Da Ming started to ascend the throne

Chapter 305
Although Xia Wanchun is young, he is very interested in wine, probably all poets are like this.

After taking a sip of wine, his eyes immediately widened.

"Your Majesty, good wine, this wine is absolutely extraordinary, this is the first time I feel that there is such a delicious wine!"

When Xia Wanchun praised the good wine, the two princesses showed pride.

Jianwen:

"Of course, father is the reincarnation of a god-man, not only has good wine, but also..."

"My sister means that the father not only has good wine, but also goes into battle to kill the enemy, directs the battle and strategizes, sees the bandits and sees the captives, if you talk too much, your children don't understand, drink!"

Zhu Weixi was worried that Jianwen would reveal her father's background, so she hurriedly interrupted her.

Hearing the princess said that she was a child, Xia Wanchun smiled slightly, wondering if the princess is not too old?But he still held back.

Zhu Youjian took a sip of wine and interrupted the three children talking and laughing:
"Xia Wanchun, you are from Jiangnan, can you tell me what you know? I want to listen to the truth!"

Xia Wanchun hurriedly got up and clasped his fists:

"Your Majesty, please speak, and the minister will know everything."

Zhu Youjian smiled slightly:
"Sit down and talk. I want to know about the smuggling in the south of the Yangtze River. How much do you know?"

Xia Wanchun:
"Reporting to the Emperor, as far as I know, although the Daming sea ban is only an official sea ban, there are still private ships going into the sea, and it is because of the collusion between the gentry, wealthy businessmen and officials to profit.

A large number of tea, silk, porcelain, etc. go to sea, and they can be exchanged for huge amounts of gold and silver, but they will not pay taxes to the court.

After His Majesty lifted the sea ban, the situation seems to have improved, but smuggling is still rampant. If smuggling can be controlled, Ming Dynasty's revival will not be a problem! "

As a 21st century traveler, Zhu Youjian is of course very clear about what Xia Wanchun said.

The demise of the Ming Dynasty is actually inextricably linked to the sea ban.

It can be said that it is the consensus of modern people to ask for resources and wealth from the ocean. It was the age of great navigation opened by Europeans at the end of the 15th century.

It also allowed the development of resource-poor Europe to quickly surpass Asia, laying the foundation for centuries of prosperity in Europe.

As early as nearly a hundred years ago in the age of great voyages, Zheng He, the great Chinese navigator, had already led an unprecedented fleet to set sail to connect the world.

But this miracle in the history of world navigation did not continue.

In 1424, Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Gaochi announced in his enthronement edict that he would stop sailing to the West, and the ocean exploration of the Ming Dynasty was basically abolished.

The termination of Zheng He's voyages to the West was a policy of the Ming Dynasty's civil servants out of self-interest.

The direct reason why the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty proposed to stop Zheng He's voyages was that "the expenditure was huge and the treasury was empty".

But this is a lie that can only fool the emperor who is in the palace and far away from the people.

Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the development of foreign trade along the southeast coast of China has entered a peak.

The land area of ​​the Southern Song Dynasty was far smaller than that of the Ming Dynasty, but its fiscal revenue was 25 times that of the Ming Dynasty, and overseas trade accounted for the majority.

The Song Dynasty imposed a 7%-10% tariff on imported goods, and the annual tax revenue of the three cities of Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Liangzhe City reached 200 million guan (approximately equal to 200 million taels of silver).

If the history of the Southern Song Dynasty is far from that of the Ming Dynasty, then the Yuan Dynasty was also a big country of maritime trade, and there was an endless stream of sea boats filled with porcelain.

East to Japan, west to Southeast Asia, Persia, Arabia, Africa.

It can be said that the profit of an overseas trade can be ten times or a hundred times.

The huge profits from overseas trade are no secret to the bureaucratic gentry in the Jiangnan area. Many families rely on this to make their fortunes.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang issued a sea ban in order to solve the intrusion of Japanese pirates and the remnants of Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen and others.

The ship divisions of the three major cities of Quanzhou in Fujian, Mingzhou in Zhejiang, and Guangzhou in Guangdong were abolished, and foreign trade was prohibited. Anyone who built seagoing ships without permission and conducted overseas trade would be executed and his family members sent to the army.

But there is a famous saying in "Das Kapital" "If there is a 10% profit, capital will be guaranteed to be used everywhere; if there is a 20% profit, capital will be active.

With a profit of 50%, capital will take risks; for a profit of 100%, capital will dare to trample on all human laws; with a profit of more than 300%, capital will dare to commit any crime, and even risk hanging.

"Zhu Yuanzhang's strict orders couldn't stop the residents in the Jiangnan area from pursuing their interests. Ordinary civilians with no power and power simply went to sea to become pirates.

