Chapter 1552 Establishing Diplomatic Relations and Commerce
The summer of 1636 was slightly cooler than the same period in previous years, and the scale on the mercury thermometer made by Heyhan rarely even exceeded 35 degrees Celsius. Ordinary people simply think that this is God's good work and does not scorch the world with the scorching sun, but the travelers know very well that this is just a manifestation of the climate change of the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty. And even without the scorching sun, the drought of the Little Ice Age still came as scheduled. Farmers waiting for the autumn harvest had to use a lot of manpower to irrigate their farmland in order to preserve the crops in the fields.
In the summer and autumn of this year, it is almost inevitable that the Ming Dynasty's grain production will decrease. The grain-producing areas in the Central Plains were disrupted by the peasant army, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas suffered from drought and lack of rain that lasted for many days, and the grain production level was a mess compared to previous years. Under such circumstances, major grain merchants in the main grain-producing areas of Shaoxing, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, and Huzhou are consciously controlling shipments and buying large quantities of grains in the grain markets of Ningbo and Taizhou. Scan the goods.
The output of grain-producing areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is an important factor in stabilizing grain prices in northern Daming. However, this year has not yet reached the rice harvest season, but grain prices on the market have already begun to rise sharply due to artificial speculation. Fortunately, this is a land of plenty, and there will not be a large-scale food shortage in a short period of time. The social situation has not been turbulent because of this, and ordinary people are not even aware of what kind of market trends the fluctuations in food prices symbolize. , and what kind of game is hidden behind it.
What Wang Ji has to do now is to win the say in the grain market with the help of Haihan, a big buyer. Haihan will purchase at least several thousand tons of grain in Zhejiang in the second half of the year. This amount is neither large nor small. At least for the current turbulent grain market in Zhejiang, this is definitely the largest amount besides the imperial grain tax. An order is made. And for this kind of large-scale transaction, no grain merchant can supply goods alone. Even the grain merchants under Wang Ji have to work together to transfer goods, or even scan the grain markets in various states early, in order to satisfy Haihan. order requirements.
Although some grain merchants are aware of the implications behind the changes in the market situation, they are unable to resist the trend of gradual consolidation of the industry. After all, once the industry's voice is concentrated in the hands of grain merchants with strong official backgrounds, unless their backend is collapsed, the future It can only operate according to the regulations set by Wang Ji. What's more, the Haihan people are assisting in this matter. Grain merchants who want to be tough must first consider whether they can go against the Haihan people.
Wang Ji had his own calculations in setting up such a large battle. He knew that some people in Zhejiang whose interests had been harmed might be dissatisfied with his actions and would even try to obstruct his actions, but Wang Ji chose this time to start taking action. , it is calculated that the news of the establishment of communication between the two countries will be announced during this period. By then, everyone's attention will be attracted by this big news, and the changes in the grain market will not be so obvious.
At the end of August, there was finally official news about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Ming Dynasty and Haihan, which had been rumored for many days both inside and outside Hangzhou. Zhejiang Chengxuan Administrative Envoy posted a notice outside the Si Yamen, announcing that the Ming Dynasty and Haihan would establish formal diplomatic relations from now on, and would allow Haihan merchants conducted trading activities in the capitals of coastal states in Zhejiang. Of course, the content of the notice did not explicitly state the final ownership of the Zhoushan Islands and Shipu Port, but it recognized Haihan's rights and interests along the coast of Zhejiang. This includes various facilities invested and built by Haihan on the territory of Ming Dynasty, reclaimed farmland, mines mined, seaports, docks, bridges and roads built, etc.
The Ming court recognized the legality of the assets invested and constructed by Haihan, which in fact recognized Haihan's control over these areas in disguise. Although the communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations did not mention the word "territory cession" at all, the upper-level officials who knew the inside story understood that this was actually the biggest compromise the court made to Haihan, but it was just not clearly written in black and white. Haihan would get the islands and ports they wanted, as well as the right to trade freely within designated coastal states within Zhejiang.
