prepare for the grand event of 'All nations come to court'."

"This is a formal tribute, but it's not that the translator tampered with it and insisted on changing the diplomacy into a tribute."

"At that time, if there is no notice in advance, the tribute envoys of hundreds, or even thousands of people from the Nanyang countries will go, and the celestial dynasty will lose its face."

…………

more than a month later.

In the study room of the Forbidden City, Emperor Li Gan put aside Liu Yu's memorial about Nanyang Fourth Army Town and the construction of the Temasek Fortress.

The news that the Nanyang countries are coming to pay tribute is sent to the Tianyou Temple, and the Tianyou Temple and the six governments are responsible.

The emperor picked it up first, but it was the account statistics of the Dutch East India Company sent along with it.

Putting on the glasses, it was the first time that the emperor paid so much attention to such cumbersome accounts.

Fortunately, the accounts sent for "Imperial View" have been carefully sorted out. Although cumbersome, some important data have been counted.

The emperor did not doubt that Nanyang was very valuable.

No matter it is because of Liu Yu's trust that he has always judged correctly.

Still out of normal thinking, I also understand that spices make money.

After the emperor looked through the account books of the Dutch East India Company after sorting out the statistics, and saw how much money the Dutch could make in a year, the only thought the emperor had at this time was that the navy built with so much money was worth it.

However, what shocked the emperor the most was the difference between the local purchase price of spices and the sales price in Amsterdam.

In addition to spices, there are sales prices of Chinese products including tea and porcelain in the European market.

Although Liu Yu had already brought back these data when he visited Europe.

But at this time, with this detailed account of how much money is earned each year, the same thing gives people a completely different feeling.

After reviewing these accounts, the emperor took off his glasses, calmed his astringent eyes, and asked someone to fetch a memorial that Liu Yu had handed over earlier.

This is a memorial directly delivered to the emperor without going through the Tianyou Palace, and the Tianyou Palace has no right to view and approve it.

The above content is about what to do after the capture of Nanyang.

Apart from the matter of cooperating with the Netherlands, the most important thing is the form and nature of the monopoly.

As far as the celestial dynasty is concerned, the royal monopoly is considered a very traditional situation.

With the foundation of salt and iron theory and the 2000-year foundation of salt and iron monopoly, monopoly and monopoly is the practice that is most in line with the practice of the Chinese court.

However, in the memorial, Liu Yu hoped to adopt a shareholding system to raise private capital as much as possible.

The imperial court can use the monopoly power directly as the share capital, and just eat the dry shares and pay dividends.It is best not to allow the imperial court to monopolize, because the imperial court cannot control it.

It will cost too much to make Zheng He model.The vast Southeast Asia has to face various situations of smuggling, piracy, riots, riots, rebellion, and infiltration of Westerners.

Now with the accounts of the East India Company, we can intuitively understand how much the East India Company spent in Nanyang.

If the Zheng He model is not implemented, the imperial merchants will need to be responsible.But no one can tell how much the imperial merchants have been greedy for.

Instead of this, it is better to learn from the barbarian's skills and use the shareholding system to raise shares and gather private capital.At the same time, the imperial court bought shares with monopoly rights and distributed dividends every year.

Of course, the national conditions of Dashun are completely different from those of England and the Netherlands.Not to mention Dashun, it is impossible for France, Spain, etc. to fully copy the model of the Anglo-Dutch East India Company.

As far as Dashun is concerned, it is simply unrealistic for a private company with the participation of wealthy private businessmen to have armed forces, warships, overseas governance, legal power, and even the right to go to war.

Absolutely impossible, there is no doubt about it.

Even Liu Yu, who has been trying to engage in Nanyang trade, has never had the slightest illusion about it.

If anyone dared to bring up this idea, the emperor would definitely be angry, and if he brought it up in the court, he would directly blow the pot.

Japan's trade monopoly company has its particularity.One is that Japan itself has locked down the country, so the smuggling channels have been blocked at the market end, and the trading companies themselves do not need large-scale arms; the other is the trading monopoly company against Japan. For goods, at most, consider pirates.

But if you set up a trading company in Nanyang, you have to consider many things.

Management, governance, diplomacy, politics, tribute, anti-smuggling, and harassment against Western countries, etc., are more responsible for Japan's monopoly trade.

Only relying on private capital will not work at all.

However, if the imperial court ended up in person, making the Zheng He model monopolized by the royal family, or the exclusive business model of the imperial merchants, it would be impossible to stop smuggling, and the corruption would be shocking.

Therefore, Liu Yu’s suggestion is not only to borrow private capital to share the cost of ruling Nanyang, but also to ensure that the dividends are distributed as much as possible to be honest. If the emperor does not want to be honest, the cost is extremely low, and the bourgeoisie may hold his head in the UK. Let him know the fate of not being honest, but it costs almost nothing in Dashun.

Liu Yu still meant to "stand in the interests of the emperor", so he said that in the future, he would not be honest, renege on debts without paying dividends, or simply not be an official.But this is a one-shot deal, and it is best not to use it when it is not a last resort.

In the early stage, it is best to use the reputation foundation laid by the Japanese trading company to talk about integrity.The accounts should be as clear as possible, and the dividends should be distributed, and whatever should be done.

Since there are so many major shareholders in the Dutch East India Company, a 17-member board of directors is ultimately in charge of everything. Dashun can also use similar means.

At least, for upfront transitions.

