Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 241 Establishment of the Ministry of Commerce
At about [-]:[-] am this morning, at the Taiye Pool Wharf in the Imperial City.

Taichang was escorted by Prince Zhu Youxiao and a group of court ministers, and took Xin Wang Zhu Youjian slowly boarded the ship docked aside, and the whole fleet set off immediately.

This time, he was no longer on a wheeled ship, but a new ship with [-] materials similar to a large water transport ship.

It turns out that since Wang Zheng returned from Haishen Port, he has devoted himself to shipbuilding. In the past six months, he has not only built a row of docks and waterways near the mouth of the Haihe River, but also built a "large ship" for Taichang. "Car.

At this moment, he still can't build the Louchuan gunboat, because the Louchuan gunboat has to be modified with at least [-] materials as reference to the Dafuchuan, and the internal structure is too different from the Dafuchuan. It will take a long time to modify the design. .

However, this kind of water transport ship with [-] materials is different. Anyway, it is almost the same to replace the sail with a steam engine driven water wheel. The internal structure does not need to be changed much at all, so he specially made it for Taichang. Such a car.

The Ministry of Industry gathered hundreds of skilled shipbuilders from the entire Ming Dynasty to carefully build this ship, and it was really beautiful.

Moreover, this large water transport ship has upper and lower cabins, one below the deck and one above the deck. Boilers and steam engines can be armored below the deck, and only four chimneys need to be exposed above.

In this way, the entire upper deck is spacious and tidy, and it looks much more comfortable than the small space in the wheelhouse.

Taichang took a group of accompanying officials around the boat, and then couldn't help but admire: "Liangfu, this boat is well designed, simple and beautiful, and it can be finalized and built in large quantities."

Wang Zheng couldn't help rubbing his hands excitedly and said: "The emperor has won the award. In fact, there are not many changes to this ship. It is just the shell of a water transport ship. You only need to change the sails into water wheels. It's very simple."

Taichang nodded again and again and said: "This ship is really good. Why don't you expand the Haihe shipyard and recruit more craftsmen to build this kind of large water transport ship while developing buildings and gunboats. This ship has many uses. , can not only transport food and goods, but also transport people and money.”

This boat is really good, not only is it nearly twice the size of the wheel boat, but also nearly four times larger than the wheel boat, so it is not a problem to transport a hundred people.

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand, I will let people expand the Haihe shipyard when I come back."

Taichang nodded slightly, and then led everyone to sit down on both sides of the big table in the cabin, and then said solemnly: "Liangfu, this time the Spanish ocean-going fleet should have large ships and gunboats. Tell the disciples to use the binoculars to take a good look, probably the structure should still be visible."

Buildings, boats, gunboats, such sharp weapons in naval warfare, they will definitely not allow outsiders to observe and learn from them, but it doesn't matter, you can learn a lot by looking at the external structure carefully.

Wang Zheng nodded hopefully and said: "After seeing it this time, I will go back and modify this building, and the gunboat should be able to start construction."

At this moment, Taichang is also full of hope, [-] barrels of rubber, I don’t know how many steam engines can be produced, and these steam engines are enough to make great progress in all aspects of Daming, he really wants to get the [-] barrels of rubber immediately what.

The speed of the ship was really fast. A group of people traveled south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Yangzhou Prefecture, then turned eastward via the main road of the Yangtze River. In less than four days, they arrived at the newly built Taicang Port.

This Taicang Port is very different from Poseidon Port. Poseidon Port has only a port and a dock without a city, and its defense depends on four forts built against the mountains, but Taicang Port has a fortress that can accommodate 10 people. The big city, and two tall walls protruded from both sides of the city, surrounding the entire port.

As long as there are enough artillery on the city wall, even a fleet of buildings, gunboats, and boats will not dare to act wildly.

It's a pity that this time they only brought fifty [-]-jin Thor cannons and fifty [-]-jin Thor cannons. The two miles-long city walls on both sides of the port must not be full.

Taichang was feeling secretly there, the ship had already docked at the pier.

Just as he got off the boat with a group of accompanying officials, Bi Maoliang had already led a group of generals from the Shenji Battalion to welcome him up.

After paying respects to the princes and ministers, Taichang patted Bi Maoliang on the shoulder affectionately and said, "Shigao, thank you for your hard work. The city and the wharf are really well built. Let's go, take me into the city to have a look."

