Chapter 733 In short, everything is for free trade!
"Perhaps it is really difficult for the people of Ming Dynasty to understand my current predicament. For Ming Dynasty, it was a similar situation thousands of years ago." Oda Nobunaga said helplessly to Takaka Kuroda.
Kuroda Takataka said helplessly: "The factional politics based on the enfeoffment system is very unfamiliar to the Ming Dynasty. In the long history of the Ming Dynasty, only Emperor Zhou was somewhat similar. Perhaps even more distantly, to this day, no one can If we do not admit that the military deployment across the country has failed, to explain it according to the theory of contradiction, we have not completed the redistribution of the means of production.”
The goal of Oda Nobunaga Tenkabubu is to eliminate the separatist forces through force. On the surface, he is the general of the Azuchi shogunate. He has the canonization of the Emperor of Japan and the Ming Dynasty, and all the daimyo recognize his conquest of barbarians. With his status as a general, he was not under house arrest, and his decrees could be quickly passed on to the Japanese daimyo.
According to the Ming Dynasty's understanding, any palace coup must meet three conditions, which are to block the palace gate so that the emperor's decree cannot be transmitted outside the palace; to block the arsenal so that the imperial guards loyal to the emperor cannot obtain weapons; to block Wenyuan The cabinet, the cabinet, or the imperial court, allows the world's officials to only accept orders from powerful ministers.
Sima Yi had set an example more than 1,400 years ago. All powerful officials followed this method and never deviated from their sect.
But the situation of Oda Nobunaga is that he was not imprisoned, his samurai could still obtain weapons, and officials around the world could receive his orders, but the orders could not be executed. In essence, Oda Nobunaga was also suppressed and emptied at all levels. To be clear, his decree does not work.
The change of the Japanese shogunate did not conform to the dynastic cycle, because the change of the Japanese shogunate did not complete the redistribution of the means of production. This caused a substantial result, that is, the daimyo of various places were not the four generations and three princes, but the The eighteen generations of ancestors were all de facto daimyo, and bad factional politics was very deformed because there was no power above all classes to regulate the conflicts between classes.
To be more clear, the current Japanese state has not completed state construction at all and is an incomplete country.
"So it is extremely wise for the general to send his family to the Ming Dynasty." Kuroda Takaka said solemnly.
Oda Nobunaga sent his family to the Ming Dynasty as a compromise to resolve the internal conflicts in Korea. It was also based on the status quo that was ignored. The Ming Emperor should have guessed some situations and accepted these people.
"Everything they have is given to them by me, as are Mitsuhide Akechi and Hideyoshi Hashiba, but they already have their own ideas. For the Japanese country, this terrible and deformed political system is better than letting the Ming Dynasty completely eliminate it. Once again, start all over again. Tian Nobunaga looked very calm and said with a hint of regret: "I can't do it. After reading the contradictions, I realized that the root of the problem is the redistribution of production materials. The distribution has not been completed. All government orders are mirror images." That’s all.”
"After all, I have not become a member of the world."
The Ming Dynasty fully implemented the land return order in Songjiang Prefecture and Zhejiang. Oda Nobunaga was very envious of this news, because he knew very well that once the land return order started, it would be impossible to stop the car, and it would definitely spread throughout the Ming Dynasty. Throughout the territory, either he succeeds or His Majesty the Emperor is defeated in a brutal political struggle.
Because people are like this, worrying not about scarcity but about inequality, the majority of the people will definitely wonder why only Zhejiang has an order to return land.
Although the emperor still maintained sufficient restraint, the redistribution of the means of production in the Ming Dynasty had begun, and the land war had begun.
"The Ming Dynasty is being destroyed and re-established, reborn from the ashes." Takaka Kuroda looked to the east. The Ming Dynasty's already decayed political system was rapidly recovering its vitality, but the Japanese country was slipping into the abyss, and there was no hope in sight.
He did not think that this was a problem of Oda Nobunaga's ability. As Oda Nobunaga's think tank, Kuroda Takaka actually had a vague idea that the deformed political system of Japan could only be completely corrected by relying on external forces.
