Sea transportation of grain?

Wei Guangde took a step back and proposed that the idea that only grain transport was allowed by sea, and all civilian ships were transported through grain transport seemed to be somewhat operational in Zhang Juzheng's opinion.

At the very least, when it is clear that civilian ships must be transported through canal, local forces will naturally no longer oppose the issue of canal conversion to sea because they will not be affected too much.

The prosperity of towns on both sides of the Grand Canal is of course due to this north-south artery.

However, the Grand Canal has a limited capacity, which does not mean that it can be passed by unlimited ships.

According to the system, all locks on the canal are given priority to transport grain, and then there will be those carrying passenger ships and merchant ships.

In addition, due to the dry and flooding periods, ships are often blocked in the river and cannot move.

During this period, the Grand Canal was actually in a de facto state of disengagement.

How much grain does the Grand Canal transport to the capital every year?

Four million stones.

The four million stones of grain are mainly handed over by the six provinces and sent to the capital through the Grand Canal. Among them, Nanzhili pays 1.8 million stones per year, Zhejiang bears 630,000 stones, Jiangxi has 570,000 stones, Henan and Shandong have 380,000 stones, and Huguang has 250,000 stones.

There are many sayings in later generations that capitalism appeared in the Ming Dynasty, and some even said that it appeared in the Song Dynasty.

However, after he finished speaking, he saw Wei Guangde look embarrassed, and Zhang Juzheng also frowned and said nothing.

Regardless of whether the court should provide money to the canal or not, no matter how you look at it, this is a favorable measure for the court.

Zhang Juzheng finally publicly supported Wei Guangdelai.

It is still possible to use the method of dripping water to wear away the stone to break the solid defense of the Caoyun Group bit by bit.

The implementation of these policies promoted the development of the Ming Dynasty's economy, reduced the burden on the country, and restored the country's strength again. It was called the Jiajing New Policy in later generations.

Wei Guangde finished his thoughts, and King Yu did not express his support immediately, but looked at Yin Shidan and Zhang Juzheng to see their reactions.

Yang Bo is someone who even Yan Shifan, who has always been conceited, dare not look down on him.

In terms of military affairs, it is obvious that Wei Guangde did not care about it.

Not to mention that you can also take the land route, the cost will be at least doubled, which is undoubtedly as difficult for merchants as killing their lives.

King Yu did not think that Zhang Juzheng was stupid. On the contrary, this person was very smart, otherwise Xu Jieduan would not have chosen him as his successor.

The reason for this is that the oil and water in the canal transportation is too strong, enough to buy countless officials in the court to show their attention.

The officials privately talked about Emperor Jiajing’s cultivation, but they dare not say it in formal occasions. They can be written in the impeachment memorial, but what greeted him was a court stick and a demotion.

The system of hereditary title of relatives of foreign countries was changed and it was designated as permanent system.

In the early days of Emperor Jiajing's succession, in order to stabilize his rule, he corrected the ill-fighting policies formed by the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties, such as suppressing eunuchs and rectifying the administration of officials.

"Your Majesty is a monarch who is brave enough to explore, at least before he was obsessed with practicing."

But thinking about it, King Yu could understand that with Yang Bo in the court and the Ministry of War, they didn't have to worry about it at all.

The most important thing is that if the grain is converted into sea, the grain transported to the capital will probably increase a lot, and it is possible to increase to 4.5 million to 5 million stones.

Convenient transportation is naturally a great thing for businessmen, and it also conforms to the statement that officials do not compete with the people for profit.

After all, it was already a shock to win over You, and it depends on what he made a good Fujian look like.”

Of course, he would not collide with the Caoyun Interest Group in a stern way, as it would only make him crushed.

At this moment, in King Yu's mind, in the future, what he would do after he came to power, in addition to lifting the sea ban and choosing a market, the transformation of the canal transportation into the sea has also become the second thing to do.

"Shandai, there is no need to worry about Xinghua Prefecture?"

As for the possible losses during shipping, in fact, many shipwrecks occur on the canal every year for various reasons, so a lot of grain will be lost, so there will not be much more.

Yan Shifan was a cunning argumentative person, familiar with current affairs, and familiar with national laws. He was undoubtedly the number one person in the dynasty. Unfortunately, his talent was used on the wrong path.

King Yu nodded, then smiled and took Li Fang out of the house.

Wei Guangde said this, but he said it in front of King Yu.

King Yu felt that there was no reason not to support his father.

After King Yu left, Yin Shidan said, "Good loans, the canal transportation is too involved. If you are not careful, it will cause trouble."

After all, it was because of the low political status of merchants in the Ming Dynasty.

"What? Will the father not support him?"

Both of them nodded, knowing that the matter is of great importance. If it is spread, they are afraid that countless impeachment memorials will fly into Xiyuan tomorrow, and the target will definitely be Wei Guangde.

And how many ships are there in total on the Grand Canal?

According to the number of ships that Wei Guangde saw from Chaoguan, it is estimated that there are about 5,000 civilian ships on the Grand Canal.

Since then, the idea of ​​"focusing on agriculture and suppressing commerce" has become an important part of the official economic policies of China's dynasties.

Then, King Yu looked at Wei Guangde and said, "Your meaning is probably understood. I will remember what I said today and will think about this matter."

Perhaps because of Yu Dayou's charge, Wei Guangde spoke confidently: "What's more, there is no wind to let the Japanese pirates escape at present. Even if the Japanese pirates escape on the ship, they cannot get out of the sea. This is also the reason why they retreated to Pinghai Aicheng.

