Xinshun 1730

Chapter 902 The Strange Status Witnessed by the British ([-])
[January 1.Shanghai.Negative.cold. 】

Before we get down to business, we also face a serious problem.That is, there is a problem with the normal operation of our store.

A lot of hired Chinese work for us - we have always hired some local people, and when we were in Japan, we also hired local samurai to work in the shop.However, the same problem happened again.

Just like when Japan showed a cold attitude towards us back then, many samurai working in the business hall looked for other ways.The same goes for the Chinese here, including our Chinese cooks, who have heard that we have committed a great crime and may implicate them.

As for chefs, there is a saying in China that a cook cannot die of starvation after three years of severe drought.He never worried that he couldn't find a job. He only worked in the shop because we gave more silver coins than other places.Compared with the risk of being implicated, the extra silver coins are not worth the risk for him.

The reason why I didn't leave was because they knew that I went to Macau to meet the Duke.From their point of view, maybe I will succeed.But when I came back, the soldier watching us at the gate hadn't left, so he knew I had failed.

I made it as clear as possible to him that we were now "suspects" and not confirmed criminals.He was skeptical, and as a last resort, I promised him a few silver coins every month before he agreed to stay.

Some merchants who sent supplies, vegetables and fruits to our business hall, in view of the soldiers guarding the gate, they dare not come in and out at will, for fear of causing trouble.

Fortunately, the local officials have some friendship with me.I begged the officer to intervene, sent him three bottles of whiskey and some fine Long Earle cashmere cloth, and talked about our old friendship.This was resolved.

My acquaintance with this good and reasonable officer goes back a long time.At that time, the Duke was not yet a Duke, and this official was only in charge of some special inspection and statistical work at the customs—I later learned that this was the Duke who was sent in advance to count the import and export goods of the East India Company, size, type.

The official asked me at the time, saying that His Excellency the Duke told a story about Newton being smashed by an apple.What the hell is an apple, he wondered?What is the taste?And willing to pay a sum of money to build some apple trees.

The company specially shipped a batch of good fruit seedlings.In fact, the apples that Chinese eat now are all fruit seedlings brought by the company.

A batch was planted in Qixia Mountain, Wendeng Prefecture, which has a suitable latitude.That's where the Bloody Duke started, and he's very prestigious there.Another batch was tried to be planted in the wasteland left by the flooding of some rivers in the northern Jiangsu area.I have tasted these two kinds of apples, and I have to say that the apples from Qixia Mountain are much tastier than the apples from northern Jiangsu.

However, Apple's friendship can only ensure that our supplies will not be cut off, but it is not enough to ensure that our trade can continue.

They called this influx of American and European crops "the second time Zhang Qian cut into the Western Regions".This kind of species exchange has already started since the previous dynasty, but apples are just icing on the cake for them.

Today I talk about Apple's friendship again.

The official said that if we sent things like corn, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes, maybe the court could treat us better.The imperial court must first ensure that the people eat, not apples, but three meals a day.

He said that we have gone the wrong way from the very beginning. If the previous dynasty did not require preaching or forced trade, but understood China's needs, offered new grains such as corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, and offered auspiciousness to Your Majesty, it would solve the world's troubles. Famine, I am afraid that trade has already started.

Even if you don't offer new grains, but offer exotic animals such as lions, giraffes, and ostriches, it's still fine.

I agree with that.Indeed, we did not understand the logic of this empire from the very beginning, and used our habitual thinking to apply it here, so we continued to suffer failures.

However, the opportunity has passed.

The official and I had a few drinks. After drinking, he said that we have missed an opportunity, and what we need to do is not to regret it, but to learn from it and avoid making the same mistake in a different form next time.For example, when you see a blade and touch it and it bleeds, the next time you see the blade, you feel that it is not a blade, so you touch it again, then you don’t know how to summarize things.

And obviously, this is also a Xinxue Department, or what they call the Xinxue Party in the court.

Their way of thinking is weird.He is just not a big official. There are already many people who think like him, and he is not the best, so he can only be a special small official outside the six government establishments in this kind of place.

I appreciate his advice, but I know there's nothing I can do.

What he meant was that the court wanted sesame seeds, but you gave me a watermelon, which is wrong.The imperial court wants the new valley and strange beasts, but we send religion and woolen clothes, which is of course not right.

Giving gifts and pleasing others should be based on the needs of others, not self-righteousness.

However, I thought about it and found it difficult.

If we say that in the past, it was what the imperial court wanted to offer auspiciousness such as new valleys and strange animals.

So what do they want now?

I think what they want is some technology, nautical clocks and things like that.

This is beyond the capabilities of the company.

I said as if joking, what can impress the court now?
He said money.Because he felt that the imperial court had a new look, and His Majesty the Emperor wanted to make great achievements through the ages, which required money.Then he said that our company not only sent less money, but also smuggled opium, which of course was worthless.

I laughed and said that if opium could be traded legally and tariffs were levied, wouldn’t there be money?
However, he said that as long as there are things that can grow in the ground, there is no possibility of making money from tariffs.China wants only things that cannot grow in the ground.He asked me back, from the latitude of the North Pole to the equator, from the height of the snow-capped mountains to the canyons, from the yellow sands of the Western Regions to the water villages in the south of the Yangtze River, from the white mountains and black waters to the Java and South Seas, is there anything that cannot be grown here?

I can't refute this, yes, opium is also grown in the ground.What can be grown elsewhere, can be grown here.If this place cannot grow, then there will be no place on earth to grow.

