Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 762 Expedition Bonus
Beijing Dongbianmen.

A small city gate at the southeast end of the outer city, located next to the turret at the southeast end of the Beijing city wall, with towers and archery towers.Outside the gate is known as the water town. The Datong Bridge Wharf, the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, is here, a large channel for pedestrians and goods from north to south.

The river is like a belt, and the weeping willows are combed.

At this time, the New Year is approaching, and the canal wharf has already turned into a sea of ​​ice, just like the Shichahai Houhai remnant of the most prosperous Jishuitan Wharf in the Yuan Dynasty, it has become a good place for children to play with ice.

At this time, there was a large courtyard at the wharf, with a four-character plaque of Pioneer’s name hanging on the door. This courtyard was quite large.

"The end of the new year is approaching, we have worked hard for a year, and the accounts have been settled early. Today, we will pay the salary and share the dividends. After everyone divides the money, we will have a meal together, and then we will go back to our respective homes to have a good New Year. Get together and open."

In the lobby, there is a stove burning, which is very warm.

The person standing and talking was Chao Chao, with a shrill voice. This is the big shopkeeper of Pioneer Company. Last year, he took them to Haidong in three boats to appease the savage Jurchens, announced decrees and rewards, and set up deals with each other.

Their errand was relatively smooth. Not only did they successfully appease the Jurchen tribes in Changchun, Jilin, Ningguta, Sanxing and other places, but the goods transported by the three ships were also exchanged for three ships full of Haidong goodies.

The three big boats were filled with ginseng, deer fur, mink fur, Dongzhu, and all kinds of skins.

They also redeemed more than 2000 Han people who had been held captive as slaves in Haidong, and placed them in camps such as Vladivostok, Hunchun, and Mokuowei.

After returning, he also helped to transport military funds to Liaodong several times.

The emperor was very satisfied with their performance, and even took time out of his busy schedule to summon the three captains, Chao Xiang, Lin Xuewu, and Wang Qi, and rewarded them with jade belts and purple robes.

The Pioneer Fleet has also been officially upgraded to the Pioneer Company, its full name is Daming Royal Pioneer Trading Company, it can be regarded as officially established under the Shaofu Supervisor, and has formed its own system.

In the future, they will mainly go to Haidong to trade ginseng and fur. It is a very special caravan, because the emperor has promised to draw three to five sea ships for them next year, and at the same time allow them to recruit another retired veteran as a sailor. Go to Haidong Trade together.

They were even authorized to establish a business station for purchasing fur in Haidong, and even to build piers and bastions, and authorized them to form an armed guard for pioneering caravans.

This means that they are a semi-official and semi-military colonial organization. They can represent the emperor and Ming Dynasty in Haidong, and communicate, trade, and even form alliances and start wars with the Jurchen tribes there.

They were not listed in the Royal Navy, nor were they included in the five-army governor's office. Instead, they acted in the name of a business name, mainly for convenience and to avoid the Jurchen being too sensitive, and it also showed that they opened the way with trade.

"Your Majesty is very satisfied with our Pioneer, and he praised the three of us. You have a long face. Our family has a very long face."

"The accounts for this trip to Haidong have also been settled, and the profit is very high."

"Your Majesty will do what he says and give us dividends."

Aside from costs, [-]% of last year's net profit was used to distribute dividends to all crew members. According to the pre-agreed shareholding ratio, each of the three captains owns [-] shares, that is, each accounted for [-]% of the crew's total shares.

The three captains accounted for 30.00% of the crew's dividends, equivalent to [-]% of the total share income.

The remaining [-]% of the shares will be divided among the remaining [-] crew members, who each have different top shares according to their positions and ranks on the ship.

Compared with ordinary companies, the fleet has no apprentices or buddies. It doesn't need to go through two accounting periods to study, and it can directly pay dividends.

The emperor owns [-]% of the company's profits, and the crew accounts for [-]%, but the crew only has the right to share dividends. The special audit department of the government supervisor completed it for the emperor.

Although it is said that only [-]% of the profit is distributed as dividends, it is actually quite a lot. After all, if you make a profit, you can distribute it as a dividend, and if you lose money, you don’t need to pay for the shortfall.

