Chapter 188 187 books

In the afternoon, Wei Guangde, Zhu Dashou, Tao Dalin and Jin Da, followed Chen Jin and others to walk around the Hanlin Academy.

As they said, many bachelors' public housing units were closed tightly, and they all went to other yamen to pay the price, that is, editing and reviewing low-level officials, as well as doctors of the Five Classics, classics, attendants, and waiters.

After the yamen was released in the evening, Wei Guangde came out of the Hanlin Academy and went to a banquet with the Hanlin Academy officials he met in the afternoon.

The prosperity of the food industry in Beijing was largely due to this. Officials had a lot of direct social activities. Before, Wei Guangde discovered that after the officials were placed in the yamen, they often went out to find a tavern to eat and drink, and talk about private affairs, but they didn't say much in the yamen.

This meal was also a welcome banquet for the Hanlin Academy. All officials who received their salaries in the Hanlin Academy attended, which was very lively.

The capital has a strict night ban system, and the banquet ended early. Even so, when Wei Guangde returned to the Jiujiang Guild Hall, it was already the lights on. It took a little while to go along the way. Fortunately, he had already entered the market and was not stopped outside.

When they returned to the guild hall, Lao Kan and others had already returned. They were still watching the time. Why did Wei Guangde not come back so late, and he was worried that he would be stopped by Ye Jin.

The four Jinshi went to the yamen on their first day today. Wei Guangde and Zhang Ke both went there alone. Lao Kan and Xia Kefan were still quite company, so several people talked about the situation in the yamen again.

When he returned to his house, Wei Guangde called Zhang Ji, "You can go to Yashang tomorrow to ask if the buyer is willing to lower the price."

"Master, why don't we ask other houses? The house in Nanxunfang is in a good location and the buyer bites the price to death, so it's not easy to drop."

Zhang Ji said with a bitter face. He had run away several times, but there was no effect at all.

"You will fight for it next time. If you don't have it, you agree. The young master of the yard wants it."

The place where they had eaten this time was in the inner city. Only then did Wei Guangde know that most of them, the officials of the Hanlin Academy, lived in the inner city, and only a few of them had their own houses, and most of them were rented houses.

However, Wei Guangde doesn't want to rent a house. This is a house in Beijing. In the future, he can't buy it even if he wants to. There is no purchase in other places. Now there is no such requirement. Wei Guangde plans to buy the house in Beijing. Even if it is placed outside in the future, he will be able to rent it out or rent it out.

Although the yard is expensive, it does make it expensive, but Wei Guangde still values ​​the location.

Next, Wei Guangde had to consider what he heard in the morning, so he had no choice but to take it seriously. If there was a slight mistake, it would be a disaster. Wei Guangde didn't want to die in an unknown way.

However, by this time, Wei Guangde's shortcomings also emerged, and he couldn't figure out how the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade was going to happen.

In the south before, he knew very well that the sea trade had never stopped. Most businessmen were doing business related to sea trade and making money.

But Wei Guangde really doesn't know what the situation is in the official position.

Forget it, I don’t want to go to the Hanlin Academy tomorrow, so I will look for information first to check it out and see how the Ming Dynasty’s sea trade is now. It can cause such a big Japanese riot. I really don’t know what those coastal governments have done.

Early the next morning, Wei Guangde rushed to the Hanlin Academy to pay the call, and then went in.

Wei Guangde first went back to his public room and sat for a while, and the clerk Lu Bu brought tea.

Before he sat for too long, Wei Guangde went to the library of Hanlin Academy to find information about the sea trade.

He did not look up much information about the previous dynasty and the beginning of the founding of the country, but mainly searched for records about the Maritime Bureau from the Hongzhi Dynasty to the present, especially the decrees issued by the court to the Maritime Bureau.

After working in the library for a long time, there was too much information. Fortunately, the clerks guarding the library only found the information and documents for the past thirty years.

Fortunately, the Hanlin Academy did this. All the imperial edicts and memorials from the court have been collected in the Hanlin Academy. After all, history needs to be compiled, so it is not good to do it without these.

He asked the clerk to send the information he found to his public housing. Wei Guangde has not arranged it yet, so he has free time to do these things.

