Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1457 Sharpening the knife to gold and silver

For the two princes who have reached the top of their ranks and cannot stretch out their power indiscriminately, nothing is more interesting than making money. If they don't make money, they can't even find the meaning of life.

Originally, making money was just a necessary means for them to maintain the dignity of their family status. After all, there were examples in the past when they lost their family property despite their hereditary titles, causing the world to laugh at them.And when Gao Yushi dragged them into the sea trade business, which was like stealing money, they really became interested in making money in a subjective sense, and this interest continued to grow day by day, almost becoming the meaning of life in their minds.

As I said before, the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty started from the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and the scale became larger and larger.The so-called sea ban in the Ming Dynasty was mostly just a dead letter.

At that time, the main purpose of the sea ban was to fight against Japanese pirates. Later foreign literature said: "Once the activities of pirates decrease, the government will lose the motivation to ban shipping. In fact, most officials turned a blind eye to private trade. Merchant ships entering the ports of Jiangsu and Zhejiang were rarely rejected. Therefore, the maritime trade between Fujian and Zhejiang was very prosperous in the Ming Dynasty."

This is not only stated in foreign documents, but also in various domestic historical books and documents.For example, Wang Shu of the Ming Dynasty said, "In the early days of the country, it was enacted that one-inch board and single sails were not allowed to enter the sea. Since 80 years...every time there is a month of fishing for yellow croakers, thousands of giant ships are all illegal. If there is difficulty in doing it, I can’t bear it. Instead of making it difficult, which one is better for you.”

At the time of Chenghua Hongzhi, there were "big families and rich families, and sometimes those who traded overseas on huge ships".In the reign of Zhengde, there were more "prosperous people privately building huge ships, setting sail for foreign transactions and making profits".During the Jiajing period, the number of "Zhangzhou Yuegang family built large foreign ships to travel back and forth, and the Franco machine to exchange goods from various countries" continued unabated.It can be said that by the late Ming Dynasty, the development of overseas trade had become majestic and prosperous.

At this time, the Japanese islands were one of the main trading areas for private maritime merchants, and the main market for Ming raw silk, various textiles, and daily necessities.

"Mostly what is needed in Japan, such as matting in a room, weaving in Chang'an in Hangzhou; powder for women, and gold and silver foil for fan lacquers, which are made in Wulin; they are like porcelain from Rao, silk and cotton from lakes, and yarn from Zhang Silk, loose cotton cloth, is especially important in that country."

At this time, the price of raw silk in Ming Dynasty was about 60 taels of silver per load, but it could be sold for five to six hundred taels of silver in Japan, with a gross profit of ten times.And imports from Japan to Ming Dynasty include: "The goods of the Chinese people in the mutual market include gold and silver, amber, crystal, sulfur, mercury, copper and iron, white beads, sapphire, sumac, pepper", as well as local products and seafood.

According to the "History of the Late Ming Dynasty": "Chinese specialties such as raw silk, silk, and porcelain are sold all over Spain and its colonies; cotton and linen heads are generally consumed by the indigenous residents of the Spanish colonies."

"In 1592, the governor reported to the King of Spain that Chinese merchants bought cotton from the Philippines and immediately shipped cotton cloth from China. Cotton cloth has become the most popular commodity in the Philippines for Chinese goods."

During this era, Ming’s foreign trade exceeded by a large amount, which led to the import of silver from America and Japan into China on an unprecedented scale. "Chinese textiles were also sold to the Spanish American colonies through Manila. As early as the end of the 16th century, Chinese cotton cloth had already displaced Spanish goods in the Mexican market."

"By the early 1580s at the latest, Chinese silk had already threatened the sales of Spanish products in the Americas. At the beginning of the 17th century, Mexicans wore silk more than cotton. The so-called silk was mostly Chinese silk."

"In fact, China's trade relationship with the Spanish colonial empire is the relationship in which Chinese silk flows to the Philippines and the Americas, and silver flows to China."

"In 1611, the governor of Mexico called for a ban on the import of raw silk from China. But in 1637, the situation became more and more serious. The silk industry in Mexico used Chinese silk as raw material, and the local silk industry in Mexico was practically wiped out.

Peru, which is adjacent to Mexico, is also a huge market for Chinese silk, and the price of Chinese silk to Peru is only worth 1/3 of that of Spanish products.Chinese satins were sold and worn everywhere from Chile to Panama. "

"Chinese silk not only flooded the American market, but also seized the sales of Spanish silk in the Americas, and even bypassed more than half of the world and was exported to Spain, where it directly destroyed the silk production of Spain."

