Li Quan purchased many local products in Manila, mainly dried fruits, coconut oil, brown sugar, tobacco, pearls, tortoise shells, etc., and then shipped them directly to Shanghai for sale.
I was able to quickly purchase the goods with Zhang Huangyan’s help, otherwise I would have to wait in line slowly.
These things are in short supply. There are dozens of import and export companies in Shanghai, waiting for the arrival of merchant ships day and night. And most of them have prepared export goods, while receiving goods from Li Quan, and at the same time supplying goods to Li Quan.
Loading and unloading efficiency is very high.
Fujian maritime merchants discussed it for a month, but no one was willing to join the American trade.
Today's Fujian maritime merchants mainly travel to Taiwan, Luzon, Ryukyu, and Japan. Guangdong's maritime merchants mainly travel to Guangnan, Champa, Malacca, Palembang and Coconut City. Such short-distance routes are profitable, no matter how bad they are.
It's okay to go to India, why take the huge risk to go to America?
But when Li Quan arrived in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang maritime merchants showed great interest.
Maritime merchants from these two provinces mainly transport Jiangnan and inland goods to Fujian, Guangdong, Shandong, Liaodong, and North Korea for sale. Only a few will participate in Luzon and Japan trade. In terms of foreign trade, they cannot compete with Fujian and Guangdong.
Provincial competition (grouping to exclude foreigners) urgently requires a new overseas channel.
"I very much welcome anyone who is willing to go out to sea together," Li Quan said to these Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants, "but I don't want merchant ships with a displacement of less than 600 tons, merchant ships that still use pure horizontal sails, and hull wood that is too brittle.
Ocean sailing is no joke!"
The 600 tons of the Datong imperial court are 358 tons of another time and space.
Zhao Han's legal weight unit is: 1 Datong ton = 10 Datong stones = 1,000 Datong catties = 16,000 taels.
On this basis, a set of units was added last year specifically for scientific research: 1 ton = 1000 kilograms = 1000 kilograms.
Assuming that 1 ton of water = 1 cubic meter, and assuming that the density of water is 1 kilogram per cubic meter, the lengths of meters, decimeters, centimeters, and millimeters can be determined.
The nouns are still the same, but the actual numerical values have all changed.
1 gram in the Datong New Dynasty is equivalent to 0.5968 grams in another time and space. 1 meter in the Datong New Dynasty is equivalent to 0.8419 meters in another time and space.
But as long as you don't think about these international units, there is no problem in using them.
Because international units are also determined by people, French scientists used the longitude of Paris and divided the distance from the equator to the North Pole by 10 million to get the unit of "meter". Then use "meter" to calculate the volume of water, and then
Get units such as kilograms and grams.
Just the opposite derivation process!
Nowadays, there are all kinds of units in various European countries. As China's influence grows, it is estimated that European scientists will also adopt the Chinese system.
Zhao Han is formulating an international standard for scientific measurement units, and the starting point is the Jin of the Ming Dynasty, named "Emperor Datong's scientific algorithm unit." It is currently used exclusively for scientific research and has not yet been fully integrated with the public.
These three conditions proposed by Li Quan turned away most maritime merchants who wanted to go to America.
Because maritime merchants who meet his conditions basically have good strength and can make a living by relying on the original routes. Those who really want to venture into the Americas with him are all small and medium-sized merchants, either with small hulls or fragile hulls, and
Too lazy to replace the composite sail.
"Commander Li, the ship below has a displacement of 700 tons. It is a large sailing ship newly built three years ago." A young man stood up.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
When they saw the young man's appearance clearly, all the maritime merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang present laughed.
This young man's name is Dong Chaobin, the great nephew of the big bully Dong Qichang, who has become a famous prodigal in recent years.
Dong Qichang's evil deeds aroused public outrage as early as the Wanli period.
The Dong family father and son bullied men and women, preyed on the common people, annexed land, killed people, and had their houses burned down and demolished by the angry people. Afterwards, they colluded with the government to convict the people.
