Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 670 The Problem of Ocean Trade

Gao Shi, who has changed from the Jiedushi of the Four Towns to the Jiedushi of Huainan again, is in a good mood.

As a poet, Gao Shi is naturally qualified. Together with a group of frontier poets, he supported the frontier poetry school of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, leaving behind a silhouette of the prosperous Tang frontier fortress.

As a staff member, Gao Shi is also qualified under Ge Shuhan's command. He has been planning in the Northwest for many years, and he has done a good job in his duties.

As a Jiedushi, Gao Shi's ability is still not enough.

The main reason why King Yong was able to put down the rebellion was that King Yong was unpopular. At that time, the officers and soldiers had great righteousness in their hands, and those who gathered under King Yong were all careerists with their own thoughts. That's why Gao Shi was able to take out the imperial decree and pass it on to Jiangdong. .

But let Gao Shi serve as the Jiedushi of the four towns, and really fight An Qingxu, Gao Shi still has no idea.

Fortunately, Zhang Duanyang blocked An Qingxu in Pengcheng, and defeated An Qingxu together with the rebels in Bianzhou, removing the threat from Jiangdong.

Although Gao Shi was quickly removed from the post of Jiedushi of the Four Towns, Gao Shi was still very grateful to Zhang Duanyang.

Zhang Duanyang was awarded the Eastern Zhejiang Observation Envoy by the imperial court. He traveled all the way south along the water transport, and originally only stopped in Yangzhou. Gao Shi personally led the officials of the Huainan Jiedu Mission to meet Zhang Duanyang at the Yangzhou wharf.

However, although Jianghuai is stable, it is hard to say in the east of Zhejiang.

This Zhoushan is now the Zhoushan Islands, which is the area under the rule of Eastern Zhejiang.

Gao Shiyu said earnestly:

In the late Qing Dynasty, because of two disgraceful wars, the customs was mortgaged into the hands of foreigners, and Hurd, a foreigner, served as the chief tax officer of the customs.

"This sea trade is good, and the profits are huge, but the problem is not small."

The only advantage of Yangzhou is that it occupies Yangzhou, an important node of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, but Zhoushan is not far from Hangzhou, which is now a big city in Jiangdong.

At the banquet, there was not only a banquet, but also a dancer. Yuan Zai, the Jianghuai salt and iron envoy, was also present. After the banquet was over, Gao Shi said:
"Zhang Guan sent this to the east of Zhejiang, the most important thing is the word Haimao."

The civilization of the Central Plains has been a farming civilization from beginning to end. For farming civilization, maritime trade is a completely different civilization structure.

In other words, under the underground rule and management techniques of the Ming and Qing courts, the court could not receive most of the benefits of ocean trade, and had to bear the huge expenses of coastal defense, so the court simply banned ocean trade.

"Why is this?"

Muzhou to Chun County?
Zhang Duanyang quickly realized, isn't this the future Chun'an County, Zhejiang?
Pirates are rampant?

Gao Shi, who originally only wanted to solve the problem of outflow of money, has become increasingly inseparable from Shibosi.

The ships of the Shi Ship Division are fast, and although the navy is small in number, it is no problem to deal with the pirates in the Jianghuai area.

In fact, this kind of moral statement is more similar to a propaganda rhetoric. Another reason for the banning of the sea in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was the rampant smuggling and piracy problems caused by ocean trade. The court needed to spend a lot of effort to combat smuggling and eliminate Pirates, the huge cost of this outweighed the possible income from ocean trade.

The framework has been finished, and the rest of the details will naturally be discussed, Gao Shi said again:

On the European continent, France, which is also an agricultural civilization, has far less participation in the Age of Discovery than Britain, which is an island country.

"But heard about it?"

Zhang Duanyang got off the building boat where the officials were sitting, bowed his hands and greeted Gao Shi.

Gao Shi felt a little drunk, which was the most important reason why he took Zhang Duanyang to drink.

Zhang Duanyang naturally understands that if the same tariff policy cannot be implemented, Datang will be damaged.

After enjoying the huge profits of ocean trade, Gao Shi became more and more reluctant to give up. Now that Zhang Duanyang is serving as the observation envoy of East Zhejiang, Gao Shi dragged him to discuss how to divide this huge ocean trade cake.

Zhang Duanyang knew in his heart that before he left for eastern Zhejiang, Wang Yadong had already contacted him privately to discuss the implementation of the same tariff policy in Zhoushan's Shipbuilding Department.

This is determined by the inherent attributes of civilization. The stable political structure pursued by farming civilization naturally dislikes the huge risks brought about by trade.

Zhang Duanyang is familiar with history books, and naturally this is the inevitable result of the prosperity of maritime trade.

"In the past few days, all the states and counties along the east coast of Zhejiang have reported to the court that pirates are rampant, especially in Huanchun County, Muzhou, where pirates are rampant now."

The two largest trading ports in the Jiangdong area in this era are Yangzhou and Zhoushan.

Gao Shi helped Zhang Duanyang to sit on the horse, and pulled Zhang Duanyang from the pier to Huainan Jiedushifu.

Gao Shi is the governor of the Jianghuai River, and he doesn't know anything about tariffs. He said directly:

Seeing that Zhang Duanyang was willing to implement the common tariff policy, Gao Shi and Yuan Zai glanced at each other, and added wine to Zhang Duanyang.