King Yu asked in surprise.

However, soon, after the imperial power was stabilized, Emperor Jiajing changed his career to dream of becoming an immortal, and wanted to live forever. Many pilot reform attempts in Jiajing's new policy ended in vain.

In the face of huge benefits, everyone will bow down to it, and everything else can be abandoned.

Wei Guangde whispered.

Although Yin Shidan was from Jinan, Shandong, he did not walk the canal very much. However, he had been in the court for many years and knew that the Caoyuan yamen had a very strong voice in the court.

"Well, that's good."

Zhang Juzheng smiled and said, "Civil ships will definitely not be able to afford this expenditure in the short term. Even if all the grains are transported by sea, the court will still have to bear a considerable amount of the expenses."

Even so, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think in his heart that King Yu did not dare to say the next sentence "The father is unkind but the son cannot be unfilial."

"Those words I said were heartfelt words, and the court was too deeply trapped in the canal transportation."

The imperial court, of course, only focused on the tariffs on grain and banknotes transported on the Grand Canal. As for the others, it seems that it is not impossible to give up.

Yin Shidian's attitude is actually not important.

Wei Guangde spoke, "Two, don't just look at the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people on the canal. You should know that millions of people suffer for their livelihoods."

Although many policies were later picked up by Zhang Juzheng and gradually evolved into the so-called "one-whip method" that was more well-known in later generations.

In the past few dynasties, officials who proposed to replace the canal transport by sea seemed to have not ended well, and the reason was self-evident.

Sure enough, Wei Guangde's next words were consistent with Zhang Juzheng's idea.

It is so good that they have huge financial resources to increase their voice in the court.

Guan Zhong took the lead in dividing people's occupations into four categories: "scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants", believing that "if you give up your ability and do things in the end, the fields will be deserted and the country will be poor." He also implemented the policy of "separating the four people from different industries and settled" in Qi State; Shang Yang advocated persuading agriculture and suppressing commerce, believing that "those who can do things in the end and prohibit the end" was rich; Han Fei clearly put forward the remarks of "agriculturalism and business as the end", and listed industrial and commercialists as one of the "five beers", which belongs to the national crackdown and removal.

Large canal ships in this era could carry nearly 2,000 stones of grain, but because the canal water is shallow, it generally loads about 500 stones of grain, so there were tens of thousands of ships needed to transport these four million stones of grain.

However, he still threw out this question, hoping to get their answers.

Although he did not get Yin Shidan's opinion, Wei Guangde proposed that Zhang Juzheng would support him, at least in the royal palace, the support would be very strong.

Not long ago, he also gave up the idea of ​​changing the canal transportation to the sea. After all, in Wei Guangde's words, the canal transportation is related to the livelihood of countless people and even the safety of the country.

While Yin Shidan was still lowering his head to think, Zhang Juzheng had already applauded.

But soon, Wei Guangde put forward another set of rhetoric, which was supported by Zhang Juzheng.

However, Wei Guangde had actually considered these things when he was thinking a few days ago, but he didn't think there was too much problem here.

As for the extremely light commercial tax, it is actually because the war has just ended and the Ming Dynasty is in a mess.

Zhang Juzheng nodded, "I have also heard that the governments along the canal have clever names in the name of controlling floods, dredging and digging of auxiliary rivers, and engaged in private fraud, taking the opportunity to plunder people's wealth and ointment, so that the people will live in poverty."

When King Yu heard Wei Guangde's words, he had no other expression on his face, but just smiled bitterly and said, "Okay, I know, in your hearts, what the father did.

The saint said that all the parents in the world are not just parents, and there is no need to say anything about the father and emperor.”

Zhang Juzheng knew very well that the maintenance cost of the canal was extremely high and was definitely not affordable by more than 10,000 civilian ships.

Of course, the false report is huge, and the expenditure was borne by the court in all dynasties, which is also the reason why the canal transportation yamen is so strong.

"However, this is true. Compared with the two, although the court still has to invest a large sum of money on the canal, it will definitely be much better than it is now."

More than 100,000 canal troops were directly taken away from the good ones to participate in the shipping process. The remaining ones were either supplemented with surrounding guards or transferred directly to ship owners. Those useless canals were sold directly to merchants. The court basically ignored the annual dredging and maintenance of the canal, and could directly collect them from the merchant ships. The people who were born on both sides of the straits could still do their familiar tasks.

The court is now in financial difficulties, so it would be better if it could save a lot of money.

To this end, we must first clarify whether the enemy is an official or a businessman or a business official, and who is playing the main role in this.

Of course, some of the hidden rules, such as the Cao army privately modified the Cao boats in order to increase their income, and increased the cargo capacity by extending the ships and other methods, that is, the Cao army carried goods from the north and south merchants to make profits, but it would not increase the grain transported to the north.

However, for Wei Guangde who came here, he had a big sprout of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, in order to alleviate domestic social and class contradictions, a series of reform pilot projects have been carried out in the tax and service system, such as investigating new land and editing corvee service, which has become an important reference for the reform of the tax and service system in later generations.

Whether sea transportation can replace canal transportation should actually be a gradual development process, at least that's what Wei Guangde thought.

Today's things are a bit too much, and it's the Xinghua Prefecture incident. Then it comes to Altan's invasion of borders this year, and then it's shipping and canal transportation.

It’s not that they don’t know the benefits of shipping, but that the benefits of shipping canal far exceeds shipping.
To be continued...