Stretching the timeline to a hundred years shows that Japan did not have the ability to self-correct like China.
Oda Nobunaga looked at the calendar sent by the Ming Dynasty. April has arrived. April is the day when the monsoon changes. Every time April arrives, when all the ports of Japan become busy, merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty will come on the wind. People came full of goods and left full of silver, sulfur, and Japanese slaves. As the temperature warmed, trade became busier. This made the coast of Japan, especially the ports, look extremely prosperous, but all this was not without cost.
"General, we seem to have more troubles." Kuroda Takaka said with a very strange look: "The Emperor of Ming Dynasty often claimed to be a farmer. This is indeed the case at present. His Majesty the Emperor turned our Japanese country into a test field, and we met a The problem is that there are no children at all ports, such as Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and Osaka Bay.”
"People will choose to drown babies, men and women alike."
Like the Ming Dynasty, due to low productivity, drowning of female infants was very common. However, due to frequent wars, the problem of childbirth was not a problem, because if you grab it, it is yours. Now, the prosperity of the port has made the port more stable. , a more stable marriage relationship is being established, but new problems have arisen.
Instead of drowning female infants, male and female infants were drowned together.
"Why?" Oda Nobunaga frowned.
Kuroda Takaka said helplessly: "Because in these densely populated ports, the cost of raising a child in terms of food, clothing, education, housing, etc. has become higher. This is a brand new problem. The reason why this problem has not It appeared in Songjiang Prefecture, but in our ports, because Songjiang Prefecture is large enough, and the goods of the nine provinces of the Ming Dynasty are on the Songjiang Prefecture thoroughfare.”
"If you go to these ports, you won't see children, and those meat eaters don't need poor coolies to have children, because in prosperous and stable ports, many adults will flow in to supplement the labor force."
Kuroda Takataka discovered the problem. Ming Dynasty turned Japan into a test field. Ming Dynasty looked at the various problems of Japan, summed up experience, and solved its own problems. This may be intentional or unintentional, but these are not important. What is important is A problem arises.
It is too expensive to give birth to a child, and population siphoning can make up for the lack of labor. Eventually, a terrible phenomenon is formed. In several ports, there are basically no children.
This problem does not seem to be very serious. There are no births in the ports, and the Japanese countries are not all port cities. They will naturally occur in the vast countryside. However, the war has put the countryside in turmoil and unrest, and the birth problem has actually become serious.
Kuroda Takagao moved his body and said: "Furthermore, the labor remuneration of a craftsman in Songjiang Prefecture can support the food, clothing, housing and transportation of five people, but our Japanese port lacks workshops, and people work as cattle and horses. Or illness, they can't rest, and they can only support themselves. For the people of Japan, it is already difficult to live on their own, and their children have become a burden."
"Obviously, Songjiang Governor Shen Shixing is a very powerful person. The labor remuneration guarantee system implemented by the Ming Emperor has well balanced the impact of population agglomeration on the population. Moreover, the official factory has official residences, third-level schools, and Huimin Pharmacy. The craftsmen in the factory are the nobles among craftsmen. They only need to devote all their energy to production. ”
Kuroda Takataka keenly discovered that in densely populated ports and towns, people's desire to reproduce and labor remuneration are strongly correlated. Some Ming decrees that Kuroda Takataka could not understand before were easily solved with only one craftsman. Only when the labor remuneration satisfies 4 or more people can the population grow positively.
Even in Songjiang Prefecture, serious employment for women is still limited to Zhinang. If the labor remuneration of a craftsman cannot support himself and his wife, he cannot get married. The labor remuneration of a craftsman cannot support four people. The population There is bound to be negative growth, and having one child is already the limit.
Kuroda Takaka felt that the Ming Emperor was so wise that he even thought of such problems in advance.
The Ming Dynasty required labor protection, signed labor contracts, required taxation, and the court supported the poor people in asking for their own labor remuneration, etc. This series of government decrees to ensure labor remuneration were all in order to prevent the population from declining. .
