prosperous age

"Perhaps, it's still a good thing."

Upon hearing that many gentry from Jiangnan were taking their money to Southeast Asia to acquire land, Wei Guangde smiled with a hint of mockery.

Prior to this, the Ming Dynasty's external expansion also followed a similar tactic of leapfrogging, establishing and controlling naval ports near key sea lanes as needed.

Other expansionist activities were limited to overseas trade by merchants.

Perhaps some businessmen will purchase property overseas, but not many.

But today, Wei Guangde heard that gentry and merchants have begun to go abroad and purchase properties overseas.

Undoubtedly, this move is beneficial to maintaining the Ming Dynasty's dominance in international trade.

Productivity in this era was largely influenced by resources, and it was not possible to give resources higher value through deep processing as in later generations.

Controlling resources means controlling productivity.

The enormous profits of the Age of Exploration actually stemmed from this.

The discovery of the so-called "no man's land" in the New World, with its abundant resources, enriched the treasuries of European countries, enabling them to begin leading the world and completely surpassing China for the next few centuries.

It would be very difficult for the Ming Dynasty to stop it.

Unless the Ming Dynasty is willing to expend its national strength and risk national bankruptcy to launch a "world war".

The Industrial Revolution in Europe was less about Europeans suddenly having their minds opened by God, and more about them suddenly becoming rich and nouveau riche who simply couldn't find a way to spend their resources.

Then, by sheer chance, they opened the door to the Industrial Revolution.

Now that the gentry and merchants of the Ming Dynasty have discovered overseas treasures, Wei Guangde must consider how to fully seize this benefit.

Wei Guangde was certainly not just considering acquiring ownership of the land. They were going to enclose land to build farms, and the agricultural products would benefit the Ming Dynasty, which was definitely a good thing.

Of course, the imperial court had to consider the issue of stabilizing farmers' income.

In Southeast Asia, three harvests a year is the norm, as long as the land is cultivated diligently.

There had already been reports from Luzon.

The influx of agricultural products into the domestic market inevitably leads to low prices that hurt farmers.

However, such a situation is unlikely to occur in the short term, and Wei Guangde is not in the mood to think about solutions for the time being.

On the contrary, they are very interested in overseas resources, especially the minerals hidden beneath those lands.

While in Burma, Wei Guangde, along with Li Chengliang and others, privately divided up the mineral resources. Strictly speaking, once an official was dispatched, these mines would either cease production or be subject to heavy taxes.

The so-called property rights they obtained from the Burmese nobles were actually untenable within the legal framework of the Ming Dynasty.

In feudal dynasties, or more directly, the Ming Dynasty, the land system was based on private land ownership by landlords, but land sales were permitted.

However, the law does not explicitly stipulate whether underground resources belong to the landowner.

In fact, feudal dynasties often regarded mountains, forests, rivers and lakes as "royal property" and the common people were not allowed to collect them without permission.

The Ming Dynasty's implementation was actually a continuation of the practices of previous dynasties, which brought all mineral resources under the control of the royal family.

This is also why Emperor Wanli, knowing that mining was profitable, immediately dispatched tax inspectors to collect taxes from various places.

Mines cannot be opened without authorization.

When these tax inspectors and mining commissioners arrived in the localities, they forced local officials to enslave the people to mine, paying them extremely low wages and putting their lives at risk. As a result, they were later known as greedy and incompetent rulers.

But strictly speaking, he actually does have the qualifications to mine.

However, the people below were even more greedy and unwilling to pay the common people for their work. Instead, they conscripted laborers under the guise of corvée labor.

Even now, apart from major mining areas which were overseen by the imperial court, private mines in the Ming Dynasty were either operating illegally or were permitted to operate only after paying mining taxes to the court.

After all, there is a demand for mineral resources among the public, and we can't just suppress their use.

Such were the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, but when gentry and merchants went overseas, Wei Guangde had to devise plans to seize both above-ground and underground resources.

Nothing can be changed within the territory of the Ming Dynasty; that would threaten the emperor's interests.

However, the situation was different in overseas vassal states.

This contradiction can be resolved by enacting an extraterritorial law that grants all the land and resources owned by Ming merchants overseas to the landowners.

Domestically, the practice will continue according to the traditions of previous dynasties, and the literati will not object.

For external affairs, a new method is adopted.

This could very well lead to more people investing in overseas real estate.

Once these individuals acquire vast assets overseas, their wealth will naturally lead them to better support the imperial court's foreign policy and protect their extensive overseas interests.

The Ming Dynasty's navy, or rather, the navy that will truly become a navy in the future.

These gentry and big capitalists needed the imperial court to have a large army to protect their interests overseas.

After acquiring vast overseas resources, perhaps a few members of domestic gentry families will waste these cheap resources on research.

