At the end of July in the sixth year of Kayei (early September 1853), the shogunate envoy Ban Oguri Tadjun quickly left Shirozu after an inspection. The whole trip did not exceed seven days, but the impact was very far-reaching. To this day, Shirozu has officially boarded the official board of the Tokoku Shrine.

It reached the grand stage at the end of the Tokugawa period and became the two poles of the Northland alongside the Matsumae family in Ezo.

Poor Sawamura Sonojo, after his mission to Edo, he had to continue taking Shirozumaru to escort Oguri to Matsumae, and then send him back to Edo - because of the "prohibition on large ship construction", the shogunate did not have large ships, and Sengoku

The cargo ships were slow. When Oguri left Edo, he commandeered Kinokuniya's four Benzai ships to sail northward. But he had no plans to return home, so he ignored the four slow-moving merchant ships and asked Naohide to send Shirochumaru to him.

Sawamura Sonosho really does not want to go to Edo again, not because he is tired, but because Oguri and Naohide colluded to fabricate the "fact" that the Lucians invaded many times in the past two years. This time Oguri acted as guarantee, then

The shogunate must have carefully investigated, and the unfortunate task of being questioned fell on him.

Although the White Lord had taken precautions before and had written in official documents over the years that he had been harassed by Nanman ships several times, the result was that they were all successfully expelled with little damage to himself. However, this time it was different. The White Lord officially cleared the name and transferred some of the Western ordnance and

The artifacts are made public, so it is not easy, so Sawamura must memorize the confession first so as not to cause trouble to Oguri - Oguri is an omifu, and under normal circumstances, as an inspector, the shogunate must recognize the facts he determines, but in case the shogunate does not admit it

Instead, he said that Bai Zhu's previous report was downplayed and the facts were concealed? Therefore, Oguri's endorsement also took a risk.

What happened to Oguri? Naohide was concerned but not worried - it was useless to worry. In addition to the dozen muskets and several sewing machines that were turned in, he took three thousand small gold coins from the warehouse and loaded them with white pills.

I wrote to Kinokuniya Rihachi in Edo and borrowed another two thousand taels of gold, which were all consulting fees - considering that the white master only showed a small part of his strength, five thousand taels of gold was quite a lot.

After giving away five thousand taels of gold, how much wealth does Master Bai actually have?

Neither Naohide nor Okubo told the truth to Oguri, because the facts are very shocking. After three years of hard work, especially this year's expansion, although the population of Baidu is still short, it has developed very rapidly in other aspects:

In early November 1850, Naohide arrived at Baichu with a boat and sixteen companions. At the same time, the rice ship Nautilus also followed under the leadership of Captain John Bryan.

If it weren't for the ordnance sent by the rice boat, Naohide and his friends would have been wiped out by the Ainu tribe's raid. Moreover, Naohide also received 10,000 eagle gold from the rice boat. The 1,000 taels of gold given by the shogunate at that time

One hundred and thirty taels and more than 600 copper coins were left. Without the support of Yingyang, Bai Zhu would have gone bankrupt on the spot the next summer.

In April 1851, Kinokuniya in Edo, under the order of Oguri Tadjun, Kishi Shigeya at the request of the Zaoya-gumi, and Saitaniya in Tosa Kochi, at the request of Ryoma, sent the first batch of immigrants to Shirozu.

and a large amount of supplies, but at that time Shiro was still unable to make ends meet. How embarrassed was he at that time? When Genzaburo Inoue, the head of the survey, went to Matsumae to repair the ship in May, he borrowed two hundred taels of gold under the cynicism of the Matsumae samurai.

This miserable situation lasted until July of that year. During the Seal Island hunt that month, nearly 20,000 seal skins were obtained, which was equivalent to more than 60,000 small settlements. From then on, the White Master's finances turned a profit.

In early September 1851, the rice ship visited again. At that time, it hunted more than a dozen whales on the Shiretoko Peninsula and harvested more than 10,000 furs on Seal Island, equivalent to more than 40,000 small gold coins - of which the white master accounted for

About 30,000.

But the more money you make, the faster you spend it. The most important thing is that the fuso market is too small, and most of the furs can only be sold by Xianheng Company, so there was no cash back then. Bai Zhu was still a paper rich man. At that time, Bai Zhu issued banknotes.

Zha took back Tingyang, but still relied on Naohide to extort three thousand taels of Satsuma clan gold as the principal.

However, the three thousand taels of gold were not left behind. In May 1852, Chojiro of Kakuya went to Matsumae Domain to contract and transport the gold to the house according to the "site payment system", and took away the three thousand taels. Fortunately, no one ran at it at the time.

Bai Zhuzha, otherwise Yingyang, who was finally recovered, will appear again.