This so-called trade right, in addition to buying and selling in the ordinary sense, actually also includes financial institutions represented by Haihan Bank entering the Ming Dynasty to set up business outlets. Haihan can legally employ people in the Ming Dynasty. Citizens of the Ming Dynasty and citizens of Haihan enjoyed the rights to rent, buy land, build houses, and live in Tongshang Prefecture. Haihan wants to use Daming as a source of raw materials and labor force, as well as a sales market for high-end products. The contents of the trade agreement will provide great convenience.
Through this agreement, Haihan obtained all the conditions he needed from Ming Dynasty. In the future, various business activities in Ming Dynasty will no longer need to be as secretive as in the past. For Haihan, saving a lot of manpower, material and financial resources is secondary. The long-term benefits that will be brought about by the change in the relationship between the two countries are the most important part.
Since Chuanchuan Group landed in Sanya, raw materials, labor force and sales market have always been the three major factors restricting the development of Haihan's national power. Therefore, Haihan tried every means to open up overseas colonies, introduced immigrants from Daming, Annan and other countries to supplement the labor force, and used force As a stepping stone, the markets of Ming Dynasty and Southeast Asia were forcibly opened. The Ming Dynasty, which shares the same roots as the time-travelers, has naturally become Haihan's main direction in solving the needs of these three elements.
In nine years, the time travelers finally made Ming, a powerful country in the Far East, bow its head to them. Although this action may not be so willing for Ming, it is of extraordinary significance to Haihan. The time travelers have been determined to build Haihan into the most powerful country in the Far East for several years, and the criterion for measuring this "first" naturally depends on Ming's attitude towards Haihan.
In the past, the Ming Dynasty was aloof and ignored Haihan's proposal to establish diplomatic relations submitted to the court through officials from Fujian and Guangzhou provinces. However, since Haihan crossed the Fujian Strait and headed north, the balance of power between the two countries has changed silently. The Ming Dynasty, which originally took the initiative, became increasingly fragile due to the deterioration of the domestic and international situation. However, Haihan continued to grow and develop at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even had the ability to launch thousands of people in unfamiliar areas thousands of miles away from home. The ability to conduct large-scale battles. The military assistance that Haihan could provide to the Ming Dynasty had also changed from just talk on paper in the past to real action witnessed by the Minister of War.
Since Emperor Chongzhen, all the ministers in the court agreed with the idea of letting Haihan attract the firepower of the Later Jin Dynasty on the northern front. For this reason, it was actually a very cost-effective deal to temporarily suffer a small loss on the issue of territorial disputes. Both the emperor and the ministers believed that this passive situation would not last long. After the work of fighting against the outside world and Annei was completed, they would slowly mobilize troops to drive the Haihan people out of these occupied areas.
This is of course the wishful thinking of senior Ming officials, who believe that no matter how severe the situation is, the current grievances are only temporary. As long as we can free our hands in the future, we can drive the Haihan people away from the Ming Dynasty at any time. Of course, most of the senior officials who have such thoughts are in the capital, and local officials who have daily contact with Haihan will not be so confused. After all, the former Ming territories that Haihan swallowed have never been Spit it out again. But it was Haihan who really felt that he was aggrieved. After all, he controlled the armed forces with the strongest combat capability in this era, but he could only patiently negotiate with Ming Dynasty slowly, but could not readily use force to surrender to Ming Dynasty. , this is undoubtedly a kind of torture for a general like Shi Diwen. If Shi Diwen was asked to choose a way to make Ming bow his head, he might really consider leading troops into Hangzhou or even Nanjing, so that Ming could immediately understand how determined Haihan's position was.
However, the possibility of this happening is as small as if Ming decided to take the initiative to go to war with Haihan. Both countries were unwilling to take military measures to break the balance. In the end, they chose to coexist in a peaceful way, and then both sides took what they could. Need, get what you want.
When the announcement of the establishment of diplomatic relations was posted in Hangzhou, Shi Diwen had already returned to Ningbo and discussed with Qu Yutong to establish some industries in Ningbo after the formal establishment of diplomatic relations, such as various quasi-industrial manufacturing workshops, with Haihan providing the money and technology. , Qu Yutong arranged for people to come out of the land. In the past, there were many worries about engaging in this kind of cooperation, and Qu Yutong was also worried that others would get caught if he allowed Haihan people to run industries on his own territory. But now that there is a trade agreement, everything can be implemented freely. .
