"Uncle is so afraid of grandpa that he ran away in fear. He was sweating while sitting there." The eldest princess Ning Hui couldn't help but laugh when she saw him like that.
The queen had been quietly watching the conversation between her husband and her brother without interjecting a word. At this time, she advised, "Your majesty, the king of a country, why should you debase yourself by reselling ginseng?"
"The queen's words are biased. The more than 20,000 kilograms of ginseng sent by North Korea this time, I, the Ming Dynasty, can earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver by changing hands. Don't underestimate these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. There are a lot of people in Yuying.
, with five thousand combat troops and one thousand eighty auxiliary troops, the annual military salary will be three to four hundred thousand taels.
The income from this single ginseng can support the soldiers and horses of the imperial camp for a year."
However, an ordinary farmer who grows nine acres of grain and then grows mulberry and raises silkworms will consume only two bushels of grain per mu of land and fire, and only two stones per ten acres.
This single ginseng is equivalent to the taxes paid by hundreds of thousands of households.
The imperial camp will be reorganized this year and organized into five armies and twenty towns, with one hundred thousand combat troops and thirty-six thousand auxiliary troops. Another camp will be built in ten towns, with fifty thousand combat troops and ten thousand eight thousand auxiliary troops.
Jingying Three Towns.
Seven towns outside the town.
In addition, troops from various places must be organized into towns and regiments for training.
Before the Northern Expedition succeeded, they began to reorganize the army and even reduce the imperial camp. In fact, the key was the supply of money and food. Without the guarantee of money, food and military pay, the army would have no combat effectiveness.
But if food rates are raised, supply will be difficult.
A balance must be found.
Zhu Yihai's method is to build an elite imperial camp, which is small but elite, with approximately between 180,000 and 200,000 soldiers.
This is the main field legion and also a direct line unit.
It is necessary not only to fight the Tatars externally, but also to deter the Tatars internally.
In border areas such as the southwest, more villages and towns should be set up to assist camps, intimidate chieftains, and maintain stability. In developed inland areas, a small number of camps should be used to guard large cities, and local regiment training is the main method.
There is no other way to guard the outside but to keep the inside empty.
The soldiers in the towns are farming and defending, and the regiment training is even training in their free time, all of which reduce expenses and supplies as much as possible.
But the imperial camp must do its best to protect it.
A penny stumps a heroic man.
Without money, it is not only difficult for ordinary people to move forward, but also for the country to maintain itself.
The collapse of Chongzhen was essentially a financial collapse.
No matter what the underlying reasons are, financial collapse is the most direct manifestation, which in turn leads to the collapse of the military and other aspects.
Zhu Yihai is very pragmatic.
It's not embarrassing to make money. You can make money to provide for military officers, support hundreds of officials, etc. There's nothing embarrassing about that.
Making money by reselling ginseng is a hundred times better than directly increasing wages, right?
Emperor Wanli levied a mineral tax, which was also a very good way to save the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, he could not stand up to Donglin's talkers. These people hated the emperor for competing with them for profit. In the end, when Wanli died, the mineral tax was naturally gone.
Originally, the internal treasury could subsidize a lot of finance every year, but in the end, this financial source was gone, and it became a complete stagnant water.
"Ginseng is a good thing, especially 2 taels or more of ginseng, the effect is better. I will pick up ten kilograms of high-quality ginseng and send it over, and let the imperial doctor prepare ginseng tea for the queen. The queen will also nourish and regulate it."
"This ginseng is so expensive. Ten pounds is worth one or two thousand taels of silver. Your Majesty should sell it to supplement the military."
Zhu Yihai smiled and said, "Since I want to support my sergeants well, I can't treat my wife and children badly. Don't worry, I have a lot of money-making skills. I'm not too worried about money now."
He has a lot of emperor assets, including the imperial palace and the imperial store, but now he is slowly reducing the imperial estate, and it is not good to take up too much land, so now he takes the initiative to sell it to the soldiers of the imperial camp.
Anyway, the income from the fields is not high, it is relatively stable.
But for the emperor, there are actually many profitable businesses, such as mining, smelting, casting, finance, opening banks, banks, pawn shops, trade, caravans, caravans, shipping, manufacturing, etc.
