I'm really not doing business

Chapter 844: The poison of bondage and the deep-seated disease

The Korean envoy Li Houbai did not dare to commit suicide. If he dared to commit suicide, he would not have waited until now. It takes courage to end one's life, especially for someone like Li Houbai who has read a lot of books, understands things, and has no worries about food and clothing.

He had many opportunities to commit suicide. For example, the Japanese pirates reached Pyongyang in a month like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and the country was about to be destroyed. For example, Yi Sun was killed by Yi Sun-sin, and the king of Yi Houbai was dead, and the Joseon Dynasty was essentially destroyed, so he could also commit suicide.

But he didn't. Instead, on the eve of Ming Dynasty cleaning up the mess in Korea, he took advantage of the emperor's reception of foreign envoys to put forward some inappropriate conditions in order to let Ming Dynasty kill him.

He did not have the courage to commit suicide, and wanted to use the emperor's knife to kill himself while also leaving his name in history.

Zhu Yijun saw through Li Houbai's true face. In fact, he himself had not decided whether he wanted to die or not. What would happen to Joseon in the end? If the deposed King Yi Sun of Joseon was a king worthy of following, if the royal family and the civil and military classes of Joseon had governed the country diligently and the people were peaceful, and Joseon had ended up like this now, Li Houbai would definitely have died with the country.

But it's not worth it.

Li Houbai knew deeply that the Korean royal family and Korea were not worth following with his life after being attacked by Japanese pirates in Pyongyang within a month.

Zhu Yijun didn't care much about Li Houbai running to Korea and leading the Korean people to rebel against the Ming Dynasty.

The Kingdom of Annan during the Yongle and Xuande periods was completely different from today's Korea. Korea's population dropped from 9 million to 4.5 million in just two years. This blood feud was avenged by the Ming army on behalf of Korea.

When Gao Qiyu was negotiating with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hideyoshi put forward a condition, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would not send soldiers and civilians of Korean origin to the mines in Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi would rather have Ming people garrison there than have Koreans enter, because in the eyes of the Japanese, they were all vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, but there was still a distinction between the superior and the inferior.

The Japanese always believed that they were defeated by the Ming Dynasty, not Korea, and that as a defeated general, Korea had no right to station troops in Japan.

On the other hand, the Japanese were afraid of retaliation from the Koreans. These Koreans didn't care about moral violations at all and had no hesitation in killing people.

Influenced by the wolf-faced and beastly hearts of Wanshi and the barbarians, Zhu Yijun always believed that the barbarians of this era could only understand the language of fists, and they would be obedient after being beaten, and they would adapt.

Secondly, Zhu Yijun was not worried at all about what kind of trouble Li Houbai might cause after returning to Korea.

The people of the Ming Dynasty could not understand the thoughts of the Koreans, Japanese, Annamites, and Luzon people. Even though they were all in the Confucian circle, there were still huge differences in their cognition.

These people can never decide their own destiny. Their destiny can only be decided by others. They cannot imagine how it would be like to decide their own destiny. The experience left to them by their ancestors is not to control their own destiny, but to adapt to the experience and thinking patterns of recognizing their father.

Even the meat-eaters and scholars in these places are the same. When they think about and discuss issues, they always mention Ming daddy, Spanish daddy, and foreign daddy. They always mention their parent country. It is this typical adaptive father-recognition model that is at work.

Without a father over them, these people feel uneasy and weird. They will only feel contented if there is a father sitting over their heads and telling them what to do.

This is true for the Westerners, the red-haired barbarians, the golden-haired barbarians, and even the Ottomans. The only difference is that the father above their heads is the invisible and intangible God, which is just religion.

This caused great trouble to the officials of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, because the foreign envoys from these places liked to recognize their fathers themselves, and habitually believed that others would also recognize their fathers. Because these foreign envoys could only be chess pieces and chessboards, they especially liked to choose sides and naturally thought that the Ming Dynasty also had to choose sides.

But Daming knew very well that he was a chess player and did not need to choose sides.

