New Shun 1730

[January 16. Shanghai. Cloudy. Cold. ]

Before discussing business, we still face a serious problem. That is, there is a problem with the normal operation of our trading house.

Many Chinese people we hired work for us - we have always hired some locals, and when we were in Japan, we also hired local samurai to work in the trading house. However, the same problem happened again.

Just like when Japan showed a cold attitude towards us, many samurai working in the trading house found other ways. The Chinese here are the same, including our Chinese chefs. They all heard that we had committed a serious crime and might implicate them.

As for the chef, there is a saying in China that a three-year drought will not starve a chef to death. He never worried about not being able to find a job. He worked in the trading house just because we gave more silver coins than other places. Compared with the risk of being implicated, the extra silver coins were not worth taking such a risk.

The reason why I didn't leave before was because they knew that I went to Macau to see the duke. In their opinion, maybe I would succeed. However, when I came back, the soldiers who were monitoring us at the door did not leave, and he knew that I failed.

I tried to make it clear to him that we were only "suspects" and not confirmed criminals. He was skeptical, so I promised him a few more silver coins a month before he agreed to stay.

Some merchants who sent supplies and fruits and vegetables to our trading house did not dare to go in and out at will because of the soldiers guarding the door, fearing trouble.

Fortunately, the local official and I had some friendship. I asked the official to come forward to solve the problem, gave him three bottles of whiskey and some high-quality long-ear cashmere cloth, and talked about our friendship in the past. This was how the problem was solved.

The friendship between me and this kind and reasonable official can be traced back to a long time ago. At that time, the Duke was not yet a Duke, and this official was only responsible for some special inspections and statistics at the customs. Later, I learned that this was sent by the Duke in advance to count the import and export volume, scale, and types of goods of East India Companies in various countries.

The official asked me at the time that the Duke told a story about Newton being hit by an apple. He wanted to know what an apple is and what it tastes like. And they are willing to pay for some apple trees.

The company specially transported a batch of high-quality fruit tree seedlings. In fact, the apples that Chinese people eat now are all fruit tree seedlings brought by the company.

One batch was planted in Wendeng Prefecture, Qixia Mountain, which has a suitable latitude. It is the place where the Bloody Duke started his career and has great prestige there. Another batch was tried to be planted in the wasteland left by some river floods in northern Jiangsu. I have tasted both types of apples, and I have to say that the apples from Qixia Mountain are much more delicious than those from northern Jiangsu.

However, the friendship of apples can only ensure that our supply will not be cut off, but it is not enough to ensure that our trade can continue.

They called this influx of American and European crops "the second Zhang Qian's expedition to the Western Regions." This species exchange has started since the previous dynasty, but apples are just icing on the cake for them.

Today I talked about the friendship of apples again.

The official said that if we sent corn, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes and the like, perhaps the court would treat us better. The court must first ensure that the people have food, not apples, but three meals a day.

He said that we took the wrong path from the beginning. If the previous dynasty did not require missionary work or forced trade, but understood China's needs, offered new grains such as corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, offered auspicious signs to Your Majesty, and relieved the world's famine, I am afraid that trade would have been opened long ago.

Even if we did not offer new grains, but offered exotic animals such as lions, giraffes, and ostriches, it would still be fine.

I agree with this. Indeed, we did not understand the logic of this empire from the beginning, and applied our habitual thinking here, so we continued to suffer failures.

However, the opportunity has passed.

The official and I had a few drinks, and after drinking, he said that we had missed an opportunity, and what we should do is not to regret, but to learn lessons and avoid making the same mistake next time, just in a different form. For example, if you see a blade and touch it and it bleeds, the next time you see the blade, you think it is not a blade, so you touch it again, then you don't know how to summarize the laws of things.

And obviously, this is also a new school, or what they call the new school party in the court.

Their way of thinking is very strange. He is just an official who is not a big official. There are already many people who think like him, and he is not the best, so he can only be a special small official outside the six government establishment in such a place.

I thanked him for his advice, but I knew I could do nothing.

What he meant was that the court wanted sesame seeds, but you sent a watermelon, which is not right. The court wanted new grains and exotic animals, but we sent religion and woolen cloth, which is certainly not right.

When giving gifts and pleasing others, we should base it on the needs of others, not on self-righteousness.

But, I thought about it and found it difficult.

If, before, offering new grains, exotic animals and other auspicious signs was what the court wanted.

Then, what do they want now?

I think what they want is some technology, navigation clocks and the like.

This is beyond the company's capabilities.

I said as if jokingly, what can impress the court now?

He said, money. Because he felt that the court had a new look, and His Majesty the Emperor was going to make great achievements, which required money. Then he said that not only did our company send little money, but it also smuggled opium, which was of course worthless.

I smiled and said that if opium could be traded legally and tariffs were imposed, wouldn’t there be money?

But he said that if anything could grow in the ground, there would be no possibility of making money from tariffs. China only wants things that cannot grow in the ground. He asked me in return, from the latitude of the North Pole to the equator, from the height of the snow-capped mountains to the canyons, from the yellow sands of the Western Regions to the water towns of the south of the Yangtze River, from the white mountains and black waters to Java and the South Seas, is there anything that cannot be grown here?

I couldn’t refute this, yes, opium is also grown in the ground. Things that can be grown elsewhere can also be grown here. If this place can’t grow, then there is no place on earth where it can be grown.

Thinking back to the Apple incident, I agreed more and more. In fact, in the last so-called expedition for the future measurement of Venus transit, they brought some South American plants and planted them in their southernmost province.

