The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 190 Sea Trade

In the new year, the court will continue to make big moves, but they have nothing to do with Chen Jingke.

He does have many big plans that he wants to implement, but there are enough big projects underway in Ming Dynasty right now, and it is not suitable for any big moves.

However, he was not idle, and began to read books on water warfare, shipping, and shipbuilding.

Zhu Xiongying was very curious and asked: "What are you doing with these things? Do you want to change your career to become a naval general?"

Chen Jingke said: "According to records in "Taiping Huanyu Ji", Quanzhou's annual export volume at that time was equivalent to three times the national fiscal revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty."

“The Northern Song Dynasty exported tea, silk, porcelain and other products, and received in return shiploads of gold, silver, jewelry, spices and other items.”

"By the Southern Song Dynasty, most of the imperial court's annual income was supported by maritime trade."

"It's unimaginable how much profit there is."

"This piece of fat meat cannot be ignored by Ming Dynasty. Sooner or later, it will be sucked into our rice bowl."

"So I wanted to research it ahead of time."

When he heard so much money, Zhu Xiongying's eyes began to shine:

"Okay, okay, we must eat this fat meat... I will study it with you."

Chen Jingke thought to himself, what he wants is your words: "But unfortunately, I don't have much access to information."

Zhu Xiongying immediately said: "The most indispensable thing in the palace is all kinds of books. There are all kinds of books in the Great Good Hall."

"I will go to Grandpa Huang and ask him to allow us to go to the Great Good Hall to read."

Dashan Hall is Zhu Yuanzhang's private library, which contains a variety of books, including rare rare books.

It's just that there are many secrets hidden inside, and ordinary people are not qualified to enter.

Zhu Xiongying can get in, but if Chen Jingke wants to get in, he still has to tell Zhu Yuanzhang first.

So the two found Lao Zhu and told him their purpose.

Zhu Yuanzhang readily agreed, but also raised a question:

"We have always been confused about economics. We only heard people say that sea trade is good, but we still can't figure out what is so good about it."

"Although sea trade can obtain a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, it cannot be exchanged for food."

"Food is the foundation of everything. If we don't have enough food to eat, what's the use of having more gold, silver and jewelry?"

"Besides, the new treasure banknotes have solved the money shortage problem, and Ming Dynasty's demand for gold and silver is not that high."

"With the opening of maritime trade, there will be more people engaged in business and fewer people farming, which will affect food production..."

"Please explain to us carefully what is going on."

Zhu Xiongying consciously found a bench to sit on, and class was about to start again.

Chen Jingke thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty has fallen into a misunderstanding. The Ming Dynasty has enough food to feed hundreds of millions of people."

"The reason why people are still hungry is because there is a problem on the distribution side."

"Some people have a lot of grain, and their homes are piled up like mountains."

"Some people have nothing and starve to death."

"It is said that wine and meat in Zhumen stink, and bones are frozen to death on the road. This is the truth."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with deep approval: "We know this, you have said it before."

"The imperial court's tax collection is a process of wealth redistribution..."

"But what does opening up maritime trade have to do with redistributing wealth?"

Chen Jingke said: "It would be too dangerous if wealth redistribution was all tied to taxation."

"Once there is a problem with taxation, the imperial court's finances will go bankrupt..."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "You also said this, that's why we have to carry out tax reform and establish a tax inspection department."

Chen Jingke wanted to say, why do you like to interrupt so much? Is it you or me?

But thinking that he couldn't do it to Lao Zhu, he had no choice but to admit it and continued:

"Your Majesty is wise, that's all."

“But no matter how we change it, there is no guarantee that there will be no tax problems.”

“At this time, more factors need to be introduced.”

“If one factor goes wrong, there is another factor that can support it.”

"The profits from sea trade are enough to be that factor."

"Just now we said that the Ming Dynasty's grain production is enough to feed everyone, but there is a problem with the distribution."

"To put it simply, the people have too few means of living, no money in their hands, and cannot afford to buy food."

"Then we will find a way to put money in the hands of the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang interjected again: "Those who get rich from sea trade are all sea merchants. How can the common people make profits?"

At this time, Zhu Xiongying couldn't help it anymore and stood up and said: "It's wrong, it's wrong, the emperor is wrong, and the people can also benefit."

Not only was Zhu Yuanzhang not angry, he also said with great interest:

"Oh, dear grandpa, please tell Grandpa Huang what's wrong."