For example, in the conflict between Spain and England, while Ming Dynasty and Spain were friendly countries, Ming Dynasty also provided salt to the Netherlands, distributed goods to France, provided new ships, and did business with the Ottomans.

Make money, not shabby.

Wan Shihe once characterized this adaptive mindset of recognizing one's father, calling it the legacy of bondage, a deep-rooted disease attached to the bones, without a soul or a master, and with a spine that cannot straighten.

That is: the colonized mindset trap.

Even Annan, who for various reasons had gathered a consensus for resistance, had never escaped the trap of colonial thinking.

During the Jiajing period, the Kingdom of Annan chose to surrender because of rebellion by powerful ministers. During the Yongle period, Annan was transformed from a vassal state to an inner county of the Ming Dynasty. During the Xuande period, it was transformed from an inner county of the Ming Dynasty to a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty again. During the Jiajing period, it was transformed from a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty to a territory of the Ming Dynasty again.

The Annan Mo family was the Annan Commander-in-Chief of the Ming Dynasty, with a rank of second grade and a hereditary chieftain position.

From beginning to end, the Kingdom of Annan never got rid of the prefix of Ming Dynasty.

North Korea was also deeply trapped in this colonial mentality trap. Without a universal consensus on resistance, Lee Houbai would not be able to stir up trouble even if he returned to Korea.

"Summon the Spanish envoy Pedro to the audience." Feng Bao flicked his whisk and summoned the envoy to the audience.

"Meet the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Long live the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Long live the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty." Pedro bowed and paid homage to the emperor. Even though he made a lot of efforts, this mission still did not go as he wished. The relationship between the Ming Dynasty and its friendly country Spain seemed to be drifting further and further apart.

This is not Spain's fault, nor is it the Ming Dynasty's fault. As time went on, the competition between the Ming Dynasty and Spain for the ownership of the British Empire intensified, and their interests were no longer converging, which led to this phenomenon. Although there are some very good memories, they have gradually come to the situation they are in today.

"No need to be polite. Isn't the fire in the Furao Silver Mine over yet?" Zhu Yijun asked about the situation at the Furao Silver Mine.

The Ming Dynasty and Spain were friendly countries, but the friendship could be broken at any time.

It all started with a wildfire in a rich silver mine. Spain used the wildfire in the rich silver mine as an excuse to reduce its silver imports to Ming Dynasty, which once again plunged Ming Dynasty's economic development into the fear of money shortage.

Pedro took a deep breath and said, "Your Majesty, the fire in the rich silver mine has been extinguished, but it will take some time to resume production."

"Be sure to be prepared for fire. If your country cannot prevent fire, the Ming Dynasty can provide some help. Oh, by the way, has the riot of the barbarians in the rich silver mines been quelled?" Zhu Yijun asked again with a smile.

This was another reason Spain gave to the Ming Dynasty. The wildfires caused the output of farmland to decrease, and the natives of the rich silver mines began to riot. The Governor's Office of Peru was unable to control the situation, and the output of silver from the rich silver mines was blocked, so it was unable to provide sufficient silver.

"The unrest has gradually subsided." Pedro answered stiffly.

"You have also heard that the Ming Dynasty successively established the Jinchi Governor's Office and the Datieling Guard. One produces gold and the other produces iron. The Ming Dynasty's conquest of Japan was also relatively smooth. Japan has agreed to transfer all minerals. I hope that the rich silver mines will not catch fire or cause riots." Zhu Yijun said sarcastically again.

Fires and riots were all excuses, and the silver was transported back to Spain via the treasure fleet in preparation for the expedition to England.

"I will report the issues Your Majesty mentioned after I return to Taixi." Pedro was not a fool, and of course he understood the emperor's dissatisfaction.

Zhu Yijun asked again: "Le Yashi gave you a stack of Ming Dynasty treasure notes. What do you think of these treasure notes?"

