The court is like a knife and the people are like flesh. More than a hundred years later, Zheng Zhilong was crowned the Dragon King of the Sea and had to bow his head to serve the Qing Dynasty.
If it weren't for the chaos in the world, the relationship between local powerful people and the central government could only be one of subordination. Even a powerful hero like Zheng Zhilong would only end up with his head missing.
Zheng Zhilong's death is certainly related to the Manchu Qing government changing the rules of the game in the Southeast, but the most fundamental psychological reason is still the same as that of Wang Zhi, the captain of the Wufeng ship: traveling at night in brocade clothes is not as good as returning home to be dignified.
This is the deep-rooted feeling of the Han people that fallen leaves return to their roots, and it is also the inherent land-adhesion characteristic of farming civilization.
Although Zhu Shou did not understand this, the Chinese culture deep in his bones still made him subconsciously choose the right path.
That was to lure maritime merchants back into the Ming Dynasty's political system in the name of the court.
In order to accommodate this huge amount of funds and personnel and whitewash them as good citizens of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shou took great pains to open twenty ports, of which eighteen were for civilian use and two for military use.
This is what he learned from the game Age of Discovery: the more ports there are, the more revenue is generated, and the more warships can be repaired.
I have to say that this trick of the uneducated and otaku emperor is really wrong.
Because the next development was completely beyond Zhu Shou's expectation: his move was not counterattacked by the civil servant group!
You must know that from the Yongle period onwards, there were only three shipping offices in the Ming Dynasty: Laiyuan in Fujian, Anyuan in Zhejiang and Huaiyuan in Guangdong. They were mainly responsible for tribute envoys from various countries and pretended not to pay attention to private commercial transactions.
arrive.
For example, in the early years of Zhengde, Xiong Xuan, the eunuch of the Municipal Shipping Department, tried to participate in the drawing of merchant ships from various countries such as Manchuria and other countries, and petitioned and managed it. However, the Ministry of Rites believed that the duty of the Municipal Shipping Department was only to pay tribute and should not exceed his authority, so he vetoed his decision.
request.
In the fourth year of Zhengde's reign, the Siamese state ship was caught in the wind and drifted to Guangdong. Xiong Xuan once again petitioned to collect taxes. As a result, the court said that he was audacious and transferred him directly back to Nanjing, sending the eunuch Bizhen to take over.
The root cause is that once the commercial tax loophole is opened, smugglers will lose a lot of profits, which they do not want to see.
So why didn't Zhu Shou's move encounter strong resistance from the smuggling group?
As we said above, the Ming Dynasty's nationwide smuggling style was rare in the world, and people smuggled thousands of miles just for money.
The smugglers who have made enough money eventually want to bleach the money, exchange it for land and business names, and live a happy life as a peasant woman in various cities with a little land.
And how much does bleaching cost?
Zheng Zhilong of later generations had a vivid metaphor: I earned ten taels of silver, of which five taels belonged to officials, three taels belonged to friends from all over the country, one tael belonged to my brothers, and in the end, only one tael went into my own pocket.
His words also have another meaning: Chaoting? Only the ghost uncle will give money. You know, officials are officials, and the imperial court is the imperial court. If you give it to the officials, you don't need to give it to the imperial court again.
The bleaching cost of up to 50% is an unspoken rule of the smuggling industry and has been common throughout the ages.
If Zhu Shou only opened a few ports and could not accommodate this black gold, the resistance he would encounter would make the emperor very anxious and even cause chaos in the government and the public.
But when twenty ports were opened at once, not only were all the smuggling groups, large and small, dumbfounded, but all the civil service groups also collectively silenced themselves.
Why?
Because the black gold bleaching process was directly transferred from the hands of officials to the emperor, and the cost was greatly reduced.
Twenty ports, not to mention all the existing smuggling groups, even doubling the funds and personnel will not be able to absorb the population base behind these ports.
Since everyone has money to make, why bother to have trouble with the emperor?….
