I'm really not doing business

Chapter 831: The Plague of Justinian
If you don't borrow money to speculate on the price difference of gold and silver, you won't be driven to the point of jumping off a building. The price difference of gold and silver coins is still fluctuating. As long as the Ming Dynasty is still exploring, the price difference of gold and silver will continue to fluctuate due to various real information. You can just hold on to the spot and wait and see.

Anyone who has reached the point of suicide has basically leveraged it countless times and cannot withstand the slightest disturbance.

There was such an example in the Ming Dynasty. A distinguished scholar starved to death in Shanghai County, where gold and silver were everywhere. That man's name was made into the Sun Shangli Index by Yao Guangqi to measure price changes in preparation for the Ming Dynasty to issue banknotes.

Sun Shangli had quite a few magic tools in his hands, which he had bought during the soul-calling incident, thinking that the prices would increase. However, the monks in the National People's Congress would launch a new magic tool every once in a while, and the magic tools in Sun Shangli's hands became worthless.

In fact, Wang Qian is not cruel at all. His methods are not even worthy of his nickname, the Wolf of Yanxinglou. He is not a wolf at all. Instead, he is quite gentle.

At this time in the West, King Felipe of Spain issued gold bonds. After the over-issuance led to the collapse of the bonds, Felipe defaulted on the debt and went bankrupt for reorganization. This was the third time he issued gold bonds, and he was heading for the third collapse. Those who believed in Felipe lost all their money.
Bruges, the main city-state of the Hanseatic League, established a marine insurance industry about a hundred years ago. However, the rejection rate of this marine insurance was as high as 37%, and nearly % of the claims were ignored. Ship owners paid huge amounts of insurance, but were rejected for various reasons.
Maritime trade these days is a very risky business. Many ship owners put their entire fortune, even borrowed money, on the ship. Once the ship capsizes, they will become paupers. The Bruges Marine Insurance Company is not afraid of these paupers making trouble. If it really doesn't work, they will hire two homeless people to make these troublemakers commit suicide.

Bruges Marine Insurance’s refusal to pay claims is not based on the circumstances, but on one’s wealth.

The money market in London, England is on Lombard Street. The Queen of England's Chancellor of the Exchequer is named William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who was canonized by the Queen. Seven years ago, William announced that for a period of time, Lombard Street would only allow money to flow in but not out. Any silver and gold deposited on Lombard Street would be taken away by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

All gold notes in the hands of everyone were stopped from being redeemed, and the gold was used to maintain the scale of the privateering ships for a period of twenty-six years.

These privateers eventually helped England defeat the Spanish Armada.

But at the same time, the banks on Lombard Street did not need to use physical gold to redeem their bills; these banks began to lend and issue gold bills at will without fear of the serious harm they caused, because there was no real supervision at all, and bankers handled business entirely according to their own preferences.

England defeated the Spanish Armada, but the Northern Alliance in the Netherlands became the coachman of the sea. It was England's era on which the sun never sets, but it came a little late because of the British government's credibility collapse.

Wang Qian is really not ruthless enough. Compared with Western financial economists, Wang Qian's morality is higher than Mount Kunlun.

Governor Deng Zilong defeated the largest tribe of the Kulin people in the Governor's Mansion of Jinchi and captured a large number of Kulin people. Wang Qian had this story compiled into a drama script, which was sung all over the country.

The purpose is to let the investors of Yanxinglou Trading House know clearly that the exchange rate of gold and silver will fluctuate greatly.

The Ming Dynasty now has its own stable channel for obtaining gold, and its reserves are huge and its output is huge;

The stargazing ship, which was converted from a fast sailing ship, set out from Songjiang Prefecture in March and headed for North America in search of new gold mountains. The barbarians there used natural gold nuggets to trade goods with the Ming Dynasty, so it was only a matter of time before gold mines were found.

Previously, due to the massive influx of silver, the abnormal price of gold and silver of 1:16 will gradually fall back to the normal price of 1:5.

