Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1458 Changes in Southern Border ([-])
Of course, Luzon is the Philippines, which is basically in the hands of the Spaniards.

In this era that Westerners call the Great Geographical Discovery, Spain continued to expand to the west of the Atlantic Ocean according to the relevant decrees of the "Guardian Right", and finally crossed the American continent and across the Pacific Ocean. years) to establish colonial fortresses and trading forts.

Coincidentally, after many years of disputes over opening and banning the sea, the Ming court, under the insistence of Gao Gong, announced in the Longqing period that part of the Fujian region would be opened to the sea ban, and ships could go to the "East and West" for trade.

The bulk commodities of the Ming Dynasty, such as raw silk and porcelain, have long been bestsellers in the global market, and the Spaniards own a huge amount of American silver.Therefore, under the urgent needs of both markets, the trade between Daming and Luzon or the Spanish Philippines began to rise rapidly after the first year of Wanli, and the scale continued to expand.

However, until this time, the Spaniards still did not completely control the entire Philippine Islands. Their rule was still of the "point-to-surface" type, that is, they mainly controlled important strongholds such as Manila, but they were unable to penetrate into the countryside.The main reason for this is very simple, that is, there are few people.

To be precise, there are too few Spaniards.So far, Spain has only 2000 people including the army in Manila, the most important stronghold of Spain in the Spanish Philippines, so that Gao Wushi has long considered whether to take the Philippines.

The reason why Gao Yushi did not make a move in the end was that when he was pondering this matter, Spain was at its brightest moment, and although various troubles had begun to appear, they had not been seriously entangled with it after all; It was Gao Yushi who worried that it would be easy to win the Philippines, but after taking it, it might cut off the transit point for American silver to flow into Ming Dynasty, which would intensify Ming's silver shortage.

Then why did Gao Wushi suddenly propose to take action against Luzon or the Spanish Philippines today?

The first reason is of course to divert the targets of the nobles, so that they can withdraw their paws that are going to extend to Japan temporarily, so as not to destroy his grand strategy of Gao Situ; the second reason is very simple: the Spaniards have improved The tax rate of Ming merchant ships going to the Philippines for trade.

Out of the desire for commercial interests, as early as the 44th year of Jiajing (1565), when Legazpi colonized the Philippine Islands, officials from the Royal Finance Department accompanied him there.The three most important positions in the Ministry of Finance are accountant, cashier and manager. They are usually responsible for assessing the interests of the royal family and recording relevant financial data.

At the same time as Manila was built (1571), the authorities also established some "royal safes", and members of the royal treasury were responsible for managing revenue and expenditure and writing accounting documents.

Or because the early scale was so insignificant, the Spaniards did not collect taxes at the beginning.However, this does not mean that the Manila authorities have completely ignored this potential source of income.Sander, the governor of the Philippines who once strongly advocated the conquest of China by force, stated in his report on June 1577, 6 (this year was the fifth year of Wanli):
To date, we have not collected any other taxes such as import and export duties.When I arrived in the Philippines, it was still a difficult period, and the people were so poor that I didn't dare to expropriate.It seems that taxation can be considered soon, and benefits will be gained then.And now, no matter what cargo the ship carries from China, the tax will not be much.

Obviously, Governor Sander's decision not to levy taxes for the time being is based on the practical consideration that the trade between the two sides is "still in a difficult stage".Because even if taxes are levied, "this tax will not be much."But on the other hand, the outlook that "taxation can be considered in the near future" and benefit from it clearly shows the long-term intention of the Manila authorities.

在这位桑德总督任职期间的万历三年到万历八年(具体为1575年8月—1580年4月)，马尼拉当局曾经向大明船只征收过“停泊税”。对此，菲律宾官员莱德斯马在一份1585年的报告中回顾道：

When Dr. Sander was the governor of the Philippines, it was stipulated that Chinese coming to the Philippines must pay a mooring tax for each ship, that is, pay 25, 30, and 50 pesos depending on the size of the ship.In addition, no other taxes and fees need to be paid.

Considering that the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty mostly arrived in the Philippines for trade in the first half of the year, and Sander only arrived in Manila on August 1575, 8, the actual collection time of the mooring tax will not be earlier than 25, and it is very likely that it will be effectively implemented. Delayed until the following year (1576).

