Jinyi Night Walk

Full text and no ads Chapter 1000 Is it profitable or not?

The couple chatted for a while, and the sunlight shining through the window became brighter. Knowing that it was getting late, they got up immediately. (full-text e-book free download)

Because of Xia Xun's high status, he monopolizes a complete courtyard in the posthouse, and outsiders are not allowed to enter without permission, so it is like his own private house. After washing up, Xia Xun went to the living room in a very casual Yanju uniform At this time, Qiaoyun had already prepared the meal, and was chatting and laughing with Tang Sai'er in the living room, waiting for his arrival.

In fact, the posthouse has its own chef, and because the emperor visited the north, he brought a large number of civil and military officials, most of whom stayed in the posthouse, so the chef also tried his best to hire famous chefs who are good at cooking various dishes, but Qiaoyun always felt that it was not as good as cooking at home. meticulous.

Ming'er has been tutored since she was a child, and she naturally knows the things that a daughter must learn, such as food and female celebrity. The little princess looks like holding a kitchen knife and a big spoon...

The stove here is raging, the oil is boiling over there, and the oily smoke is everywhere. Ming'er "plays" with great interest, and the family members are worried, crowded at the kitchen door, waiting to rush in at any time to bandage the wound and splash earth to put out the fire... It is no different from a family. torture.

So in the end, Ming'er actually just learned how to cook, and it was her close girl Qiaoyun who really learned this cooking skill.Anyway, she accompanied the young lady since she was a child, and she was destined to be a dowry girl in the future, so she would be the Little Princess Ming'er's club.

Qiao Yun is Xia Xun's woman now, and Xia Xun has never made a clear distinction between the classes in her family, wife, concubine, concubine, concubine...the barriers are strict.

Although she talks about her status to the outside world, she always downplays this at home and treats Qiaoyun with the same care and care, but Qiaoyun never regards herself as a young mistress.When she came to Beijing, she followed Madam's order to serve the master, and she naturally regarded the master's food and drink as her own responsibility.

Now she has been pregnant for several months, but she has been used to being diligent since she was a child, and she can't take time off at all. She made this breakfast by herself.Breakfast is relatively simple, a casserole stewed with steaming hot, smooth and delicious Japonica chicken porridge, green and appetizing boiled vegetables in a blue and white porcelain plate, a few small snacks, a few small pickles, plus a A dish of Gaoyou salted duck eggs, a dish of braised beef with peppercorns.

As soon as Xia Xun arrived, the family sat down to eat and chatted while eating. Suddenly, a servant reported that there was news from the palace that Mr. Fu Guosi had come to the palace to meet him at three o'clock. Xia Xun was not in the court. He has been on a permanent job and has not been in court for several days. After hearing this, he didn't know why the emperor called him, so he hurriedly wanted to ask the little eunuch to come in and ask him clearly, but the servants said that the servant had already returned after passing the decree.

Xia Xun had something on his mind, so he didn't dare to delay, and hurriedly finished his breakfast. Qiaoyun and Xiaoying waited on him to wash his face, put on his clothes and boots, tie his waist with a leather belt, and comb his hair. After everything was ready, he hurried After leaving the post house, he rode a horse and went straight to the palace.

Xia Xun rushed to the main hall of the Xinggong Palace, and saw two young eunuchs standing at the entrance of the hall. He took a look and saw that the one on the right was Musi's confidant, so he said to the little eunuch on the left: "Yang Xu is here to see you, please. Informed!"

Seeing that it was Duke Fu who had arrived, the little servant didn't dare to be negligent, and hurried in. Xia Xun took the opportunity to ask Musi's confidant: "Why is the emperor in such a hurry?"

The little servant covered his mouth and coughed, and hurriedly replied: "Eunuch Zheng He has come from Nanjing, and the emperor wants to go to the West again, and all the officials are against it!"

"Oh……"

Suddenly, Xia Xun nodded lightly. At this time, the little eunuch who went in to report had already come out. He stood in front of the steps and said loudly: "The emperor has an order, and Yang Xu will see you!"

Xia Xun hurriedly adjusted her clothes and stepped into the hall.