Perhaps, unwittingly, that door was opened in the Ming Dynasty; who knows?

At Wei Guangde's level, whatever he deemed feasible, his first consideration was legislation to maintain its legitimacy.

When the time comes, during the legislative process, we only need to remove Myanmar from the list, along with Luzon, Palembang, and other newly naturalized territories under the Ming Dynasty, and apply extraterritoriality laws to them in terms of property rights. In that case, we can preserve our mines in Myanmar.

Not only could he preserve it, but he also wanted to use the Chamber of Commerce to buy large tracts of land overseas.

First, we'll open a farm, hire experienced farmers from China to provide guidance, and hire locals to grow agricultural products.

If a mineral deposit is discovered underground, then we'll be rich.

Although owning a mine wasn't a big deal in this era, Wei Guangde could already imagine his descendants proudly proclaiming it to the world centuries later.

"Why hasn't anyone mentioned this before?"

Wei Guangde frowned and asked.

"Sir, is this matter very important?"
If it weren't for many gentry and nobles borrowing money, claiming they wanted to buy land in Southeast Asia, our merchants would have ignored it.

After all, although those lands were fertile, they were too far from the Ming Dynasty, and merchants generally wouldn't consider them.

"If they really make money, they'll only build houses and buy land in their hometown when they return in glory. Why would they go to such a faraway place as Southeast Asia?"

Zhang Ji immediately said with a wronged expression.

No one had mentioned this before.

If it weren't for the fact that many gentry in Jiangnan had mortgaged their land, they wouldn't have paid any attention at all.

In fact, this is just human nature.

Most of the businessmen who went to Southeast Asia to buy property were those who had no background in their hometowns and could not acquire land.

Wei Guangde has invested in so many chambers of commerce, but no one has reported it to higher authorities, saying that land in Southeast Asia is cheap and a good investment opportunity.

People's conventional thinking is that they should go back to their hometowns and buy land.

Wei Guangde stroked his beard. He didn't regret missing the opportunity, but was quickly calculating where he should focus his attention when he made his move.

"Immediately have someone investigate where these people bought the land."

Inform them so that the Chamber of Commerce can also participate, contributing funds to buy land in Southeast Asia and build farms.

In this way, if ships return from overseas with insufficient cargo, they can bring back grain from overseas.

Wei Guangde said.

He initially only thought that if the Ming Dynasty encountered a major famine, it would purchase grain from Southeast Asia to make up for the deficit, but he never expected that he would be growing grain there himself.

Normally, goods can also be transported back by sea. "If all chambers of commerce participate, this year's dividends can be less."

Food is the most important thing for the people. As long as we control more land, future grain production will bring the chamber of commerce enormous profits.

Wei Guangde continued.

This time, he didn't gather anyone else to discuss it. Instead, he planned to wait two days until he had gathered more information before consulting with others.

The Ming Dynasty needed legislation to protect the safety of its merchants' businesses in overseas vassal states.

The laws established by the Ming Dynasty must, of course, be obeyed by the vassal states.

Also, the port.
Wei Guangde suddenly remembered that after Zheng He's fleet set sail, they seemed to have built a lot of docks overseas.

Of course, their initial idea was to facilitate the docking of Ming Dynasty ships, which would also indirectly facilitate the development of maritime trade in the host country.

However, Wei Guangde is now considering whether to have the Ministry of War review the records to see where Zheng He's fleet established these ports.

Yes, these ports certainly belong to the Ming Dynasty, and ships that dock there are obligated to pay usage fees to the Ming Dynasty.

As for the country where they live, they can simply take a percentage of their income as tax.

Overseas assets belonging to the Ming Dynasty must not be lost to state-owned assets.

Wei Guangde spent the whole night thinking about this matter, which made his wife complain twice, saying that he seemed restless all night.

The next morning, after Wei Guangde entered the cabinet office, he wrote a note to the Ministry of War and had Lu Bu send it out by messenger.

Then, an hour later, Zhang Ke's note came back.

Naturally, one should inquire about the reason.

More than ten boxes of "Zheng He's Voyages by Water" and other documents have now been moved to his duty room, and Zhang Ke naturally had to ask, "Why?"

If it's important, then naturally we'll allocate manpower to speed things up and find and compile the records as soon as possible.

If it's not important, then just assign someone to check it.

Ultimately, Zhang Ke still wanted to know when Wei Guangde would release the results of this matter.

He can only assign people according to their importance and urgency.

"Go back and tell Lord Zhang to complete and report it as soon as possible, without affecting the normal work of the Ministry of War."

Wei Guangde gave instructions to the chief clerk of the Ministry of War.

"Yes, Your Excellency, I will go back and inform Lord Zhang immediately."

The steward hurriedly bowed and answered, then saw him out with a reed cloth.