If Emperor Zhu Yijun of the Ming Dynasty knew what Kuroda Takaka was thinking, he would probably laugh out loud. Zhu Yijun was not that far-sighted at all. Political activities often involved taking one step at a time. Zhu Yijun just felt that people should be paid for their work. This is a matter of course.
"Is there a solution?" Oda Nobunaga asked with a sigh.
"No, because of the treasure banknotes, we gave all the silver to the Ming Dynasty. The treasure banknotes issued by the Ming Dynasty were more recognized. In addition, the Nagasaki Governor's Palace was very cautious about printing treasure banknotes. The circulation of the treasure banknotes It can't even meet the growth needs of the port city, causing the treasure money to be extremely strong. We lack effective means." Kuroda Takako shook his head and first physically eliminated the daimyo, and then redistributed the land. Only the decrees of the Ming Dynasty's New Deal can be used as a reference. .
"Hey." Oda Nobunaga just sighed. He missed Kanda Shinichi very much. That was a talent. At first, Kanda Shinichi wanted to print his own treasure banknotes to compete with Ming Dynasty's treasure banknotes. This policy seemed very good, but later Oda Nobunaga felt that Kanda Shinichi's plan could not be realized.
Because the essence of the banknote method is credibility, the Ming Dynasty's Japanese treasure banknotes were strong and accepted by the Japanese because of the Ming Dynasty's strong credibility. Even after launching a war, the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office did not receive them, and the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office was required to issue a large number of treasure banknotes. Banknotes, an imperial edict to destroy the fragile economy of Japan.
Having already met each other, the Ming court was still very concerned about the safety of the Nagasaki Governor's Palace and did not intend to put the Nagasaki Governor's Palace in danger.
A glimpse of the leopard revealed that the Ming emperor was also delaying. He did not end the war so quickly, but used the Korean battlefield to eliminate a large number of Japanese pirates' effective forces. Just like the battle of Pyongyang, the Ming Dynasty did not choose to cross the border and attack.
After the Ming Dynasty's victory in Pyongyang, it seemed that they had no plans to attack further. Instead, they started a battle with the Japanese pirates between Pyongyang and Kaesong. The 30,000 soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's capital camp were mainly concentrated in Pyongyang, and on the long front, The cavalry battalions are all in action. The Ming army is verifying new tactics and resolutely executing the strategy to make progress.
In April, the trade winds had changed. The merchants of the Ming Dynasty were waiting for the imperial court's ban. Not only the merchants were waiting, but even the officials of the imperial court were waiting. The Ming Dynasty was in Longqing, and it was strictly forbidden to travel across the ocean to Japan. The ban on trade was not lifted until the third year of Wanli. It has only been ten years since the fourteenth year of Wanli that merchant ships legally entered the Japanese country.
Just when everyone thought there would be a ban, the emperor's imperial edict surprised everyone. The edict was clear: the sea was open to allow entry into Japan, but the ban remained the same, and firearms, gunpowder and other items were not allowed to be trafficked into Japan.
In other words, when the Ming Dynasty had a direct conflict with the Japanese pirates in Korea, the Ming Dynasty still did not prohibit merchant ships from going to the Japanese country.
"Governor Shen, what is the meaning of this imperial edict?" After hearing the news, Sun Kehong, the general manager of Songjiang Ocean Trading Company, immediately couldn't sit still. He ran to the government office to ask Shen Shixing about the policy. He was afraid that he had misunderstood it and made money in business. Beheading business.
Shen Shixing said very clearly: "That's the literal meaning, it's the same this year, there aren't many changes."
"Why is this?" Sun Kehong said in a low voice: "Isn't this trade a boon to the enemy? At that time, the scholar-bureaucrats in the court will call out. Every cargo transported by the merchants of the Ming Dynasty will eventually be fired at the Ming army. Soldier's lead."
"If the ban is too strict, the traitors will be poor and will become thieves. What I mean, sir, is that the route from the Ming Dynasty to Japan is very mature. If it is strictly forbidden to go there, it will breed pirates. It is better to continue as usual, but it can restrain gunpowder from entering Japan." "Shen Shixing said with emotion: "Actually, the reason why the ban was not issued in the end was because Ming Dynasty had an absolute product advantage."
