I'm really not doing business

Chapter 668: He Silang of Qingcheng County
Simply viewing the pile-up of goods in warehouses, dumping milk into rivers, and letting vegetables and fruits rot in fields as a problem of human greed is an irresponsible evasion of responsibility. It is irresponsible to assume that these things are justified because human nature is evil.

This is a comprehensive issue involving cost, risk, profit, supply, demand, and social resource regulation. Simply attributing it to the evil nature of human beings will not solve this stubborn problem. We need to face it, acknowledge its existence, and then find ways to alleviate it or even solve it.

Wang Yi'e put two teacups on the table, took out a teapot and said, "I don't know about other Maritime Customs Offices, but this is indeed the case with the Mizhou Maritime Customs Office. Since the establishment of the Maritime Customs Office, the industries formed around Mizhou are all mainly foreign trade. This has been the case for the past twelve years."

"They have long relied too much on huge profits from overseas to survive. With such huge profits, they have no interest in selling their products in Ming Dynasty because the profits are too low."

Wang Yi'e picked up the teapot and poured it into a teacup. Even if the water overflowed, he would not pour it into another teacup.

"So if we take away the foreign trade teacup, can the water in the teapot be poured into this teacup? That's not the case." Wang Yi'e took away the teacup representing foreign trade and did not stop. Instead, he poured all the water in the teapot out.

Wang Yi'e then spoke up and said, "Business is profit-driven. Without profit, there is no driving force."

Why would they rather pour out the water in the teapot than lower the price? Why couldn't the Ming Dynasty's economy take away a teacup no matter what?

Wang Yi'e thought for a moment and continued, "Let me give you a simple example."

"He Silang of Qingcheng County is the most powerful and influential person in Qingcheng County. He has a workshop and employs people from all over the country to work. He produces a variety of goods and takes care of all aspects of people's food, clothing, housing and transportation. He Silang is obviously not doing good deeds. In this way, when there is only one teapot, there will be problems that cannot be solved no matter what."

"If all the goods produced are worth 100 million silver, then He Silang will take 20 of the profit and distribute the remaining 80 to the lower levels. This is the most ideal situation. Under normal circumstances, He Silang will take 90 and distribute 10 to the lower levels."

"Even at the most ideal 80%, the poor laborers only have 100 silver in their hands. They can never buy all the goods worth 20 million silver. Moreover, He Silang will never spend all the 20 silver in his hand. At this time, the extra silver goods are surplus."

"This is true for Qingcheng County, and it is also true for Ming Dynasty."

The reason for surplus is not that people do not need goods, but because of distribution. The total market demand is less than the supply. Problems have arisen in multiple links such as production, profit, distribution and transaction. If the economy relies solely on domestic demand, it will inevitably fall into a vicious circle.

Because profit is the main concern, there will inevitably be a surplus, which means that the market is oversupplied. Workshops will reduce production and supply to maintain profits, and will lay off employees. Layoffs will lead to even weaker market demand, and the company will move step by step towards the abyss.

Wang Yi'e used the story of He Silang from Qingcheng County to tell His Majesty that the ultimate goal of closing the country to the outside world is the destruction of the country. From the perspective of the economic model, this is the inevitable result.

Zhang Juzheng heard this and said to His Majesty in a very serious manner: "Seclusion and sea bans are not feasible. The affairs of the world are nothing more than four words: profit comes and goes. We need to use the huge profits from foreign trade to satisfy the profit needs of trade and commerce."

"So the problem now is that excess leads to waste." Zhu Yijun returned to the beginning of the problem. It is impossible to close the country to the outside world. The many new challenges brought about by opening up the sea need to be solved by all means.

"Actually, there is a good idea." Wang Yi'e thought for a moment and said, "People outside cannot afford the goods of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty issues national bonds to raise funds and begins to expand its army. Then it will attack and conquer foreign countries. It will take over Korea, Japan, and Annan. If that is not enough, it will continue to expand its army. It will also take over Toungoo, Mongol, Arab, and Black Barbarian Kingdoms. If that is not enough, it will continue to expand. Anyway, no one can stop the Ming army."

