I'm really not doing business

Chapter 781: Rule the world by practicing benevolence, dominate the world by practicing strength
The only impact of Kanda Shinichi's incident was that there was one more specimen in the dissection hospital. Apart from that, it did not cause any waves in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Some of the desperate criminals bribed by Shinichi Kanda with silver were also included in the arrest warrant. With the clues, the Tiqi could handle the case very quickly.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty even partially agreed with Kanda Shinichi's statement. He wanted to publish the article in the official gazette, but the Imperial Guards and the Imperial Household Department both expressed a clear refusal.

The news that surprised Zhu Yijun the most was that Mount Fuji in Japan was in an active cycle, which would last for two hundred years. The volcanic eruption was a continuous disaster event, which could effectively weaken Japan's strength and provide certain help for the Ming Dynasty to destroy Japan.

There is another reason why Kanda Shinichi's lies cannot deceive the people, and that is that the capital of the Ming Dynasty is now paying more attention to the gold and silver transactions of Yanxinglou Trading House.

Wang Qian’s way of playing is a bit too cruel.

After repeated oscillations, the weak-willed players will be cleared out, and then a huge increase will be made to attract speculators to enter the market. The market will start to dump the market at the highest level, causing a huge drop, and then it will start to oscillate again at a low level, completing a cycle.

There are always smart people who want to see through the fluctuations, hoping to sell high and buy low, but even Wang Qian doesn't know when the price is high and when it is low. He will push the price up when there are not enough leeks, and when the silver in the hands of the leeks is almost threatening the main force, he will start to swing the sickle.

This has resulted in some very strange phenomena. If we look at it from a macro perspective, the price of gold remains in a very stable range over a period of one month, and even fluctuates by less than 1%. However, from a micro perspective, if you play with it for a while, you can lose everything and your wealth can shrink by more than 20%.

In this game, if someone loses, then naturally someone else wins.

Zhu Yijun exhaled and said, "In the past year, small households with assets of 85 to 25 silver coins accounted for about 30% of the Yanxinglou Trading House. Their assets generally shrunk by % to % in a year. Large households with assets of more than silver coins, or private trading houses with very high thresholds, took more than million silver coins from the trading house in a year."

"Can these private trading fairs with high thresholds be spared? In this gold and silver market, these big players lost more than three million silvers."

Even the powerful and wealthy had to be extremely careful here. Even so, the money earned in the past year helped the Ming Dynasty accumulate gold.

Zhu Yijun had detailed accounts of the trading house, and Wang Qian did not hide his methods from the emperor. From the perspective of Zhu Yijun, the superior, if you don't get in touch with the trading house, you will become unfortunate.

Wang Qian explained the secrets in detail in his book "Four Secrets of Wang Qian's Fortune". Everyone who entered Yanxinglou Trading House would receive a copy. Wang Qian even wrote on the cover: How to make money in the trading house? The farther away from the trading house, the better.

"I don't understand. Obviously most people are losing money, so why are there so many people rushing into the trading house, waving the silver bills in their hands and sending their hard-earned money to this trading house?" Zhu Yijun said with a sigh.

Zhu Yijun was a farmer, and he actually hated speculation, but these were inevitable in the process of the transformation of the small peasant economy into a commodity economy.

After working so hard to save some money, they finally threw it into this trading house. What's the point? Some even went bankrupt and mortgaged their ancestral homes to borrow money from banks, thinking that they were smarter than others.

Feng Bao thought for a moment and said, "Because many people only see the people who got rich overnight, but fail to see the majority who lost money."

Survivor bias: when people observe, they tend to notice and collect successful survivors more easily, while ignoring the losers who are more difficult to notice or impossible to count.

The survivors are adorned with glittering glory, standing at the center of the stage, and love to tell everyone about their legendary stories, while the losers jump from the attic and sink to the bottom of the Tonghui River, and no one cares about them.

People always think they can be the survivor.

People have a protective mechanism to forget pain. They tend to block their memories of sadness and repeatedly savor joy, so that ultimately only sweetness remains in their memories.

In the trading world, there are no winners, only survivors and losers.

