Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 509 The Temptation of the Emperor

"I will open ports to Spain for trade and commerce. The first batch of [-] ports including Dengzhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Macau, and Tuen Mun will be opened! "

As soon as Zhu Yihai opened his mouth, he offered to open eighteen ports to the Spaniards, and said that more ports would be opened in the future, including inland places such as Anqing, Jiujiang, Hankou, and even Tianjin and Beijing in the north.

The messenger was so shocked that he could not speak.

Originally thinking that Daming could open two or three ports such as Guangzhou or Fuzhou to them, they were very satisfied. After all, now that Daming does not officially trade with them and does not open ports, they can only do entrepot trade. Porcelain, tea and other goods are mainly purchased through the Zheng family.

Even because of the agreement between the Zheng family and the Dutch, they couldn't get the first-hand goods directly from the Zheng family. They had to get third-hand or fourth-hand goods from some Chinese businessmen. Sell ​​to Daming.

Although in fact, because of the Manila-American route, the silver mined by the Spaniards from the Americas has continuously flowed into the Far East Daming for more than 200 years, and it is said that hundreds of millions of silver have flowed out.At the same time, the raw silk and silk shipped from Daming had a serious impact on Spain's silk industry.

Yes, in fact, as early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Persians learned to raise silkworms and weave silk. In the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish silk weaving industry was actually quite strong.

But because the silk that flowed into the past from the Ming Dynasty through Manila was a blow to dimensionality reduction, Chinese silk fabrics with patterns are of high quality and low price, and Spanish products cannot be compared with them at all. For example, Chinese brocade is better than Spanish satin, but the price is less than half. The same is true of most other silk fabrics.

In the markets of Mexico and Peru, Chinese products are only one-third of Spanish products.

As a result, Spanish silk products almost disappeared in the American market, which was a disastrous blow to its domestic silk industry. The Spanish king had to order a ban on the Spanish trade in Manila to prevent the outflow of silver and the inflow of silk products.

But the huge profits made the king's ban like a blank sheet of paper.

There is not a single galleon sailing from Luzon to Mexico that is not loaded with silk fabrics worth 100 million or even 150 million pesos, and this is just the silk fabrics on board.

For more than 200 years of trade, the trade between Spain and the Ming Dynasty has actually been in deficit. Shipments of silver were transported from the Americas in exchange for shipments of silk and porcelain.

The profits here are staggering.

So even though the Ming Dynasty had never traded with Luzon before, they still tried their best to maintain the route and buy silk and porcelain from the Zheng family or other Chinese merchants, even if the price was higher.

Of course, if Daming directly liberalizes trade and gives them more ports to trade, it means that they can directly get more goods at a lower cost, and thus have greater profits.

The Chinese commodities that Luzon wanted most were raw silk, silk, porcelain, sugar, etc. Sugar could still be obtained in Nanyang, but raw silk and silk with various patterns woven were the most expensive and cheapest in Daming’s hands.

Zhu Yihai's rare generosity not only liberalized trade, he even offered to give them a certain missionary qualification.

"I don't know what His Majesty needs?"

What does Zhu Yihai want?
Zhu Yihai is of course also in need. Luzon Spanish merchants sell silver the most. Silver is actually very important to Daming. After more than 200 years, Daming is now the silver standard.

Although someone once said that Daming actually died of silver.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the sharp drop in silver imports and frequent wars led to a shortage of silver and exacerbated the financial crisis.

However, in the current situation, it is impossible to say that the status of silver as the local currency has been abolished, and Zhu Yihai can only improve it through other means, but it cannot be replaced all at once.

Moreover, in times of war, the credit brought by the silver natural currency is still very important, and messing around with banknotes will cause problems.

Now he can only process silver mixed with copper into silver dollars to slightly increase the profit of coinage and strengthen the unification of currency.The banknotes issued are actually exchange vouchers, not banknotes, which are redeemed at sight and not overissued.

Minting profits are not bad, but you need to have enough silver ingots in your hands.

Trade is a good source of silver, including copper. Copper coin casting is actually more profitable, especially the copper coins that Zhu Yihai is now engaged in. Although the copper coin is profitable, the scale is limited.

The silver Zhu Yihai is needed, but not the most needed.

It's a time of war, and silver alone doesn't buy everything one wants.

So he already had a list in mind.

He hopes that the transaction with the Spaniards will be at a deeper level, with silver as the transaction unit.

But it's not just as simple as selling silk porcelain.

Zhu Yihai could export high-quality and high-quality raw silk, silk, porcelain, tea, etc. to Luzon, and then order sailing warships, armed merchant ships, artillery guns, gunpowder, lead bullets, etc. from Luzon, and even hire some special gunners, guns, etc. from them. Mercenary sailors such as gunners and crew.

Even buy high-quality shipbuilding timber, copper and iron for making cannons, and sulfur, stone, nitrate and lead for making gunpowder.

This request was simply overjoyed to the envoys of the Governor of Luzon. In the past, they bought Chinese goods from the Chinese, which was basically a pure deficit. The Chinese merchants did not need their things very much, and they could only exchange them with silver.

Therefore, when a ship of silk and spices was shipped to America, most of the ship's silver and so on had to be carried on the returning ship.

