Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1023 Finding a Market
The development of domestic commerce and capital in the Ming Dynasty required a large number of markets for the products of the Ming Dynasty.

If this kind of thing was put in the past, the imperial court might not have worried about it, because it was difficult for the voice of merchants to reach the imperial court, but it is different now. As the Ming Dynasty encouraged business and encouraged some enlightened gentry to devote themselves to business, their The voice became louder, and there was a relationship of interest between the officials in the court and the businessmen, and the interests of the businessmen were their immediate interests, so the court had to focus on it and help them solve their troubles.

Now it is very common for people in various places in the Ming Dynasty to switch to economic crops. Some big families even planted tens of thousands of acres of land at the same time. So many people planted cotton and mulberry seedlings, so many workshops hired workers to weave, and the products produced piled up like mountains. Someone has to buy it.

If no one buys it, the workshop will go bankrupt, the workshop workers will lose their jobs, and the gentry who planted the cotton fields will lose their money, which will cause huge social crisis and turmoil.

At the beginning of Wang Yan's encouragement of business, the first batch of people who devoted themselves to business basically made a fortune. The Chinese people immediately flocked to see others making money, and lost their rationality. Workshops sprung up everywhere.

The production of the workshops expanded rapidly, and the owners of the workshops expanded blindly, thinking that they could make money just by weaving cloth, but they didn’t know that the market had not changed with the expansion of production. If no one buys it, then problems and crises will come.

The Ming Dynasty had a large population and strong production capacity. After the production of porcelain, cotton cloth, silk, books and other materials increased, the prices of these things dropped rapidly.

If there is no new market to digest these things, it will inevitably cause a large number of merchants and landlords to go bankrupt, then Wang Yan's reform will fail immediately, and Daming's social changes will also be terminated, returning to the previous agricultural society.

Wang Yan is now in a carriage running at full speed, he can't stop, he has to find new markets for merchants.

After getting information feedback from below, he discussed with everyone and decided to seek solutions from three directions: internal, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

The population of the Ming Dynasty was more than 5000 million, and the market was huge. However, the traditional self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy had not been completely disintegrated. The agricultural society was still the main body of the Ming Dynasty. Only Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Wuchang and other big cities were commercialized in the Ming Dynasty. In cities and surrounding areas, the market has not yet fully developed.

If you want to expand the market, you have to drag more people into the wave of social transformation. This is cruel, but it has to be done.

Nanyang and Japan are external markets. If they can make a breakthrough, they can find more sales places for Daming's products, and at the same time transport more supplies and raw materials back to Daming.

At this time, the merchants and enlightened gentry of the Ming Dynasty had begun to have a certain aggressiveness.

This time the Ming Dynasty took the initiative to adopt a hostile attitude towards Spain and sent envoys to Japan, but the main reason was because of the help of merchants, who promoted and influenced the national policy of the imperial court. This can be said to be unprecedented.

The reason why Wang Yan reacted so quickly was that he did not wait for the handicraft workshop to go bankrupt on a large scale before reacting. Thanks to Wu De Hao for his timely feedback.

Wudehao is the largest bank in Ming Dynasty. Many companies store their silver in Wudehao for the convenience of transactions. Even the imperial court’s tax silver is entrusted to Wudehao for delivery. This makes Wudehao store a large amount of silver in its warehouse. .

In addition to lending silver to the imperial court, the bank also lent money to folk workshops, and even lent money to other banks for them to lend.

After all, the bank’s money is not from the bank, but is deposited by the merchants and the gentry. The bank borrows the money to borrow chickens to lay eggs, and its heart is relatively empty. There is a risk of bankruptcy.

Therefore, the bank was very vigilant. When they found that the market was changing and they had lent a lot of money, but found that many of the things produced by the workshops were not sold, or the value of the commodities had shrunk, they immediately became nervous.

There was a delay in the loan that was expected to be recovered, and there was a shortage of bank deposits in the bank. Wu Dehao urged the largest debtor, the Ming court, for the arrears. The court found risks and huge problems in the market after investigation.

At present, in this social change, the forces involved include major firms, handicraft workshops in various places, landlords and gentry who provide raw materials, tens of thousands of tenants and workshop workers, and Wudehao. In the first ring, if the reform fails, everyone will explode together and all will be finished.

Naturally, Wang Yan couldn't let the Wude go bankrupt, and the ministers of the court and China were also driven by various forces to ask the court to open up new markets.

Of course, there are quite a few opposing voices among them. Some out of moral considerations think that Spain has no grievances with our dynasty, but our dynasty has taken a hostile attitude and wants to seize the Luzon area. It is very unjust and unnatural. What the DPRK did was also due to the re-revision of the treaty with Japan, which would affect the big merchants they have in the Japanese market, but this is not as loud as the voice of the Chu Party.

Wudehao is Wang Yan's core interest. Those workshops must not fail. This is the same as the house price cannot fall in future generations. If the workshop fails, Wudehao will go bankrupt.

Wudehao must not fail, but if you want Wudehao not to fail, you have to find a market for those workshops that have borrowed money, let them sell their things, and make money, so that the money of Wudehao can be recovered.

At this time, the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Kingdom of Jin had ceased. After Dorgon saw that the Ming army had withdrawn from Hanzhong, he also accepted it as soon as he saw it. He went south to Xuzhou and Luoyang, and then returned to the north, preparing to attack Western Mongolia again. .

Seeing that the war could not be fought for the time being, the Ming Dynasty also focused on internal affairs.

The mission to Japan was led by Qian Bingdeng, head of the Lifan Academy of the Ministry of Rites, with the Ming Dynasty's letter of credence and Wang Yan's personal letter to the shogunate Tokugawa Ietsuna. They set off from Nanjing and passed by on two sea ships. Ryukyu sailed directly to Japan.

Historically, Japan still hoped to conduct trade with China, and there was even a battle for tribute, and the subsequent Japanese pirate rebellion was also related to the suspension of normal Sino-Japanese joint trade.

As for the current Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of its establishment, Tokugawa Ieyasu was eager to resume trade with the Ming Dynasty. He not only expressed his goodwill to the Ming Dynasty through North Korea, but also through Ryukyu, but both North Korea and Ryukyu had their own thoughts.

North Korea has enmity with Japan, so it naturally ignores Japan. Ryukyu is a second-hand businessman in the middle of tomorrow's trade. If the Ming Dynasty resumes trade with Japan, it will lose its own interests for Ryukyu, so it will not try its best to help.

Afterwards, Tokugawa Ieyasu also ordered Honda Masuno and Hasegawa Fujihiro to write letters separately, and entrusted Zhou Xingru, a businessman from Yingtianfu, who had been trading in Japan, to bring them to Chen Zizhen, Governor of Fujian.

Honda Masazumi said in the letter that Ieyasu has always had the intention of peace and friendship with the Ming Dynasty. When the Fujian merchant ship sails to Nagasaki next year, please follow the Ming Emperor's will and send it for inspection and cooperation. After the rise, an envoy ship will be sent to Ming Dynasty.

Hasegawa Fujihiro also said in the letter that if the Ming Dynasty sent a letter to Kanhe, he would serve as a special envoy to the Ming Dynasty to rebuild the old two countries, ship back and forth every year, and trade with each other, but the Ming Dynasty did not reply.

After Wang Yan regained Nanjing, he once declared the influence of the various armies. Japan did not catch up, but afterward, some members of the Japanese shogunate came to Nanjing, and Wang Yan resumed the exploration and cooperation trade with permission.

This time Wang Yan wanted to further expand trade, and he expected that the Tokugawa shogunate would most likely agree.

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(End of this chapter)