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Chapter 630 No plan, no freedom

Five months later, the Port of Manila, which had been closed due to the war, announced its opening to the outside world with a high profile. As soon as the notice was posted, the Commercial Daily first reported it and quoted the words of the new Nanyang Governor Zuo Guangdou: The special zone handles special affairs. As long as the points are registered in accordance with the regulations, the Manila Port is open to all merchant ships, including the Spanish!

Listen, no matter what others say about this broadmindedness, the vast majority of Guangdong maritime merchants believe it first. There was Li Zhi before him and Zuo Guangdou after him. During his tenure, Guangdong underwent earth-shaking changes. Not only did the commercial tax rate reach the first place, but the grain tax rate also steadily increased, and it actually ranked among the top ten.

Such great political achievements were not achieved by exploiting the people, but simply by rising tide. It was based on the substantial increase in people's income in Guangdong Province.

The people were very reluctant to let such a good official be transferred away from Guangdong. Fortunately, Manila City, where the Governor-General of Nanyang is located, is still closely connected with Guangdong. It seems that he has not left even though he is gone. Every move still affects the lives of maritime merchants.

In order to prove that the Cantonese people were not ungrateful, Guangdong-born maritime merchants took the lead in taking action. They sailed out to sea one after another, destined for Manila Port, and set an example with practical actions.

In fact, there was a wave of maritime merchants who were more active than the Guangdong maritime merchants, but they were low-key enough and never made any announcement. They planned to take advantage of the Ming court's policy to create a time gap and do a monopoly business, that is, the Portuguese in Haojing'ao.

It was said that the port was closed due to the war, but in fact the Portuguese merchant ships quietly got in less than a month after the Manila Port was captured. Unload grain, livestock, and cloth, load raw silk, silk, sugar cane wine, cocoa powder, and tea leaves, then set sail and continue south to Batavia.

Based on the types of cargo carried, you will find that the Portuguese seem to have taken off their pants and farted a little bit, which is unnecessary. Raw silk, silk, sugar cane wine, sugar, cocoa powder, and tea can all be purchased at Guangzhou Port. If not, you can also go to Zhangzhou and Fuzhou. There is no need to go to Manila Port to buy them.

But that's what the Portuguese did, for one simple reason: quantity. These goods are all popular in foreign trade. Whether in Guangzhou or Fuzhou, the price and output vary depending on the season. It does not mean that you can buy them casually if you have money. Quotas are required.

For example, if you think sugar and sugarcane wine are popular, you may buy these two products, but when you go through customs, you will be told by the customs that you need to pay a high fee. Why? Read the notice on the wall carefully.

There are some product names on the notice with the mixing ratio behind them. It's not gambling, where are the odds? Look carefully, what is written on the notice is the matching rate, not the odds.

This is a new point calculation method developed by the customs. It roughly means that if you want to buy goods that are in demand but do not want to pay extra points, you have to match some goods that are not in demand. The specific amount of matching is called the matching ratio.

In fact, to put it harshly, this is called forced buying and selling. But merchants had no choice. Some goods were only produced in the Ming Dynasty. If they wanted to make money by reselling these goods, they could only hold their noses and admit it.

If you don’t want to buy other products according to the matching rate, you can just pay more and draw points. As long as there are no shortage of fingers and toes, you can find out by doing the calculations that the loss of buying according to the allocation ratio will be less than increasing the draw points.

Therefore, no one will have trouble with money. It is much more cost-effective to carefully select the products that match the matching ratio, and then put some effort into finding a good home for these goods than to go all out to avoid the matching ratio.

Who came up with such a deceptive idea? Most people would roll their eyes at the customs staff and secretly curse Customs Prime Minister Guo Zizhang for giving birth to a child without a butthole!

Some well-informed people know that it was not Guo Zizhang who took office less than a year ago and spent half of the year recuperating from illness. In fact, it was Vice Prime Minister Li Tianjing who was in charge of customs work.

