Chapter 363
Zhu Houzhao walked into the Shuangyu Island neighborhood and looked at these stores next to each other. He didn't know how to look at this place for a while.
Shuangyu Island is a gathering place for smugglers, but it can also be said to be a free port for evading customs duties and commercial taxes.
As the ruling class of the Ming Empire, Zhu Houzhao believed that using the army to capture this place was the right choice.
But what Zhu Houzhao doesn't know now is whether he is willing to see Zhu Wan, the admiral in charge of the military affairs of Fujian and Zhejiang, burn down everything here.
Zhu Houzhao already knew from Zhu Wan his plan to deal with it, which was to burn down the smuggling base and all the ordinary merchants involved in smuggling to be executed for treason with the Japanese.
After all, as far as the imperial court was concerned, Shuangyu Port itself existed illegally, and these shops were also doing illegal business.
But if the shops here are burned down, it means that thousands of ordinary residents here will lose the basis of survival and become homeless.
It stands to reason that Zhu Houzhao is no longer the emperor of the Ming Empire, so he no longer needs to worry about these things and how these thousands of residents can survive.
But looking at the desolate expressions of these ordinary merchants and the young and old in his family who only came here to do business because of the "tax-free", Zhu Houzhao could not bear to see the state machine impose the harshest blow on them.
But national law does not tolerate personal relationships.
Under Zhu Houzhao's instructions, Zhu Wan changed his treatment plan.
For the real Japanese pirates and pirates, they were naturally made into slaves in accordance with Zhu Houzhao's edict. For these ordinary residents who came to do business or work to avoid taxes, all their properties and jobs were retained, but the taxes owed over the years must be kept. All must be paid in installments.
Otherwise, the government will forcefully take back these shops.
For ordinary residents of Shuangyu Island, they are naturally willing to accept this result.
Naturally, they did not dare to confront the imperial court.
At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also told Zhu Wan: "Send a memorial to the imperial court, requesting that Shuangyu Port be added as a county, and immediately appoint officials to manage it, and ask the imperial court for permission to establish Shuangyu Port as a free trade port, which will exempt imports." Tariffs.”
The reason why Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Wan to ask the court to simply establish Shuangyu Port as a free port for international trade was because Zhu Houzhao learned through interrogation of these merchants on Shuangyu Island that many Ming businesses were now evading court taxes. , has actually begun to transfer its processing plants and production bases to overseas regions.
In other words, these firms sometimes produce and sell directly overseas, thereby avoiding paying multiple taxes to the Ming Dynasty.
What's more, the labor costs of indigenous people in overseas areas are low and they are not subject to the laws of the Ming Dynasty. They can exploit labor forcefully and even use child labor. It also promotes the development of human traffickers and secretly deceives mainlanders to be used as slaves overseas.
Shuangyu Island is just a smuggling free port near the mainland.
Zhu Houzhao sometimes had to admit the cunning and treachery of businessmen, and he also had to admit that the saying "the devil is as high as the road" is correct. He could never imagine what methods these businessmen would use to pursue higher profits. .
"We cannot allow too many commercial banks to move overseas. This is not only related to our taxes, but also related to the employment and income problems of the people at the bottom. The pilot implementation of the free port model in Shuangyu Port is an attempt to solve this problem. For the real economy involving machinery manufacturing, drug development, food processing, etc., corresponding tariffs can be exempted in the free port to promote employment in the entire Shuangyu Island surrounding area, but those involving gambling, sex, etc. that are detrimental to social stability will still be heavily taxed.”
Zhu Houzhao said this to Zhu Wan, and Zhu Wan also wrote all of them in the memorial.
For the current Ming Dynasty, the entire east and west oceans have almost become the Ming Dynasty's inland seas. All trade is participated by the Ming Dynasty's merchant ships. Even the administrators of the colonies are officials of the Ming Dynasty or clan nobles granted by the Ming Dynasty.
The entire earth, except for the western and northern parts of the Eurasian continent, became the civilizational ruling circle of the Ming Dynasty.
The Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty still maintained its technological advantage in productivity. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty still exported more and imported less, and silver was still flowing into the mainland.
However, as the income of domestic people increases and the self-sufficient small farmer economy is gradually destroyed, Ming Dynasty, now the region with the highest population density, will gradually become the largest consumer market, and the amount of imports will gradually increase.
If the tariff is too high, it will cause many businesses to move overseas, and the overseas colonies will become processing plants, which will instead make the manufacturing industry in the Ming Dynasty depressed.
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce tariffs and open free ports, which can also be regarded as providing a more flexible way to regulate trade within the entire empire's ruled areas.
Although he talked about lowering tariffs and opening free ports within the country, Zhu Houzhao believed that his Ming court should not only use this method.
