different warring states of japan

Chapter 2158: Difficulties in Reopening Kanko Trade

Although the Sasaki family and the Ichijo family have not yet officially declared war, the secret war has already continued.

Sasaki Yoshikin took advantage of Oda Nobukatsu's death as an opportunity to quickly cut into Oda's former territory.

The Owari samurai of the Sasaki clique, such as Maeda Toshiie and Maeda Masatoshi, launched a diplomatic war against the Owari Mino samurai who occupied the middle and upper echelons of the former Oda territories, prompting the former Oda territories to begin to remain neutral and wait and see.

Under a series of attacks from the Sasaki clan, Hideyoshi Ichijo, who had long been unable to withstand the attack, calmed down instead. He had already mobilized an army to invade the peninsula and was preparing for a decisive battle with the Sasaki clan.

Both sides were desperately preparing in secret, and it was like the calm before the storm, just waiting for that moment to come.

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In Duowenshan Castle, living in the palace, Yiyin summoned all the officials to discuss matters.

Nanban Magistrate Lilu is now able to speak Japanese fluently and can speak fluently in the meeting. Although her tone is a bit strange, everyone can understand her.

Just listen to Lilu saying.

“The Celestial Empire’s special envoy has followed my fleet back to Sakai Port. Hearing that the Saint intends to suppress Ichijo Hideyoshi and restore peace to the peninsula, His Majesty the Emperor of the Celestial Empire is very satisfied.

Although there was no official consent, our attempt to buy saltpeter and lead was quickly responded to, and the goods have been returned with the ship. "

Saltpeter is an important component of gunpowder, and lead is the material used to make projectiles.

At present, when the Kanko trade has not been reopened, Yiyin asked Lilu to use these transactions to test the true attitude of the Celestial Empire.

It is obvious that Hideyoshi Ichijo's invasion of the peninsula has made the Celestial Empire very impatient.

The civil and military ministers of the Celestial Empire who came to rescue the peninsula and the peninsula's incompetent ruler and ministers got along very unpleasantly, and the friction affected the war situation.

The stalemate in the peninsula war also made the Celestial Empire's treasury, which had been mostly consumed by the wars in the northwest and southwest, even more empty.

When it comes to finance, it’s all about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.

The Celestial Empire intends to end the war on the peninsula as soon as possible in order to save money.

However, whether the Kanhe trade could be reopened and become a new channel for increasing the Qing Dynasty's financial resources caused disagreement within the Qing Dynasty.

Yiyin frowned.

"It is only tacitly allowing us to purchase materials for gunpowder and projectiles. This is a compromise made for the military of the peninsula, but it is not clear whether the Celestial Empire is really willing to reopen the trade."

If the Celestial Empire used the Kanko trade as a bargaining chip to demand that Yiyin immediately eliminate Ichijo Hideyoshi, Yiyin would definitely be happy to take on this task.

Just as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu satisfied Emperor Yongle by suppressing the Japanese pirates and obtained the Kanko trade, Yoshigin could also follow the old example.

But the current Celestial Empire is very different from the Celestial Empire during the Yongle period.

The Celestial Empire’s foreign trade was mainly conducted through the Maritime Customs, hence the term “imported goods”.

From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Sibosi was the main agency in charge of foreign trade for successive imperial courts.

Let’s not talk about the previous period, let’s just talk about the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming system inherited the Yuan system, but Emperor Hongwu did not like foreign trade and closed the country early on. In the seventh year of Hongwu, the three customs offices in Mingzhou, Quanzhou and Guangzhou were closed.

After Emperor Yongle ascended the throne, there were wars in the south and the north, and civil and military affairs. Money was needed everywhere.

Therefore, Emperor Yongle reopened the Maritime Customs Office and established five offices in Taicang, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and Jiaozhi.

As we all know, it disappeared after Jiaozhi, so the Maritime Customs Offices for foreign trade in the Ming Dynasty were mainly located in Taicang, Ningbo, Quanzhou and Guangzhou.

Among them, Taicang was closed very early due to the invasion of Japanese pirates. Ningbo was responsible for the island countries, Quanzhou was responsible for Ryukyu, and Guangzhou was responsible for Southeast Asia, each performing its own duties.

Later, the trade between the Celestial Empire and the island countries brought a lot of wealth to both sides. The quality of the island countries' trade goods was very high, mainly copper ore, gold, sulfur, and special products, while the Ming Dynasty gave Japan mainly silk, sugar, ceramics, copper coins, etc.

In fact, both sides benefited from the tributary trade, but the island country had a very low status in the tribute trade system and only paid tribute once every ten years, while the peninsula could pay tribute once every two years.

