New Shun 1730

After watching it, I felt that it was just that, and the limitations were too heavy.

But Liu Yu's foundation in Confucianism was too weak, and he thought that stones from other mountains could be used to attack jade. Since Dazai Chuntai was a Confucian scholar, perhaps some "violent theories" could be used as the direction of Confucian reform.

At that time, I took it back to Weihai and showed it to Kang Busao. It was all written in Chinese. Kang Busao also praised the writing style of "Processing Language" and said that it was quite ancient.

When Liu Yu asked whether it could be used as an argument for the reform of Confucianism, Kang Buluo burst out laughing.

"This is Japan, where Confucianism is not popular, and North Korea still feels inferior to civilized people. In our dynasty, someone who can rant can't even leave the house. It's not worth mentioning or arguing."

"It's not that his idea is not good. Doesn't Young Master also have ideas?"

"The difficulty is that since he wears the skin of Confucianism, the great Confucians have to examine and refute it with the bones of Confucianism. If you say that he is a legalist, a farmer, or other scholars, it is fine. But if you say that he is Confucianism, it is not a problem. People will recognize it.”

"Just like when the young master took the Wude Palace exam and solved the question with the word 'Western Regions'. If the young master wants to borrow the skin of Confucianism, he must find the right place to solve the problem. However, I have thought about it for so long, but I have not thought of the point of solving the problem. The master's level, then Don’t even think about it.”

"Wang Jinggong did what he did. You said it was Confucianism. Do real Confucians recognize it? But even so, didn't Wang Jinggong still hold up "Zhou Rites" and practice the magic of Shen Buhai, Shang Yang, and Guan Zhong? He dared not to hold up "Zhou Rites" "?"

Kang Buyao agreed with some of the opinions in it, but felt that Liu Yu's idea of ​​"tampering" with Confucianism was not feasible at all. If the content inside is placed in Dashun, if it is not Confucianism, some people may read it as miscellaneous books. If you want to say this is Confucianism, you will have to be beaten to death.

Take out a few random items in it, and Kang Busao, who actually admires Huang Laozhuang, can refute them completely by citing scriptures, let alone those real Confucian masters in Dashun.

Moreover, Kang Buyao felt that some of the things Liu Yu said were much clearer than this. But why didn’t Liu Yu dare to use it? Because Liu Yu himself knew that it was not Confucianism.

However, some of Dazai Chuntai's remarks, which he thought were Confucianism, were in fact clearly based on the legalism of Guan Zhong, Li Kui and others. In Japan, they might be able to deceive some people, but in Dashun they are like lice on the bald head.

Moreover, Kang Bulao was influenced by Liu Yu and attached great importance to the term economic foundation. It is believed that the dispute between Dazai Harutai and Ogiyo Surai stems from Japan's economic foundation, which does not apply to Dashun.

Liu Yu also agrees with this point. After all, Japan has one less middleman and does not need to consider the exploitation of middlemen. The samurai legally had land rights, but in fact they did not. The peasants and soldiers lived separately in the castle town, which was not the same thing as the landowners.

Since then, Liu Yu has never paid attention to Dazai Chuntai. He didn't expect to see him on this occasion today, and in this atmosphere, Liu Yu really didn't expect that this old man was him.

Officials from Dashun who came from the imperial examination also wanted to take this opportunity to discuss Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism with Dazai Chuntai.

Dazai Chuntai was anti-Song Confucianism and anti-devil. He claimed that Confucianism had two great destructions. One was when the First Emperor burned books to harass Confucians, and the other was when Song Confucians randomly interpreted Confucian classics and created Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Confucian orthodox system.

The problem is that he believes that the First Emperor burned books to enslave Confucian scholars, but the books were burned endlessly, and many of them were memorized by later generations. However, Song Confucians interpreted Confucian classics indiscriminately and violated the principles of Confucius and Mencius, but they were digging up the roots of Confucianism. The First Emperor was like cutting down branches, while Zhu Xi was like cutting off the roots. It is self-evident which one is more harmful. This big hat is a bit too big.

But at this time, when faced with these academic problems, he didn't pay much attention. Instead, he turned to Liu Yu and asked a question that had nothing to do with Confucianism.

Liu Yu was planning to form a drinking circle with his military officers and Japanese shogunate officials who did not have deep attainments in Confucianism.

When asked by Dazai Chuntai, he was confused at first.

"Liu Jun, how much does rice cost per stone in Songjiang, Ningbo and other places in your country?"

