Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1471 Absorption Storage (Part [-])
The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance abruptly held a general meeting of shareholders. Even Xu Wenbi, Duke of Ding, who had not shown up for a long time, attended the meeting dragging his sick body. Xinlou, none of them were absent from the meeting.

The theme of the meeting was not announced at the beginning. At the meeting, Gao Wu first gave a briefing on the Maritime Trade Alliance’s plan to launch an attack on the Spanish-occupied Luzon Islands, and then discussed the battle with the participants. Strategy, post-war arrangements and other matters.

In the matter of attacking the Luzon Islands, in the eyes of the nobles, the biggest trouble is not whether the Spaniards are strong or not—anyway, Leader Gao said that there are very few Spaniards in that place, with no more than two thousand soldiers and twenty ships.

With this little manpower, even if they are all fierce generals who are one against ten, it is still for nothing.The benefits of fighting at home are obvious, and it is impossible for the Sea Trade Alliance to lose this battle.

Needless to say, after listening to Liu Xin's analysis that day, Gao Wushi has carefully examined the Nanyang Fleet's investigation report on Manila and other places, and fully affirmed the success rate of the flooded Manila tactic.

From a humanitarian standpoint, this tactic is very problematic. From a pragmatic point of view, he actually doesn't like this kind of tactic that looks like a "weapon of mass destruction" effect.

But what is not surprising is that the nobles were extremely satisfied with this tactic, and they all praised "Miss Liu is worthy of being a tiger girl", "Heroine, don't let the eyebrows" and so on. No one mentioned anything about harming the innocent. God said such words.

That's right, back then they all rebelled, and Daming was brutally murdered to the point of extermination. It would be too much to expect these people to talk about humanitarianism.Gao Yushi even wondered if he was thinking too much.

But having said that, apart from humanitarianism, there is another more realistic reason for Gao Yushi to be entangled in this point, that is, he does not want to turn Manila into a dead city all at once.

Dead cities cannot create wealth. Even if they can be rebuilt and emigrated, it will be troublesome and time-consuming.What he needed was Manila to serve as a non-stop transit point for American silver to contribute to his silver standard paper currency plan.

There are only three sources of silver. One is the government’s treasury of silver. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, the circulation of silver among the people was once banned. amount of silver.

The second is domestic silver production from silver mines. Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, large-scale silver mines have been opened in the country. In the middle and late stages, due to economic development, increasing demand for silver and improvement in smelting technology, domestic silver production has increased.However, as we all know, China has no large-scale silver veins geographically, so domestic silver production is extremely limited.

Up to now, the silver entering circulation through the above two channels accounts for a very small proportion of the total silver on the market, and most of the rest of the silver comes from abroad and flows into the country through the export of Ming Dynasty’s foreign trade.

Mr. Liang Fangzhong, a scholar of later generations, once pointed out: "China has always been a country that does not produce much silver. Since the beginning of the trade with European countries in modern times, the supply of silver has mostly relied on foreign sources; domestic production is not important."

The data of Daming's own silver mining is testable, and there is a special name called "Silver Class".Gao Yushi, as the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, can easily find relevant case files.

The Chengzu and Xuanzong dynasties were the two periods with the highest silver income in the Ming Dynasty. After the Yingzong Dynasty, the silver income began to decrease significantly; from the Xiaozong to Wuzong dynasties, it showed a linear downward trend.

To be a little more specific, Daming’s average annual income from silver lessons is about 10 taels, and in the later stage, it has actually been less than 10 taels.When the national silver class was at its peak, it only reached 10 or 12 taels per year.

In such a huge country, what can you do with 10 taels of silver?This shows that the amount of silver mined by domestic silver mines is seriously insufficient, which cannot meet the huge and growing demand for silver by the country and society.

However, if we look at the silver income in Taicang (basically equal to the national treasury), there is one point worth mentioning, that is, the direct silver storage started from the Longqing Dynasty, and there was a sudden surge.To be more precise, it began to increase sharply in the fifth year of Longqing, that is, the second year of Gao Gong's return to the court.

[Note: This is also a historical fact.I don’t know if those readers who said I was a high archer at the beginning of this book are still reading it, will they be speechless after reading this? 】

In the fourth year of Longqing, Taicang's silver storage was 230 million taels. This figure has hardly changed since the early days of Jiajing. In the fifth year of Longqing, Taicang's silver storage directly reached 310 million taels.Considering that finances are calculated on a yearly basis, it is basically certain that the country's income has experienced a surge since the year Gao Gong returned to the court.

