Chapter 407 406 Tariffs

"They can't turn around because Xu Hai and Wang Zhi were both killed by the court. If they put down their weapons, they would just wait for beheading by the court."

Wei Guangde said in a low tone.

"Killing Wang Zhi was just a righteous person in the court at the beginning. Although a very small number of people objected, it was very rare after all."

Yin Shidan spoke.

"Yes, they have a good reason. After so many innocent people died, why should they let these people go?"

Wei Guangde sighed.

"Shandai, what's your solution?"

King Yu sighed lightly, and then asked.

What he wanted to know was how to solve the Japanese siege, rather than analyze the causes of the Japanese pirates. Although analyzing the causes is conducive to fundamentally solving the problem, the current situation is that it is already done and cannot be changed.

I forgot to say that Wang Zhi was the one who went to the prison for execution by Wei Guangde.

"Yes, just tell me what you have if you have any solution, so we can put it together."

At this time, Yin Shidan also spoke and said.

However, Wei Guangde still noticed the different expressions of the people in the room. Although King Yu and Yin Shidan were eager to hear the solution from his mouth, Zhang Juzheng still looked at him with wide eyes.

Obviously, Zhang Juzheng had some speculations about the method Wei Guangde wanted to tell, but it was difficult for him to confirm if Wei Guangde didn't say it. After all, King Yu had said that the ship would reopen, but the Japanese disaster was still there.

"In fact, whether it is to solve the Japanese pirates or solve the rebels in Fujian, the problem is the same, that is, to prevent them from becoming more and more intense.

How many Japanese pirates were initially scattered into countless small forces that were not subordinate to each other. But after the 27th year of Jiajing, especially since the 31st year of Jiajing, the strength of Japanese pirates had become tens of thousands, and even Japanese pirate leaders could command hundreds of thousands of people.

To solve the Japanese pirates, we must come up with the root of the problem, that is, to allow private merchants to go out to do business. Once they have a way out, they will naturally not become pirates and join the Japanese pirates again."

Wei Guangde's tone of speech was very plain, but when he heard it from King Yu and Yin Shidai's ears, he was like a bolt from the blue, and only Zhang Juzheng showed an expression that had already seen through everything.

Yes, Zhang Juzheng guessed that the sea ban was still lifted.

The sea ban in the Ming Dynasty originated from the policies of Zhu Yuanzhang during the period. During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang reiterated the sea ban every two or three years.

In the third year of Hongwu, the Ming government abolished the Huangdu Maritime Bureau of Taicang; in the fourth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that film boards were not allowed to enter the sea, and those who dared to trade privately must be judged; in the seventh year of Hongwu, the Ming government abolished the three Maritime Bureau of Quanzhou, Fujian, Mingzhou, Zhejiang, and Guangzhou, Guangdong. These are the official institutions responsible for overseas trade in various Chinese dynasties that have existed since the Tang Dynasty.

In the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that the Japanese pirates still did not restrain their footprints and ordered that the surfing people were strictly prohibited from engaging in overseas countries; in the 17th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Tang He to inspect the coastal cities of Zhejiang and Fujian, and prohibited people from entering the sea to catch fish in order to prevent the Japanese pirates from invading.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang's maritime ban policy was not to close the country or to interrupt official and private foreign trade. His purpose was more to completely solve the remnants of the two armed forces of Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen who fled to the sea.

The subsequent Emperor Yongle Zhu Di sent Zheng He to the West to the West, which actually illustrates this point.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's ban on seas only prevents the seaside residents from being connected with the "rebels" who are unwilling to surrender. It is a temporary military policy, which can affect maritime trade, and it is only temporary.

The subsequent emperors did not imitate Zhu Di but learned Zhu Yuanzhang's style. The reason is intriguing.

However, although most officials believed that the so-called ancestral system should be abide by, that is, the maritime ban should be implemented, there were still many knowledgeable people in the Ming Dynasty who believed that the maritime ban should be opened and private trade should be carried out.

However, most of these knowledgeable people are not aware of it. The publicly prohibited overseas trade has actually formed a complete chain of interests in private.

Originally, this chain of interests was operating concealed and efficiently under the cover of the market, but with the issuance of the ban on Emperor Jiajing, variables appeared.

However, this variable became increasingly intense under the stimulation of the high-pressure policies of several governors and governors, and eventually could not be dealt with, forming a huge Japanese disaster.

Of course, this is the result of some ambitious people making trouble in it.

