Chapter 70 Renzong Chapter 12 The real outbreak of maritime trade
Chapter 2195 Renzong Chapter 12 The real outbreak of maritime trade
By the 21st year of Zhengtong, trade was still the most important, frequent and largest economic activity in Shanghai. In the country, from Bashu in the west to Youyan in the north, merchants from the Han Dynasty brought goods from all over the empire through convenient rivers, lakes and seas.
Local products and goods are brought together;
Overseas, hundreds of thousands of maritime merchant groups crossed the sea and transverse waves, continuously importing all the resources within the radiation range of the Han civilization that could be used by the imperial people to the mainland in exchange for in-demand imperial commodities.
Up to now, on the busy overseas trade routes of Nanyang, all kinds of spices, rare materials, wood, and seafood are still the mainstream commodities transported to the mainland of the empire. However, compared with a few decades ago, the categories are more abundant, such as rice, sugar,
Salt and coal have gradually become mainstream, and this is due to two reasons.
On the one hand, it was the growing strong demand within the Han Empire. On the other hand, after nearly a hundred years of development (including the military conquests during the Shizu period), the Nanyang countries finally grew, became stronger, and accumulated considerable accumulation.
Market demand plays a leading role in economic vitality, and even with the vast territory of the empire, the demand for overseas resources seems to be small, especially rice and sugar. In these two aspects, the improvement of the empire's productivity cannot keep up with the population.
surge in demand.
Regarding the import of grain, the imperial court even implemented a series of preferential policies to encourage many grain merchants engaged in maritime trade to traffic grain from Southeast Asian countries. By the 21st year of Zhengtong, the customs tariff on grain had been reduced step by step.
Two centimeters.
This is very tempting for many businessmen, and it is also related to the empire's rapidly developing transportation capacity. The large Hanfu ships currently plying the sea can haul as little as 3,000 shi of food and as much as 5,000 shi for a round trip.
.Based on the current price of 45 wen per dou of rice in Shanghai, a one-way trip costs more than 2,000 guan, and the cost of purchasing grain from Nanyang is far lower than that at home.
The reason why the imperial court was willing to grant such a large discount on grain imports was naturally not because of concern for the people's livelihood, at least not entirely. The reason was also due to the famine that occurred between the sixth and eleventh years of Zhengtong. There were successive severe droughts in Hebei and Jianghuai, resulting in
Wang Ze's uprising in Hebei Province and the food shortage in the two capitals.
No matter how violent the chaos in Hebei is, no matter how many people die, there will always be Gonggun princes who will fight for it, but the lack of food in the two capitals is a serious political problem, which will cast an ugly shadow on the glorious picture of the empire.
Ink marks.
At that time, in order to alleviate the grain shortage, the imperial court continued to adjust grains from various places, investing a huge cost, and even caused Guanlong, Sichuan and Shu to suffer from high grain prices, triggering one after another urban civil unrest.
Among the many methods, the court officials found that purchasing grain from overseas seemed to be the one with the least trouble and backlash. However, thinking of the inconvenience of the ocean, in order to encourage businessmen, Fan Zhongyan, who was the minister at the time,
Under the auspices of the government, customs tariffs on grain and rice were further reduced. Until now, Nanyang Rice has maintained the lowest tariffs, the only one in the world.
In contrast, the tariff for sugar with higher added value remains at a level of 5-8 cents, while spices, coal, salt, etc. are even higher. Ivory, agate, coral, pearls, jade, expensive
Products with luxury attributes such as wood are even higher.
The hierarchical setting and management of tariffs by the Imperial Customs was also officially implemented from Jiang Customs. When Wang Anshi presided over the General Taxation Department of Jiang Customs, he made drastic reform measures in this regard and greatly improved the commodity tariff structure. Increase tax revenue for the empire.
Against the background of grain import from Southeast Asia, a number of grain merchant giants naturally emerged among the maritime merchant community. However, those who could eat this bowl of rice and become big were always indivisible with the powerful. They were either imperial powerful or feudal lords. The upper echelons of the country.
The two countries of Annan and Linyi, which have unique geographical and climatic advantages, are the main countries of "transporting grain from the south to the north" because the two countries produce more, have more arable land, three crops a year, and are closer to each other by sea transportation. more convenient.
It is precisely because of this that after a "long-distance race" of sixty or seventy years, the two countries of Annan and Linyi stood out and became the two "big countries" with the strongest national power among the Southeast Asian countries. Of course, this is also an innate gene. After all, from the beginning, the two countries were the most sinicized feudal countries.
Among the commodities imported in bulk, salt is the most special because of the empire’s internal salt and iron monopoly policy and its important position in the empire’s fiscal and taxation system.
Therefore, it has been suppressed for a long time, which has led to the proliferation of private salt along the coast. The first person who came up with this idea was the Gou Wu Kingdom (descendants of Liu Hui, the seventh son of the ancestor, in northern Kalimantan). They had salt drying Traditionally, salt and spices were also the main goods in trade between Wu and the empire.
Later, the Beilu Kingdom (after the eighth son of the founder Liu Ai, the feudal kingdom was in the northern Philippines) also participated. These two feudal kingdoms were behind the instigation. As time went by, the scale increased, giving the empire a salt market in the southeast, It caused a serious impact.
When Bao Zheng was serving as the envoy to the southeast, he observed the situation. After getting to know it deeply, he became very worried and wrote a memorial, which woke up the imperial court that had been somewhat deaf and dumb in the past. Then, Cao Lun, the Minister of Finance at the time, With the support of envoy Wang Shilin, he promoted "the entry of foreign salt into the customs".