When the Datong Army recaptured Songjiang, the local people took action spontaneously. Before the public trial, dozens of Dong family members were killed. Afterwards, tens of thousands of hectares of farmland were distributed to the people, and their property was confiscated by the government. The entire Dong family was confiscated.
All the families, including those not sentenced to death, migrated to the northern provinces in batches.
Dong Chaobin's father, as a result of his participation in the Scholars' Uprising, surrendered to the Datong Army early, and he, a branch of the Dong family, was saved.
His father passed away a few years ago, and Dong Chaobin was the only son, successfully inheriting the family business. The boy gave some of the property to his cousins, sold all the remaining shops, and actually raised money to customize a seagoing ship.
At the beginning, I bought freight from Shanghai to Guangzhou. Although the supplier raised the price and the delivery company lowered the price, I still made a small profit.
The competition on this route was too fierce, so he also learned how to do business in Japan.
Unexpectedly, the Japanese shogunate set a trade limit and could not get rid of it after it was shipped. Dong Chaobin did not dare to smuggle it to the feudal lord, so he sold the goods to the Zheng family at a low price. Not only did he lose all the previous profits, but he also owed a payment. If
If the debt can no longer be repaid, the merchant ship will have to be mortgaged.
Li Quan asked: "This gentleman has a distinguished name."
Dong Chaobin raised his hands and said, "My surname is Dong, my first name is Chaobin, and my courtesy name is Bogong."
"Only one boat?" Li Quan asked.
Dong Chaobin said: "There is only one, and it is full of debts. Can I transfer it to you and pay off the debt first?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Li Quan couldn't stop laughing: "Brother Dong made a good calculation. Before the business was done, he reached out and asked for money."
The other merchants dispersed, leaving only Li Quan and Dong Chaobin discussing privately.
In the end, Dong Chaobin's seagoing ship was discounted to Li Quan at a low price in exchange for a small share of the company, and Li Quan helped him pay off his debt. As a result, the number of large ships of Sihai Trading Company increased to five.
Sihai Trading Company is the name of the company, and the royal family is still the largest shareholder.
Headquartered in Shanghai, the government does not participate in management, but the royal family and the governor's office send people to audit the accounts every year.
The more a company develops and grows, the harder it will be to check its accounts. It depends on how the future emperor will deal with it.
Zhao Han's idea is to have more private businessmen as shareholders, and shareholders can supervise each other to reduce accounting fraud. There may be situations where shareholders deceive the royal family together, but Zhao Han will definitely be dead by then, which really pissed off the new emperor.
, it is possible to directly ransack the home.
A few days later, Dong Chaobin came back with a sad face and said to Li Quan: "When the crew members heard that they were going to America, most of them were afraid and refused to go to sea. What should we do if we can't recruit crew members?"
Li Quan said: "I will transfer some crew members to you, and the rest will go to North Korea and Japan to recruit people."
Occupations like apprentice sailors do not require much experience and can be filled by any adult man.
Take the Spanish galleon as an example. Each ship has 60 sailors and 64 apprentice sailors. The really important ones are the boatswain and the sail puller, 1 first-class boatswain, 1 second-class boatswain, and 1 first-class boatswain.
A first-level sail puller and a second-level sail puller, the four of them can direct the sail and deck work of the entire ship.
After loading some goods in Shanghai, Li Quan took the fleet to Shandong to purchase a large amount of low-grade and cheap cotton, and then went to North Korea and Japan to recruit trainee sailors.
When the ship arrived at Fukuoka, I heard that the Chinese merchant ship was recruiting people. Without asking where they were going, hundreds of people came to sign up.
The Kuroda family didn't stop them. The ronin were all unstable and it would be best if they all got out.
Li Quan recruited 50 ronin in one go, 30 of them as trainee sailors, and 20 of them as close combat soldiers. The wages were much cheaper than those of the Chinese people, and there was no need to pay settling-in expenses. The salary was advanced in advance to allow them to settle down, even after they died.
