Luzon, of course, is the Philippines, which is currently basically in the hands of the Spanish.
In this era that Westerners call the great geographical discovery, Spain continued to expand to the west of the Atlantic Ocean in accordance with the relevant laws of "Patronage", and finally crossed the American continent and crossed the Pacific Ocean. In Luzon, Cebu (1565), Manila (1571
Year) established colonial fortresses and trading outposts.
Coincidentally, after many years of disputes over sea opening and sea ban, the Ming Dynasty, under Gao Gong's insistence, announced during the Longqing period that the sea ban in Fujian was partially opened, allowing ships to trade in the "East and West Oceans".
The bulk commodities of the Ming Dynasty, such as raw silk, porcelain, etc., have long been best-sellers in the global market, and the Spanish owned a huge amount of American silver. Therefore, under the urgent needs of the markets of both sides, the trade between the Ming Dynasty and Luzon, or the Spanish Philippines,
It began to rise rapidly after the first year of Wanli and its scale continued to expand.
However, until this time, the Spanish still did not fully control the entire Philippine Islands. Their rule was still of the "point-to-area" type, that is, they mainly controlled important strongholds such as Manila, but were unable to penetrate into the countryside. The main reason for this is
The factor is simple: there are few people.
To be precise, there are too few Spaniards. So far, Spain has only 2,000 troops in Manila, its most important stronghold in the Spanish Philippines, and Gao Pragmatic has long considered whether to capture the Philippines.
The reason why Gao Pragmatic did not take action in the end was that when he was thinking about this matter, Spain was in its prime moment. Although there were some signs of various troubles, they had not yet seriously entangled it; secondly,
At that time, Gao Pragmatic was worried that it would be easy to capture the Philippines, but if captured, the transfer station for American silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty would be cut off, which would in turn intensify the silver shortage in the Ming Dynasty.
So why did Gao Pragmatic suddenly propose taking action against Luzon or the Spanish Philippines today?
The first reason is of course to divert the nobles' goals, so that they can temporarily withdraw their claws from reaching out to Japan, so as not to destroy Gao Situ's grand strategy; the second reason is very simple: the Spaniards have improved
Tax rates for Ming merchant ships heading to the Philippines for trade.
Out of the desire for commercial interests, as early as the forty-fourth year of Jiajing (1565), when Legazpi colonized the Philippine Islands, officials from the royal finance department accompanied him there. The three most important positions in the finance department were accounting officers.
, cashiers and administrators, who are usually responsible for evaluating royal interests and recording relevant financial data.
At the same time as Manila was founded (1571), the authorities also established some "royal safes", where members of the royal treasury were responsible for managing revenue and expenditure and writing accounting documents.
Perhaps because the early scale was so insignificant, the Spaniards did not impose taxes at the beginning. However, this does not mean that the Manila authorities completely ignored this potential source of revenue. The Philippine Governor Sande, who had strongly advocated the military conquest of China,
The report document dated June 8, 1577 (this year was the fifth year of Wanli) stated:
So far we have not levied any other taxes, such as import and export taxes. When I arrived in the Philippines, it was still in a difficult stage and the people were so poor that I did not dare to levy it. It seems that it may be considered soon and it will benefit from it.
.And now, no matter what goods the ship carries from China, the tax will not be much.
Obviously, Governor Sander's decision not to impose taxes for the time being is based on the realistic consideration that the trade between the two parties is "still in a difficult stage". Because even if a tax is imposed, "the tax will not be much." But on the other hand, "soon,
The prospect of “taxation” being considered and benefiting from it is a clear indication of the long-term plans of the Manila authorities.
During the third year of Wanli to the eighth year of Wanli (specifically August 1575-April 1580) during the tenure of Governor Sand, the Manila authorities once levied a "berthing tax" on Ming ships. In this regard, Philippine official Ryder
Sima recalled in a 1585 report:
When Dr. Sander was the Governor of the Philippines, it was stipulated that Chinese coming to the Philippines must pay a parking tax for each ship, which ranges from 25, 30, and 50 pesos depending on the size of the ship. In addition, there is no need to pay other taxes and fees.
.
Considering that the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty mostly arrived in the Philippines for trade in the first half of the year, and Sander only arrived in Manila on August 25, 1575, the actual collection time of the parking tax will not be earlier than 1576, and it is very likely that it will be effectively implemented
Delayed to next year (1577).