It was these myths of getting rich quickly that attracted everyone's attention and made Shinichi Kanda's desperate gamble fail to create any waves. His theory was bold, but no one cared, and no one even took a second look at it.

Zhu Yijun did not interfere by giving clear instructions in the end. He just asked a few questions and finally replied, "I understand."

Too much interference would make people say that the emperor was controlling too much and was not allowing people to make money more conveniently. These private trade fairs with high thresholds could not escape the fate of being harvested by Wang Qian, and all the interest collected turned into gold.

Zhu Yijun sighed and picked up the memorial from the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites clarified the Mingguan system. On the surface, it was to set up pavilions in ports across the country, mainly for the purpose of trade. On the one hand, it was responsible for the distribution of goods when Ming merchant ships arrived, and on the other hand, it was responsible for preparing local specialties.

Mingguan, from a functional perspective, is indeed a place for doing business.

The owner of the hall was an official of the ninth rank, and all scholars and candidates could go there. In addition to the owner, there was also a supervisor who was mainly responsible for clerical work, accounting, commodity pricing, etc. Anyone who could do the accounting could respond to the call.

There is a captain who is specifically responsible for the defense of Mingguan. He can recruit local militiamen to accompany him. The court gives him a quota of ten people. As for how many to recruit and how to support these local militiamen, it is the Mingguan's own business.

The labor remuneration of the Mingguan was mainly composed of two aspects: one was the salary from the court, and the other was the income of the Mingguan. The Ming Dynasty did not conduct audits on how much the Mingguan operated, how much income it earned, and how much it was distributed, and it did not have to pay taxes.

The salary from the court mainly represents the relationship with the court, rather than the main source of income.

How much money Mingguan, which relies on Ming commodities, can make depends on its own abilities.

Mingguan is a supporting policy for the special trade license. It is not only the imperial court's global caravans that can apply for it. For example, if a merchant has obtained a special trade license and has his own territory in a port and wants a Ming Dynasty identity, he can report to the imperial court and apply for Mingguan.

The official term of office for the director of the museum is three years. After returning to the Ming Dynasty, he can obtain the status of a Jinshi (a scholar selected by His Majesty) and continue to seek promotion. If the director unfortunately dies in a foreign land, the Ming Dynasty will verify the situation and engrave his name on the Martyrs' Shrine in his hometown, and treat him as a loyal hero.

If you really succeed in replacing it, you can apply for the Ming Dynasty's pioneer lordship. If the territory is large enough, you can become the Governor-General of the Ming Dynasty. The relationship between the Governor-General's Office and the Ming Dynasty court is that of a vassal state above a friendly country.

Zhu Yijun felt that no one was going, so the court just gave them a title and let them fight to the death, while the Ministry of Rites felt that the power of the owner of the hall should be restricted.

All the people inside and outside the Mingguan are so-called museum owners but are actually Han envoys. In order to achieve success, they probably have no psychological burden even sleeping with the empress dowager. The Ministry of Rites hopes that the Han envoys will not go too far.

"Is this the badge of the head of the Mingguan?" Zhu Yijun held a round copper badge the size of a palm. There were two characters on the front, Ming and Ling, and four sentences on the back:

Nanyue killed the Han envoys and divided them into nine counties;
The King of Wan killed the Han envoy and hung his head on the Northern Gate.

If Korea kills a Han envoy, it will be immediately executed;
The Chanyu killed the Han envoy and hung his head on the street.

The court recognized the identities of these people, and they were all Han envoys. That is to say, if they encountered any misfortune in the local area, the Ming Dynasty soldiers were indeed far away, but the caravans for global trade would arrive once a year and would avenge these Han envoys.

This is a very violent statement.

It can be seen that Gao Qiyu really tried his best to do a good job in promoting education. Without collecting enough silver from overseas, it would be difficult for him to succeed in promoting universal education.

These four sentences are from "Book of Han·Biography of Su Wu", and Zhu Yijun's comments on them are his promise as the emperor.

It can be predicted that Mingguan’s system will indeed become a small business that replaces others, just as Gao Qiyu said.

