Han Shizu

Chapter 2195 Renzong Chapter 12 The Real Explosion of Maritime Trade

By the 21st year of the Zhengtong reign, trade was still the most important, most frequent, and largest economic activity in Shanghai. Domestically, from Bashu in the west to Youyan in the north, merchants from the Han Dynasty brought in local products and goods from all over the empire through convenient rivers, lakes, and seas;

Overseas, hundreds of thousands of maritime merchant groups crossed the seas and continuously imported all the resources that could be used by the empire's people within the radiation range of Han civilization to the mainland in exchange for scarce imperial commodities.

To this day, spices, rare treasures, wood, and seafood are still the mainstream commodities transported to the empire on the busy Nanyang overseas trade route. However, compared with decades ago, the categories are richer, and rice, sugar, salt, and coal have gradually become mainstream, thanks to two reasons.

On the one hand, there was an increasingly strong demand within the Han Empire. On the other hand, after nearly a hundred years of exploration and development (including the military conquests during the reign of Emperor Shizu), the countries in Southeast Asia finally grew and became stronger, and also accumulated considerable wealth.

Market demand plays a dominant role in economic vitality. Even with the vast territory and abundant resources of the empire, the demand for overseas resources seems to be greater than that of land, especially rice and sugar. In terms of these two things, the improvement of the empire's productivity cannot keep up with the demand brought about by the rapid population growth.

Regarding the import of grain, the imperial court even implemented a series of preferential policies to encourage the numerous grain merchants engaged in maritime trade to transport grain from various Southeast Asian countries. By the 21st year of Zhengtong, the tariff on grain imports had been gradually reduced to two cents.

This is very tempting for many merchants, and it is also related to the rapid development of the empire's shipping capacity. The Han Fu ships that are now sailing on the sea can carry at least 45 dan of grain, and at most dan. At the current price of wen per dou of rice in Shanghai, a single trip would cost more than guan, and the cost of purchasing grain from Southeast Asia is much lower than in China.

The reason why the imperial court was willing to give such a big discount on grain imports was not to take into account the suffering of the people, at least not entirely. The cause was also due to the famine that occurred between the sixth and eleventh years of the Zhengtong period. Hebei and Jianghuai suffered from successive droughts, which led to the Wang Ze uprising in Hebei and the famine in the two capitals.

No matter how severe the riot in Hebei is, or how many people die, there are dignitaries who will put it down. But the shortage of food in the two capitals is a serious political problem, which has cast an ugly stain on the glorious picture of the empire.

At that time, in order to alleviate the famine, the imperial court continuously transferred grain from various places, investing huge costs. Even Guanlong and Sichuan were hit by high grain prices, which triggered repeated urban unrest.

Among the many methods, the court officials found that only purchasing grain from overseas seemed to be the one with the least trouble and backlash. However, considering the inconvenience of the vast ocean, in order to encourage merchants, under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan, the then Shangshu Ling, the customs tariffs on grain were further reduced. Until now, Nanyang rice has maintained the lowest tariff, and it is the only one.

In contrast, the tariff for sugar, which has higher added value, remains at a level of 5-8 cents, while the tariffs for spices, coal, and salt are even higher. The tariffs for luxury goods such as ivory, agate, coral, pearls, jade, and precious wood are even higher.

The hierarchical management of tariffs by the Imperial Customs was also formally implemented from the Jiang Customs. During the period when Wang Anshi was in charge of the Inspector General of Customs of the Jiang Customs, he made drastic reform measures in this regard, which greatly improved the commodity tariff structure and increased the imperial fiscal revenue.

Against the backdrop of grain imports from Southeast Asia, a group of grain trading giants naturally emerged among the maritime merchant community. However, those who were able to make a living from this and become big were always closely related to the powerful and wealthy, either the imperial nobility or the upper class of the feudal states.

The two countries of Annan and Linyi, which had unique geographical and climatic advantages, were the main countries for "transporting grain from the south to the north" because the two countries produced more, had more arable land, three crops a year, and were closer, making sea transportation more convenient.

It is for this reason that after sixty or seventy years of "long-distance running", Annan and Linyi stood out and became the two most powerful "big countries" among the Southeast Asian countries. Of course, this is also due to the role of innate genes. After all, from the beginning, the two countries were the most deeply sinicized feudal states.

Among the major imported commodities, salt is the most special because of the salt and iron monopoly policy within the empire and its important position in the empire's financial and taxation system.

Therefore, the country has been suppressed for a long time, which has led to the rampant private salt trade along the coast. The first to come up with this idea was the Gou Wu Kingdom (descendants of Liu Hui, the seventh son of Emperor Taizu, in northern Kalimantan). They have a tradition of drying salt, and salt and spices are also the main commodities in the trade between the Wu Kingdom and the mainland of the empire.

Later, the Northern Lu Kingdom (the descendant of Emperor Taizu's eighth son Liu Ai, whose fiefdom was in northern Philippines) also got involved. With these two fiefdoms instigating behind the scenes, as time went by, the scale of the movement grew, causing a serious impact on the salt market in the southeast of the empire.

When Bao Zheng was the Southeast Transport Commissioner, he observed this situation and after a thorough understanding, he became very worried and submitted a memorial to the emperor, which had been somewhat deaf and dumb in the past. Then, with the support of the then Shangshu Ling Cao Lun and the Finance Commissioner Wang Shilin, he promoted the "foreign salt entering the pass".