Porcelain, silk weaving, weaving, gold and silver ornaments, bronze ware, paper making and printing, etc.
The emperor has many advantages in doing this. He is not affected by policies and is not afraid of suppression, especially because he has sufficient capital.
For example, shipbuilding is an industry that ordinary people cannot do, but it is easy for the emperor to do it. The royal family itself had related industries, craftsmen and technology before. Now it combines private capital, technology, and even introduces foreign businessmen, Western technology, etc., and it is easy to make it big.
powerful.
This kind of industry is all about scale and relationships. After all, if you only have technology, you also have to have orders.
The emperor's shipyard is still worried that there will be no orders?
Another example is the financial industry. The most important thing in this industry is credit.
Although the names of the banks of the emperor's family are not as famous as those of the household banks, they are still royal brands and are not more trustworthy than ordinary businessmen. Coupled with natural policy advantages, this business is very convenient to open all over the country.
Other industries such as high-precision manufacturing, such as porcelain, ironware, gold and silverware, and silk weaving, have sufficient technical advantages.
Zhu Yihai always used money to reward soldiers, reward heroes, and provide relief to victims, all directly using his own small treasury.
Although the Queen is a daughter of the Zhang family, she still likes to use traditional Tianjia thinking. She feels that it is not appropriate for the emperor to personally make money. It is like a gentry family. Generally, they do not directly run the business, but will make side branches and concubines.
Even the housekeeper is responsible for running the business.
Some relatives' families even get some white gloves.
But Zhu Yihai doesn't really care about these things, so why should he be both responsible and independent?
There's nothing to be embarrassed about making money, as long as you don't steal or rob, it's fine. Ming Dynasty is like this today, there's nothing to be embarrassed about, now you have to focus on making money.
As long as money is obtained, the expansion and development of the army can be maintained, the Tatars can be defeated, and the Central Plains can be recovered.
If you don’t have money, then you will go back to your old ways, which will lead to a dead end.
Instead of thinking all day long about how to steal food from the people who are struggling to put food on the table and raise taxes, it is better to start a business yourself.
Industrial and commercial taxes must be collected, and tariffs on salt, tea, wine, and mines must be collected, but there are also great profits in directly operating handicrafts and trade. For example, in sea trade, the tariff is only so much per year, but if you directly go to Japan or North Korea, it will cost one ship.
The profit is enough to cover the tax of several banknotes for a year.
······
"The North Korean mission has negotiated eight packages of ginseng. The upper-grade ginseng is fifty taels per catty, and the medium-grade ginseng is twenty-five taels per catty."
"The Shaofu supervised the plan. The first-grade official can subscribe for fifty kilograms, the second-grade official can subscribe for twenty-five kilograms, the third-grade officer can subscribe for ten kilograms, and the rest will be subscribed according to the grade. The purchased ginseng will not be sold except for personal use or as a gift.
, must be based on the agreed price, the fifth grade will cost three taels of silver and one tael, the fourth grade will cost one tael of silver, the third grade will cost five taels of silver and one tael, the second grade will cost eight taels of silver and one tael, and the first grade will cost ten taels of silver and one tael.
"
A pound of ginseng weighs ten taels of silver and one tael is equivalent to one hundred and sixty taels of silver.
A pound of fifth-grade food costs forty-eight taels.
And leftovers such as pickled diced dices, minced slag, and reed beard are not even cheap. The skin of hollow ginseng costs one tael of silver and the minced ginseng costs half a tael.
"President Liu refused the subscription opportunity, and even after being persuaded by the Young Master, he was unwilling."
"Does he have no money? You can get the ginseng first, and then you can make up for the money after the ginseng is sold out." Zhu Yihai said.
"Mr. Liu was unwilling to buy it. He also said a lot of unpleasant things and said that he would give His Majesty some advice." Liu Chao was helpless.
The emperor gave benefits to officials. A first-grade official could be eligible to subscribe for fifty catties. This was an opportunity to make at least a thousand taels of silver by flipping hands, but he actually refused.