The Shipbuilding Department of the city built ships and established coastal defense stations in coastal areas. Since the opening of the sea, Jianghuai has cracked down on smuggling very hard.

Later generations said that the Ming and Qing sea bans always felt that the rulers were stupid and short-sighted, which made the Central Plains civilization lose the opportunity to participate in maritime trade and missed the era of great navigation.

The style of Jiangnan is luxurious. Although Gao Shi has been in Yangzhou for less than a year, he has also caught the wind of luxury.

It would be too childish to think that opening the sea ban is a good way to save the world, as in the novel, and think that as long as the sea ban is lifted, the world will be prosperous and marine civilization can be developed.

Zhang Duanyang knew well that the main ports in the Jiangdong area were Yangzhou and Zhoushan. In terms of port conditions, the conditions of Zhoushan port were even better.

Gao Shi said: "Let's sit in the upper ranks. When we go to the place, we can't fight and kill. We should also listen to the difficulties of the lower ranks. Now the difficulties in the east of Zhejiang are in the sea trade."

Now there are two pillars in Jianghuai, one is the Salt Institute in charge of Yuan Zai, and the other is the Shibo Department in charge of Wang Yadong.

Zhang Duanyang understood Gao Shi's meaning, and immediately said: "In the future, regarding maritime trade, Eastern Zhejiang will still rely on high integrity."

For this famous general who guarded the Jianghuai River, the people of Yangzhou also spontaneously gathered on the pier, wanting to see Zhang Duanyang's demeanor.

Another important reason for the ban on the sea in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was that the rulers felt that the huge profits of ocean trade polluted people's hearts, so that ordinary people could not farm with peace of mind, and they all engaged in lucrative ocean trade, resulting in "people's hearts are not old".

Datang does not have a unified management organization for maritime trade, let alone a stable tariff law, all of which require local officials to exert their subjective initiative.

Now Jianghuai's shipping is controlled by the player Wang Yadong's Shibo Division, and since Wang Yadong took charge of the Shibo Division, it has brought a lot of benefits to Jiangnan.

Zhang Duanyang immediately listened.

"Since the imperial court opened the sea, smuggling in Huanchun County has been banned repeatedly. The villagers of Huanchun colluded with pirates and provided supplies to pirate ships. It has become a common practice, and the magistrate of Huanchun County dare not control it."

After the Anshi Rebellion, the imperial court once banned maritime trade, but after Gao Shi and Yuan Zai jointly wrote a letter some time ago, the imperial court reopened maritime trade.

Gao Shi sighed and said:
"Huanchun's folk customs are tough. In the five years of Yonghui, because of the strict governance of the county by the county magistrate, there have been riots among the villagers. Now every family in Huanchun is related to pirates. Some fishermen's whole families even boarded the boat as pirates. The county magistrate has no Soldiers, what are we going to do about it?"

As for ocean trade, if the same tariff level is not implemented, then ships will naturally concentrate in other ports.

Gao Shi has a deep foundation in Jiangdong, and once served as the governor of the four towns for a short time. He said:

Jianghuai's side is okay. When preparing for the recovery of the sea ban, Wang Yadong proposed to Gao Shi that he wanted to build a sea defense.

However, from the perspective of the rulers at that time, participating in maritime trade was an act that was not worth the loss, and the decisions they made were also choices based on the situation at the time, which cannot be said to be completely stupid and short-sighted.

Datang set up a city ship trading department in Yangzhou and Zhoushan respectively, responsible for overseas trade ships.

"Tomorrow, I will ask the envoy Wang Shibo to give a report to Brother Zhang. This is our experience in implementing tariffs in Jianghuai. Brother Zhang can refer to it when he goes to eastern Zhejiang."

Quanzhou Port is too far away, and Gao Shi naturally can't control it, but Zhoushan is so close to Yangzhou, so it is natural to pull Zhang Duanyang to advance and retreat together. If the two sides really compete viciously, wouldn't they lose a lot of money.

"Brother Zhang took up the post in Zhedong, this job is not easy to do."

This kind of problem also appeared in the Tang Dynasty today. Since the imperial court opened the sea ban, smuggling in coastal areas has become more and more rampant.

Gao Shi said: "When the sea ban was not opened, the southeast was very peaceful. Even when the Anlu Mountain thieves started making trouble, there was no war in the south of the Yangtze River. But since the opening of the sea trade, there have been more thieves on the sea. I helped the bandits intercept merchant ships at sea, and in the end Wang Shibo led his men to wipe them out."

In order to obtain war indemnities from the revenue of the Qing Customs, Hart objectively helped the Qing to establish a modern customs system. This system quickly allowed the Qing Dynasty to obtain a large amount of income, allowing the Qing Dynasty to support the huge indemnity. long time.

Zhang Duanyang did not expect that pirates would become a problem in eastern Zhejiang not long after the opening of the sea.

However, Daming Customs is the most serious, that is, eastern Zhejiang, Fujian and other places. This seems to be an inevitable trend of history?

Gao Shi reminded himself that it was kindness, Zhang Duanyang quickly bowed to Gao Shi and said:
"Eastern Zhejiang must advance and retreat together with Jianghuai. Thank you for reminding me!"

Next, Zhang Duanyang visited the Jianghuai Shipyard Shipyard, and placed an order for several sea-going ships from the shipyard. Then he continued to take the official ship and went to East Zhejiang.

(End of this chapter)