The King of Han's fiefdom is in Huangnan, Qinghai. It's a pretty good place for farming and grazing, but it's a bit remote, but at least it's much better than the old King Jiuning's land.
King Ning, who is now seven years old, has his fiefdom far away in Yongning, Nu'ergan. It is a really wild land, covered with ice and snow for more than half of the year. Although the Ming Dynasty's navigation technology is now advanced, and there are many new buildings along the coast.
Ports such as Dengzhou, Qingdao, Lushun, Dalian, Dandong, Jeju, Goto, Tsuima, Hamjing, Chongjin, Hunchun, Vladivostok, Huyeke, Kuhail, Yongning, Qidumizhugang, Vladivostok and Yongning
They are all military strongholds and trading centers with over 10,000 immigrants and indigenous people, but they are too far away after all. In addition to extremely adventurous hunters, fur traders, etc., there are also more exiled criminals.
For a dignified prince and prince, enfeoffing Yongning is no different from being exiled.
"Sealing Qinghai as a vassal and stationing in Guinan as a vassal? Your Majesty only promised to build a Han city for His Highness, the Han Palace, and nothing else?"
"Where are the common people? Where are the royal guards?"
Shen Hongbang, an attendant of the King of Han, was not very happy about his brother-in-law granting the vassal Guinan. Although it is said that there are millions of acres of arable land and tens of millions of acres of pasture, it is indeed a large piece of land. It is said to be a county, but it is comparable to
It's as big as a government in Zhejiang.
But just having land is not enough. Qinghai is not Zhejiang, and Guinan is not Ningbo.
Shen Hongbang is the son of bachelor Shen Chenquan. His hometown is Guanhaiwei, Ningbo. It is the land of Ningshao Plain in eastern Zhejiang, a land of fish and rice along the river and coast. It also has the advantage of fishing, salt and shipping. The ancestor of the Shen family resigned from office and lived in seclusion in Cixi Guan during the Southern Song Dynasty.
Hai founded Haiyu Bookstore, taught apprentices, taught and passed down the family. By the Ming Dynasty, he had become a well-known local noble family, with Dafudi, Jinji Mentou, Jinshi Mentou, Hexia House, etc., all of them glorious and magnificent.
Shenshiqiao, where their family is located, is also a famous local commercial town. Half of the shops in the town are owned by the Shen family, and countless surrounding lands were also owned by the Shen family.
Although Shen Hongbang started studying very early and aspired to take the imperial examination, he was not an ordinary student from a poor family. He only knew how to study eight-part essays and had some research on economics, industry and commerce.
He knew very well that the fiefdom of the King of Han was okay, but it would not work if it was just a piece of land and no people.
This person includes not only the guard army, but also tenants and subjects. Without people, even if there are 10 million acres of cultivated land, it will be dead.
One million acres of arable land is actually only ten thousand hectares of land, and it is not yet mature land, let alone there are no farmers now, so what is the use of having more land?
"His Majesty asked me to recruit immigrants and herders. He also said that I could also buy some slaves. He also said that these lands in the fiefdom would be tax-free for ten years."
"Your Majesty, how can anyone recruit people so easily? It's difficult to recruit tenants in the mainland now. Your Majesty is far away in Heyuan, so it's even more difficult to recruit immigrants. When the imperial court immigrate to the border areas, it means directly allocating farmland. Is it possible for Your Highness to do so?
We also want to allocate fields, but if all the land is divided, will your Highness be gone?"
Zhu Hongtai was not in a hurry and said with a smile, "Your Majesty said there are mines there. We can first go to the inland to invite merchants to cooperate in mining. Then we can build some manors in Guinan and buy slaves to plant them. We can also invite some businessmen to come and settle down and we will collect the rent."
."
"It's not that easy. Whether it's the mainland of the Central Plains, coastal ports, or border areas, the most lacking thing now is people."
The Shen family has a large property. The family is a famous landowner in Ningbo, and has long been involved in industry, commerce, and even maritime trade. Over the years, the Shen family, as a founding family, has become an important member of the Xunchen Group in Eastern Zhejiang.