Rubber, cinchona, etc. have also been planted in Taiwan and Shipwreck. Just like apples, they will be covered sooner or later.

Before leaving, for the sake of reciprocity, he gave me a few boxes of high-quality cigarettes and a few soaps made from the fats of walruses, sea lions, seals, etc. in the Arctic region of the Whale Sea.

I felt a little depressed.

Before, we could use glass, mechanical watches and other things as gifts. And they could only give silk and other things in return.

But now, they use cigarettes produced by simple machines and soaps derived from the alkali industry in return; we can only give wine, woolen cloth...

Obviously, their natural alkali is not enough to support their increasingly developed glass manufacturing and oil processing industries. Or, it is because of the glass manufacturing and oil processing industries and the capture of wild animals in the Whale Sea area that promoted the development of their alkali industry.

They have alkali factories in the north, but how they make them is a secret. The only thing that is certain is that salt is used as raw material.

Because they have high salt taxes, they choose to place factories in places where salt consumption is low to prevent them from not producing but reselling salt with salt permits specially approved by the court. After all, compared with production, monopoly salt smuggling is more profitable.

One thing is certain, given the proportion of salt tax in fiscal revenue, my country will definitely abolish the high salt tax earlier than Dashun.

[January 18. Shanghai. Sunny. ]

The envoys to Japan have arrived in Shanghai. This time, the Dashun Empire sent an unprecedented envoy to confer ions, with extremely high specifications.

Fleets from Tianjin Wei, Weihaiwei and other places also gathered in Shanghai. A fleet that is capable of crossing the Atlantic will act together with the envoys.

The fleet of the envoys, consisting of 6 74-gun battleships and 15 cruisers, made me smell a strong sense of deterrence.

The fleet will take a very old route. They will first go to Ryukyu and then go to Japan from Ryukyu. In view of the performance of the Ryukyu Kingdom in recent years, the "benevolent" emperor restored the title of the king of Ryukyu, and this time he also went to Ryukyu to inform him.

I think the meaning of this is more from their Celestial Empire system: although Ryukyu is small, it is also equal to the title of the king of Japan in the Celestial Empire system. As long as the Celestial Empire system still exists, the Celestial Empire has the obligation to continue the sacrifice. At the same time, it is also a warning to the vassal states: if you do well, you will be the king; if you do not do well, Ryukyu has not been downgraded.

Of course, before the day of enthroning the Japanese general, restoring the title of the king of Ryukyu first has some special meaning.

Their fleet is the military guarantee that this special meaning can be accepted by Japan. However, the Japanese shogunate is still happy to accept it, because they even have to rely on the power of the Dashun Navy to maintain the closed-door policy and ensure that the vassal states will not engage in smuggling trade with Dashun to suppress their power.

Rather than saying it is a closed-door policy, it is better to say that the shogunate is trying to monopolize tariffs and trade income.

Japan has completely lost the sea, and the Dashun fleet has clearly warned Japan: the size of the fleet is also part of the etiquette system.

The army doesn't matter, you can raise as many warriors as you want.

However, the fleet is not included.

They oversized the fleet and charged it with a very serious crime, which was very deterrent in the Celestial Empire system: usurpation and exceeding the rules.

Perhaps the emperor regarded the mast of the fleet as the tassel on his crown.

The crime of usurpation and exceeding the rules is very serious.

The main fleets of the Dashun Empire in Weihaiwei, Tianjinwei, and Lingdingyang ensured that they could punish such crimes.

In fact, for something like the navy, only the first one is meaningful. Below the first one, there is no existence that has not sunk for the time being.

Under the sails at this time, I think the earth can be divided into two seas.

The Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, there can be two firsts, because the long distance makes it impossible for the two to have an all-out naval battle.

The absolute advantage of the Dashun Empire in the Pacific Ocean makes them qualified to be the Celestial Empire of the Pacific Ocean.

This time, among us "barbarians outside the five mourning clothes", the happiest people are the French. Because the gifts brought by the Dashun delegation included a large amount of ginseng and pearls.

Dashun has clearly conveyed the emperor's attitude to us and expressed serious dissatisfaction with our capture of Louisbourg in North America. The emperor said that he did not want to interfere in foreign affairs, but we smuggled opium, which made him very unhappy, and he did not restrain himself after the imperial edict was issued. So he would refuse to buy ginseng from British merchant ships-the implication is that if we do not return Louisbourg, even if we dig ginseng, they will not buy it.

Trade what, prohibit imports, this is the freedom of all countries. But in fact, this is exactly the shamelessness of China: who else can we sell ginseng to except them?

If we don't sell it to Dashun, then ginseng is worthless grass roots. The value of Louisbourg and Canada has also dropped sharply.

Japan also likes ginseng, but I know very well that even if we go to Japan, we will be driven away by the shogunate.

This is related to a very important thing in the Eastern Empire system, status.

The Dashun Empire can let the Tokugawa family be the shogunate, and it can also help other feudal countries dissolve the shogunate. And the only reason why Dashun supports the Tokugawa family is probably because it is not legitimate.

Dashun holds the right to interpret Confucian ideology. If they say that the shogunate is in accordance with etiquette, they can find its etiquette; maybe one day a learned man will write that it is not in accordance with etiquette, then it is not in accordance with etiquette.

This is an experience worth learning and drawing lessons from.

We must support those who are not legitimate in the colonies, only in this way can they stand with us and oppress the rest of the domestic forces.

Recalling the company's failure in China, I think that our country should establish a special school to train talents in the colonies and examine the culture and beliefs of the colonies.

Only by understanding them can we rule them.

This is the only way from kingdom to empire.