Da Ming started to ascend the throne

Chapter 335 Xia Wanchun secretly investigates Jiangnan

Daming has never been short of silver, only the former Chongzhen Emperor was short of silver.

Regardless of the government and businessmen in the Jiangnan area and the mainland business gangs, which one is not rich.

Jiangnan
After Zhu Youjian completely released the sea ban, the industry in the Jiangnan area began to flourish.

Landlords and businessmen in the Taihu Lake area rushed to hear the news, and many small workshop-style cities emerged on both sides of the canal from Suzhou to Hangzhou.

Among them, Shengze Town, which is close to Wujiang and rich in silk, is the most famous.

"The sound of weaving and weaving looms all night long. There are more than a thousand silk shops on both sides of the market, and villages far and near wove silk cloth, all of which are sold in this market."

The textile industry has gradually transformed from a simple cottage industry to an independent handicraft workshop, and some small handicraft workshops have even developed.

In the organizational structure of handicraft workshops, there are workshop owners, that is, capitalists who are landlords who are also engaged in industry and commerce, and there are also mechanics who are separated from agricultural production.

Their relationship is the so-called "machine households contribute capital, mechanics contribute", that is, the embryonic form of capitalism was born.

Industrial development, ultimately establishing the emergence of the germs of capitalism.

Due to the high profits of industry and commerce, the more enlightened landlords in the south of the Yangtze River changed the land used to produce food to plant commercial crops that could be sold.

Merchants in Linfen, Yuncheng, Shanxi, Shanxi, and other places invested all the funds in land management in commerce, and opened silk, satin, ceramics and other shops in Jiangnan.

The industry and commerce in various cities, big and small, were prosperous in the past, and many lands that used to be planted with rice were changed to mulberry fields.

Because the woven silk needs to be dyed, some areas that are not suitable for planting mulberry trees began to plant indigo.

The red dye madder was planted in southern Anhui. In this way, due to the needs of the textile industry, the related cloth dyeing industry appeared and developed.

The development of the textile industry in the Susong area was gradually expanding, and a large amount of silk and cloth were sold at home and abroad through merchants in Huizhou, Suzhou, and Shanxi.

They formed a business group full of regional characteristics, based in Susong, Taihu Lake, and then went south to Huguang, crossed Lingnan, crossed the ocean, and sold overseas.

The development of all these commercial activities is based on the textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River.

For this reason, merchants from all over the world established guild halls in Suzhou.

Such as the Lingnan Guild Hall in Guangdong, the Quanqin Guild Hall in Shaanxi, and the Quanjin Guild Hall in Shanxi.

In addition, it is precisely because of the gradual development of commercial activities that merchants carry a large amount of funds on long journeys, and the journey is extremely unsafe, so the embryonic form of the modern financial industry appeared.

The "ticket number" and the related remittance system began to appear, and finally established the emergence of capitalism.

All of this is based on Zhu Youjian's reform and opening up. Of course, there will be disadvantages at the beginning, and I believe he will gradually correct them.

In fact, in the history of the late Ming Dynasty, industry had also sprouted, but unfortunately it changed with the captivity of the barbarians.

The extremly suppressive policy of the Dongfang regime on the development of capitalism finally snuffed out the buds of capitalism that emerged in the late Ming Dynasty.

The development of China's social economy has changed from leading the world in the past, to self-defense, gradually lagging behind the West, and finally being overtaken by the West.

At this time, there are three rich children standing beside a field in Wujiang, Suzhou.

The youngest is about 14 years old, and the other two are about 25 or [-] years old.

The young man looked at a fertile field full of mulberry trees in front of him, with a sad expression on his face.

They were Xia Wanchun who was ordered to make an unannounced visit to the south of the Yangtze River, and two Jinyiwei hundreds of households, Huanghu and Heilong.

The yellow tiger and the black dragon were originally ordered to protect Xia Wanchun, although Xia Wanchun was still a teenager, he was already a second-rank official.

The two Jinyiwei only have a hundred households, and their official positions are very different.

But Xia Wanchun didn't have any pretensions, so he let the two of them wear the clothes of rich and noble families, and the three of them looked like brothers.

The yellow tiger and the black dragon are the Jinyiwei summoned by Zhu Youjian, since the emperor asked them to take orders from Xia Wanchun temporarily.

They would never go against Xia Wanchun's intention, so the three of them became three rich sons.

Xia Wanchun pointed to Sang Tian in front of him and said:
"Two brothers, take a look. All the fertile land is used to grow mulberry and silkworms. If this happens for a long time, the price of food will inevitably rise."

"What your lord said is very true. Along the way, I found that the price of food has been rising. In some places, the price of food has risen to 1.6 taels of silver per stone. If it is placed in the north, the common people will not be able to afford it."

Huang Hu Hei Long's words made Xia Wanchun shake his head:
"This is caused by trade. It is understandable that people want to make a lot of money, but the profits are made by some profiteers. They are taking advantage of loopholes to smuggle in order to pay less taxes."

During this period of time, the three of Xia Wanchun have been visiting the people, and they have learned about the smuggling situation in the south.

Daming's coastline is so long, if you want to completely control smuggling.

Not only local officials must make a difference, but the Ming Navy must play a strong role.

But which wealthy businessman has nothing to do with the government? For their own benefit, the local government will not guard against it at all.

The three then walked into a village and saw an old man basking in the sun at the entrance of the village, so they walked over.

Walking to the uncle, Xia Wanchun clasped his fists and said with a smile:

"Hi, sir, excuse me."

The uncle sat on the recliner and closed his eyes slightly. He only opened his eyes when he heard someone questioning.

Looking at the three of them up and down, he found that they were all rich people. He thought they were merchants who collected silk or cloth.

"Is there anything? The silk collector? It's already sold out, young people should come earlier next time..."

Xia Wanchun smiled slightly:
"Master, I found that there seems to be no one farming in your village. Is there any food to eat?"

"Ha ha……"

The uncle chuckled and said:

"Yes, of course, the current policy is good, every family has fields, and family members can also go to work, so how can there be no food to eat.

Each of our family will reserve some fields to grow rice, which is enough for the whole family to eat until the rice matures next year.

Life is happy now, thanks to the current emperor, he is a good emperor! "

Xia Wanchun clasped his fists in the direction of the capital and said:

"That's right, the captives and bandits have been wiped out, now is the time of peace and prosperity, and the emperor is the eternal sage!

Sir, besides the agricultural tax, do you need to pay other taxes? "

The uncle smiled and shook his head:
"No, big bosses pay very little tax. Of course we don't need to pay other taxes."

When he spoke, he looked around, and said a little mysteriously and ostentatiously:
"I have a relative who chooses a house who is in a big business. I heard that smuggling is very profitable. Some of their goods go to sea to pay taxes through formal channels.

There are also some goods that go to sea through secret channels, and you don’t need to pay a penny of taxes, and the full ship full of goods is exchanged for nothing...

If you have no connections, the uncle can introduce you to him, how much cloth, tea and porcelain you have, he will recycle them all..."

The uncle's words did not surprise Xia Wanchun, he already understood the comparison.

Xia Wanchun took out two taels of silver and handed it to the uncle, pretending to be a little charming and said with a smile:

"That would be the best. We recycle a lot of tea, cloth and silk, but now there is no way to go to sea. Please introduce me, sir."

Now is not the period of sea ban. It is not illegal to go to sea. There are some things that do not need to be avoided. Smuggling in the south is not a secret.

Xia Wanchun mainly wanted to know the smuggling methods of those merchants, which was also the purpose of his coming to Jiangnan.

(End of this chapter)