The Resurrection of the South Seas of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 750 The Vision of the Canal Shipping Company (seeking a monthly ticket)
The sun is high in the sky!
The scorching sun hit the ground directly, scorching the iron armor on the soldiers in charge of guarding duty.

The majestic armored swords and guns and the majestic palace guards symbolize the inviolability of imperial power!
However, the temperature in Nanjing today is not that high!

It's late autumn now, and the current Ming Dynasty is still stained with the tail of the Little Ice Age. In addition, Nanjing City is located in the south of the Yangtze River, so the air is very humid.

The wet and cold feeling is quite uncomfortable!
Especially for an elderly person like He Wen'an, this cold and humid climate can be described as quite unfriendly.

The humidity mixed with the cold seems to be able to soak into the bones. When the rheumatism attacks and hurts, it almost tears his bones apart.

He Wen'an pondered over the manuscript he had typed up before submitting the letter, and walked quickly towards the imperial study under the leadership of several eunuchs.

Along the way, he was carefully considering his words, hoping to persuade the emperor to restore water transportation as soon as possible.

Take this to restore the prosperity along the canal!

Since the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was in Nanjing, not Yanjing.

In addition, the nine-border defense system has not yet been rebuilt, and the amount of military rations required for the border is not much.

And now in the Ming Dynasty, the large-scale garrison is being implemented in the northern provinces.

Therefore, there is no shortage of food in the north of Ming Dynasty!

Then, Daming's water transportation has been suspended.

The imperial court didn't say abolish it, but they didn't come down to do it, which was quite embarrassing.

Had it not been for He Wen'an's letter this time, Zhu Hongyu would have completely forgotten about the water transportation.

But, the matter of water transportation is also reasonable if it exists!

It costs a lot of money to transport by water, but it has been used until the end of Qing Dynasty, which can explain the problem.

In fact, the biggest resistance to the abolition of water transport is not the vested interest groups of water transport, nor the "million" water workers along the canal.

Regardless of whether it is a vested interest group or the so-called million-dollar laborers who need to be quoted, all dynasties and dynasties have been able to solve them and arrange them properly at the beginning of the founding of the country.

The real umbrella of water transport is actually the Grand Canal itself!
The urban agglomerations along the Grand Canal can be said to be the most prosperous and affluent places in the world in this era, except for Jiangnan.

The reason why the urban agglomerations along the Grand Canal can be so prosperous is due to the convenient transportation brought by the Grand Canal.

The transportation is convenient, the goods can be circulated, the population can gather, the capital can flow in, and the city can develop!

It is precisely because of the water transport that the urban agglomeration along the Grand Canal is prosperous today.

Therefore, the existence of water transportation is related to the rise and fall of the urban agglomerations along the Grand Canal, and is related to the vital interests of hundreds of millions of people.

Who dares to talk about the abolition of water transportation?

None of the founding emperors of the past dynasties dared to do this.

In modern times, the abolition of water transport was also due to the emergence of trains and railways, which replaced the transportation functions of canals.

Therefore, water transportation was abolished!
Zhu Hongyu knew this. Before the opening of Daming's north-south line railway network, water transportation had its existence value.

It should not be abolished directly!

That's why Zhu Hongyu chose to meet He Wen'an, a courtier who petitioned for the restoration of water transportation.

……

While Zhu Hongyu was holding a teacup and flipping through the memorials on the desk, He Wen'an entered the imperial study.

As soon as he entered the imperial study, He Wen'an bowed to Zhu Hongyu and saluted.

"My humble minister He Wen'an, pay homage to His Majesty!"

"Long live Your Majesty, and Fukuzawa forever!"

Zhu Hongyu put down his teacup, raised his head and said.

"Be flat, give a seat!"

After He Wen'an sat down, Zhu Hongyu raised his head and asked.

"He Qing's family should know why I summoned you today!"

He Wen'an sat on the chair with half his buttocks, quite stiff, facing Zhu Hongyu's question, he answered with his words carefully.

"Report to Your Majesty, I know that it is because of the water transportation!"

Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly, as if expressing approval.

Then asked.

"Tell me, why did the Qing family write a letter recommending that we restore water transportation!"

Zhu Hongyu also has his own ideas about water transportation.

From the current point of view, the matter of water transport is not essential to Daming.

Even if there is a shortage of food in the north of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hongyu can still mobilize ships to transport by sea.

After all, the cost of sea transportation is much lower than water transportation!
Therefore, Zhu Hongyu is not very concerned about restoring water transport.

However, due to the existence of urban agglomerations along the canal, Zhu Hongyu felt that the water transport had the value of recovery.