The Ming Dynasty established a brand new banknote issuance system around the Tonghe Palace treasury, and had begun a pilot program in Shuntian Prefecture. These treasure notes were generally regarded as silver notes by the people. Silver notes and treasure notes were really similar, but there were still differences. Silver notes were accounting currencies, while treasure notes were credit currencies.

Pedro thought for a moment and said, "The printing is very exquisite, and the paper is wear-resistant and waterproof, not easy to damage, and has excellent anti-counterfeiting properties. It is more exquisite than the silver notes in many banks in the capital, and better than the gold bonds currently in circulation in Spain."

Pedro told the truth that compared with the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes, the gold bonds made by Felipe were no different from toilet paper. It was just a handwritten bond that was easy to lose and damage and inconvenient to use.

Of course, the subtext is also very clear. The Ming Dynasty supplemented liquidity in its own way, and silver will not be an obstacle to the development of the Ming Dynasty.

Legazpi told Pedro not to threaten the Ming Dynasty with silver. Firstly, the threat was useless, and secondly, provoking confrontation would only do harm to Spain.

"Your Majesty, the Supreme Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, as a distant friendly country, can we get some promises from Your Majesty?" Pedro said solemnly.

Zhu Yijun sat up straight and asked, "What kind of promise do you want?"

"No firearms, ships or other military items will be sold to England," Pedro made his demands.

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Whether Spain asks for it or not, until England meets the Ming's demands and revokes its privateering license, the Ming will not sell firearms, ships, gunpowder, bows and crossbows, armor, long and short weapons to England, and will not even allow English merchants to obtain Ming's goods."

"Of course, if the English buy from others, I can do nothing about it. It is beyond my reach."

Of course, the English can obtain some goods through re-export, but the cost and premium of re-export are all borne by the English.

Every transaction at sea would result in a premium of more than 30%. The English did not have many colonies now, and the little wealth accumulated through enclosure was not enough for them to squander.

Zhu Yijun added: "This is based on a consensus of morality. The risks at sea are already great enough. The existence of pirates has seriously affected free trade. Fighting pirates and maintaining the marine business environment is basic morality, not a promise I made to Felipe. Once England takes back the privateering license, the Ming Dynasty must also consider the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and England based on its own position."

It is possible that England would outlaw letters of marque, but it is unlikely that England would outlaw privateering.

England needed Ming's goods, but Ming was far away, and facing it stood Spain, which was going to invade it. To deal with the Spanish Invincible Armada, England could only use privateering fleets, so England could not abolish privateering licenses no matter what.

Zhu Yijun did not make any specific promises, but he told Pedro that the principles of the Ming Dynasty were to crack down on piracy and maintain an orderly and healthy maritime business environment, which would be very beneficial to the Ming Dynasty.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, even if it is based on moral consensus." Pedro breathed a sigh of relief. This was another purpose of his visit to Ming Dynasty this time, to ensure that Ming Dynasty would not intervene in the Anglo-Spanish War.

Even though the friendship had capsized, Felipe did not want the Ming Dynasty to affect the situation in the West, especially the Anglo-Spanish War, just as the Ming Dynasty did not want Spain to interfere in anything in Southeast Asia.

Zhu Yijun chose to respect Felipe's choice.

"I solemnly warn Spain that the Ming Dynasty provides high-quality and low-priced goods, and you used silver to buy them. This is trade, not me bullying and oppressing you, Spain. Don't always act like a victim. You don't have to come to the Ming Dynasty to buy goods. If you keep complaining, don't blame me for closing the border." Zhu Yijun seriously warned Spain about its narrative style.

This warning includes the penalty of closure.

What does it mean that Spain paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty? What does it mean that Spain suffered huge losses in trade with the Ming Dynasty? What does it mean that the huge trade surplus triggered a price crisis in Spain? What does it mean that the Ming Dynasty's goods impact caused the ruin of handicraft workshops in Spain and even the entire Western world?
You don’t have to come!