Even so, Wang Qian was still scolded, and some brokers even rushed towards him with knives. The Tiqi just kicked them to prevent them from getting close, and did not take any further action.

Wang Qian is not cruel enough. If he were more ruthless and continued to raise the price of gold and then sell it during this period, I'm afraid more people would jump off the building at this time. The reason why he is not cruel enough is that he has morals.

Just as the Minister of Rites Shen Li said, high morals cannot govern a country, but without morals, the country will no longer be a country.

In Yanxing Building, some were happy and some were sad. Gold was being sold in large quantities, but some people were quickly buying it. The transaction speed was obviously much faster than before when it was lukewarm.

Some people believe that the price of gold will continue to rise. After all, there is a giant crocodile that is absorbing gold without limit. Many people have also guessed that the emperor would appoint Wang Qian to store gold for the imperial treasury. In the entire market, gold is flowing out and silver is flowing in.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, Your Majesty is the only one who can absorb such a large amount of gold.

Some people think that it will fall, because the reduction in silver inflow is the general trend. The silver inflow in the first two years of the Ming Dynasty was reduced by 200 million taels. A large amount of gold flowed in, and the silver inflow decreased. With more gold and less silver, the gold price cannot be maintained at a high level.

Wang Qian actually doesn’t know whether the price of gold will rise or fall, but he knows that there are differences in the market now. As long as there are differences, there is room for operation and he can make money.

This batch of gold from the Jinchi Governor's Office was seized. Among the three tribes of the Kulin people, the largest tribe found a lot of gold, but without reliable smelting technology, they could only collect these things and use them as offerings for sacrifices. The mining of the Great Gold Mountain has also begun.

Yanxinglou became crazy. Some people were waving silver bills to buy large amounts of gold certificates, some were covering their faces and crying in grief, some were shouting at the top of their lungs, some were staring at those who had made a fortune with red eyes, regretting that they had missed the opportunity, and some were walking out of the trading house in despair like zombies.

In Wang Qian's view, this place is an amplifier of the evil nature of human beings. Pride, envy, wrath, laziness, greed, gluttony and lust are the seven deadly sins of the Western sect. These seven sins are the seven ugliest original sins of human nature, and they are fully reflected in Yanxing Tower.

Legazpi and Matteo Ricci were both missionaries. Ricci interpreted gluttony as wasting food, while Legazpi was more secular. He believed that gluttony was excessive indulgence in something, such as alcoholism, abuse of drugs such as opium, use of more wasteful goods, and excessive indulgence in pleasure.

This is a metaphor. The Ming Dynasty also had a similar expression, "pools of wine and forests of meat."

"I have to go to the palace and arrange a carriage to go to Tonghe Palace." Wang Qian was a little confused. He shook his head vigorously, walked out of Yanxing Tower and headed for Tonghe Palace.

He went to Tonghe Palace to report the profits and delivered a batch of 270,000 taels of gold.

On the way to Tonghe Palace, Wang Qian was obviously a little confused. He had seen too much of the ugliness of human nature, which made him doubt whether humans, as creatures, were unworthy of the title of the most intelligent creatures.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. May your Majesty be in good health." Wang Qian bowed his head and greeted him. He met a person whom he rarely met, Prince De Zhu Zaiyu.

Prince De Zhu Zaiyu was found to be more difficult to see than the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. His Majesty has issued the highest protection order for all doctors of the science of things, doctors of agriculture, and doctors of medicine. If one wants to visit these doctors, one needs to write an application at the Beizhenfusi Yamen, and only after the Emperor's approval can one see them.

Sitting next to Prince De Zhu Zaiyu was the chief medical officer Chen Shigong.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "No need to be polite, sit down and talk."

Zhu Zaiyu leaned forward and said excitedly: "Dr. Chen discovered through a microscope that all things have evolved wheels under natural selection, but they are all extremely low-level organisms. For example, the flagella used by some small microorganisms are actually wheel structures."