As for the day when he was on duty, he turned the library upside down. No matter how others think, he can't care. He first eliminated the hidden dangers left by the exam paper.

However, this search of information made Wei Guangde stunned, which was completely different from what he thought.

Before, Wei Guangde always thought that the Japanese pirates were greedy for wealth and ran to the coast of the Ming Dynasty to loot. This is actually the view of most of the mainland garrisons.

After all, they are pirates, and who would do business that is not for money?

But what Wei Guangde saw now was a bit beyond his imagination. The difference between the sea trade in the Ming Dynasty and later generations was a bit big.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Taizu did make it clear that the film board was not allowed to enter the sea, but later the Ming Dynasty had contact with surrounding vassal states. Whether it was the Ming Dynasty sent people to announce the decree or the missions from various countries came to the Ming Dynasty to worship, it was also extremely expensive, so most of them would bring local goods to trade.

The cost of travel in ancient times was very high, and Wei Guangde understood this very well.

Well, this led to the trade between the Ming Dynasty and foreign countries.

In fact, to be precise, it should be the restoration of maritime trade. After all, before the Ming Dynasty, Chinese products had already made great strides abroad and sold overseas.

The "Maibo Department" established by the Ming Dynasty was essentially established to serve this kind of tribute trade. Wei Guangde analyzed that the powers of the Maribo Department were mainly divided into three categories: one is to take charge of tribute affairs, which has a bit of the taste of the Honglu Temple; the second is to prohibit private overseas trade; the third is to control the issue of trade goods brought by foreign tribute envoys with the tribute.

The reason why the Maritime Bureau was in charge of tribute was Wei Guangde, who thought that the foreign envoys who came to the Ming Dynasty should be the main ones who took a boat, and the Ming Dynasty had strict regulations on foreign trade.

The Maritime Warehouse Department has three locations, namely the Guangzhou Maritime Warehouse Department, the Quanzhou Maritime Warehouse Department and the Ningbo Maritime Warehouse Department.

The Guangzhou Maritime Bureau was specially set up for tributes to Southeast Asian countries such as Chameng, Siam, Manraga, and Zhenla; the Quanzhou Maritime Bureau was specially set up for tributes to Ryukyu; Ningbo was originally an important port for China's foreign trade, but the Maritime Bureau here became specially set up for tributes to Japan.

Wei Guangde didn't care about the subsequent events, and he didn't look for the documents and searched directly for changes in recent decades. Then he saw the memorial of the Ningbo tribute dispute in the second year of Jiajing and the decree of Emperor Jiajing to dismiss the rebellion of the governor of the Maritime and the eunuchs.

Although the specific reason is not clear, Wei Guangde could also imagine that the Maritime Bureau was probably ruined by those officials who could rush to the camp, especially when the Maritime Bureau was controlled by the eunuchs in charge.

If you make more money by maritime trade, only mainland officials don’t understand it.

If Wei Guangde was a pure native, he would definitely not understand it. He would only think that he was the kind of business that ordinary businessmen did, and he would make money and lose money.

Indeed, there are great risks in sea trade, and natural disasters are even more human-made. However, if everything goes smoothly, the profit will be very objective.

In order to trade tribute, two Japanese daimyos came to the Ming Dynasty at the same time, and then because of a dispute, who could represent Japan, actually launched a lot of war in Ningbo City.

Although Wei Guangde doubted whether the local information was reported was true, he thought there might be some reasons to hide it, but the big aspects would not be bad.

What does it mean when two great names compete to pay tribute? Isn’t it obvious?

The tribute trade has huge benefits, which makes Japan's daimyo flock to it.

It’s just a pity that because of this incident, Emperor Jiajing was the eunuch of Ningbo and Quanzhou’s two maritime police departments, and the remaining Guangzhou maritime police departments were also dismissed soon.

The Maritime Bureau still exists, but the eunuchs in custody are gone, and the Maritime Bureau continues to be responsible for the promotion.

During this period, the Maritime Bureau only had the work of receiving tribute missions, and did not conduct tribute trade, and the delegation was not allowed to bring trade materials.