How did the money come out?There are two main sources: one is that Gao Gong sent Hai Rui to Jiangnan (Governor Yingtian) to promote a whip law, and through the deterrence of the Songjiang Field Retirement case, the one whip law was implemented, so the silver tax paid by the Jiangnan area increased significantly. rise;

The second is simple. In that year, Gao Gong continued to implement the "Longqing switch" that was almost suspended because he was ousted by Xu Jie before, and Yuegang's customs revenue rose sharply.In other words, a large amount of American silver began to flow into Ming Dynasty.

Looking back at the world history of the same period, we can more clearly see the source of China's large amount of overseas silver at that time.

Due to the development of the trade economy, gold and silver were widely used as transaction currencies in Europe in the late Middle Ages (after the 10th century). By the 15th century, Europe fell into the predicament of "silver shortage" due to insufficient money supply.Thus, Europeans began to search for gold and silver all over the world.

In 1492 (the fifth year of Hongzhi) Columbus arrived in America, and in 1498 (the 11th year of Hongzhi) Da.Gamma opened up a new route to India via the Cape of Good Hope. From 1519 to 1522 (the 14th year of Zhengde to the first year of Jiajing), Magellan completed the first voyage around the world, opening the door to America for navigators from the Western world.

1545年(嘉靖24年)和1548年(嘉靖27年)西班牙殖民者相继在波托西(今属玻利维亚)和墨西哥的萨卡特卡斯发现的特大型银矿。大量低成本的美洲金银自16世纪开始流入西班牙。

Afterwards, these gold and silver wealth were injected into other major European countries through multiple channels such as international trade, financial operations, smuggling, pirate plunder, and war reparations.Some scholars in later generations estimated that 1/3 to 1/2 of the total amount of gold and silver eventually flowed into China.

Just at this time, because of Gao Gong's insistence, the Ming Dynasty "Longqing Switch", relying on the advantages of foreign trade, a huge amount of overseas silver flowed into China, satisfying the ever-expanding silver currency demand of the Ming Dynasty.

In 1571 (the fifth year of Longqing), the Spanish colonists established the colonial capital in Manila, Philippines. At that time, the socio-economic development level of the Philippine Islands was low, and the local products could not meet the expenses of the colonial authorities. Relying on the supply from Ming Dynasty nearby, they began to engage in entrepot trade with China.

In order to attract Chinese to the Philippines to settle and do business, the colonial authorities initially took some protection and preferential treatment measures for Chinese business trips and goods.Attracted by the huge profits of Manila trade, merchants from Ming Dynasty (except Jinghua, mainly merchants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, Fujian Province) flocked here, which stimulated the development of Mingfei trade.

According to Jinghua's report, Manila today has become one of the largest trade centers in the Southeast Asia region, and can compete with Malacca occupied by Portugal.

Ming goods imported into Manila mainly include raw silk, silk fabrics, velvet, silk, satin, cotton, linen, jewelry, handicrafts, iron and steel tin-lead products, saltpetre, gunpowder, food, poultry, livestock, etc., especially textiles.In Spanish America, 200-300 million pesos of silver flow to Manila every year.

This data is in line with Gao’s pragmatic memory. He remembered that Quan Hansheng, a later scholar, said in "Macao’s Overseas Trade after the Middle of the Ming Dynasty": "From the opening of Manila in the fifth year of Longqing to the end of Ming Dynasty, the inflow of The American silver in China may be more than 80 million pesos, equivalent to more than 6000 million kuping taels.”

In fact, even with the addition of Jinghua now, the current trade volume between the two parties has not reached the highest point in history.Because according to Gao Pragmatic’s memory, only 1631 year in the original history, there were 1400 million taels of silver imported from the Philippines to Macau, which is roughly equivalent to the 1403-year peak of the Ming Dynasty from the first year of Yongle to the ninth year of Xuande (1434-30). During the period, the total output of China's official silver mines was 2.1 times, which was equivalent to 3.8 times the average annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty treasury during the Wanli period.

Why was Zheng Zhilong so rich in history?Why is Jinghua so rich now?
The income from ocean trade is almost four times that of the whole country of Ming Dynasty from the Philippine transit station in Spain alone!Can this not be as rich as an enemy?Looking back, how important was this silver income to stabilizing Daming's silver-standard monetary policy?
It seems that there is a hand in the dark that connects the silver discovered by the Spaniards in the Americas with the currency problem of the contemporary Ming Dynasty: the Ming Dynasty can produce the best commodities in the world, but what drives the Ming Dynasty to continuously expand commodity production is the It is the precious metal that is in short supply in Ming Dynasty - silver.The Spaniards, meanwhile, possessed nothing but silver exports via Mexico.

From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, China's commodity economy developed greatly, and its market prosperity ranked first in the world. However, before the 16th century, it always experienced periodic currency shortages.Whenever the business and market develop, the money supply will be insufficient. The main reason is that there is a shortage of precious metals in the country and no currency system based on precious metals has been established.