What's more, he didn't make a little money this time.

In fact, everyone has read the bill long ago and knows it by heart.

But when the Prime Minister of the Dynasty recited it again in public, although not all of the more than 500 crew members were present in the room, these representatives were still very excited, and hundreds of people were crowded in the yard outside, and they were all listening. , Although it was snowing outside, everyone was very excited.

Want to share money.

"We made a net profit of more than 60 silver dollars this trip, and we got 20%, which is just over [-]."

As soon as the number came out, there was a sound of inhalation.

More than 500 people, divided into 20 silver dollars.

On average, about 400 yuan per person.

With one hundred shares, each share can be distributed to 2000 yuan. The three captains each have ten shares, which is 2 silver dollars per person. The chief mate and second mate receive seven shares and six shares.

There are also boatswains, quartermasters, artillerymen, marine captains, chefs, doctors, craftsmen, etc. on board.

They had four bosuns, six quartermasters, ten gunners, and ten shipwrights on a ship.

There are also five navigation officers sent by the Navy, ten midshipmen on board, and a Marine Corps of at least 50 people.

There are also a total of 36 nautical non-commissioned officers, also sent by the navy, who are responsible for various professions, including mast staff, repair personnel, artillery chief, quartermaster, boatswain, chef, etc. Almost all technical occupations have a nautical non-commissioned officer in charge. Some of these people were also promoted by ordinary sailors with professional skills and experience.

The largest number of people on board are sailors, as many as a hundred people, who are responsible for all aspects of the ship, including manipulating the artillery.

There are also dozens of people who assist the sailors, mainly engaged in physical work on the ship, and if they perform well, they will receive training from the navigator on the ship to become a sailor.

There are more than a dozen craftsmen teams on board, responsible for ship repairs, lock making, blacksmithing, etc.

There is also a group of young people, who are basically interns sent by the Naval Academy. There are intern sailors and intern non-commissioned officers. You can officially become a full-time member and enter the navy's fleet.

As for the other marine unit on the ship, they usually act as security patrols, and occasionally pick up miscellaneous personnel. Their main tasks are still on the shore.

There are more than 500 people on the three ships of the Vanguard Fleet. At the beginning, they were basically arranged according to the configuration on the naval battleships.

According to different positions and different levels, this body is naturally different.

The captain directly has ten shares, the first mate also has seven shares, and the second mate also has six shares. Other bosuns, quartermasters, marine captains, and artillery captains only have one share, while navigating sergeants and marine platoon leaders only have half a share. .

As for ordinary sailors, craftsmen, etc., it is one or two per cent.

But even the ship's handyman and trainees with the lowest qualifications and positions are at least one per cent, which means they can get 200 yuan.

To be able to share a dividend of 200 yuan a year is certainly something to be happy about.

If you work as a clerk in a normal firm, you don’t even get paid for the first three years, not to mention dividends. Generally, you have to work for at least two account periods, at least eight years, and you have to perform well. But at the beginning, there were few points.

A high-class cavalry soldier in the imperial camp is only four and a half yuan a month, even if he is paid 60 months a year, it is only more than [-] yuan. This trip has been three years.

"Whether the respective body shares are ten cents, one cent, or one cent, this has been decided before going to sea, and everyone has no objection."

"Originally, the account period is every four years, and every period is a dividend, but His Majesty is very kind, saying that we have done a good job on this mission, so this time we will directly share it.

Come on, everyone line up to get silver dollars and press your fingerprints, and go home to have a good year! "

Iron Arm Wang Qi smiled and said, "2 yuan, I didn't expect it. I made a trip to the sea and earned 2 yuan back. I don't say anything. I thank the sage for the reward, and thank you brothers for your concerted efforts. Wait Let me be the host, Taifeng House will take care of it, invite them to come and cook us a big meal, beef, sheep and seafood, good wine and good food are enough, just eat."

With 2 silver dollars, Wang Qi, a poor scholar who was born as a house slave, can be regarded as directly developed.When he chose to retire from the imperial camp, he never thought that he would still be able to achieve such prosperity despite being disabled.