"We have the advantage of goods. It is not a wise decision to impose a ban on Ming Dynasty merchant ship trade."
Banning boating from entering Japan would cause little harm to the Japanese country, but it would greatly harm the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was actively opening up channels to the New World, but ocean trade would face more challenges. The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty were actually There are two roads, one goes to Japan, the other goes to Nanyang, and the city is divided into east and west roads. Jia Xixi from the five directions is the current situation.
The ban not only interrupted the inflow of silver, but also hurt the maritime trade destined for the Japanese country. It also hit its own burgeoning handicraft industry and commerce. This was a very severe blow to the Ming Dynasty's opening of the sea. If the Ming Dynasty fell into a commodity disadvantage, it would naturally find ways to set restrictions on sea trade and protect its own industries. But now the Ming Dynasty has an absolute commodity advantage. This is a war on another level, an economic and trade war.
Shen Shixing said very clearly: "Since the first year of Wanli, the silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty every year has increased from 4.9 million silver at the beginning to 6.5 million silver in the sixth year of Wanli, and to 10.6 million silver last year. The Ming Dynasty cannot do it because of North Korea's War interrupts this process, and the continued increase in silver inflow can effectively promote the development of the hinterland's commodity economy and improve people's livelihood. ”
Silver has changed from a passive inflow in the past to an active inflow now. In addition to the inflow of silver, the opening of the sea brought countless raw materials. The handicraft industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty flourished because of the opening of the sea. If the war in Korea hindered or even interrupted this Process, for the Ming Dynasty, whether it wins or loses.
In short, it’s all about free trade!
"That's true." Sun Kehong felt relieved.
Shen Shixing turned the tea cup in his hand and asked: "Mr. Sun, look, the silver is still blocked by a dam. There is a dam in the middle. The silver is blocked here and cannot flow. But the people are waiting hungry and thirsty. Money means there is no water to drink. Your Majesty came and solved part of the problem. He built the Zhejiang East Canal and the Nanhang and Suzhou-Hangzhou Chi Roads, but the money is actually still blocked. "
"Sun Shang is always a businessman. Is there any good way?"
Sun Kehong fell into thinking. Shen Shixing has been reinstated. Now he is the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, governor of Songjiang Prefecture and Zhejiang. He will definitely join the cabinet when he enters Beijing in a few years. So if this question is not answered carefully, it will affect It's very profound.
Sun Kehong said half sideways: "The blockage of this barrier lake cannot be blown up at once. There are no ditches. If the water overflows, it will not let the people drink water, but a flood. And the people further downstream will still be in trouble." There is no water to drink; we cannot let the blockage collapse under erosion. It will take too long and the people will die of thirst.”
"How to irrigate water to the fields in need is a task that requires patience."
"The prescription given by Wang Cifu is official factories, which are mainly invested with internal funds and national funds to build official factories one after another. The official factories condense industrial groups one after another, allowing the people to have work and gain income from their work. This is a Method.”
"The prescription prescribed by Yuan Fu is to clear the land and return it to the land. Farming comes first in everything, and food is the first priority for the people. In the closed economy of the small peasant economy, a large amount of land is abandoned, there is no food, and there is nothing. It is fundamental to allow the people to have fields. This It’s a way.”
"The method given by His Majesty is to build roads, such as Wulongchi Road, Jingsui, Jingkai, Jingmichi Road, Jiabian Chi Road, Nanhang, Suzhou and Hangzhou, canal, invest heavily in opening up the sea, and create various The official factories and plantations are also a way for the people to have work, earn money from their work, have food to eat, and have children, and use work in exchange for relief. ”
"Three-pronged approach, troika, our Ming Dynasty will be great again, just around the corner!"
"But let me say, our Ming Dynasty still lacks one thing."
"Oh?" Shen Shixing said with a smile: "What is missing?"
