I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 278 Tobacco
"Is this the cigar from Gannan?"

Zhu Yijiong looked at the exquisite shapes of the five cigarettes placed in the brocade box, and there were exquisite patterns on the cigarette rolling paper.

Unexpectedly, he just mentioned it, and Jiang Chengzhang took it down and successfully produced it for him.

When he came to Beijing to report on his duties, Jiang Chengzhang, the governor of Southern Jiangxi who brought the cigars from southern Ganxi that the emperor wanted, quickly answered: "Your Majesty, these are the cigars produced in southern Ganxi this year. I made my own decision and did as your majesty said. The cigarettes are made like this. However, Weichen has asked someone to try it, and the smoking of this cigarette is indeed extraordinary."

"Ah."

Zhu Yijiong nodded slightly and carefully looked at the traditional tobacco of this era.

Tobacco was introduced to China as early as the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and was called "Luzon tobacco" at that time.Before the 17th century, the main tobacco products were basically cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff, and chewing tobacco.

As for the originator of modern cigarettes, cigarettes were produced 120 years later and were actually introduced to China in the late Qing Dynasty.

The biggest difference between early cigarettes and cigarettes was that they did not have filters. They were not simply stuffed with cotton or something.

Therefore, the cigars of later generations cannot be smoked by ordinary people. In addition to being expensive, many people think that cigars without filters are more authentic.

Smoking a cigarette without a filter tip is really a technical job. Even if you finish smoking a cigarette, your mouth will be dry.

Zhu Yijiong looked at it for a moment and took out a cigarette.

The old eunuch who was already prepared quickly stretched out his hand to light the fire.

Jiang Chengzhang had already mentioned in advance how to burn cigars, and the ignition device in his hand was specially prepared for this.

When the end of the cigar was lit, Jiang Chengzhang reminded again: "Your Majesty, you need to cut off the end before smoking this cigarette, and do not smoke it too fast. It is best to taste it carefully with your tongue, and you need to prepare a glass of water. Even if you are alone Even if you are an experienced player, you will feel thirsty after taking it."

While Jiang Chengzhang was talking, the old eunuch consciously used scissors to cut off the end of the cigarette and poured a cup of warm tea at the same time.

"His Majesty!"

Zhu Yijiong did not smoke, but just stretched out his nose and sniffed: "Cough cough... cough cough!"

Good guy, it's choking, it's really choking!

No wonder some people always say that cigars have a strong taste.

Zhu Yijiong did not let it continue to burn. He opened the doors and windows, and the room was almost filled with smoke.

He is not a smoker either. At least he can drink a little wine.

Zhu Yijiong casually put out the cigar and waited for a moment until the smell of smoke in the room was almost gone. Then he looked at Jiang Chengzhang who looked slightly uneasy and said, "Jiang Qing's cigar is pretty good. If you can’t grow much food, you can appropriately expand some tobacco planting areas to allow people to generate income, but you must not destroy good fields to grow tobacco.”

Jiang Chengzhang finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, "Your Majesty, you are wise!"

Zhu Yijiong added: "Also, this tribute will no longer be necessary. I don't like smoking. Moreover, paying tribute will waste people's strength. If the palace is really short of something, I will buy it from the internal treasury."

Jiang Chengzhang was startled: "I...I obey your order!"

I thought that the emperor wanted to see cigars because he liked smoking. In addition, the emperor had previously banned crows but not smoking, so Jiang Chengzhang had the courage to make this the No. 1 tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, the emperor was just out of curiosity. He didn't smoke at all and seemed to hate officials paying tribute.

Fortunately...Fortunately, the emperor seemed to think that this was his first offender and he was doing a pretty good job, so he didn't blame him too much.

After casually tapping Jiang Chengzhang to curb the trend of paying tribute, Zhu Yijiong continued: "Jiang Qing's cigar is quite exquisite in shape. I wonder if it can be mass-produced?"

After hearing this, Jiang Chengzhang became more energetic and answered with his hands raised: "Reporting to Your Majesty, there are currently very few cigarette workers in southern Jiangxi who are skilled in producing cigars. In addition, it takes time to draw pictures on cigarette paper. At most, only a small amount of cigars can be produced." Large-scale mass production. But as long as I give you more time to let other tobacco workers learn, and recruit more painters, it will not be a problem to continue to increase production."

Zhu Yijiong smiled and said: "It doesn't matter. At this stage, it is not a problem to only be able to produce in small scale, and it can also help Daming to promote this brand."

Jiang Chengzhang was a little confused: "Brand?"

Zhu Yijiong nodded: "Yes, since this tobacco is so attractive, doesn't Jiang Qing have the idea to export this cigarette to foreign vassal countries and earn high profits?"

When Jiang Chengzhang heard this, he suddenly said: "Your Majesty, does he want to sell these cigars to the Nanyang barbarians at a high price, just like the spices, silk, and porcelain of the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Yijiong said: "Yes or no, Jiang Qing's cigars can definitely make more money than the original spices, silk, and porcelain."

