Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 527 Smuggling Paradise

Seeing a crowd of people chattering and chattering, Li Jing felt his head was in a big fight.

Sighing lightly, Li Jing waved to Xiao Jiu: "Take the things, give some money to each of them, don't let them lose money."

"Yes," Xiao Jiu replied, and then ordered the guards to collect things and send money.

"My lord, how can we ask for your money?" a group of people shouted.

Li Jing waved his hands and smiled: "I asked them to give money, not to buy your things, it's my heart. I accept your heart, don't you want mine? If you don't charge money, then these things I don't want it."

"My lord!" A group of people knelt down on the ground and sobbed.

"Everyone, please hurry up. Li Jing still has something to do, so we can't delay any longer. Please come back," Li Jing said.

"My lord has important things to do, and I dare not keep the little one. I wish you a smooth journey." The old man in the lead choked up.

Li Jing bowed and gave a deep salute, without any hesitation, he turned and got into the carriage.

"My lord, take care!" the people behind us cried out.

Fuzhou Prefecture is definitely the top-ranked big city in Ming Dynasty. Apart from the northern and southern capitals, only Pingyang Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture can be compared with Fuzhou.

The northern and southern capitals are the capitals of Ming Dynasty, and their political status lies there, which Fuzhou can't compare to anyway.

Kaifeng Mansion has been established here since Zhu Wen of the Later Liang Dynasty. During the Five Dynasties, the Later Jin, Later Han, Later Zhou, Northern Song, and Jin Dynasties all established their capitals here. It has been the political and cultural center of the Central Plains for hundreds of years, and it is the largest city in the Central Plains.

In Pingyang Prefecture, Li Jing moved a large number of victims to Pingyang Prefecture after the flood in Henan Province. After having a sufficient population, Li Jing built a large factory in Pingyang Prefecture and developed manufacturing. In just a few years, Pingyang Prefecture leaped Become the manufacturing center of the country.

The reason why Fuzhou was able to become the top city in Ming Dynasty was entirely due to maritime trade.

In the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to Ryukyu to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.And in order to show the style of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang selected 36 people from Fujian who were good at swimming and rowing, and moved to Ryukyu as immigrants. At that time, these immigrants set off from Fuzhou Port.

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that Quanzhou should be the port of tribute to Ryukyu, but because it was more convenient to go to Fuzhou from Ryukyu than Quanzhou, and many of the boatmen in Ryukyu at that time were from Fuzhou, during the Chenghua period, the imperial court moved the shipping department from Quanzhou to Fuzhou.

Ryukyu was short of materials, and trade with Ming Dynasty was an important way to obtain daily necessities. Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty, trade activities between Ryukyu and Ming were extremely frequent.After Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the sea ban, Ryukyu was one of the few countries that could travel to and from Ming Dynasty for overseas trade.Ryukyu made full use of this special status to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty in various names. (Note, at that time, there was tributary trade between Daming and other countries.)
The Ryukyu people imported silk, porcelain, lacquerware, medicinal materials and other materials from Daming and transferred them to Southeast Asian countries, and then exchanged pepper, sumac, spices, ivory and other materials from various countries and brought them to Fuzhou for sale, earning huge profits.Fuzhou has become a transit point for trade of various countries, and Fuzhou Port has also become one of the four major ports of Ming Dynasty. (The other three are Guangzhou, Mingzhou which is now Ningbo, and Quanzhou.)
Due to the thriving maritime trade, a large number of people gathered here, which led to agriculture (sweet potatoes were first introduced from Luzon by Fuzhou businessman Chen Zhenlong), textile industry (Fuzhou textile worker Lin Hong improved the textile machine, which can weave Textiles of various designs and colors, Fuzhou was known as the city of silk for a time), and shipbuilding (the Fuchuan in Fuzhou in the Ming Dynasty were quite famous in the whole country, and their ability to sail and work in the ocean was very strong. Many businessmen and even foreigners came to Fuzhou Buying a ship. Due to the extremely high profits of the shipbuilding industry, the private shipbuilding industry in Fuzhou was stimulated to develop rapidly. In the late Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates were rampant, and the Ming Dynasty banned going to sea, and some people went to uninhabited islands to set up factories and shipbuilding).

After Zheng Zhilong was born and wiped out the pirates on the southeast coast, Fuzhou and Quanzhou became a paradise for smuggling trade. It can be said that Fuzhou is an out-and-out commercial city.

In a commercial city, the proportion of merchants is of course very high, so Li Jing is very unpopular in Fuzhou.

The reason is simple, Li Jing raised the tax rate for merchants.

Although Li Jing raised the tax rate for farmers to farm, after paying the grain tax, farmers no longer need to pay other fees. In fact, the burden on farmers has been reduced.

In addition, in the past, farmers had to undertake all kinds of labor. Now, except for the projects that have an interest in them, they need to serve for free, and the rest of the farmers are paid for their work. In this way, the farmers have an additional share of income.

Therefore, Li Jing has a very high reputation in the hearts of farmers, and it can be said that he is deeply loved by farmers.

But in the eyes of the businessman, Li Jing is simply a devil.