Sun Kehong said very solemnly: "The troika led by His Majesty is the main force for the development of the Ming Dynasty. This main force is grand enough, but not precise enough. To be precise, the court is also a collective composed of individuals. In order to avoid It is bloated and rigid, and the court cannot expand without limit. After all, the power of the court is too broad. At this time, the private sector has its own flexibility advantage. "
"Governor Shen, I am just a businessman. I don't know how to prescribe medicine, and I don't have the ability. I just have a vague feeling that this is the way to go."
Sun Kehong stated the fact that the Ming court was not omnipotent. In the process of making the Ming Dynasty great again, the main force was the court's troika, but the more detailed ditches required the joint efforts of all people, and in this process, How to give full play to the positive role of the emerging bourgeoisie and curb its negative role has become an extremely important issue, and even the main contradiction after Shen Shixing entered Beijing.
"Good." Shen Shixing nodded. He recognized Sun Kehong's words. To make the Ming Dynasty great again, everyone in the Ming Dynasty needs to work together.
"What do Governor Shen think?" Sun Kehong wanted to find out what Shen Shixing was thinking.
Shen Shi said concisely and comprehensively: "People."
In Shen Shixing's view, the economy is not complicated. In the short term, we look at policy, in the medium term, we look at land, and in the long term, we look at population.
The prosperity of Songjiang Prefecture is naturally due to policies, but now it has gradually come to the point of looking at the land, but in the long run, it must be based on population growth. This is also true for the Ming Dynasty. Shen Shixing only said one word, which can be said to be precious. Kim, but the attitude has been very clear.
"Governor Shen is still smart." Sun Kehong bowed his head again. He asked clearly what he wanted to know and chose to leave. What Sun Kehong saw was the appearance, but Shen Shixing saw the fundamentals.
Shen Shixing opened a memorial, which he had written for a long time. It contained a summary of what he had done after arriving at Songjiang Mansion. The content had changed several times, but he would complete his memorial on the day he returned to Beijing.
Before the first year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty had already shown signs of systemic collapse. This is not alarmist. Behind Wen Tian and Wu Xi was the complete collapse of the Ming Dynasty's tax system, and the collapse of the physical tax that had been implemented for nearly two thousand years.
The total collapse of physical taxes and the transformation into monetary taxes is an inevitable process of development. This is an unstoppable historical trend and is the result of the continuous development of productivity;
The Ming Dynasty was short of silver and copper, and there was no perfect coinage, which seriously hindered the Ming Dynasty from transforming from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy;
The scarcity of commodity supplies resulted in excessive concentrations of silver that were dammed and unable to be dredged.
These three questions are an unsolvable triangle, and they are a vicious circle that aggravates each other. The fourteen years of the Wanli Reform are actually giving a prescription and answer to this historical turning point. It seems to be effective so far, an endless cycle. Being broken by the Ming Dynasty's monarchs and ministers, this historical turning point was a crisis, and naturally it was also an opportunity. The Ming Dynasty seized this opportunity and reborn from the ashes.
However, in Shen Shixing's view, the Wanli Reform was not perfect and needed to be repaired, and his memorial was a summary of it, to repair the crises he saw and the dangers that the court officials did not notice.
"Sun Kehong is a smart man. Whatever His Majesty votes for, he will follow suit." Shen Shixing closed the memorial. Sun Kehong always followed the steps of the court.
When someone tried to persuade Sun Kehong, Sun Kehong would curse: You poor people, do you know how to spend money better than His Majesty? !
Your Majesty is the richest person in the Ming Dynasty. No one will doubt this, but your Majesty’s money is the collective property of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Emperor invested fifteen million silver in Nanya, which was mainly obtained through salary. In order to absorb the money, dozens of official factories were built near Nanya Longjiang Shipyard, and these official factories Various industries are gathering together, and there is one industry here that has taken away nearly one million silver investments, and that is the Nanjing Money Minting Bureau.
