Faced with his wife's insistence, Li Jinglong had no choice but to agree.
Over the years, Ding has never interfered with Li Jinglong's affairs, except for this matter.
In fact, it was not that Li Jinglong was unwilling to take his brother-in-law on a voyage to the West. It was just that he had just been appointed and was at the cusp of the storm, so he wanted to set an example first.
There are really too many people watching, and almost every honorable family has conveyed their intentions overtly or covertly. Everyone can imagine how much benefit it will produce on such a large scale.
If it had been anyone else, it would have been fine, but now Taisun is in charge, and I have never seen Taisun doing a loss-making business.
All the famous chambers of commerce in the Ming Dynasty had their presence in the capital.
When the big event of the voyage to the West came out, those who were qualified immediately got together.
Nanjing Restaurant.
It's not so much a restaurant, but it's more than just a place to eat and sleep.
This was newly built a year ago and opened at the beginning of the 29th year of Hongwu. It is the largest in the entire capital and is located at the junction of the inner and outer cities.
When this restaurant was built, it involved the residences of many officials and nobles, so they were demolished directly. No one could guess the background behind this.
The high consumption is simply not accessible to ordinary people.
The cost of one meal may be a person's income for several months or even the previous year.
The front yard is just for consumption, and the back yard has 108 rooms of various types. The cheapest one costs 20 guan per night, and can only be booked by members.
If you want to become a member, you must first top up Wan Guan Bao Banknotes.
This threshold is enough to stop most people.
After spending this money, the ostentation is certainly not small.
In this backyard, there is a separate Public Security Department to maintain order and safety, and the patrols are all government officials.
There are people serving you at twelve hours. Even if you get up in the middle of the night and want to eat some pastries, there will be people waiting to make them freshly.
There were no gongs or drums during the opening, but on the opening day, the 108 backyard rooms were already being booked.
You must know that the ten most expensive rooms here cost 888 guan per night.
That's it, it starts with a monthly subscription, there is no daily basis at all.
In other words, these ten rooms alone can bring in an income of more than 3 million yuan of treasure money every year.
When Zhu Yuanzhang first heard his grandson talking about this number, he really couldn't speak for a long time.
"Let's just say that a big restaurant like Da Sunzheng can have an annual income of 20 to 30 million yuan a year?" Zhu Yuanzhang was somewhat in disbelief.
Even though I was numb before, I still feel very shocked now.
Even if it's housing, it's nothing like robbing money.
The eldest grandson could have snatched it directly and given it to someone to stay for one night.
Do we really have so many enemies in Ming Dynasty?
Zhu Yuanzhang feels that he has some doubts about life now.
At that time, in order to increase the annual income from taxes and the money in the national treasury, he racked his brains to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. After working for more than 20 years, the previous annual income was only as high as a restaurant.
This made Zhu Yuanzhang feel very bad. His feelings were all in vain?
Zhu Ying explained: "You can't look at it this way. The economy is different now. After sea trade began, these merchants involved in sea trade made a lot of wealth in a short period of time."
"Our various products from Daming are absolutely best-selling overseas. As long as they can be shipped on the ship, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell them. And because many goods are now produced on a large scale in factories, the cost is gradually decreasing.
Reduced, making profits bigger."
"And after these merchants sell our Ming goods overseas, they make huge profits when they resell them. After all, they can sell as much as they want. This is not easy to control. It all depends on their own abilities."
"Our Ming Navy protects the safety of the waterways. Now the Japanese pirates have all disappeared. The safe waterways have brought greater prosperity to maritime trade. Anyone who participates in maritime trade can almost have a very stable income."
"According to the situation reported below, ordinary chambers of commerce can earn thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver every month. Those large chambers of commerce that have their own merchant ships are even more outrageous. The largest merchant ship is said to earn one hundred thousand taels of silver in one trip.
"
"Not only Nanyang, but the Japanese country has more silver. Several uncles in the Japanese country have at least three or four medium-sized silver mines. The silver processed every day is already comparable to the silver we print."
Mineral deposits such as silver or gold are the real hard currency of the world. After smelting and processing, they can be used directly.
