Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 303 The Nine Years of Chongzhen and the Economic Rise of Shanghai County
The land of China in the 19th year of Chongzhen seems to be much calmer than in previous years.

In the Ming Dynasty, the instructions issued by Zhu Youjian to the ministries in the 18th year of Chongzhen have begun to be implemented.

Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, which was not yet well-known in this era, has been officially divided into a special economic zone in Ming Dynasty, and the City Ship Lifting Department was established here, and the government of Songjiang Prefecture was moved to Shanghai County.

Wu Jiayin, who had just taken office in Yingtian Zhifu, was transferred to be the governor of Songjiang Prefecture and the secretary of the city ship promotion department.

The county seat of Shanghai is close to the Huangpu River, and from the Huangpu River to the north, you can enter the East China Sea through Wusongkou.

Although it is just a wilderness now, it will be one of the most prosperous places in the world in later generations.

At this time, merchant ships from the most prosperous areas of Ming Dynasty, such as Yingtian Mansion, Songjiang Mansion, and Suzhou Mansion, began to berth at the newly built port in Shanghai County.

Countless large lucky boats can even be seen here every day. These are the ships of big merchants and imperial merchants who are directly derived from Suzhou to Huizhou and even Wuchang in the mainland, and they are about to go to sea for trade.

In addition to the imperial merchant giants such as Jiangning Weaving Han's and Suzhou Weaving Yang's carrying a large number of high-quality and cheap textiles to prepare overseas, there are also private merchant ships under the banner of Zheng's firm.

The imperial merchants and government merchants naturally had to pay the export tax at the Shibo Tiju Division, while Zheng's firm could directly export after registration.

Although private merchants are protected by Zheng's Commercial Bank, Songjiang City's Boti Judiciary can only receive taxes from imperial merchants, official merchants, and some private merchants who are unwilling to use the banner of Zheng's Commercial Bank, but the tax money is still flowing every day. It entered the treasury of the Shibo Lifting Department.

Not only for export, but now Western merchant ships from the Netherlands and Francois are also starting to gather in Shanghai Port.

According to the order of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Songjiang Prefecture has been from the junction of Huangpu River and Wusong River in Shanghai County to Wusongkou, which is now from the junction of Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek to Wusongkou, allowing domestic merchants and foreigners to live here for a long time and even open shops and workshop.

Huangzhuang has preemptively purchased land here according to Zhu Youjian's will, and even built many shops in advance. The profits are getting more and more lucrative, so a large number of merchants have also begun to come to this area to buy land to open shops or rent shops from Huangzhuang.

For a while, as the trade in this area became more and more developed, the shops in this area also began to flourish rapidly, and the profits grew like snowballs.

By the end of October in the 19th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian had already made a profit of 400 million silver dollars relying solely on the rental income and commercial income of Huangzhuang in this area.

There are also foreign shops starting to gather here, renting or buying directly. For a while, the Huangpu area, which was just a wilderness village in the past, has officially become one of the most prosperous commercial ports in Ming Dynasty.

According to Wu Jiayin, the magistrate of Songjiang Prefecture, by the end of the 19th year of Chongzhen, the Ship Lifting Department of Songjiang Prefecture had collected a huge tax of 800 million silver dollars. Wu Jiayin even lamented directly in the memorial. If private merchants escape the customs duties, the customs revenue of the Ming court will directly double.

Zhu Youjian was not surprised by the huge tax revenue obtained after opening a commercial port in Shanghai County. After all, this place has proved to be a treasured place to gather wealth in later generations.

Although the Manchu Qing occupied the north and the land outside the customs, Zhu Youjian did not prohibit the commercial trade between the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Manchu Qing court itself ignored this commercial prohibition.

After all, the Manchu Qing court also knew that the north could not do without the support of Nanhuo, nor could it prohibit commercial exchanges between civil officials and merchants of the Ming Dynasty.

However, because today’s Yangzhou and the towns along the Grand Canal all the way to Baoding have become important military towns, water transportation has been interrupted, so no matter whether it is the Ming merchants in Huaiyang going north or the merchants in the Manchu ruled area going south, they can only go to Shanghai at this time. Transit in the county, and then take the sea route.

This made the commercial prosperity of the old water transport area also moved to Shanghai County.

On the north and south banks of Wusongkou in Shanghai County, and even in the inland river Huangpu, merchant ships gathered and kept coming and going.

The East China Sea and the Yellow Sea from Wusongkou in Shanghai County to Denglai, Shandong are the actual control areas of the Ming Navy. The imperial navy will not stop them from using the banner of their firm, but if the merchants of the Qing Dynasty want to go south to do business at this time, they have to pay protection fees to the Ming navy.

In the Daming sea area at this time, the command of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea was controlled by the Daming Navy, while at this time the South China Sea and the entire Southeast Asia were controlled by the Zheng Navy.

This is a tacit agreement reached between Zhu Youjian and the Zheng family. Naturally, the Zheng group will not cross Taiwan and offend the navy of the Ming Empire, and the navy of the Ming empire is also unable to go south to cross Taiwan and seize control of the South China Sea from the Zheng group. .

The navy of the Ming Empire occupied all the islands in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea to collect protection fees from merchant ships from the Qing Dynasty, while the Zheng Group collected protection fees from foreign merchant ships in the South China Sea, to be precise, from the waters south of today’s Taiwan Island.

Of course, the Imperial Navy of the Ming Dynasty would not collect protection fees from imperial and official merchants of the Ming Dynasty, private merchants, and Zheng’s firms, and the Zheng’s Group also did not charge, and they all had the obligation to protect their own merchant ships.

This is also one of the tacit understandings with each other.

By the end of Chongzhen's 19th year, according to Liu Kongzhao's report, the Ming Empire Navy had already collected 19 million silver dollars in protection fees at the end of December of the 300th year of Chongzhen's reign based on this protection fee.

This is still at a time when the economic order has not been fully restored in the north. In a few years, merchants in the Qing Dynasty in the north can even bring more than 300 million silver dollars to the Ming Navy every year.

This undoubtedly allowed the Qing Dynasty to help the Ming Dynasty build a stronger navy.

Of course, Zhu Youjian did not prohibit the trade between the two countries not only because he did not want to hinder his own country’s commerce and trade and offend his country’s gentry merchants, but also had a deeper purpose. Now that the Ming Dynasty has reformed the money law, silver coins have become the current currency, and silver coins in Daming Because of the financial control of the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty, the empire can be recognized by the people of the Ming Empire, and it will naturally be recognized by the Qing Dynasty.

Even in order to promote the circulation of silver coins in the Manchu Qing ruled area, the Ming Navy only accepted silver coins as protection fees.

For this reason, once silver coins began to circulate on a large scale within the Qing court, and even became the mainstream currency of the Qing court, a large amount of silver and gold from the north would flow into the Ming Dynasty in the south, making silver expensive and money cheap in the future.

That will undoubtedly arouse its domestic conflicts, and even lead to its inflation, and Zhu Youjian will slowly turn silver coins into banknotes in the future, once the banknotes are also in circulation in the Qing Dynasty at this time.

Zhu Youjian is equivalent to using white paper to earn the silver and gold from the Qing court's ruled area to Ming Dynasty, and he can even directly use economic means to manipulate the Qing court. If he starts to order the printing of banknotes or silver coins, then the silver and gold reserves will be greatly reduced. Enough Ming can not be affected by a big impact, but the Qing court will undoubtedly fall into economic collapse first because of its own economic means.

(End of this chapter)