Xinshun 1730

Chapter 173 One Last Lick to Japan

Saying goodbye to Bai Yunhang, he went south and got on the lucky ship of trade. Taking advantage of the wind, he set sail for Japan to complete the key link of his plan.

On the boat, Mantou, Chen Qinghai and others were all dressed up as servants. Mantou was familiar with it, and knew that it was just acting. He still had many years of experience as servants, and Du Feng and others were amazed by their familiarity with the business.

This year's trade credit card has long been used up, four normal trade credit cards, three temporary credit cards, earned about 20 taels of silver.

This time to Japan, the ship was loaded with contraband that ordinary people want to behead.

food.

And it is the grain under the background of the catastrophe in Jiaodong and Shandong.

In the cabin, Liu Yu was lecturing these confidants.

"You guys, learn from Mi Ziming. If you want to pretend to be a servant, you have to look like a servant. Du Feng, look at you, do you look like a servant?"

Du Feng had no choice but to imitate the appearance of steamed buns, lower his body slightly when talking and doing things, and subconsciously bow his head and shrink his body when standing up, not to be taller than the "master".

"My lord, what are we going to Japan this time?"

"Surveying and mapping. Surveying the sea conditions and deployment of the rivers and lakes from Nagasaki to Kokura, from Kokura to Shimonoseki, and from Shimonoseki to Osaka."

"Didn't your lord say that the Wa country is locked up, and ordinary people are not allowed to enter the Wa country?"

"I have my own means."

Liu Yu giggled, and told these people about her methods.It is also to instill some new thinking and new knowledge in them.

Chinese maritime merchants are not eligible to travel to Japan, but the director of the Dutch merchant house needs to go to Edo once a year for a visit, but this time Liu Yu got permission.

In the previous trade, Liu Yu compiled a pamphlet and asked Lin Yunwen to hand it over to Nagasaki.

Japan has been locked down until now, and after Tokugawa Yoshimune took power, he relaxed a little.

Originally, it was to strictly check any Western books, especially Chinese translations, that entered Japan. Even Xu Guangqi's "On Making Friends", because Xu Guangqi was a Catholic, was included in the first batch of books that were banned from being destroyed in the country.This pamphlet of his, against the background of Tokugawa Yoshimune's permission for the inflow of books, could be sent to Edo in a fair manner.

After Tokugawa Yoshimune came to power, Japan encountered a famine. In order to survive the financial crisis, even the daimyo's "attendance and account" system was changed.

In order to prevent the daimyos from getting too big, they have to go to Edo for a year for two years, not only for control, but also to consume the financial resources, material resources and manpower of the daimyos.A trip to Edo cost a lot of money. Except for the Nabeshima and Kuroda families who guarded Nagasaki, they only needed to attend the pilgrimage for a hundred days, and the rest took a year.

In the past few years, the time for visiting the Hajj was reduced, and the daimyos were asked to pay more rice grains. Finally, they survived the financial crisis. This year, the system of attending the Hajj was just resumed, and they encountered a severe famine.

The brochure Liu Yu asked Lin Yunwen to bring over was to use this opportunity to find a chance to go to Edo.

One is to inspect the terrain, survey the defenses and forts everywhere.

The second is to lick it, get a few more trade letter cards, and save money to build a navy for the future war against Japan.

The content of the pamphlet is very simple. It just talks about Japan's financial crisis after the "reform of Zhengde" and what is going on.

In the past, the more Japanese money was minted, the lower the gold and silver content.More than ten years ago, a reform of the currency system was carried out, which increased the content of gold and silver.

However, on the one hand, Chinese and Dutch merchants shipped out gold and silver by boat; on the other hand, the content of gold and silver increased and the total amount of money decreased, which would inevitably lead to deflation.

Japan engages in land rent in kind, as well as salary in kind.

The samurai and bannermen distributed food, and the deflation caused the price of food to plummet. Their life was very difficult and they had no money to spend.

There is enough food, but the problem is that as a warrior, it is impossible to just eat all day long, and you have to spend money.

In the deflationary tide of previous years, the price of rice plummeted to a quarter of its peak price.

Under the feudal system, the country was locked up, and "grain is expensive and gold is cheap" must be guaranteed to ensure the stability of the system. When the price of rice plummeted, the warriors often rioted and robbed merchants, which made the financial problem even more serious.

The samurai owed debts on a large scale. Although the shogunate issued a "relative economic order", it did not accept money disputes.Under the strict hierarchy of "scholars, peasants, businessmen and commerce", not accepting money disputes is tantamount to telling the samurai: It's okay to renege on debts, so it's possible that lowly businessmen dare to ask for debts?

However, it was not very good after all. In the past few years, the warriors not only began to renege on their debts, but also began to rob them openly.

There was a financial problem in the shogunate, which also seriously damaged Liu Yu's interests: the shogunate thought it was only because of the outflow of gold and silver, and tightened trade again, and the number of trade cards was even reduced.

It was originally a group of people scrambling for food, but now that the total amount of food is small, it is even more troublesome to grab it.

Originally, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Gang, the Fuzhou Gang, and the Zhangzhou Gang were very introverted, but now that Liu Yu has entered again, the total trade volume has been locked again, and it has been swept out of the sky.

He is now unable to force Japan to open a country for trade, and needs a lot of money to save a fleet that forces it to open a country.

Therefore, in Liu Yu's pamphlet, he introduced the concept of "deflation".