Above the main hall, all civil and military officials gathered together and were arguing fiercely. Xia Xun came in and did not interrupt their heated debate. Looking at it, it turned out to be Zheng He, Zheng He smiled and nodded at him, Xia Xun hurriedly nodded as well, and the two stood still without mentioning it.Full Text No Ads

Zheng He's last voyage to the West was a great success. He not only brought envoys from many countries to pay homage to the emperor, but also bought a large amount of exotic goods.Since then, Zheng He has stayed in Nanjing, focusing on the management of ship construction, and combined with various problems exposed during the last voyage to the West, to improve various aspects of navigation technology.

At that time, the civil and military officials already knew that the emperor had the intention of going to the West, but at that time Timur died suddenly, the western army had just retreated, Zhu Di himself was successful in the crusade against the Tatars, Arutai surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and became a minister, and Emperor Yongle's martial arts were outstanding. , at the moment, there is no other prestige, and the matter of sailing to the West has not been put on the agenda for a while, so the civil and military officials did not touch him.

Now, Zheng He has made all kinds of preparations to go to the West again. He is confident that he can go further this time, explore more unknown worlds, and understand the countries, races, species, and cultures in the wider world. , excitedly came to Beijing to report, and Zhu Di was overjoyed when he heard the words, so he wanted to order to go to sea again.As a result, as soon as the news spread, the civil and military officials who accompanied him to the north and the officials of the Beijing Ministry of Operations exploded.

Since Beijing has been designated as the capital of the country, more and more officials are moving to Beijing one after another. Everyone is completely unfamiliar with the city of Beijing, and they don't even know where the Meridian Gate is located?

Therefore, the six ministries of Nanjing and the various departments of the Yamen have sent officials to Beijing one after another. Zhu Di brought many officials with him during his northern tour. Today, the total number of officials in Beijing has accounted for more than half of the court officials. It is equivalent to the attitude of all officials in the entire court.

Su Qian, the right servant of the household department, interrupted Xia Xun's speech because Xia Xun went to the hall to meet him. The goal has been achieved, and now there is only a short period of time, so why go to the West again? The trip to the West cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in food and money, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians died due to illness, wind, waves and tsunami. What's the benefit?"

Zheng He retorted: "Master Su, my imperial court has hundreds of treasure ships, each of which is as huge as a city, traveling thousands of miles, just to buy some rare treasures? How many rare treasures will it take to fill this city?" The giant ship? My Ming treasure ship returned from its westward trip last time, and purchased nearly 29 kinds of goods, including 23 kinds of spices, 22 kinds of treasures, 51 kinds of medicinal materials, 21 kinds of hardware, [-] kinds of cloth and silk, [-] kinds of animals, eight kinds of pigments, Three kinds of food, three kinds of wood, eight kinds of cloth and other miscellaneous goods, the so-called only buying rare treasures, don’t Mr. Su think this is nonsense?”

During Zheng He's voyages to the West, he purchased all kinds of commodities. He said it clearly, and said: "Among the commodities purchased, such as pepper, the purchase price in countries such as Sumatra and Kezhi is The market price of one hundred catties in my Ming Dynasty is at least twenty times one hundred catties, and the profit is more than twenty times. My treasure ship of the Ming Dynasty is as big as a city, but how amazing is the profit of transporting a ship of pepper back? "

Pepper was a very popular commodity in the Ming Dynasty. From the court to the wealthy gentry, pepper must be used as a condiment in the diet. At the same time, it is also a very common spice. In "Jin Ping Mei", Li When Ping'er wanted to remarry, when she described how many private houses she had, she mentioned "forty catties of agarwood, two hundred catties of white wax, two jars of mercury, and eighty catties of pepper".

Although this book is written about the Song Dynasty, the author is from the Ming Dynasty. He just substituted the folk customs of that time into this Song Dynasty story, which reflects the market customs of the Ming Dynasty at that time. Pepper is a very popular commodity. However, the output in the Central Plains is very small, and it mainly relies on imports. The transportation cost of private imports is extremely high, and the price keeps going up, so it has become a hard currency to preserve value.

Zheng He said again: "There is also sumu, the difference between the purchase price in a foreign country and the selling price in our Daming is more than [-] times. My Daming treasure ship comes back, and the profit from sumu alone is more than ten million?"

At this time, the price is not too high, so the profit is only 20 times more. fifty times the price.

Later, the imperial court used pepper and sumac instead of salaries, and some people who didn't know the truth criticized this as deducting officials' salaries. Who knows that in the early Ming Dynasty, real objects were often used instead of salaries, and even later rice and cloth were directly distributed.Therefore, it is a normal behavior to use physical objects instead of banknotes to distribute salaries, and it is cost-effective to use pepper and sumac as the physical objects of salary distribution when the market was in short supply at that time.