But no matter what, Wei Guangde felt that as long as the people's journey to sea were properly opened up and the soil for the growth of Japanese pirates was blocked first, at least there was no fresh blood to replenish them, we could fundamentally eliminate Japanese pirates.

Only when the maritime merchants were given a way to survive and they would not join the Japanese pirate group one after another, the existing Japanese pirates would become less and less under the encirclement of the Ming army until they were all wiped out.

Otherwise, in order to survive, you will wipe out a group of Japanese pirates today, and more people will join in at the same time. In the end, the more Japanese pirates will be suppressed.

This principle is actually consistent with the principle of encircling and suppressing Fujian thieves.

As long as the officials do not force the people to rebel, and the people do not join the rebels for their livelihood, the natural influence and scope of the impact will be controlled. What is most afraid of is that a little flame will start, and that is that there is no way out.

"Now that Japanese pirates are so rampant, are there anyone willing to do maritime business and go overseas to do business?"

Yin Shidan frowned and said, Zhang Juzheng on the side was also very interested.

Although he guessed that Wei Guangde wanted to mention the matter of opening the sea, because he was in Huguang, he actually didn't know much about maritime business, and he was not even as detailed as his teacher Xu Jie knew.

"Of course there is."

Wei Guangde replied firmly: "The profits of the sea trade are beyond your imagination."

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde paused for a moment, and then continued to speak, "I remember from the 34th to 35th years of Jiajing, the court once sold the silk accumulated by the three major weaving bureaus in Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou through the Zhejiang Maritime Bureau. For this reason, the court made hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, solving the financial difficulties of the court."

"It seems that at that time, someone in the court proposed to plant a large number of mulberry trees in Zhejiang and Nanzhili to increase silk production, but in the end there was no result."

King Yu seemed to remember something at this time and interrupted.

"The country is based on agriculture, and the people are based on food. I know what Shandai said. In the end, the adults in the court were worried that mulberry trees would occupy farmland and affect the grain harvest, especially in the name of the court, and were worried that the people below would mess with each other, so they ended up leaving it alone."

Yin Shidan replied, which explained why the following text was lost in the end.

"This kind of writing is definitely not possible. The court issued official documents, and local officials didn't know what would happen in order to show their performance. They wouldn't be able to destroy the fields and plant mulberry trees."

Zhang Juzheng nodded. When he was in Huguang, he saw that many local officials could do anything to show their political achievements. No matter how ridiculous it was, as long as the superiors ordered it, they would do everything they could just to put on black hair.

"In recent years, has Maritime Corporation still sold silk to the outside world?"

At this time, King Yu came back to the point that Wei Guangde's intention was to earn money from the Yi people through the Maritime Warehouse. If he expanded his sales and earned one million taels of silver a year, it seemed that Hu Zongxian's additional stake could be abolished.

"The first thing that led to Zhao Wenhua was the one who led the warship was suspended after his death, but it seemed that the warship was suspended, just retaining the tribute."

Wei Guangde replied, "However, as far as I know, when the barbarians come to my Ming Dynasty, they want to buy more than silk. They are eager to buy porcelain and tea.

In fact, a lot of these things are stored in the official warehouses in various parts of Jiangnan. If the porcelain, tea and silk collected by the governments in various places were handed over to the Maritime Bureau for transactions like the silk they were treated, they could turn into a lot of money."

What Wei Guangde said was that during this period, the Ming Dynasty collected physical taxes for workshops, tea mountains, etc., which were not just tea and porcelain. The Ming Dynasty governments collected the most was actually grain, and there were even fruits and other things that were difficult to preserve.

Many articles in later generations quoted that the taxes collected by the Ming Dynasty were about 3 million taels, and the most were four million taels. However, in fact, this data was only the silver and money collected by the court and did not include a larger in-kind tax.

If all the goods collected by the court were discounted to silver, the total tax should be around 30 million taels of silver. Although this number is far lower than the tax of hundreds of million taels per year in the last dynasty in the last dynasty, it is not as small as many articles say.

Once these things are not transported in time, they will often be destroyed in large quantities. However, as long as the things are still there, who cares whether they are well preserved, and perhaps only food can be used relatively effectively in this era.

However, as Wei Guangde said, in fact, there are indeed a large amount of porcelain, tea and other items collected in the official warehouses in Jiangnan. Thinking about the silk and other items sold by the Weaving Bureau, they were eliminated and there were no materials transported to the north.