"But slightly more complex creatures would not choose wheels, because the premise of using wheels is to have roads. The four-legged structure has better passability. When the road is blocked, the four-legged structure is more conducive to survival."

"That's true. Even if it's the King of Shang, his car will have broken axles." Zhu Yijun agreed very much with what Zhu Zaiyu said. If the King of Shang had a car accident, his name would be engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones.

Zhu Yijun was a little puzzled and asked: "Why do humans build roads, but animals don't? I found that some animals have strong construction capabilities, such as the underground palaces of some cave-dwelling animals."

This question is a little difficult to answer. Your Majesty is always full of wonderful ideas. If animals also learned how to build roads, the efficiency of wheels would be even higher.

Zhu Zaiyu thought for a moment and said, "We have observed that all animals are extremely selfish. This selfishness is not a derogatory word, but an adjective, which means that their territorial consciousness is very strong."

"They built underground palaces for their own use. Even for social animals, building roads for the benefit of others is a rare occurrence in the animal world. Without sufficient numbers, they naturally could not evolve roads and wheels."

"We can think that the wheels we use now are actually more convenient limbs evolved by humans after they built roads. They are faster, farther and more convenient."

"Maybe one day we will grow wings and fly to the sky."

Zhu Zaiyu's perspective is very interesting. In his view, based on the theory of natural selection and anthropocentrism, human inventions and creations are non-natural evolutions under the theory of anthropocentrism. People invented long and short weapons, bows and arrows, javelins, firearms, and cannons, all of which are similar to the sharp teeth and fangs that grow in the process of animal evolution; inventions such as the wheel are for running faster, longer, and farther.

This is a very interesting perspective.

The Academy of Gewu was still obsessed with the narrative of putting steam engines on gliders and providing power for gliders. In Zhu Zaiyu's view, it was only a matter of time before humans grew wings and flew into the sky. It was not too far away for humans to reach for the moon in the sky or catch turtles in the five oceans.

Steam turbines and gliders become human wings, and this is also the five large tiled houses of the Gewuyuan.

Wang Qian felt relieved when he heard this. People are already selfish enough, but these animals seem to be even more selfish. In the view of the Academy of Gewu, selfishness is a neutral word, not a derogatory word. It is a nature that exists in all animals and plants.

"We found that the lumps and plague came from rats, which is also the Black Death that the West is so afraid of. It would be more accurate to describe it as the plague. The plague is spread to all people through fleas, and the weaker the rats are, the more likely they are to get sick." Zhu Zaiyu's face became serious.

The above are the interesting phenomena discovered in the Jiekuyuan. The prevention and treatment of bubonic plague, the Black Death and the plague were the purpose of Zhu Zaiyu and Chen Shigong going to Tonghe Palace together.

The Black Death in England and Wales swept across Europe. According to Legazpi's rough estimate, at least one-third of the population in England and Wales died in the Black Death outbreak in the Middle Ages. The Black Death did not end after the outbreak, but had a long tail that lasted for more than three hundred years.

The plague still occurred intermittently in the West. Every time an outbreak occurred, people tried every possible means to identify the disease, such as killing witches, cats, laxatives, bloodletting, inducing vomiting, fumigation, using toads, bathing in urine, and other strange methods.

Even the Western custom of not taking a bath was due to the outbreak of the Black Death. Without hot water for bathing, people would be more susceptible to illness, and eventually it became a custom of not taking a bath. It was not because they did not know how to be clean, but because they were afraid of death.

To this day, due to the poor urban environment, plague outbreaks continue in London, England.

On the contrary, Lisbon, Portugal, because of its special sanitation rectification, has become the only place in the West without plague.

Zhu Zaiyu said with emotion: "The Eastern Roman Empire also had signs of revival. A thousand years ago, Justinian I ascended the throne in Constantinople and became the emperor of Rome. At that time, Justinian and his general Belisar expanded the territory with great force. The prosperity of the Roman Empire was just around the corner."

"It was at this time that the Black Death broke out in Constantinople. There was no lightning from the gods, no fire from hell, no war or killing. People were dying rapidly, and the people Justinian sent to deal with the corpses soon became the corpses being dealt with."