Besides, who doesn’t want low cost? Without the support of the smuggling group, how could the civil and military officials outside the group possibly confront the emperor? Besides, without the source of black gold, there is no need to work for the smuggling group.
"Not competing with the people for profit is a good law."
After hearing the news of the 20-port trade deal, Li Dongyang, the chief minister of the cabinet, was writing. He was shocked when he heard the words. He put the pen in his hand on the rice paper and stood there for a long time. Then he sighed and said the above sentence.
This trick is a wonderful one.
"I not only want to open twenty mouths, but also forty mouths and one hundred mouths!" The otaku emperor was happy for a moment and ran away from the train. "By then, the Ming Dynasty will have countless merchant ships, battleships, and dragon flag generals.
Into all the ports in the world.”
The eunuchs who accompanied him had long been accustomed to the emperor's nonsense, and they all pretended not to have heard him.
Therefore, as soon as Zhu Shouna's "Articles of Association of the Royal East China Sea Company", which was about half a foot thick, came out, smuggling groups from all over the world flocked to it. The original firm resistance gradually turned into firm support.
In the past few days, the post stations all over the Ming Dynasty were very busy. Express trains of three hundred miles and six hundred miles came one after another. Everyone used public and private equipment, communicated up and down, and exchanged ideas. It was a great time.
From the initial announcement of the news, to the imprisonment of the three governors, to the emergence of the "Articles of Association of the Royal East China Sea Company", the political trend of the Ming Dynasty could be said to have changed rapidly.
In just a few months, the smuggling group's trend changed from initial opposition, to wait-and-see, to hesitation, to limited cooperation, and finally to full support.
When Xiong Xuan, the eunuch who promoted the shipbuilding industry, stood in the middle of the main hall of Fengwu Building and sounded the bright gong that was half a man tall, it not only meant the beginning of the large-scale auction of Donghai Company, but also meant the beginning of the Ming Dynasty Public-Private Partnership Shipping Group.
The birth of.
"Nineteenth level agent qualification, starting price: 10,000 taels, each bid must not be less than 1,000 taels!"
The red-faced Eunuch Luo Xiangluo was going crazy. His face was covered with sweat, but he had no intention of wiping it off. His sleeves were rolled up, the hair crown on his head was crooked, and his belt was hanging sideways.
It is stuck on the waist, and he does not look like the newly minted chairman of the third-grade board of directors, but more like an old man selling fish balls on the street.
"Thirteen thousand taels!" A frowning old man raised the sign in his hand.
"It's Shopkeeper Li from Chaozhou Prefecture. Behind him are nine large trading houses." Some businessmen who recognized the old man began to whisper.
"I heard that there is another county king." A well-informed person added.
Eunuch Luo shouted excitedly: "Thirteen thousand taels! Is there anything higher? First time!"
According to the "Articles of Association of Daming Donghai Company", the auction is divided into three stages: starting price, bidding and setting. Before setting the price, you must be reminded three times before the final decision can be made.
Originally, there was no need to trouble Eunuch Luo to take care of such trivial matters, as the eunuchs were responsible for it. Unexpectedly, Zhu Shou saw the hot scenes of the previous dozen rounds, and his hands itched for a moment, so he wanted to go into battle himself.
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty performed a show on the spot, how unbecoming it was! The eunuchs quickly tried to stop it, and finally Eunuch Luo volunteered and left the show in person, which immediately set off an uproar in the venue.
This unintentional dramatic effect also made the representatives of various smuggling groups more reassured: Look, Eunuch Luo has ended up. He was a high-ranking official equivalent to the eunuch, the chief eunuch, and in the outer court, he was a high-ranking official of the third rank.
There were also sharp-eyed representatives who saw the factory guard leaders upstairs and downstairs who looked like they were facing formidable enemies. They guessed that it was probably His Majesty the Emperor who was also here.
In order to leave a good impression on their respective owners in front of the emperor, the representatives bid with even greater enthusiasm.