The door that the maritime merchants had inadvertently opened gave Wei Guangde a huge space for imagination: the nobles and gentry of the Ming Dynasty were frantically acquiring properties overseas and then strongly demanding that the court expand its army to protect their interests abroad.

The wharves built by Zheng He back then would become the first overseas strongholds of the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the neatly stacked memorials on the desk, Wei Guangde picked them up and casually flipped through a few. Then he said to Lu Bu, "From now on, unless it is an important memorial from the governor-general, the provincial governor, or the provincial treasurer, the others do not need to be brought here. They should be handled by other cabinet ministers."

Yesterday, the Wanli Emperor said that minor matters should be handled by other cabinet ministers.

Well, that way he'll have the energy to think about other important things.

After a moment's thought, Wei Guangde felt it necessary to have the Embroidered Uniform Guard (Jinyiwei) keep an eye on the activities of Ming Dynasty merchants overseas.

Furthermore, the Embroidered Uniform Guard should be informed that they should not only gather information along maritime trade routes, but also monitor these merchants to prevent them from smuggling contraband using seagoing vessels.

Although the Ming Dynasty did not explicitly prohibit the private sale of resources such as salt and iron to the grasslands as it had originally done, and did not impose clear restrictions on maritime trade, it still did not allow the private sale of some materials that were in short supply in the Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, in particular, the government has hinted that scarce resources such as gold and saltpeter are strictly prohibited from being taken out of the country.

Even jewelry made of gold had to be reported to the imperial court and undergo strict inspection.

Because Europe at this time was also extremely short of saltpeter.

For a long time, Europe relied mainly on merchants to transport gunpowder back from the East.

Saltpeter is mainly produced in saltpeter mines in the mountainous regions of India and the Middle East.

Of course, as far as the Ming Dynasty knows, only saltpeter mines have been discovered within the territory of the Persian Empire, which is one of the reasons why the Ottoman Empire has been constantly waging war against Persia.

High prices for saltpeter in Europe have allowed any power that controls saltpeter resources to reap huge profits.

The Ottoman Empire, with its unique geographical location, naturally participated in dividing up this feast of wealth.

However, simply collecting taxes is naturally not enough to satisfy their ever-growing appetite.

Soon, Liu Shouyou was summoned to the duty room.

After Lu Bu brought out the tea, Wei Guangde finally spoke, "Siyun, I called you here today because I just learned something."

Wei Guangde told Liu Shouyou the news he had heard yesterday, and Liu listened quietly without interrupting.

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he said, "Grand Secretary Wei, should we have the Embroidered Uniform Guard take action and stop them?"

"No, no, no, you've misunderstood."

Wei Guangde hurriedly said, "They went to Southeast Asia to buy land and grow crops, that's correct."

"We have farms in Southeast Asia. If natural disasters occur in our Great Ming Dynasty and cause crop failures, the produce from these overseas farms will be a lifeline."

Seeing that Liu Shouyou's expression had softened, Wei Guangde continued, "It was through this incident that I realized that maritime merchants have more contact with foreign vassals in their trade activities."

Therefore, we need to guard against them doing things that are detrimental to our Great Ming Dynasty, or even violate the laws of the Great Ming Dynasty.

The responsibility of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was not only to gather intelligence from various countries and regions, but also to effectively supervise maritime merchants.

Furthermore, the Imperial Guards were also responsible for collecting and compiling information on the activities of maritime merchants and reporting it regularly.

Wei Guangde continued.

"Grand Secretary Wei, according to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the activities of the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants are indeed very extensive. I recently heard about something else."

Liu Shouyou seemed to remember something and suddenly spoke.

"What's the matter?"

Wei Guangde asked casually.

"When ships set sail, they used to fly the sun and moon flag to identify themselves. However, because the flags were sometimes mistakenly displayed in the wrong order, many ships switched to flying the swastika flag."

Liu Shouyou said.

"The swastika flag, haha, merchants hope for ten thousand blessings and longevity, it's a symbol of good fortune."

Wei Guangde nodded.

He knew a little about this matter, starting with the ship models that Yu Dayou had given him, because those ship models had flags hanging on them.

He was quite surprised when he first saw the swastika flag.

Actually, the swastika symbol was best used in temples to symbolize good fortune and auspiciousness, but it was later widely used by the general public.

Based on ancient books, especially paintings by famous artists, some people believe that the swastika flag had political or military significance during the Ming and Qing dynasties, but that is actually a misunderstanding.

“It is indeed necessary to identify oneself.”

Despite the laughter, Wei Guangde still thought of the national flag that would be used in later generations.

In movies and TV dramas, a large flag with the Chinese characters for "Han" and "Ming" written on it is actually a misunderstanding.

The Ming Dynasty did not have such a flag. (End of Chapter)