Although he is now the shopkeeper of the shop, this is an imperial shop, and he is still under the supervision of the Shaofu. He is still of a high rank, the fifth rank, and he is also given a purple robe and jade belt with a goldfish charm.Even if others think that these five products are worthless and can't compare with magistrates, but now this is a real dividend of 2 yuan.

If the magistrate does not accept corruption and accept bad rules, can he save 2 silver dollars in the Year of the Monkey?
Everyone laughed together and agreed to go to sea together. This relationship is stronger than the general military relationship.

Wang Chao smiled and said, "Everyone, don't spend the money recklessly. If you don't have a daughter-in-law, hurry up and marry a daughter-in-law. If you have a daughter-in-law, you should also buy a house and land to have more children. If you have more money, then adopt one or two orphans, which is also a good deed." , flattering the will."

What was distributed today was cash silver, which was directly taken from the Royal Bank, boxes of silver emperors, silver dragons on the back, and emperor portraits on the front, all of which were unopened newly minted silver dollars, brand new.

After the 20 yuan dividend is paid out.

Everyone did not leave immediately.

Lin Xuewu stepped forward, "I know that everyone must still be thinking about the private goods, and they have already sold them and entered the account. The money is about 12 yuan. This is also the sage Hong En, who authorized us to pay in the official account." In addition to the goods, Xu also took [-]% privately. The final profit of the [-]% was the hard-earned money given to us by the emperor who said he didn't want us.

But we can't forget our roots, so we follow the rules and say that Xu carries 6% and never exceeds it. If we earn silver dollars, we will directly pay half of it to the emperor. We still divide the rest according to our body shares. One share is 600 yuan, and the captain holds ten shares, which means 6000 yuan per person.

The first mate has seven shares, which is four thousand and two, and the second mate has six shares, which is three thousand and six.

A sailor's share is 60 yuan, and the lowest one per cent is [-] yuan.

The 6 yuan was taken and sent out together. "

When a ship goes out to sea for trade, it is normal for the captain and sailors to carry some private goods. Even the missions to pay tribute must carry private goods, so Zhu Yihai has long made it clear that the crew members are allowed to carry private goods, but It must not exceed [-]% of the cargo space, and the crew members are responsible for their own profits and losses for these private goods.

However, the prime ministers of the dynasty and the others still agreed that after deducting the capital, the final proceeds would be divided into two. Half of the tribute would be given to the emperor and they would share half.And this cost actually includes the payment of taxes.

The sixteen or seventeen-year-old trainee sailors were all allocated 260 silver dollars, a big bag full of silver.

The three captains are [-] each.

The key to making such a huge profit this time is the unequal information, or because of the years of war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the trade between the Northeast and the Central Plains was cut off.

They were in Sanxing City, and the Hezhe people exchanged pots with them. They didn’t say how much a pot was, but put the pots on the ground, and then they filled the pots with high-quality sable skins, and a full pot of sable skins was exchanged An iron pot.

There were even eighteen sable skins for an axe.

Five tiger skins in exchange for a bird gun.

The further north you go, the less valuable the fur is, and the Ming merchants they brought are very popular with the Jurchens. They just throw the bundles of leather on the ground and let them pick it. How to change it is all up to the Ming envoys. Calculate.

This kind of business is really huge profits.

The lowest-grade mink fur, which they transported back to Fengtian Port, sold for one silver dollar each, while those of the best sable fur, black with silver hairs, sold for 200 silver dollars each.

There are 50 taels of tiger skins, 51 sea dragon skins, 21 sea tiger skins, and several taels of sea dog skins.

Hai said that sea dragon skin is actually sea otter skin, sea tiger is otter, and fur seal is also called stingray.

There are so many other names such as black fox, black fox, blue fox, white fox, deer skin, silver fox skin, wolf skin, squirrel skin, beaver skin, and squirrel skin, which are really the same as the price of cabbage.

Those wild Jurchens who are good at hunting, especially the Saurons, are the best hunters. In a shooting season from autumn to spring, one person can hunt 280 to [-] sable skins.For them, skins are very common. They are used to make clothes, tents, bags, etc., and they are also used for trade or tribute, but the frontier is far away, and it is not easy to exchange tribute for rewards.

