A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

"Greetings to the chief planner, Danzheng." The two newcomers knelt down and bowed their heads in salute.

Xiaoheita waved his hand and asked them to get up. Xiaolin Motoharu hadn't finished speaking yet. Xiaopingtai and Yamauchi were listening enthusiastically and were ready to continue listening.

Maybe it’s because the clergy who dared to open up Japan’s female-free land (not a typo, they were forced) were full of adventurous spirit and truly loved missionary work. These priests rarely maintained extremely high ethics.

Do not manage land, do not accumulate wealth, do not approach beautiful women, be pious and righteous, live in poverty and live happily.

At least this is true for Father William. His belongings are nothing but a few clothes donated by believers, a few Bibles, and two pairs of shoes. I usually live in a small house behind the church, and get up for morning prayers as soon as the sun shines.

Usually I am either preaching or gathering with believers. I don’t cook myself. When I am hungry, I go to believers’ houses to eat casually. All donations received by the church are used to purchase food and medicine to help believers and poor people.

After the opening of Hamamatsu Port, Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships arrived successively, and the Manila route, Macau route and Malacca route were opened successively.

Because of his fruitful missionary activities, the churches in Macau and Manila not only sent him a lot of missionary funds, but also sent him a harpsichord and a new priest to assist him in his missionary work.

The East India Company also purchased land and houses near the church and built Nanman merchant houses as well as bungalows and warehouses that would be used by merchant ships for temporary residence.

This was all promised and allowed by Yamauchi Yoshiharu, but Kobayashi Motoharu also raised one point. Due to the backwardness of the tax system, he collected taxes based on the size of the ship. However, the price of Nanman goods was obviously higher and he hoped to renegotiate the tax.

Xiaopingta asked him to be calm about this matter. This kind of important matter was not something that he, a castle town official, could say.

Chief Accountant Yamauchi also asked Kobayashi Motoharu to continue saying that the establishment of Nanman commercial centers and housing did not violate the regulations.

Nowadays, there are a few dozen Nanman people under Hamamatsu Castle, as well as their entourage and employees hired from Kyushu and Macau Manila. They temporarily stay in Hamamatsu and maintain normal business activities while the merchant ships leave.

The Nanman merchants did not pay much attention to the specialty products such as chips, shell ash, and candles produced in the Yamauchi Territory. What they purchased were mainly raw silk produced in Jiaxin, tea produced in Yuanjiang, and some swords and dry goods from the Kaidou area. ,mineral. 【Note 1】

As for the imports, the largest import was naturally foreign guns, and there were many people willing to take over the matchlock business. Arms has been a hugely profitable industry since ancient times. Next are steel, saltpeter, and gunpowder produced from saltpeter.

This is what it should be, there is nothing surprising about it. But there was one thing that Xiao Pingtai thought was very good.

In order to withstand wind and waves, sea-going ships will purchase heavy cargo as ballast, and sometimes even transport stones directly for ballast. Nanman merchant ships returning from China mainly used bundles of porcelain as ballast, which was both convenient and profitable.

Can ships be shipped from the Manila area or Malacca area and be ballasted with porcelain? Of course it's impossible. Not to mention that the local area doesn't produce this stuff. Japan also makes porcelain, so it can't be sold at a high price.

I don’t know which Spanish captain used his clever little brain and actually used rice as ballast.

In the Thailand region of Southeast Asia, now called Siam, there is still enough rice to be harvested three times a year, and grain is exported year after year. At the same time, the climate is warm, water is abundant, and there is no fear of hunger.

The price of rice in Siam is extremely low, less than one-third of that on the mainland. One thousand taels of rice brought from Siam to China is worth three thousand taels.

Regardless of whether the rice tastes different or not, it is indeed rice! If it's rice, it's good food, and someone must want it.

In the spirit of giving it a try, the Spanish captain took half a cargo of southern barbarian goods and half a cargo of Thai rice to Hamamatsu. As soon as the ship was unloaded, naturally many people bought the Nanman goods, but no one cared about the rice.

The main reason is that no rice merchant would have thought that Nanman merchant ships would still sell rice, nor would they have thought that the price of Thai rice was so low.

The Spanish captain had no choice but to think that the price was too high, so he set the price as one tael of gold = six stones of white rice.

Of course, he only accepts gold and silver, two precious metal currencies, and does not accept copper coins. But the rice merchants in Hamamatsu went crazy. One tael of gold was equivalent to a guinea of ​​Yongle money, and a guan of money could actually buy six shi of rice.

In order to compete for this business, the Spanish captain had a foot-warming maid in his bungalow that night.

The rice merchants in Hamamatsu rushed to make a contract with him, giving him one tael of gold and six stones of rice, as much as he wanted. And also pay a deposit in advance and pay the bill in advance.

So all the Nanman merchant ships knew that Thai rice was used for ballast, and they could directly bring it over to exchange for gold, and they could also get an advance payment. Anyone who doesn't do such a good thing is a fool.

Both sides laughed at each other for being stupid, but unexpectedly did such a good thing.

…………

At this point, Chief Accountant Yamauchi and Koheita also roughly understood the development of local Christianity in Hamamatsu and the basic situation of the Nanman port trade.

Both of them realized that this matter could no longer let him develop disorderly. The Yamauchi family must intervene in this matter and adjust it in a direction that is beneficial to the Yamauchi family.

At the same time, Xiao Pingtai also asked the person who believed in Christianity, when he became a believer and when he was baptized. Although he pretended to be curious and asked casually, he was also a little wary in his heart.

That night, Xiao Pingtai brought up the idea of ​​supervising Nanman affairs to Chief Yamauchi, but Chief Yamauchi had a doubt.

The Folang machine gun has been forged, and I have learned how to forge it, but I have not yet learned the art of gunnery. If there are restrictions on Nanman Cult now, will it make it impossible to learn artillery skills?

Xiaoping was speechless when he heard that he was under the control of others and had to obey. They just put forward the slogan that missionary work = trade because you don't know how to play with cannons.

If you let me preach here, I will slowly teach you a series of subsequent things and unfold them slowly. If you restrict me, I will directly cut off his development. What can you do to me?

Directly imitating Toyotomi Hideyoshi, "Ban Tian Lian's Pursuit Order"? It feels great, but it's not the right time now. Like the Tokugawa family, it is a restricted area and you are not allowed to leave.

But this is tantamount to a direct ban on teaching, which is definitely not possible. We must find a safe way. On the one hand, it limits his development, on the other hand, it weakens his influence.

What to do?

[Note 1]: I don’t know if everyone knows that tea tree is tea tree, and there is no difference between green tea tree and black tea tree. The tea leaves produced from a tea tree can be made into either green tea or black tea.

The only difference between them is the production process, and there is no essential difference. At this time, matcha and green tea were mainly popular in Japan, while black tea was actually popular in Europe.