I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 84 Do you love money?
Yang Jinshui continued, "So I wrote to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for advice. After two letters, His Royal Highness learned about the difficulties I mentioned and pointed out that the difficulties encountered by the development of Southeast Industry and Commerce may come from two problems.

One is the market problem.”

"market?"

Everyone was very confused. What is a market?
"A market is a place where goods can be bought and sold. For example, in Annan, people sell rice and get copper coins and silver, which they then use to buy our silk. In the West, Portuguese people get silver from other places and come to the southeast to buy our silk, tea and porcelain.

You can think of it as a fish pond or sea area that can be fished in. No matter how vast and fertile it is, it depends on whether you can catch the fish. "

Everyone nodded and understood a little bit of Yang Jinshui's explanation.

Zhang Jingyuan, Yang Dezhi, and Wang Feilin looked at each other. Eunuch Yang put into practice the knowledge that the Crown Prince had taught them when they went to Beijing to report on their work.

Yang Jinshui continued, "His Royal Highness said that the Southeast's industry and commerce have developed in the past two years, and the goods produced have filled up the old markets. For example, the West travels thousands of miles to our Ming Dynasty to purchase goods, and there is only one trip a year, and there are so many ships on each trip.

In previous years, they often failed to purchase all the goods they needed, so we didn't think it was unusual. Now they are trying hard to stuff goods into the ship, and there is no room. We have surplus silk and cotton cloth, so we think something is wrong. "

Everyone nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, that's what I mean."

This is called overcapacity.

It's good to understand. It took me some effort to understand what the prince said. But once I understand these words, the rest will be easy.

“The market is saturated, so we need to explore new markets. The prince specifically mentioned that exploring new markets does not mean rashly running to new places to find people to buy things.

There are many large islands in the South China Sea, where many savages live. They depend on the weather for their food and have no money. If you go there, they have no money to buy our goods. Is that a new market?

Definitely not.”

Indeed, how can a place where poor people gather be considered a market?
"The prince pointed out several places. The first is East Japan. East Japan produces silver and other goods that can be transported to Ming for trade. Since their Hirado Port was bombarded and the Matsuura Party was almost wiped out, they have become much more honest.

Our dynasty has changed the trade between the two countries to licensed trade, which makes the exchanges much easier. We can go there to explore the market. Then there are the South China Sea countries such as North Korea and Annan.

They are far away and relatively closed, so they don't know that our trade has undergone a major change. Southeast merchants can take the initiative to go to them, open their doors, sell cotton and silk, and exchange them for the rice, iron, copper, silver and other items we need."

Everyone nodded, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was absolutely right.

"There is another new market, the Westerners. Because they are thousands of miles away, they will know about the changes in our Ming Dynasty's maritime trade later. But they are greedy for profit, so they will react faster.

Two years have passed, and I believe the news of the change has spread there. Next year or the year after, more Western ships will flock there. "

Yang Jinshui's words made everyone unable to help but discuss quietly.

It is generally acknowledged that Westerners are profit-loving.

If it's not profitable, why would you come thousands of miles away to do business in our China?
In the next two years, I believe that in addition to a large number of sea-going merchants coming from the West, there will also be more craftsmen and military officers coming.

In the past two years, the Coordination Bureau has paid a large sum of money to recruit talented people from Western countries. The news spread throughout the South China Sea and the South China Sea, and many Westerners came from India after hearing the news.

When everyone's discussion slowly died down, Yang Jinshui continued, "In addition to pointing out the market, His Royal Highness also pointed out a very important issue. I have always ignored this issue, or I have never thought about it at all."

"Eunuch Yang, what's the problem?"

Everyone asked curiously.

“It’s a matter of transaction efficiency.”

efficient!

What the hell is this?
Yang Jinshui smiled and explained, "Why did the prince move the Southeast Office of the Coordination Bureau and the three business headquarters of Xingruixiang, Deshengmao, and Lianshengxiang to Shanghai County, and at the same time lead many businesses to move to Shanghai County? In fact, it is a matter of transaction efficiency."

Someone said, "Please give me some advice, Eunuch Yang!" "As I said before, Shanghai is connected to the sea and the river, so the transportation is very convenient. It is also close to the cotton and silk production areas. The Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Huguang, and Sichuan provinces along the Yangtze River can ship goods from all over the country down the river and gather them in Shanghai. After selling them, they can buy cotton, silk, grain and other things, and then ship them back to their respective places upstream.

Merchants gathered in Shanghai, either carrying silver or selling their own specialties. Silk, cotton, porcelain, tea, sugar, etc. produced in various parts of the Ming Dynasty were piled up here, with high-quality and high-priced products and low-quality and low-priced products for you to choose from. After purchasing, they were transported onto ships and sailed back to China with favorable winds.

Don’t you think it’s very convenient?”

Everyone nodded.

"Indeed. Before, we had to purchase and collect silk in Suzhou, Huzhou, Hangzhou and other places, and then transport it to Ningbo. Tea was another matter. Now, as Eunuch Yang said, it is indeed much more convenient." Zhang Jingyuan echoed.

Yang Jinshui said happily: "Yes, this is what the prince said about transaction efficiency. If transactions are more convenient and the costs are lower, won't trade be more prosperous?"

Everyone suddenly realized, "Yes, yes, that's the truth."

"So His Royal Highness asked us to move to Shanghai County. So that's his intention."

"Your Highness is truly far-sighted and far-sighted."

Yang Jinshui stood with his hands behind his back, a faint smile on his face. After everyone finished flattering the prince, he continued, "His Royal Highness once again told me about transaction efficiency. Not only that, there is another transaction efficiency that we have not noticed before, and that is currency."

"currency?"

A new term has emerged.

Yang Jinshui asked: "Let's trade. You have silk and I have sugar. How do we trade?"

Wang Feilin answered very tacitly: "Eunuch Yang, the most convenient way is to barter."

"That's right. Barter. But there's a problem here. How much is your silk worth? How much is my sugar worth? Everyone has their own opinion.

Secondly, you have silk, but you don’t want to buy sugar this time, you only want to buy tea; I have sugar, but I don’t want to buy silk this time, I want to buy cotton, what should I do? "

Yang Dezhi stepped forward and answered in tacit understanding: "Eunuch Yang, it's simple. Before, we used copper coins and cloth to trade, but now we use silver. How much silver is one stone of rice, how much silver is one piece of silk, how much silver is one piece of sugar and tea, all according to the market, and clearly marked. Then you sell the sugar, I sell the silk, and you can buy whatever you want with the silver."

Yang Jinshui laughed, "That's right, now silver is currency. It has become the intermediary for everyone's transactions and the standard for valuation."

It turns out that silver is currency!
Copper coins count too.

What about the treasure notes?

Damn, that bastard proposed it?

You did it on purpose, right?!

Are you trying to disgust people by saying these pieces of waste paper that have caused us so much trouble?

Zhang Jingyuan pretended to have figured something out, but he didn't understand it clearly, so he asked.

"Eunuch Yang, what you just said is that silver is currency and the basis of transactions. It also involves the issue of transaction efficiency. May I ask what is the solution to this efficiency issue?"

The performance of the three members in the atmosphere group was very good.

Yang Jinshui asked with a smile: "Manager Zhang, everyone, do you like silver? Do you like the white silver?"

Everyone looked at each other.

Love, of course I love.

Who doesn't love this thing?
The emperor, the cabinet ministers, the ministers, the Hanlin scholars, the governors, the prefects, the county magistrates, the scholars, even the beggars in the wild temples outside the city, just ask, who doesn’t love?
(End of this chapter)