He Wen'an heard the words and spoke.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, as far as I know, water transportation is the food and clothing of millions of waterworkers in the canal!"

"Nowadays, the imperial court has not opened water transport for a long time, and most of the water workers along the canal have difficulty maintaining their livelihoods!"

"Your Majesty, please be careful!"

Hearing this, Zhu Hongyu nodded and fell into deep thought.

It is still such a cliché!

But Zhu Hongyu has to admit that the cliché is also reasonable.

The livelihood of the millions of waterworkers along the canal is indeed a matter that the emperor Zhu Hongyu needs to consider.

The water workers are also Zhu Hongyu's subjects!

He, Zhu Hongyu, as the emperor, can't ignore it!

Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly when he heard the words, but he asked rhetorically.

"So, if the imperial court resumes water transportation, what should it transport?"

Zhu Hongyu's sentence can be regarded as stopping He Wen'an.

Yes, now that there is no shortage of food in the north of the imperial court, what should be transported by water transport?

If there is no shortage of food, it is necessary to transport grain to the north on a large scale through water transportation. Isn't that purely sick?
Zhu Hongyu's current attitude is that it is okay to resume water transportation, because water transportation has its meaning and value at present.

But, you have to tell me what the water transport is going to transport, right?

Before He Wen'an wrote the letter, he typed the manuscript. Although he was stopped by the question for a while, he didn't panic and spoke methodically.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, I feel that the imperial court may change the transportation of food by water to the transportation of various handmade goods!"

"In this way, the reopening of water transport by the imperial court will facilitate trade and exchanges between the north and the south! It can also promote the imperial court's business development plan."

What about water transportation is also the first question that He Wen'an thinks about!

In fact, for those cities along the canal, it doesn't matter what water transport is, as long as there is water transport.

What they need is the transportation convenience brought by water transport, not water transport itself.

When Zhu Hongyu heard this, he got an answer that he was quite satisfied with.

"Well, a good idea!!"

"The Qing family should resign first, I need to think about the matter of water transportation!"

"..."

Seeing this, He Wen'an knew that the emperor had already made up his mind, so he stopped entanglement and resolutely chose to resign.

Because he knew that in the face of such a founding emperor with almost unlimited power, no one could change the things he decided.

If it is done, it is done!
No, He Wen'an can't change the emperor's mind!
Only accept fate!

After sending He Wen'an away, Zhu Hongyu fell into deep thought.

For the current Ming Dynasty, temporarily resuming water transportation is indeed the best choice.

One is to ensure the prosperity and development of the cities along the canal and avoid the decline of this traditionally fertile land along the canal.

The second is to give a job to the waterworkers who used to rely on water transportation for food!
Although Daming is not short of fertile fields that have been abandoned, what is lacking is people. Those waterworkers can be easily placed to farm the fields, and it is definitely not a problem to ensure their basic life.

However, it would be a waste to let a group of boatmen, or reserve sailors, go to farm the land!

Anyone can plant!

But these waterworkers are all skilled, as long as they are given a little training, they can become qualified sailors.

Zhu Hongyu would not just arrange them to farm so hastily.

Temporarily resuming the water transportation, allowing them to continue to work as water workers, can also provide sailor training for these water workers, which can be regarded as preparations for Da Ming's larger-scale march towards Deep Blue in the future.

The third is the most important point!
That is, the benefits obtained by water transportation can be used by the imperial court to build a railway network along the north-south canal.

Water transportation is only an expedient measure, and railways can represent the future!
When the railway network is repaired, those waterworkers must be almost trained, and they can all transform into seafarers!
Therefore, for the current Daming, the temporary restoration of water transportation is a good thing that kills multiple birds with one stone!

Zhu Hongyu really had no reason not to support it.

……

After the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hongyu spent a lot of effort to rectify the inside and outside of the imperial city, cleaning up many slaves who were eating inside and outside.

So much so that compared with the previous Ming Dynasty, the current Daming Imperial City is like an iron barrel.

As long as Zhu Hongyu is unwilling, there will be no news from the Daming Imperial City to the outside!
However, if it was ordered by Zhu Hongyu, it would be different.

Under Zhu Hongyu's instruction, the news that the Ming court wanted to reopen the water transport seemed to have grown wings, spreading throughout the entire south of the Yangtze River, and it was still heading towards the north of the river at an extraordinary speed.

After the Ming Dynasty's telegraph network was successfully laid, in order to spread the cost of laying, the telegraph network was not only used to transmit official documents of the court, or military newspapers.

A special line for civilian use has also been set up for private message transmission and so on!

Of course, telegraph fees are not cheap, and they are charged almost by the number of words.