Major shareholders only have some right to know, but no decision-making power, and the decision-making power is still in the hands of the court.

Regarding this point, there is still a certain possibility, relying on Liu Yu's reputation over the years, or the reputation established by the royal family represented by Liu Yu among the maritime merchant group.

Reputation is very fragile and easily broken.

But for the time being, this reputation can still be used.

Coupled with the shareholding business atmosphere cultivated in places such as Weihai and Songjiang over the years, it is absolutely no problem to use it for short-term transition.

Moreover, as long as the reputation has not been lost, most of them are actually similar to the minority shareholders of the Dutch East India Company: as long as the dividends can be paid on time, who cares whether it should be a 17-member gentleman group or a large board of seven or 80 people?Who cares whether the accounts should be published once a year or once every ten years?
Many things are gained through struggle.The premise of the struggle must be that something happened.

Otherwise, if VOC guarantees an annual dividend rate of 20.00%, as long as it can be guaranteed, in another 100 years, no one will really question why the board of directors has only [-] members.

In the future, after the transition period has passed, you can learn about the way Britain controlled the East India Company in the 19th century.

Separate economic activities from political activities, and major shareholders are only responsible for economic activities.

Of course, the premise is that the road has been paved, and the problems that should be dealt with are basically dealt with, and we only need to follow the steps to carry out some purely commercial activities.For example, build a warehouse, grow coffee in a certain place, build a few merchant ships, what to load this year's goods, and so on.

The chief appointed by the imperial court is in charge of political, military, diplomatic and other activities.

But Southeast Asia and trade with Europe are definitely not purely economic activities, the mainstream of which is war, diplomacy, and rule.

In fact, the imperial court borrowed the power of private capital to share the cost of ruling Nanyang equally, without using the money from the treasury.At the same time, private capital can also eat some meat and drink some soup.

The real reason for the emperor to eat less meat and leak some soup was that Liu Yu reported a rough account, thinking that the emperor's internal funds could not afford so much money.

Especially now that the Dutch rule in Southeast Asia has been completely replaced overnight, and it will cost money in all aspects to fully take over, which is definitely not something the emperor can afford.

This is not the time when Dutch talents came to Nanyang, starting from scratch and developing a little bit.Relying on the initial few million shares, it has gradually become a large company with a scale of hundreds of millions.

Instead, he took over a large company with a scale of hundreds of millions all at once, and the capital flow to maintain its operation was simply incomparable with the little money that was developed from scratch.

As for the money in the treasury, Liu Yu also talked about the touch of the emperor's heart.

Of course, the purpose of going to Nanyang is to make money, but the court or the emperor makes money, besides personal enjoyment, there are always other uses.

Money has to be spent, otherwise what's the use of keeping a pile of money?

Considering the consistent interests of the royal family and the imperial court, it can be said that in the long run, the purpose of going to Nanyang is to alleviate land conflicts and maintain the tradition of small peasant economy.

In the short term, the court has another big thing to do.And this major event also requires a lot of money, and the private capital has absolutely no interest in paying the money, and can only be paid by the court.

That is... abolishing the water to change the sea, and rectifying the Huanghuai River.

From a purely military point of view, going to Nanyang is the basis for abolishing the water and transforming the sea.

Otherwise, Western warships would be able to attack Macau and rob Zhoushan in the late Ming Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, the emperor hastily changed to sea transportation because he was afraid that his own rice would not be broken, and the conflict between the central and local governments could be suppressed.

Now that the military foundation is in place, the previous trial of Caomi in Jiangsu Province by sea was also a great success.As the connection between the north and the south and the hinterland of the Celestial Dynasty, the Huanghuai area has been flooded every year to protect the canal, which has almost turned it into a powder keg.

If it can be cured, this is of course a good thing that will last forever.If it can be cured, in the eyes of the emperor, it is absolutely no problem to extend Dashun's life for decades.

Of course, it will cost money to change the waste water into the sea.

Moreover, it is absolutely impossible for private capital to contribute a cent of this money.

At most, the imperial court hopes to donate. If the whole country can donate tens of thousands of taels and 10,000+ taels, it will be the sky. Compared with such a grand project, it is simply a drop in the bucket.

In this case, it can be regarded as choking the emperor's life, and he had to make concessions to private capital in Nanyang trade.

In the short term, the imperial court is about to spend a lot of money, and it can't throw all its wealth in Nanyang, and it can't afford it.

In the long run, if there is not enough money in the future, what will the field garrisons on the outskirts of Songjiang do?Driving in directly, without entering the official camp, can also make the court rich.

As for some military operations of Nanyang Trading, what Liu Yu meant was to let private capital raise money to "hire" the imperial army to do it, so as to ensure that Nanyang Trading Company had no fleet or army in its hands.

This employment, of course, is not private employment.

Instead, they gave the imperial court money and military expenses, and the imperial court sent generals to help or occupy, or open the country, or force trade, or cede land, etc.

When dividends are distributed in the future, these are counted as costs and can be eliminated.

Including the expenses of the garrisons and officials in Nanyang, they must be counted as costs.This is also very reasonable.

The transition in the early stage is very troublesome. It is necessary to negotiate with the Netherlands and take over a lot of mess in Nanyang.The imperial court intervened strongly and grasped it harder, so that they could get through the chaotic period in the early stage stably.

In the memorial, Liu Yu recommended himself very calmly, hoping that he would preside over it and get through this transitional period.

(End of this chapter)