Sun Kehong invested a large amount of money with the Mint Bureau, about 500,000 silver, to support the Mint Bureau. The Mint Bureau wanted red copper, but most of the materials from overseas were copper materials. The copper materials were processed Turn it into red copper and sell it to the Mint Bureau. Nanya generally believed that this business was not profitable, but Sun Kehong wanted to invest.
The Nanjing Mint Bureau has 120 copper furnaces and employs 6,000 coin craftsmen. There are fifty craftsmen on each furnace. In order to prevent various problems of blind expansion of production, red copper processing can only rely on the private sector, while Nanjing The yamen merchants felt that the reason why they were not making money was that making money in copper furnaces required profits, and the price of red copper collected by the government factories was definitely not high.
But Sun Kehong believes that low prices and low profits are not a problem. Large quantities are enough. As the largest money minting bureau in the entire Jiangzuo and Jiangyou, its scale will definitely expand. As long as the quantity is large enough, the profits will be huge.
The information in Shen Shixing's hands showed that Sun Kehong was right again. He was going to make a lot of money this time, because one hundred and twenty copper furnaces could only digest six million kilograms of red copper a year, and the red copper flowing in from overseas every year was The amount of copper and copper materials alone exceeds 11 million jins, and is still increasing rapidly. The Ming Dynasty's demand for copper coins is endless. The processing of supplied materials is a long-term business, and the factory still exists.
The expansion of the Minting Bureau injected new vitality into the southern economy.
Shen Shixing is a little busy. He is also the governor of Zhejiang. The main reason is that there are so many things going on in Zhejiang. Recently, there has been another corruption case in the East Zhejiang Canal. The river has just begun, and it has already caused such a farce. This case is a bit It's complicated, and the problem is not corruption, which makes even Shen Shixing feel a bit troublesome.
Zhang Ang, the boss of Hangzhou's workshop, was not greedy. He only had two hundred taels of silver when he was full, but the problem was that he used Japanese slaves.
The clerk Zhang Ang ordered each recruiter to be given two and a half cents of silver for work and food a day, and another five cents of silver to buy things. That is to say, local servants in the Ming Dynasty were given at least three cents of silver a day for each person, and two and a half cents for work and food. There are also five cents for renting various tools for work.
When Zhang Ang figured it was a bit expensive, he asked Haishang how much the Japanese slave would pay per person per day. And the maritime merchants took over everything, and a Japanese slave only needed one and a half cents of silver a day, which was half the price!
Zhang Ang thought it was very cheap, so he hired a thousand Japanese slaves to enter the construction site. The maritime merchant gave Zhang Ang two envelopes of one hundred silver notes, and the work started.
If an extra thousand Japanese slaves were used, a thousand Japanese slaves would be used less to recruit soldiers. This native of Hangzhou refused, so he went to the Yamen. This time, he went to Shen Shixing.
When it comes to corruption, there are really not many people who are corrupt. It falls within the scope of reasonable "project losses", but the use of Japanese slaves is a bit over the line. In a big way, it is a collaboration with Japanese.
Zhang Ang was also feeling bitter. He wrote a thousands-word statement explaining the situation. He admitted that he was corrupt, but the problem was that he could actually be corrupt from the local boss! The reason why he wanted to use Japanese slaves was because the local people could not be beaten, scolded, or urged, and they might miss the important event of canal construction, so he used Japanese slaves.
This is really not Zhang Ang’s quibble. In the past, it was labor service and it was compulsory. Beating and scolding were normal. Now it is recruitment and employment. The public money and public work are all ink spots. Ink spots are ink spots. You can also get more money. This trend has become a bit popular after some big guys secretly joined hands.
Zhang Ang introduced the Japanese slaves just for efficiency and to dig them out earlier.
Shen Shixing thought about it for a long time, and finally chose to report it to the court. In the past, Shen Shixing would have handled this small matter by himself, but now that the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese were fighting bloody battles in the Korean battlefield, he had to be cautious when it came to the Japanese.
Zhu Yijun received Shen Shixing's memorial on the third day of April. After reading it, he immediately asked Feng Bao: "Has this Japanese slave been castrated?"
(End of chapter)