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

Chapter 333 Opening the Sea Ban

Farming will lead to poverty. This statement is undoubtedly very impactful, and it can also be easily regarded as heresy and heresy.

Because this kind of statement is contrary to the traditional Confucian thought of governing the country, and it is also inconsistent with the fundamental thinking of all dynasties that emphasizes agriculture and suppresses business.

The core of Confucianism is kingly benevolence, that is, the king is benevolent, selects and appoints talents, and the ministers are honest and virtuous. As a moral model, the people of the world can live their own lives, thereby achieving the so-called great governance of the world.

But this is only an idealized social model. It is impossible for everyone in the world to be a gentleman, and it is impossible for everyone to have the moral level of a gentleman and a saint.

Therefore, Confucianism strongly advocates enlightenment, which means teaching people to abide by the ethical principles and moral standards proposed by Confucianism, so that everyone can become a benevolent gentleman.

In order to achieve this goal, Confucianism proposed the Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Rules to regulate the interpersonal relationships between monarchs and ministers, father and son, and husband and wife, as well as the self-cultivation standards that a person needs to follow to educate and restrain the people, so that ordinary people who do not meet the moral standards of a gentleman People improve their moral level in order to become a gentleman and link it to the social system, ultimately realizing what Confucianism calls "ruling the country with etiquette."

This is the fundamental theoretical basis for Confucianism to divide the people into four different levels: scholars, farmers, industry and commerce.

When this theoretical system of Confucianism was proposed, Chinese civilization was in the transition stage from slavery to feudalism. Therefore, this set of Confucian ruling ideas and class divisions had advanced significance at the time.

It is precisely because this set of Confucian ideas and systems can play a role in stabilizing society that it was highly praised by the rulers during the Han Dynasty and was widely implemented and used for more than 2000 years.

However, just like any advanced thing will become backward and decayed after 2000 years of use. This set of Confucian ideas will be regarded by later generations as seriously hindering social development and restricting scientific and technological progress. Even in the Ming Dynasty, Confucianism This set of things is also on the verge of being eliminated.

In fact, if capitalism had sprouted in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, social and economic development would have forced industrial upgrading and social change. Just like the French Revolution, when the bourgeoisie sought its own new interests, it would have promoted changes in the social system of the Ming Dynasty. of.

However, the budding capitalism of the Ming Dynasty chose to evolve into a bureaucratic group, thus completely ruining the entire Ming Dynasty and completely killing the budding capitalism of the Ming Dynasty.

It can also be seen that the influence of Confucianism during the Ming Dynasty was still very deep-rooted. Promoting social change did not happen overnight, nor could it be achieved by relying on the emperor's decrees or the so-called court reforms.

If we really want to promote social change, the most fundamental way is to find ways to support a new social class.

Zhu Zhanchun is now planning to use the opening of the sea to make an attempt to let the Ming Dynasty... no, the Chinese civilization, a traditional farming civilization that has lasted for thousands of years, turn its attention to the ocean and let the original The self-sufficient and closed small-scale peasant economy began to change.

But in the court, he obviously would not say such words directly.

What Zhu Zhanjuan proposed at this moment was for the imperial court to lift the ban on maritime trade and allow craftsmen, civilians, and military households to engage in industry and commerce, and use the profits brought by opening the sea to stimulate changes in the original social structure of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the most intensely discussed issue of sea opening, Zhu Zhanqi did not say that sea bans would be fully lifted.

The sea ban will still exist even in later generations, and it will definitely not be possible to completely relax it.

Therefore, after Zhu Zhanjuan finished criticizing the civil servants in the court who opposed the opening of the sea, he sided with the party that proposed the establishment of a municipal shipping department.

"The establishment of the Municipal Shipping Department can not only manage and regulate maritime trade activities with foreign countries, but also collect more taxes for the court, combat smuggling by maritime merchants, and add more revenue to the court." With Zhu Zhanqi. With the support of the Municipal Shipping Department, the officials who proposed the establishment of the Municipal Shipping Department naturally found support and began to expound the benefits of establishing the Municipal Shipping Department.

Zhu Zhanjun also agreed with these statements. He echoed: "It is true that the establishment of the Municipal Shipping Department only allows maritime merchants to conduct overseas trade through the Municipal Shipping Department. It can effectively combat smuggling and piracy in coastal areas, and it can also allow maritime merchants to conduct overseas trade through the Municipal Shipping Department." The imperial court gained direct benefits from the opening of the maritime ban.