"Uh... about one, two, seven, eight and one stone? About one, two, four, five or more. If there is a bad year, it will be two, two, three, two, five, and if there is a good year, it will be one, two, two, three? The stones of the Celestial Dynasty are not the same as those of Japan. They are about five stones. Two kilos in Japan? But the price of rice in Songjiang is calculated based on the amount of milled rice here. For brown rice, it is only 280 to 300 kilos. 120 jins, 110 jins of brown rice is more, right?”

The currency units on both sides are different. Dazai Shuntai knew this, and he did some calculations in his mind. Regardless of whether it was Kansai using silver or Kanto using gold, except for the period of deflation before the famine, the price of rice was still higher than Dashun. It's lower over there.

Before the war started, the price of one stone of rice at the Shimonoseki Rice Exchange was about 50 cents.

Because of the previous coinage reform in response to deflation, the silver content dropped from 80% of Zhengde money to about 45%.

Calculating this, 1 fen is 3.75 grams, and 50 fen is converted into the silver content of new money. Based on the weight of Dashun's stone rice and Kuping silver, it is approximately equivalent to 9 qian Kuping silver and one day of dynasty stone rice.

This is definitely cheaper than the price of rice here in Dashun. Of course, we have to consider the higher prices in Songjiang and other places, but Dazai Chuntai estimates that it should not fluctuate too much. As long as it is not a disaster year, it should be around 1.5 taels. 2 floats between two.

After calculating the account, Dazai Chuntai bowed to Liu Yu and said: "If so, Liu Jun has saved Japan again. The last time the sweet potato was used to relieve famine, although it was promoted by the general, if Liu Jun had not sent several ships of sweet potatoes as seeds and the "Sweet Potato Famine Relief Book" as a method, the famine would have affected millions of people."

"I have thought of China's Changping Warehouse and Pingling Law to stabilize the rice price in Japan. Low grain prices hurt farmers and scholars. Scholars and farmers are the foundation of Japan and should not be harmed."

"But I want to emulate Wang Jinggong's Changping, Pingling, Shiyi, and Qingmiao laws, but my influence is not important, and I have a reputation for being arrogant, so no one is willing to use them."

"Now that the port has been opened, the two countries can exchange what they have. If this Changping Warehouse cannot be built, the two countries can serve as each other's Changping Warehouse to balance the rice price and prevent scholars and farmers from being hurt by low rice prices."

Dazai Chuntai was also full of resentment. Now that he is nearly sixty years old, his political ambitions have nowhere to go. Japan doesn't even have a Changping warehouse or a Pingyin law. When the rice price rises, it's scary, and when it falls, it's shocking.

After running around for several years, no one listened to his nagging about "Changping warehouse", "Pingyin law", "Market exchange law", "Qingmiao law" and so on. They all thought it sounded good, but what's the point of doing it within one domain?

The rice of each domain is commercialized, and it has to be sold in rice exchanges such as Shimonoseki and Osaka to subsidize the finances. This matter must be handled by the shogunate.

Otherwise, if the domain builds a Changping warehouse, it can't stop the rice from other domains from entering the market, which is useless.

However, the official Confucian ideology of the shogunate is Zhu Xi's school. The shogun has heard of Dazai Shuntai's name and recruited him this time, but he didn't want to use this Confucian scholar who was not a Zhu Xi school before.

Since the Changping and Pingyin methods are useless, Dazai Shuntai thought it was a good thing to open the port after asking about the prices of Dashun.

Although he had certain economic ideas, he still thought within the framework of the feudal system and still recognized that the stability of samurai and farmers was the first priority. He did not oppose business, but believed that agriculture was still the foundation of all things.

If Japan could export rice, as a ballast, it could at least gradually level the rice price to that of Dashun. From 9 coins of Kuping silver to 1 tael 45, the lives of samurai and farmers would be greatly improved.

Liu Yu had read his previous books before and felt that although there were great limitations, it was rare to have an economic vision at this time.

And as far as the Confucian community in Japan was concerned, the big guys who had argued and sprayed with him at the time were basically dead. The young people had not grown up yet, and now this person is the best at talking in Japan.

Basically, in terms of this era, in terms of economic insights, this person is also the number one person in Japan today.

Even if some economic theoretical ideas are somewhat limited, they are better than those who can only make repairs.

If this person's views on the economy are basically in line with Liu Yu's expectations of squeezing Japan, and no major problems can be seen, then it is basically stable.

