"I will open ports to Spain for trade and trade. The first batch of ports is planned to open Dengzhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Macau, Tuenmen and other eighteen ports!
"
As soon as Zhu Yihai opened his mouth, he offered to open eighteen ports to the Spanish, and said that more ports would be opened in the future, including inland places such as Anqing, Jiujiang, Hankou, and even Tianjin and Beijing in the north.
The messenger was so shocked that he could not speak.
They originally thought that the Ming Dynasty could open two or three ports to them, such as Guangzhou or Fuzhou, and they would be very satisfied. After all, the Ming Dynasty does not have official trade with them and does not open the ports. They can only do re-export trade and the Chinese raw silk they need.
Porcelain, tea and other goods are mainly purchased through the Zheng family.
Even because of the agreement between the Zheng family and the Dutch, they were not able to directly obtain first-hand goods from the Zheng family. They had to obtain three or four-hand goods from some Chinese businessmen. The cost was greatly increased, and it was difficult to directly purchase the goods in their hands.
Sold to Ming Dynasty.
Although in fact, because of the Manila-American route, for more than two hundred years, the silver mined by the Spanish from the Americas has continued to flow into the Far East Ming Dynasty. It is said that hundreds of millions of silver have flowed out. At the same time, the raw silk and silk shipped from the Ming Dynasty have seriously
Impacted Spain's own silk industry.
Yes, in fact, the Persians began to learn to raise silkworms and weave silk as early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish silk weaving industry was actually quite strong.
But the silk that flowed into the past from the Ming Dynasty through Manila was a dimensionality reduction blow. Chinese silk fabrics with patterns are of high quality and low price. Spanish products cannot be compared with them at all. For example, Chinese brocade is better than Spanish satin, but the price is less than half.
This is also true for most other silk fabrics.
In the markets of Mexico and Peru, Chinese goods are only one-third of Spanish goods.
As a result, Spanish silk fabrics almost disappeared from the American market, which was a catastrophic blow to its domestic silk industry. The King of Spain had to order a ban on Spanish trade in Manila in order to prevent the outflow of silver and the inflow of silk fabrics.
But the huge profits made the king's ban seem like a blank piece of paper.
There was not a single large sailing ship sailing from Luzon to Mexico that was not filled with one million or even one and a half million pesos of silk fabrics, and that was just the silk fabrics on the ship.
For more than two hundred years of trade, the trade between Spain and the Ming Dynasty has always been a deficit. Shiploads of silver were shipped from America in exchange for shiploads of silk and porcelain.
The profits here are staggering.
Therefore, even if the Ming Dynasty had not traded with Luzon before, they still had to find ways to maintain the route and buy silk porcelain from the Zheng family or other Chinese businessmen, even if the price was higher.
Of course, now if the Ming Dynasty directly liberalizes trade and gives them more ports for trade, this means that they can directly obtain more goods at lower costs, and thus make greater profits.
The Chinese commodities that Luzon wanted most were raw silk, silk, porcelain, cane sugar, etc. Cane sugar could also be obtained in Nanyang, but raw silk and woven silk with various patterns were the most abundant and cheapest in the Ming Dynasty.
In a rare act of generosity, Zhu Yihai not only liberalized trade, but even offered to grant them certain missionary qualifications.
"I wonder what your Majesty needs?"
What does Zhu Yihai want?
Of course, Zhu Yihai also had needs. The Spanish merchants in Luzon were most interested in silver. Silver was actually very important to the Ming Dynasty. After more than two hundred years, the Ming Dynasty has now adopted a silver standard.
Although some people have said that the Ming Dynasty actually died due to silver.
In the late Ming Dynasty, silver imports dropped sharply and frequent wars led to silver shortages and aggravated the financial crisis.
However, under the current situation, it is impossible to abolish the status of silver as a local currency. Zhu Yihai can only improve it through other means, but he cannot replace it all at once.
Moreover, in times of war, the credit brought by silver's natural currency is still very important. If you mess around with banknotes, etc., problems will arise.
All he can do now is to mix silver with copper and process it into silver dollars, slightly increase the profit from minting, and strengthen currency unification. The banknotes issued are actually exchange certificates, not banknotes. They can be redeemed on sight and there is no over-issuance.
The profit from minting is not bad, but you need to have enough silver ingots in hand.
Trade is a good source of silver materials, including copper materials. Copper coin casting is actually more profitable, especially the copper coins that Zhu Yihai is currently engaged in. However, although the profit of copper coinage is high, the scale is limited.
Yinzi Zhu Yihai is needed, but not the most needed.
It's a war now, and just silver can't buy everything you want.
So he already had a list in mind.
He hoped that the transaction with the Spaniards would be deeper, with silver as the trading unit.
But it’s not just about selling silk porcelain.
Zhu Yihai can export high-quality raw silk, silk, porcelain, tea, etc. to Luzon, and then order sail warships, armed merchant ships, artillery, blunderbuss, gunpowder, lead bullets, etc. from Luzon, and even hire some specialized gunners and gunners from them.
Gunners, crew members and other mercenary sailors.
Even buying high-quality shipbuilding timber, copper and iron for making cannons, sulfur, nitrate, lead, etc. for making gunpowder.
This request was a surprise to the envoy of the Governor of Luzon. In the past, when they purchased Chinese goods from the Chinese, it was basically a simple deficit. The Chinese businessmen did not really need their things, so they could only exchange them with silver.
Therefore, if a shipload of silk, spices, etc. is shipped to America, most of the shipload of silver, etc. will be carried on the ship coming back.
Now the Ming Dynasty actually proposed to strengthen trade and order ships, cannons, etc. from them. This is naturally very attractive to Luzon. Although the trade route with the Americas is highly profitable, it is not good for the local development of Luzon.
