Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 371 The Devil's Claws of Beihai Trading Company

Matsudaira's response was so firm that he not only offended Emperor Mitsukara, but also the father and son of the sea dog, and the father and son decided to replace Matsudaira.

This very famous "Zunhao" incident in the history of later generations is actually far from over, and neither the seal seal nor the emperor Guangge will be reconciled.A larger political conflict is already brewing, but that's for another day.

When the "famine of dawn" in the island country came to the end of the sixth year, in addition to promoting the "leniency reform" with the idea of ​​small farmers as the main body and vigorously restoring agricultural production, Matsudaira Sadanobu turned his attention to the debt problem of the banner samurai.

Beginning in the eighth year of Xiangbao (1723), the Banner Samurai of the shogunate handed over Lumi to the "Zhacha Zhuzhongjian" formed by the merchants of Miwenwu and Shuichaya.The specific operation is that Zhacha Zhuzhong received salaries on behalf of the warriors, and the warriors received money from Zhacha on a regular basis. Over time, it evolved into a model in which banks paid wages on behalf of later generations.

Therefore, "Zhacha Zhuzhongjian" began to provide loan business to the warriors to make a profit. Those warriors who thought they had a stable salary and lacked the concept of financial management began to overdraft for consumption, and the interest rate of the loan was as high as 15 per year. %~18%.

It is said that if there is no Beihai Town, the overdraft consumption of the warriors would be some daily necessities, Dutch and belt-clearing commodities.However, ever since the Sendai Fan embraced Beihai Town's thigh, a large amount of Beihai goods have poured into the island country through the "Beihai Trading Company".

Matches that can be struck in one stroke cost five cents per box, which is much less troublesome than carrying a pack of flint and scythe; the "Tianxiang" cigarettes produced in Beihai Town are now even smoked by female prostitutes in Jiyuan. A pot with a cigarette pipe is simply a representative of lack of taste; a lantern made of iron and curved glass, paired with lamp oil produced in Beihai Town, hangs one on the horseback when you go out, which is more face-saving; in addition, there are high-quality Inexpensive enamel products, sugar, silk, cotton cloth, fur, Sinology books and so on.

Thanks to the efforts of Denzo Katsuyama, the boss of Murataya, and Heita and others, now from Mutsu to Kyushu, from Edo to Osaka, Hokkai goods are very popular. As soon as the goods arrive at Ishinomaki Port, they are immediately snatched up by various merchants.A large number of novelty and cheap goods appeared on the market, making the warriors' overdraft consumption behavior unknowingly sink deeper and deeper, and intensified Beihai Town's economic plunder of the island country.

In mid-September of the eighth year of Tianming, the four elders of the Tokugawa shogunate headed by Matsudaira Sadanobu gathered in the Honmaru Palace of Edo Castle to discuss how to solve the "trap debt"; Tadashi II Honda also attended the meeting.

"Everyone, this report in my hand is the debt data collected from 88 Zacha merchants in the city during the two-month implementation of Nanbeier Township. As of July this year, the total debt is 289.37 taels of gold. "

The first speaker was Nobuaki Matsudaira, the third-generation lord of the Yoshida clan of Mikawa Kingdom. This 25-year-old was promoted from a side servant of Jiaqi to an old middle school in March. He is a staunch supporter of Shirakawa Marquis Matsudaira Nobuaki.In view of the fact that the two towns' offices in the north and south are on duty on a monthly basis, it is not surprising that it took two months to produce the final investigation report.

"What? There are so many!" Makino Sadacho, who was the second seat in the senior middle school, and Torii Tadano, who was the third seat, were shocked when they heard this, and they all cried out in unison.Not to mention the two of them, even Tadashi Honda, who was sent by the general to listen, was sweating profusely on his forehead.

As of July 5205th, the Tokugawa shogunate has 17395 banners and 2 imperial families, totaling 600 people.In other words, the average debt owed by each family is close to 130 taels.You must know that this figure is already equivalent to the fiscal expenditure of the shogunate for two years.Once the debt of the banner is repaid, the Tokugawa shogunate, as the master, becomes the actual ultimate debtor.