The bureaucratic and gentry of the privileged class simply helped the pirates sell their stolen goods, or organized fleets for smuggling trade.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not have a strong navy, so it was powerless to stop piracy and smuggling.

Zhu Yuanzhang's sea ban was of no use except to reduce the court's tax revenue. The bureaucratic gentry took the opportunity to become the leader of the Ming Dynasty's overseas trade and reap huge profits.

Take the famous Zheng Zhilong (Zheng Chenggong's father) maritime trading group in the late Ming Dynasty as an example, which earned tens of millions of taels of silver every year.

The emergence of Zheng He's voyages broke the monopoly of the bureaucratic gentry in the Jiangnan area on maritime trade.

Zheng He's fleet of more than 200 ships in his voyages consisted of 63 main treasure ships.

According to British scholar Mills, each treasure ship can carry 2500 tons. Before each voyage, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty would uniformly purchase a large amount of goods such as porcelain, tea, and silk so that they could go to sea with the ship to start trade in the countries along the route.

However, the trade volume of various countries is limited every year. Zheng He's fleet brought a large amount of goods, which naturally affected the sales of Ming Dynasty smuggling caravans.

The most important thing is that everyone blatantly violated the sea ban because the emperor couldn't catch it.

Now Zheng He has formed an invincible fleet at that time, showing off overseas, clearing up pirates, and catching a smuggling fleet is not easy.

The eunuchs who were in charge of the voyage fleet were all the emperor's trusted eunuchs, as long as they were loyal to the emperor, they didn't need to give face to the bureaucrats and gentry.

Therefore, the smuggling fleet decreased greatly after Zheng He’s voyages to the West. At that time, 26 kilograms of silver flowed into China due to trade every year. Silver was money in the Ming Dynasty, and money touched people’s hearts. This large group of interest groups did not hate to die Zheng He's fleet.

The Ming Dynasty relied on imperial examinations to select scholars, and the culturally developed Jiangnan region has long monopolized the number of admissions.

The famous "North and North List Case" in 1397 is a concentrated expression of this phenomenon. Most of the officialdom in the Ming Dynasty was controlled by officials from the Jiangnan area, and these officials were more or less related to overseas trade.

Even civil servants who are not involved in overseas trade, the "Bing Jing" and "Charcoal Jing" respected by the people below each year, holding large sums of money, have short hands and short mouths, have to speak for interest groups, and attack eunuchs Isn't power the political correctness of the civil service group?

A large group of civil officials collectively appealed for the abolition of voyages to the West. Naturally, it could not be said that it affected their own self-interest. The slogan to be upright was "the expenses are huge, and the treasury is empty."

However, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was a very assertive emperor, and basically dismissed civil servants, so it was not until 1424, when Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi, who believed in civil servants, ascended the throne that he abolished voyages to the West.

In 1430, Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji of the Ming Dynasty again ordered Zheng He to sail to the Western Ocean for the seventh time. Unfortunately, Zheng He was already old, and many years were delayed in the middle. Many supporting personnel and facilities for the Western Ocean were abandoned. The feat has become unsustainable.

Whether Zheng He made money from his voyages to the West, you only need to look at what Ming Chengzu Zhu Di did.

Zheng He's first six voyages to the West were from the third year of Yongle to the 22nd year of Yongle.

During this period of time, Zhu Di personally conquered Mongolia five times, each time dispatching more than [-] troops.

Sending Cheng Guogong Zhu Neng and British Duke Zhangpu to conquer Annan four times, it cost more than [-] soldiers and horses.

Millions of craftsmen and civilian husbands were recruited to expand Beiping City, build the Forbidden City, move the capital to Beijing, etc. A lot of money came from the emperor's internal treasury.

The emperor's money was earned by Zheng He and other eunuchs for him. To put it bluntly, all the money earned from the voyages went to the emperor's own small coffers.

If the officials of the DPRK have no selfish intentions, such as not paying taxes and monopolizing overseas trade, they should not push for the abolition of voyages to the West.

Instead, we should promote the abolition of the maritime ban and promote the expansion of foreign trade.

This kind of selfishness can be said to have destroyed the only chance to postpone the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

There are two biggest reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty. One is that the country’s finances collapsed, and there was not enough money to pacify Liaodong and suppress Li Zicheng and other peasant uprisings.

If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could get money from maritime trade, the so-called "three rates" would not be a problem at all, how could he be short of money to spend.

The second is the Little Ice Age. In the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters continued, food harvests failed year after year, and famines continued.

Champa, Siam, Annan, Chenla and other countries in Southeast Asia are all big grain-producing countries, and the grain is cooked twice or three times a year.

If the voyages to the West had always existed, these grain-producing areas would have always respected the leadership of the Ming Dynasty.

Whether it is to collect grain, borrow grain, or buy grain, it can solve the food shortage problem in the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, there is no such thing in history.

(End of this chapter)