Now Anping has been reduced to an abandoned port after the Kinmen War, and the remaining Guangzhou port has fallen due to the invasion of bandits. Therefore, the imperial court cannot receive a penny of money from sea trade.
The ministers of the imperial court did not think that the loss of overseas trade ports was a big deal. Because in most years of the Ming Dynasty, the ocean only brought threats, not income. In order to prevent "Japanese pirates" and "foreign pirates" from the East and the West,
”, and also spend a lot of money on coastal defense.
The opening of the sea in Longqing has a special significance in the history books. In fact, if we study the content of its policy and the background of its adoption, we will know that the so-called "opening the sea" is more of a helpless prohibition.
It was nothing more than Yu Zheng's measures. When the government could not ban private overseas trade, it opened a crack to a limited extent and transferred part of the underground trade to the ground, so that taxes could be collected from it. This does not mean that the Ming Dynasty had realized that maritime trade
The importance of Ming Dynasty does not mean that the Ming Dynasty's attitude towards trade changed.
The choice of Yuegang as an open port itself reflects that opening up the sea is an expedient measure. There are many mountains near Yuegang, making this place a relatively closed and independent space. The land is sparse and barren, and transportation is inconvenient. The Ming Dynasty encouraged
It is difficult for agriculture to develop here. People who have to rely on the sea to eat have started smuggling trade. In other words, this is a "last resort" approach. The geographical environment of Yuegang itself is not suitable for being an open port.
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This half-hearted on-off policy caused the imperial court to pay little attention to the development of maritime trade, and also intentionally restricted it. Even in the most prosperous year of 1594, all tax revenue from Yuegang was less than 30,000 taels. It had a great impact on the Ming Dynasty's finances.
It's just a drop in the bucket.
Wen Tiren is from Huzhou, Zhejiang, and has personal experience of the "profit" of sea trade. Most of the silk fabrics exported overseas come from here. As a local gentry, the income from selling raw silk and cocoons alone is a huge amount of income every year. As for the
Others were not too impressed by this.
Liu Yuliang said: "Your Majesty, this dynasty opened a port and followed the old practice of Yuegang. Every year, taxes, water rates, and land rates were introduced, and the increase in rates was only 20,000 taels. Today, it is said that we can get 200,000 taels of silver. This is actually a lie."
Other cabinet ministers also expressed doubts. Two hundred thousand taels is not a small number. In many places, the annual commercial tax of a county is only a few taels of silver. Even though Shanghai County is rich, it is not possible to turn stone into gold.
But Wen Tiren knew that this was not a lie. He had heard about the high profits of sea trade. Especially in recent years, the China Merchants Shipping Company, based in Shanghai, quietly did business with Japan and North Korea, and the Jiangnan gentry who participated in the shares all made a lot of money.
The pots are full. Although the Wen family has not directly invested in the stock, their family is one of the main suppliers of raw silk to China Merchants Shipping Company. They can make thousands of taels of raw silk every year just by selling raw silk. If the imperial court opens a port in Shanghai, according to the original conditions of the port
For example, ships were issued according to the system of 110 taels for the East and West every year. Based on the "rate" Zheng Zhilong collected in Anping, which was 2,000 taels per ship, 200,000 taels were easily captured.
I wonder who the person who wrote the letter was? Wen Tiren was secretly surprised. He had read all the memorials sent by the Secretary of General Affairs to divert pornography, and probably knew the contents. In the past year or so, no one had written a letter to discuss the opening of ports and the establishment of customs.
The emperor had lived in the palace for a long time and had never even been to the capital. It was obviously not his own idea, so who wrote the letter? Wen Tiren immediately thought of eunuchs.
The greed of the eunuchs was unusual, and during the Wanli period, eunuchs were sent to various tax offices to serve as tax supervisors. Could it be that the emperor was bewitched by the eunuchs and only remembered this matter?
However, most of the current maritime trade interests in the south of the Yangtze River are in the hands of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. If the imperial court wants to open a port in Shanghai and seize their convenience, it is tantamount to seizing food from the mouth of a tiger.
Although he was already determined to renovate the community and set up a gate in Shanghai to cut off their financial resources, he did not want to be an enemy of the Jiangnan Jin gentry. What's more, the eunuchs planned this matter and did not communicate with him - he did not
He objected to the eunuchs making money through this, but he had no interest in giving them a free benefit.
Immediately, he coughed slightly and said: "Opening a port can certainly increase the country's harvest. But Shanghai County is not very appropriate." He reminded, "Shanghai is a large county in Nanzhi, only a few hundred miles away from Nanjing. It's going to be fast.
It also strangles the main channel of the Yangtze River into the sea, and is an important coastal defense town. There are many ports along the river and few warships, so it is the most difficult to defend and is not suitable for opening ports for trade. "
The various advantages of Shanghai's sea trade were considered by officials in the 17th century to be its biggest disadvantage. When Wen Tiren said this, the cabinet ministers expressed their agreement.
Wen Tiren's words were so reasonable that the emperor could not refute them for a moment. After all, this was just the advice of an unknown person like Qian Taichong.
Seeing that there was nothing more to say about the matter, Wen Tiren said again: "Although Shanghai is not suitable, the opening of the port mentioned by the emperor will also be of great benefit to the national affairs. I would like to ask you to open another place in another coastal province where it is not very critical."
Choose a place to open a port and set up a border."
This was said very appropriately and took care of the emperor's face. Chongzhen was also very satisfied. In fact, whether it was Yuegang, Guangzhou or Shanghai, he had no special impression. In the end, he was impressed by the income of 200,000 taels.