A simple and crude way to expand demand is military conquest.

The Ming Dynasty only issued one special national debt, with a five-year term of 10 million silver coins, which was specifically used for the construction of the Suiyuan Highway and mining. However, the national debt method of raising funds was soon suppressed by the conservatives of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ministry of Revenue, headed by Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan, believed that debt was a radical financial policy and a scourge. Even debts backed by real assets were still scourges!
The first phase of national debt, which was tens of millions of silver dollars, was a helpless move due to lack of funds after the Ming Dynasty attacked Suiyuan. It was an exception and could not be used as a common means.

Any debt requires interest payment, it is a losing business!
In addition, there is a mountain of silver in the imperial treasury and the national treasury, and there is no need to raise funds, so the government bonds have not been issued again.

Guns in hand, follow me, rob, rob, rob! If robbing is not enough, continue to expand, continue to rob, expand external circulation, expand demand, resolutely use force to promote free trade, until the day of complete collapse.

The Ming Dynasty seemed to do the same. It launched wars on all sides, including Japan, Liaodong, Suiyuan, the Western Regions, and Toungoo, and was constantly expanding outward. However, the Ming Dynasty did not issue national debt to expand its armed forces in a warlike manner.

"People have two legs, and so does the economy. We must use strong means to adjust internal distribution, and we must also find ways to expand external demand. Both legs must be strong to support the Ming Dynasty." Wang Yi'e summarized the first question he raised.

We need to walk on two legs, expanding both domestic and foreign demand. To expand domestic demand, we need to work hard on the issue of distribution. To expand foreign demand, we need to explore, explore, and explore.

Insufficient demand was the first bottleneck encountered by the Ming Dynasty when it opened up its maritime territory.

Wang Yi'e took a sip of water before continuing, "Your Majesty, the second bottleneck is the inflow of silver from overseas. It has not grown rapidly for many years."

"There are three main ways for the inflow of silver into the Ming Dynasty. The first route is Japan, which brings in about 4 million taels of silver each year. The second is the trade of large sailing ships, which totals no more than 6 million taels of silver. The third is the Ming Dynasty's own ocean-going merchant fleet, with Liu Ji as the captain, which brings back 3 million taels of silver each year. Because of various relationships, the annual inflow of silver is about 10 million taels to 14 million taels of silver."

“Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less.”

"On the contrary, the amount of red copper is still increasing rapidly due to the twelve copper towns in Luzon, from 1100 million catties in the ninth year of Wanli to 1900 million catties last year. In addition, Ming's exports to Luzon are also increasing with the increase in the inflow of red copper, and the growth rate of the scale is roughly equal to the growth rate of the inflow of red copper."

The inflow of silver is not just a problem of slow growth, but a problem of fluctuating amounts. Unlike copper, it is always growing and will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.

The inflow of silver fluctuated, which would cause shocks, and shocks would lead to speculation, which would cause various social contradictions. For the extremely conservative Ming Dynasty, instability is worse than no instability.

Wang Yi'e started by talking about the Mizhou Maritime Customs and said that the second contradiction was also an extremely complex one.

An interesting fact is that due to Guo Xing Zhengmao's management, Luzon's production is increasing, demand is also increasing, and the growth rates are completely positively correlated.

Luzon is a vivid example. If we want to meet external demand, we still need the traditional skills of the Ming Dynasty, the royal rule.

Wang Yi'e really wants to criticize the Great Voyages of the West. It seems that the Great Voyages of the West brought nothing but guns, germs, and war plunder to the world. In those colonized places, there was nothing but tragedy and death. The Great Voyages of the West have been going on for more than 130 years, but have not increased the world's needs.

Twelve years after the Ming Dynasty opened up the sea, it created Luzon, which can be called a miracle.

The city of Manila has transformed from a city with a circumference of five miles and a population of only 0 to a dazzling pearl in Southeast Asia. In the census at the end of the 700th year of Wanli, the population exceeded one million for the first time. The port is still expanding rapidly, from four berths to forty, but it still cannot meet the demand. The seawall has grown from miles to more than miles.