In other words, if this is just a debt owed by a few low-level samurai, the shogunate will control whether you will die or not.The problem is that almost every family in Banner is now living in debt and overdraft, and Tokugawa Iezai just came to power last year, and the unlucky things are one after another, which is the time to win people's hearts.

Songping Dingdao: "We must come up with a solution, otherwise the hole will get bigger and bigger. We must make a plan today."

He could see very clearly that if the samurai, who were the main consumers, were unable to consume due to debts, many industries would not be able to maintain their normal operations, and the shogunate's finances would also be in a deadlock.

Makino Zhenchang said: "What good way can Marquis Baihe do?"

Songping Dingdao: "Exempt all the debts of the banner, and revise the interest rate."

Well, the whole thing is up for grabs!

In the history of another time and space, since then, whenever the Tokugawa shogunate encountered a financial crisis, it resorted to this big move, and it became more shameless every time.When Tadamuni Mizuno became the head of the old middle school, a "Decree of Virtue" came directly, confiscating the wealth of wealthy merchants from Edo and Osaka townspeople, forcibly canceling half of the debts of the daimyo and banner, and the other half was repaid with the confiscated wealth .

Torii Tadaichi was silent for a long while, and then suddenly said: "I heard that in the Sendai Domain, the merchants used half of the profits to pay off the debts of the samurai."

Matsudaira Nobuaki said: "There is no need to mention this matter again. The Sendai Fan can do this, but the shogunate can't do it. The Beihai Trading Company has now controlled half of the financial power of the Sendai Fan, and all the samurai in the fan have invested in shares. Everyone is grateful for that Zhao Wangdian."

Song Ping calmly said: "Have you not seen it yet? Those idiots of Yida's family are now a dog of that Zhao Wangdian."

Makino Zhenchang said with a worried face: "What exactly does that Zhao Wangdian want? We didn't provoke him. Do you want to send someone to talk to them again?"

A few days ago, news came from the governor of Kyoto that the Sendai Domain had sent 50 taels of gold to Emperor Guangge, which almost drove Matsudaira Sadanobu crazy.I thought to myself that it's no wonder that person is being dishonest, it turns out that it's the Sendai feudal clan playing tricks again.

And where did the Sendai clan get their money?It's not that Zhao Wangdian borrowed it through the Beihai Trading Company, it is said that it is still an interest-free loan!

Having said that, Song Ping calmly said: "We have to talk about it. But today is not about this matter."

Right now, what the Beihai Trading Company did in the Sendai Fan is well known, but the problem is that only 1 samurai of the Sendai Fan died, and the shogunate had more than 2 banners and imperial family alone, plus the Daihe Qinfan, no one can catch this shit when he comes.

In fact, Zhao Xin is sucking the financial blood of the entire island country through the Beihai Trading Company, and the Sendai Fan is a comprador.It is said that raising a dog requires rewarding a bone from time to time, so it is not a big deal to take part of the profit of the trading company as a dividend to help the samurai pay off their debts.

Matsudaira Sadanobu sent people to communicate with Liu Zheng after he landed in Yokohama last year, and he also wanted to set up a trading company with Beihai Town, trying to copy the model of the Sendai Domain and monopolize the agency rights of products in Edo and Osaka, but was rejected by Zhao Xin through Liu Zheng's mouth up.

If the Sendai feudal clan dared to be disobedient, Beihai town would destroy him in minutes, and just change the feudal lord, which would not affect Zhao Xin's overall strategy; if the Tokugawa shogunate was disobedient, would Beihai town still want to bring down the island country?Isn't this just asking for trouble for yourself?

The five people discussed until the evening, and finally decided to exempt all bad loans until five years before dawn, and the loan interest rate was also revised from 15% to 18% to 6%.

Such a big matter is related to the vital interests of each banner, so the news quickly spread from Ooku like a colander, and everyone related to it in Edo knew about it the next day.

