Chapter 326 The Silver of the Ming Dynasty
East Tower.
The chic and luxurious East Building is still the outer courtyard where Yan Shifan stays most often.
Yan Maoqing, who went to Beijing to report on his work, went to Yan Shifan's East Building to report to Yan Shifan on the progress of his work in the Jianghuai Salt Farm before going to the court to report.
People today often think that the ancient Jianghuai region was a prosperous place in the world. In fact, this is just a beautiful misunderstanding.
The Jianghuai area is the later parts of Anhui, Jiangsu and Henan. It overlaps greatly with the Yellow Flood Area, and the term Yellow Flood Area is not a good word at first sight.
So, the Jianghuai region has been a barren land prone to disasters since ancient times.
But because there is a huge population living in this large area, even in a barren land, as long as you do the right business, you can make a lot of money.
The best business since ancient times is the salt and iron business monopolized by the imperial court.
Therefore, even if the Jianghuai area is barren, it is a cornucopia for salt management, a monopoly business that relies on its population base to make money!
Yan Shifan looked at Yan Maoqing with a one-eyed smile, "Jingqing, thank you for your hard work."
Yan Maoqing looked at Yan Shifan who only had one good eye, and was shocked in his heart. Although he had also heard about Yan Shifan's eyes in Jianghuai Yan Shifan turned out to be a one-eyed dragon when they met again!
The other eye is completely white, and it still looks a bit oozing.
But Yan Maoqing also knew that when dealing with Yan Shifan, he must not judge people by their appearance.
Yan Maoqing bowed to Yan Shifan: "Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Xiaoge. When my subordinates were in Jianghuai, they missed Mr. Xiaoge every day. I can see Mr. Xiaoge again today. This is a blessing from God." Pet.”
Yan Shifan smiled cheerfully: "Okay, okay, come and sit down."
Yan Shifan greeted Yan Maoqing and sat on a chair nearby. Yan Shifan continued to ask: "How is Luo Longwen doing now?"
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When Yan Maoqing heard Yan Shifan ask about Luo Longwen, he also sighed and replied: "The imperial court kept pursuing the previous events. Luo Longwen did not stay with his subordinates for long. Before leaving, he told his subordinates that he Ready to go to sea to fight for wealth."
Yan Shifan was a little surprised when he heard that Luo Longwen was going to sea to fight for wealth.
Yan Shifan said: "How much wealth can there be on the sea? I heard that the sea in the southeast is not peaceful now. There is a big pirate named Wang Zhi who is entrenched on an isolated island overseas and plunders everywhere. The gang of Zhejiang guys are in trouble. The smuggling business with the Fujian guys is no longer possible. What future can he have by going to sea?"
Although Yan Shifan was from the mainland, due to his status, he still had some knowledge of things at sea.
I know that the current sea is not calm, and because of the ban on the sea, the court's ability to control the sea is almost zero.
So, in the originally vast sea, only Zhejiang businessmen and Fujian businessmen were engaged in smuggling business from Siam, Luzon, North Korea and Japan with the shelter and help of some local officials. .
It is said that in recent years, some red-haired feudal lords have appeared from nowhere and are also trading on the sea. Moreover, these red-haired feudal lords have a lot of money in their hands. They like to buy silk from the Ming Dynasty. Tea, porcelain and other flashy things.
Therefore, Yan Shifan was also very interested in smuggling at sea. ,
But it is a pity that these smuggling channels are controlled by people from Zhejiang and Fujian. Even if he wanted to get involved, he would not get any advantage.
After all, the vast ocean is a lawless place.
He can rely on his current status to show off his power on the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but at sea, no one will take his name as Xiaoge Lao seriously.
Maybe he just happily organized a fleet to go to sea to engage in some smuggling business. It is estimated that the ship was robbed by pirates before it sailed very far.
Therefore, no matter how many benefits there are at sea, Yan Shifan can only take care of them and cannot get any advantage. Because the current maritime interests have long been divided up by the Zhejiang and Fujian people. If anyone dares to compete with them, let alone the issue of ancestral system or not. These people will definitely unite with pirates and take other ideas away. Those who want to participate in maritime business are under attack.
Therefore, Yan Shifan is also open-minded about the interests at sea, as long as it does not affect his ability to make money on land.
But now Yan Maoqing actually said that Luo Longwen went to sea, and Yan Shifan's thoughts naturally changed.
When Yan Maoqing listened to Yan Shifan's question, he naturally understood that what Yan Shifan wanted to ask was not Luo Longwen's safety and future, but whether this matter was legitimate.
So, Yan Maoqing also said carefully: "I heard from Luo Longwen that he seems to know some Japanese people at sea through channels. Therefore, I think Luo Longwen is most likely to find a way to find Japanese people. Come here Doing business at sea”
Yan Shifan's eyes lit up instantly when he heard Yan Maoqing's words.
It’s such an unexpected surprise that there are Japanese connections!
Although the Ming Dynasty has never treated the Japanese very well, and the Japanese often harassed the coast of the Ming Dynasty from time to time, in the eyes of a noble man like Yan Shifan, these are just some trivial matters and are not enough at all. Mention it.
There is a reason why the Japanese invasion along the coast is becoming more and more serious.
The biggest reason is that the central court headed by Yan Dang did not take the initial Japanese invasion seriously, so this led to the Japanese invasion that later spread in the southeast.
Yan Shifan clapped his hands and said: "Okay, okay, this is a good thing. If Luo Longwen can really find a sea road from the Japanese, then can we also make money from the Hongmao clan?"
"These red-haired fans don't know where they got their money, but they were able to ship it to the Ming Dynasty one by one to buy our silk, tea and porcelain at extremely unreasonable high prices. I even doubted that they were Isn’t there something wrong with your brain? Don’t you know how hard it is to earn money?”
After thousands of years of mining, most of the silver mines in China have been mined, so Whether it was from the Qin and Han dynasties to the later Tang and Song dynasties, China in all dynasties was actually short of money.
In many commodity transactions, physical objects such as cloth and grain are sometimes used as currency units.
And it goes without saying that when the Ming Dynasty was founded, the tax system designed by Zhu Yuanzhang was almost always based on physical taxes, rather than the silver tax that was later implemented after Zhang Juzheng's whip law.
The fundamental reason is that there is a shortage of silver, and there is not enough silver to use as currency.
Although Lao Zhu also cleverly thought of the "Jiaozi" system implemented by the previous dynasty and printed the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, Lao Zhu printed the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes without any scruples at all. There isn't even anything to anchor the credit with.
You can imagine how terrifying the depreciation speed of these treasure notes created by Lao Zhu is.
Although the Ministry of Revenue is still printing these treasure banknotes, the role of these treasure banknotes is only to prevaricate the salary that the court does not want to pay to the feudal king. As for other uses, it is too much to wipe the butt. hard.
But this situation reversed in the late Jiajing Dynasty.
Although the Ming Dynasty did not produce silver, the American continent produced silver.
Western European countries, mainly Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, completed their invasion and colonization of the American continent in the early era of geographical discovery, and obtained a lot of gold and silver native to the Americas.
But although these gold and silver are real wealth, they have not been exchanged for real enjoyment and material things, that is, they are just piles of worthless metals.
So, after having the gold and silver plundered from the Americas, these early maritime overlords brought this excess gold and silver to the Ming Dynasty, and arrogantly purchased the Ming Dynasty’s luxury goods to satisfy themselves. desire.
As a result, this also led to a large amount of silver pouring into the Ming Dynasty like a tide. In the era after the Ming Dynasty, silver was gradually used as the main monetary unit, replacing the previous physical taxes and Barter transactions.
(End of this chapter)