Now Daming actually proposed to strengthen trade and order ships, guns, etc. from them. This is naturally very attractive to Luzon. In other words, it is also limited. If the Ming Dynasty can order a large number of ships and guns from Luzon, it will undoubtedly strengthen the local development of Luzon. It is of course very attractive to colonial officials such as the governor of Luzon.

But Zhu Yihai's request was not that simple.

He made an additional condition.

That is, Daming ordered a lot of ships, guns, etc., so he hopes to have a brand-new cooperation model, that is, build a joint venture shipyard and gun factory in Luzon. Learn from the past.

In addition, for the corresponding accessories and repairs, a new factory will be established along the coast of Fujian, Guangdong, and master craftsmen and managers will be sent from Manila to manage and operate together.

"This?" The envoy was a little puzzled.

"I have a lot of orders, and the technology in Luzon is good, but there are relatively few workers. I am also worried that you will not be able to take these orders, so I want to cooperate for a win-win situation and become bigger and stronger."

The core production is temporarily placed in Manila, but the accessories are placed in Daming to give full play to their respective advantages.

Zhu Yihai can also provide a large number of apprentices and workers to Luzon to strengthen production capacity.

The messenger hesitated when he heard something.

But Zhu Yihai reminded the envoy that the war between Ming and Qing is still going on, and it will be difficult to end in a short time. Even in the future, Ming will still need a lot of ships, so the two sides cooperate to build shipyards and gun factories, etc., the prospects are very good.

Now Daming and the Portuguese in Macau have also begun to adopt this cooperation model, but it still cannot meet the demand. If the Spaniards are unwilling, it will be their loss.

Shipbuilding, especially warships, is very expensive.

For example, the king of sailing battleships, British Victory, consumed [-] giant trees over a century old, and the cost was more than [-] pounds.

According to the division method of Western warships, the six-level sloop gunship is about 38 meters long and is mainly used for sending letters and escorts. Including artillery, etc., it is estimated to be 190 taels.

For example, the three ships brought by the Spaniards this time are equivalent to fifth-class ships, with a capacity of 150, a length of about [-] feet, and a cost of about [-] pounds.

The fourth level has a capacity of [-], the double gun deck has a capacity of [-], and the cost is at least [-] pounds.

So a Tier 10 battleship, complete with ships and guns, costs [-] taels of silver.

If Zhu Yihai wants to build warships, he must first build four, five and six battleships, and not build ones, ones, two and threes first, and then slowly add them later, but even for four ranks, one will cost 10 taels of silver. This deal is still very worthwhile dry.

Luzon itself has a shipbuilding and repairing industry, as well as mature technology and craftsmen. It is also close to Vietnam, Thailand and other places with excellent ship wood, which is conducive to shipbuilding.

The profit of shipbuilding is very high, especially it can drive the entire industrial chain, which is very helpful for the local development of Manila.

"This is a win-win and mutually beneficial cooperation. Why does the messenger hesitate?"

"Nowadays, a dan of lake silk in my Ming Dynasty sells for 200 taels of silver, and sea merchants sell it for 500 taels of silver when it is shipped to Manila. Merchants in Manila can sell it for [-] taels when they ship it to Mexico by galleon.
During the reign of Chongzhen, [-] tons of raw silk was shipped from Guangzhou to Japan via Macau, and about [-] tons of silk was shipped to Goa, India.

More raw silk was transported out of Luzon.

The Portuguese in Macau can earn at least 36 taels a year only for raw silk, while you Luzon businessmen can earn at least one million taels. "

Zhu Yihai told the Luzon envoy straightforwardly that raw silk is a high-quality output of Ming Dynasty, but now that the production of raw silk has dropped sharply due to the war, how to allocate exports must be given priority to supply partners.

In fact, this is to tell the Luzon envoy that even if I open up more than a dozen ports to you, if you cannot meet my conditions, then you will not be able to get the most profitable raw silk and other goods.

"Currently, about forty large merchant ships enter the Port of Manila every year, but as long as we fully develop commerce and trade with Daming, I believe that the number of large merchant ships entering the port can be tripled at least!"

"If Luzon can meet my conditions and build a joint venture shipyard and gun factory, then I can promise to supply at least 30 tons of raw silk and [-] pieces of silk fabrics to Manila every year."

The messenger was moved.

If a load of raw silk can be directly purchased from Daming's commercial port, and then shipped directly to America, it will be several times the profit. That's more than 400 million taels.

There are also hundreds of thousands of silk fabrics, which are also huge profits.

"Your Majesty, let's talk about the specific conditions of the joint venture shipyard and gun gun factory!" With such a huge profit tempting, not to mention the joint venture factory, it is estimated that the Son of Heaven proposed to allocate a piece of land in Luzon to Daming, They can all be carefully considered.

"Don't worry, we can talk about how to deal with the Dutch first. If Portugal and Spain can cooperate with Daming to suppress the Dutch, drive them away from Taiwan, and prevent them from going north, then I can How about sharing some of the raw silk and silk in the hands of the Dutch with you, for example, adding one or two thousand tons of raw silk and one or two million bolts of silk a year?"

The messenger couldn't help inhaling, it was really hard to refuse.

(End of this chapter)