Gao Jingshi couldn't remember the specific time of this, because at that time he was busy studying on his own, accompanying him to study, and helping Gao Gong make plans, so he rarely paid attention to details.
But just as Governor Sand expected, in the eighth year of Wanli (1580) when Gao Pragmatic won the first prize, the number of Ming merchant ships going to Manila for trade increased sharply, and the scale of trade was significantly increased. Therefore, Long Qi, who succeeded him as Governor of the Philippines,
He considered starting to "consider taxation" in the second month after taking office.
On June 20 of the same year, Longchili formally proposed to King Philip II that a 3% goods tax be levied on imports and exports from the Philippines, and a tax of 3% per day would be levied on ships heading to New Spain (one of Spain's main colonies in the Americas).
Shipping tax of 12 pesos per ton.
Spain's excise tax is called "almojarifazgo", which is derived from the Arabic "al-musrif". It is also called royal tax (reales derechs) in some later literature. It was once widely implemented in Spain and the vast area of "West Indies".
.
In fact, although the scope of the goods tax implemented in the Spanish Philippines covers all imported and exported goods, due to the low level of local development and very limited products, this tax is actually mainly levied on goods from the Ming Dynasty entering and leaving the island.
However, the implementation of the Philippine goods tax was not so smooth. In the ninth year of Wanli (1581), Governor Long Qili levied a 2% tax on goods exported to New Spain and a 3% tax on goods brought to Manila by the Ming Dynasty.
.Who knew that he was not allowed to implement this tax rate, and was even criticized for it.
These voices of blame first came from the nominal administrative superior unit of the Philippines, the colonial authorities of New Spain in the Americas.
On March 10, 1581, on his way to the Philippines, Dominican Salazar, who had just been appointed as the first bishop of Manila, wrote to the Philippine financial official Ledesma in Chilapa, Mexico, insisting that the Philippines was now
It is not convenient to levy goods tax. His reason is "because the country (Philippines) is in the new stage and is not yet strong enough to sustain itself."
Echoing this, in the year following the implementation of the New Deal (the tenth year of Wanli, 1582), "certain businessmen and important persons" in the Philippines anonymously reported to the Spanish royal family:
Governor Longchilu imposed a 3% tax on all cloth, which caused great dissatisfaction among Chinese merchants. Those Chinese merchants claimed that they would not come to Manila again because trading was no longer free. Since it had not been long since we conquered this area, this country (Philippines)
It is so fragile and vast, and if there is no freedom in all aspects, it will probably be destroyed.
The statement that "Chinese businessmen are extremely dissatisfied" is not nonsense, because the representative of "Chinese businessmen" here is Gao Pragmatic. After Gao Pragmatic captured Annan, he expressed his dissatisfaction to certain local officials in Manila through Jinghua's fleet.
However, the main reason why Gao Pragmatic said this at the time was that Manila's infrastructure was still quite poor. The port facilities of Manila Port were not even as good as those of Qinzhou Port, which was temporarily built less than a year ago.
Compare this, when the Hong Dynasty was first re-opened, did they strive to improve the all-round basic guarantee of hardware and software while making various preferential policies including tax exemptions, in order to attract foreign businessmen, overseas Chinese businessmen, etc. to settle in? Your Philippine authorities
Even the port has not been repaired to a satisfactory level, and taxes are about to begin. So as the number one businessman, I am not allowed to express my protest?
Of course, having said that, at that time, I had already made up my mind not to move on. The Spaniards’ high pragmatism was just talk. He knew that the Europeans’ way of thinking was different from the Chinese. At this time, the Spaniards, especially, could only rely on “profit possibilities”.
damaged" to force change.
But something happened that confused Gao Pragmatic at that time. Even though the new tax system encountered various criticisms, it was finally officially approved. On May 10, 1583 (the eleventh year of Wanli), the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which was ordered to investigate whether the new policy was appropriate, released the final result.
The report is as follows:
His Majesty the King ordered the Supreme Court to investigate the policy of former Governor Long Qili to implement a 3% tax rate on imported and exported goods; to explore whether the policy is appropriate, and if it is inappropriate, abolish it, or take corresponding measures to correct it. Considering the shortage of funds in the royal treasury of the Philippines, local expenditures
Huge, the Supreme Court decided that the 3% tax rate policy will continue to be implemented.
The 3% tax rate seemed to be barely adequate for the high pragmatism of the time, so since the Philippine authorities insisted on levying it, they would levy it. Although the highly pragmatic people in Jinghua protested from time to time, they were not satisfied with the Philippine authorities and even the levy.
