Qiming 1158

Chapter 1187 How should you preside over the government?
There is no doubt that tea, silk and porcelain brought enormous profits to the rulers of the Southern Song Dynasty.

In addition to the extremely rich customs tax, the trade itself also made a lot of money for the Southern Song court and the Southern Song dignitaries.

But the producers themselves did not gain a lot of benefits. The so-called people who are covered in Luo Qi are not silkworm farmers. They are exploited miserably, with meager income, and it is not easy to eat.

Tea workers in tea gardens, textile workers in textile factories, and porcelain-firing artisans in folk kilns are all like this. They do the hardest and most tiring work, and they master quite exquisite skills, but they cannot meet the workload. income and corresponding status.

They are workers, their status in the eyes of the ruling class is not as good as that of peasants, their status is humble, and there is no need for courtesy.

Although they produced extremely exquisite handmade products, they could not even obtain personal freedom, not only to work, but also to endure the brutal exploitation of the operators and the occasional harsh administrative orders from the imperial court.

When there is work, they work day and night, and the rest period is very short. When there is no work, they have to do odd jobs to earn extra money because they don’t have much income.

Although it is said that due to some special reasons during this period, professional silk workers [machine households] who were completely separated from agricultural production appeared in some central cities with developed industry and commerce, but this is only an individual phenomenon, and they can feed themselves through their own labor. It's still not easy to get a full stomach.

Survival is already a problem, let alone anything else.

The arrival of Ming officials was originally just a change of employer, and their lives would not change, but when the change really came, the workers still felt huge discomfort and doubts, and even self-questioned.

The emotional guidance of the workers is the job of the instructor. The economic workers don’t care about this. What they need to do is to pull up the system as soon as possible, and integrate it into the existing overseas business system, and start to earn huge maritime trade profits for the Ming Dynasty.

In the face of the turbulent actions of Ming officials, the Southern Song Dynasty court in Lin'an was not unresponsive.

In the entire first half of Hongwu's six years and the seven or eight months of the second half of the year, there was always a voice within the Lin'an court.

That is, the Ming Dynasty intervened on a large scale in the economic system of Jiangnan and plundered a large number of high-quality commercial assets through war dividends, which was definitely not a good thing for the Lin'an court.

For this reason, the Lin'an court lost a lot of high-quality commercial assets that could have been under their control. The losses were heavy. The Ming Dynasty intervened in the daily production activities in the south of the Yangtze River. How could this not be an act of aggression?

The political forces headed by Zhou Linzhi were terrified after seeing the liquidation of the imperial children and the war criminal family in the Ming kingdom, and realized that the Ming kingdom was still the same Ming kingdom, and it was still the terrorist regime that regarded revolution and liquidation as more important than anything else.

Not only to kill, but also to be punished for killing, and to toss everything to the same as their Ming Kingdom, Jiangnan Kingdom will be a piece of meat in their mouths sooner or later.

Even if they can't see their full-scale action to liquidate the Jiangnan Kingdom, it is not what they want to see the Ming Kingdom's large-scale intervention in the Jiangnan economic system.

Because this should have belonged to their interests, but now it has been taken away by the Ming Kingdom.

To put it bluntly, a pure businessman will only do a small business, open a small restaurant, a small hotel, etc. It is impossible to get involved in a large business.

However, if a large-scale business is profitable, even if a businessman runs it from scratch by relying on the miracle of hanging all the way, he will definitely find a backer in the Lin'an court later.

Back then, the Su family had to find a backer in the court to sell private salt, not to mention other businesses with huge profits?

Since the children of the royal family can intervene, it is impossible for the powerful Lin'an bureaucrats not to intervene.

Therefore, the Ming Kingdom is apparently dealing with Jiangnan merchants and taking in the high-quality assets of the merchants, but in fact, it is digging the lifeblood of the Jiangnan ruling class, and is competing with them to eat cakes, and in the fight, Jiangnan Kingdom still faces In an unstoppable crisis situation.

So at the beginning of the sixth year of Hongwu, when the Ming Dynasty was liquidating and sorting out the high-quality commercial assets of Jiangnan, Zhou Linzhi went to Shen Gai to discuss these matters.

"Most of the properties controlled by the clan's children and those controlled by sinners fell into the hands of the people of the Ming Dynasty. We only got a small part. Even if all the properties that were originally run by the government can be recovered, it is also a big deal for us. hazard.

Every year, the tax revenue received through the Shibo Division is several million, not to mention the huge profits from directly selling the goods to Fanbang. That is the source of the money that the court must not lose. If you lose this money, the court can still get it. What military support?
Xianggong, I know that the imperial court now relies on the Ming Kingdom to do its affairs, but I can't also hand over all the vital things that the imperial court depends on for a living to the Ming Kingdom, right?Wouldn't that mean to us directly surrendering to the Ming Kingdom and handing over the entire Jiangnan to the Ming Kingdom? "

Shen Kai was not surprised by Zhou Linzhi's opinion, but it would be more strange if he didn't say so.

Because this kind of thing accompanies Ming's big event in Jiangnan, it's not only Zhou Lin who has such a view, several people have come to Shen Jia to talk about this matter.

On the one hand, the Ming Dynasty imposed tariffs on Jiangnan goods, which caused Jiangnan goods to have to raise their prices, causing many foreign businessmen to be dissatisfied.

On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty controlled and rectified the industries in the Jiangnan state on a large scale. In some places, production has even been resumed. It seems that it wants to snatch the market.

This sinister intention is so obvious that many officials can't stand it anymore.

Zhou Lin's house is already relatively clean, his eyes are fixed on the land and property, and these business matters are not involved. However, many officials in the court earn money from this, and many officials in power have businessmen as their refuge.

Then, the commercial profits obtained are generally more for officials and less for businessmen. Forty-six is ​​considered a favor, and thirty-seven is normal. Shen Kai also knows that twenty-eight and nineteen are.

So Shen should see this clearly.

"It was said to be for the sake of the country, but in fact, it was because the industry operated by my family was attacked by the Ming Kingdom and felt unsafe, that's why I acted like this, Mao Zhen, am I right? But as far as I know, you There is no such thing at home, you come to tell me about this matter, is it possible that someone asked me to ask?"

Seeing that his purpose was pierced by Shen Cai's words, Zhou Linzhi stopped beating around the bush.

He nodded.

"Xianggong, it sounds ugly. We are grasshoppers on a rope. How many people inside and outside the court point to sea trade to make money, we all know in our hearts that Minguo's trick is to draw wages from the bottom of the pot, and how many people are screaming, we have no point in our hearts. ?"

"Of course I know, but this is the request of the Ming Kingdom, what can we do? It's written in black and white on the treaty, and it's clear! And don't say it's so serious, I don't believe that they can't live without sea trade making money. , will starve to death! Who believes this kind of nonsense?"

"That's the most important thing!"

Zhou Linzhi said in a low voice: "They are not commoners, they just need to eat their stomachs. This cut off people's fortunes is like killing one's parents. Ming Guo's doing this will not only have a great impact on the revenue of the national treasury, but also the personal income of officials!
At that time, the officials of the imperial court were dissatisfied with your actions, dissatisfied with your compromise with the Ming Kingdom, dissatisfied with you, and disobeyed your orders. How should you preside over the government?How should I secure this post of Pingzhang's military and state affairs? "

(End of this chapter)