Even if the imperial court did not personally participate in foreign maritime trade, the taxes collected by the Shipping Department alone were enough to subsidize the Ming Dynasty's finances.

Not to mention, the imperial court was able to conduct large-scale trade with overseas countries through the Shipping Department, and operate large-scale businesses that ordinary small merchants could not afford, so that the imperial court could directly profit from maritime trade. "

The establishment of the Municipal Shipping Department can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, and its main functions were to inspect goods, arrest smugglers, and collect taxes.

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although the functions of the Shipping Department changed somewhat, they were still the same. The most important ones were inspection and verification, as well as presiding over prayers for wind and sea.

That is to say, the Municipal Shipping Department inspects ships entering and leaving the port to prevent weapons, copper coins, women's mouths, fugitive soldiers, etc. from being carried, and implements a points system for imported and exported goods.

That is, the goods are divided into thick and fine colors, and the government draws a number of shares according to a certain proportion. This is actually a physical form of city shipping tax. The collected goods must be transported to the capital, and certain goods shipped by ships are purchased at a prescribed price. After drawing, The remaining goods after being divided, unpacked, and bought must still be issued with a public certificate according to the standards of the shipping company before they are allowed to be shipped to other places.

After that, the city shipping department system of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties basically followed the system of the Song Dynasty. Although there were slight adjustments, overall they were very similar.

It is precisely because of this that the system has become full of disadvantages after being followed for hundreds of years, including bribery, smuggling, officials seeking power for personal gain, and other bad habits.

However, generally speaking, the city shipping department system in the Song Dynasty has been relatively complete. There are no major problems on the whole, and it will not be bad if it continues to be used.

Therefore, the focus of the debate in the court has always been whether to establish a Municipal Shipping Department, and whether the scope of management of the Municipal Shipping Department will be broad or strict after establishment. There is no debate in the court about what the Municipal Shipping Department should do specifically.

After Zhu Zhanjun expressed his support for the establishment of a Municipal Shipping Department to unify the management of maritime trade, there was not much room for debate on this part, and the court quickly reached a unified opinion.

But then those who opposed the establishment of a municipal shipping department and those who opposed the opening of the sea seemed to be connected together, and there was another debate over who could engage in maritime trade.

One party proposed that the imperial court select large households to set up specialized maritime merchants to engage in overseas trade, while the other party said that the imperial court should not impose restrictions.

Regarding these two arguments, Zhu Zhanqi couldn't help but sneer after listening to them. The former was nothing more than a replica of the Thirteen Tooth Shop in Guangzhou during the Qing Dynasty. Apart from fattening compradors and cultivating big businessmen, it had little significance for the country.The latter is still arguing for completely relaxing the maritime ban, but it's just a different way of saying it.

Regarding the lifting of the sea ban, these two arguments are actually unacceptable.

The former restricts the practitioners of maritime trade and limits the scale and scope of maritime trade. This will lead to the control and control of maritime trade by a small number of maritime merchants. Combined with the collusion between officials and businessmen that was prevalent in the Ming Dynasty, it is easy to predict what kind of interest groups will develop in the future. things.

As for allowing people to engage in maritime trade activities without any restrictions, this will really cause people to engage in maritime trade activities in droves, causing serious consequences.

Everyone has a herd mentality. If something can be profitable, countless people will naturally flock to it, which can easily turn into excessive investment and eventually lead to a collapse.

This has been clearly reflected in the stock trading and real estate speculation in later generations.

As the saying goes, when all the tea egg sellers discuss the stock market with you, you should run away. Nothing is too much.

However, if power is used to suppress their opinions, these people will definitely not accept it, and may even obstruct the company's operations in the future.

So after Zhu Zhanchun listened to their respective opinions, he said directly: "In that case, let's use the luck compass to deduce it. This thing is used for this. You each sort out your own suggestions. Insert the Qi Luck Compass into the deduction and see what impact your respective suggestions have on the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty."

"This method is very good. The court has used this method before when there were disputes. It can be used to determine the impact on the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. It can also convince everyone." Zhu Gaochi has always been accustomed to being a good gentleman. Yes, seeing the debate in the court about whether to practice cultivation, he naturally supported using the Qi Luck Compass to determine the winner.

Zhu Di has no objection to this. This kind of thing has been done many times before, and it turns out that this is indeed a simple and efficient way to choose policies that are beneficial to the country when the choice is difficult.

