Chapter 2075
March 1638, Seoul, North Korea.
More than half a year after the war between the Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty ended, Seoul has basically restored normal social order. Most of the people who fled from the northern war zone last year have returned to their hometowns to rebuild their homes, and most of the few people who stayed near Seoul have found new livelihoods. Tens of thousands of war refugees have been basically resettled through the efforts of all parties and are no longer a local security risk in Seoul.
With the signing of various trade agreements, businessmen from Haihan, Portugal and other countries came to Seoul to engage in trading activities after the war. The influx of a large amount of goods and funds quickly revitalized the economy of the Seoul area and increased shipping in the Han River Basin. The industry has entered a period of rapid development. This section of the river from Seoul to the mouth of the Han River, which is only a hundred miles long, has become the busiest waterway on the Korean Peninsula after the war.
Ganghwa Island, located at the mouth of the Han River, has become the transshipment port with the largest cargo throughput on the North Korean coast. In addition to transporting various goods from Ganghwa Island to Seoul for foreign merchants, local sailing boats also undertake the task of transporting various agricultural and forestry products produced in the upstream areas to Ganghwa Island.
It's just that compared to the goods shipped to North Korea by foreign traders, the value of these locally produced agricultural and forestry products is much lower. But there is nothing that can be done. There are no minerals that can be mined on a large scale near Seoul. They can only provide foreign merchants with commodities such as livestock, timber, and medicinal materials to maintain the trade balance. However, most of the goods Haihan sells to the North Korean market are various industrial products, and the profits are much higher than agricultural products. In fact, there is a very large scissor gap in the trade process.
Some Haihan businessmen with relatively rich operating experience have begun to open some processing workshops near Seoul, using local cheaper labor and raw materials, as well as Haihan's technology and equipment, to produce some simply processed goods. Earn greater profits than simply selling raw materials.
This kind of keen business sense and efficient execution can only be possessed by businessmen from Haihan in this era. Although their counterparts in Portugal have similar ideas, due to the lack of sufficient funds and advanced production technology, they are not as fast as the Haihan merchants in operating such business projects. But Haihan merchants can get support from the government. Especially after Haihan Bank established a branch in Seoul, the merchants' local money turnover pressure has undoubtedly been reduced a lot. If necessary, they can also apply for loans from Haihan Bank. To tide over the difficulties temporarily.
These processing workshops are labor-intensive industries, so they also provide a large number of employment opportunities for local people, especially those war refugees who have fled to Seoul and have become homeless. As long as they can have a livelihood to make ends meet, Haihan merchants The workshops opened employed a large number of these refugees with extremely low labor costs, which to a certain extent solved some social problems for the government.
Compared with those refugees who just want food and clothing, the people who really benefit from the open market initiative are the dignitaries who hold real power.
Almost all of the most profitable industries in Seoul are under the control of big shots. This is also the main reason why all kinds of commodities imported from overseas to Seoul have to be transshipped on Ganghwa Island. Foreign merchants only act as suppliers in this form of trade, and the distribution stage is completed by local commercial institutions. As for these institutions that are qualified as agents, they generally have official backgrounds, so most of the profits from the sales stage of imported products actually flow into the pockets of officials at all levels.
The issue currently being debated by officials in the court has changed from last year's fight to the death or peace, to whether the country's business mechanism should be completely modeled after Haihan. This time, the opinions of the two major official factions have just reversed. Kim Sang-heon, the former main militant, abandoned his radical attitude and became a conservative, believing that the country's business system cannot be allowed to follow Haehan; last year, the conservative representative Choi Ming-gil, who advocated peace talks, , but at this time, he believed that Haihan’s business mechanism should be boldly introduced into North Korea in order to obtain the massive funds needed for post-war reconstruction and development.
Kim Sang-hun and Cui Ming-gil each have many fans in the officialdom, so this issue has become a focus of debate every time they go to court recently. Today was no exception. In front of King Li Zhu, the two people once again argued about this.