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As long as he could receive money, he didn't care where he chose to open the port. He immediately praised him and said, "Wen Qingguo is a mature and prudent person."
"Long live thanks." Wen Tiren took the opportunity to report again that this matter involves foreign barbarians and is of great importance. He might as well issue an edict and order the six ministries and nine ministers and the envoys along the coast to report it.
"What Wen Qing said is absolutely true. We must be cautious about this matter." The emperor nodded, "I will issue an edict clearly according to what Qing said."
Wen Tiren returned to the mansion and thought about today's summons. Originally, there was nothing special about the summons. The strangest thing was this "preface" that came from nowhere.
Although he speculated that the eunuch was responsible for the incident, when he came back and thought about it carefully, it seemed that the matter was not that simple.
Although Wen Tiren did not collude with the eunuchs, he still had considerable connections in the palace so that he could keep abreast of the inner court news. If someone really intended to seek the position of a eunuch, there would be no news at all.
Could it be that it was not the eunuch, but someone else who was secretly reporting it? Thinking of this, Wen Tiren called a close aide to accompany him, and whispered a few words, asking him to go see a eunuch immediately to inquire about the news.
However, this is not the most important thing for him at the moment. Wen Tiren's political sense is very sensitive. Since he joined the cabinet, he has made many enemies. These political enemies are now converging and plotting to expel him from the cabinet, and the emperor is vaguely aware of the situation.
It also showed dissatisfaction with him.
When the Holy Family declines, not only is the official career difficult to protect, but even life may be in danger. Ever since Wen Tiren knew that Donglin-Fushe was planning to resurrect Zhou Yanru, he had a premonition that his own feet were beginning to shake.
If he wanted to get rid of Zhou Yanru, he could only raise a major case, just like when he framed the commoner Zheng Huang in order to exclude Wen Zhen and Meng Gou. However, although Zhou Yanru was full of misdeeds, there was nothing serious to arrest him, and he had already resigned and returned home.
Xiang, unless he was framed for treason, and the major treason case would inevitably involve factory guards, he was not sure that he could make Cao Huachun and Wu Mengming act according to their own wishes.
What should we do? After thinking about it, since it was Donglin-Fushe who pushed Zhou Yanru to come back, removing his wings is also a way. Under his operation in the past few years, Donglin has become very powerful in the court.
Minus, the one who really has the ability to make waves is the rising star who returns to society.
Fushe is known as Xiao Donglin. There are many overlaps in political opinions and members, but there are also differences between them: First, Fushe pays more attention to controlling the academic field and supporting disciples; while Donglin only focuses on the internal struggles of the court and has no influence on the science and technology.
The market is not interested; secondly, Fushe pays more attention to controlling local areas, while Donglin’s focus is on the central government.
Because Fushe "spared no effort" in recruiting disciples, it had great control over the academic field, and the phenomenon emerged that "all Chinese-style people are Fushe people".
The existence of such a group, even if it does nothing, would still thorn in the back of a powerful official like Wen Tiren, not to mention that it is its own enemy!
Because of Donglin's relationship, Wen Tiren and Fushe had already been at odds with each other for a long time. In June of the sixth year of Chongzhen, shortly after Wen Tiren became the first minister, his younger brother Wen Yuren instructed Wu Bing, a native of Yixing, to write a book called "The Legend of Green Peony".
Alluding to the various ugly phenomena of Fushe, Wen Yuren also ordered people to adapt the book into a script and put it on the stage and perform it everywhere.
This incident caused a big fuss and alarmed Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai. The two Zhang made a special trip to Zhejiang for this purpose and met with Li Yuankuan, the academic governor. Li Yuankuan immediately ordered the ban on the book, held the author accountable, and arrested Wen Yuren's family members and imprisoned them.
After this incident, Wen Tiren realized for the first time the strength of Zhang Pu. Although he had resigned, he could still control the government affairs. He made up his mind to eradicate Fushe.
In the autumn of that year, the harvest in Taicang failed, and Er Zhang wrote an article "Military Reserve Theory" to discuss the famine relief policy. Suzhou government official Zhou Zhikui accused Er Zhang of "violating the ancestral system and disordering the canal regulations." Zhou Zhikui was
A native of Fuzhou, he also joined the Fushe and was friendly with Qian Qianyi and Qu Shichu of Donglin. He lectured at Ence Academy. He was conceited because of his high reputation and was not accepted by other members of the Fushe. He later developed a grudge against Zhang Pu.
However, his impeachment had no effect, and Zhou Zhikui was dismissed in July of the eighth year of Chongzhen. Zhou Zhikui believed that his resignation was the result of the operation of the restoration society, and was very angry, so he wrote an article "Reviving the Society or Questioning",
Accused Fu She and Er Zhang. In May of 1999, Lu Wensheng, a Taicang native, accused Er Zhang of "advocating Fu She and causing chaos in the world." Wen Tiren took the opportunity to send the accusations of Zhou Zhikui and Lu Wensheng to the relevant departments for review, hoping to use the opportunity to raise a large prison.
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However, Wen Tiren obviously misjudged the power of the "Tongtian Cult Leader". Ni Yuangong, the imperial censor, Feng Yuanyang, the deputy envoy of Haidao, and Zhou Zhonglian, the magistrate of Taicang, refused to carry out the orders and even demoted themselves to protect them, which caused Wen Tiren's plan to encounter setbacks.
This incident made him fully aware of Fushe's energy, and therefore determined to eradicate Fushe.