Gao Qiyu once served as a special envoy to the West, traveled around the world and returned to the Ming Dynasty. In his opinion, the Ming Dynasty should restrain its unnecessary goodwill and be more domineering when necessary.

Rule the world by practicing benevolence, and dominate the four seas by emphasizing strength.

"This paragraph is interesting." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial from the Ministry of Rites. Shen Li had included some personal opinions in the memorial on government affairs.

During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods of the Tang Dynasty, China was strong and prosperous. From the west gate of Chang'an to the end of the Tang territory, a distance of 12,000 miles, houses were visible from each other, and the fields were covered with mulberry and hemp. In terms of prosperity, no place in the world was as prosperous as Longyou, and even the south of the Yangtze River could not compare.

Today, the so-called 12,000 li refers to the vassal states of the Western Regions, and Longyou is the present Lin and Gong prefectures. It is a thousand li of desolate land with no human habitation. Compared with the prosperity of the past, it seems like a foreign land. Why is the geographical advantage so different?
The temperature has dropped, and the fertile land that was once densely populated and had a humid climate has now become a desolate and depressed uninhabited area. With such a huge difference in geographical advantages, Your Majesty wants to reopen the Western Regions by both land and sea. The Ministry of Rites does not object. It is reasonable to reopen the Western Regions by both land and sea, but the focus is still on opening the sea.

This is the Ministry of Rites's private opinion. I hope Your Majesty will pay more attention to the changes in opening the sea.

"Let's increase the gunpowder production by 200,000 jin this year." Zhu Yijun approved the Mingguan system. The corresponding industries monopolized by the court must also increase production to meet the special trade licenses and the implementation of the Mingguan system. This is also part of the new policy of opening the sea.

"I obey your command." Feng Bao bowed his head and accepted the order. More gunpowder was produced to protect the sword-carrying merchants.

At noon the next day, after the court meeting, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty changed into his regular clothes and came to the Yanxinglou Trading House. The monthly accounting of Yanxinglou was carried out on time. As the boss of Yanxinglou, Zhu Yijun would check the market conditions of Yanxinglou every month.

As the general manager of Yanxing Tower, Wang Qian awaited the emperor's arrival and welcomed him into the Tianzi box. He also presented the accounts that had been prepared long ago to the emperor.

The tickets of Yanxinglou Trading House are now divided into three categories: large tickets, small tickets and new tickets.

The big tickets are mainly Suiyuan Chidao, Suiyuan Mining, Xishan Coal Bureau, Shengzhou Coal Bureau, Taotushan Baitu, Lanzhou Woolen, Yongding Woolen, Yongsheng Woolen, the five major shipyards, and the Global Trade Fleet. The prices of these big tickets are very low, but the ticket price growth rate is very slow, and they mainly rely on dividends.

Small tickets are mainly ship tickets issued by private houses. Three-masted plywood ships have stopped issuing tickets. The main tickets are five-masted ocean-going ships and fast sailing ships. Only three fast sailing ships are used for ocean trade every year to issue tickets. The ticket prices of this type fluctuate slightly, but are generally stable.

The new tickets are mainly funded by the five major ocean-going trading companies. The Yuanxu Islands are still a hot ticket among this type of new tickets. This type of new tickets is very risky because ocean development is still a very risky thing, and many times the money is lost.

"Your father's plan of making everyone a shipowner was executed very well." Zhu Yijun finished reading the transaction records of large and small bills.

The most important function of Yanxing Tower is not to provide speculators with opportunities for speculation, but to provide the powerful and wealthy people, local elites and gentry in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty with the opportunity to become ship owners and enjoy the dividends of opening the sea. It is one of the important distribution tools.

Wang Qian bowed his head and said, "My father always told me not to let the large and small bills fluctuate too violently and affect the distribution of the court."

"So you set your sights on the new tickets, right?" Zhu Yijun said with a hint of helplessness.

"To be specific, he is a gambler." Wang Qian bowed his head and said, "If you buy large and small bills in Yanxinglou, you basically won't lose money, and you can get dividends and interest every year, but you have to toss in the new bills, then you can't blame me." "The gold and silver transactions are divided into new bills, which tells everyone that there are great risks involved."

Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said, "How about raising the threshold of new notes a little bit, from 100 silver to 1,000 silver? You are the head shopkeeper of Yanxinglou, what do you think?"

The entry threshold of Yanxinglou is one hundred silver coins, which cuts off the possibility for poor people to enter. If the family assets are less than one hundred silver coins, they simply cannot withstand the risk. For those with less than one hundred silver coins, what is more important is food, clothing, housing, transportation, weddings and funerals.

"I don't agree." Wang Qian said very seriously: "Your Majesty, if the threshold is raised to one thousand silver, you will be scolded. In addition to being scolded, you will also be questioned for eating alone, which was the biggest drawback of Yongle's opening of the sea."

"At that time, everyone thought that the imperial court had eaten up all the spoils, but they only saw the wealth and not the danger. When the eunuch Sanbao fought in the Battle of Malacca and the war in Ceylon, the King of Ceylon directly mobilized 50,000 troops."

"After the seventh voyage to the West in the ninth year of Xuande, the Ming Dynasty stopped official ships and official trade and gave up the ocean. As a result, the Portuguese fled to Haojing and the Spanish destroyed Luzon. Haojing was the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, and Luzon was a vassal of the Ming Dynasty."

Wang Qian's reasons were very sufficient. He opposed further raising the threshold. Once a widespread public opinion was formed that the emperor led the wealthy families to eat alone, it would create more uncertainty for the Ming Dynasty's opening of the sea.

The reasons are very sufficient, but it also takes courage to confront the emperor so directly.

If Wang Qian wanted to be a sole minister, he would not hide his true thoughts from the emperor. The only person a sole minister could rely on was the emperor.

"What you said makes sense. I haven't considered it enough." Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said, "I just want to raise the threshold and keep out those who are less able to resist risks. This seems to be a kind of well-intentioned protection, but those outside the door will feel that I have closed the door and will not let them in, and they will resent it from the bottom of their hearts."

"Teacher, I heard Zhuangzi once said to me, 'The great way is not to be praised, the great debate is not to speak, the great benevolence is not to be benevolent, the great integrity is not to be stingy, the great courage is not to be jealous.'"

This passage was said by Zhuangzi, and means: The great way is nameless and difficult to describe with accurate language; the great debate does not use words but facts; the excessive pursuit of benevolent governance is actually a kind of tyranny; true integrity does not mean being particularly humble, but having the courage to take responsibility; great courage is not the courage of blood, but the courage to fight in public.

History has repeatedly proven that great benevolence is not kind.

"Guo Xing Zhengmao treated those barbarians as human beings in Luzon, but in the end, they held a grudge and envied the wealth created by the Han people with their own hands, and attacked and killed the good people of the Ming Dynasty. Ding Yang's entire family of six was brutally slaughtered. Da Ren was indeed unkind." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "Just pretend I never said anything."

"Your Majesty is wise." Wang Qian bowed his head again. He hoped that His Majesty would always be so wise, not stubborn and self-willed, but would accept good advice and lead the Ming Dynasty further and further on the road to becoming great again.

"The commander Liu Ji has led the fleet back to Manila, the Governor-General's Palace in Luzon, and will arrive at the new port of Songjiang soon. When this news spread to the capital, the prices of ship tickets for round-the-world voyages rose accordingly." Wang Qian introduced the fluctuations in the market today.

Ship owners like Yanxinglou bore nearly 70% of the cost of building ships, paid for the ships, but could only share 30% of the profits.

The maintenance, repair and loss of ships are mostly borne by the shipowners, but even so, the shipowners of Yanxinglou can still make a profit in ocean trade, a little less than the workshops, but more stable.

Especially the global trade fleet in the big ticket. As long as the Ming navy remains invincible in the world, the global trade fleet will make a profit and will not lose money. It is even more stable than the local landlords in the past.

Because of the existence of Yanxing Tower, the Ming Dynasty's policy of opening the sea gained widespread support.