Pensions do not have to be paid.
It’s so useful!
These ronin are also interesting. After paying their wages in advance, they immediately take it home. After settling their families, they quickly run back to the boat without sending anyone to supervise them. When eating, they gobble it up, like hungry ghosts who have been reincarnated for several generations and learn to pull the sail.
He was beaten and scolded freely when washing the deck.
…
While Li Quan was still buying goods in Shanghai, four Hawaiians (two men and two women) were taken to Nanjing.
They first lived in Manila for a few days, thinking that Manila was the Kingdom of God. Then they stayed in Shanghai, thinking that Shanghai was the Kingdom of God. Until they went to Nanjing, the four Hawaiians sighed: The Kingdom of God is so big!
These guys, along with their clothing and equipment, were placed in Zhongshan Temple.
It first attracted the attention of the French and Italians. These European scholars looked at each other and agreed that the Hawaiians were mixed descendants of the ancient Romans.
After the fall of Byzantium, a large number of ancient Roman classics were brought with it, which in turn triggered the Italian Renaissance.
Among these ancient Roman classics, there are portraits of ancient Roman soldiers.
First, let’s talk about the helmets of Hawaiian warriors. They are exactly the same as the helmets of high-ranking ancient Roman generals, especially the cluster of “cockscombs” on the top of their heads. Then there are the shorts, capes, and short robes. They look like ancient Roman warriors at first glance.
French and Italian scholars were overjoyed by this, and they began to make up papers.
Persian scholars had no idea about this. They had written many papers and received high praise from the Chinese emperor.
Persian scholars collaborated with the Hanlin Academy and wrote papers related to exchanges between the two countries.
For example, China has twelve zodiac signs, and Persia also has twelve zodiac signs. Except for the differences in individual animals, even the order of the zodiac signs is the same. So scholars from the Hanlin Academy searched for clues from ancient books to speculate and demonstrate the ancient exchanges between the two countries.
This kind of thing can be easily written in a paper.
For example, when the Persian scholars communicated with the Hanlin Academy and learned that the senior professional title of the Imperial Academy was doctor, they were very surprised because the senior scholar in Persia was called "Baheshi", which was pronounced very similar to the Chinese "doctor".
.
Then, scholars from Persia and the Hanlin Academy began to straighten out their ideas through Chinese classics.
Doctor was originally a Chinese official position, widely spread among the people, and was used to call those with professional skills, such as Dr. Tea. After the Mongols came, they also adopted this term and spread it to Central Asia. In West Asia, it became "Bahe Shi".
As it spread and evolved in the north, it became the "Ba style".
After writing this paper, Zhao Han found it interesting and rewarded the participants of the paper.
Persian scholars and Hanlin Academy scholars were inspired by this and published similar papers one after another.
Zhao Han has no time to read the paper now. The financial situation last year was barely balanced. Even the Vietnamese Ruan family is not in a hurry to fight for the time being because they will still fight in Qinghai and Tibet this year.
Expanding territory in Qinghai and Tibet requires investment in construction and immigration, and it is estimated that there will be a fiscal deficit this year.
Finally, Zhao Han made a painful decision: "From now on, school-age children in all provinces will no longer be required to attend school compulsorily. The southern provinces, except for Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangnan, will no longer continue to build additional schools."
The population base of the southern provinces is already large, and the birth rate is frighteningly high. Every year, a large number of school-age children are added.
Education expenses are simply too much to bear!
The Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Finance have already proposed charging textbook fees to primary school students.
After intense discussion, Zhao Han agreed to charge book fees. However, poor children were also allowed to borrow old books from previous years to study, or adults at home could help copy books.
A country with a large population and an agricultural society has no hope of realizing compulsory education for all, even if the period of compulsory education is only three years.
Zhao Han has now encountered a development bottleneck, and compulsory education can no longer be maintained. Expansion has also encountered a bottleneck. The larger the territory, the worse the finances. Unless the newly occupied territory adopts a control system, it will be difficult to expand rapidly.