High-quality porcelain, tea, silk, cotton cloth, etc., of course, will be given priority to transport to Beijing through the Grand Canal. These high-quality items are used as salary payments, and officials can accept them.

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, King Yu's eyes shining, he was of course very clear about the financial difficulties of the court. Now he heard Wei Guangde propose such a solution to financial difficulties, he was naturally very interested.

But soon, King Yu's eyes dimmed, and he was really trying to turn all this into reality but was facing an almost impossible task.

Emperor Jiajing did not like to trade with the barbarians, and even he wanted to completely abolish the Maritime Bureau and keep all his wealth in the Ming Dynasty.

If Emperor Jiajing proposes to abolish the maritime ban and restart the market on a large scale, it will be a blessing or disaster.

King Yu could think that other people could do it, but Yin Shidan and Zhang Juzheng were not as simple as King Yu thought. What they needed to consider was the impact on the country if the sea ban was abolished as Wei Guangde said.

This is not a simple policy. It is enough to just release it. After all, the sea ban has been for many years, and no one mentioned this in the previous dynasty, but everyone tacitly understood the result.

Moreover, the meaning in Wei Guangde's previous words was very obvious. His so-called maritime ships were not now led by the imperial court to trade with the barbarians, but instead allowed private merchants to participate and let them go overseas to do business.

The maritime ban in the Ming Dynasty actually prohibited the people. The officials have been trading overseas through tribute trade, which is why this model was broken for some reasons.

However, there is still a contradiction in Wei Guangde's speech, that is, since he intends to use the maritime ship to deal with the goods hoarded in the southern official warehouse, but on the other hand, he lets merchants go to sea. Who doesn't know that the best goods have been transported north and the goods left in the southern warehouse are not of great quality, so how can they discount them then?

Who doesn’t know that if merchants obtain the right to trade in the sea, they will naturally sell high-quality items, because only these well-made products can be sold at a good price and they can get richer profits.

The goods collected by the court were all good and bad, and the good ones were shipped to Beijing, and the bad ones would be abandoned and left in the official warehouse there. Who would still want these bad ones if there were good ones?

Zhang Juzheng first raised this question. In his opinion, it is better to completely restore the maritime system, and there is no need to let the public participate.

Since there is profit in maritime trade, why not keep this profit in the court and enter the pockets of the court? Why do you have to let the people get a share of the pie?

"In fact, if the supply of goods is in short supply, those physical goods can be collected in cash, and it has not been done by various places."

Wei Guangde answered Zhang Juzheng's question just by flashing words.

Indeed, the Ming Dynasty paid taxes on physical goods at a certain proportion, but merchants could also choose to discount them, which was to use silver to offset them.

In addition to items given special uses, the actual items received by the government are actually not of high quality, or they can be said to be products that are difficult to sell on the market.

The main reason why these things are not easy to sell and are manufactured is that they are low in cost and can be used to deduct taxes.

After all, the market is so big, not all things can be sold when they are produced. Merchants are naturally very good at taking advantage of loopholes. They will sell the best and bad ones for money, and if they cannot be sold, they will be handed over to the government to tax deductions.

In other words, most of the things abandoned in the southern official warehouse are actually worthless things, and they are all linked up by merchants and local officials to fool the court.

However, that is under the premise of a fixed market. When there is a new market, the porcelain, cotton and other things produced are in short supply, who has time to make these worthless things? They are eager to sell all the things they make. At that time, the silver will be given to the government, so that everyone can save trouble.

Afterwards, Wei Guangde discussed some of the issues with Yin Shidan and Zhang Juzheng. Most of them were asked by Yin Shidan and Zhang Juzheng. Wei Guangde gave a solution, and King Yu, who was listening, gradually shining.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty seemed to like money very much. Perhaps they were afraid of being bullied by the Ministry of Revenue a few years ago. At this time, King Yu heard Wei Guangde's analysis that if the market was completely restored, it would be easy to increase hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year, but it was just a reselling of the physical items collected by the governments in various places that could not be cashed out every year.

If the private businessmen are released, they will definitely find a bigger market after taking a boat to sea. The southern industry and commerce will have unprecedented prosperity. At that time, the imperial court may be able to earn millions or even millions of taels a year by collecting taxes alone.

"Industrial and commercial development can absorb refugees, but this is a good governance. You collect taxes from workshops and you collect tariffs from the Maritime Bureau. How can you really have so many? Million taels?"

King Yu finally couldn't help but interrupt and asked.
Chapter completed!