It is said that it is also limited. If the Ming Dynasty can order a large number of ships, cannons, etc. from Luzon, it will undoubtedly strengthen the local development of Luzon, which will of course be extremely attractive to colonial officials such as the Governor of Luzon.
But Zhu Yihai's request is not that simple.
He made an additional condition.
Even the Ming Dynasty ordered a lot of ships, guns, etc., so he hoped to have a new cooperation model, which was to jointly build a new shipyard, gun factory, etc. in Luzon. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty would also invest money as a shareholder, and then the Ming Dynasty would also send apprentices, etc.
Learn in the past.
In addition, for corresponding accessories, maintenance, etc., a new factory will be established along the coast of Guangdong and Fujian, and master craftsmen and managers will be sent from Manila to manage and operate it together.
"This?" The messenger was a little confused.
"I have a lot of orders, and the technology in Luzon is good, but there are relatively few workers. I'm also worried that you won't be able to accept these orders, so I think about win-win cooperation and making it bigger and stronger."
The core production is temporarily located in Manila, but accessories and other parts are located in Daming, giving full play to their respective advantages.
Zhu Yihai can also provide a large number of apprentices and workers to go to Luzon to strengthen production capacity.
The messenger heard something and hesitated a little.
However, Zhu Yihai reminded the envoy that the war between the Ming and Qing dynasties was continuing and would not end in a short time. Even in the future, the Ming Dynasty would still need many ships, so the prospects for cooperation between the two sides in building shipyards and artillery factories were very good.
Now the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese in Macau have also begun to adopt this cooperation model, but it still cannot meet the demand. If the Spaniards are not willing, it will be their loss.
Shipbuilding, especially warships, is very expensive.
For example, the king of sailing battleships, the British Victory, consumed 2,500 giant trees that were more than a century old, and the cost was more than 100,000 pounds.
According to the Western battleship classification method, a six-level single-masted schooner gunboat is about 38 meters long, mainly used for delivering messages and escorting, with a capacity of 195, and a cost of more than 10,000 pounds, which is equivalent to two yuan of Ming Dynasty silver.
It's about 40,000 taels. If you include artillery, etc., it's estimated to be 50,000 taels.
For example, the three ships brought by the Spaniards this time are equivalent to fifth-class ships, with a crew of 250, a length of about 150 feet, and a cost of about 20,000 pounds.
The fourth level has a capacity of 350 men, a double gun deck, a capacity of 350 men, and a cost of at least 26,000 pounds.
So a fourth-level battleship, equipped with ships and cannons, will cost a small amount of one hundred thousand taels of silver.
If Zhu Yihai wants to build warships, he will definitely build the fourth, fifth and sixth level warships first, and not build the first, second and third level warships at the moment. He will slowly add them later. But even for the fourth level warships, if you buy one for one hundred thousand taels of silver, the deal is still very worthwhile.
Dry.
Luzon itself has a shipbuilding and ship repair industry, as well as mature technology and craftsmen. It is also close to Vietnam, Thailand and other places with excellent ship wood, which is conducive to shipbuilding.
Shipbuilding is very profitable, especially as it can drive the entire industrial chain, which is very helpful for Manila's local development.
"This is a win-win and mutually beneficial cooperation. Why does the envoy hesitate?"
"Nowadays, a load of Ming Dynasty Hu silk is sold for one hundred taels of silver. Maritime merchants transport it to Manila and sell it for two hundred taels. Merchants in Manila can sell it for five hundred taels when shipped to Mexico in large sailing ships.
During the Chongzhen period, the amount of raw silk shipped from Guangzhou to Japan via Macau each year was 3,000 tons, and the amount of silk shipped to Goa, India, was about 6,000 tons.
More raw silk is shipped through Luzon.
The Portuguese in Macao can earn at least 360,000 taels a year from raw silk alone, while you merchants in Luzon can earn at least one million taels."
Zhu Yihai told the Luzon envoy directly that raw silk was a high-quality output of the Ming Dynasty, but now that raw silk production has dropped sharply due to war, how to allocate exports must give priority to supplying partners.
This is actually telling the Luzon envoy that even if Ming Dynasty opens more than a dozen ports to you for trade, if you cannot meet my conditions, you will still not be able to get the most profitable goods such as raw silk.
"Manila Port now has about forty large merchant ships entering the port every year, but as long as trade with the Ming Dynasty is fully carried out, I believe the number of large merchant ships entering the port can triple at least!"
"If Luzon can meet my conditions and jointly build a shipyard and artillery factory, then I can promise to supply Manila with at least 5,000 tons of raw silk and 300,000 pieces of silk fabrics every year."
The messenger was moved.
If a load of raw silk can be purchased directly from the commercial port of the Ming Dynasty and then shipped directly to the Americas, the profit will be several times higher. A load of silk can earn three to four hundred taels of silver, and a thousand loads of silk is three hundred and forty thousand taels. Five thousand loads
, that’s more than one million taels.
There are also hundreds of thousands of pieces of silk fabrics, which are also very profitable.
"Your Majesty, let's talk about the specific conditions of the joint venture shipyard and gun factory!" With such a huge profit tempting, let alone the joint venture factory, it is probably the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty who proposed to allocate a piece of land in Luzon to the Ming Dynasty.
They can all be considered carefully.
"No hurry, we can also talk about how to deal with the Dutch together. If Portugal and Spain can cooperate with the Ming Dynasty to suppress the Dutch together, drive them away from Taiwan and prevent them from going north again, then I can
How about giving you some of the original raw silk and silk shares in the hands of the Dutch, for example, adding one or two thousand loads of raw silk or one or two hundred thousand bolts of silk a year?"
The messenger couldn't help but inhale, it was really hard to refuse.