"Justinian even dug dozens of huge pits. There was no time to bury the bodies, and the new bodies became burial mounds. At that time, people generally believed that this was God's punishment. This plague completely destroyed the prairie fire of the Roman Empire's revival. Everyone began to question Justinian's rule." "People generally believed that this plague that affected the entire Roman Empire was a revelation from God. It was God who sent down punishment to prevent Rome's revival."

"Later, the people of Thailand called this plague the Plague of Justinian."

Zhu Zaiyu was afraid that the emperor was unaware of the harm of the plague, so he cited an example. Even in the Ming Dynasty, the people of the Ming Dynasty still believed that the only civilized country in the West was the now-vanished Rome. As for other countries, they were more or less lacking in quality, even Spain, where the sun never sets.

Spain, where the sun never sets, was actually a country where theocracy was greater than royal power, which was difficult for the Ming Dynasty to understand.

This is also the reason why Chen Shigong found Zhu Zaiyu to report to the emperor. Sometimes, when it comes to matters involving a ruling crisis, it is more appropriate for someone from the Zhu family to speak.

Chen Shigong bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, the scabies are caused when a patient comes into contact with a rat or is bitten by a flea. A small scrofula will suddenly appear between the joints of the body, and then the patient will lose his appetite, feel dizzy and have a fever, and vomit, like a rotten watermelon. If one person is infected, the whole family will die."

"The population of the capital of the Ming Dynasty is over 3.5 million, and Songjiang Prefecture is no less. If this epidemic breaks out in the capital, I dare not imagine the consequences."

The discovery that the eczema plague was related to rats has to do with Suiyuan.

During the process of conquering Suiyuan, the Ming Dynasty discovered the cowpox method to prevent and treat smallpox, and later discovered another deadly disease called lumps. At first, the chief medical officers wanted to find a method similar to the cowpox method to prevent and treat lumps, but they soon failed. These seemed to be two completely different pathogenic mechanisms.

The frequency of outbreaks of leprosy was higher in tribes where rats were rampant. After interviewing the survivors in detail, the great medical officers of the Ming Dynasty fully confirmed the pathogenic chain of leprosy, which was more difficult to deal with than smallpox.

"Your Majesty, there is another animal that carries this plague, and that is the marmot. There are many marmots on the grasslands. People on the grasslands live near water and grass, and so do these marmots. They carry more than one kind of plague. Preying, touching, or biting them may all transmit the plague to humans." Chen Shigong then introduced the findings of the Institute of Extermination.

Zhu Zaiyu immediately said, "Your Majesty, the highway connects the north and the south, and it is easier for goods from the grassland to reach the Ming Dynasty. I found some marmot furs being sold in the capital. My concern is not that everything is an enemy, but that if we are not careful, everything will be lost."

Both Zhu Zaiyu and Chen Shigong wanted to convince the Emperor that the Ming Dynasty was at a critical historical turning point and if it followed Justinian's example, its road to revival would be cut short.

If we have clearly seen the existence of the crisis but do nothing to prevent it, we will probably pay a huge price.

"So what should we do?" Zhu Yijun said with a smile, "I didn't say you were exaggerating. You analyzed the phenomena of the Black Death and the Plague, and found the answers after digging deep into the root causes. I respect the research of the Doctors of Inquiry into Things, just as the Doctors of Inquiry into Things respect the infinite principles of all things."

"Then, give me some specific methods. What should I do to prevent the outbreak of pimple plague in Ming Dynasty?"

"I have a memorial on rat extermination, and I implore Your Majesty to take a look at it." Chen Shigong finally handed the memorial to His Majesty. Li Shizhen was already old, and all the affairs of the Jiekuyuan were slowly handed over to him.

Chen Shigong mentioned a total of six directions to prevent the spread of the plague, all centered around rat eradication and creating a healthy environment.