The big crocodiles and gorillas that were grinning everywhere have slowly disappeared.

Luzon had coking steel, coal and iron factories, as well as twelve large copper factories with an annual output of more than one million kilograms of red copper. Each of these twelve copper factories formed a town with a population of more than 100,000, with roads, bridges, ditches, and even schools.

Both the Ming Dynasty and the West went out to sea for the purpose of plundering. Their initial motives were not much different, but the final results were very different.

Wang Yi'e originally wanted to criticize the great voyages of discovery, but later he felt that this was a discussion of the internal problems of the Ming Dynasty, and it was completely unnecessary to criticize others to elevate oneself, so he did not say much.

This is one of the eight virtues of the Ming Emperor: humility.

"Your Majesty, regarding the second bottleneck, I think that overseas we need banknotes, and the Ming Dynasty uses banknotes overseas." Wang Yi'e was not a person who was full of opinions. He only needed to look at the phenomenon, find the problem, and analyze the cause. He provided a solution.

Wang Yi'e further said: "The overseas circulation of Luzon's treasure notes is quite stable. I think we can continue to expand the issuance of treasure notes. Even if there is a possibility of treasure notes flowing back, the scale should be increased from one million strings of cash per year to five million, or even ten million strings of cash."

"At least we need to provide a treasure note roughly equivalent to the inflow of red copper. This is very important for Luzon."

Wang Yi'e had no intention of taking big steps forward. The policy pilot was in Luzon, and the scale was expanded from an experimental one million guan to five million guan. It seemed like a big step forward, but in fact it was almost the same as the amount of red copper flowing in.

"Good." Zhang Juzheng agreed.

The Ming Dynasty did not issue banknotes, only coins. The conservative in this matter was the Ming Emperor. He was always worried about the return of treasure notes and was too conservative about this matter, which led to the Ming Dynasty banknotes never being issued on a large scale except in Japan.

"Luzon also needs treasure notes. The Ming Dynasty took away the red copper. What will Luzon use to trade? Either it withholds some of the red copper, or intercepts some of the silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty, or it relies on the treasure notes issued by the Ming Dynasty. As long as the Ming Dynasty does not fall, the treasure notes in Luzon will remain strong." Zhang Juzheng further explained why he agreed.

The emperor gave priority to the hinterland, but he also had to consider the actual needs of Luzon. With the establishment of copper factories, Luzon began to develop. It was no longer a completely wild place, and the demand for currency was extremely strong.

Baochao is the best solution, and there is no need to worry about depreciation because as long as the Ming Dynasty exists, Baochao will have its standard.

"Your Majesty, the inflow of silver cannot be disorderly. Without the inflow of silver, we will starve to death. Too much silver will cause a blockage. But the Ming Dynasty lacked a valve to regulate the inflow of silver, and the overseas circulating treasure notes are that valve. If you want more silver, issue more treasure notes. If you want to reduce the inflow of silver, you can reduce or even recall the treasure notes to reduce the silver blockage." Zhang Juzheng further explained his reasons.

The speed of silver inflow needs to be autonomous and controllable.

Although the emperor did not say anything, his majesty was under great pressure with the mountains of silver in the treasury and such a large reservoir. The uncontrolled influx of silver would also cause many problems. It would be much better if there was a valve.

Just like a steam engine, a steam engine centrifugal governor can effectively adjust the flow of steam, allowing the steam engine to have a relatively stable output. You can get as much power as you want. "Well, Governor Wang has written a memorial, and I will approve it and send it to the court for implementation." Zhu Yijun thought about it again and again, and decided to agree with Wang Yi'e's idea.

This is a means to solve the problem of the speed of silver inflow. Whether it is useful or not still needs practice, but it is better to have it than not.

The Ming Dynasty was in a state of money shortage, and the whole world was also in a state of money shortage. The scholars of the Ming Dynasty always liked to criticize the imperial court, especially the various iron coins, which were regarded as the worst of all bad policies. Iron coins and flying coins that had existed since the Han Dynasty were all targets of criticism.

