The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 762 "Silver Brought by the Wind"

Time flies like an arrow, and a few months go by in the blink of an eye.

It was the second day of November in the first year of Hanxing.

In the Palace of Qianqing in the Forbidden City of Nanjing, there was a burst of heated debate.

"Ministry of the Song Dynasty, you are the clearest." The speaker was Yang Tinglin, the chief assistant of the cabinet at the time. "The reconstruction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is a huge project. To achieve the level Zhang Butang said, at least three or four million taels of silver will be required. for several years.

"The wooden track going to Liaodong has already passed the Shanhaiguan Pass, and the army will soon leave for the Northern Expedition. In case of a slight stalemate in the battle and the food and salaries needed are difficult to estimate, it is advisable to save some money at this time for emergencies. "

As he spoke, he glanced at Huang Zongxi, and bowed to the emperor, "Your Majesty, according to what I have seen, even the giant ships of the Longjiang Shipyard can be slowed down for a while, and it will not be too late to build them after the Eastern Prisoners are wiped out."

Zhang Canghai hurriedly said: "Master Ge, although it costs a lot to dredge the canal, there is no need to spend millions of taels all at once. The treasury can allocate three to four million taels first, and start work immediately, which is enough for the first half of next year. This little money will definitely not affect the plan of the Northern Expedition."

Today is different from the past, now the household department no longer has the embarrassment of "begging for food" to fill holes in the Longwu Dynasty, and his waist is much stiffer when he speaks as the minister of the household department.

Due to the widespread promotion of potatoes and sweet potatoes in the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of barren land that did not grow crops had a lot of output.In addition, these two crops are more "skinned" and are easier to adapt to the harsh climate of the Little Ice Age. Therefore, this autumn, except for Shanxi, Shanxi, and Beizhili, where there is no time to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes, the remaining ten provinces are all large. Have a good harvest!

In fact, if only rice and wheat are counted, due to the impact of the war, the harvest is even lower than last year, but due to the terrible yield of potatoes and sweet potatoes, the total grain harvested in the whole country has nearly doubled that of last year!
Daming is still an agricultural country for the time being, and a bumper harvest of grain means a surge in tax revenue, so that the people can live and work in peace and contentment.

In addition, after Zhu Linmi's previous reforms, the gentry began to pay taxes.This alone caused the Ministry of Households to collect an extra tax of 80 million taels during the six months.

There is also the Huangzhuang contract system, which greatly increases the enthusiasm of the bottom farmers and greatly improves the efficiency of land production.

Considering all these benefits, Zhang Canghai is very confident about the tax revenue this autumn.Although the taxes and banks in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guangdong and other places have not yet been reported, he estimates that the household department should be able to earn more than 240 million taels in the second half of this year!After removing all kinds of necessary expenses, there is at least a balance of more than 60 taels.

This is the foundation of Daming!

As long as the system is reasonable and there are no bandits, the productivity that the country will explode will be absolutely astounding.This is still the beginning of the war, when all the waste is waiting to be rebuilt, and when the people in various places settle down in the coming year, this number will definitely increase rapidly.

This is just a traditional tax item.

Sure enough, when he heard that the construction of seagoing ships was going to be postponed, Huang Zongxi immediately became anxious and stood up and said, "Mr. Yang Ge, those ships are urgently needed, so we must not stop.

"As for the money, you don't have to worry about it. Yesterday, the official received the news that the ocean caravan passed through Malacca in the middle of last month, and it is estimated that it will arrive in Ningbo Port soon."

There are a large number of ships in Southeast Asia in the Ming Dynasty at present. It should be that the caravan encountered its own clipper ship near Malacca, and the latter returned early to report the news.

Yang Tinglin also looked happy, and hurriedly asked: "But the merchant ship going to Europa?"

"Exactly." Huang Zongxi nodded and said, "It is reported that all seven boats of all sizes have returned safely."

The ocean-going caravan left Moon Harbor for Europe more than half a year ago. Since it was the first time to travel such a long sea route, for the sake of safety, they used ordinary Galen merchant ships and hired many Spanish and Portuguese sailors as guides.Unexpectedly, the trip went smoothly, and within seven months, he returned to Daming safely.

Since the defeat of the Dutch fleet in Taiwan, the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade has flourished, and courtiers have long known how profitable it is.Immediately, including Yang Tinglin, almost all the people present looked at Mr. Shangshu of the Ministry of Commerce, and asked one after another, "I don't know what the benefits are?"

"Going to such a far place must make a lot of money, right?"

"It's [-] to [-] miles away, even Eunuch Zheng couldn't make it back then."

Huang Zongxi smiled slightly, bowed and said: "The exact number is unknown, but it will always be around 40 to [-] taels."

As soon as he said this, there was a sound of gasping in the Qianqing palace.

Can you earn more than 200 million taels by going to sea? !This silver is as if blown by a strong wind!
Even Zhu Linming was a little moved.

He was not surprised by the high profits, he knew the profits of the golden route from East Asia to Europe in the seventeenth century.

What he cares about the most is that through his own efforts, the age of great navigation finally has a stroke of Chinese people!With this successful voyage, the business routes between Asia and Europe will continue to bring wealth to Daming in the future.

After getting familiar with the channel, you can switch to a flying shear ship to transport goods.With the speed of this ship, I believe that it will soon be able to defeat all European merchant ships with cost advantages, and may even monopolize the Asia-Europe trade line!
At that time, any sea coachman may only be able to run short-distance transportation around Europe.

Huang Zongxi looked at the surprised faces all around, and said again: "Actually, because of fear of pirate raids, the ocean-going caravans all carried their cargo on warships this time, and the cargo they brought was not too much. If the cannons were removed to reduce the weight, the gains The benefits can be more than one million taels."

All the ministers sucked in cold air until their mouths cramped.Can earn more than 300 million taels in half a year? !

Immediately, someone couldn't help saying: "This, this is too powerful, right?"

"If that's the case, how can the court worry about money in the future?"

"The official thought that 200 million taels would be enough, but I didn't want to open the loading..."

Huang Zongxi explained to everyone: "My lords don't know, the journey to Europa is extremely long, and the sailors are prone to sepsis due to long-term drift at sea.

"The Europeans came to Daming from afar, and at least [-]% of the sailors died of illness. With such a high price, how can the prices of the goods they sell back be not high?"

The sepsis he mentioned is what later generations called sepsis.

The other courtiers sighed, "No wonder the benefits are huge, so many people have to die."

"This sea business is simply filled with human life..."

"It hurts people's lives so much, it is advisable that there will be fewer merchant ships going to Europa in the future..."

Huang Zongxi waved his hands and said with a smile: "My lords have misunderstood. The Europeans often suffer from sepsis when they go to sea. However, our Daming caravan has a good prescription from His Majesty, but no one was killed or injured."

"It turns out that there is a good medicine." Everyone understood immediately, and praised the emperor one after another, and someone reminded Huang Butang to beware of the barbarians on board stealing the medicine.

"It doesn't matter." Huang Zongxi said confidently, "The barbarians don't know the secret recipe even if it is presented in front of them, and even if they know it, they won't be able to learn it."

(End of this chapter)