Take this first-level agent as an example, which is equivalent to a two thousand material ship.
Two thousand materials is a unit of volume in the Ming Dynasty. This kind of ship was the largest sea-going ship of the Ming Dynasty at that time. According to historical data, it is almost equivalent to a displacement of more than a thousand tons. It is more than twenty feet long and about four feet wide.
, according to the two masts within ten feet (recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu"), a two thousand material ship exceeding twenty feet should have six masts...
At that time, the market price of five chickens was only two taels of silver; the salary of a bookbinder was only seven cents of daily wages. The annual salary of the Yamen Secretary (now a civil servant) was only three taels of silver.
The annual salary of a subordinate (equivalent to a policeman or government worker) is only twenty taels.
The cost of building a two thousand material ship is only more than five thousand taels.
Why is the qualification of a first-level agent worth more than 10,000 taels at this auction?
This starts with the hierarchical agency system. The hierarchical system formulated by Zhu Shou was inspired by the commercial society of later generations.
The lowest is a fourth-level agent, who can own a 500-material ship and operate a year's business in 18 civilian trading ports. The Ming Dynasty court will issue a formal document and go overseas under the unified leadership of the Donghai Company's fleet.
trading.
Of course, with rights, there are also obligations. Zhu Shou worked hard and worked with Eunuch Luo and other close eunuchs to come up with many rules to limit the ships with agency rights.
"There should be rules," Liu Jin, who was watching from the sidelines, finally reminded everyone, "But out there, things are changing rapidly and there are many dangers at sea. It is better to hand over these ships to directors with colored diamond qualifications to monitor them."
It saves you worry.”
I have to say that Boss Liu is a genius, especially when it comes to grasping people's hearts: colored diamonds are based on a regional agency system (more on this below). There are naturally solutions to the problems in the Jianghu. The court only has to set the rules, and outside the rules.
We still have to rely on the maritime business groups below to resolve the matter on their own. As long as Chaoting is at the helm, there is no fear that Donghai Company will capsize.
Therefore, at the end of more than a hundred rules, Zhu Shou added one of the most important rules: all ships below the first-level agent are jointly supervised by the Royal East China Sea Company fleet and the colored diamond fleet.
This rule, which was widely criticized and criticized by later generations, seemed to be a somewhat advanced concept when it came out.
Level 3 agents, in addition to enjoying the rights of level 4 agents, also have the capacity of the vessel upgraded to 1,000 materials. This is a corresponding increase in their respective rights and obligations.
Secondary agent, one thousand five hundred materials.
The first-level agent is two thousand materials, and the backend of the company that can own two thousand materials ships are all big guys from various places who have the ability to build an ocean-going fleet. They themselves are the setters in this gambling game, and each of them is also capable of fighting for it.
Qualified for colored diamonds, the first-level agent is called "the most liberal smuggler in the Ming Dynasty".
This is why the first-level agent qualification is worth more than 10,000 taels, because it is not just a ship, but more, it is free rights outside the rules.
"Thirteen thousand taels! The third time! Deal!" Eunuch Luo banged the wooden hammer on the gong, marking the nineteenth time that shopkeeper Li Da of Chaozhou Prefecture had obtained the first-level agent qualification.
At this time, the auction meeting was already halfway through, and more than 2,000 second-, third-, and fourth-level agent qualifications had been auctioned off in batches, yielding more than 2.34 million taels of silver.
As one of the highlights, the first-level agent qualification is to complete the transactions one by one. The first nineteen have already sold nearly 250,000 taels of silver.
The delivery of the silver was the responsibility of relevant personnel from the Ministry of Accounts and Donghai Company. Although Eunuch Luo did not see the white silver flowing with his own eyes, he knew after a little mental calculation that this was an unimaginable huge amount of money.
"Twentieth level one agent qualification!"
Eunuch Luo's strong voice roared out a loud and changed tone.