But Li Tianjing was not the initiator. He just discovered that there was a large backlog of goods at the ports of Guangzhou and Fuzhou when he took office. After asking, he learned that since the establishment of the factory, the types of goods at the coastal ports have become increasingly rich, but not all of them are easy to sell or Being able to sell it at a good price relies heavily on Manila Port and smugglers. Once they reduce their purchases, there will be a backlog of goods that can only be placed in cargo holds near the docks to wait for the market to improve. There is nothing you can do if you can't keep it, either hire a ship to transport it to the north and sell it, or sell it locally at a reduced price. In any case, you will lose money. Every year, there are factories that lose money and cannot continue to operate.

Li Tianjing didn't have much experience when he first arrived, so he couldn't think of any good solution, and this kind of thing was not under the control of the customs. However, he was very enthusiastic about his work and always felt that this was too wasteful and would dampen the enthusiasm of the people to support the New Deal, so he used his personal relationship to send a secret note to the emperor and focused on asking about this matter.

The emperor's reply was very quick, which can be summed up in two words: match the rate. At first glance, this method seems simple, crude and efficient, but it is not easy to operate in practice. Each product must calculate a weight based on the points drawn, and then use a formula to get the distribution rate.

The allocation ratio cannot be fixed once and for all. It needs to be fine-tuned at any time based on the amount of points drawn. Even if it is not done at any time, it cannot be delayed for too long, otherwise it will lose its meaning. To do this, not only requires strong mathematical skills, but also additional manpower.

Li Tianjing's mathematical skills were sufficient and he could understand the calculation method given by the emperor. However, the customs had to borrow many former navy personnel when it was first established, and could not afford so many extra manpower.

What to do? Just when Li Tianjing was wondering whether he should write another letter to the emperor for advice, the manager of the Guangdong Branch of Sun and Moon Bank came and straight to the point proposed that the bank help calculate the allocation ratio.

Li Tianjing knew very well who was behind the Sun and Moon Bank. Since they also knew about this matter, there was no need to ask, it must be the emperor's intention. Then don't be polite. Anyway, the customs points have to be transferred from Sun and Moon Bank. There is no obstacle to further cooperation.

Yes, this set of methods similar to the planned economic rationing system was thought up by Hong Tao. It wasn't that he wanted to build a planned economy, but he only had this little thing in his mind, and he couldn't come up with any more clever methods out of thin air. He could only make up the numbers from his personal experience when he was a child.

But the Silvas did not think this method was inferior. After hearing it, they were shocked and kept thinking that if the King of Spain had such ability, he would have become the overlord of Europe long ago.

Hong Tao was not polite. He didn't mention a word about his personal experience when he was a child. He stared blankly and said that he had come up with it. He also had a whole set of theories called macroeconomic control. The purpose is for the imperial court to issue policies and influence the market through several relevant departments in order to achieve controllability.

Guangdong and Fujian had the largest number of private workshops and factories, and were also the base areas for the New Deal. If large-scale bankruptcies and losses occur due to poor control over the market size, it will seriously affect the attitude of various places towards the New Deal.

Can we rely on free market regulation? I should say yes, but it will take a long time. From the small-scale peasant economy to the market economy, the production methods have improved, but the thinking will not be able to keep up for a while. The gap in the middle will not only take time to make up, but also high tuition fees.

For the imperial court, this step is inevitable. Reform will always have a period of pain, but it can be tolerated. But for ordinary people, a burst of pain may mean that their families have been destroyed, and it is best to avoid it.

At this time, Hong Tao no longer wanted to look at the problem from the perspective of a politician, because he was born in the city and knew how fragile the lives of ordinary people in the city were, and many people could not withstand the pain of labor.

In this case, don't stick to doctrines and economic principles. In the final analysis, knowledge still serves people. You cannot ignore the basics and ignore the last. As long as it works, it is good knowledge. As for whether it will have a relatively bad impact on the future market, theoretically it will definitely happen, but from a practical point of view there should be no problem.

The reason is very simple. No matter which economics book, there is a general environment in which its theory was formed. The current Ming Dynasty does not belong to the general environment in any economics book. Even the foundation has changed. It is definitely wrong to continue to follow the text.

(End of this chapter)