If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 331 The benefits of sea trade
In the city of Nanjing, the outgoing army was busy preparing everything before the army set off.

With Zhu Zhanjun's guidance and a veteran like Marquis of Fengcheng as his deputy, Zhu Zhanji's preparations for countering the rebellion can be said to be very sufficient and complete.

With the help of Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Zhanji appealed to Xia Yuanji of the Ministry of Revenue and asked him to purchase a large amount of porcelain and silk from the people through the Ministry of Revenue to offset the military rations that should have been allocated for this army expedition.

Xia Yuanji was happy to see the outcome of this matter, and with his vision, he could certainly see the benefits of this.

The reason why I didn't do this before was that I didn't have this awareness. After all, I haven't heard of a large army going on an expedition without bringing rations, but buying rations after arriving at the place.

In fact, in the past, even if Xia Yuanji wanted to do this, there was nothing he could do.

When fighting in the Ming Dynasty, there are only two situations: fighting the enemy or countering rebellion. The local food is either directly requisitioned in the name of the court or has been taken away by the enemy. Generally speaking, you will not be given the opportunity to purchase military food.

And instead of spending that time, energy, and money to buy food, it would be better to let the army go to the local food source.

Another reason is that the local grain production in the Ming Dynasty is only so much. Even if you really spend money to buy grain, what you can buy is limited.

Not to mention that grain transportation was a very serious loss event in ancient times. That was a high loss of [-]% of the [-]% of grain consumed on the road.

But this time it is not only a sea transport with very low losses during transportation, but also a method of bringing goods with you and purchasing food directly locally. This method can completely guarantee that [-]% of the [-]% of the food purchased can be delivered to the army. , and half of the loss is caused by food being exposed to the rain and causing mold, rather than being eaten on the road.

So after Xia Yuanji calculated the expenses and asked clearly whether Nanyang could really support the army's food consumption, he agreed to this matter.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Revenue issued a draft of 20 taels as military expenses for Zhu Zhanji's army expedition, and allocated him [-] shi of grain as the advance ration for the army.

The money order issued by the Ministry of Revenue was not handed directly to Zhu Zhanji. Instead, the Ministry of Revenue placed orders with private porcelain and silk merchants and purchased porcelain and silk on the market.

20 taels of silver porcelain and silk may not sound like a lot, but in fact, this can only be regarded as a relatively large order for the private market of the Ming Dynasty, and it has not yet reached the point where it can have a huge impact.

In fact, at this time, the level of Ming's private economy had developed to a quite good level.

Even in the original history, after the accumulation of the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, the Ming Dynasty's economy had recovered to a considerable level.

Although some people may say that Jingnan wiped out all the 30 years of Hongwu's accumulation, but in fact most of the fighting in the Jingnan Battle took place in the north, and those that were destroyed were Hebei, Shandong and other places. However, the seven provinces south of the Yangtze River, which were the true foundation of the Ming Dynasty, were not affected by the war.

It can be said that the seven provinces south of the Yangtze River suffered some wars when Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youliang, and Zhang Shicheng competed for the world. After that, the seven provinces south of the Yangtze River, as the basic base of the Ming Dynasty, have almost never experienced any war.

The economy has naturally developed very well, and the level of folk handicrafts has also reached an extremely high level.

Otherwise, the Yongle Dynasty would not have the money and technology to carry out the Western and Northern Expeditions, and the Jiangnan region would not have developed the sprouts of capitalism in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

So an order of just 20 taels of silver, although it was a big deal, was just a big deal.

It is not enough to allow it to affect the entire seven provinces of Jiangnan, or even the thirteen provinces of Ming Dynasty and Beijing.

However, for Xia Yuanji and those with truly strategic vision in the court, the significance of this matter and the benefits it contained were quite astonishing.

Under the operation of Zheng He's fleet, porcelain and silk worth 20 taels of silver arrived in Nanyang in batches and were sold at the ports of Nanyang countries.

Just when the first batch of porcelain and silk worth 5 taels of silver arrived in Nanyang, the countries in Nanyang were shocked. Every time the fleet arrived at a port, it attracted crowds of people. All local wealthy merchants and nobles who could afford the price competed for the goods. When buying porcelain and silk from the Ming Dynasty, one feels that paper in Luoyang is suddenly more expensive.

When Zheng He's fleet sold off all its cargo and returned to the Chief Secretary of Cochin to hand over the grain and fodder obtained from the transaction to the counter-rebellion army led by Zhu Zhanji, the grain totaled 26 shi, and other goods totaled the equivalent of silver. 30 taels, a profit of nearly ten times.

The grain was naturally left to Zhu Zhanji for military use, while the goods were transported back to the Ming Dynasty by the fleet, and then sold under the management of the Ministry of Household Affairs. In the end, goods worth 30 taels were sold for 50 taels. Price, and this is because the account department sells it in bulk transactions and does not sell it at a high price.

According to subsequent statistics and estimates by officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs, this batch of goods should be sold for at least 70 taels to 80 taels.

