Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 532 The Apocalypse Brought by the Opium Trade

In the blink of an eye, it has been the 23rd year of Ming Dynasty. Because of the success of the opium trade, the deflation caused by Zhu Youxiao's blind expansion of productivity and the imbalance between the expansion speed of production scale and market demand has been curbed, and the economic development of the entire Ming Dynasty has continued to maintain a healthy and stable growth trend.

Especially 20 years after the apocalypse, the happiness of all classes in Ming Dynasty has increased significantly.

This is due to the fact that most of it comes from the huge income brought by the tobacco trade, so that Daming Royal Capital continues to increase investment in various large-scale projects and welfare benefits, the employment rate, wages, and living security have increased, and encouragement for cultural and entertainment businesses , Naturally, the people of Ming Dynasty who are busy in life but unable to improve their purchasing power have more spare money to pursue fashion and quality of life.

The Engel coefficient also decreased accordingly. As the consumption level of various non-basic necessities such as food, housing and transportation increased, Ming's business became more prosperous and colorful.

Many later historians believed that the heyday of the true prosperity of the Apocalypse began in the 20th year of the Apocalypse, and although the ten years from the beginning of the Apocalypse to the 20th year of the Apocalypse were prosperous, due to the huge war expenditure and various construction investments The huge size and the incomplete opening of foreign markets have not lifted many people out of poverty. However, since the 20th year of Tianqi, it has truly realized the image of a prosperous age where the elderly can be relied on and the young can be cared for.

Zhu Youxiao has also been emperor for 16 years. On the surface, he should have been in power for 23 years.

Among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, there are not many emperors who have been in power for more than 20 years. Now Zhu Youxiao can be compared with Chenghua. Although he is almost [-] years old, he is still alive and well. A preliminary set of medical examination science has been established. Although it is not possible to perform relatively complex quantitative analysis of the internal components of body fluids such as blood and digestive juices, it can also perform some simple biochemical phenomena tests, and use color contrast to define health status.

Coupled with the development of evidence-based medicine in traditional Chinese medicine, Zhu Youxiao's monitoring of his body indicators is more accurate and timely. In addition, he is good at exercising and learning the way of keeping in good health. phenomenon, but there is no sign of loss.

On this day, it was the day when Meisheng Company deported the tobacco and soil profits it earned for a year from Ningbo, Jiangnan, to Taicang, Beijing. Zhu Youxiao also left the Forbidden City specially, and came to Taicang to check in person, looking at the boxes that had been exchanged through the Royal Bank. The entire Taicang warehouse was piled up with golden silver dollars, and Zhu Youxiao nodded in relief.

"Your Majesty, starting from your feet and extending several miles ahead, there are hundreds of newly built large warehouses to hold these silver dollars. These are just the first batch of silver dollars that have just been brought back from Tianjin. There are still several batches, not only those who went to Tianjin by sea, but also those who went to Tongzhou by water, and those who went by land via Liangjing Avenue. The expenditure has already consumed millions of silver dollars, and now the total inventory can be used to cover the income of the treasury in recent years, please see the detailed account, Your Majesty." Tell Zhu Youxiao a bunch of words.

The implication is nothing more than, Your Majesty, you have made a fortune now, you have made a fortune, and now the money in front of you is more than that, and a lot of it is still on the way back, because you have made too much money, so just There are millions of losses.

After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded in satisfaction. Looking at these dazzling silver dollars, the only thing he wants to do now is to distribute them in various ways as soon as possible to stimulate consumption, enhance the purchasing power of the people of Ming Dynasty, and let the whole of Ming Dynasty continue to enter In the process of highly developed social life, as long as these people have money to spend, they can have food, clothing, clothing and leisure time to talk about their children's affairs and romantic affairs instead of thinking about restricting monarchy or freedom and equality.

As for the huge profits brought by the opium trade, not only Zhu Youxiao, the emperor, realized the huge benefits in it, but even the ministers in the court believed that the imperial court controlled opium, banned smoking in the country, and earned foreign wealth. People from all walks of life in the rich country naturally get unanimous support from all walks of life in the country. Even the Conservative Party thinks this is the best way. Li is actually the wise king of all ages.

A low-level European farmer who worked hard in England or France for a year or worked in a factory for a year did not know that most of the labor value he created flowed into Ming Dynasty, and what they hated was only those in power. Those in power will resent the low-level Western fans who cannot satisfy their exploitation.

In short, because Ming’s opium trade has greatly frustrated the class development of all classes in Europe, people will pay more attention to social issues such as how to eat and wear, and have no energy to pursue interests in natural sciences, and thus become more and more It lags behind the technological development level of Ming Dynasty.

A few months later, Zhu Youxiao also received a report from Jin Yiwei from Europa, saying that so-called "sighted people" in countries such as England and France had begun to propose sanctions or prohibition of Ming opium trade, and mentioned Cromwell has been alarmist about Ming's opium trade and so on.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help laughing. According to the original historical trend, it should be two centuries later when some more enlightened Han bureaucrats in the Qing government, which dominated China at that time, began to realize that the opium trade in England and other countries brought great benefits to the Qing court. However, now it has become a phenomenon that Ming Dynasty trades opium for the Western countries, and some enlightened officials of the Western countries are aware of the crisis.

Everything is reversed!

"Preach my will and tell Jin Yiwei to support the diehards of these Western countries as much as possible, and express the friendship of Ming Dynasty, and at the same time find ways to aggravate their domestic corruption and degeneration, and provide military assistance to some diehards if necessary;

But at the same time, the domestic navy, land and other armies must also pay close attention to training and expansion. Don't take it lightly, especially if you want to take the route of elite soldiers. If nothing happens, the Ministry of War can deploy a few more troops to patrol the oceans in order to prepare for future ocean battles. Our Ming's opium Fundamentally speaking, trade is against the national interests of these Western countries, so it is impossible to avoid the use of force to resolve trade issues, and it is only a matter of time. "

Zhu Youxiao gave such instructions to the chief ministers of the cabinet, Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang. Although he made Lu Xiangsheng and others ready, he was not worried that these Western countries would pose a big challenge to Ming's opium trade.

In fact, England is now at the end of the Stuart dynasty, when the struggles of various sects are the most severe, and the contradiction between the emerging bourgeoisie and the old feudal lords is intensifying. It is the darkness before dawn when England rises into a world super empire, just like China It was the same as in the early days of modern history. On the one hand, there were the diehards of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and on the other hand, the emerging intellectuals with the development of national industry and the awakening of national consciousness. Both were the darkest period before the phoenix's nirvana, and it was also the most vulnerable time, and the best time to fight.

(End of this chapter)