I want to see his views on the economy after the opening of the port, so I smiled and said, "I also have this idea. The idea that the two countries are each other's constant warehouses is exactly the benevolent policy of the future vassal system of the Celestial Empire."

"Cheap rice hurts farmers, this matter must be observed. Excessive rice prices will hurt the people even more. It is best to let the rice price reach a balanced value."

"Mr. Chuntai, do you think more positively about the opening of the port? Or more negatively?"

Dazai Chuntai had considered this matter a long time ago, and also said, "In general, I think the opening of the port is still good."

"Any way to govern a country is to make rice expensive and goods cheap. When rice is expensive, scholars and farmers will have extra money. , buy goods; cheap goods, the more goods the scholars and farmers buy, the more it can promote the development of industry and commerce.

"The goods of a big country should not be expensive. If they are produced in a big country or Japan, they must be sold at a low price. Now, the price of goods in Japan will also be reduced."

"As for rice, the price of rice in a big country is about twice as expensive, which can drive up the price of rice in Japan. When the price of rice rises, the scholars and farmers will have more surplus money. This is a good thing."

"Rice is expensive and goods are cheap, which is the future of Japan."

If this statement is put in the future, it will definitely be scolded and thought to be completely nonsense. How can a surge in food prices be a good thing? How can there be a situation where food prices are high and other prices are low?

But in this era, even in the great debate in Britain about the "Corn Law" sixty years later, this idea is still the mainstream idea.

It can be said to be a brain problem.

It can also be said to be a butt problem.

Although it is different in form from the British "Corn Law" decades later, it is not much different in essence.

In form, Britain had already started the Industrial Revolution, which caused the price of grain to soar, so the local landowners and nobles put pressure on not to import in order to protect their interests.

At this time, the shadow of the Industrial Revolution in Japan was not yet visible. It was precisely because of the lack of the Industrial Revolution that the price of grain was too low, so the local landlords and nobles thought that exporting grain was a good thing to guarantee the price of grain and thus guarantee their interests.

Liu Yu could understand their butts, but he was a little puzzled by the phrase "rice is expensive and goods are cheap", so he asked about it.

Dazai Chuntai also wanted to explain it clearly, so he said: "The benefit of expensive rice benefits scholars, farmers, merchants and businessmen, not just scholars and farmers."

"If rice is expensive, I don't know that scholars and farmers have a lot of surplus profits. In order to ensure that they can afford to buy rice to live, the merchants' employees, in terms of gold and silver, will they be paid higher wages?"

"After the port was opened, goods poured in, and the goods of the big country were cheap. With the rise in rice prices, the scholars and farmers were not to be mentioned, and the laborers who worked for the merchants, because of the increase in gold and silver wages, deducting the money for buying rice, even if the remaining money was the same as before. But because of the influx of goods from the big country, the prices of goods other than rice and grains decreased. With the same money, can't they buy more things?"

"Isn't this a benevolent government?"

Liu Yu struggled to understand for a while, and suddenly realized, thinking that this is the logic? No wonder I couldn't understand why the East also shouted "Rice is expensive and goods are cheap, which is beneficial to the people" and the West also argued that "Rice is expensive and goods are cheap, which is beneficial to the poor". It turns out that this is it...

If we don't consider the development of industry at all, and don't consider the fierce competition of imports and exports of neighboring countries in the same industry, this seems... It does make sense.

The general logic is that with gold and silver as the world currency, the higher the price of grain, it means that the employees must pay more wages to convert to the same grain as before. In this way, because the grain prices of neighboring countries are low, the cost of goods produced is also low, and gold and silver can buy more low-priced goods from neighboring countries, which helps to improve the lives of the lower classes?

After sorting out the logic here, Liu Yu was very happy and nodded repeatedly, thinking that it was settled. I will write a letter of recommendation and guarantee that you and Abe Masafuku will meet each other later.

…………

PS: PS: Some views on mercantilism are not the thoughts of Dazai Shuntai, but the thoughts of Dazai Shuntai and his nephew. Convenient for the times, the flower-grafting can be understood as the butterfly effect feedback of Nagasaki trade under Liu Yu's policy of "the number of letters remains unchanged and the ships become larger", and the Dashun abandoned Zhu Xi's school and the utilitarianism that had not yet been fully established. There is also a very embarrassing place. When calculating the price of rice in the previous chapters, the decimal point was calculated incorrectly. It's embarrassing.