But apart from the Central Plains which could luxuriously use iron to mint coins, there was not even a country in the entire world that could mint iron coins on a large scale. Ming Dynasty ironware was marketed overseas and had firmly ranked second among bulk commodities, and was even challenging the position of cotton cloth as the number one bulk commodity.

The world does not have blast furnace iron smelting technology, and each country does not have iron smelting plants.

The money shortage in the West was not alleviated until the Age of Discovery, when plundering took place everywhere. But that was only in the West. The entire world was still in a time of absolute money shortage. As long as the Ming Dynasty could complete its exploration of the currency system, the currency system alone would be enough to sustain the Ming Dynasty for decades or even hundreds of years.

The Ming Dynasty's treasure notes circulated overseas, forming a stable general equivalent, were used everywhere, including Mexico, Chile, Brazil, the West, Africa, the Caliphate, the Mongols, and so on.

"In this case, doesn't it mean that Japan will become a monetary island again?" Zhu Yijun thought about it briefly and came to a ridiculous conclusion. Japan suffered an unexpected disaster again when the Ming Dynasty turned the tide.

Because the currency of Japan is the Japanese circulating treasure banknotes, which are not the same as the Ming Dynasty's overseas circulating treasure banknotes. The Japanese circulating treasure banknotes do not contain abaca hemp. Abaca hemp is produced in Luzon and is an excellent hard fiber with strong tensile strength, salt resistance, immersion resistance, corrosion resistance and other characteristics. The Japanese circulating treasure banknotes are specially made and do not contain abaca hemp.

If Japan wants to communicate with the world in trade, it will not be able to trade without a currency that is widely recognized by everyone.

Wang Chonggu heard this and said with a smile: "There is nothing we can do about it. The treasure banknotes of the Ming Dynasty are not enough, just like rice."

The Ming Dynasty's treasure notes were destined to flow back to the Ming Dynasty as a supplement to the monetary system. If they were not enough, the Ming Dynasty naturally could not sacrifice its own interests to replace the treasure notes for Japan.

"The third bottleneck encountered in opening up the sea, in addition to insufficient overseas demand and fluctuating silver inflows, is another huge challenge, which is the problem of pirates. Within the Strait of Malacca, the Ming fleet can pass freely, but outside the Strait of Malacca, pirates are rampant." Wang Yi'e talked about the third bottleneck.

There are universal connections among all things, and thus universal contradictions. These three bottlenecks are interrelated.

Ming merchant ships could not leave the Strait of Malacca. As for pirates, they had ceased their activities within the Ming Dynasty's influence range because Japan, the origin of the pirates, had been surrounded by high walls built by the Ming Dynasty. These walls included Tsushima Island, Nagasaki Governor-General's Office and Ryukyu. The high walls in the physical sense firmly confined the Japanese pirates in Japan.

If Philip II could build a high wall against England, there would be less pirates in the West. After all, privateering licenses are such a bad thing.

"Why do you say that Ming merchant ships are less and less willing to go out of the Strait of Malacca? Even if they are extremely rich, they are unwilling to go out. The reason for this is that the sales of Ming five-masted ocean-going ships did not increase significantly after the liberalization. They were mainly purchased by the imperial court and the five major ocean-going trading companies." Wang Yi'e was not talking nonsense. The number of five-masted ocean-going ships that stopped at the Mizhou Maritime Customs was relatively fixed, and the sales of five-masted ocean-going ships in several shipyards were also relatively weak.

"If the Mediterranean is a calm bathtub, then the area within the radiation range of the Ming navy is a man-made bathtub. Compared with the terrifying and changeable celestial phenomena, people still have some observation methods to avoid them. However, outside Malacca and Davao City on the island of Mindanao, pirates are rampant and man-made disasters are rampant." Wang Chonggu looked at the numbers that Wang Yi'e had provided. The Ming merchants were not very interested in five-masted ocean-going ships because there was no demand.