Li Jing's decree increased the commercial tax, which was almost non-existent before, to more than [-]%. At the same time, Li Jing cracked down on the smuggling industry and forced Zheng Zhilong to rebel. For a while, Fuzhou's maritime trade almost stagnated.For Li Jing, the businessmen in Fuzhou can be said to hate Li Jing so much.

When Li Jing came out of Fuzhou, not many people in Fuzhou welcomed him. This time when Li Jing came back from Quanzhou, not many people welcomed him either.

Li Jing didn't mind this.

As a person in power, it is impossible for Li Jing to be equal to all social classes. He must have a tendency, either to ordinary people, or to gentry and wealthy businessmen.

The current state treasury of Ming Dynasty is empty, if it is inclined to the gentry class, the country will not be able to collect taxes, and if it cannot collect taxes, Li Jing will not be able to do many things. Of course Li Jing is not willing to give up his ideals in order to satisfy the gentry class.

In fact, Li Jing knows very well that despite the high business tax he has set, businessmen are still profitable. The easiest way is to raise prices and pass the tax on to consumers.

Before the country has a professional price control department, that is to say, before the country has the ability to stabilize prices, administrative measures cannot intervene in prices. At this time, Li Jing can only support merchants to dump goods at low prices. to stabilize prices.Jingji Company and Shenji Company played this role.

It should be said that commercial giants like Jingji Company and Shenji Company have the ability to manipulate prices in any place.But if it is scattered all over the country, I am afraid it will be beyond our capabilities.Only when there is a need to regulate prices in a certain area can we concentrate our efforts to intervene.

It is conceivable how many merchants will be offended when these two firms launch operations in a certain area.At this time, the merchants hated Li Jing even more.

Fortunately, Li Jing didn't do this kind of thing often. When the prices were similar, Li Jing would not intervene easily, so he didn't completely offend all the merchants across the country.

However, now Li Jing is going to attack the merchants in Fuzhou.

The difference is that in the past, Li Jing let Jingji and Shenji sell goods at a low price to suppress the price. This time, Li Jing planned to sweep the goods at a low price.In the past, when prices were suppressed, the two firms lost money. This time, Li Jing was going to let the two firms make money back.

Although Li Jing seldom focuses on business, Li Jing also has a keen observation on business.

After arriving in Fuzhou, Li Jing discovered that Fuzhou, a trade transfer station, had hoarded a large number of goods.

These goods are all ready for overseas trade, but due to Zheng Zhilong's rebellion, the imperial court used troops against Zheng Zhilong and blocked the coastal ports. In addition, Zheng Zhilong's sea blockade cut off the maritime trade all at once, and now all the goods are backlogged in the port.

For merchants, no matter whether the imperial court wins or Zheng Zhilong wins, as long as the battle can be resolved quickly, it will not have much impact on their business.

However, it has been more than three months since Zheng Zhilong rebelled, and the court has not yet captured Zheng Zhilong. Although Zheng Zhilong suffered several defeats, his strength has not been greatly damaged, and he is still the master of the sea.

It doesn't matter if the two sides are in a stalemate, it is these merchants who are suffering.The sea trade channel has been unable to open for a long time, and the merchants can only watch the goods get angry.

They don't care about ten and a half days, and they can grit their teeth and carry it for a month or two, but after three months, some businesses can't bear it, and they don't know how long this situation will last. At this time, It's even more unbearable.

After hearing the news, Li Jing had an idea. If these merchants can't hold it, it doesn't mean that Shen Ji Company can't hold it. Supported by Jingji Bank.

If even Jingji Bank can't handle the goods of these merchants, then these merchants may have to go bankrupt.

Therefore, before Li Jing left Fuzhou to meet with Zheng Zhilong in Quanzhou, he ordered his people to quickly inform the general manager of Shenji Company and Jingji Company in Zhejiang, and also notified Gu Bingyou, the director of the Zhejiang Branch of Daming Bank, and ordered them to quickly lead them. Bring money to Fuzhou.

When Li Jing returned from Quanzhou, Gu Bingyou, Shen Jixian and Du Laojiu also rushed to Fuzhou.

Knowing that the three came to Fuzhou together, Li Jing summoned the three to the governor's mansion overnight regardless of his fatigue.

After introducing Gu Bingyou's identity to Sun Meng and Liu Erleng, Li Jing immediately greeted the three of them to sit down.

After the three of them sat down, Shen Jixian said with a smile: "Brother-in-law, why did you call us here this time?"

Li Jing smiled. Li Jing regards Shen Jixian as a little brother-in-law very highly, and he has always spared no effort to support Shen Jixian. Business juggernaut.

What made Li Jing most gratified was that Shen Jixian never bullied others, and he strongly supported Li Jing's government orders, whether it was paying taxes or cooperating with the bank to promote business, he never said a word.

In addition, Shen Jixian is very sensible. He knows that Li Jing cares about family affection very much, so he never calls Li Jing's official position in informal occasions.Unlike Shen Jizu and Shen Jizong, even during the family banquet, they still called Li Jing's official position.For this, Li Jing admired him the most.

Of course, Shen Jixian would not call Li Jing brother-in-law if he changed the place and had two people to accompany him, but Shen Jixian, Sun Meng and Liu Erlen were very close friends, and both of them belonged to Li Jing. Die-hard brother, in front of the two of them, Shen Jixian naturally wouldn't use the title of Shengfen.

(End of this chapter)