, there are very good developments in several major fields such as military industry and maritime trade.
It can be said that it is a big family and a big business.
They even have their own plantations overseas, but they are still short of people, a serious shortage of people. The Shen family was also the first to start buying large quantities of slaves to fill the plantations. The workshops were short of labor, but they are still facing a serious labor shortage. The labor force
Now it has become a major problem faced by almost all powerful landowners and even big businessmen.
Therefore, from this aspect, in the past few years of the Shaotian Dynasty, there has actually been a secret dispute between the upper levels of the government, that is, expansion and non-expansion. In particular, the policy of immigration to expand Xinjiang has caused a large number of people from the mainland to emigrate.
Those landlords, wealthy and powerful industrial and commercial owners no longer have cheap and sufficient labor.
Originally, emerging capital and emerging mercantilist policies would inevitably lead to more land annexation, causing more farmers to lose their land, turning some farmers into tenants, and squeezing more landless farmers into cities to work as hired laborers.
, enter workshops and mines, and become industrial employees.
But now the imperial court is actively expanding the borders, acquiring new territory one after another, and then allocating land for immigrants there. Each family is given dozens or even hundreds of acres, attracting many people to come there.
Compared with staying in the mainland as tenants or working for businessmen, the obviously traditional Chinese people feel that they will feel more secure if they have their own land. Between moving away from their hometown and having a large piece of their own land, they eventually become more
More and more people are migrating out.
As for the people left behind in the mainland, because of the almost dynasty-changing change from Chongzhen to Shaotian Dynasty, land was finally readjusted on a large scale. Many people were also assigned fields or purchased official land and became self-cultivators. Many landowners transferred their past land to farmers.
Illegal annexation, occupied official land, civilian land, etc. were vomited out, and a large number of official land from the original royal family, vassal kings, guards, and government agencies were given to the people, and many self-cultivated farmers were added.
There was a lot of opposition from the private landowners, powerful scholars, bureaucrats and businessmen, but the emperor simply made a few big moves and suppressed these objections.
This is the power of the founding monarch who immediately attacks the country. It is difficult to oppose the emperor.
This way is unavailable, so we have to find another way, which is to transfer money to industry and commerce, or even overseas. Many former big landowners have cleared many fields, and even voluntarily sold off a lot of land in the mainland. The holding cost is high, and
There was a shortage of manpower, and they faced the risk of being fined and confiscated, so some of the money was sold and invested in industry, commerce, mining, and even overseas trade. Some people also went overseas to build commercial villages.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! For example, in Japan, Annan, Luzon and other places, relatively cheap labor is used to cultivate large estates, mainly planting sugar cane, jute, rice, and tea.
Even cash crops such as spices, tobacco leaves, cotton, etc. can be very profitable if they are transported back to the mainland for processing. In addition to employing local indigenous people, they will also directly purchase overseas slaves at a lower cost.
"It is not easy to cultivate 10,000 hectares of arable land, and it is not easy to graze 100,000 hectares of pasture. There is a shortage of people. Without people, the mountains of gold and silver can only stare at it."
Shen Hongbang sighed to his brother-in-law. With such a large fiefdom, it would be difficult to get up without real policy support from the court. The most important thing is the people. But now the emperor obviously does not intend to directly grant the Han Dynasty fiefdoms to immigrants, so they have to find a way on their own.
But he also knows how easy it is to immigrate.
Immigration from the imperial court also cost a lot of money. Not only did they have to allocate a lot of land, but they also had to pay settling-in expenses. There were even government support along the way, and they also needed assistance and subsidies in the first few years after the immigrants came over.
From the Southern Song Dynasty to this time, Shen Shiqiao, the hometown of Shen Hongbang, took hundreds of years to become bustling with thousands of lights.
"Did Your Majesty say you should give me money?"
"Didn't say."
"I have to." Shen Hongbang was very considerate of his brother-in-law.