Spain's narrative is one-sided, and it only saw the loss of silver and gold, but did not see that they took away shiploads of goods. Every ounce of these goods was the result of the labor of the people of the Ming Dynasty, and every ounce of silver was the hard-earned money of the people of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yijun valued silver because it was all earned by the people through labor, and every ounce of silver was worth being valued.

Taking every penny and using it like dirt is a waste of money.

The reason why the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could admonish Spain in such a tone was that the Ming Dynasty could now issue banknotes. The Ming Dynasty had seized the mining rights of Japan and had the confidence to do so. It no longer had to rely on the influx of silver from the West. Only then could it stand from the perspective of strength and admonish Felipe for his false narrative.

Zhu Yijun would not have done this before. After all, many of the Ming Dynasty’s policies were closely related to the silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty from the West.

Now that currency is no longer dependent on the West, Zhu Yijun began to deny this narrative. The West has never been a victim of the sailing trade, otherwise it would not have come here every year for sixteen years.

This Spanish style is actually related to Spain’s economic distribution model at that time. Spain’s distribution model, in the final analysis, can be summed up in one word: grab.

The most typical example here is the Spanish treasure fleet.

There were usually two treasure fleets. One was the Caribbean Fleet, which was formed by the Spanish royal family and nobles. It sailed from the mainland to the New World of America and anchored in the Caribbean Sea. The goods plundered from the New World were usually assembled in the Port of Acapulco, Mexico, and transported by land to the Port of Eracruz in the Caribbean Sea.

The other was the Manila Fleet, which departed from the Americas and arrived in Manila, Luzon.

The Spanish royal family collected one-fifth of the treasure fleet as tax, and the rest was shared among all the nobles, ship owners, and crew members. The credibility of the gold bonds was not the gold, but the treasure ships.

It was widely believed that Felipe could pay the bonds because of the huge amounts of treasure the treasure ships brought back each year.

Felipe often sold licenses to maintain his unchallenged power, using treasure ship licenses to reward and win over his allies.

The red-haired barbarians, who were used to robbing, could not defeat or rob when they arrived at the Ming Dynasty, so they honestly took out their silver and handed it to the Ming Dynasty in exchange for the goods they needed. However, because the silver was lost to the Ming Dynasty, people made nonsense and one-sided narratives.

Zhu Yijun said sternly: "People cannot be so shameless."

"If you are worried about the loss of silver to the Ming Dynasty due to trade, you should find ways to improve the variety and quality of your goods; if you are afraid of the impact of Ming Dynasty goods, you should find ways to reduce the cost of goods to prevent Ming Dynasty goods from entering the West; if you are afraid of the quantity of Ming Dynasty goods, you should improve production efficiency and methods."

"Instead of pretending to be so hypocritical, isn't this bullying the Ming people who are honest and don't talk much? Should honest people be bullied like this?"

"Your Majesty is right." Pedro was choked and speechless. He was stunned for a long time, but finally accepted the reprimand. It was indeed fair free trade, and it was indeed a mutual consent.

Pedro knew very well that every word His Majesty said seemed to be right. His Majesty was not old and did not speak much truth.

The Ming Dynasty has its own military force to protect itself. If you can't defeat it, you can't rob it. If you can compete with the Ming Dynasty through normal means, you would have brought shiploads of goods to the Ming Dynasty and dumped them there long ago. Why would you still play the victim here?
In Spain and England, even children as young as five or six are climbing into chimneys!

In fact, Felipe II knew very well how to become a strong opponent of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the entire Western world should be closely united, those who have grain should provide grain, those who have craftsmen should provide craftsmen, and those who have raw materials should provide raw materials. With concerted efforts and continuous research, even a loose business alliance can greatly improve the competitiveness of the Western world.

Unfortunately, Felipe has made great efforts for this, but with little success. He knows very well that this is difficult to achieve. If he wants the whole of Thailand to unite, there is only one way, and that is Rome's lightning return.

However, Rome was destroyed, and the Romans became a minority in Italy.

