Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1315 The Era of Mercantilism
The surrender of the San Felipe and the San Carlos to the Ming Dynasty navy marked the complete withdrawal of the Dutch and Spanish forces from Southeast Asia, and the Ming Dynasty regained maritime supremacy in East Asia.

This nearly two-year tug-of-war at sea finally came to an end for the time being. Nanyang was brought into the sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty, forming a monopoly in trade and gaining a broad space for the development of the Ming Dynasty.

Luzon lost a lot in this battle, but in any case, it captured more than a dozen large ships, which relieved Spain's threat to Luzon, and Luzon's merchant ships could go to sea with peace of mind.

The Ming Dynasty captured twelve Spanish warships. After the war, some of the warships returned to Surabaya to protect the surrounding Han settlements, deter the natives, and maintain the local spice trade. Duke Wa and others were sent to Nanjing to offer prisoners.

From the banning of the sea by the Ming Dynasty to the burning of charts and archives by Liu Daxia, the Ming Dynasty’s exploration of the ocean has stagnated and gradually lagged behind the world. This battle with the Dutch and the Spaniards is undoubtedly the first battle of the Ming Dynasty. After setting foot in the ocean, we are on the same starting line with the West again.

From the [-]th century to modern times, the rise of the Western world probably experienced the Age of Discovery from the [-]th to the [-]th century, that is, the era of great geographical discovery, and then the colonial era of mercantilism from the [-]th to the [-]th century , and finally the era of imperialist economic colonization that began in the nineteenth century.

During the Age of Discovery from the [-]th to the [-]th century, various nautical expeditions achieved great geographical discoveries, clarified the theory of the circle of the earth, and at the same time found the route to India and discovered the Americas, which made the whole human beings understand the world and the earth. awareness has taken a leap.

This stage was mainly dominated by Spain and Portugal. Through their great voyages, they carried out barbaric plundering of the Americas and obtained great wealth.

At this stage, the colonization methods of Western colonists were simple and crude, for silver mines, gold, spices and finding routes to China, which was the driving force for Westerners to sail.

Nearly 200 years later, the silver mines in America gradually withered, and Spain and Portugal began to decline. From the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, the West entered the era of mercantile colonization.

Because of the depletion of silver mines, and because the late-developing countries did not occupy any silver or gold mines, their colonization began to be refined, and they began to focus on land expansion and trade development.

During this period, the main representatives were the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

At that time, countries believed that in world trade, it is impossible for all countries to have a trade surplus at the same time, and it is impossible for all countries to export more than imports.

Theoretically speaking, at any point in time, the total amount of gold and silver is fixed, so if one country gains more and becomes rich, another country must pay the price of poverty. This is an important idea of ​​mercantilism .

During this period, the strength of a country depended on its trade surplus, that is, the wealth it could obtain by exporting more than its imports. The more gold and silver the country accumulated, the richer and stronger it would be.

In order to accumulate wealth, countries developed foreign trade monopoly one after another, protected the domestic market by raising tariffs and other trade restrictions, and used colonies to provide raw materials and markets for the manufacturing industry of the mother country.

During this period of time, for the primitive accumulation of capital, most Western countries adopted means such as armed occupation, overseas immigration, pirate-like plunder, fraudulent trade, and bloody slave trading to complete the accumulation and transformation of capitalism.

In the nineteenth century, the colonies had been carved up, Western countries began to fight each other, and imperialist economic colonization and free capitalism came into being. While retaining some characteristics of mercantilism, they continued to plunder colonies and semi-colonies, and separated colonies and semi-colonies. The semi-colonies have become their own commodity markets and raw material production areas. On the one hand, they advocate free trade and require countries to open their markets in order to pursue the greatest interests and unique world hegemony.

It was already the middle of the seventeenth century, and the magnificent era of great voyages had come to an end. The West had been racing for more than 200 years. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty had a strong foundation. Although it was dropped for nearly 200 years, it still managed to catch up with the last train.

Although the Ming Dynasty missed the big era of great land discovery, the gap is not too big. The West took nearly 200 years to complete this matter, mainly because they were groping step by step, so they took a lot of time, while the Ming Dynasty needed It will not take another 200 years or just a few years to complete the cognition of the world with the experience of Westerners. It only needs a successful round-the-world trial voyage to change the Ming Dynasty's attitude towards the world and the earth. Cognition, accomplishing what the West has accomplished in 200 years.

This is just like the industrialization and modernization of China in the later generations. There is already a way to find, the technology is there, and the speed is bound to be much faster than the pioneers, and even overtake on curves.

Right now, the Ming Dynasty has actually unconsciously entered the era of mercantilism, and according to the theory of mercantilism, at any point in time, the total amount of currencies such as gold and silver in the world is fixed, so the countries participating in trade at the same time It is impossible to achieve a trade surplus at the same time. That is to say, there is no reason for everyone to make money. If one country gains a profit, another country will inevitably lose.