But just paying tribute once every ten years also allowed Ashikaga Yoshimitsu to obtain the right to trade. From then on, the Ashikaga family became rich enough to rival a country, truly suppressed the military families in the world, and stabilized the rule of the Ashikaga shogunate.

The kango trade that Yiyin wanted was naturally full trade, so that this income could become the financial support of the Sasaki family as much as possible, and also to create a pro-Imperial Dynasty atmosphere politically.

The economic base determines the superstructure. As long as the roots of the Sōma theocracy are in the Celestial Empire, the pro-Celestial Empire political attitude will easily continue.

But the Celestial Empire may not be willing to reopen the trade agreement. This is an internal problem of the Celestial Empire.

The Yongle Emperor spent a huge amount of money, but the reason why the finances were healthy was because he vigorously developed foreign trade.

But it was precisely because the meat was fat enough that the subsequent maritime ban was imposed, because when local interest groups saw the emperor eating meat, they also became interested.

In the second year of Jiajing, the Celestial Empire reiterated the maritime ban, closed the Ningbo and Quanzhou Maritime Customs Offices, and only left the Guangzhou Maritime Customs Office.

Soon, the Guangzhou Maritime Customs was also closed.

As for the island country, the Ashikaga family declined, and the Hosokawa family and the Ouchi family competed for tribute in Ningbo, which caused the Japanese invasion of Ningbo and directly led to the cancellation of the Kanko trade.

Combined with the impact of the Jiajing maritime ban, the smuggling route through the Zhoushan Islands became the main trade channel for both sides, and the resulting problem was the Jiajing Japanese invasion.

Rather than saying that the Japanese invasion during the Jiajing period was an overflow of the war in the turbulent times of the island nation, it would be better to say that it was a carnival of private merchants and maritime businessmen in the Celestial Empire, in which the ronin of the island nation played the most unbearable and hateful role.

The Celestial Empire’s maritime ban is very interesting. Although the Maritime Customs Office was closed, foreign trade did not stop.

There was smuggling in the Zhoushan Islands, and it was even worse in Guangzhou. Even in Macau, the Portuguese bribed local officials and opened a port privately.

This behavior, which harms the national treasury but enriches private pockets, has gradually become the mainstream of foreign trade.

It was not until the 39th year of the Jiajing reign that the three passes of Ningbo, Quanzhou and Guangzhou were reopened, and then soon closed again.

In the middle of the Wanli period, the imperial court tried again and reopened Quanzhou, but it was closed again soon after.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty never reopened the Maritime Customs Office.

The maritime ban policy was repeatedly adjusted from the Hongwu and Yongle periods until it completely collapsed during the Jiajing and Wanli periods. It can be said to be a political tragedy that lasted for a hundred years.

The Ming Dynasty's finances were notoriously weak, and Zhang Juzheng's reforms made silver the main source of tax revenue, establishing the initial silver standard in the Celestial Empire.

Silver is an easily available currency in the southeastern areas where foreign trade takes place, but it is rarely used in the closed areas of the northwest.

The difficulty of obtaining money in the northwest and southeast is different, which is reflected in unfair tax standards and the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen.

The combination of maritime ban and tax reform brought benefits to the southeast, but worsened the finances of the Celestial Empire and cultivated a group of related bureaucratic capitalist interest groups.

Therefore, when the ball of Yiyin's request to reopen the Kanhe trade was kicked to the Celestial Empire, Emperor Wanli might be happy to open up a new source of revenue, but the vested interest groups might not be willing.

This is where things got stuck.

Yiyin was not unwilling to eliminate the scourge of Ichijo Hideyoshi for the Celestial Empire, but he also needed a response from the Celestial Empire and used the Kango trade to cultivate the closeness of his own political group to the Celestial Empire.

If the Kanghe trade cannot be reopened, and the island country is merely granted the title of king by the Celestial Empire, this empty title without any mixed interests will hardly continue the friendly relations between the Celestial Empire and the island country.

Yoshigin's political dream of making the Sasaki theocracy the Celestial Empire's Great Wall on the Sea may never be realized.

Relying solely on the political efforts of two generations of Yiyin and Miyuki is still not enough.

Only a vested interest relationship with a large amount of real money can make the Sōma theocracy consciously and voluntarily protect the Celestial Empire and willingly become the Celestial Empire's dogs from generation to generation.

After a hundred years, two hundred years, or even longer, loyalty to the Celestial Empire will have been rooted in the minds of the people of the island nation, and the island nation will be truly integrated into the Celestial Empire.