In the Fuso market, Bai Zhu has always been slightly ahead, which means he can't make much money. This is because Bai Zhu's flagship product

The products were furs and whale oil. The market for these goods in Fuso was limited so they could not make a lot of money. The office used these to offset the increasing import of grain, pig iron, groceries and daily necessities.

Moreover, in order to encourage several businessmen who had always supported Bai Zhu, the profit margin offered was quite large. This was one of the main reasons why Bai Zhu could not make any money in Fuso.

It was after September 1852 that Bai Zhu's warehouse really got money. At that time, Xianheng Yang's ship appeared again. After balancing the previous accounts and the amount of this shopping, Xianheng Yang's should give Bai Zhu 240,000 US dollars, which is about 6

10,000 pieces of gold coins, but where can the Mi people get the gold coins of Fuso? Therefore, according to the previous agreement, about 220,000 pieces of Yingyang were provided, weighing about 5.9 tons.

The ironworks Oguri Tadjun saw was actually a mint in the past. Naohide and others secretly melted the eagle ocean and cast it into dingyin for the shogunate, because the gold-silver ratio of Fuso was between 1:5 and 1:6, and overseas

This ratio is 1:15. The white master exchanged silver for gold, and then exchanged it for Yingyang through Xianheng Foreign Company. The profit was very considerable, which can be called huge profits! - This significant difference in the gold-silver ratio was revealed when Nao-hsiu returned in 1949

The shogunate has been reminded, but for some reason the shogunate has not taken any obvious action.

However, since I have only been working for less than a year, the trade volume between Bai Zhu and other places is not large, and in order to avoid being exposed, I still mainly barter in large transactions, so I have not absorbed much gold so far.

In September 1852, through whaling and seal hunting, the White Lord gained another profit equivalent to 70,000 gold coins.

The two whaling ships made about 90,000 US dollars, of which the white owner got half, about 10,000 taels of gold.

At the same time, more than 20,000 furs were harvested, which was more than 60,000 small prizes, and most of them fell into the pocket of the white master. In the past, the white master had to rely on rice boats to hunt seals, but now the white master had

1 clipper ship, 2 battleships, and 3 benzai ships, so the Mi people could only earn some hard-earned money for labor expenses. Of course, Xianheng Foreign Company purchased most of the furs, and they would make huge profits from selling them in the future.

At that time, there was a balance of more than 92,000 taels of gold in Master Shiro's account - originally there was a balance of 130,000 taels, but Master Shiro had many people to support. For example, Okubo himself received 1,500 taels a year, and Naohide was better than him.

There are more, plus the import of various goods, so the cost is staggering. In addition, the white master bought two steam river warships. Although the tonnage is small, each one costs 8,000 taels of gold.

As for other aspects of income, due to the small number of people, the fishing industry in the Kita Ezo Land languished after the withdrawal of the money house. It was only through hard work last year that it improved, but it could not make much money. In 1852, it was barely enough.

It was a tie, and what came down were the fishing gear, the fishing boats and the boats that were transported to the house.

As for commercial transactions, the White Lord has always drawn one out of ten, and in order to encourage imports, the goods shipped in do not charge a copper coin tax, and the goods exported in the past did not receive any tax - furs and whale oil accounted for the majority.

Is it from the observatory and pays its own taxes? I’ve never heard of it.

As for agriculture, the white master encouraged the reclamation of wasteland. Not only did he waive the land rent of 10%, but he also sometimes had to provide cheap seeds, horses for plowing the land for free, and he also had to send people to guide him, so he had to add money every year.

It was not until this year, 1853, that Bai Zhu's business prospered.

Okubo and Naohide made detailed calculations:

Knorr House is transporting one seaside house and four inland houses in Higashi-Ezo Land. This requires continuous investment, especially in the mining of coal. Overall, it requires a subsidy of three to four thousand taels of gold to stop the problem.

There is a hole in this hole, but the money has to be paid by Knorr House itself - if Knorr House has no money, it can just raise funds from shareholders, but don't expect to collect taxes. Can you get a hundred and fifty taels? That's it.

The development of the Northern Ezo Land is now mainly based on the territorial residents of the enshrinement office. They can only collect some commercial taxes. One out of ten draws can earn 400 taels of gold. This includes 100 taels from the small coal mine.

Two taxes.

As for agriculture, it is estimated that we will be self-sufficient in output after this autumn harvest, which is a major achievement.

In the past, Baizhu relied on dried salted fish, dried seal meat and imported grain. After the autumn harvest, Baizhu can at least have enough potatoes. Wheat, corn, and sorghum can also be used as staple foods. As for rice, you have to eat it if you want.