Zhu Xiongying said: "Think about it, where do the goods sold in sea trade come from? Aren't they produced by the private sector?"

"Maritime merchants purchase goods from the private sector, so people have money in their hands. If they have money, they can buy food."

“The most exported commodities through sea trade are silk, porcelain and tea.”

"Take tea as an example. Nowadays, tea in Daming can only be produced and sold by itself, and the price is very low."

“A lot of it is simply sold at no price and goes to waste.”

The biggest consumers of tea are actually prairie people.

But now that Ming Dynasty and Bei Yuan are mortal enemies, this road is broken.

Foreign trade was abolished because of the maritime ban.

As for the Ancient Tea Horse Road... Yunnan was conquered only last year, and the remaining enemies have not yet been eliminated.

This golden trade route has not yet flourished.

Moreover, even if it becomes prosperous, how many can be sold through this method alone?

Therefore, the current supply of tea in Ming Dynasty exceeds demand.

"Sea trade will increase the demand for tea and raise the price of tea."

"If people plant a few tea trees at home, they can get extra income every year."

"Large landowners who own tea gardens have to hire people to manage, pick, and process the tea. People can earn some extra income by working."

"Transportation also requires a lot of manpower, and ordinary people can still make money through transportation..."

“Tea alone can provide livelihood to millions of people.”

"The same goes for porcelain. Sea trade exports have increased the demand for porcelain."

"In order to produce more porcelain, those workshops also had to hire more workers."

"The same goes for silk..."

Zhu Yuanzhang said happily: "My dear grandson is so good at what he said. He knows more than Grandpa Huang."

"When you say this, Grandpa Huang will know the benefits of sea trade."

Chen Jingke added: "But whether it is porcelain, silk, or tea, it will be affected by the environment."

"It can only benefit people in some areas."

"The one with the greatest potential is cotton. Cotton is easy to grow, has stable output, and can be grown all over the country."

"Cotton has very high warmth and comfort, and the price is affordable to the common people."

"If exported, it will definitely be very popular..."

"At that time, those maritime merchants will purchase cotton cloth in large quantities."

“The more people collect, the price of cotton will naturally increase.”

"People use the slack season to weave cloth and sell it, and they can make a good income."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up and he said: "This is good, this is good, cotton is good."

"When we promoted cotton cultivation across the country, we took a fancy to these advantages."

"Now every household in the Ming Dynasty grows cotton."

"If it is true as you say, it will indeed benefit people across the country."

Chen Jingke added: "Sea trade can also promote the advancement of productivity..."

"When people make money, they will think of ways to study how to weave better and faster..."

"Porcelain workshops will find ways to reduce costs and produce better porcelain." "People who farm the land, in order to spare more time to work and make money, will find ways to improve farming efficiency..."

"Although we still failed to solve the distribution problem, we have completed open source."

"Through open source, people will have more opportunities to make money, and they will never starve to death if they have money."

"And it is easier to ask maritime merchants to collect taxes than to ask gentry clans to collect taxes."

"As long as the imperial court controls the port, it can directly collect taxes from merchant ships entering and exiting."

"The huge tax can effectively alleviate the financial pressure on the court."

"And with money, the court can support a powerful navy."

"In order to ensure their own safety, maritime merchants will also take the initiative to report information about Japanese pirates and pirates to the court..."

"At that time, if the army and the people are united, Japanese pirates can be defeated with just a snap of their fingers."

Zhu Yuanzhang was very moved, but he still remained awake and said:

"Your idea is good, you can give it a try."

"But now the Ming Dynasty is at a critical juncture of internal reform. Let's wait for a few years before opening the sea."

Chen Jingke is not disappointed. Now is indeed not the right time:

"I understand, so I just want to understand the relevant situation in advance and be aware of it."

"Lest we really have to open the sea in the future and don't understand anything."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Okay, we understand, you go ahead."

Chen Jingke and Zhu Xiongying came to the Dashan Hall.

The collection of books inside is actually not many, only about three to five thousand.

Most of them are various history books and application books.

For example, "Warring States Policy", "Historical Records", "Taiping Huanyu Ji", "Xining Envoys to Prisoners", and various military books, etc.

There are very few poems, songs, legendary novels and the like.

In one of the rooms, Chen Jingke saw the picture of the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with the version I saw the year before, this one has a lot more content.

But most of them are land parts, and there are very few ocean parts.

There is no way, at least now the Ming Dynasty's focus is still on land, and the importance of the ocean is very low.