However, after the news of his stay in Ningbo spread through various channels, he was quickly blocked in the city by various businessmen who came after hearing the news. The reason is the traffic and commercial announcement posted in Hangzhou City. Businessmen with a keen sense of smell will immediately find that this is a good opportunity to make a fortune. Whether they can make good use of this opportunity depends on whether Haihan is willing to do so. Cooperated, so a large number of businessmen suddenly poured into Ningbo City, including many businessmen who came from Hangzhou overnight.
Of course, with Shi Diwen's current status, not everyone can meet him if he wants. The businessmen can only go to the place where Shi Diwen is staying to submit greeting cards, and then return to his residence to wait patiently for notification. Only a very small number of businessmen who have in-depth cooperation with Haihan are likely to be interviewed by Shi Diwen in the first time. Even so, the number of businessmen Shi Diwen needs to meet every day has reached double digits, which shows how close the trade relations between the coastal state capital of Zhejiang and Haihan are.
Although in most cases this kind of meeting only confirms that future cooperation will continue and does not yield any substantial new results, Shi Diwen must still complete this work well. He had to reassure Ming's customers and merchants through his attitude, so that these people would not change their enthusiasm for Haihan trade due to changes in the current situation. Moreover, Shi Diwen also hopes that through this kind of contact, he can select some strong and reliable merchants from among the many collaborators to promote Haihan's quasi-industrial processing project.
To realize industrialization in this era, the biggest problem facing Haihan is neither capital nor technology, but a large number of well-trained industrial workers. In this society where agricultural production is the mainstay, only a very small number of people are engaged in non-agricultural production, which simply cannot meet the requirements for industrialization. Even in Sanya, after nearly nine years of development, there are only about 10,000 industrial workers actually engaged in technical production work, which is less than one-twentieth of the total population of Haihan. Measured by this occupational ratio, even in Hainan Island, which has the most advanced productivity in this century, only a few places such as Tiandu Industrial Zone have achieved industrialization.
Shi Diwen set up an industry in Zhejiang, hoping that through this method, he could train more industrial workers for Haihan. Although most of the industries that will be opened here in the future will be rough processing of raw materials and cannot be compared with the real technical production of Tiandu Industrial Zone, Shi Diwen firmly believes that this method will be more conducive to the promotion of industrial production in Zhejiang. . Even if the number of industrial workers trained for Haihan is limited, it is still a gain.
This continuous negotiation soon made Shi Diwen physically and mentally exhausted. After three days of continuous high-intensity work, Shi Diwen announced that he was ill and stopped seeing guests for two days and needed to take a rest to recuperate. Now the businessmen sensed a new opportunity, and various tonics and wine were delivered to Shi Diwen's residence as if they were free of charge. Those who haven't met him yet want to take this opportunity to meet him, and those who have already met him want to use this method to consolidate the relationship. For a time, the precious medicinal materials in major prescriptions in Ningbo were almost out of stock, and tonics such as ginseng were all looted even if they were as thick as the little finger.
The news soon spread to Hangzhou, so the chief officials of various yamen in Hangzhou also wrote personal letters to Ningbo to greet Shi Diwen. After all, the two countries had just established diplomatic relations. Shi Diwen, who was stationed in Zhejiang and was in charge of military and commercial affairs, If he falls ill, many things that have been agreed upon will have to be suspended, which is a situation that officials do not want to see.
The chief envoy Wang Ji even sent his personal doctor to Ningbo to diagnose Shi Diwen's pulse and treat his illness. However, when the doctor arrived in Ningbo City after a long journey, he discovered that there were also a frightening number of doctors waiting in line to treat General Shi of Haihan. Almost all of them were just like him and had accepted offers from various people before they came here. of. If we look at numbers alone, there are enough doctors waiting here to open a hospital.
Shi Diwen didn't expect that his illness caused by fatigue would attract so much attention. He was a little dumbfounded at the moment, thinking that with so many people in the Traveling Group, I was probably the only one who had enjoyed the treatment of dozens of doctors for consultation. . Of course, consultation is a consultation, and the prescriptions prescribed by so many doctors are somewhat different. The intensity of the debate among the doctors about medication is even more intense than the business negotiations in the yard.
(End of chapter)