It depends on input, but after all, we don’t purchase from outside.

Everyone is starving, isn't it?

Achievements are achievements, but when it comes to taxes, it's sad - agriculture is an industry supported by the White Lord. Not only can the practice not collect taxes, but it also has to subsidize it. It is estimated that the subsidy will be at least one thousand taels of gold.

However, among the merchant ships that came to Baidu in the past, less than half were for transporting immigrants, half were for transporting grain and groceries, and the rest were for transporting coal and pig iron. After this autumn harvest, a lot of shipping capacity will be freed up. I believe that business

Will go to the next level.

As for the main income, it still depends on hunting seals and whales.

In the two years from 1851 to 1852, the White Lord obtained more than 50,000 furs on Seal Island. The number of seals was greatly reduced. It is estimated that if they kill another 10,000 this year, they will have to stop. However, heading north from Seal Island, there are still many furs along the coast.

There are quite a few sea lions, fur seals, and seal habitats. It’s just a bit of work. I guess it won’t be a problem to get another 10,000. If it weren’t for Zhixiu, ten Lucians would have been killed on Seal Island alone from 1852 to 1855.

Thousands of seals.

Although this income was attributed to the new store "Kimeya" established by Gakujiro Nakamura, it could tax two thousand furs - exactly the amount turned over to the shogunate.

As for the whales, it seems that the Shiretoko Peninsula can survive for a few more years. This is a separate account with the whaling ship of Hamoyo Co., Ltd., which is also listed under the "Kimeiya". The white owner can collect a tax of two thousand taels of gold.

In summary, in 1853, the official income of the Baizhu practice was 8,450 taels of gold, which seems to be a lot. Based on the calculation of four citizens and six citizens, it was equivalent to the income of the territory of 20,000 taels of gold. How could it be spent?

The total budget expenditure of the White Lord this year is 78,585 small gold.

The difference between one entry and one exit is nearly 70,000 taels of gold!

I remember that at the beginning of the year, at the Common Council meeting, the group leaders who heard this expenditure figure got excited and cursed Okubo Roshichi for going on a militancy - because military expenses accounted for 59.0%, and some even proposed that whaling and sealing should be included.

The commercial tax on furs was increased, but the whaling and seal fur business was transferred to "Kimeiya" at that time, a trading company established by Gakujiro Nakamura. The heads and group leaders here all invested money and took shares in the trading company, so

The proposal to increase the original 10% business tax quickly disappeared!

Faced with everyone's doubts, Okubo could only smile bitterly at that time, and it was Naohide who personally explained. He said that he had discovered a gold mine, and after deducting mining expenses, he could earn the equivalent of 140,000 Tianbao gold in a year, because the gold mine was of great interest.

It is still government-run, so that the annual income of the white owner can reach 152,341 gold, but because it has not been officially mined, it cannot be included in the budget.

In response to this, everyone complimented Naohide one after another, "What can't be written about this? Who dares to question Mr. Naohide's work?" It was as if it was another group of people who had been so excited just now.

So the budget (expenditure) was passed smoothly, with each part accounting for: 8.7% education, 3.6% medical care, 59.0% military strength, 4.1% official salary, 0.2% administrative expenses, 4.3% infrastructure construction, 9.5% turned over to the shogunate, and subsidies

Agriculture accounts for 1.3%, and reserve funds account for 9.1%, totaling 78,585 small deposits.

The budget (revenue) filed later was 152,341 gold, commercial tax 5.8%, agricultural tax 0, and special revenue (gold mine) 94.2%.

At that time, Lord Bai's balance was 72,000 taels of gold. Even if Zhixiu's gold mine went bankrupt, it would still be enough to cover the difference of 70,000 taels. But by then, Zhixiu's prestige would be shaken, and it would be hard to say what the future direction of Lord White would be.

.

According to the budget at the beginning of 1853, excluding private income and calculating the small Tianbao fines, the Baizhu practice office had a yearly income of 152,341 gold and a yearly expenditure of 78,585 gold. The number of residents at the beginning of the year was more than 2,900 - 801 of whom were Yuan He and Yuan Hezhe.

There are more than 1,100 people, including about 1,000 original Ainu people, 180 standing troops, and more than 1,400 reserve troops (all adult men and women). By the end of the year, there will be 4 steam river battleships. Therefore, what Oguri Tadjun saw in Shirozu was only an iceberg.

corner of!

Moreover, the shogunate's estimate of the stone height equivalent to 25,000 koku for Shirozu is even more ridiculous. The development of Shirozu is abnormal. In terms of population, the territory of Shirozu is only 3,000 koku, but in economic terms, Shirozu is equivalent to 380,000 koku.
Chapter completed!