Seeing that both the emperor and the prince supported this, and that no one else had any objections, the two policies were quickly sorted out, and then under the watchful eyes of civil and military officials, they were put into the fortune compass outside Fengtian Gate, and the deduction began.

Soon the Qi Luck Compass gave the result. The former would lead to the monopoly of maritime trade by some maritime merchants, which would be detrimental to the country.

The latter will cause a large number of people to invest in maritime trade, causing unnecessary waste and social unrest, which is also detrimental to the country.

Seeing these two results, everyone in the court was speechless for a moment, and everyone shut up and stopped talking.

Obviously, no one expected that these two suggestions would have such consequences.

However, relatively speaking, although setting up dedicated personnel to engage in maritime trade will lead to maritime merchants monopolizing maritime trade, it will not cause huge social unrest in general. It can be regarded as the lesser of two evils.

However, the current Ming Dynasty does not need to choose the lesser of two evils, but has a better choice.

"The results are clear. If we want to open up sea trade, neither too restrictive nor too open will work. The court should carry out reasonable control. While liberalizing sea trade, it should also carry out effective management and supervision, so that when various problems arise, Timely control..." Faced with the two results, Zhu Zhanquan began to speak out his plan at this time.

In fact, Zhu Zhanjuan had already made plans to open the sea ban and allow the people to engage in sea trade. However, if the officials in the court directly threw out his plan without letting the officials quarrel first, it would undoubtedly make them appear to be useless. .

Although this was not a problem, the impact was not very good anyway, so Zhu Zhanchun spent a little more time and allowed them to discuss it first.

After all, one person is responsible for the shortcomings and three are responsible for the responsibility. Although these officials may be lacking in vision and structure, after all, they have been in charge of government affairs and have a better understanding of the actual situation. Let them improve the details and actual operations, and they can also make things happen. More perfect.

However, while Zhu Zhanquan was talking endlessly about his opinions, someone suddenly jumped out and accused the court of not opening the sea ban at all. After all, the two strategies just discussed were not beneficial to the country, so it follows that opening up Sea bans are also not good for the country.

Regarding this black and white argument, Zhu Zhanchun felt a little funny and very angry, so he simply stopped talking and turned his suggestion into a spiritual thought through the water mirror, and threw it into the destiny compass. He conducted deductions in the middle, intending to silence these fools with facts.

Subsequently, Qi Luck Compass gave the results of the deduction.

"It seems that things have become very obvious. You are not talented enough and can't think of a good way to share the worries of the court. Instead of opening up the maritime ban, it is not beneficial to the country!" Looking at the final increase in the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhan The smile on Jun's face seemed to some to be full of ridicule: "Every industry is prosperous, the country is prosperous and the people are strong, the court's tax revenue has more than doubled, and the Weijia sea has conquered all the countries in Southeast Asia. Do you have any objections to this?"

Faced with Zhu Zhanchun's ridicule, the officials in the court who had been opposing him just now could only bow their heads and admit defeat.

Just kidding, the results of the Qi Luck Compass deduction have already come out, and you still continue to oppose Kaihai and Zhu Zhankui's efforts. Do you want to test whether your head is safe?

However, among these people who bowed their heads, some were still dissatisfied, and some even believed that Zhu Zhanquan was interfering in government affairs and intended to compete with the emperor's grandson for the throne.

They lost this game and had to make up for it elsewhere.

"It seems that this matter has been answered. Then according to King Zheng's suggestion, the Municipal Shipping Department will reset the maritime ban and allow private individuals to engage in maritime trade. All maritime trade matters will be managed by the Municipal Shipping Department! Maritime business qualifications will also be controlled by the Municipal Shipping Department. The shipping department will review and distribute it. You and your father will discuss how to operate it." Seeing that the court had reached a conclusion, Zhu Di nodded with satisfaction, and then issued the result of the discussion as an imperial edict.

Zhu Gaochi had no objection to the fact that the job still fell to him. After bowing in agreement, he was ready to discuss it with Zhu Zhanyu later when he went to court.

However, Zhu Zhanchun had more thoughts about this matter that he had not stated just now. He only included these thoughts in his spiritual thoughts when he put into the Qi Luck Compass, which is why the national fortunes soared. result.

Now that Zhu Di has handed over the matter, he also hopes to use this to interfere in the court's decision-making and make things develop in the direction he wants.

(End of this chapter)