The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 189 Separation of Officials and Businessmen
The inspection team sent by the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry was very efficient, and they rushed back before the end of the year. Not to mention that the Zhou family reported truthfully, even if there were some falsehoods, as the first merchant to join actively, Princess Kunxing would turn a blind eye Close one eye and agree.

So when the inspection team returned to Nanjing, Princess Kunxing met Zhou Xing in person, and not only appointed Zhou Xing as the second vice president of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, but also represented the special gold medal of the gold member, as well as a plaque and related certificates. issued to him.

And Zhou Xing also registered an official business name in both the Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Commerce in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The name is Zhou's Firm, and the person in charge is Zhou Xing.

And in the name of Zhou's firm, he opened an account in the Royal Bank and deposited 100 million taels of silver.

At present, except for various government offices and officials who can open accounts in the Royal Bank, ordinary people cannot open accounts.

The accounts of officials can only withdraw money, not deposit money, and can only withdraw money at the branch where the account is opened.

Although the accounts of government offices at all levels can save money, they cannot transfer money. In the entire Daming Royal Bank, only the accounts of the Ministry of Accounts can transfer money.

In the future, in addition to the Ministry of Accounts, all merchants registered with the Ministry of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce will also have the function of transferring funds in other places after opening an account with the Royal Bank.

In order to expand the publicity, the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry also held a special membership ceremony, inviting businessmen of all sizes from Nanjing.

After Zhou Xing became the vice president, he did not return to Zhejiang, but directly stayed in the Chamber of Commerce to manage the daily affairs, and the family business was handed over to the eldest son.

In the past, those maritime merchants and officials who wanted to play against the Zhou family immediately stopped their efforts. After the Zheng family received the news, they immediately released all the seized cargo ships.

Even so, Princess Kunxing, in the name of the president of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, sent an official document to the cabinet and the Ministry of Commerce, requesting the cabinet and the Ministry of Commerce to thoroughly investigate the affairs of the Zhou family, severely punish those officials who blackmailed the Zhou family, and whether they should Proper means to suppress those powerful maritime merchants who annexed Zhou's business.

When the news spread, all the powerful maritime officials in Zhejiang were in an uproar, and even Zheng Zhilong in Fujian was a little nervous.

Seeing that the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, especially the princess, actually personally protected the interests of its members, and was so serious, the businessmen in Jiangnan couldn't sit still any longer.

The first to act were those maritime merchants in Zhejiang, all of whom were eager to apply to join the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, so as not to be suppressed by the Zhou family in the future.

In addition, there are also some small and medium-sized businesses that also apply to join the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry without hesitation, and plan to completely get rid of the blood-sucking control of those official and scholarly families in the future.

In just one month, the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry has added hundreds of firms, among which there are as many as a dozen gold members, more than thirty silver members, and the rest are all bronze members. No.

Two or three million taels of membership fee was charged at once, and Princess Kunxing was so happy that she couldn't close her mouth.

Compared with the New Deal, the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, for those officials and rich families in the south of the Yangtze River, is undoubtedly a trick to draw their salaries from the bottom of the pot, and the losses are not insignificant.

In the south of the Yangtze River, real officials and eunuchs don't know how to do business, at least they don't know how to do business, especially maritime merchants.

Because once the family runs a business, and the children of the family become high-ranking officials in the future, they will leave excuses for political opponents and are vulnerable to attack and impeachment.

Especially during the Tianqi and Chongzhen Second Dynasties with fierce internal strife, there was almost no bottom line in the struggle between the court and the court, which made all civil officials cautious.

Therefore, the real families of officials and scholars in the south of the Yangtze River did not dare to openly do business.

However, these official families and scholarly families also hold the right to speak in the south of the Yangtze River, and even the entire Ming Dynasty, and control the political situation of the court.

This makes the merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have to rely on these official families and scholarly families to survive, and they have to honor the large amount of wealth they earn to these official families every year.

Therefore, although officials and merchants in Jiangnan are obviously two classes, they are actually one of officials and merchants.

As for who is an official and who is in business, it depends on the family's imperial examination method, and the ups and downs of competition are quite fierce.

Now the establishment of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry is like a knife, forcibly dividing the government and businessmen in Jiangnan.

Merchants joined the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry to ensure that they could do business and take the imperial examinations at the same time, but they were not reconciled, and dedicated the large amount of wealth they earned every year to those official families who were seeking fame.

Compared with the wealth that is donated every year, that little membership fee is not worth mentioning at all.

In fact, the capital in the south of the Yangtze River has already completed primitive accumulation. The reason why capitalism cannot emerge like that in the West is that the national conditions are different.

After Chinese businessmen make money, the first thing they think of is definitely not to make more money and expand their business scale, but to become an official.

Because in the eyes of businessmen, if there is no official in the family, they can't speak in the officialdom, and no matter how much wealth and family property they have, they will be nothing.

The county magistrate of Miemen, the magistrate who ransacked the house is not just talk.

This is just one of them.

The second is that China has been a society where monarchy is supreme since ancient times. Once the capital grows, it will definitely threaten the imperial power. As a result, it will be suppressed by the emperor.

And capital is also unable to be the master of the country and control society.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was because the imperial power could no longer suppress the capital, which led to the collapse of the economy and a serious imbalance of wealth, which led to the uprising of the people all over the world and the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty.

In the end, even whoever became the emperor would still choose to suppress capital and stabilize the imperial power. The Qing Dynasty did this. If Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were replaced, they would definitely do the same.

Therefore, although there was already a sprout of capital at the end of Ming Dynasty, this sprout would never have the opportunity to grow into a big tree in the sky.

It is precisely because the thinking of supremacy of monarchy is deeply rooted, so businessmen in China are always vassals of officials, and it is impossible to be anti-client as in the West.