They found the steward of the Great Good Hall and asked him to fetch relevant books, and the two of them started reading.

The two have different concerns. Zhu Xiongying pays more attention to maritime trade and naval warfare.

Chen Jingke is more concerned about the development of the shipbuilding industry.

If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. If he wants to expand the ocean space, he must have a suitable ship.

At least for now, China's shipbuilding technology is still the world's leader.

It can build a large ship about 150 meters long and 50 meters wide.

And it has a complete shipbuilding technology, from design to construction, the technology is very mature.

Shipbuilding requires not only technology, but also materials.

The wood required for shipbuilding is very demanding and requires features such as corrosion resistance, waterproofing, and stability.

This kind of wood is basically precious wood and has a long growth cycle.

There was a meme circulating on the Internet in my past life.

In the eighteenth century, the Danish fleet was destroyed by the British.

They want revenge, but what if they don’t have the materials to build a ship?

You can only grow it yourself.

So they planted 90,000 oak trees, hoping to build a navy to take revenge.

As a result, it took until the 21st century for these trees to become useful.

As for the matter of revenge, it has long been a thing of the past.

Although I don’t know if this joke is true or not, it can be seen how important the material is.

Moreover, these trees cannot be cut down and used. They also need to be dried in the shade for at least two years before they can be used for shipbuilding.

China stands out as a country with vast territory, abundant resources and long heritage.

Funaki? Yes, there are many types.

There are also many kinds of reserve wood.

The royal families of all dynasties would reserve large amounts of wood.

Mainly used to build palaces, but many can also be used to build ships.

Major shipyards reserve even more wood.

The Yuan Dynasty, in particular, attached great importance to shipping and had a large amount of ship wood in reserve.

Therefore, if Ming Dynasty wanted to develop the ocean, it had great advantages.

But there are also shortcomings, mainly due to the ship type.

Ancient China paid more attention to land, and shipbuilding was first for inland water transportation.

Therefore, the ship shape is wider and the bottom is flatter.

This design has a shallow draft and can maximize the load capacity.

But on rough seas, these advantages turn into disadvantages.

The draft is too shallow and it is easy to capsize when encountering wind and waves.

This also means that there is no way to sail in the open sea and can only travel in the inland sea close to the land.

It can be seen from the route map of Zheng He's voyages to the West that he mostly used inland waterways.

Only in sea areas with less wind and waves will you go deep sea.

During the Tang Dynasty, the first naval battle between China and Japan was the Battle of Baijiangkou.

Because they had to enter the deep sea area, Datang directly awarded first-level military merit to all the soldiers participating in the battle.

Regardless of whether he participated in the battle in the end, as long as he went to sea, all military merits would be given.

This shows how dangerous it is for a flat-bottomed boat to go out to sea.

Therefore, if you want to expand the ocean space, you must optimize the ship type.

As for the optimization method, although Chen Jingke does not understand shipbuilding, he also knows the general shape of a seagoing ship.

Narrow the width of the boat and design the bottom into a V or U shape.

In the past, China's main warships were basically U-shaped bottoms.

Chen Jingke recorded all these ideas and found an opportunity to tell the boatmen and let them design a new ship.

With Ming's current technological accumulation, it is not difficult to build a sea-going ship.

At that time, Ming Dynasty was really given wings.

On this day, Chen Jingke was browsing the information as usual, and saw a chamberlain coming to inform him that Marquis Yongchang was inviting him.

It was said that a concubine was about to give birth, so he was asked to go over and take charge.

Chen Jingke calculated the time, and it seemed that the due date had indeed arrived, so he quickly got up and prepared to go to Yongchang Houfu to have a look.

Lan Yu had put a lot of effort into these two children, so he had to see them with his own eyes.

When Zhu Xiongying heard that there was something exciting to watch, he wanted to go along.

The two asked Zhu Yuanzhang for leave together.

Lao Zhu naturally made it right without saying a word, and even joked:

"If you are really your son, Jing Ke, your reputation as a companion to your son will be well established."

Chen Jingke was also a little bit dumbfounded, but it seemed like this was indeed the case.

Even before Lan Yu's two children were born, someone asked him to send them off to study with them.

If this really gives birth to a son, I don’t know what will happen.

The two of them came to Yongchang Hou Mansion together. As soon as they entered the door, they saw Lan Yu shouting with joy:

"I have a son, I have a son."

(End of this chapter)