However, it doesn't matter!
Compared with the high efficiency that telegrams can bring, the cost of sending telegrams is ignored by many people.

Because the telegram represents the time difference and the information difference, and the information also represents money to a certain extent.

Along with the news that the imperial court wanted to reopen the water transport, the water transport will be changed from transporting grain to transporting goods, and it will be dedicated to the smooth flow of goods from north to south.

And more importantly, the imperial court is not going to continue to use the official yamen to manage the affairs of the canal.

Instead, it is planned that the royal family of the Ming Dynasty will take the lead, and the relevant departments of the imperial court will lead the establishment of a canal shipping company.

And publicly sell the share capital of the canal shipping company.

As long as you are a citizen of Ming Dynasty, you can have the qualification to subscribe for the share capital of the canal shipping company!

As long as you spend money to subscribe for the share capital, you can participate in the profit distribution of the shipping company until the end of the year.

Of course, it's just the right to share dividends!

The decision-making power of the canal shipping company is still in the hands of the court.

The canal shipping company, to put it bluntly, is the "state-owned enterprise" business model that Zhu Hongyu came up with.

However, this state-owned enterprise is not only operated by the imperial court, but also plans to introduce private capital and royal family capital to jointly operate it.

how to say!

In fact, Zhu Hongyu disliked that it was too slow to make money in transportation, and he didn't know when he would be able to earn enough money to repair the railway, so he was going to use financial means.

After all, there is nothing in this world that makes more money than finance, except for some big rogue's nuclear-powered money printing machine.

Of course, the reason why Zhu Hongyu started such a company was not simply to make money.

Because it is true that canal shipping can make money!
Although after the railway is completed, there is a high probability that the canal shipping will be squeezed out of profits by the railway.

But in a short period of time, the railway capacity is limited, and it cannot completely replace the value of the canal.

The formation of the canal shipping company this time, Zhu Hongyu put the reputation of the royal family and the imperial court under pressure, and of course it was not simply a matter of misappropriating money.

What a shame he has!
Zhu Hongyu is actually planning to use the canal shipping company as a guinea pig to explore this capital operation model that resembles a "state-owned enterprise".

Take a look at letting the royal capital and the court end to dominate.

Then unite with private capital to play an auxiliary role.

Participate in or even control the feasibility of some key industries such as steel, transportation, energy, etc.

Although Zhu Hongyu really wanted the Ming Dynasty court and the royal family to fully control these key industries, the funds of the court and the royal family were very tight and their strength was limited.

If Zhu Hongyu wanted to make Daming take off rapidly in various industries and enter a capitalist society, he must introduce private capital!

For Zhu Hongyu, he now has great power and great prestige.

There is sufficient trial and error cost and room for error.

Now that you have an idea, you have to try boldly. What if it succeeds?

……

After the news spread that the imperial court was going to set up a canal shipping company and sell shares to the outside world, there was a lot of traffic going south and north, especially along the canal.

A large number of merchants, wealthy households, and wealthy families have all moved their minds about the equity of the canal shipping company!
They have lived along the canal for generations, and no one understands the huge benefits of the canal shipping better than them.

As long as you can get a little bit involved with canal shipping, you can definitely make a lot of money.

Unsurprisingly, the stock of the Canal Shipping Company has become the top spot in Daming's hot search list.

Not even the news attached to North Korea can suppress the topics related to the canal shipping company!
……

On the Grand Canal!

A fleet is heading southward!

Pilot boats fly flags that represent the identities of those on board.

It can be seen from the flag of the ship that this fleet was led by Zhao Yingdong himself to offer captives to Beijing.

Zhao Yingdong stood on the deck, the cloak behind him fluttering in the wind.

He gazed at the prosperity along the canal, but his mind was still thinking about military affairs.

Thinking about Ming Dynasty's future Northern Expedition, specific strategies and tactics, etc.!
Beside him, Wei Wu was looking at the towns on both sides of the canal with great interest.

I can't stop talking about the prosperity along the canal!
"The banks of this canal are so fucking bustling!"

This is due to the suspension of the imperial court's water transport in the past two years, and the canal has become much more depressed.

The water transportation was busy back then, and the prosperity on the canal would only get worse!
"I'm afraid it's not worse than Jiangnan!"

Wei Wu couldn't help but speak.

Zhao Yingdong nodded.

"That's natural. The prosperity along the canal is no worse than that in the south of the Yangtze River."

"It's just a pity that when Emperor Sizong was in power, the imperial court didn't have strong control over the south of the Yangtze River and the banks of the canal. Otherwise, why would there be the disaster of Jiashen, and even the destruction of the world."

(End of this chapter)