"Someone spread a rumor that the global trade fleet was sunk in the West. This news has been circulating for several days. The three trading gangs that spread the rumor have been banned by me from trading in Yanxinglou." Wang Qian talked about a small matter. The market is like this, with all kinds of news spreading. This is normal, and rumors are flying everywhere.

Wang Qian quickly explained: "The reason why I want to punish them like this is that they published in miscellaneous newspapers and deliberately disrupted the ticket market for large and small tickets. This is a manipulation that is expressly prohibited by the regulations of Yanxinglou Trading House."

It's not that the officials are allowed to set fires while the common people are not allowed to light lamps. It's that some powerful and wealthy people are maliciously shorting the large and small ticket markets, and spreading this false information through miscellaneous newspapers, and falsely accusing others of sitting in the trading house as well.

Miscellaneous newspapers are the only channel for people to get news nowadays. If you talk nonsense, you will be punished.

This is a relative fairness. Most of the people who trade in Yanxinglou Trading House have weak risk resistance and do not seek to get rich overnight. They invest their money in large and small bills. This group of people are relatively isolated from the news and are easily affected by emotions, and suffer losses in the game.

If the powerful and wealthy control the miscellaneous newspapers, it is equivalent to controlling the mouthpiece. If they manipulate them maliciously, they will naturally be punished.

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Fines are useless, prohibiting transactions is useless, those who knowingly commit crimes and repeat offenses, please draw up a list and tell me, I will have the tax inspectors investigate."

"If you check him thoroughly, he will behave himself."

The new tickets are all filled with gamblers. Those who hold big and small tickets are all the owners of many industries in the Ming Dynasty. They must be protected as a good iron plate.

"Liu Ji is coming back too." Zhu Yijun planned to have a good discussion with Liu Ji about the affairs of Mingguan. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty looked at the crowded trading company downstairs and stretched himself. There are good and bad things on the road of development, but generally speaking, there are more good news.

The Ming Dynasty's ocean-going trade fleet led by Liu Ji returned safely. After arriving in Ryukyu, the coastal defense inspector informed Songjiang Prefecture as quickly as possible. On the third day of March in the fifteenth year of Wanli, the ocean-going trade fleet arrived safely at the new port of Songjiang Prefecture.

On this day, the port was crowded with people, all of whom had received the news to welcome the fleet's return. On the day of the return voyage, Xingang prohibited entry and exit to make way for the large fleet, because it would take a whole day for such a large fleet to enter and exit the port.

The weather was fine, with clear blue skies and the sea and sky blending into one. The first mast appeared, with a vermilion round dragon flag and a seven-star flag hanging on the mast, representing the dual identities of a Ming Dynasty official ship and a Ming Dynasty merchant ship. Soon, several masts continued to rise from the sea.

The crowd in the port burst into huge cheers, and the sound of horns and drums made it even more lively. The seabirds were startled and flew high across the sea.

Leading the way were three fast sailing ships, namely Tonghe, Tai'an and Anye. These were ocean-going ships specially modified for maritime trade. They had three masts and were fully loaded with 1,200 tons.

Compared with the Youlong and Feiyun, these three fast sailing ships have two fewer masts and a load capacity of 500 tons, but their speed has not decreased and they are more flexible.

The reason for such a change was actually mainly to adapt to the environment of ocean trade. The three-masted fast sailing ship was more like a warship.

(The active sailing training ship Breaking Waves)
Starting from the 14th year of the Wanli reign, fast sailing ships began to test round-the-world voyages. After summarizing the experience gained from sea testing, further improvements were made to the ships. It is expected that within three to five years, a stable ocean-going model will be formed. The ultimate goal is to completely replace ordinary sailing ships with fast sailing ships, allowing for faster trade.

It only takes eight months for a fast sailing ship to sail around the world. Shortening trade time means earning more money.

Behind the three fast sailing ships were twenty five-masted ocean-going ships, fifty three-masted horse ships, and more than a hundred four-hundred-ton warships.

Including warships, the ocean-going merchant fleet had less than 260 ships, which was much smaller in scale than the fleet that sailed to the West during the Yongle period. During the Yongle period, the fleet led by Zheng He had more than chartered ships alone, not to mention the escort horse boats.