Not only was he unappreciative, he also criticized the emperor for not selling ginseng, let alone allowing officials to participate in it. All in all, he made a lot of unpleasant remarks.
"Hahaha, you are indeed Mr. Liu. If that's the case, then there's no need to persuade him."
Zhu Yihai was not angry.
"In this way, when his report is presented, you will go to the Liu Mansion to announce the decree, saying that he has been forthright in admonishing me. I want to reward him, so I will reward him with a new house, and also give him five pounds of ginseng, twenty pieces of silk, and silver coins with dragon patterns.
Two hundred yuan, yes, and ten rice paper knives as a reward."
Liu Chao wrote it down.
"The Portuguese envoy from Macau came again to ask for an audience, and also invited Bi Francis."
"No, you go see Francis Bi. The friendly trade and trade conditions we have agreed with them before are still valid, but they must also hand over Macau. I can allow the Portuguese to register with the government and continue to live in Macau after obtaining a residence permit.
If you do business or even live for a long time, but you will change your residence permit once a year in the future, if you violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, you will be deprived of your residence, expelled or repatriated."
"This is my bottom line. I will not allow them to occupy Macau in such a black and white manner and establish a state within a state there. I will give them a three-month period."
"If Macau cannot be handed over within three months, not only will my royal camp capture Macau, but the previously signed trade treaty with them will also be invalidated, and all Portuguese people in Macau will be expelled.
Ming Dynasty will no longer allow the Portuguese to trade with China, let them think carefully!"
"What they want is just trade. If they want to build a colonial base in Macau, they will never allow it."
Zhu Yihai is still very confident about the Portuguese in Macau.
If he hadn't considered his previous cooperation with them and expressed some gratitude, he could have set foot in Macau directly.
Even though the Portuguese had guarded this place for so many years and repelled many attacks by the Dutch, the Dutch came all the way, with only a few boats or a thousand men at most. Both sides were evenly matched.
The Portuguese occupies a favorable location and have a fort and castle. Naturally, they have an advantage in this kind of small-scale battle.
But it would be different if we faced Ming Dynasty.
Even the Ming Dynasty had no problem taking back Macau. Historically, places like Tuenmen, Shuangyu, and Penghu were occupied by these ghosts, and they would eventually be beaten to death.
The Portuguese's ability to gain a foothold in Macau has to do with their strategy, not their strength. They relied on half-cheating, half-coaxing and bribery to trade here on a lease basis.
The land rent of 500 taels a year, plus 20,000 taels of silver, seemed pretty good to the Ming Dynasty.
But to Zhu Yihai, this is nothing.
During the heyday of the Portuguese in Macau, they had four shipping routes and tens of millions of taels of silver a year. If taxes were imposed, it would be at least hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels.
Not to mention that they are still building forts and castles in Macau and appointing autonomous governors.
Although the Portuguese were once rich, they have completely declined, especially in the Far East. After losing Malacca, they now have only one stronghold in Macau. As a result, Japan and Luzon no longer do business with them, so they are counting on the Ming Dynasty and passing by.
In Malacca, you still have to pay tolls to the Dutch.
They really don't have the capital to negotiate terms with Zhu Yihai now.
Zhu Yihai was able to talk to them because of the friendship they had from previous cooperation.
Of course, if the Portuguese cooperate with each other, Zhu Yihai is willing to continue to cooperate. No matter how depressed it is, it was once the earliest maritime empire, and the broken ship still has 3,000 nails.
Lao Bi is still a very nice person, but I decided not to meet him to avoid embarrassing him.
He raised his head and looked outside the hall.
The New Year has passed, but I still can’t feel the slightest breath of spring.
A minister reported that last year the Yellow River burst its banks and flooded for 800 miles. There was a long drought in autumn and winter, so there is a high possibility of a major locust plague this spring.
After floods and droughts, there are often large locust plagues.
As for the current situation in Henan and Shandong, once a major locust plague breaks out again, it will really make things worse, and may even cause the locust plague to expand and spread to the Jianghuai region.
This is a troublesome thing.
Zhu Yihai couldn't help but feel worried. Now he just hopes to capture Henan as soon as possible to see if he can find a way to prevent the locust plague from spreading.