When all the data was finally combined and sent to Xia Yuanji, the famous household official who was accustomed to money was still shocked and speechless by the income from this trip.

The 5 taels of goods were eventually exchanged for 26 shi of grain and 50 taels of silver, a profit of more than twenty times!The huge profits made Xia Yuanji dumbfounded.

After the government and the public learned about this incident, they were all shocked.When had these masters who read the Four Books and Five Classics ever seen such huge profits?

You must know that the Ming Dynasty Maritime Merchants at this time was not the super political group that had already established its power in an intricate manner and had its own officials in the court.

The current court is still dominated by traditional scholar-officials. Although they also compete for power and pursue their own factional interests, they have not yet reached the point of harming the country for their own selfish interests.

Although there is an idea in traditional Confucianism that "a villain is a metaphor for profit, a gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness", the Gong Gong princes in the court are not fools either.

Twenty times the profit, the wealth is so exciting!
Sea trade is profitable, everyone knows this.

Therefore, the Song Dynasty relied on the money earned from sea trade to support the annual expenditure of so many coins. The large amount of spices brought back by Zheng He from his previous voyages to the West could be directly distributed as salary, and many of them were not even available in the Baozong era. After the distribution, the price of spices in Daming was even reduced.

One can imagine how profitable sea trade is.

It's just that in the past, everyone thought that a profit of three to five times would be enough. If not, a profit of ten times would be as high as the sky.

After all, this is enough profit to make people commit murder and set fire. In the eyes of those scholar-bureaucrats who have no business at all, this is already the limit. So Nanyang is a land of barbarians, what good things can there be?

They were so opposed to Zhu Di sending people to the Western Seas before, but Zhu Di sent Zheng He, an eunuch, so the entire voyage to the Western Seas was nominally a private act of the royal family.

Although these people had nothing to do about it, after all, Emperor Yongle's sword handle was still very hard, and no one wanted to challenge whether their neck was strong enough.

But they still laughed privately, saying that the emperor was obsessed with money and would give up face for a little gain.

Then they were slapped hard twice by the twenty times profit. Not only their faces were swollen, but their heads were also hit in a daze.

These black eyes can see that there is nothing in vain. No matter how old-fashioned the old scholar is, in the face of this huge profit, he can't say anything to let the court give up this huge profit.

If he really dared to say such a thing, Zhu Di should check to see if this person's family had connections with maritime merchants. He had made a lot of money from it and didn't want the court to get a share of the pie.

Therefore, after final discussion in the court, it was logical to lift the maritime ban and resume overseas trade with Nanyang.

It's just that the court still has disputes over how to lift the maritime ban.

Some people believe that sea trade is very profitable, and private trade should be liberalized. This can reduce smuggling, and the court can also collect taxes from it and increase the court's fiscal revenue.

As for the imperial court personally carrying out official trade and prohibiting civilians from participating in maritime trade, these people think that the imperial court is competing with the people for profit.

However, other people believe that just because maritime trade is so profitable, private participation should be prohibited.

After all, money and silk are so attractive that even the court can't help but benefit from it. What kind of temptation is it for the common people?By then, when all the common people have gone to sea trade, who will come to farm?
Therefore, the imperial court still cannot open the sea ban to the private sector. On the contrary, it should vigorously prohibit it, and only the imperial court can conduct overseas trade.

Both of them have their own logical chains and theoretical basis. There is no one in the court who has more supporters and is more advantageous, so the matter is deadlocked.

Although there are still a small number of people who say that the forbidden sea is an ancestral system and the court should not violate the "Huang Ming Ancestor Instructions", but there is obviously no market for such words, and it is obvious that the court will not listen to this.

However, although the discussion in the court was deadlocked, the Ministry of Revenue did not stop its work. The remaining 15 taels of porcelain and silk supplied to Zhu Zhanji were also shipped one after another and sent to Nanyang for sale.

At first, the Ministry of Revenue was worried that Nanyang would not be able to eat such a large batch of goods, or that the market would be saturated and the profits would not be as huge as before.

But it turned out that 15 taels of porcelain and silk were all sold in Nanyang and exchanged for food and goods. After the goods were shipped back to the Ming Dynasty and sold, the profit reached an astonishing 400 million taels!
This suddenly made Xia Yuanji's eyes turn red. If anyone dared to say that he would continue the maritime ban and oppose overseas trade, Xia Yuanji, who had been grappling with the imperial court's financial problems for many years, could tear him alive without dipping it into sauce. swallow!

Just kidding, the total income from 20 taels of silver porcelain and silk has exceeded 500 million taels. As long as the court comes here a few times a year, it can meet all financial needs!

The emperor wants to march north?Let him fight!Hit as many times as you like!You can hit it to the end of the world!
As long as he has money, Xia Yuanji can do business in person!

And these 400 million taels of silver really shocked the government and the public. Everyone finally shut up completely, and no one dared to mention the ancestral system of continuing to ban the sea.

Blocking someone's way of making money is like killing one's parents, let alone blocking the way of wealth for the court and the emperor?
(End of this chapter)