"Haihan is good at using commercial means to seek various benefits from other countries. Our country must beware of this!" Jin Shangxian said: "Just look at the Ming Dynasty and you will know that Haihan has been using trade as an excuse in the Ming Dynasty. The coast occupied many places, bribed local officials with benefits, and slowly annexed these occupied areas. Although Haihan had a great impact on us in last year's war. Help, but we have also set aside a large area for its garrison on the Datong River. But does Haihan have any plans to stop there? I don’t think so. There are eight out of ten ships anchored outside Ganghwa Island. They are from Haihan. There has been a lot of construction work on the island to build warehouses and warehouses. If this continues, Ganghwa Island will have to be annexed by them sooner or later!"
"Master Jin's words are wrong!" Cui Mingji immediately expressed his objection to Jin Sangxian's view: "If it weren't for the opening of trade, how could Seoul restore order so quickly? If it weren't for these Haihan merchants to open various businesses near Seoul Workshop, how will the tens of thousands of local refugees make ends meet? Do we have to send the army to drive these people back to the north? Or is Mr. Jin willing to use his salary to solve the problem of feeding these refugees? "
Jin Sangxian said: "Master Cui, don't be fooled. Is the purpose of Haihan people setting up workshops in Seoul to hire refugees to help the people? They just want these refugees to charge low prices and hire them to work for less. Not to mention these people. After being employed by the Haihan people, the refugees have enough food and clothing. Do you think they will be grateful to the Haihan people or to the court? Will they really be safer than the homeless refugees who take orders from the Haihan people and become richer over time? Wouldn’t the people whose interests are closely connected with Haihan become another hidden danger of instability? ”
Cui Mingji said: "Master Jin, this is a strong argument! The measures taken by the Haihan people have at least solved the thorny problems we have at the moment, and the situations mentioned by Master Jin are just your personal conjectures. Master Jin is tough. It’s too far-fetched to use a situation that hasn’t happened yet to frame charges!”
Jin Sangxian said angrily: "Master Cui has been working hard to maintain it. Is it because the several wood processing workshops that were put into operation last month, as well as the six shipping companies that run ships on the Han River, all have Cui's shares?"
Cui Mingji sneered and said: "Master Jin is very good at spewing blood! In my opinion, Master Jin is desperately opposed to opening a trade with Haihan, probably because the business of several salt fields originally controlled by the Jin family is about to be lost to the Datong River Salt Fields. Was the low-price official salt taken away? ”
Li Zhu listened to the two people arguing with a gloomy face, secretly thinking that neither of them was a good thing. Doesn't he know that there are actually huge interests involved in the party disputes in the court? However, he has been living in the cracks for more than ten years since he took office. He has long been accustomed to all kinds of harsh environments, and now the minister The dispute they had over this was actually nothing compared to the bad situation they had faced before.
The Kim family and the Choi family are both famous families in North Korea, and Kim Sang-hyun and Cui Ming-gil are the spokespersons of these families in the court. Their opinions do represent the attitude of the family behind them to a certain extent, but as the helm of the country, Li Zhu cannot easily favor one party. If his personal stance shows bias, it will be easy for these clans to lose. The balance between them has been broken, which is not a good thing for maintaining the political stability of the country. What Li Zhu needs is for them to maintain a certain degree of conflict of interest, so as to form mutual constraints and achieve a balance of power in the court.
Although it is plainly stated that it is just a fight, it is not easy to do it. You must make the ministers obey your orders and arrangements, but you must not let them completely lose their motivation to continue fighting. Balancing the interests of all parties in a reasonable way is actually a difficult problem that tests the power of governance. "My dear friends, there is no need to be so excited." Seeing that the two men had begun to bring out all the dirty materials under the table, Li Zhu could only speak to stop them from continuing the debate. If these two guys can't control their anger and talk about the royal family's overseas businesses, the situation will be difficult to deal with.
Of course, cooperating with the Haihan people in trade is not just a privilege for the clan. In fact, the Li family also has business cooperation with Haihan, and it is not a small business like partnering with Haihan merchants. Although the Datong River Salt Farm that Cui Mingji mentioned just now is an officially-operated salt farm in name, in fact the Li family is the main funder of development and construction. In the future, a considerable part of the income from that salt farm will go directly to Li. family's treasury, and the rest is what goes into the national treasury.