The monetization of silver greatly promoted the development of commodity production and exchange relations in the Ming Dynasty, and also restricted the right of those in power to issue currency indiscriminately, cutting off the way of the Ming court to hyperinflation. A large amount of social wealth is gathered under one's own control for nothing, which also greatly promotes the growth of production and trade.

However, although such a fiscal system is sound, it is not flexible and is a very rigid system.

For example: in the last years of Chongzhen, if the imperial court could use a flexible monetary policy to a certain extent, then the Ming Dynasty would definitely not die in such a way. , This court actually died of poverty.

Banknotes require reserves, but banknotes can be overissued according to specific circumstances when the economy needs to be regulated. The greatest significance of reserve funds is to build confidence for people who use banknotes and establish credibility for the banknotes.

When the credibility is absolutely guaranteed, the amount of banknotes can actually be adjusted according to the specific economic conditions at that time.When there is a danger of deflation in the country, he can issue more banknotes to alleviate the money shortage; when inflation starts to appear, he can issue less banknotes and make up less after returning banknotes to stabilize prices.

And in case there is an urgent need for money in the court, he can also obtain wealth by directly issuing additional banknotes to help the court survive the crisis-this will of course lead to inflation, but sometimes a certain degree of inflation is better than losing the war A situation like this is better, as long as the rate of inflation is still under control.

The so-called fiscal flexibility probably means this.

However, the cash in Gao Yushi's hands alone is not enough to create a "Ming Fed". Got it?
So he had to win over more forces, among which the nobles and the emperor were the two key forces, because these two factions were the most stable in terms of law—they were hereditary.

The investment of civil servants is not so stable, because civil servants are selected through the imperial examination. If a family fails the Jinshi examination for two or three generations in a row, the family is likely to fall into ruin.Therefore, the investment of civil officials can only be regarded as the investment of the "feudal landlord class" or the "emerging bourgeoisie", and has little to do with their official status.

In order to win over Jingshi Xungui, the most critical and the first group that must be won over, Gao Wushi immediately threw out the concept of "Ming Federated Reserve" after talking about the attack on Manila.

According to him, the "Ming Fed Reserve" will be built on the basis of Jinghua Bank.Within the "Federal Reserve", silver is no longer used as a direct transaction currency. All merchants who join the "Federal Reserve" need to pay different amounts of silver to the "Federal Reserve" as a deposit, and the deposit is used to obtain credit.

For example, if the government of Chengguo pays a deposit of 10 taels of silver, then Zhu Yingzhen can directly own banknotes of 20 credit gold, and these banknotes can buy all the goods he needs from the "Federal Reserve" according to the currency value.The excess risk is borne by the "Federal Reserve"—considering the proportion of capital contribution, it can also be said that it is mainly borne by Jinghua.

However, while taking such risks, Jinghua also has the right to dispose of the security deposit from the Chengguo government, as well as the power to punish the Chengguo government for possible violations in the trade process according to the rules and regulations agreed in advance.

When everyone heard it, they first understood the benefits: one tael of silver was spent as two taels of silver, which was equivalent to directly doubling the capital!In the case of such a huge profit from sea trade, who would not drool over the effect of doubling the cost?
But everyone didn't agree immediately, because they needed to think about the benefits of Jinghua's doing so.Everyone is not a philanthropist. Even if Gao Yushi bears the reputation of "Buddha of all families", the nobles will not forget that he is the world's number one gold-pointing master.

How does Jinghua make money?Well, when everyone pays the deposit, these deposits are actually Jinghua’s money. Although everyone will use the credit brought by these deposits for internal transactions, since they don’t take money directly, Jinghua is easy to operate.And Jinghua itself may use these real money to do other things...

You can't think of what to do specifically now, but the reasoning should be pretty much the same.In this way, what still needs to be considered is the supervision and punishment system, but since Gao Yushi said that this needs to be discussed in advance and approved by both parties, there shouldn't be any major problems.

However, it is clear that they have underestimated Gao's pragmatic handwriting.If it's just an internal transaction, it doesn't make much sense for Gao Pragmatic to engage in this "Ming Fed Reserve", because Jinghua Bank's banknotes are already used by everyone.

Therefore, after getting their in-principle agreement, Gao Wugong immediately came up with a further plan: he would persuade the royal family to take a share and join the "Federal Reserve of Ming Dynasty".According to what he said, he would ask the emperor to directly invest the entire internal money into the "Ming Federal Reserve", and all of it will become a deposit!

What made the nobles even more dumbfounded was that Gao Wushi also said that allowing domestic funds to join the "Ming Federal Reserve" was only the second step of the plan, and he still had the third, fourth, and even more...
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(End of this chapter)