The King of Spain put pressure on him, but he really didn't care much about it.
However, another five years passed, and at the beginning of this year, Gao Pragmatic received a report that the Philippine authorities had raised tax rates twice in a row.
According to the report, the sixth Philippine Governor Santiago de Vera first adjusted the tax rate to 6%, but then suddenly changed his mind more than half a month later and announced that the tax rate would be adjusted again and directly raised to 10%.
The tax rate suddenly more than tripled, and the merchants of the Ming Dynasty naturally refused to trade. After the failure of contact with the Spanish authorities, Jinghua's trade fleet leader led a trade fleet including thirty-seven private merchant ships and sailed back directly
Ming Dynasty immediately reported to the Nanyang Fleet and Guangzhou Port and Quanzhou Port.
In the news Gao Pragmatic received, both the Nanyang Fleet and the managers of the two ports said: Governor de Vera is simply crazy. Although ocean trade is highly profitable, it is precisely because of such high profits that 10% of the goods
Taxation is a complete slaughter at the level of cutting arteries and bleeding. For a colonial authority, this kind of behavior is tantamount to killing a chicken to retrieve the egg.
But Gao Pragmatic knew what was going on as soon as he saw the report: Governor de Vera was not crazy, at most he was "forced to go crazy."
The reason is very simple. This year is the 16th year of Wanli, which is 1588 AD - the first expedition of the Invincible Fleet to England took place this year!
The Armada's expedition to England was never a one-and-done deal. In fact, the "Anglo-Spanish War" was a tug-of-war that lasted for about twenty years. This war was an unofficially declared war between the Spanish colonial empire and the Kingdom of England.
Intermittent armed conflicts, the entire war consisted of multiple large-scale battles. It began in 1585 (the fourteenth year of Wanli) when the United Kingdom and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Nansage. The United Kingdom supported the Netherlands in resisting the rule of the Spanish Empire.
In other words, the premise for the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War was the Dutch Revolution. There is no need to say more about this revolution. It only needs to be explained that at this moment, Spain has been deeply immersed in the Dutch quagmire, and has experienced two financial problems.
Subnational bankruptcy.
Spain, which had already gone bankrupt twice, was about to mobilize a huge Armada to expedition to England. The funds required were obviously extremely huge.
What's worse is that the French Religious War has also reached a critical moment at this time, and Henry III, the last king of the Valois dynasty, can no longer bear it. According to predictions in Spain, Henry III, who is seriously ill, may die at any time, and it is extremely likely that Henry III will die at any time.
The likely successor was Henry of Navarre.
Henry of Navarre was a figure that King Philip II of Spain hated extremely, not for any other reason, but mainly because the later Henry IV was a Huguenot (the name of Calvinism in France)
.
As the guardian of the Holy See, Philip II's religious enthusiasm can only be described as fanaticism, so he began to actively prepare to interfere with the changes in France. Of course, France is also a powerful power, so the funds needed to interfere with France are also worthy of being called
Massive.
To put it simply, the three wars that Spain is fighting and preparing to fight are all crowded together, and each of these three wars can be described as a gold-eating beast. In such a situation, how could the governor of the Philippines remain indifferent?
Stay out of it?
Gao Pragmatic believes that this is why Governor de Villa has continuously raised tax rates within half a month. However, understanding the motivation does not mean that he has to acquiesce and endure it.
If the Spanish-Philippine Governor-General honestly lets Manila serve as a transit point, the tax of 3% can be tolerated by Gao Jingjing, but if they want to adjust the tax rate to 10%, Gao Jingjing will not bother to reason with them.
Is my thousand-sailed two-ocean fleet here just to reason with you? Since you are in the first year of junior high school, don't blame me for being in the fifteenth year.
The reason why de Vera dared to raise the tax rate in this way is probably because he believed that Manila's business activities had formed inertia. In his view, as long as the merchants of the Ming Dynasty still need this huge benefit and need the silver of West India (America), even if the price rises
They will still come to pay taxes.
However, for Gao Pragmatic, this idea in turn is also no problem: since Manila's business activities have formed inertia, as long as Spain still needs this huge benefit, it needs to use money that cannot be eaten and clothed in exchange for Ming products, even if Luzon
Even if the owner changes, they will still come.
But when Gao Jingshi talked about snatching Luzon, Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong were stunned. After they were stunned, they were ecstatic: Gao Jingshi was actually willing to let them set foot in Nanyang!
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