When the Dutch envoy Matthias came here, he instantly had the urge to kneel down and worship.
On top of the 20-meter-high city wall, there was also a three-story tower built. The building height was nearly 30 meters, which made Matthes feel insignificant as a mortal.
Miracle, this is the miracle God left in the world!
Matthijs has been to Guangzhou and Fuzhou, and this time he stayed in Hangzhou. None of the above three cities is as shocking as Nanjing. Matthijs never even dreamed that such a city could exist in the world.
.
The envoys were brought into the city, and the crowds were so crowded that they felt like small boats in the sea.
The population of this city is probably larger than that of the entire Netherlands, right?
After being arranged to stay for a few days, Matais was finally allowed to meet Zhao Han.
"Great King," Matthijs said respectfully, "on behalf of His Excellency the Governor of Batavia of the Dutch East India Company, I am here to negotiate with you, hoping to properly resolve the dispute between the two parties."
Zhao Han asked expressionlessly: "I heard that you detained my horse?"
Matthias replied: "Your Majesty's war horses have been properly transported to Batavia and are taken care of by very professional horse breeders. When I left Batavia, only 41 horses died. God will bless them."
"
"Tell me, why are you willing to pay me back?" Zhao Han was too lazy to beat around the bush.
Matthijs smiled and said: "After deducting the deposit you paid to the Dutch, we will charge 60 taels of silver for each horse."
For the second batch of horse breeds, Zhao Han paid a deposit of 10,000 taels of silver in advance.
As a result, it was robbed by the Dutch on the way.
If the Dutch could transport horse breeds to Shanghai and charge only 60 taels of silver per horse, Zhao Han would have paid much less for the horse.
This is the Netherlands taking the initiative to show goodwill and obviously wants to get some benefits in exchange.
Zhao Han asked: "Malacca belongs to the Netherlands?"
"It's almost there," Matthijs said. "The Netherlands has blocked the Strait of Malacca, invaded the outer city of Malacca, and is surrounding and shelling the castle of Malacca."
Why did the Netherlands seize the Indian colonial stronghold? This time they recruited thousands of mercenaries, including Swedish mercenaries, German and Swiss mercenaries.
Portugal had colonized the East for more than a hundred years and had many enemies.
As a colonizer, the Netherlands has allies everywhere. Countries in Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, Malaya... these places are willing to help the Netherlands fight and work together to overthrow the brutal rule of Portugal.
Take Malacca as an example. The Dutch attacked Ceylon first, and the Portuguese defenders of Malacca immediately rushed to support.
As a result, there were only more than a hundred defenders left in Malacca.
A funny situation occurred.
The Portuguese castle defended by more than 100 people was bombarded with heavy artillery by the Dutch for two months. The mercenaries were of no use as they couldn't stand the tropical climate, and half of them fell ill while being beaten. The Kingdom of Johor also sent 2,000 soldiers to assist in the battle, and it was the same.
Can't chew the castle.
In the end, it was the Portuguese who surrendered because they ran out of food.
If enough food is stored, these more than 100 Portuguese people may be able to hold on to Malacca for several years...
Matthijs said: "Your Majesty, the great king, please open the two ports of Guangzhou and Fuzhou to the Dutch fleet."
If you say open, open, don't I want to lose face?
Zhao Han replied: "Ten taels of silver per horse is considered as shipping fee for you. Ship it to Fuzhou and hand it over to Zheng Zhilong. If more than 50 war horses die, the Dutch will not be able to land at any port in China in the future!"
"Of course, great king, if too many war horses die, we will bring them back to make up for the loss." Matais was very happy.
The money for war horses doesn't matter. The main purpose of the Dutch is to do business directly with China, without having to turn to Portugal for trade.
Zhao Han doesn't care about this, who is he not doing business with?
If the Dutch occupy Malacca and buy horses from the Dutch in the future, the price will definitely be much cheaper.
Moreover, the Dutch can fight naval battles and can compete with Zheng Zhilong!
That guy Zheng Zhilong has been pretending to be deaf and dumb. Except for selling six warships to Zhao Han at a low price, he refused to hand over the other warships. It seemed that he wanted to wait until Zhao Han became emperor before expressing his position.
Zhao Han added: "I want ten Dutch shipbuilders, and as long as they are excellent, you are not allowed to use ordinary goods to fool me. If the shipbuilders' skills are too poor, I will ban trade with the Netherlands at any time."
Matthias immediately agreed: "There is no problem, we will meet His Majesty's request."
The Netherlands, like nothing else, had so many shipbuilders that it was involuntarily inscribed.
Today, there are about 20,000 merchant ships at sea in the world, and the Netherlands alone accounts for a quarter. The combined tonnage of the merchant ships of the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, and Spain cannot compare with that of the Netherlands.
The Dutch capital alone has more than a hundred shipyards.
Merchant ships from various European countries place orders at Dutch shipyards because the Dutch shipyards have the cheapest construction costs.
Zhao Han only needs ten shipbuilders, and the Netherlands does not need to send the best. They only need to reach the average level in Europe. There are no commercial secrets at all.
Compared with the opening up of Guangzhou and Fuzhou, ten shipbuilders are nothing.
The two sides reached a friendly exchange, and the Portuguese was ruthlessly abandoned by Zhao Han.
As for Macau, let’s do it step by step.
Chinese schools have been opened, and Portuguese children must go to school. In twenty or thirty years, without any coercion, the Portuguese will be able to be unified into households, and all of them will give up their faith and become Chinese.