The amount of ivory from the Black Barbarian Country has also been decreasing over the years.

In short, the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants have been spoiled by your Majesty's powerful navy. Merchants will not go to places that the Ming Dynasty's navy cannot reach. Whoever wants to go can go. The business environment in those places is too bad.

As soon as the Ming navy reached the Bay of Bengal and the city of Toungoo, merchants followed the navy and made a fortune. In the maritime trade, everyone felt reassured when they saw the Big Dipper Flag and the Ming Dragon Flag.

The Ming navy does not rob merchant ships. This has been a clear military rule since Yu Dayou established the navy. Military discipline is equal to combat effectiveness. Without strict military discipline, there would be no invincible Ming army. Allowing soldiers to plunder is the greatest violation of military discipline.

In the West, the country's navy is also a pirate. This is a typical moral vacuum. The fact that the Ming navy did not rob merchant ships was also considered by Legashi to be a kind of high moral disadvantage of the Ming Dynasty. The cost of maintaining the navy was too expensive because it could not plunder merchant ships.

Merchants are profit-driven. If they are robbed, not only will they lose no profit, but they will also have to pay all the costs.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "This is not something that can be solved by simply allowing merchant ships to be armed. Any policy that encourages something like a privateering license will be seen as making the complex and ever-changing ocean even more dangerous."

"So the solution is to expand the navy." Zhang Juzheng thought about it but couldn't come up with any solution, so expanding the army became the only solution.

However, the cost of maintaining a well-disciplined navy is too high. The current 100,000 people are already the limit of the Ming Dynasty. The military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty has accounted for nearly half of the annual income of the Ming Dynasty court.

The four major governor-general's offices all maintained a certain scale of guards, and the Ming court could only send some foreign soldiers, which was the result of the serious shortage of military strength of the Ming navy.

Expanding the military requires money, and the Ming Dynasty is very poor. There are too many places where money is needed. How to make choices is a test of political wisdom.

In fact, there is a ready-made solution to this problem, but no one present mentioned it.

That is to condone the four major overseas governor-general's offices to expand their own armies. The navy in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty has a high moral disadvantage, but the governor-general's office does not have this problem. Which of the governor-general's offices of Spain and Portugal spread all over the world is not a robber?

But the Ming Dynasty was a highly centralized feudal empire. This was the bottleneck that Wang Yi'e wanted to talk about but did not and dared not say.

The Ming Dynasty's political system itself was in fundamental contradiction with its external expansion. The four governor-general's offices, a product between the feudal system and the county system, were the biggest compromise of the emperor and the court.

The highly concentrated power under the imperial system and the dispersed power of overseas governor-general's offices are an unsolvable contradiction.

Antonio and Felipe II could calmly accept the high degree of autonomy of the overseas governor-general's office, but the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could never accept it. Not only the emperor, but also overseas governors-general such as Yin Zhengmao, Zhang Yuanxun, Chen Lin, and Xu Wei found it difficult to accept. Chen Lin was the Governor-General of Ryukyu, but he was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Ming Navy. Throughout the year, Chen Lin only went to Naha Port in Shuri Prefecture once during the armed patrol.

"Your Majesty, during this southern tour, should we ask the places along the way to present some beauties as tribute?" Zhang Juzheng came up with a genius idea!
Your Majesty has taken in too many concubines and given birth to too many children. Even the nine-concubine system set by Emperor Shizong has not been completed. Now the palace is full of Queen Wang, concubines Liu and Li from the wedding, Concubine Zhou De and Concubine Ran Shu, who were promoted to the rank because of giving birth to sons in the eighth year of Wanli, the heroic Guo Yunyao who entered the palace in the tenth year of Wanli, and the gentle Wang Xiyue. These two are also on the list of bodyguards.

Guo Yunyao and Wang Xiyue have not been pregnant since they entered the palace. When Wang Yaozhuo was finalizing the entourage list, he took special care of them. In fact, His Majesty prefers the young lady from Yunnan, Concubine Ran Shufei. After all, both her appearance and figure show that there is domestic unrest. However, Concubine Ran Shufei gave birth to Zhu Changchao and had children, but Guo Yunyao and Wang Xiyue did not.