All in all, the volume of foreign trade in the late Ming Dynasty was astonishing. The book "Social Changes in the Late Ming Dynasty" stated that "a comprehensive rough estimate shows that a total of 1570 tons of American silver flowed into China from 1644 to 12620."Based on the research of many scholars, Li Longsheng believes that "the inflow of silver from overseas in the entire Ming season may be nearly 3 million taels." Frank of the United States estimated in the mid-16th century to the 17th century based on various existing research results in "Silver Capital". In the middle period (that is, from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty), about 1 to 3 tons of silver flowed into China from the Eurasian trade, accounting for about [-]/[-] of the world's total silver production at that time.

Anyway, although there are differences in the results of various studies, no matter which one is said, it is enough to show that Ming Dynasty occupied the center of the world economy at that time.

Portuguese scholar Magalhaes Godinho described China in the late Ming Dynasty as a "suction pump", which vividly and concretely explained China's absorption of silver from all over the world.However, there is a very important point here, that is, so much silver was obtained by exchanging goods rich in Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the high level of social and economic development in the late Ming Dynasty was by no means as bad as some people made it out to be.

However, as far as the nobles are concerned, they themselves do not produce many commodities.At the beginning, it was even possible not to produce anything. Later, under the influence of Jinghua, it gradually set foot in the production industry—such as the new cement factory and new textile factory invested by Jinghua in the later period.

However, their involvement is carried out by relying on Jinghua. To put it simply, they are investing in each specific factory of Jinghua, mainly participating in auditing and dividends, but regardless of the operation of the factory, it belongs to the relatively superficial "production".

Although they participated in the "production", they found that although the value of other commodities doubled, arms were a big deal in comparison, and it could almost be said that it was the kind of "not open for three years, but open for three years".

For example, the Jinghua No. 14 heavy gun of the 1100th year of Wanli, Zhang Yuangong, Zhu Yingzhen and others actually had a gross profit of [-] taels per gun, and they only needed to sell ten guns to earn tens of thousands of taels of silver.Even wealthy and powerful nobles have to be speechless, hoping to sell more.

It's a pity that it's very difficult, because the two major sales of Jinghua's artillery are the imperial court and the southern Xinjiang countries-in fact, southern Xinjiang belongs to internal sales, but it is not the cost price, because Gao Pragmatism insists that the internal must rely on its own ability, he only It stipulates the highest premium rate and the order of priority to ensure supply.

So although the nobles are happy to sell cannons secretly, it is really not easy to get the goods, and they are in a state of dissatisfaction for a long time.

This situation gave birth to another idea: Japan has so much silver, and we don't have enough supply now, so it's better to just do business without money and go directly to rob his mother!

In order to persuade Gao Yushi, the two princes, as representatives of the Xungui Group, actually put forward "political opinions". Porcelain, silk and cotton from the lake, yarn from Zhang, and cotton from the pine” are almost all controlled by the southern merchants, or the production capacity of the southern merchants is much higher than that of the north.

Originally, at the beginning, the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance relied on the advantages of the fleet (including capacity and security), and was able to overwhelm the southern merchants. Relying on production capacity and the capital background of our ancestors, we quickly caught up.

However, it is well known that these giant merchants in the South have always stood behind the School of Mind, so once the situation in the market reverses, the opponents of the School of Reality in the court will inevitably become stronger and stronger.

Hearing these words, Gao Yushi was surprised. Could it be that the two of you have also joined the My Reality School?
That's definitely not the case, these two are just investing in gold and silver.But having said that, it was high pragmatism that brought them gold and silver, so even with them, they really felt that they were both prosperous and prosperous with the Practical School, and all were hurt.

Although there must be a problem with the starting point of the words of the two princes, Gao Yushi thinks it is not completely unreasonable.As the so-called economic base determines the superstructure, this sentence is not only true at the national level, but also true at the faction level.

In the original history, why did the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty talk so loudly, but when they said they wanted to collect business taxes, it was like digging up their ancestral graves?Isn't it because behind the Donglin Party is the wealthy business group in Jiangnan!

It can be seen from this that whether the economic strength behind the faction is strong or not has a very important impact on the outcome of the faction dispute.In recent years, the development of Jinghua has been really fast, and even the "Xungui Capital Group", which is held up by high pragmatism, has a tendency to gradually enter the stage.

However, it is impossible for a small butterfly's wings to flap exactly where Gao Pragmatically wants to flap.The superiority of the Jiangnan Haoshang Group is clearly placed there. Whether it is the grasp of Daming's original advantageous industries or its own strong and powerful economic background, it is definitely not something that can be taken lightly.

So they came to their senses and started to follow the road of getting rich that Gao Yushi had come out with.Gao Pragmatic, who is more busy with government affairs than business, has not started to pay attention to it, but the "Xungui Capital Group", which is focused on making a fortune, is keenly aware of the abnormality.

According to Zhu Yingzhen's example, Gao Wushi found that in the traditional silk raw silk, the southern capital clearly has an absolute advantage, and the north can almost only rely on the tussah silk industry he has developed in the past two years to get some business from the middle class.

