Outside Hirado Bay, there were some huge ships floating, but these giant ships did not sail back and forth like other ships. They stayed there for a long time without moving.
The first giant ships had arrived a few months ago, and the Japanese in Hirado called these black ships black ships.
The black ship was parked motionless on the sea, but ships often approached it. Ships came from the outer sea and unloaded a lot of cargo onto the giant ship. Those ships were also very strange, and they were not ordinary sea ships.
This type of ship is long and thin, with a sharp and protruding front end. It sails close to the water and is extremely fast. When they sail rapidly, it is like flying shears constantly cutting the sea surface.
They are elusive and disappear as quickly as they come.
Every time after they left, another similarly long and narrow ship would go to the Kurofune to pick up the cargo and bring it to Hirado Port. Those ships were all paddle boats and were equally fast.
Those black ships are like huge floating dock warehouses.
In Hirado Castle, a man pushed open the door of Tagawa Shichizaemon and came in.
"Sir, seven clipper ships have just arrived and are unloading cargo on the black ship."
Tagawa Nanzaemon heard the sound and closed the account book in his hand, "I just left the day before yesterday, and I'm here again today, so fast."
Although the young man who came to report the news was also dressed in Japanese clothes, he was actually a descendant of Fujian maritime merchants, and his mother was Japanese. Like the Tagawa Nanzaemon in front of him, he was of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent, but Tagawa Nanzaemon was more mixed.
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Tagawa Shichizaemon is a young man in his twenties, but he is very important in Hirado Island. He is also a maritime merchant with extensive connections in tomorrow's trade. His mother, the Tagawa clan, is the lord of the Hirado domain.
The daughter of a retainer of the Matsuura clan.
The father of the Tagawa family, Tagawa Ongyihuang, was actually named Ongyihuang. He was born in Fujian. He later went to Hirado, Japan to do business on a ship, and finally married into the Tagawa family, a retainer of the Matsuura family, so he changed his name to Tagawa Ongyihuang. At that time,
There are many Fujian merchants engaged in maritime trade in Japan, especially in Hirado, where they are very powerful.
For example, the famous Japanese pirate Wang Zhi used Hirado as his base camp, and later Li Dan and other large merchants also focused on Hirado and traveled to and from Fujian.
He had a fellow Fujianese man, Zheng Zhilong, who followed his uncle on the docks when he was very young and started doing business in Macau. Later he converted to Catholicism and took him to Manila. His uncle later recommended this very smart nephew to Li Dan, a large merchant.
Li Dan was both a great merchant and a great pirate. Li Dan also admired Zheng Zhilong, a young man who was young, smart, brave and resourceful. It didn't take long before he gave him a ship to manage and took him with him.
Hirado, the base camp of Japan.
Because Li Dan had no children, he adopted Zheng Zhilong as his adopted son and planned to train him as his successor. The young Zheng Zhilong suddenly became a rising star in maritime business, and the political and business circles in Hirado, Japan, rushed to make friends.
The Matsura clan, the lord of the Hirado domain, not only gave Zheng Zhilong land to build a house, but also asked his retainer Tagawa Ongyihuang, who was also a Fujian native, to marry his daughter to Zheng Zhilong.
This marriage also brought closer the relationship between the great merchant Zheng Zhilong and the Matsuura family, the lords of the Hirado domain. After the marriage, the Tagawa family also gave birth to two sons for Zheng Zhilong, the eldest son Zheng Sen, and the second son was adopted by the Tagawa family and named Tagawa Nanzaoe
Door.
Later, Zheng Zhilong, Yan Siqi and others planned to rebel in Japan, but failed and fled to Taiwan. They did not take care of his wife and children. Fortunately, the Arida River family took care of them. Zheng Zhilong opened up wasteland in Taiwan, and soon after the leader of the alliance, Yan Siqi, died suddenly, so Zheng Zhilong quickly married
He married Yan Siqi's daughter and became the new leader of the alliance. He gathered a group of brothers and swore sworn brothers as Shibazhi. However, Zheng Xiang and some other people dissatisfied with him and went their separate ways.
Later, Zheng Zhilong occupied Taiwan and led the Shibazhi to establish a reputation as an official party. He also used the connections of the Tagawa family to continue to operate trade with Japan. Later, he took the initiative to unite with the Dutch, gradually clearing his identity, and accepted the imperial court's recruitment.
, returned to my hometown in Fujian.
He sent someone to pick up his wife and children, but the shogunate did not agree and only picked up the seven-year-old eldest son Zheng Sen. Many years later, he became the overlord of the southeast sea and picked up his wife, but the second son was never taken away, so he
He stayed in Japan and simply made him the important contact person of the I-official Party in Japan.
In those years, the shogunate closed the country, allowing all foreign merchants to gather in Nagasaki for trade, the Dutch to live on one island, the Chinese to live in Karabo, and Nanzaemon also went there.
However, in recent years, with the trade agreement reached between the Edo shogunate and the Shoten Dynasty, Hirado reopened its port, and he came back. Just two years ago, the Japanese shogunate locked down the country again and forcibly closed Hirado again, but Shichizaemon
But I never went to Nagasaki again.