The warriors of Banner immediately burst into cheers, but all the businessmen in Zhacha Zhuzhongjian were impatient, and they hurriedly got together to discuss countermeasures.

In the secret room of a brothel in Yoshiwara, several Zacha merchants got together.

"Have you heard?"

"heard."

"Then what shall we do?"

"The knife is on my neck, what can I do? Sigh~ admit it!"

"It can't be like this!" The person who spoke was Asanoya Heiji, the largest businessman in Edo 88 Zacha Zhunakama, and he continued: "If Marquis Shirakawa does this, we will stop the loan business from Qiben."

"How about we transfer our business to Sendai? The samurai there are not short of money."

"You are stupid! With that monster from the Beihai Trading Company, you still dare to go to Sendai? The interest alone can't compete with them. Do you know how much interest they borrow?"

"How many?"

"Fifty percent interest! It's still annual interest!"

I go!The other Zacha businessmen gasped suddenly, 5% annual interest can make a lot of wool!
Heiji Asanoya continued: "I understood this last year. The Beihai trading company holds all kinds of goods in short supply with its left hand, and helps the samurai pay off their debts with its right hand. Now all the gold and silver in the world is flowing to Ishinomaki Port. With Zhao Wangdian as the backer, the Yida family dare not even fart. If it were you, who would dare?"

A group of businessmen discussed for a long time, but there was nothing to do, and finally they had to leave the market hastily and went back to their respective homes.

After that Asanoya Heiji and the others left, they quietly went to another theater.He was led up to a Japanese room on the second floor, and as soon as he entered the door, he knelt down respectfully and said, "Heiji, Shimo Asanoya, pay homage to Boss Katsuyama!"

Sitting in the middle of the room was a middle-aged man with plain clothes and a fair complexion, and beside him was an extremely handsome oiran who was pouring wine for him.

This person is the major shareholder of Beihai Company, Zhao Xin's white gloves in Sendai, and the former owner of Katsuyama House Winery, Katsuyama Densan.

Today's Katsuyama Densan is no longer that humble owner of the winery, he has a haughty face, he doesn't even look at Heiji Asanoya, and said in a deep voice: "Boss Asanoya, why are you late?"

"I have been delayed in discussing some matters with my peers, and I ask Boss Shengshan not to be offended."

After Asanoya fawned over her, she was fined three more glasses of wine, and the two of them started to get down to business.I only heard Sheng Shan pass three words: "I won't talk nonsense, you know all the conditions before?"

"It's clear, it's clear." Asanoya nodded hastily.

"Well, if you send five hundred households to Ishinomaki Port, someone will sign an agreement with you there." After finishing speaking, Katsuyama Denzo handed a thick booklet to the other party and said with a smile: "Pick one Bar."

With trembling hands, Asanoya Heiji took the brochure that countless businessmen were looking for, and opened it. The first few pages are the catalog, and the back is the detailed introduction of each product.He rummaged through it, and he wanted the agency rights of each of the above commodities, but today he could only choose one.

Asanoya looked at it hesitantly for a long time, and finally pointed to the sugar item and said, "I choose this."

"Hehe, Asanoya has a good eye! That's it!"

In July, Zhao Xin asked Liu Zheng to tell Katsuyama Chuan-san not to sell everything in his own hands. It is better to sell the agency than to sell the goods with great effort.Divide the entire island country into two core business districts, Edo and Osaka, and charge agency fees annually.However, the prerequisite for obtaining agency rights is to attract people to Beihai Town.

Listening to Shengshan's trinity, it is natural to follow the standard.This guy has already made a fortune just by being the sole agent of Ezo Island's coal, timber and fur business; Zhao Xin also promised that he can participate in the trade of Ryukyu, Taiwan and even Southeast Asia under the brand of Beihai Trading Company in the future.

The reason why Zhao Xin demanded that those who want to obtain commodity agency rights must recruit people from Beihai Town is actually to fill the occupied places with population.