However, the tussah silk industry is not actually a standard "middle-class commodity".The silk products on the upper layer and the cotton cloth products on the lower layer have been extruding it in both high and low directions.Silk is controlled by southern merchants, and cotton cloth is also controlled by southern merchants.

Therefore, although the tussah silk industry opened up the market smoothly, the market has not been able to further expand for a long time.If it hadn't been for Gao Pragmatism to start promoting cotton planting throughout the north, and start to get involved in the textile industry with the advantage of mastering the advanced loom (Jinghua improved version of the spinning jenny), I am afraid that the entire cloth industry will be surrounded by the south.

The focus of the first industrial revolution was light industry, especially cloth clothing, because this industry is especially suitable for forming advantages of scale-everyone has to wear clothes, right?But in the current Ming Dynasty, this industry is dominated by the behind-the-scenes funders of the Xin School, while Gao Pragmatism is obsessed with "heavy industries" such as steel, coal, firearms, and shipbuilding, and other people can't get involved. hand.

In this situation, do you think "Xungui Capital Group" is in a hurry?
Obviously, they are not highly pragmatic, they don't understand the meaning of heavy industry, and even if they understand, they dare not copy according to the homework of Gao Pragmatic - Gao Pragmatic dares to raise so many armed servants to protect their own property, how dare they have a vote of military officials and nobles?I'm afraid you think that the Zhu family emperor doesn't kill people!
People just don't dare to kill civil servants who hold the high ground of morality and public opinion. Kill a few military officials who "privately store soldiers" and see if the emperor will be lenient.To a certain extent, the root cause of Li Rusong's death in history was that the Li family's army was too strong for a period of time.

The war skills of the nobles are a bit trendy, but when it comes to how to survive in the world, almost all of them are at the level of artists, so at most they dare to prepare hundreds of armed servants on board, and then go one step further. They are resolutely unwilling.

In this way, heavy industry can't do it, and light industry can't do it. If you want to make more money, don't you have to find another way?
What are the advantages of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance over the Southern Luxury Merchants Alliance?It's really embarrassing to say: it's about force.

Yes, two groups of businessmen competed in skills, and one group of businessmen found that they only had the advantage in force.This is very embarrassing, because the emperor certainly cannot allow you to directly destroy another group of people physically.

What can we do? Of course, we can only use this force advantage to other places, such as robbing outsiders.

They didn't think of this idea at first, but Gao Pragmatic's method of making Burma pay compensation during the Yunnan-Myanmar War reminded them.Now, Japan's Iwami Ginzan has become their second target.

Now it was Gao Wushi's turn to struggle.

Although the nobles have thoroughly checked the history of the Mori family and Iwami Ginzan, they obviously only know how to treat headaches and heal their feet. They have not studied the political situation in Japan, let alone know the historical trend.

Simply put, this problem is that with the basic unification of the Warring States Period in Japan, a large number of samurai began to become tasteless. It is not worthwhile to raise them, and big troubles will happen if they are not raised. Therefore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is determined to launch a war to solve this problem.

In addition to the rebellion of refugees, launching any war is not just about people, you must also have money.So it is conceivable that Toyotomi Hideyoshi must be full of ideas about making money now. At this time, the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance went to fight Iwami Yinzan?

Toyotomi Hideyoshi will absolutely fight with you!You actually come to ask me if Hideyoshi will intervene, and if I intervene, would I be willing to help you resist?What the heck!Wouldn't it be nice to wait until the Japanese themselves have made a fool of themselves, and then come to a winner?
But even though the truth is the same, Zhang Yuangong and Zhu Yingzhen's drama today shows that the "Xungui Capital Group" is already red-eyed, and it won't work if they don't see some money and get some benefits.

Although [-]% of this group of nobles were bullshit in the original history, they are highly pragmatic and have a waste utilization plan, and they have used them well so far. It is impossible to just give up and give up.

Gao Wushi thought for a while, and suddenly said: "Wa's national military strength exceeds 50. Toyotomi Hideyoshi can at least mobilize an army of more than 30 to defend Iwami Ginzan. I think this battle is not worth fighting."

Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong's expressions changed, and they said at the same time: "But he may not..."

"Listen to me." Gao Wushi reached out his hand to stop them, and continued: "It's not easy to fight for two to three million yuan, but I think it's still possible to fight for two to three thousand yuan."

"Two or three thousand?" Zhu Yingzhen was taken aback, obviously misunderstood Gao Yushi's words, and asked, "Is there a way for Rixin to only attack the city?"

Zhang Yuangong also stared at Gao Wushi, nervously waiting for his next words.

Unexpectedly, Gao Yushi said, "I'm not talking about Shanbuki City, or even the country of Wa - I'm talking about Luzon."
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(End of this chapter)