Especially for spices, the Dutch already have their own spice islands specializing in the production of spices, so they no longer need to import spices in large quantities from China.

Moreover, the spices, silks, porcelain and other items sold in China are not as expensive as imagined.

These European colonists were not fools. If the profits were too low, who would take the risk of traveling across the ocean to trade spices, silk, etc.

But this cigar is different. Not only is it exquisite in shape, but the cigarette is unique in the world today. It can definitely be built into a high-end brand.

For example, this cigar is the emperor's original creation, and it is indeed the emperor's original creation.

As long as even the emperor smoked cigars, countless wealthy gentry would follow suit, and the quality and popularity of cigars would also rise.

Once this level and popularity increased, coupled with the exquisite shape and scarce production, the European colonists would not fail to see the value of this thing.Just as Chinese silk and porcelain are so expensive in Europe, it is the same reason.

Do Europeans understand porcelain?Of course they don't understand, especially all the fancy pictures of mythical beasts.

But art, to put it bluntly, is valuable only if you can’t understand it.

As long as we go back and forth and get the brand effect out, China can rely on its tobacco monopoly to regain control of the trade deficit with European colonists.

Zhu Yijiong's purpose is very simple. He wants to use tobacco to build the Chinese market into a gold-eating behemoth, a gold-eating behemoth in the literal sense, swallowing up real gold and silver from all over the world.

As for whether excessive gold and silver inflows will cause inflation?It certainly will.

Even if the inflow of gold and silver is normal, according to the laws of economic circulation, inflation will sooner or later occur.

The real problem is how to deal with excess gold and silver reserves.

The simplest and most efficient way is to launch war and expand externally.

When the cannon goes off, there is a thousand taels of gold, no joke.

This will not only solve inflation, but also transfer internal conflicts at the same time.Especially when the monarchy exists, external expansion is also the easiest time.

In this way, the trade deficit absorbs the world's gold and silver, and then external expansion consumes it, forming a cycle.

And what will happen to countries that have been losing gold and silver for a long time?
You can refer to Spain in the past, which almost disintegrated its country because of this, and the bankruptcy of the East India Company, which was all due to the collapse of gold and silver reserves.

Gold and silver are not only precious metals, they also play an important role in supporting and promoting social and economic development.

Capitalism and even redism require sufficient reserves of gold and silver to emerge.

In fact, it is precisely because of the long-standing trade deficit relationship between China and Europe.

China can always absorb the gold and silver in the hands of Europeans with silk, spices, and porcelain, but the Europeans have no equivalent goods to offset it.

This drained a large amount of silver from the hands of European colonists, and they knew this would cause problems.

So, they thought of a way to dump opium into China and reverse the trade deficit relationship between the two sides.

When Yi Crow broke out, it was also because of this reason.

As for why Zhu Yijiong did not ban crows and smoking like the Manchu Qing Dynasty did.

This is because he knows that it is impossible to ban opium and tobacco simultaneously.

To give the most intuitive example, the Bald Eagle in the 20th century had a period of time where it was prohibited to sell sugar (you know what sugar I'm talking about) and sell alcohol, and the two were treated as the same crime.

As a result, a large number of wine sellers changed their jobs and became sugar sellers.

Anyway, both are guilty of the same crime, so why not sell sugar and make more money.

Interestingly, sugar dealer statistics spiked during that period in direct proportion to the number of unemployed distillery workers.

Of course, Zhu Yijiong actually used afurong as a trade deficit, and the effect is definitely faster and better than tobacco.

Even after the drug ban last year, many domestic businessmen clearly realized the horror of drug, and some began to secretly go to Southeast Asia to harm the small countries in Southeast Asia.

But it is impossible for Zhu Yijiong to do this. Afurong is indeed fast and easy to use to create a trade deficit.

Well, that's what the bald eagle thought back then.

The harm is the end!
As the largest and most populous country in Asia, Zhu Yijiong really dares to use the government's hands to promote foreign trade.

There is no need to wait for the trade deficit, all these things will eventually flow back to China, and there is no way to stop it.

In this case, all Zhu Yijiong's efforts to ban crows will be in vain.

"What your Majesty said really enlightened me." Jiang Chengzhang said sincerely.

There must be some omissions in what Zhu Yijiong said, but the overall framework is fine.

Jiang Chengzhang and the others are just not as knowledgeable as modern people. It does not mean that they are stupid. Zhu Yijiong will briefly talk about it here, and these people can check and fill in the gaps themselves.

Zhu Yijiong did not forget to add: "Also, in addition to what I said, Jiang Qing can also make some improvements to the cigar on his own. For example, grind the Jiang tobacco shreds more finely, or add some special spices to it... "

Jiang Chengzhang quickly handed over his hand: "Wei Chen, please remember this."

Zhu Yijiong nodded: "Well, I hope this cigar will become popular all over the world, on par with silk and porcelain."

　Good morning, singles.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)