He remains here, continuing to act as a middleman.
On the surface, he is the young master of the Tagawa family, and the Tagawa family is a retainer of the Hirado clan daimyo. On the other hand, he is still the son of Zheng Zhilong.
"Let's go, let's see what's coming this time!"
Shichizaemon got up and went to see his grandfather, Tagawa Onei, first.
"Are the clippers coming again?"
"Well, it's said that seven clipper ships have just arrived and are unloading cargo to the black ship. I guess it's tea, silk, ginseng and the like."
"Go pick up the goods."
Weng Yihuang, who is very old, can no longer see much trace of the Chinese Fujian people. He seems to be an authentic Japanese, a samurai of the Hirado family, and a high-status retainer. The Tagawa family was interested in him back then.
He is smart and capable, but he comes from a poor family, so he recruits a wife.
For the Chinese, marrying into the family was not something they would do unless they had to. Being a son-in-law was the most undignified position. However, he had also been a pirate at sea and married into the Tagawa family.
In recent years, relying on his special identity as a Fujianese, he has been trading with Fujian merchants for the Tagawa family, and also handled maritime trade matters for the Hirado clan.
Because the essence of the Tokugawa shogunate's seclusion order was to seize trade rights and not give the daimyo such foreign trade rights, the shogunate wanted an exclusive monopoly. Therefore, the Matsuura family, which was famous for its Japanese pirates, did not hesitate to start smuggling.
When the shogunate imposed a ban, they intentionally supported a group of Japanese pirates to fight against them.
But now, the Matsuura Party Japanese pirates only rob shogunate families or Koreans, but not Ming Dynasty merchant ships.
"Can you help me ask later, can we sell a few of these clipper ships? If we have such a fast clipper ship, we can also go to Kyoto and go to Edo Bay.
Take a look."
"Okay." Shichizaemon smiled and stood up to say goodbye.
He led a team of people out of Tagawa's house and went straight to Hirado Port. Soon, more than a dozen crab boats received the signal and gathered at the dock.
These ships were sold to Shichizaemon by the Ming Dynasty Ningbo Shipyard.
The Ningbo Shipyard cost 500 taels a piece and could build one in two months. It was mass-produced very quickly. It was sold to Shichizaemon for 2,000 taels a piece, without any equipment such as artillery or muskets.
Shichizaemon spent a thousand taels per ship at an increased price, and ordered three cannons and twenty blunderbuss for each ship, but the cannons were Franchise guns.
However, due to its extremely fast speed, crab boats still have great advantages in offshore ports and inland rivers.
Shichizaemon boarded a crab boat, waved his hand, and more than a dozen crab boats started to move together. The short but sturdy Matsuura pirates paddled their paddleboards vigorously.
The fast crab quickly arrived in front of the black ship.
We are already familiar with each other.
The Tagawa family's flag and Nanizaemon's mark on the fast crab boat allowed them to approach smoothly.
Board a black ship.
In fact, the black ships are Ming Dynasty's smuggling merchant ships - barges. These large rectangular flat-bottomed ships have no power and are not considered real ships. They were towed outside Hirado Port and into the anchoring bay and used as smuggling offshore warehouses.
"The Tokugawa family has become more and more arrogant recently. They are issuing bans one after another. It seems that Tokugawa Iemitsu has completely ignored our warnings."
On the huge black ship, Nanazemon unexpectedly met his brother Zheng Sen, now named Zhu Chenggong, the adopted son of the Ming Emperor, the admiral of the Royal Navy's East China Sea Fleet, and the founding Duke of Yanping County.
"I heard that Tokugawa Iemitsu is about to die, and he probably won't survive this year." Nanzaemon was very happy to see his elder brother, and quickly revealed an important piece of information.
Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third-generation general of the Tokugawa shogunate who conquered barbarians. His grandfather, Tokugawa Ieyasu, gave him the nickname Takechiyo.
"He's not even fifty yet, so he can't do it?" Zheng Chenggong was a little surprised.
Thirty years ago, Tokugawa Iemitsu served in the Yuan Dynasty and officially changed his name to Iemitsu. Three years later, he went to Luoyang with his father Hidetada. After returning to Edo, he officially became the third generation shogun. However, his father still served as regent, and the father-son dualism existed until ten years later.
It was only after his father passed away that he truly took charge.
He has been in power for eighteen years now. When Tokugawa Iemitsu was in power, he behaved toughly, such as monopolizing the interests of Nagasaki trade, continuing to suppress Catholicism, etc.
But three years ago, he accepted the advice of his elders and paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty on behalf of Japan, opening up trade, etc. However, he soon regretted it. The huge trade deficit and the massive outflow of gold and silver made him decide not to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty paid tribute, even tore up the agreement, closed ports such as Hirado, and continued to limit the number of merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty, the amount of trade, and especially strict restrictions on the outflow of gold, silver, and copper.
Tomorrow, relations have rapidly deteriorated, and Sino-Japanese trade has shifted from friendly trade to full-scale smuggling trade.