Zhu Hongtai was kidnapped outside the customs when he was young, and suffered a lot with the prince. However, he was quite stable in the years after he came back, and he could study peacefully. Before leaving the cabinet, all expenses and other expenses were borne by the royal family, so there was no need to worry about these things.
The emperor would also give him moon silver to use, but he had no idea about silver money.
But now that I have been crowned, married, and will soon have a kingdom, from now on it will be like separating the family and living separately.
After the reform of the clan system, clan salaries and benefits have also been changed again and again. Now there are nine levels of clan titles, from princes and princes to princes, princes, and county men. Their salaries are actually based on official salaries.
For example, if you are a first-class civil servant in the imperial court, your annual salary is two hundred and forty silver dollars, and your salary is two hundred and forty stone. This is the basic salary, and does not include grace, additional salary, job allowance, part-time money, rice supplement, and integrity support.
etc.
Therefore, the prince's salary is similar to that of a first-grade official. The official prince's salary is also 240 silver dollars plus 240 shi lumi per year.
However, the first-grade official is a highly respected minister, so he enjoys preferential treatment. In the court, he is a cabinet bachelor, three divisions, three ministers, etc., so he has double salary and double salary. The prince also follows this standard, and his official salary is four hundred per year.
Eighty silver dollars, plus four hundred and eighty stone meters.
This number, whether it is compared with that before the Ming Dynasty or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, is still far behind.
The annual salary of the prince of the Ming Dynasty was ten thousand shi, but the Qing Dynasty gave the prince 10,000 taels of silver and 6,000 shi meters. Due to financial problems in the Ming Dynasty, the prince's salary usually had to be discounted. The 10,000 shi meters cost rice and money.
They were given half and half, and they were even often folded into treasure notes in the past. The actual salary was only a few thousand taels of silver.
In comparison, Shao Tianchao really doesn't have much.
However, Zhu Yihai would not be too harsh on his children. The official salary of the clan was provided by the treasury, so it was set at a low level, but the emperor would provide additional subsidies to the clan from his own internal funds.
Generally, another salary is given based on the salary.
There are also rewards on New Year's Days and other occasions, or birthdays of princes and princesses, etc. These are innumerable.
Whether the emperor wants to give 10,000 or 5,000 is purely his personal freedom. Anyway, no money from the treasury is used.
Of course, the King of Han had never moved out of his palace to live elsewhere before, and all expenses were borne by the royal family. Of course, it did not require much money.
He is now going to be divided into feudal vassals. He has some money on hand, mainly from previous salary savings, which are basically unused, and then the emperor will reward him, and then there will be a wave of rewards and gifts from the wedding.
It adds up to tens of thousands of taels.
However, to develop such a large fiefdom, tens of thousands of silver dollars are definitely not enough. Even if the emperor is responsible for spending money to build a Seoul City and the Han Palace, he cannot just have a house.
"His Highness has to ask for more money from His Majesty. It must be hundreds of thousands of dollars anyway. With this money, we can buy slaves, recruit merchants to jointly mine, build merchant villages, build pastures, and build some workshops to process leather, wool, etc.
"
"We can also recruit some people to immigrate and settle here. Let's allocate some land to each household and rent them some land. Having people is the key."
When Hongcheng heard that he wanted to ask the emperor for hundreds of thousands of silver, he hesitated: "Isn't this good? Your Majesty has already given such a large fiefdom and promised to build Seoul City and the Han Palace."
"Your Highness, you are the King of Han. Besides the Crown Prince, you are the first vassal."
"Nowadays, for the Japanese slaves in Tsushima Port, an average family of four, old and young, costs about twenty-five silver dollars, more than six dollars each. A young and strong man even costs ten silver dollars. Some skilled shipbuilders and other craftsmen get
Twenty or thirty yuan, and a young and beautiful girl who can be a concubine or maidservant will also have to pay ten or twenty yuan.
The Nanyang Kunlun slaves in Luzon Port, the Cochin people in Annam Wuan Port, the Champa people in Hue, the Africans in Malacca, and those young plantation slaves are all very expensive."