Throughout the Ming Dynasty, there were many official families who were Central Asian green believers left behind by the Yuan Dynasty.
They read the Four Books and Five Classics, passed the imperial examinations, and became officials. Not to mention their thoughts and beliefs, they became Han Chinese, and even their appearance became Han Chinese.
Before Matteis left, Zhao Han gave one last reminder: "Remember, any merchant ship from any country that comes to a Chinese port for trade will either pay the customs duty directly in silver or Datong silver dollars, and other currencies are not allowed to be used to pay taxes! If there is no silver,
There are no Datong silver dollars, so you can exchange them at the bank near the pier."
The Jiangxi Mint has now minted more than six million silver coins.
Only a small part of the silver comes from mining, and most of it comes from taxes. After receiving the broken silver, it is melted and used to mint coins. The Datong Silver Dollar has been generally accepted by the market.
Although it contains a lot of impurities, merchants also recognize that it is worth one tael of silver.
More than six million silver dollars, plus a large amount of copper coins were minted, and the Grain Bank was finally renamed a bank. Moreover, Datong Bank was separated from the Finance Department and became an institution directly under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office.
Portugal's eight-realal silver coin and the Netherlands's silver horse sword coin can be circulated among the private sector, but Zhao Han's official department does not recognize them.
Including the British fleet, when they come to Guangzhou to do business, they first go to the bank to exchange silver dollars or silver for customs duties.
The Dutch envoy left and Zhao Han went to the meeting.
Huang Shunfu spoke first: "The land tax must be changed. Especially in Jiangnan Province, there are not many people growing grain, and the land tax can no longer be collected in kind, which is very inconvenient for the people."
Fei Chun has resigned as director of the Financial Department and is now in charge of Datong Bank. He is now equivalent to the governor of the central bank.
But this central bank is different from the central bank of New China, because it not only issues currency, but also operates banking business, and is also engaged in grain business.
Fei Chun said: "Banks have also been established in various places in Jiangnan, but all food has to be transported from other provinces. During the last summer harvest, farmers in Jiangnan planted a variety of cotton, but it has not yet been picked and gathered. The summer grain fields were in arrears, and they had no money to pay.
Fortunately, the land we occupied was newly occupied, and we were hit by floods, so this year’s summer grain harvest was simply avoided. But for this year’s autumn harvest, the farmers in Jiangnan had to first exchange cotton for money, then use the money to buy grain, and then pay taxes after buying the grain.”
Li Banghua said: "It is extremely complicated."
"It is indeed time to change," Zhao Han nodded, "Starting from Jiangnan Province, all grain taxes from now on will be converted into silver or copper coins. If they are copper coins, they will only be accepted if they are discounted by more than five coins, and they will not be accepted if they are discounted by ten coins!
"
Pang Chunlai said: "In my opinion, the actual situation is different in different places. Rules should be set as to how much money should be collected and how much grain should be collected. The people have money to pay and grain to pay, but it is up to the people to choose.
"
Li Banghua nodded and said: "Indeed, in some poor places, money is not enough, so exchanging land tax for silver is a bad thing."
Zhao Han thought carefully for a while and said: "Paying money and food is all based on the people's voluntariness. This policy can be implemented. But it cannot always be like this. Let's set a time limit. If a place has been governed for more than ten years, all money must be used to pay land tax. If
After ten years of governance, if the local people still don’t have money to pay taxes, then it’s the local officials’ dereliction of duty!”
"I agree." Huang Shunfu agreed.
Zhao Han added: "In the future, banks will gradually reduce their grain business and hand over grain transportation and trade to merchants. Datong Bank will be responsible for setting the floor price of grain."
The idea of the state's unified collection and purchase of grain is a beautiful one.
But as the territory expands and is limited to ancient warehousing and transportation technology, this thing is really difficult to handle. Moreover, as time goes by, corruption will inevitably breed, and it will be difficult to investigate.
Xiao Huan suddenly said: "But local governments or banks still have to keep some granaries, and the grain should be regarded as Changping granaries."
Li Banghua said: "This statement makes sense."
Changping warehouses are used for relief during major disasters, and can also be opened to release grain to stabilize rice prices.
"Then let's settle it like this. If problems arise in the future, we can change it." Zhao Han accepted the proposal.
The territory expanded to several provinces, and with the feedback from local officials, Zhao Han discovered more and more problems. Previous policies could be implemented in one or two provinces, but would be impractical in more provinces.
"Is there enough food to fight this year?" Zhao Han confirmed again.
Fei Chun smiled and said: "It will definitely be enough, but it is best to stop sending troops within three months."
Pang Chunlai said: "We can win Jianghuai in two months."
Li Banghua said: "There are three main enemies in the counties and prefectures of the Jianghuai River. One is Luo Rucai in the direction of Lu'an, the second is the Cao bandit in the direction of Xuzhou, and the third is the salt bandit in the direction of Rugao. The war is easy to fight. After the battle, the Cao army
and salt households still need to be resettled, they were all forced by the government and the people to rebel."
Zhao Han said: "Except for Luo Rucai, if other enemy generals are willing to surrender and hand over all their property, they will be treated as civilians, and they will be given land."
"Who knows if all the property has been handed over?" Chen Maosheng asked.
Zhao Han said with a smile: "How much silver can he bring with him when he escorts his whole family to settle in other prefectures and counties? He hid hundreds of taels secretly. I don't bother to pursue him. If he hides too much, I will behead him!"
Pang Chunlai sighed: "Let's see if they are willing to surrender. It is best if they surrender, so as not to cause more killings and save a lot of military rations."