“You can ask the governors of overseas colonies and vassal states to increase tariffs by more than three times, implement strict human rights protection laws, protect workers’ basic rights, prohibit the use of child labor, and tell them that if they don’t comply, the Ming Central Empire will Raise troops to attack the Central Empire for betrayal! ”
Zhu Houzhao said this in a memorial written to his emperor's son.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the officials, nobles and clan members he had sent to colonize had formulated various preferential conditions for Han people to do business, including zero tariffs for Han people, in order to attract Han people to immigrate there.
But now in order to ensure the dominant position of the Ming Central Empire, he must ask the emperor to issue military and administrative orders to these Ming colonies and vassals that have not yet become independent while the Ming Central Empire still has absolute advantages and he is still there. , requiring these colonies and vassal states to change their tariff policies from caring for the interests of merchants to exploiting them.
Because only in this way, the reduction of tariffs and the establishment of free ports in the Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty, and the establishment of heavy taxes in the colonies and vassals, can prevent the Ming Dynasty's commercial banks from moving overseas in large numbers, and prevent the employment rate of the Central Empire from being affected.
Although Zhu Houzhao believed that the Ming Central Empire should reduce tariffs and open free ports to adapt to the new economic situation, he did not mean that smuggling, human trafficking, and slavery would be allowed.
Snap!
All smuggling pirates, Japanese pirates, and Westerners are now regarded as Japanese pirate prisoners serving in Shuangyu Port.
The hired overseers were Han commoners who were previously enslaved by them. Now they are holding whips and inflicting them on these slave owners in the same way as they used to inflict them on them.
You can basically see blood directly when you whip it down.
"Ah! I really can't stand it anymore, kill me!"
Feders sat on the ground in pain, and the stone on his shoulder hit the ground directly. Not long after, four or five supervisors surrounded him and started beating him. The so-called Governor of Folangji Shuangyu Island could only be beaten. Crying for father and mother.
at the same time.
On a ship specially responsible for transporting the bodies of these Japanese pirates, a Ming army soldier was ordering the Ming army soldiers who were pressing dozens of Japanese pirates who had died of fatigue from serving on the board of the ship: "Feed the fish!" For a moment, , the knife fell, and the human heads and bodies fell into the sea like dumplings, which also attracted the carnival of the sharks.
Basically every day, a group of exhausted Japanese pirates were thrown into the sea and fed to fish. This was the Ming Dynasty's punishment for those who smuggled and enslaved the Han people.
besides.
At this time, Chen Yu, the father of the Chen family in Fujian, and the censor Chen Jiude, was also captured here.
Even the censor Chen Jiude was dismissed from his post, and he was caught by Beizhen Fusi and imprisoned for helping traffickers.
All the property of the Chen family involved in smuggling and human trafficking were also confiscated.
In the end, Chen Jiude died in prison.
Naturally, Chen Yu could not escape the fate of being exhausted to death.
As long as these coastal nobles who were Tongwa were found on Shuangyu Island, they were all dug out.
Min Xian, the right servant of the IRS, also watched in horror as the Jin Yiwei broke into his home: "What are you doing? Min is a third-rank official of the imperial court. Who gave you the courage to break in without permission?"
"Mr. Min, please take a breath. You have been suspected of treason with the Japanese. From now on, all the property of your Min family will be confiscated as illegal smuggling proceeds, and you and your nephew on Shuangyu Island will also be suspected of treason." Japanese crime was taken to Shuangyu to serve!”
Jinyiwei Chief Banner Wujie said and asked the other two Jinyiwei Xiaoqi to take Min Xian away.
Zhu Houzhao did not sympathize with these officials and gentry who participated in Japanese smuggling and human trafficking, because as a Han Chinese, if his compatriots dared to sell slaves, and even joined the Japanese pirates in persecuting them, such people have no humanity, and he should not be forgiven at all. They are all betrayals of Chinese civilization.
Emperor Zhu Zailei has been having a headache recently. He really didn't expect that the clearing of a Shuangyu Island would cause so many problems.
Moreover, he did not expect that his father would also arrange such a big task for him, and even asked him to immediately come up with a plan for internal and external tariff reform.
First of all, many censors criticized Zhu Wanqing for indiscriminately killing the residents of Shuangyu Island when he suppressed Shuangyu Island.
The clearing up of Shuangyu Island itself violated the interests of the entire coastal gentry. Now Zhu Wan is still following the orders of the Supreme Emperor Zhu Houzhao to kill these smugglers on Shuangyu Island. Even the coastal gentry who supported them have been picked out and dealt with severely. , naturally made these officials who represented the interests of the coastal gentry extremely angry.