Nowadays, one acre of cultivated land in the mainland only costs a few silver dollars, and one plantation slave is worth about two to three acres of land.
The average price per person is ten yuan, and ten thousand people will have to pay one hundred thousand yuan, and the expenses such as food and drink for ten thousand people are also very large.
In order to develop the fiefdom, Shen Hongbang persuaded the King of Han to ask the emperor for additional start-up capital, and then buy his 18,000 slaves first. It didn’t matter whether they were Tsarist White slaves, Cossack slaves, Japanese slaves, Annan slaves, Nanyang slaves, African slaves, etc.
Slaves, Tatar slaves or whatever, as long as they can be used.
"Your Highness remembers something else. We have to ask His Majesty to let us recruit a royal guard first. At least there must be a camp. We must also order a batch of ordnance from the court. Otherwise, there will be so many slaves that there will be no guards to control.
No, with the permission of the imperial edict, we can use money to recruit a group of veterans with high salaries to serve as bodyguards."
The King of Han had been studying in Beijing in the past few years, and he also practiced horsemanship and archery, and also learned the art of war and artillery skills. However, when it came to managing the fiefdom, he had no experience at all. He had not even had the experience of being a housekeeper before.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! However, Shen Hongbang, the head of a famous family, has been exposed to some family management since he was a child, and has some understanding of it.
······
Zhu Yihai sat in the study and listened to the King of Han's intention, but did not agree at all.
He drank tea and then said with a smile, "This idea of yours is not bad. It was Shen Hongbang who planned it for you, right?"
"Your Majesty has a sharp eye."
"Hahaha, Shen Hongbang is a good person. He is good at reading and writing poems very smartly. His achievements in the future will not be lower than those of his father Shen Chenquan. It is a good thing that you have such a brother-in-law to help you, but it will cost you dozens of dollars to speak.
Ten thousand silver dollars, quite an appetite."
"I can't give you this money."
The King of Han was stunned for a moment, and then said: "I know this, so I shouldn't make such a request."
"Wait a minute, I won't reward you with this money, but I can cooperate."
The king of Han was puzzled.
"Let's talk about cooperation from a business perspective. The prospect of your fiefdom is still good. It is suitable for farming and grazing, and there are mines. The transportation is not bad. The geographical location is also good. After all, it is on the Bailan Ancient Road, and it is next to the Yellow River.
Lanzhou and Xining are not too far away. Although Longyang Gorge and Liugong Gorge are not navigable, sheepskin rafts and wooden rafts can still go down the river.
I can send someone from the Shaofu Supervisor to come over and talk to you about cooperation. We can open mines and build merchant villages and ranches together. As for the specific ways to contribute capital, how to divide the share income, etc., we can discuss this in detail, and we can also involve the Ningbo Shen family.
Waiting for other interested parties to join us, I believe that in such a treasured land, there will be people who are willing to cooperate and join."
"You can directly buy the land and mine, or you can borrow money from the Royal Bank, and the interest rates are easy to negotiate."
The King of Han originally listened to his uncle and wanted to directly ask the emperor for hundreds of thousands of silver dollars. However, the emperor directly negotiated with him for cooperative development and borrowed money from him to collect interest.
"Go back and ask Shen Hongbang to draw up a detailed plan. I will ask the Shaofu Supervisor to come over for negotiation. I will give you a suggestion. You cannot just rely on buying slaves to attract investment. You should also use part of the arable land and pasture in the fiefdom.
It is used to recruit immigrants from the Han region. Even if you use half of the land to recruit immigrants, 500,000 acres of cultivated land, and each household is given 50 acres, you can still recruit 10,000 households. Although you allocate 500,000 acres of land, if
If you can really attract 10,000 Han immigrants to your fiefdom, your territory will take off."
"You can also give each household a hundred acres of land, half of it divided and half of it rented."
"Remember, if you want long-term peace and stability, it is most critical to maintain the majority of Han people in the fiefdom. They will become the ballast stone for the stability of the territory, and they will also become the most reliable supporters of your border fiefdom!"