He knew that Xu Dayong went to Nanba Laolin where Sichuan and Shaanxi were handed over, but that place belonged to the south.But if tens of thousands of southerners were sent to a place like Nerchinsk, the climate alone would be enough, and many people might die in the winter.

For Beihai Town, it is not only Nerchinsk and Chita, but it is sparsely populated from Boli and Tlin Shiji north of Xingkai Lake to Sanxing City on the Songhua River, and even Heilongjiang City on Heilongjiang. , a large population is urgently needed, and it is just a splash if tens of thousands of people invest in it.

Just one Khabarovsk has a population of one million in another time and space, but in this time and space, if you want to develop, you can't do without 20 people!Not to mention that Zhao Xin also wants to build a railway to connect the land route between Yaksa and Khabarovsk.

On September 1788, 9 Gregorian calendar, Zhao Xin, who arrived earlier, led a battalion to quickly conquer the largest Russian town in Transbaikal, Upper Henyudinsk, while Liu Sheng drove back to Chita with Fan Tong and several agricultural machinery drivers. , in order to draw another battalion of troops over.

In the process of attacking Upper Henyudinsk with a population of only 2500, the Northern Navy even captured the governor of Tsarist Irkutsk, Ivan Jacobi, who had just returned from Chita in a carriage.

"It was you who proposed to attack Heilongjiang? I also heard that you once named all the mountains and rivers north of Heilongjiang City?"

There was no trace of anger on Zhao Xin's face, and he asked with a smile.And Chen Jishan, who was standing on the side, saw Zhao Xin put on this expression again, and knew in his heart that the governor's fate might be hanging in the air.This boss will look like this every time he is extremely angry. If he is really angry and swears, it will be fine.

Sitting opposite Zhao Xin, wearing a gorgeous fur and a wig, Ivan Jacques had a pale face. He didn't expect the Chinese's revenge to come so soon.A thousand miles away, how did they do it?Didn't you see these people riding horses when you defended the city before?

What surprised him the most was that Suvorov was defeated by this man!Counting the major general Alexandrov who was defeated in Heilongjiang City before, Russia has no soldiers to send in the entire East Siberia.Even if it is to regain the occupied territory, it will have to be discussed next year.

He used to swear that he could cooperate with them to carve up the Northeast, but now it seems ridiculous!
But there is one thing that Ivan Jacobi is very strange. These people didn't even win the Qing Empire, so why did they help them instead?
"Tell me. Didn't you use the name of your wife's dog? What's the dog's name?"

Ivan Jacobi raised his head, looked at Zhao Xin and said, "I am the Governor of the Irkutsk Governor-General appointed by the Tsarist Empire. I am the Earl of the Empire. I want to be treated in accordance with my status."

Zhao Xin gently swept the table with the edge of his palm, as if there was something dirty on it, and only heard him say lightly: "The barbarians also talk to me about etiquette? Although the Manchus are bastards, I don't think they said anything. Wrong, you are a bunch of barbarians."

"Mr. Zhao, I have heard of you. It is said that you are a descendant of a certain royal family in the previous dynasty, and you have defeated the encirclement and suppression army of the Qing Empire several times. But what I want to tell you is that Tsarist Russia is not the Qing Empire. Considering Are there any consequences? You will face hundreds of thousands of elite troops! I advise you to retreat to the east bank of the Erguna River."

Zhao Xin gestured with his thumb, and said with a smile, "It's really a cooked duck. Don't worry, Earl Jacobi, I won't kill you. After we put the red flag on the Irkutsk Castle, I will let you go." Go back and report to the old lady. I very much welcome you to send more people over, and there is a shortage of labor on my construction site right now."

"Then I have to thank you!"

Zhao Xin suddenly got up, and everyone present thought he was going to end the conversation.He only heard him say in a deep voice: "Yin Bingwei!"

"To!"

"Cut off one of his hands, don't let him die." Zhao Xin's tone was very flat, as if he was saying what he planned to eat tonight, and then he quickly pushed the door away without looking back.

(End of this chapter)