Nowadays, the four major feudal kings of Japan have become symbols of divine power.
And these large amounts of silver naturally flowed into the market economy of the Ming Dynasty in a large scale.
According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, treasure banknotes are the current official currency, and private transactions of silver are illegal, so large amounts of silver are deposited in royal banks and exchanged for treasure banknotes.
The Baobao Banking Department is currently recruiting a large number of manpower. Due to the huge amount of silver exchange, the Baobao Banking Department has been unable to keep up and can only continue to expand its scale.
The economy is developing so fast that Zhu Yuanzhang feels that he cannot keep up with the times. Overall, he is very surprised.
"We think we can open more restaurants like this."
"Not only in the capital, but also in various cities along the coast, restaurants similar to this can be opened. This is a lot of money."
Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously that he felt that Yu Daming was just like picking up money now. Whatever he did next, he would get a lot of money.
After finishing speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang added: "Now our Ming Dynasty has more and more money and more and more people, but the number of farmers is constantly decreasing."
"High-yielding crops can bring a large amount of food, but there is an upper limit to the population that this food can carry. If there is any natural disaster, it may be a disaster for the people of the Ming Dynasty."
"A few years ago, we issued an edict to convert agriculture into mulberry farming in many areas. Nowadays, silk and cotton fields are selling well, and more and more people are unwilling to grow food. This is not a good phenomenon. At this point, Da Sun wants to
Just think of a way to deal with it."
"Otherwise, these prosperous scenes in front of us will be like a mirror that is about to be shattered."
Zhu Yuanzhang urged and said that he knew very well how exaggerated the population growth of the Ming Dynasty was. Some time ago, when he walked around the capital, he found that every household was raising children, and most of them had more than one or two.
The emergence of these Ming Dynasty newborns means that it will not take long for the population to explode.
The weather now is getting colder every year.
Under the cover of high-yielding crops, rice and wheat production have actually been declining. However, because high-yielding crops are planted and harvested in large quantities, this phenomenon is not obvious.
Zhu Yuanzhang has always paid close attention to this aspect. He knew very well that food was the foundation of the Ming Dynasty and the foundation of the country.
Nowadays, in line with the development of commerce, the prices of silk and cotton are rising continuously. Planting ten acres of land is not as good as planting one acre of mulberry fields. Naturally, people want to plant mulberry fields instead of rice fields.
Zhu Yuanzhang realized that if things went on for a long time, big problems would definitely occur.
Zhu Ying said: "Actually, my grandson is already aware of this problem. More and more farmers are trying their best to leave the village and no longer do the work of digging in the soil."
"It is difficult to effectively change this problem and the current development of Ming Dynasty, so now Sun'er can only solve it by finding food and population from the outside world."
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a moment and asked, "How many people are there now?"
Zhu Ying hesitated for a moment: "Now there are about two million people registered."
After Zhu Yuanzhang finished listening, he paused for a moment without speaking. After a long time, he sighed: "This is a temporary matter, not the root cause. It will definitely be a hidden danger in the long run, but this is the only way to do it now."
Zhu Yuanzhang is very aware that there is still an illegal industry in the Ming Dynasty, which is currently not strictly restricted by the government, and is even being carried out secretly by the Great Sun.
The contradiction of the Ming Dynasty lies in the land economy, and food is the foundation of the country. No matter how much money there is, it cannot be used as food. If there is a natural disaster or famine, big problems will arise.
High-yielding crops are good, but there is still no way to preserve them under severe drought and floods.
A natural disaster is a natural disaster, and no crops can grow.
Therefore, the country must have enough food reserves to cope with various crises.
The rapid growth of population means huge consumption.
Going against the laws of history, in an environment like the Little Ice Age, we stimulate population growth and seize the world market first.
For Zhu Ying, or for Daming, it was both an opportunity and a challenge.
If it is not handled well, then the current prosperity of the Ming Dynasty is likely to be a flash in the pan during Zhu Ying's reign, and it may not take too long for it to return to its previous trajectory.
This is certainly not the result Zhu Ying wants.
Therefore, human trafficking became popular.
The overseas population was constantly resold to the Ming Dynasty, and even gave birth to a large number of manor owners.