Censor Li Yuyuan then wrote a letter to impeach Zhu Wan for indiscriminately killing ninety-six innocent people on the island. He also listed the list of those who were indiscriminately killed. He even impeached the Supreme Emperor Zhu Houzhao for exercising power and disrupting government and interfering in government affairs. The power should be returned to the emperor.
Obviously, these officials representing the interests of the coastal gentry knew that their Supreme Emperor Zhu Houzhao was behind all this.
Emperor Zhu Zailei naturally knew the purpose of these officials to impeach Zhu Wan and participate in the impeachment of his own father, so he executed Li Yuyuan without hesitation and dismissed him directly.
However, what Zhu Zailei did not expect was that his dismissal of Li Yuyuan was fiercely opposed by many civil servants. Zhang Wei, the censor of Qiandu, directly said that Li Yuyuan was a good official in the country and advised the emperor to listen to unfaithful advice.
Of course, Zhu Zailei did not back down, and simply decreed that Li Yuyuan's punishment should be changed from dismissal to exile for three thousand miles.
As the emperor, he understood that he would rather offend these civil servants than his father, because his father still held military power and had high prestige. Besides, he also knew that there was nothing wrong with cracking down on smuggling. In his heart Li also supported Zhu Wan in doing so.
As for Zhu Wan's request to establish Shuangyu as a county and add Shuangyu as a free port, Zhu Zailei also agreed. He knew that behind this was the intention of his father Zhu Houzhao.
However, these were already decisions made by Xia Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet. Even the plan involving lowering tariffs and requiring colonies and vassals to impose more than three times the tariffs and commercial taxes on their jurisdictions was the result of Xia Yan's direct presiding. Then it was handed over to Zhu Zailei for approval.
This made Zhu Zailei find that his power had been seriously eroded. Not only was there an overlord who was leading him like a puppet, but there was also Xia Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet, who seemed to be arranging himself.
Zhu Zailei is now the emperor of the Ming Central Empire. Of course, he hopes to have greater power and control other vassals and colonies. Therefore, he convened a political meeting and Xu Jie, who had informed him in advance, put forward a proposal.
The content of this proposal was to require these vassal states and colonies to impose additional tariffs and at the same time require them to repatriate half of the tax revenue to Beijing as a fiscal supply to the central empire.
Zhu Zailei's purpose of doing this was naturally to control these colonies and vassal states.
But Xu Jie's proposal aroused opposition from Xia Yan.
"Your Majesty, I believe that if the Supreme Emperor were in power, he would not do this because the imperial court's interference in the customs setting power of the colonies and vassal states would already arouse the resentment of the colonies and vassal states, because this in itself goes against the interests of these colonies and vassal states. Yes, but if we do not require them to deport part or all of the overtaxed taxes to Beijing, they will intimidate the prestige of the central court and agree to accept it as it is profitable for them. However, if we now not only interfere with its power to set tariffs, but also require it to deport half of the excessive tariffs to Beijing, this will undoubtedly make these colonies and vassal states resent the greed of the central court and seek independence! Everything should be done step by step. Now we can interfere with its tariff power and then gradually strengthen its control, but we cannot rush forward!"
Although what Xia Yan said had his own truth, his habitual sentence "If the Supreme Emperor had not abdicated" made Zhu Zailei instinctively feel disgusted.
In his opinion, it was as if this distinguished old chief minister had never looked down upon him as the emperor.
But Zhu Zailei could only endure his anger and said with a smile: "In this case, other ministers should also express their opinions."
"Your Majesty, I support what Yuan Fu said. The central court can seize its power, but it cannot seize its profits. This is because the central court is the country of parents, and each vassal state is the country of children. Parents can control their children, but they should not let their children be taken away. Wealth, this is kindness!”
As a distinguished nobleman, British Duke Zhang Rong would have to go to his own fiefdom sooner or later. Naturally, he was unwilling to dedicate all the wealth of his fiefdom to the court, although he didn't care much about being an independent principality lord or a non-independent principality lord.
Yu Dayou, on the other hand, expressed his abstention and said he had no interest in internal affairs.
Wen Yuan was absent because of illness, so only Yan Song has yet to express his opinion.
Yan Song glanced at Xia Yan.
Xia Yan also glanced at Yan Song. He thought in his heart that Yan Song was his own and would naturally support him. Therefore, he couldn't help but glance at Emperor Zhu Zailei and sighed in his heart: "Your Majesty! I am not a minister who wants to be a powerful minister, but You really shouldn’t be so eager to declare your power as the Ming Emperor!”
Zhu Zailei also looked at Yan Song. He naturally knew that Yan Song had always been in the same party with Xia Yan. This also made him realize that Xia Yan seemed to be a big stumbling block for him, the emperor, to control the supreme power of the empire.
(End of chapter)