New Shun 1730

The primary purpose of colonialism is to obtain high profits. This is the same in China and abroad.

The court is not a company, but Nanyang is not under the jurisdiction of the six governments, at least not under the jurisdiction of the six governments for the time being, so going to Nanyang has to consider making money. If it does not make money, will the court go to Nanyang for longer-term interests and to solve the contradiction of too many people and too little land?

This is a question worth considering. At least some people in the court are not enthusiastic about it and think that it is enough to guard the existing one acre and three points of land. It is okay for the people to go to Nanyang to make a living, but it is a bit difficult to let the court pay for Nanyang, encourage the people to immigrate, and support the people to immigrate.

Ministers are all smart people. This is not a question of whether the brain is smart or not and can't even figure this out, but a question of three views.

Kang Budai always said that Liu Yu was not a Dashun person. The reason is that Liu Yu's way of thinking is not consistent with this time.

Just like the four words "the most just acquisition of the Ming Dynasty", according to Liu Yu's understanding, it is due to class origin, Zhu Yuanzhang's poor origin, the uprising of the lower class, and the justice of expelling the Tartars; and according to the Ming Dynasty literati themselves, the reason for this "most just acquisition of the country" is "a minister killing the monarch is murder, a minister rebelling against the monarch is treason, and a minister usurping the throne is usurpation". Zhu Yuanzhang did not do these three things, and he had never been a minister of the Mongols, so he got the country most justly. And the rest... Sima family, Yang family, Li family, Zhao family, and those Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in the turbulent times, "murder, treason, usurpation", these three words must be involved.

The same recognition of "the most just acquisition of the country", but the core and logic of recognition are completely different. This is the reason why Liu Yu looks like a Dashun person from the outside, but he is not a Dashun person at all.

The same is true for the issue of Nanyang.

From Liu Yu's three views, going to Nanyang is really the right decision that cannot be more right. Is it still necessary to discuss and consider it? Even if it doesn't make money for the time being, going to Southeast Asia is definitely a great thing that will benefit the future.

From the perspective of the court, it is different.

Including the emperor, although he supports going to Southeast Asia, it is not so much because of "long-term benefits, which can solve the contradiction between too many people and too little land" that he is convinced, but it is because "it is not a problem to collect taxes from three or five Henan provinces every year".

Now this difficult problem is thrown to Niu Er and others. They are deeply influenced by Liu Yu, and they know more about the difficulties.

To talk about the attitude of the court, we must first consider the attitude of the emperor.

Niu Er and others are not high-level officials or close to Dashun after all, and they cannot consider the emperor's ideas from a larger overall situation.

Liu Yu understands, but he doesn't want to tell them.

The emperor's logic seems to be correct.

The emperor's logic, taking history as a mirror and the previous dynasties as a mirror, a basic starting point cannot be said to be wrong: that is, the Celestial Empire is so vast and broad, as long as there is no problem inside, the outside world cannot kill it for a while. The only ones who can change dynasties are inside the Celestial Empire, and it is not the turn of external forces for the time being.

From this starting point, there is actually another meaning of going to Nanyang.

That is to abolish the canal and change to sea.

There are Westerners in Nanyang, Dashun cannot get absolute control of the sea, and the Westerners' fortress base is very close to Dashun, so Dashun cannot abolish the canal and change to sea.

Whether it can be transported by sea has never been a problem for abolishing the canal and changing to sea.

If the navy has not proved that it can "control the entire Nanyang"; if it has not completed the Nanyang and completely expelled the Western forces... then, abolishing the canal and changing to sea is just empty talk.

If the canal is abolished today, tomorrow the Western fleet will directly block the sea route from the Yangtze River Basin to the capital. If there is a rebellion in the south, the Westerners will support it a little bit, and it will be like Liu Yu in Tosa, Japan, and the world will be in chaos.

Going to Nanyang means that the biggest worry of abolishing the canal and changing to sea has also dissipated.

Then, it is the problem of money.

Whether it is Nanyang or trade, it is to make money.

Earning money is for spending, especially for the emperor, who does not need to be a miser, and gets money for spending.