Pedro had both gains and losses during this visit to the emperor. His deep friendship with the Ming Dynasty was becoming thinner, and the two countries went from cooperation to cooperative confrontation. Fortunately, the Ming emperor's dissatisfaction with the privateering license prevented the English from getting any help from the Ming Dynasty.

This year, the English envoys were not even allowed to rush from Wanguo City in Songjiang Prefecture to the capital to meet the emperor, so the English envoys made a wasted trip.

Zhu Yijun successively summoned envoys from France, the Netherlands and other countries, fulfilling his promise to sell salt and to distribute Ming Dynasty goods in Daguangming City. Both parties returned satisfied.

"Special Envoy Shah, I cannot agree to your proposal of 50,000 taels of silver in exchange for the right to live and move freely in the Ming Dynasty." Zhu Yijun looked at the letter in front of him and said confidently, "Students from the Mongol Kingdom, when you finish your studies, go back to the Mongol Kingdom. What are you doing in the Ming Dynasty?"

“I can’t reuse them.”

Since the An-Shi Rebellion, the Song and Ming dynasties rarely used Hu people. After all, such a huge historical lesson was there and could not be ignored.

The Mongols are also Hu people. They should go back to where they came from. It is impossible for Zhu Yijun to agree to exchange silver for permanent residence and free movement.

"I heard that the Ming Dynasty's treasury and internal revenue were empty, so I dared to make this suggestion. If Your Majesty does not need it, I will tell His Majesty Akbar." Shah Mamtim did not care much about it. This matter was proposed by the Mughal King Akbar, and he just wanted to ask the emperor whether he would agree.

Fifty thousand taels of silver per person is really a lot, and it’s just to buy an identity, but if the emperor doesn’t agree, then forget it.

The Ming Dynasty was the Celestial Empire, and some international students wanted to stay there while studying, so they wrote letters back to the Mongol Empire to inquire.

"The Ming Dynasty highly approves of the joint anti-drug effort. We can communicate with the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice to jointly combat opium trafficking." Zhu Yijun talked about another matter of Shah Mamtili, combating opium trafficking.

"And your king is worrying too much. According to the research of the Ming Dynasty Jieguanyuan, as long as the court and government offices can still perform their basic functions, crack down on drug dealers and suppress the circulation of drugs, the death rate of opium users will be greater than the spread of drugs."

"Eventually, the scale of users will never be able to expand, and the scale of production will also not be able to expand, because if users are extinct, a large amount of opium will be unsalable."

When Akbar heard about the Ming Dynasty's strict anti-drug measures, he wanted to learn from its successful experience. The Ming Dynasty immediately welcomed it, shared its anti-drug technology, and worked with the Mughal Empire to fight drug abuse.

However, Akbar was a little too afraid of the harm of opium. He was worried that the opium that could not enter the Ming Dynasty would all run to the Mughal Empire, causing a crisis.

Shah Mamtim bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, not every court is like the Ming Dynasty, running like a sophisticated machine. In our Mughal country, it is a loose alliance, which makes it difficult to promote the anti-drug campaign. Therefore, we still need to rely on the Ming Dynasty to ban opium from flowing out of the Strait of Malacca."

This was also the purpose of Akbar's plan to buy the "Ming nationality". Akbar's idea was to give money. It didn't matter whether he stayed or left. He gave some silver to His Majesty the Emperor, hoping that the Emperor would continue to work hard to ban drugs in the Strait of Malacca and prevent opium from spreading to the Mughal Empire.

If opium spread to the Mughal Empire on a large scale, Akbar would not be able to ban it.

Oda City was the last envoy to meet the emperor, and she presented a detailed agreement on the delivery of minerals.

This detailed rule handed over the ownership of the minerals to the Ming Dynasty. It also made very clear plans for the establishment of the mining area. For example, the area ten miles around the mine was the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the Japanese were organized to mine the minerals.

This set of details is exactly the same as the one submitted by Gao Qiyu, and there is no deception.