Gao Wushi can't remember the exact time, because at that time he was busy studying by himself, accompanying him, and helping Gao Gong with advice, so he seldom paid attention to the details.

But just as Governor Sander expected, when the time came to the eighth year of Wanli (1580), when the high-level pragmatic won the champion, the number of Ming merchant ships going to Manila for trade increased sharply, and the scale of trade was significantly improved.Therefore, Long Chili, who succeeded him as the Governor of the Philippines, began to "consider taxation" in the second month of taking office.

On June 6 of the same year, Longchilu formally proposed to King Philip II that a 20% excise tax be imposed on the import and export of the Philippines, and at the same time, a per cent tax was imposed on ships going to New Spain (one of Spain's main colonies in the Americas). Ton 3 pesos shipping tax.

The excise tax in Spain is called "almojarifazgo", which is derived from the Arabic word "al-musrif", and it is also called royal tax (reales derechs) in some later documents, which was once widely implemented in Spain and the vast area of ​​​​the "West Indies" .

In fact, although the commodity tax implemented by the Spanish Philippines covers all import and export commodities, due to the low level of local development and very limited products, in fact this tax category is mainly levied on Ming goods entering and leaving the island.

However, the implementation of this excise tax in the Philippines has not been so smooth.In the ninth year of Wanli (1581), Governor Long Qili imposed a 2% tax on goods exported to New Spain and a 3% tax on goods brought to Manila by Ming people.Who knew that he was not allowed to implement this tax rate, and was even blamed for it.

These voices of blame first came from the nominally superior administrative unit of the Philippines, the colonial authorities of New Spain in the Americas.

On March 1581, 3, on his way to the Philippines, the Dominican Salazar, who had just been appointed as the first bishop of Manila, wrote a letter to the Filipino finance official Ledesma in Chilapa, Mexico, insisting that the Philippines now It is also inconvenient to levy excise tax. His reason is "because that country (Philippines) is in the stage of new construction and is not enough to sustain itself."

Correspondingly, in the year following the implementation of the New Deal (the tenth year of Wanli, 1582), "certain businessmen and important people" in the Philippines reported anonymously to the Spanish royal family saying:
Governor Long Qili imposed a 3% tax on all cloth, which caused great dissatisfaction among Chinese businessmen.Those Chinese businessmen claimed that they would not come to Manila again because the trade is no longer free.Since we have not conquered this region for so long, the country (Philippines) is so fragile and vast that it would be destroyed if freedom were lost in all respects.

The statement "Chinese businessmen are extremely dissatisfied" is not nonsense, because the representative of "Chinese businessmen" here is highly pragmatic.After Gao Wuzhen captured Annan, he expressed his dissatisfaction to some local officials in Manila through Jinghua's fleet.

However, the main reason why Gao Wushi said this at the time was that the infrastructure in Manila was still quite bad, and the port facilities in Manila Port were not even comparable to Qinzhou Port, which was temporarily built for less than a year.

In contrast, when Hongchao was just re-opened, did it strive to improve the all-round basic guarantee of hardware and software, and at the same time make various preferential policies including tax exemption, with the purpose of attracting foreign businessmen and overseas Chinese businessmen to settle in?Your Philippine authorities have not even repaired a port to your satisfaction, and are about to start collecting taxes. Then, as the number one businessman, I can’t express my protest?
Of course, having said that, he had already made up his mind at that time not to mention the high pragmatism of the Spaniards. In fact, he just talked about it. He knew that the way of thinking of the Europeans was different from that of the Chinese. damaged" to force change.

But something happened that made Gao Pragmatically puzzled. Even though the new tax system was criticized by all kinds, it was finally officially approved. On May 1583, 11 (the 5th year of Wanli), the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which was ordered to investigate whether the New Deal was appropriate, reported the final results as follows:
His Majesty the King ordered the Supreme Court to investigate the policy of the former Governor-General Long Chili to implement a 3% tax rate on imported and exported goods; to find out whether the policy is appropriate, and if it is not appropriate, it will be abolished or take corresponding measures to amend it.Considering that the royal treasury of the Philippines is short of funds and the local expenditure is huge, the Supreme Court decided to continue to implement the 3% tax rate policy.

The 3% tax rate was barely considered high and pragmatic at the time, so since the Philippine authorities insisted on levying it, they levied it.Although Gao Pragmatically asked people in Jinghua to protest from time to time to put pressure on the Philippine authorities and even the King of Spain, but he really didn't really care about any major issues.