But now, as the emperor of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cihong should have tied up and beaten the tiger of capital, but now he raised a tiger instead and took the lead in setting up royal capital.

The Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry was also established, which added the most important protective cover to capital and completely released the man-eating tiger of capital.

The reason why Zhu Cihong dared to release the tiger of capital was because he was sure of controlling it.

And the officials and scholarly families in the south of the Yangtze River were naturally unwilling to let those merchants out of their control in this way, and let the wealth that should belong to them be directly collected by the emperor.

Although they dare not oppress the merchants with power as before, they are not without means to check and balance the merchants, because [-]% of the land in the south of the Yangtze River is in the hands of these official and scholarly families.

Those mulberry farmers and tenant farmers are also in their hands, coupled with tax penalties and heavy losses, after the beginning of the year, almost all landlords and gentry chose to increase rents.

Those official and scholarly families with a large amount of mulberry fields even raised the price of raw silk to the sky, scaring those silk sea merchants out of their minds.

Not only that, but those official families also began to backtrack, preparing to restore the previous men farming and women weaving, and let the mulberry farmers raise silkworms and spin silk by themselves, and then go home to weave cloth, and the rent was changed from silver to silk.

And those female workers who can weave cloth, although they used to be concentrated in the workshops opened by merchants to reel silk and weave cloth, but the deeds of selling themselves were in the hands of those officials and families, which caused the entire textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River to fall into chaos and stagnation. status.

The merchants had expected this situation, so they did not panic, but waited for the reaction of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry or the emperor.

If the emperor doesn't care about it, then they can only withdraw from the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and continue to rely on those official families. If the emperor is really determined to support business, then they will be able to completely get rid of the shackles of those official families in the future.

"Brother Huang, what should we do? Almost all the textile workshops in Yangzhou, Changzhou, Suzhou have shut down. Either the workers have run away, or there is no raw silk."

Princess Kunxing obviously did not expect this to happen.

"It seems that Brother Huang was also deceived by these literati and gentry in Jiangnan. It turns out that they have always controlled the lifeblood of capital. Things are far more complicated than I imagined."

Zhu Cihong also had a dignified expression.

He originally thought that the merchants in Jiangnan were simply attached to those officials and scholarly families, and he could completely separate the officials and merchants as long as he gave them a guarantee of safety.

Who would have thought that this would be the case, not only the raw material Sangtian raw silk was in the hands of those officials and scholarly families, but even the weaving and spinning women workers were in their hands. Those merchants were completely puppets, and they were responsible for selling cloth. The workshop hangs their names.

If those official and scholarly families were allowed to farm and weave as before, then the industry would stop developing, and those businessmen who joined the Chamber of Commerce and Industry would be reduced to sellers instead of producers.

Zhu Cilang knew that if he wanted to completely solve this situation and continue to develop the industry, there were only two options.

The first is to nationalize the mulberry fields of those official families and distribute them to those mulberry farmers once and for all. .

The second is to allow those official families to open workshops and do business, so that in the future there will be no distinction between officials and businessmen, and the tiger of capital will really lose control.

When he is alive, he may still be able to suppress it. Once he dies, the result will be like in Europe, capital will control everything, and the imperial power will be completely emptied.

This is something that Zhu Cihong absolutely does not allow to happen. Officials and merchants must be separated. Although he has not stated clearly now, these capitalist businessmen who will be supported in the future will definitely not be able to become officials.

Officials can only be selected from civilians, and can only be selected from scholarly families who have cultivated and studied their families.

In the end, Zhu Cihong still decided to wait until King Chuang and the Eight Great Kings were dealt with, and then go back and solve the land issue thoroughly.

Because at this time he has already understood that if the land problem is not completely solved and the people of the world are freed from the control of the gentry and landlords, any reform will only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

After some thought, Zhu Cihong decided that he could only make a compromise for the time being, and use his power to force those officials and aristocratic families to take a step back, and he also took a step back, and the two sides compromised with each other.

Because this matter is complicated, but it is actually simple. It is nothing more than the emperor and the officials and scholarly families in Jiangnan competing for the industrial and commercial capital in Jiangnan. Official and scholarly family.

After all, they have the raw materials and textile workers in their hands, and it is not realistic for the time being to completely exclude them, unless the local tyrants are divided into fields.

Of course, it is impossible to let those official families and big landlords take a step back and not show them some color.

Therefore, Zhu Cihong first asked the cabinet to select some landowners with the highest land rent in various places to bring them to justice.

More than [-]% of the land rent was directly ransacked and beheaded, more than [-]% of the house was ransacked and distributed, and more than [-]% of the imperial examination was rejected.

Of course, the imperial court was reasonable, and it was impossible to say that the land rent was too high to deal with these landlords and gentry.

Instead, he used other excuses, such as the fish and meat township, harming the people, etc. He believed that as long as he checked carefully, no landlord's butt was clean.

Then he released the rule he set secretly, I believe that anyone who is not a fool will understand what is going on.

As for the officials and families in charge of Sangtian, the price of raw silk can be increased, but it cannot exceed three times the previous price, and the female workers must not be prevented from going to work in the workshop.

Moreover, cloth is no more than grain, it is also a commodity, as long as ten bolts of cloth are sold in a year, it is equivalent to doing business.

"Brother Huang, what if those big landlords disagree?"

"Tell them, if they don't agree, they will cut down all the mulberry trees and replant them with grain. Whoever dares to destroy the farmland in the future will have to search their homes and ask for punishment!"

Zhu Cihong waved his hand, and decided to play tricks too. There was no way, in ancient times, if you didn't cheat, you couldn't win those landlords and gentry by reasoning.

(End of this chapter)