After leaving Oda City, Zhu Yijun held the detailed rules in his hand and said, "These Japanese daimyos are very supportive of this detailed rule, because after the Ming army stationed troops in these mines, it is impossible for the Ming army to mine them themselves. They need these Japanese compradors and brokers to organize and recruit craftsmen and Japanese slaves to mine them."

"The interests of the brokers and even the daimyo have not been damaged, and their status has even become more stable. The people's uprising will become timid because of the Ming army's presence."

This set of detailed rules is extremely strict. The Ming Dynasty would definitely not accept it. Even if it were the Qing Dynasty, they would not dare to sign it.

The Treaty of Kyoto required the cession of mineral resources, but there was no time limit. In addition, the Ming Dynasty also had the right to explore for minerals, and the discovered minerals also belonged to the Ming Dynasty.

Such a treaty won the support of many daimyos, because these daimyos were beneficiaries rather than victims. The Ming Dynasty needed them, and the minerals were worthless. Everything mined belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty would give Japan banknotes for circulation.

"The Ming Dynasty should take this as a warning. If we prohibit commercial exchanges too much, we will always say that the accumulation of wealth and material desires are rampant, which is the talk of the decadent Confucian scholars. But if we emphasize commerce too much, the country will surely be in ruins. To some extent, the heart-wrenching appeals of the old scholars of the retro school have played a certain role." Zhu Yijun said in summary.

These brokers, compradors and daimyo really deserve to die. They sell out collective interests without any psychological burden at all.

"Japan has evil ambitions. Now the Japanese respect the Ming Dynasty because the fast sailing ships built by the Ming Dynasty were used in wars instead of fishing. If they had really listened to what these despicable scholars said and cultivated culture and virtue to win over foreigners, I'm afraid the Japanese would be clamoring to join the Tang Dynasty now." Zhu Yijun felt that he had over-appreciated these despicable scholars and added a little more.

Cultivating literary virtues in order to win over distant people will neither cultivate literary virtues nor win over distant people, because these barbarians simply cannot understand any principles other than those of fists.

"Your Majesty is wise." Zhang Juzheng led the ministers in singing praises. The old scholars of the retro style were not completely useless. Of course, it was not good to suppress business too much, but it would be too much of a shame for the country to be ruined if it was too much emphasis on commerce.

After the court discussion, Emperor Zhu Yijun of the Ming Dynasty changed into his casual clothes, and set out from the General's Mansion with a group of imperial guardsmen, heading towards Yanxing Tower. Young Master Huang of the Penglai Huang family had a gathering to attend today, and the topic of discussion was the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes.

Zhu Yijun wanted to know what the Ming Dynasty scholars thought about the issuance of Baochao.

The Ming Dynasty once again issued banknotes. The wealthy businessmen were scrambling to get them, while the literati started a discussion about the treasure notes. All recent gatherings revolved around the treasure notes.

Most of the scholars expressed surprise and shock!

The fact that the Ming Emperor actually used the gold in the treasury as a reserve for issuing banknotes was even more frightening than the sun rising from the west. Some people even thought that the Ming Dynasty suffered its biggest defeat in Japan since the Wanli Reform, so the emperor was willing to use gold as a reserve for issuing banknotes.

The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain.

The Ming Dynasty scholars and officials generally believed that Your Majesty was very frugal, as he would rather watch the Aoshan Fireworks Show with a telescope in the bell and drum tower of the main government office during the New Year than reward the various arts. It was more reasonable for Your Majesty to spend gold than for Qi Jiguang to suffer a defeat in battle.

This is undoubtedly prejudice! Total prejudice!
Your Majesty, who has always been frugal, has made such a huge concession for the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty!

The gold vault only allows deposits to flow in but not out, and the gold reserves will increase by 100 million to 150 million taels every year to increase the credibility of the treasure notes.

Zhu Yijun stood in front of the door of Taibai Tower, looking at the topic of today's discussion with a confused look on his face. He was reflecting on himself, wondering if he was too kind in his daily life.

Today's topic: 'How about giving the people of Ming Dynasty 12 strings of banknotes every year?'

(End of this chapter)