Cao Lun is the grandson of Cao Bin and the second son of Cao Wei's eldest brother Cao Can. The Cao family was in Jianlong and the two orthodox dynasties. He was a distinguished person. According to the "principle", after Fan Zhongyan dismissed the prime minister, he should be in charge of the post of honor, and Cao Lun The reason why she stood out was not only because she had certain abilities, but also because there was a queen named Cao in the palace.
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When Cao Lun came to power, even Wang Shilin, who was the confidant of the orthodox emperor Liu Weizhen, had to give up his position as Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Of course, Liu Weizhen did not treat him badly and changed his position to the Financial Secretary, but his power remained the same.
With the adjustment of the Salt and Iron Policy by the Financial Secretary, overseas salt, mainly from Wu and Lu, was able to pass through several major customs openly and openly enter the empire's domestic market.
Of course, under the strict supervision of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Salt and Iron Department, at the same time, compared with coastal smuggling, the risk is smaller and the scale is larger. Although it is difficult to become the mainstream of the market due to the output and quality, the price is cheap.
The import of foreign salt is actually an impact on the empire's deep-rooted "salt expensive", "salt merchants" and "salt gang" forces. At the same time, there is more supply on the market, and the price of salt has also reached its first level in thirty years. decline.
The price of salt in Shanghai in the 21st year of orthodoxy was only 71 douyan. This level is almost as high as the price after the "salt reform" during the Shizu Kaibao period. When the price of Shanghai salt was at its highest, it once reached douyan. 108 articles, which greatly affected the production and life of urban scholars.
However, due to the concentration of resources, Shanghai has always had a lot of supplies, which can also reflect the people's livelihood conditions in other cities in the empire. The most obvious ones are the two capitals. If the imperial court did not consider its face and tried its best to suppress and regulate prices, prices would have long ago It got out of control.
In places where central supervision is weak or the influence is insufficient, the situation is much more serious. Due to natural and man-made disasters, there have been countless riots and civil unrest.
In fact, based on the development of the commodity economy and the "urbanization" process of the Han Empire in the past century, the unprecedented development of domestic population and productivity is of course fundamental, but without the supplementary support of overseas resources, it would have been unable to continue.
Take the import of Nanyang sea salt as an example, regardless of the struggle and distribution in the interest chain, for ordinary people, they have gained tangible benefits from the reduction in salt prices.
Of course, even if "Wu Salt", "Lu Salt" and even "Yong Salt" and "Yue Salt" can enter the imperial market through official channels, private salt production along the coast and rivers is still rampant, and those who incidentally bring the salt back to the mainland are indispensable. merchant ships, or some shady "dirty salt", the final destination is also the counties and towns of the empire.
The salt produced in the Nanyang feudal kingdom did not care who bought the salt, and sold it when there was money. At the bottom of the empire, there were always many salt lords who took risks and risked their lives. There was no shortage of salt lords who carried burdens and pushed wheelbarrows to mountain villages and went to the countryside. Ye, a traveling porter who sells private salt.
As for coal, since the time of Emperor Shizu, it has continued to develop from high to low, from north to south, and gradually became an important fuel for heating the lives of the people of the empire, especially urban residents.
In the late Kaibao period, "briquettes" were born, and its convenience and benefit to the people can be seen by everyone. With the widespread spread of technology, a large number of "coal making yards" were born all over the north.
However, the use of coal has always been restricted by both mining and transportation. The main domestic production areas are in Jinzhong and Ruxu. Transportation is difficult to describe, and it is difficult to cover the whole country. Therefore, coal prices have remained high all year round, and it is difficult to Bringing briquettes into the homes of thousands of ordinary people.
However, the empire's demand for coal is growing day by day, especially in the smelting industry. The calorific value benefits brought by coal are extremely significant. If there is market demand, there will naturally be smart businessmen to meet this demand.
Precisely in the Southeast Asian countries, whether it is Nanliang Kingdom (Sumatra), or the Yong, Yue, and Wu Kingdoms on Java Island, they all have large open-pit coal mines with amazing reserves and are extremely easy to mine.
With the large-scale import of Nanyang coal, the people in the southern part of the empire, especially in the southeastern states as the core of the economy, were finally able to use affordable briquettes and enjoy the benefits brought by the Han family's large-scale development.
Of course, the resources imported into the empire from overseas countries are far more than this. These rich trade activities can also reflect the development and accumulation of various countries.
But even so, in the Orthodox Era, for the Han Empire, the output was still greater than the input in terms of resources, because the empire had too many irreplaceable resources, political, military, and economic.
Silk, porcelain, tea, needless to mention the last three, cotton, lacquerware, ships, ironware, weapons, including books, technology, and even population, these things are also in urgent need of overseas countries. And, with the development of the market
Develop and grow, and continue to grow
It was initiated by Emperor Shizu, consolidated and inherited by Emperor Taizong and the princes surnamed Liu, and countless powerful men braved the wind and waves to colonize and develop. It took nearly a hundred years of effort to form the complete transformation of the orthodox era and the scale of maritime trade that exploded.
Even Emperor Shizu probably could not have imagined during his lifetime that the Nanyang Strategy would have such a profound impact on the entire East Asia, and that the Han Empire and the Nanyang Kingdom would become what they are today.
As important role players in the circulation link, wealth is born from this, and disputes arise from this. To be fair, the long-term prosperity of the empire's overseas trade is also closely related to the emergence of a large number of interest groups, and
Shanghai is obviously one of these people's bases.