Hearing this, Bi Maoliang hurriedly bowed down as a gesture of invitation, and then led Taichang and his party to the city.

This Taicang Port and Taicang City are almost integrated. When you leave the dock, there is a row of spacious bluestone roads. Each dock leads to a row. There are dozens of roads in this row. It became a T-shaped road leading directly to the city.

Inside the city is a cross-shaped main road leading to the city gates on all four sides, and the four sides are divided into tofu blocks by one after another straight streets. Shops, warehouses and courtyards are built on both sides of these streets, but at this moment the streets There was no one there at all.

Because the entire Taicang City has not been opened yet, except for the [-] soldiers of the Shenji Battalion who were transferred to guard it, who are officials under Bi Maoliang, there are no ordinary people.

At this moment, the [-] soldiers of the Shenji Battalion have been fully equipped, and there is no battle at all, so Taichang divided the Shenji Battalion into two, and sent [-] soldiers to garrison at Haishen Port, and another [-] soldiers to Taicang. Hong Kong stationed.

Right now, the military camps around Taicang City are full of soldiers from the Shenji Battalion, and the walls are also lined up neatly, so there must be no problem in terms of safety.

Taichang led everyone up to the city wall, raised his binoculars and scanned the city, then nodded in satisfaction and said: "Well, these shops, warehouses and courtyards are also well built, how many sets are there in total?"

Bi Maoliang hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "The emperor forgives the sin. At the beginning, the emperor did not elaborate on what kind of shops to build, so I made my own proposal and built 50 sets of large shops that can accommodate hundreds of people and [-] sets that can accommodate [-] people. There are medium-sized shops on the left and right, and there is a magistrate’s office and a city bureau’s office. As for the small shops, Weichen didn’t build them, because Weichen thinks that those who can come here to do business must not be small merchants.”

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help but nodded slightly and said: "Well, you're right, this place is indeed not for small businesses and hawkers, and six hundred sets of shops should be enough."

Bi Maoliang then asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, I have the courage to ask, do you want to rent out these shops or sell them? I dare not hide the truth from the Emperor. The threshold of my house is almost broken. Many big merchants over there are looking for information about the shops here."

This Bi Maoliang is from Huizhou. The Huizhou merchants over there must be able to see the business opportunities here, and it is normal to ask hard.

As for whether to rent or sell, Taichang thinks it is better to rent, and the rent is easy to control. Anyone who is dishonest and messes up can just tell him to get out.

He thought for a while, and then decided: "Let's rent it, the big one can accommodate a hundred people, 1000 two-years, the small one can accommodate 50 people, 500 two-years."

My God, this rent is simply more expensive than buying shops in ordinary cities!

However, once the business here is started, it will not be a profit of hundreds or thousands of taels, which Bi Maoliang understands quite well.

He was just secretly surprised, and then he cupped his hands and asked, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask again, when will these shops start renting, and if the merchants want to rent, who can they turn to?"

Well, Taichang didn’t answer this question and asked instead: “Shigao, what do you think about setting up a special department of commerce? What do you think about merchants and commerce?"

what?
This imperial court has always had six parts, and suddenly there is an extra one, which is really surprising.

Is it necessary to build a commercial department to manage merchants and commerce?
If it is an ordinary official, it is estimated that it is unnecessary, and if it is those corrupt scholars, they will even strongly oppose it.

But Bi Maoliang was different. He grew up in a business environment since he was a child, so he naturally had no objection to the establishment of a commercial department to manage merchants and commerce.

He just thought about it for a while, then cupped his hands and said, "It's fine if the emperor thinks it's okay."

This means that he has no opinion.

Taichang patted him on the shoulder and praised: "Very well, then you will be the first minister of the Ministry of Commerce. You will be in charge of the Department of Shipbuilding, renting of shops, and business tenants. You make a good charter and come out."

This!
When Bi Maoliang heard this, he couldn't help being dumbfounded.

He really didn't expect that he would be promoted to six ministers all of a sudden.

Oh, no, it's seven now.

The Ministry of Commerce of the Ming Dynasty was established in this way, but the newly promoted Minister of the Ministry of Commerce is still a little confused at the moment.

(End of this chapter)