It is suggested to the shogunate to mint new money, reduce the amount of gold and silver, and add copper and lead to it to ensure the total amount of money on the market, and the price of food will gradually rise.

You mint such good money, and the total amount of money is so low, everyone must be hoarding money, and no one wants to spend it.

Why is rice so expensive if it doesn’t cost money?
Rice is not expensive, and the life of the warriors is hard, so of course they are dissatisfied.

The samurai are dissatisfied, and you think it is the pot of gold and silver outflow, so you tighten up trade.

Deflation business is stagnant, goods are reduced, Nagasaki's trade volume is reduced, how can I make money?

After the booklet was sent by Lin Yunwen, Nagasaki Makoto also sent an invitation for the last trade, hoping that Captain Liu could go to Edo, and the general hoped to meet him.

In addition to the factors of this booklet, it is also directly related to Liu Yu's removal of a series of contraband such as bow horse warriors, war horses, doctors, horse medicine, and ox horns.

This is not overnight, but planning for several years.

Of course, Liu Yu would not miss such an opportunity.

The Dutch can go to Edo every year, and they can get a clear picture of the geography, garrison, etc. along the way, and they even stole a lot of Japanese maps.

If it weren't for the Zheng family beating up the Netherlands in Taiwan, which made the Netherlands have lingering fears about the combat power in East Asia, they might have been thinking about "the founding of the country by gunboats" these years.

The route of Dutch ginseng in Edo is from Nagasaki to Kokura, Zoumaguan, into the Seto Inland Sea, to Osaka Edo.This route is exactly what Liu Yu urgently wants to know.

So this time I brought eight people, all of whom are confidantes in the navy and have the highest level of surveying and mapping.

I brought ginger and onion juice for writing secret letters, and then surveyed and mapped the coast and secretly drew maps.

The inspection in Nagasaki is too strict. If it is found with a map, it is estimated that there will be no trade in the future.

This year, Tokugawa Yoshimune just abolished the "shangmi system" and resumed the pilgrimage account, and as a result, a big famine came.The entire Seto Inland Sea area and Xikaido suffered a catastrophe, which is known as the Great Famine in history.

The boatloads of rice that Liu Yu brought were not so much a gift of charcoal in a timely manner, but rice soup after the child died of starvation.

A few ships of food are useless, and those who should starve to death are almost hungry, but this attitude can be exchanged for the other party's trade letter.

A boatload of rice doesn't cost much, but a trade letter card can cost tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.Besides, the price of rice in Nagasaki must be skyrocketing now, and these few boatloads of rice will not be lost.

The only thing I feel a little bit uneasy about is that if these shipments of rice were distributed in Jiaodong, they might have saved thousands of people, but now they are going to "relieve" the Japanese.

He trusted the eight people he brought with him, half of them were real "his own people", and the other half were the ones who could not give up their position in Dashun and went to Japan to leak secrets.

He also intends to cultivate the knowledge of these people. After talking about the booklet, he asked: "Do you understand the twists and turns in this?"

From the start of the voyage to the five islands, these people are not stupid, and they have the formal logic thinking mode cultivated since elementary school geometry. They all nodded and said: "Understood."

Chen Qinghai asked: "But even if the adults say that the sky is full of hype, the lack of money in this Japanese country has a great relationship with the outflow of gold and silver. The Japanese are not stupid. In my opinion, the trade in Nagasaki is hard to say increased."

"Since my lord has been wary of the Dutch, can you use this opportunity to squeeze the Dutch away?"

The rest of the people also had the same idea, Liu Yu shook his head.

"Don't dream. The Japanese Catholics rebelled back then, and the Dutch helped to suppress it. With such a big sympathy in it, they couldn't refuse the Dutch trade. But I can bury the pit. I have written a book before. "The Bloody Colonial History of the Netherlands", I think the Japanese have also seen it. It can only be said that it can be contested, but if you want to ban the trade with the Netherlands in a short time, I have no idea."

"By the way, remember the biography of the Marquis of Huaiyin, especially the part about the humiliation of the crotch. This time, don't be so arrogant, and wait until you have saved enough money, and then you will be arrogant."

Chen Qinghai gritted his teeth and said: "Last time, we just said that it would be better to take it back to the official camp. Bringing the Japanese trade to the official camp will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and the fleet will be built. Why bother to learn from the Marquis of Huaiyin?" ? In my opinion, we should look at the "Salt and Iron Theory" discussed by Sang Hongyang and others."

Liu Yu saw that this group of people were so popular, their morale was available, and it was not easy to make them feel depressed, so he said: "The government camp is too much trouble. If the Japanese do not allow the government camp to connect with trade, the state of the country's opening up to trade will not matter. Can you live in smuggling? Please bear with it, so I ask you to read the biographies of the Marquis of Huaiyin."

"When you arrive in Japan, remember to read more, memorize more, talk less, and ask less. When surveying and mapping, you can remember it in your mind. It will be of great use in the future. I thought about it before, get a Dutch East India Company Flag, sent you to draw near by boat. But after thinking about it, the Japanese guard against the Dutch is also a defense, and if we want to attack in the future, it will also be a hindrance."

Everyone said yes, and they all secretly kept it in their hearts, and they also knew that this time was also an assessment.The few people who learned the best all came out, and the earliest candidate for the intern captain in the future must see their performance this time.

(End of this chapter)