However, since the tribute trade was not possible, the missions from surrounding countries who came to pay tribute were sharply reduced.

Wei Guangde fell into deep thought. The Maritime Bureau, the yamen, mainly received tributes, and tribute trade was just an auxiliary business. And until now, tribute trade has completely stopped.

So how could the mulberry and rice dispute that is now arguing in the court?

And that day, Wen Yinglu bluntly said that he made money through the Maritime Bureau. Since it has stopped, is it?

Wei Guangde suddenly thought of a possibility, that is, the court or the inner court quietly started the tribute trade, but it did not explicitly lift the previous ban.

Thinking of this possibility, Wei Guangde thought about the reason for doing so.

Well, there are still many reasons.

The Japanese turmoil in Jiangnan is very turbulent now, and the Japanese turmoil originated from the market, which seems to have become the consensus of the court now. At least even officials who do not think so are unwilling to speak on this issue.

Therefore, to restore the function of the Maritime Trade Bureau, we can only do it quietly without making a big fuss.

As for the reasons for restoring the market, well, Wei Guangde can know without guessing it. It must be that the inner court has also been dragged down by the huge expenses of Emperor Jiajing's cultivation, so he can only find a way to make money.

There are not many ways to make money in the inner court, and most of them are under the noses of civil servants. If you go too far, you may be impeached.

Emperor Jiajing was very strict with the eunuchs in the inner court. The people in the capital said so, and Wei Guangde naturally heard this statement.

It seems that only the nearly monopoly foreign trade can achieve the interests of the civil servant group and the ability to make money.

Even if the eunuchs do not participate in the foreign trade of the Maritime Bureau, the families of officials and gentry along the coast will smuggle and make a fortune from it.

For the ministers in the court, perhaps they did not notice the great value of sea trade at the beginning, so as long as they did not rob the families of officials and gentry and just secretly did not violate their bottom line, they would naturally turn a blind eye.

The maritime trade led by eunuchs may have made amazing profits. The current civil service group has also discovered the huge interests of the maritime department. Do they want to get a share of the pie from the inner court?

So, I began to want to take the business of Maritime Corporation to the table?

After reviewing the court's statements and decrees on the Maritime Bureau in recent years, Wei Guangde came to a conclusion that the court has been deliberately or unintentionally weakening the existence of the Maritime Bureau.

However, now the court is openly discussing increasing the trade of silk, porcelain and other products to make money, which is obviously unreasonable.

If the above speculation is true, then why is this matter that will harm the interests of the inner court put on the table?

Wei Guangde still thinks it is unreasonable, unless the inner court realizes that the cake is too big and cannot be eaten by himself, and needs the outer court to help share the burden?

However, Wei Guangde immediately denied this possibility. Who would think that the money was too much?

Then, there is only one possibility that they will make money, and that is someone to stop their trade behavior.

The business carried out by the Maritime Bureau will essentially harm the interests of coastal smuggling merchants. Their people in the court will definitely try to obstruct them. Then the inner court chooses to simply cooperate with the power of the outer court to crush them?

Wei Guangde patted his head and came up with a reason that he thought he could explain. In fact, as long as he determines whether anyone in the official business has participated in the trade, he can tell whether the above guess is correct or not.

However, for a new recruit like Wei Guangde, who can he ask?

Who will pay attention to him?

There is no overseas trade on the surface, so why can we still have a big discussion in the court? It’s really a ghost.

Stayed in the Hanlin Academy until the time was paid. No one organized a winery today, so Wei Guangde took a bus back to the Jiujiang Association early.

"Did you go to what I told you last night?"

On the carriage, Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji if he had gone to negotiate with the homeowner during the day.

"Young master, I've been there, but that family still doesn't want to reduce the price. If you want it, you can only give 1,500 taels of silver."

Zhang Ji said with a sad face.

"What expression."

Seeing Zhang Ji's expression, Wei Guangde felt funny, "If you don't lower the price, you won't lower the price. It's not that the young master has no money. Tomorrow you will tell the people from Yashang that I want the house and sign the contract. Let the people from Yashang report to me as soon as possible."
To be continued...