Having more children and granting them fiefdoms overseas is the only solution Zhang Juzheng could think of. For the sake of the Ming Dynasty's opening up of the seas, Your Majesty will have to work harder.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "I don't want to cause trouble to the local area."

Emperor Wuzong had no children, so his favorite thing to do during his southern tours was to ask local people to present beautiful women to him in an attempt to have a child, but nothing happened.

Zhu Yijun had no such concerns and went south with the queen and two concubines.

It is necessary to create human beings, but how can we have the same idea as others while having the same taste in our bowl?
"How about asking the Mizhou Maritime Customs to present some Korean girls and Japanese courtesans to the palace?" Wang Yi'e put forward his own idea. Sometimes, no matter how much you like a meal, you will get tired of it if you eat it too much. There has been no good news from the palace in the past two years. If Your Majesty is tired of the delicacies from land and sea, Mizhou can provide some overseas customs.

Feng Bao, the flower and bird envoy, has already started to get excited! It's good to change the taste occasionally. His Majesty doesn't like the taste of those golden-haired and red-haired foreigners in the West, but the Korean courtesan is delicious and must be tried.

"Stop, stop!" Zhu Yijun said angrily, "We were talking about the opening of the sea, but how did it get to the point of taking concubines? Let's talk about the matter."

It is very rare that Zhang Juzheng can come up with a solution to the unsolvable contradiction between the centralization of the imperial system and the dispersion of the Governor-General's Office that is acceptable to everyone, but this requires the cooperation of Your Majesty.

"Your Majesty, I personally think that there is another difficulty in opening up the sea, and that is the unbalanced development between the north and the south. North of the Qinling Mountains and the Yellow River, there is only one Maritime Customs Office in Mizhou, and its scale is completely incomparable to Songjiang New Port, Ningbo Shuangyu, Fujian Yuegang, and Guangzhou Dianbai. Your Majesty wants to open up the sea for investment, and Mizhou Maritime Customs Office is also an option." Wang Yi'e's map of the State of Yan was a bit long, and in the end, the real purpose of the map was revealed, and he talked about the main motivation for his visit to the emperor.

Just like Wang Chonggu who had his eyes on the silver that His Majesty was about to use to release the floodwaters, Wang Yi'e hoped that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty would also consider the Mizhou Maritime Customs when investing in opening up the sea.

Your Majesty's main investments are concentrated in Songjiang Prefecture and Guangzhou Prefecture, rather than in the north. The south is originally wealthy and has geographical advantages due to the presence of the Yangtze River. Coupled with Your Majesty's investment bias, the scale of Mizhou Maritime Customs is completely incomparable to other Maritime Customs.

Wang Yi'e hopes that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty can give Shandong a chance, and Shandong will prove that it is also a coastal province.

Jiaozhou Bay is also a natural sheltered harbor and an ice-free port. For the Ming Dynasty, it is also the best harbor in the north. Although there are no big rivers in the north, there are highways in the north, and the highways have been built to the Mizhou Maritime Customs. Due to many historical reasons, the Ming Emperor was wary of Jinan Prefecture and was quite dissatisfied with the Yanzhou Yansheng Duke, so he did not devote much energy to Shandong.

The consequence of too great a difference between the north and the south is that the head will be light and the feet will be heavy, and the tail will be difficult to get rid of.

Wang Yi'e hopes that Your Majesty will take this seriously.

"Everyone is eyeing the little money in my treasury. Shen Shixing wants it, Li Le wants it, Wang Jiaping wants it, and now Governor Wang wants it too." Zhu Yijun said with a smile, "Let's draft a memorial and send it to the court in Beijing for discussion."

Zhu Yijun did not agree, not because he did not forgive Shandong, but because investment is never decided on a whim. Investment requires a certain rate of return. Whether to increase investment in Mizhou Maritime Customs requires research and decision.

(End of this chapter)