Reflecting on the Apple incident, I agree even more.In fact, during the last so-called expedition for the measurement of future Venus transits, they brought some South American plants to grow in their southernmost provinces.

Rubber, cinchona, etc. have also been planted in Taiwan and the shipwreck.Like an apple, sooner or later it will fill up.

Before leaving, he gave me a few boxes of high-quality cigarettes and a few pieces of soap made from oils such as walruses or sea lions and seals in the Arctic region of Whale Sea, out of courtesy.

I feel a little depressed.

Before we could use things like glass, mechanical watches as gifts.And they can only return silk and so on.

But now, they return gifts with cigarettes produced by simple machinery and soap derived from the soda industry; but we can only present wine and woolen cloth...

Apparently, their trona was not enough to support their growing glass-making and oil-processing industries.In other words, it is because of the glass manufacturing and oil processing industries and the capture of wild animals in the Whale Sea area that promoted the development of their soda making industry.

They have soda factories in the north, but how they make it is a secret.The only thing that is certain is the use of table salt as a raw material.

Because they have a high salt tax, they chose to place the factory in a place where the amount of salt is less, so as to prevent them from not producing, but using the salt specially approved by the court to resell the salt.After all, monopoly salt smuggling is more profitable than production.

One thing is certain, given the proportion of salt tax in fiscal revenue, our country will definitely abolish the high salt tax earlier than Dashun.

[January 1.Shanghai.clear. 】

The canonized mission to Japan has arrived in Shanghai.This time, the Dashun Empire sent an unprecedented canonized mission with extremely high standards.

Fleets from Tianjinwei, Weihaiwei and other places also assembled in Shanghai.A fleet capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean will act together with the canonized mission.

The canonized mission fleet composed of 6 74-gun battleships and 15 cruisers gave me a strong sense of deterrence.

The fleet will take a very old route, they will go to Ryukyu first, and then from Ryukyu to Japan.In view of the performance of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the past few years, the emperor of "Kenren" restored the prince of Ryukyu, and this time he also went to Ryukyu to inform him.

I think the meaning of this is more based on their celestial system: Although Ryukyu is small, it is equal to the Japanese princes in the celestial system.As long as the Celestial Dynasty system is still there, the Celestial Dynasty has the obligation to continue offering sacrifices.At the same time, it is also warning the vassal states: If you do well, you will be a prince; if you do not do well, it is not that Ryukyu has not been demoted.

Of course, before the day when the Japanese general can be conferred, it has some special meaning to restore the prince of Ryukyu first.

Their fleet is the guarantee of force to ensure that this special meaning can be accepted by Japan.However, the Japanese shogunate was still willing to accept it, because they even had to rely on the power of the Dashun Navy to maintain the country-locking policy, ensuring that the various vassal states would not start smuggling trade with Dashun to suppress their power.

It was not so much a closed country policy as an attempt by the shogunate to monopolize tariffs and trade revenues.

Japan has completely lost the sea, and Dashun's fleet has clearly warned Japan: the size of the fleet is also part of the etiquette system.

The army doesn't matter, you can raise as many warriors as you like.

However, fleets are not included.

They charged the fleet with a very serious but deterrent crime within the Chinese system: trespassing and overstepping.

Probably, the emperor regarded the mast of the fleet as the crown of his crown.

The crimes of usurpation and overreach are very serious.

The main fleet of the Dashun Empire in Weihaiwei, Tianjinwei, and Lingdingyang ensured that they could punish this crime.

In fact, for things like the navy, only the first is meaningful.Under the first, there is no existence of sinking for the time being.

Under the sails at this time, I think the earth can be divided into two seas.

Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.Therefore, there can be two firsts, because the long distance makes it impossible for the two to have an all-out naval battle.

The absolute dominance of the Dashun Empire in the Pacific Ocean made them eligible to be the Celestial Dynasty of the Pacific Ocean.

This time, the French are the happiest among us "barbarians other than five clothes".Because Dashun's canonized mission carried a lot of ginseng and pearls in the gifts.

Dashun has clearly conveyed to us the emperor's attitude, expressing serious dissatisfaction with our capture of Louisburg in North America.The great emperor said that he didn't want to interfere in the affairs of foreigners, but he was very upset that we smuggled opium, and he didn't restrain himself after the edict was issued.So he would refuse to buy ginseng from British merchant ships—the implication is that if we don’t return Lewisburg, even if we dig up ginseng, they will not buy it.

It is the freedom of all countries to trade and prohibit imports.But in fact, this is the shamelessness of China: who else can we sell ginseng to but to them?

If it is not sold to Dashun, then ginseng is a worthless grass root.Lewisburg and Canada plummeted in value.

Japan also likes ginseng, but I know very well that even if we go to Japan, we will be driven away by the shogunate.

This is related to a very important thing in the Eastern Empire system, title.

The Dashun Empire can let the Tokugawa clan be the shogunate, and it can also help the rest of the feudal states to disband the shogunate.And the only reason why Dashun supports the Tokugawa family is probably because the name is not right.

Dashun held the right to interpret Confucian ideology, saying that the shogunate was in accordance with the rites, and he could find its rites; maybe one day, some learned people wrote that it was inappropriate, so it would be inappropriate.

This is an experience worthy of our study and reference.

We must support those who are not justified in the colony, only in this way can they stand with us and oppress the rest of the country.

Looking back on the failure of the company in China, I think that our country should establish a special school to train colonial talents and examine the culture and beliefs of the colonies.

To know them is to rule them.

This is the only way to go from kingdom to empire.

(End of this chapter)