The three shipments of the vanguard fleet brought silk, porcelain, tea, tobacco, wine, salt, iron pots, swords, and even firecrackers, as well as telescopes, glass mirrors, chime clocks, pocket watches and many other novelties produced by Huangdian. Everything they have never seen and like.

The Jurchens felt that the other party's was a peerless treasure, so it was too cost-effective to exchange it with worthless skins or ginseng. Even if it was Dongzhu, they thought it was not as good as Mingshi's treasure.

They didn't expect that bringing these mink fur, ginseng, deer fur, and Dongzhu back to Daming would be ten times or even a hundred times or hundreds of times more profitable.

They exchanged eighteen pieces of sable skins for an ax, and they thought it was a good deal. This ax was much better than their previous ones, but they didn't know that such an ax cost only a few tens of dollars apiece, but the eighteen pieces of sable skins were transported back. Sold for a hundred silver dollars.

There are more than 1 mink furs of various grades that they transported back this time. I don't know how much they have earned from this alone.

The three boats made a total profit of more than 70 silver dollars from public and private goods. This is a net profit, or after tax. This kind of profitable business surprised even Zhu Yihai, who knew that the fur business in the Northeast is very profitable, so he resolutely decided to give them another three or five. Next year, we will expand trade volume, increase trade points, and even go deeper into the Heilongjiang estuary.

He even asked Chao Chao and the others to recruit some Jurchen hunters in Haidong, Haixi, Sanxing and other places, carrying some excellent hunting tools such as nets and clips, to go deep into the northeast to directly hunt for fur, and share with the hunters at that time, and trade and buy from the tribe. In addition, another path can be added to get more fur.

Zhu Yihai knew very well that the development of the Northeast, or even the Outer Northeast, or even Siberia, would need to be supported by money, and a lot of money would not be able to be supported by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di's traditional model of protecting the seal.

And if the fur trade drives hunting and exploration, and drives the establishment of fur trade centers, or even hunting spots, to open up settlements, you will gradually be able to gain a firm foothold there, and naturally gain more control. , but also get a lot of trade income, even taxation, why not do it?
He doesn't shy away from talking about money.

Open the way with money, open the barriers through trade, from the fur purchase point to the business center, and then slowly become a pioneering point, or even a fortress. After a long time, it will be a matter of course.

Isn't this the way that Tsarist Russia entered Siberia eastward?
As far as he knows, thousands of people from Tsarist Russia crossed the Lena River every year to hunt. They established the city of Yakutsk in 1632 and sent 1639 sable furs to Russia in [-] alone. They also established the Lena Customs.

In 1639, that is, the 12th year of Chongzhen, when the Ming Dynasty was still killed by Houjin across the Great Wall and directly killed in Shandong, the Tsarist Russians had already crossed the Kolyma River and reached the coast of Okhotsk, pushing the fur frontier to the Pacific Ocean coastal.

In the last year, Alexeyev, an agent of the tsarist government, and Dezhnev, an explorer, have led an expedition along the east coast of the Chukotka Peninsula to Anadyr Bay and began to establish The stronghold reached the Bering Strait, not only engaged in fur trade, but also began to collect taxes in kind there, as if the entire Siberia was included in the territory of Tsarist Russia.

Soon they will follow the Heilongjiang into the Outer Northeast Plain.

For many Ming people, they don't even know where Tsarist Russia is, let alone how big Siberia is, and they don't even believe that Tsarist Russia can run from the extreme west to the extreme east to declare their sovereignty.

Zhu Yihai has already planned to add not only three or five ships to Pioneer, but also one or two thousand people so that they can continue to develop in the upper reaches of the Songhua River, Wusuli River and Heilongjiang River.

Moreover, he plans to set up another pioneering company, go directly to Sakhalin (Sakhalin Island), Nuergan Yongning Temple (near the Heilongjiang Estuary) to appease the Jurchen tribe, establish a port port fortress, enter the Heilongjiang River Basin, establish a stronghold, and preempt the layout , Don't give the Cossacks of Tsarist Russia a chance.

Kill them if you dare.

Although Guanlong is still in turmoil, and there are still Jiankui fleeing north in Mobei, the Outer Northeast also has to make timely arrangements, so as not to lose the opportunity.

(End of this chapter)