However, another five years passed, and at the beginning of this year, Gao Yushi received reports that the Philippine authorities had raised tax rates twice within a month.

According to the report, the sixth Governor of the Philippines, Santiago de Villa, first adjusted the tax rate to 6%, but then suddenly changed his mind more than half a month later and announced that the tax rate would be adjusted again and directly raised to 10%.

The tax rate suddenly tripled, and the merchants of Ming Dynasty naturally refused to do business.After failing to contact the Spanish authorities, Jinghua's trade fleet leader led the trade fleet, including 37 private merchant ships, directly back to Daming, and immediately reported to the Nanyang Fleet, Guangzhou Port, and Quanzhou Port.

In the news Gao Yushi received, both the Nanyang Fleet and the managers of the two ports said: Governor De Villa is simply crazy.Although ocean trade is highly profitable, it is precisely because of such high profits that the 10% excise tax is completely slaughtered at the level of arterial cutting and bloodletting.

But Gao Wushi knew what was going on as soon as he saw the report: Governor De Villa was not crazy, at most he was "forced to go crazy".

The reason is simple. This year is the 16th year of Wanli, that is, 1588 AD-the first expedition of the Armada to England took place this year!

The Armada's expedition to England was never a one-shot deal. In fact, the "British-Spanish War" was a tug-of-war that lasted for about 20 years.This war was an intermittent armed conflict between the Spanish colonial empire and the Kingdom of England without a formal declaration of war. The entire war consisted of multiple large-scale battles. It began in 1585 (the 14th year of Wanli) when Britain and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Nansach. , Britain supported the Dutch resistance to the rule of the Spanish Empire.

In other words, the prerequisite for the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War was the Dutch Revolution.There is no need to say much about this revolution, only one thing needs to be clarified, that is, Spain at this moment is deeply mired in the quagmire of the Netherlands, and there have been two national bankruptcies in terms of finances.

Spain, which has gone bankrupt twice, wants to mobilize a huge Armada to expedition to England, and the funds required are obviously extremely huge.

To make matters worse, the French War of Religion was at a critical moment at this time, and Henry III, the last king of the Valois dynasty, could no longer bear it.According to domestic estimates in Spain, Henry III, who is seriously ill, may die at any time, and Henry of Navarre is very likely to succeed him.

Henry of Navarre was a figure hated by King Philip II of Spain, not for any other reason, mainly because the later Henry IV was a Huguenot (the name of Calvinism in France) .

As the guardian of the Holy See, Philip II's religious enthusiasm can only be described as fanaticism, so he began to actively prepare to interfere with the changes in France.Of course, France is undoubtedly also a great power, so the funds needed to interfere in France are also massive.

To put it simply, the three wars that Spain is fighting and preparing to fight are crowded together, and each of these three wars can be described as a gold-swallowing beast.In such a situation, how can the governor of the Philippines be indifferent and stay out of it?
Gao Pragmatism believes that this is how Governor de Villa raised tax rates consecutively within half a month.However, understanding the motive does not mean that he must acquiesce and endure.

If the Governor-General of Spain and the Philippines honestly let Manila act as a transit point, the 3% tax is high and practical, which is barely tolerable, but if they want to adjust the tax rate to 10%, then the high pragmatism will not bother to reason with them.

Is my two-ocean fleet with thousands of sails overwhelming the sea just to reason with you?Since you have done the first day of junior high school, don't blame me for being the fifteenth day.

The reason why De Villa dared to raise the tax rate in this way is probably because he believed that Manila's business activities had become inertial.In his view, as long as the merchants of Ming Dynasty still need this huge benefit and silver from the West India (America), they will still come even if the tax is raised.

However, as far as Gao Pragmatic is concerned, there is no problem with this idea in reverse: since Manila’s business activities have become inertial, as long as Spain still needs this huge benefit, it needs to exchange unedible silver for Ming’s goods, even if Luzon Even if the owner is changed, they will still come.

But when Gao Wushi talked about robbing Lu Song, Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong were stunned, and after they were stunned, they were ecstatic: Gao Wushi was willing to let them set foot in Nanyang! ——
Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Book Friends 141216122515977", "O Shang Shuling", "Cao Mianzi", and "Ai Sports" for their monthly support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)