The reason why they are called manor owners instead of landlords is because these lands are controlled by Zhu Ying and are leased to wealthy families.
The economic source of these aristocratic families, in addition to maritime trade, also involves the introduction of a large number of people.
Very early on, or when the Ming Dynasty newspaper became popular, Zhu Ying was already laying the groundwork.
He used the capital's newspapers and word-of-mouth propaganda from merchants on the sea to continuously spread the wealth of the Ming Dynasty, thereby attracting a large number of overseas residents to migrate to the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, a large amount of gold and silver was secretly allocated for the population transactions of some chambers of commerce.
These overseas residents who were bought were generally in good health. After they arrived in the Ming Dynasty, someone would bring them to the manor to plant various crops.
However, they have not entered the Ming Dynasty household registration, and most of them have no possibility of entering the Ming Dynasty household registration in this life.
Those who can obtain the Ming Dynasty household registration can only have some technical talents or make great contributions.
These are the more than two million people Zhu Ying mentioned.
Using the historical name, it can be called Kunlun slave.
At this time, in Nanjing restaurants, a large number of chamber of commerce bosses gathered together to discuss joining the Ming Dynasty's voyages to the West.
This does not mean joining the government's fleet, but following the government's fleet.
Even if you want to follow, you still need to compete for qualifications, and it doesn’t mean that just anyone can.
"This voyage to the Western Ocean must be the largest in scale since ancient times. With the current navy of our Ming Dynasty, I dare say that there will be at least this number of treasure ships traveling."
The big shopkeeper of the Sihai Chamber of Commerce stretched out his palm and said.
Suddenly someone exclaimed: "Five hundred treasure ships, this is too exaggerated. This can wipe out many small countries, I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of soldiers accompanying it."
Apart from the Ming Dynasty officials, maritime merchants were the most aware of the overseas situation.
Not to mention the five hundred treasure ships, there are fifty ships. In the Nanyang and Western areas, they are also the absolute top existence.
The five hundred treasure ships are not enough to kill chickens with a sledgehammer. They are completely used to kill mosquitoes with anti-aircraft guns.
The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce dares to use the name Four Seas, and the natural background and backstage are sufficient. Not to mention anything else, just being able to meet Uncle Zhang alone is already a status symbol.
Everyone's eyes turned red when they heard the Sihai Chamber of Commerce say such a certain number.
"Five hundred treasure ships, how much cargo can they carry? They are going to be completely dumped in the South and West. I am afraid the treasures are worth hundreds of millions."
"If we can get a little bit of it, that's fine."
The shopkeeper of the Chamber of Commerce couldn't help but make a sound.
But he was immediately suppressed again: "This time we are going directly to the Western Ocean. Such a long distance cannot be traveled without a big ship."
"And that is to say, this trip overseas for several years, even if there is no additional requirement for food, then in Kunlun Nu"
"You are so presumptuous that you dare to talk nonsense!
!" Before the man in front had finished speaking, the boss of a large chamber of commerce immediately stood up and angrily rebuked him.
The young shopkeeper in front suddenly realized that he had made a mistake and slapped his mouth repeatedly: "I'm talking nonsense, I'm talking nonsense."
The trade of Kunlun slaves involves slave trade, which was strictly prohibited in the Ming Dynasty.
However, in the unspoken rules of sea trade, if you want to be qualified to follow the Ming Dynasty Navy's waterways, there are additional requirements for the introduction of food and population.
If it fails to meet the requirements, you will encounter various fines from the Customs and Taxation Department.
But this matter cannot be said openly. Although everyone knows who is behind it, if they say it out of their mouth, they will be punished and severely punished.
In this area, as long as any rumors are spread, it will be strictly investigated by the Public Security Department and the Jinyiwei, and they will often get to the bottom of it.
Even if you are a noble person, you will not get any benefit at all. Because of this matter, there are many people who have been dismissed from their posts or even sentenced to hard labor.
The lessons learned are there, who dares to discuss this matter.
Besides, where is this place? This is the Nanjing Restaurant in the capital city. There are patrolling government officials everywhere. A single mistake can lead to catastrophe.