At that time, not only civil and military officials, but also a large number of sergeants were paid with pepper and sumac. If it was an act of deduction, the emperor would offend almost everyone (civilian officials, generals, and sergeants). Is it possible to offend all the power groups and still be able to implement it, even without a mutiny in the army?

At that time, these things were in short supply, and discounting salaries with them would increase everyone's salaries in disguise.Just a few decades later, when Magellan returned from the voyage, the pepper he loaded was sold at a price of more than 1 times that of the place where he bought it. Therefore, the pepper and hematoxylin bought back by Zheng He are simply a warehouse that continues to appreciate in value. treasures.

Of course, during the seven consecutive voyages to the West, the large amount of pepper imported has caused its high market price to drop sharply. This is the necessity of the supply relationship. Is it good or bad for these commodities to enter the homes of ordinary people?Could it be that the trade behavior of exchanging supplies does not lower the price of goods, but instead keeps increasing the price of goods?

When the market is saturated and unprofitable, people will naturally reduce the input of this commodity. 80s color TVs are in short supply. Many people ask relatives and friends to find one and they can't get one. Merchants can import as much as they can, ensuring that they will make a lot of money and not worry about sales.Don't you go and tell him that after 30 years, this thing will be everywhere in the street, so don't enter it, so as not to backlog it.

How shameless it is to use this as a reason to attack the voyages, and how stupid believers are.

Zheng He said again: "Furthermore, when our treasure ships go to sea, they also carry a large number of commodities. Take porcelain as an example. What about the price? In a foreign land, blue and white porcelain plates are five hundred guan each, bowls are three hundred guan each, bottles are five hundred guan each, and wine seas are fifteen hundred guan each.”

Zheng He smiled slightly, and said, "Lord Su, if we sell 500 bowls, we will earn at least [-] million yuan. How can this be a waste of money and money?"

"This one……"

Zheng He's words were well-founded and could not be refuted at all, Su Shilang was speechless for a while, speechless.The rest of the officials wanted to help, but faced with the examples Zheng He cited, they were speechless for a while.

Xia Xun smiled slightly when he heard this, and said, "Eunuch Zheng's words are ridiculous!"

"what?"

When Zheng He saw that it was Xia Xun who came out of the shift to retort, he couldn't help being taken aback.Zhu Di sat in a daze at the top. He knew that Xia Xun had always supported his voyages to the West. Seeing Zheng He being besieged, verbal criticism, but actually pointing at himself, Zhu Di was very annoyed. He was secretly happy when Xia Xun arrived, hoping that Xia Xun would He could stand on his side and refute the officials, but Xia Xun actually expressed his opposition, and he couldn't react for a while.

The officials were overjoyed when they saw Duke Fu expressed his opposition. Hu Wenlong, the counselor of the Beijing Office, couldn't help but said, "I don't know what Duke Fu has to say. I would like to hear the details!"

The other officials responded one after another, saying repeatedly: "Yes, yes, please also ask Duke Fu to report his interests to the emperor!"

Xia Xun cupped his hands to Zhu Di and said, "Your Majesty, Eunuch Zheng just said that he only cared about the interests of the exchange of goods, and that alone is really nothing."

All the officials responded one after another: "Yes, yes, I am a kingdom of heaven, with a vast land and rich resources, and everything is available. Why do you need to exchange what you have with the barbarians and compete for their interests!"

Xia Xun smiled slightly and said: "I feel that if you only care about the pros and cons of going to the West, if you only care about the gains and losses of this business, you will be inferior. To see whether it is beneficial or not, you have to consider the following aspects! "

Zhu Di's face was elongated, almost turning into a shoehorn face, he suppressed his displeasure and said, "Speak!"

"Yes!"

Xia Xun didn't seem to see Zhu Di's expression, and said loudly: "First of all, the coastal cities, such as Changle, Ningbo, Taicang, Quanzhou and other places, are rich and prosperous, and there are many merchants. The reason is because of Haishi. If there is no Haishi, these coastal cities, how can we talk about prosperity? Going to the west to drive the comprehensive development of culture, economy and people's livelihood in coastal cities is an incalculable benefit."

"Ok?"

All civil and military officials were stunned, and Zheng He was the first to react: "It turns out that Duke Fu is talking to me!"