To prevent the rampant spread of scabies, we must start from every corner of towns and villages, especially the mice and marmots on the grasslands, we must kill them or drive them to uninhabited areas.

Creating a healthy city means creating a sanitary environment and sanitary towns, which needs to be included in the scope of the performance evaluation system. In the view of the great medical officers, maintaining good hygiene can block the plague and eliminate many epidemics.

Chen Shigong believes that drug research and development is important, but prevention is more important. Only by creating a hygienic environment can the number of patients be effectively reduced.

Zhu Yijun read it for a long time and said, "You two, I have approved this memorial and will give it to the chief physician to handle. I don't want Justinian, and I don't want to see the Ming Dynasty's revival come to an abrupt end, so I'll leave it to the chief physician."

Zhu Yijun still trusted Chen Shigong and gave him full authority to supervise the matter. Just as people working in the cultural industry must be cultured, in the field of medicine, one still has to listen to the opinions of professionals.

"I obey your order." Chen Shigong took a deep breath and bowed his head to accept the order.

"Your servants shall take their leave." Zhu Zaiyu took time out of his busy schedule to accompany Chen Shigong to meet the emperor in order to persuade His Majesty to implement this policy. At least, such a plague must not break out in a metropolis with a population of over one million. Otherwise, the revival of the Ming Dynasty might really be abandoned halfway.

Even if it doesn't cause any huge harm, a group of despicable Confucian scholars will jump out and shout that the heavens are giving warnings. Zhu Zaiyu will not allow such a thing to happen!

It was with great difficulty that we suppressed the trend of 'misinterpreting the infinite principles of all things as instructions from heaven', and we must never allow it to happen again.

Zhu Yijun looked at the two men's departing backs and felt a little emotional. To some extent, what they said came true.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, in the sixth year of Chongzhen, plague broke out in Shanxi;
In the 14th year of Chongzhen, the plague was introduced into the North China Plain from Gansu, Shaanxi, and Hetao, Shanxi, and then spread throughout the country with the peasant movement.

From the 14th to the 16th year of Chongzhen, three large-scale plague outbreaks occurred in the capital. Children were nowhere to be seen in the streets. The number of people dead, both with and without coffins, exceeded 200,000 in the Nine Gates.

When the plague broke out, people generally believed that the Ming Dynasty had run out of luck. Eventually Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on the crooked tree on Wansui Mountain, and the Ming Dynasty perished.

"Am I so stingy?" Zhu Yijun shook his head helplessly.

When Chen Shigong extracted the emperor's teeth, it caused an inflammatory storm. Zhu Yijun didn't actually care about this. Since he refused to use opium to relieve the pain, then life and death were in the hands of fate, and wealth was in the hands of God. But Chen Shigong cared very much about it. After that, Chen Shigong never wanted to meet the emperor alone again. He either followed Li Shizhen or Zhu Zaiyu.

"Imperial Censor Wang, have you made a fortune again?" Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Qian and said with a smile.

Wang Qian handed over the account book respectfully and bowed his head and said, "The account book of 270,000 taels of gold is here, Your Majesty. Otherwise, why don't you close the Yanxinglou Trading House?"

"Oh?" Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Qian with some surprise after reading the accounts.

Wang Qian frowned and said, "I am not afraid of a bad death. Making this money does damage my virtue, but I have already lost all my virtue and do not care about this. I am mainly worried that the pursuit of profit will spread throughout the Ming Dynasty. By then, I am afraid that the rituals and music will collapse."

Wang Qian didn't even have to worry that he would be used as a scapegoat by His Majesty and killed to appease the public anger, because His Majesty would not let Wang Qian take any responsibility for such a serious matter as the Officials' Judgment Law.

To this day, Zhang Juzheng is still wondering why Wang Chonggu, this old fox, is so active and cooperative in the matter of the official selection law.

As a scholar-official, it is normal for Wang Qian to worry that the pursuit of profit will corrupt the morals of the world.