Cao Lun was the grandson of Cao Bin and the second son of Cao Can, the elder brother of Cao Wei. The Cao family was prominent during the Jianlong and Zhengtong dynasties. According to the "principle", after Fan Zhongyan was dismissed, the descendants of the nobles should be in power. The reason why Cao Lun stood out was not only because he had certain abilities, but also because there was a queen named Cao in the palace.
When Cao Lun came to power, Wang Shilin, who was a close confidant of the orthodox emperor Liu Weizhen, had to give up his position as the Minister of Personnel. Of course, Liu Weizhen did not treat him badly and changed him to the head of the Finance Department, and his power remained the same.

With the adjustment of the salt and iron policy of the Ministry of Finance, overseas salt, mainly from the two countries of Wu and Lu, was able to pass through several major customs and enter the domestic market of the empire openly.

Of course, under the strict supervision of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Salt and Iron Bureau, at the same time, compared with coastal smuggling, the risk is smaller and the scale is larger. Although it is difficult to become the mainstream of the market due to the production and quality, the price is cheap.

The import of foreign salt was actually a blow to the empire's deep-rooted "salt price", "salt merchants" and "salt gangs". At the same time, with more salt on the market, the price of salt also fell for the first time in 30 years.

In the 71st year of Zhengtong, the price of salt in Shanghai was only 108 wen per dou, which was almost as high as the price after the "salt reform" during the Kaibao period of Emperor Shizu. When the price of salt in Shanghai was at its highest, it once climbed to wen per dou, which greatly affected the production and life of the city's scholars and civilians.

However, due to the concentration of resources, Shanghai has never lacked supplies, which can also reflect the living conditions of other cities in the empire. The most obvious is the two capitals. If the court had not taken care of its face and tried its best to suppress and regulate, prices would have been out of control long ago.

In places where central supervision is weak or influence is insufficient, the situation is much more serious, and there are countless riots and civil unrest due to natural disasters and man-made disasters.

In fact, with the development of the commodity economy and the process of "urbanization" in the Han Empire over the past century, the unprecedented development of domestic population and productivity was certainly the fundamental factor, but without the support of overseas resources, it would have collapsed long ago.

Taking the import of Southeast Asian sea salt as an example, regardless of the struggle and distribution in the interest chain, for ordinary people, they gained real benefits from the reduction in salt prices.

Of course, even if "Wu salt", "Lu salt" and even "Yong salt" and "Yue salt" can enter the imperial market through official channels, private salt along the coast and rivers is still rampant. There are always merchant ships that take the salt back to the mainland, or some "dirty salt" that cannot be seen in the light. The final destination is also the imperial counties and towns.

The salt produced in the Nanyang feudal states did not care who bought the salt, they would sell it to anyone with money. However, at the bottom of the empire, there were always salt smugglers who risked their lives, as well as traveling merchants and porters who carried loads on their shoulders, pushed wheelbarrows, went into mountain villages, and went to the countryside to sell contraband salt.

As for coal, since the time of Emperor Taizu, its price has gradually increased from expensive to cheap, from north to south, and gradually became an important fuel for heating the lives of the people of the empire, especially urban residents.

In the late Kaibao period, "honeycomb coal" was born, and its convenience and benefits to the people were obvious to everyone. With the widespread dissemination of technology, a large number of "coal-making sites" were born in various parts of the north.

However, the use of coal has always been restricted by mining and transportation. The main production areas in China are in Jinzhong and Ruxu, and the transportation is difficult to cover the whole country. Therefore, the price of coal has remained high for many years, and it is difficult for honeycomb coal to enter the homes of thousands of ordinary people.

However, the empire's demand for coal is growing day by day, especially in the smelting industry, where the calorific value of coal is extremely significant. Where there is market demand, there will naturally be savvy businessmen to meet this demand.

It is precisely in the countries of Southeast Asia, whether it is the Southern Liang Kingdom (Sumatra), the Yong and Yue Kingdoms on Java Island, or the Wu Kingdom, that they all have large open-pit coal mines with amazing reserves that are extremely easy to mine.

With the massive import of coal from Southeast Asia, people in the southern part of the empire, especially in the southeastern provinces which were the economic core, were finally able to use affordable honeycomb coal and enjoy the benefits brought by the large-scale development of the Han people.

Of course, the resources imported into the empire from overseas countries were far more than this. Through these rich trade activities, the development and accumulation of each country can also be reflected.

But even so, in the orthodox era, the Han Empire still had more output than input in terms of resources, because the empire possessed too many irreplaceable resources, politically, militarily, and economically.

Silk, porcelain, and tea, the three old things, need not be mentioned, cotton cloth, lacquerware, ships, ironware, weapons, including books, technology, and even population, these things are also urgently needed by overseas countries. And, as the market develops and grows, it is also growing.
Initiated by Emperor Shizu himself, consolidated and inherited by Emperor Taizong and the princes of the Liu clan, and developed by countless young men who braved the wind and waves and cultivated and pioneered, it took nearly a hundred years of effort to form a scale of maritime trade that completely transformed and exploded in the orthodox era.

Even Emperor Taizu could not have imagined during his lifetime that the Nanyang strategy would have such a profound impact on the entire East Asia, and that the Han Empire and the Nanyang countries would become what they are today.

As important players in the circulation link, wealth is created and disputes arise from it. To be fair, the long-term prosperity of the empire's overseas trade is also closely related to the emergence of a large number of interest groups, and Shanghai is obviously one of the bases of these people.