Tokugawa Iemitsu was also criticized by many daimyo and others as being politically arbitrary, and became increasingly dissatisfied with the shogunate. For example, the Matsuura family of the Hirado domain is now smuggling trade with the Ming Dynasty. The actual trade volume of Hirado has even far exceeded the officially designated long-term trade limit.
Qigang.
"My information is very accurate. He can live for at most half a year. The next shogunate will be, as expected, his second son Tokugawa Ietsuna. However, he is only ten years old. The shogunate may actually be appointed by his uncle Masayuki Hoshina and the elder Sakai.
Tadakatsu, the elders Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Abe Tadaki and others assisted and presided over it." Nanizaemon analyzed that once the strongman Iemitsu died, the new general would be too young and it would be even more difficult to control the feudal clans.
Zhu Chenggong didn't care much about this. After he asked the emperor to take charge of dealing with Japan, he began to build a port on Jeju Island, station troops and store grain. At the same time, he attracted the Hirado Matsuura family to support the Matsuura Party pirates, and began to
Japan and North Korea are causing trouble and further collecting intelligence.
There's no rush to fight, it's not that there's no movement, it's just that preparations are still being made.
While collecting intelligence, stationing troops and storing grain in Jeju Island, he also took some time off from work to engage in smuggling trade, which brought in huge profits. Under the protection and participation of his own navy, the amount of the current Japanese smuggling trade is even higher than before.
Trade with the shogunate is still high.
The shogunate limited the number of Tang ships entering Japan to Nagasaki, and then continued to reduce the number, from a limit of 100 per year, to 80, 60, and finally to a maximum of 50 ships per year for trade with Japan, and even limited the number of ships per year.
The amount of trade silver cannot exceed.
It also banned the export of gold and silver, the export of copper, the import of porcelain, etc. However, Zhu Chenggong directly engaged in smuggling with the daimyo along the coast, not only rebuilding Hirado into the largest smuggling port in Japan, but also having several ports
Smuggling is also serious.
Even now Tsushima and Iki have become important smuggling ports, and even Japanese businessmen have gone directly to Busan Port in North Korea and the Jeju Concession of the Ming Dynasty to trade.
The shogunate's ban became a dead letter. Those feudal lords with mines in their territories ignored the shogunate's ban and worked hard to mine, and then found ways to smuggle them out, exchange them for exquisite Ming Dynasty goods, sell them in their territories, or even transport them to other daimyo territories for sale.
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Under such circumstances, the export volume of Japanese copper smuggling increased sharply. Before the ban, the maximum export volume of Japanese copper in a year had reached 10 million jins. Later, it briefly fell to one million jins, and now it has skyrocketed to 15 to 6 million jins.
catty.
Gold is even more serious, because in the Ming Dynasty, the ratio of gold to silver was 1:16, and one tael of gold was exchanged for one pound of silver, so Japanese merchants took the initiative to trade gold.
They used gold to cash out Ming Dynasty's silver, and Ming Dynasty certainly would not suffer any loss.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The young governor directly established a new mint on Jeju Island, and the silver obtained through trade with Japan and North Korea was directly minted into silver coins there, and then used to buy
Japan's copper, or exchange for their gold.
A large amount of Ming Dynasty silver coins flowed into the Japanese country, and their gold, copper, and even their silver ingots were flowing out in large quantities. For the same silver, Japanese merchants, common people, and even daimyo and feudal lords all preferred the daimyo's silver coins because they were more exquisite and more beautiful.
It is accurate and easy to trade. It is more convenient than the bean plate silver cast by the Japanese shogunate. The bean plate silver is the same as the silver used in the Ming Dynasty. It is weighed and involves issues such as fineness.
How could Shaotian Silver Dollar be so useful, especially since it is convenient for trading with Ming merchants?
The Japanese lords now simply focused on mining, looking for large gold, silver and copper mines everywhere to fill their trade deficit. The deficit was too big. The goods they could sell to the Ming Dynasty were gold, silver, copper, and then lacquerware.
, sulfur, Japanese swords, and fans. It turned out that it was not easy to export Hirado-yaki porcelain. However, now the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom can easily import porcelain from China. Who cares about the original substitutes?
There are so many good things exported by the Ming Dynasty. The famous names and warriors like everything, from silk to porcelain, to tea, tobacco, and then scriptures, pens and ink, etc. Basically, all the high-end goods that the nobles like are only
Can be imported.
In order to satisfy their own desires, and of course to prosper trade, they can only fill the deficit through mining.
If you mine a lot of minerals, you can not only buy them casually, but you can also recruit more soldiers, equip them with more sophisticated equipment, grab more mines, and even annex other territories to become a big lord, and maybe even become a new one.
Where is the shogun?
The Ming Dynasty and Edo now use Shaotian silver coins as trade settlement. In the Edo smuggling market, if Japanese merchants do not have enough Ming Dynasty silver coins, they will directly use copper bars to settle the settlement. If the copper is not enough, they will use silver ingots, or even