Since ancient times, people have held a critical attitude towards businessmen's pursuit of profits. For example, in "The Analects of Confucius: Li Ren", Confucius said: The gentleman is concerned with righteousness, while the villain is concerned with profit. He defined "righteousness" as the moral standard of scholars and "profit" as what villains seek.

It is not just Confucianism that has the same attitude. For example, the Legalists have the same attitude. The "Book of Lord Shang" says: Make sure that merchants cannot buy grain, and farmers cannot sell grain. The merchants should be cracked down on and the population should be forced to return to farming. And in "Han Feizi: The Five Vermin", merchants are identified as one of the five vermin, saying that merchants accumulate wealth and wait for the right time to make a profit.

"Records of the Grand Historian: Book of Price Control" records an order issued by Emperor Gaozu: merchants were not allowed to wear silk or ride in carriages. During the reign of Emperor Wu, the "Silk Counting Order" and "Silk Reporting Order" were successively implemented, imposing heavy taxes on merchants' property.

In the Tang Dynasty, it was stipulated that businessmen and industrialists were not allowed to take the imperial examinations; in the Song Dynasty, the "Song Criminal Code" explicitly stated that "businessmen and industrialists of different categories" were not allowed to take the imperial examinations; during the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, there was even a conclusion that merchants must be suppressed by the king.

But the situation in the Ming Dynasty was better. Craftsmen and merchants with temporary household registration could all take part in the imperial examinations. After all, the military settlement and garrison system had to be used in conjunction with the Kaizhong Law, and merchants were needed.

For example, Wang Chonggu's family has been doing business for generations. He is a civilian, but if he wants to go out to do business, he must obtain merchant status before he can do business. His business experience will not affect his participation in the imperial examinations.

Wang Qian's family has been doing business for generations, so he is very clear about the harm caused by the pursuit of profit.

Wang Qian hesitated for a long time before saying, "Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty is undergoing a reform and opening up, and the trend of pursuing profit is gradually rising. This Yanxing Building has obviously magnified this sentiment. It would be better to just close this trading house."

"There are so many people in Yanxinglou Trading House, waiting to reap the leveraged money, but there are still people who keep coming."

"It's not a direct closure. Right now, Yanxinglou is only selling but not buying. No new tickets are allowed to enter the market, and no small tickets are allowed to be bought or sold. Large tickets are being taken back bit by bit. We expect to completely shut down Yanxinglou Trading House in three to five years."

"If you need money again, just open the door again."

Wang Qian proposed a preliminary closure plan, an orderly closure, rather than directly refusing to pay debts like Felipe did by closing the Madrid Gold Bond Trading House. Yanxinglou directly closed its doors and refused to pay its debts, which would have damaged the reputation of the country and the emperor.

"I have also considered your idea. It's very good. Let's take advantage of the drastic fluctuations in the prices of gold and silver and close it down on the grounds that it will cause endless harm." Zhu Yijun thought about it and agreed with Wang Qian's idea.

The Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry chain has become fully mature, and the plan for everyone to become a shipowner can come to an end for the time being.

If northern merchants and northern capital wanted to participate in maritime affairs, they could already go to the Maritime Customs along the Chidao Road.

Zhu Yijun also felt that it would be better to close the Yanxinglou Trading Company. More and more people began to borrow money to enter the market, which had affected the stability of the Ming Dynasty. In the words of Wang Qian, there were no winners in this trading company, only survivors.

In fact, this is related to the court's financial policy. Although Wang Guoguang has retired, Zhang Xueyan is an even more extreme conservative than Wang Guoguang.

Zhang Xueyan's idea was that the imperial court was borrowing money, which was not right. If they were short of money, they could ask the powerful to donate money. If they refused to donate money, they could confiscate their property! If confiscation of property was not enough, they could take over Japan and then find ways to take over the rich silver mines in South America, instead of borrowing money!
These are the extreme conservatives of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor owes money? The whole world belongs to the emperor!

Zhu Yijun and Wang Qian decided to close Yanxing Tower, but they didn't expect it to cause an uproar and immediately aroused opposition from almost everyone!
(End of this chapter)