Zhu Di also reacted, but he didn't show obvious joy like Zheng He did. Instead, he gave Xia Xun a hard look, and said with a straight face, "Go ahead!"

"Yes! One more thing, when the treasure ship goes to the West, it needs to purchase a large number of goods from the Central Plains for trade. For example, the porcelain that Eunuch Zheng said just now, if it is not used for Western trade, the celadon from Jingdezhen, the white porcelain from Dehua, Fujian..., the sales volume How could it be so big? Foshan was originally just an isolated village with a few casting workshops, if it hadn’t been for the gathering of Panbo and the huge losses from the north and the south, An could have grown from a few workshops to a huge city?”

At this time, all civil and military officials knew that Xia Xun was actually on Zheng He's side, and they were all annoyed. Xia Xun ignored them and continued: "Thus, porcelain from Jingdezhen, silk from Suzhou, and cotton from Songjiang Weaving, printing in Wuhu, tea industry in Hangzhou... How much development has driven the local area?

Extending further, iron smelting, forging, shipbuilding, navigation, astronomy... How much technological development has been brought about in this process?Not to mention the influx of species and the exchange of cultures brought about by transportation to the West.”

"Going to the Western Seas will not only make my Ming famous and popular, and my Ming goods will be popular in all countries, and all the barbarians in the world will honor the use of my products, and will make their hearts turn to the heavens. Moreover, even if The barbarians also have their strengths, and I went to the West in the Ming Dynasty, exchanging my own strengths for my own weaknesses, which not only Zhang Guowei but also the use of the country, gaining both fame and fortune, what's wrong?"

Lin Chengyi, Minister of Taichang Temple, couldn't help retorting: "What the Duke Fu said seems to be reasonable. But the Duke knows that since Zheng He returned from his voyages to the West, Fanbang paid tribute frequently, and when the tribute ships arrived, they were all dispatched by local corvée. , The cost of people's labor is immeasurable. For example, when transporting from Guangdong to Beijing, because the boats are impassable, it is often necessary to cross mountains and ridges, and the people suffer unspeakably.

Furthermore, there is no fixed time for overseas countries to pay tribute. If it comes during the busy farming season, the labor force will be transferred, which will do more harm to the local area.The army and the people delivered it for one mile, and there were no less than three or forty corvettes. When they were waiting for the officials, when they were tired of menstruation, the farming work was abandoned.

When the tribute envoy returned to the country, he bought a large amount of goods from our country, and all the officers along the road had to send out vehicles to carry them on their behalf. There were dozens of vehicles at least, and more than a hundred vehicles at most. There were not enough men, and even women had to serve.Wherever the envoys went, they were like wind and fire, and it was not uncommon for them to insult the post officials and flog the peasants.What is the rationale for the court to recruit people from Huaiyuan, but to increase the worries of those near it! "

When he said this, Hu Wenlong, the counselor of the Ministry of Industry, also got excited, and said: "There are hundreds of entourages of the tribute envoys, and those who come to Beijing with the tributes are only the principal and deputy tribute envoys, and the rest will stay in the coastal city. In the posthouses, the local government is responsible for the food and lodging of these hundreds of people, and all kinds of donations! These tribute envoys have stayed in the local area for a long time, and they often rely on their status to cause trouble.

In the past, there were Ryukyu tribute envoys who robbed ships, killed officers and soldiers, beat middle officials, and robbed them of their clothes.Later, a Javanese tribute envoy was drunk and rampant in Puyang. He killed several people with a knife and then committed suicide. The impact was bad!Wherever these tribute envoys went, there was a lot of chaos. There was even a Japanese tribute envoy who took advantage of the famine in Shandong to steal and buy the children of refugees and left with a full load. "

Su Qian, the right servant of the household department, also refuted loudly: "It's more than that! Most of these tribute envoys come here for huge profits! It doesn't matter whether you need them or not, just ship them in large quantities. If you don't accept them, you will pester them endlessly. All kinds of rascals! They are using the guise of paying tribute, how can my heaven care about the size of the tribute? It has repeatedly taken advantage of it."

Jin Youzi, a cabinet scholar who accompanied him, said: "There are even some fan countries. When the tribute envoys arrive, the tribute ships unload immediately and return, and then another ship is loaded. Because the tribute envoys have not returned, they will all be used as tribute. The imperial court accepts it. The goods are either not needed by the people, or not used by the country, or are cheap and tattered, or not worth a penny, but they charge a high price. Can such an act of disastrous to the country and the people be safe?"

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