But this does not mean that the wealth brought back from overseas will be less. There are fewer ships, but the efficiency of obtaining wealth has become higher.

The 400-ton warship was not eliminated due to the rapid introduction of new ships by the Ming Dynasty. Instead, after several improvements, it was still able to perform military duties.

Smaller means more flexibility, means a wider battlefield environment, smaller means faster speed, and can carry out reconnaissance and other tasks.

For example, a 400-ton warship has a smaller draft than a heavy ship and can enter some rivers to complete combat missions.

The global caravan led by Liu Ji brought back to the Ming Dynasty 5 million taels of silver, 120,000 taels of gold, 6.5 million kilograms of red copper, 20,000 barrels of palm oil and 30,000 barrels of sugar, 20,000 bales of cotton, 1.5 million kilograms of saltpeter, and countless other goods.

The most precious thing here is 10,000 kilograms of quinine, which is the tax of the Governor's Office of Old Port this year. The Governor's Office of Old Port left more silver to support the circulation of overseas treasure notes and used quinine to offset the tax.

Zhang Cheng, the eunuch of Songjiang Town, asked in confusion, "What are on these two horse boats?"

Liu Ji handed the list of goods to the governor's internal official Zhang Cheng. Zhang Cheng's adoptive father was the second ancestor Zhang Hong who was close to Your Majesty. Zhang Cheng was also an internal official of the Songjiang Maritime Customs. Zhang Cheng had to check the list of goods one by one. Half of the goods had to be converted into silver and entered into the treasury after being sold, so he must not be careless.

This is your majesty's silver!
There was also a ship full of souvenirs specially for His Majesty the Emperor. This was because politics was achieved through bribery. If the Emperor was not pleased, he would get angry and issue an order to ban the sea, which made the situation a mess. It was not a good sight. The souvenirs mainly contained seeds of various plants, which were sorted into different categories for His Majesty to use instead of doing his job.

However, after checking the cargo list, Zhang Cheng discovered that there was no cargo on two of the ships.

"Prisoners." Liu Ji said tiredly, "The Ming fleet is really too rich. There are always some blind guys who want to use their numbers to bully the few and try to bite off a piece of fat meat from the Ming fleet."

"Obviously, they hit a wall. Not only did they not get any meat, but they also lost two of their front teeth."

In addition to gold and silver, he also brought back a large number of ignorant captives. The Ming Dynasty's official ships and official trade were all staffed by navy soldiers!
"So they are prisoners. We will definitely report to His Majesty about the hardships and dangers faced by the navy soldiers." Zhang Cheng said sincerely. It was definitely not a lie that he was traveling for business with a sword in hand.

Liu Ji said with lingering fear: "On the sea, except for the people on one ship, no one else can be trusted. This is a bloody lesson. In the past five years of global trade, this was the most dangerous time. I trusted a Western merchant."

"Shah Mamtim's special envoy repeatedly told me in the capital: If you encounter a poisonous snake and a Persian merchant, kill the Persian merchant first; it is better to believe the poisonous snake than the sweet words of the Arab merchant."

"I didn't believe it at first, but I learned my lesson after suffering a loss this time."

Liu Ji lost a five-masted ocean-going ship and two horse boats before he dealt with the joint attack by Persian merchants, Arab merchants, Portuguese merchants and black foreigners. He did win, but his ship was burned and seven naval soldiers were sacrificed.

The West was the territory of Persian and Arab merchants. Shah Mamtim repeatedly reminded Liu Ji not to believe the merchants' lies. Liu Ji kept it in mind and always took precautions against these merchants, which prevented any major disaster.

"Commander Liu, take a rest. Let's count the remaining goods." Zhang Cheng could see that Liu Ji was exhausted. They had just returned from the long voyage and were still a little dizzy when they got off the ground. Liu Ji and the naval soldiers were also a little dizzy.

Liu Ji walked into the large bathing pool at the port. After returning from a long ocean voyage, he had to wash himself carefully with sulfur soap before staying at the Huitong Inn at the port. He would set off for Beijing to meet the emperor three days later.

This is a necessary epidemic prevention procedure.

(End of this chapter)