This is not entirely because the Li family embezzled the revenue from the national treasury. In fact, several large projects in cooperation with Haihan along the Datong River have drained away the remaining grain in the national treasury. So last year, North Korean officials once needed to borrow money from Haihan Bank to maintain the normal operation of official institutions.
Under such circumstances, if several cooperation projects between the two countries are to continue, a huge funding gap must be filled. As for these projects that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood, it is impossible for Li Zhu to allow large amounts of funds from the clan to flow in. The most suitable thing is of course to use the private property of the Li family to make up for these gaps. There is no need to worry about the issue of repayment, and in Huge economic benefits can be expected in the future.
Li Zhu felt that Cui Mingji mentioned this matter deliberately to use this topic to set up a trap for Kim Sangxian. If Kim Sangxian did not respond appropriately to this issue involving the interests of the royal family, he would definitely lose a lot of points in front of Li Zhu. In this way, Cui Mingji's The purpose is achieved.
However, Li Zhu didn't want the two people to continue the debate of throwing dirty water at each other. He actually had his own views on the scale of introducing Haihan Business.
"Both of you should still remember that last year, our country selected a group of people, including the crown prince, to study abroad in Haihan. Why was this arrangement made? It was just to learn the powerful skills of Haihan! They are great at war, and we So we sent military attachés to learn how to lead troops in war; they were good at sailing, so we sent people to learn how to build ships; they were good at governing the country, so I asked the prince to learn how to govern. "
Li Jie talked eloquently: "The Haihan people are good at commerce, and it is known all over the world. If this is the case, then why don't we learn their skills? Marching and fighting are slow to learn, but it is not so difficult to learn how to do business, right? ? If Haihan merchants want to open workshops and business stores in our country, then let them do so. Won’t these industries and technologies stay in our country in the future? Take a long-term view and don’t dwell on immediate gains and losses!”
Li Zhu's statement sounded like he was supporting the expansion of the introduction of the Haihan business mechanism. Cui Mingji felt pleased when he heard this, but Kim Sang-hyun could not hide his disappointment.
But Li Zhu then changed the subject and said: "But we cannot be defenseless against the Haihan people. As Mr. Jin said, Haihan used trade as bait to bribe officials in the Ming Dynasty and occupied islands and ports. These deeds are a lesson learned from the past. We must try our best to avoid a similar situation in our country. If we want to do business, we can let them in, but if we want to get more benefits from our country, we must be more careful.”
"Your Majesty, you have a clear lesson!" Jin Sangxian immediately expressed his support for Li Zhu's statement and glanced at his opponent.
Although Cui Mingji was a little unhappy by Li Zhu's stance, he didn't show it at all on his face, and he also expressed his obedience to Li Zhu.
Seeing that the two of them had no intention of continuing to argue, Li Zhu started to talk about another matter: "We are recruiting two people into the palace today, and there is one more thing that I want to hear your opinions on. General Wang of Haihan today Someone sent a letter saying that they are planning to send warships to the southern coast for training in the near future, and hope that our country can provide a temporary supply port on Jeju Island. What do you think about this? "
Cui Mingji frowned and said: "The Haihan people want to train their troops, so why don't they practice near the Datong River, but go far away to near Jeju Island? Is there something special nearby that made the Haihan people specially arrange warships to investigate?"
Kim Sang-hyun said in a deep voice: "Jeju Island... I'm afraid that the Haihan people are interested in Jeju Island and are just looking for an excuse to allow their troops to land on the island. Your Majesty, this matter must be guarded against!"
Li Zhu said: "Actually, I am also a little worried about the true intentions of the Haihan people, so I have not responded to the Haihan people for the time being. But in such a big place like Jeju Island, they can't just occupy it openly, right?"
Jin Sangxian quickly added: "Your Majesty, the Taiwan Island in the south and Qiongzhou Island, where the Haihan Kingdom is located, are dozens of times the size of Jeju Island, and the Haihan people still occupied them. It’s a precedent, so don’t be careless.”
(End of chapter)