This "zero-sum game" view has its own limitations, but it is undoubtedly still applicable in the current era of capital accumulation.

For more than a thousand years, in this kind of trade, China has always been a big gold cellar and a big silver cellar. It has always been the winner of world trade, and China has indeed been the center of the world for thousands of years.

The current rise of the West and the rise of mercantilism will undoubtedly pose a challenge to the Ming Dynasty. In the world trade, who is the profitable party and who can complete the accumulation of capital depends on the next 100 years. Who can sustain a trade surplus.

Looking around, there are not many countries that can play this game and place pieces on the chessboard. Except for Ming Dynasty, there are not many countries left. These big countries.

If you add a few more, perhaps Holy Rome and Japan, which have not yet completed their unification, can barely count as one.

In this game, the Ming Dynasty will continue to maintain its position as the center of the world and maintain its own trade surplus.

So in addition to maintaining the advantages of traditional industries such as tea, porcelain, and silk, and continuing to export to earn silver for the Ming Dynasty, more means are needed. Nanyang spices and sucrose can also become the main commodities of the Ming Dynasty. With commodities, a huge market is also needed.

To achieve this, the Ming Dynasty needed a huge navy to protect the production areas of spices and sugar cane, to guard the routes of merchant ships, to expand the market and sphere of influence, and to maintain its own advantages in order to win from the competition.

The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty have already arrived in India, and the navy of the Ming Dynasty also needs to get there.

Just as Zheng Chenggong expected, after the [-]-ton San Philip and another [-]-ton San Carlos surrendered to the Ming army, the Ming navy did not intend to distribute them to Luzon. It was directly towed to Qiongzhou Shipyard.

With the experience of dismantling Dutch merchant ships a few years ago, after the navy reported to the court this time, the Ministry of Industry immediately sent master craftsmen and officials over.

If this ship is in the hands of Luzon, it will only increase the strength of the Luzon Navy for a while, but it will be different in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

At the end of December, Song Yingsheng, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, rushed from Nanjing to Qiongzhou Shipyard with a large number of craftsmen and officials of the Ministry of Industry.

This is one of the largest shipbuilding workshops in the Ming Dynasty. Nearly a hundred ships are launched every year, and most of them are imitations of Dutch merchant ships. Fuchuan is rarely manufactured. Orders placed by Guangnan maritime merchants are made by the shipyard. not come.

In December, the north has been covered with a layer of snow, but Qiongzhou is still as warm as autumn.

After ten years of development in Qiongzhou, although there are still many problems, such as the contradiction between Li and Han, overall, great changes have taken place.

Some of the Yangzhou people who were resettled here have moved back to Yangzhou, but most of them have taken root here.

"Master Song, the two giant ships are already on the berth. The craftsmen will dismantle the ships, draw the blueprints, and put them back together!" Accompanying Song Yingsheng is Feng Yingsheng of the Four Seas Company, a salt merchant in Yangzhou. One of the leaders of the Guangnan Chamber of Commerce.

The shipyard is only part of the property of the Four Seas. He is now mainly engaged in overseas trade, and he came to Qiongzhou from Guangzhou to accompany Song Shilang to inspect the shipyard.

Song Yingsheng led a group of people and stood beside two large ships that had been towed to the dry land. The hull of the ship was covered by a dock built to keep out the wind and rain.

He listened to Feng Yingchang's explanation, and saw that many craftsmen were crawling on the ship. They were taking down the planks of the large ship one by one, and stacking them everywhere, which looked orderly. Wood, can't help but ask: "So much wood is piled up, it's hard to reinstall it!"

"That's true, but Master Song can rest assured that before the demolition, each wooden board is marked with a number, and each part is strictly recorded by the painter. Even a wooden nail, there will be no mistakes. As long as there is information, there will be no mistakes. Put it back on, absolutely no problem!" Feng Yingchang said confidently.

They disassembled a Dutch ship in this way before, and in order to clarify the structure inside, they piled up a whole room of recorded files and drawings.

Song Yingsheng nodded, and picked up a big nail next to it, and there was a serial number written on it.If the information is complete, you can indeed know where it should be nailed on the ship through the number.

"Okay! The records should be as detailed as possible. After the drawings are drawn, multiple copies should be kept. One copy should be sent to the Nanjing Ministry of Industry, and the other copy should be sent to the Guangzhou Military Supervision Department to avoid accidents." Song Yingsheng nodded in satisfaction.

The whole process of dismemberment and reassembly of ships can be said to be very complicated and costly, but with the support of the imperial court, this is not a problem.

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(End of this chapter)