In the emperor's view, if the voyage to Southeast Asia is successful, if the spice trade is successfully monopolized, if the East-West trade is successfully monopolized, if the VOC's trading house market in Asia is fully taken over... where should the extra money be spent first?

Niu Er and others are not qualified to consider these issues, and it is impossible to consider them.

But this problem is very realistic.

When the Jiangsu Jiedushi proposed to abolish the canal and change to the sea, Liu Yu kept his head down and did not speak, nor did he express his opinion. The emperor also had a muddy attitude.

But in fact, the emperor recognized the considerations of the Jiangsu Jiedushi.

The Grand Canal and the Yellow River and Huai River have become the cancer of the empire since the Song Dynasty replaced soldiers with water. The once most prosperous Yellow River and Huai River have now become a large area of ​​poverty. Many fantasy stories that happened in the late Ming Dynasty, such as the power of the night, such as the tenants have to avoid taboos for the master, etc., all happened in the Yellow River and Huai River area.

Moreover, the world of Dashun was taken from the Ming Dynasty. Where did the Ming Dynasty start? No dynasty cares more about the Huanghuai region than the Dashun.

It cannot sweep the world here, but it is easy to "pioneer for the king". It is located in the heart of the empire. If it gets chaotic, it will cross several provinces and separate the north and the south.

Although due to the division and obstruction of the canal, the Huaihe River and the Yellow River, even if an uprising breaks out here, it is easy to be trapped to death.

But if this place continues to erode and consumes the military and financial resources of the empire, it will easily become the vanguard of the king, and other more suitable places may emerge as a force.

From the perspective of the emperor, the whole logic is this:

To abolish the canal and change to the sea, we must first ensure the stability of Nanyang, and there is no strong naval force that can threaten the sea transportation, and guarantee the food of the capital.

To ensure the stability of Nanyang, a fleet is needed. So for this fleet, money must be invested.

In order to abolish the canal and change to the sea, it is also necessary to resettle the people in the Huanghuai Canal area, which requires money.

The original taxes and support are basically balanced and stretched. New financial resources are needed to ensure the cost of abolishing the canal and changing to the sea.

Where does the new money come from?

Nanyang.

As for solving the contradiction of too many people and too little land, the emperor also has his own ideas.

People will go to Nanyang because they can't survive. As long as the court has a certain influence in Nanyang, the policy allows people to go to Nanyang, but it is not governed like the inland provinces, can't this be solved?

In addition to wars, official expenses, military expenses, etc., the taxes collected by the court every year have to be used for disaster relief and relief.

Because of the process of Dashun gaining the world, Dashun is very concerned about relief and disaster relief. After all, how did Emperor Taizu start his career, and he was afraid that future generations would follow suit. As the saying goes, you Li Zicheng can do it, but we can't do it?

But the emperor thought that since the court had a navy, and the navy was a beast that devoured money, ordinary separatist forces would never be able to build it. Even if someone was making trouble in Nanyang, could they cross the sea and seize the throne in Beijing?

If it was like the inland provinces, how much money would be thrown into it every year to change the natives to the Han people, provide disaster relief, and assimilate the counties?

But if we follow the Western thinking and make Nanyang a colony, wouldn’t it save money? If the people can’t survive and are willing to go to Nanyang, they will go, but the court will not spend a lot of money like it did to settle immigrants from the northeast and northwest.

In this way, not only can we save money, but we can also make money.

If we can have money to solve the Huanghuai and Canal problems; if we can get money, the railway plan of the Academy of Sciences will succeed in the future, passing through the Songliao watershed and the Hexi Corridor... The emperor also felt that Dashun might really catch up with the Shang and Zhou dynasties and build an 800-year foundation.

At first, Liu Yu threatened the emperor, saying that if Nanyang had a strong navy, cut off the grain transport and supported the rebellion, I think Dashun would be finished.

Now, the navy is there and Nanyang has been seized. There may be a regime in the northeast and northwest that can challenge the Central Plains, but what is Nanyang afraid of? Can it cross the sea with a reed?

This led to the emperor's attitude towards Nanyang being completely different from that towards the newly returned places such as the northeast and northwest, as well as the Han provinces that were the basic base of the Celestial Empire.

On the issue of going to Nanyang, Liu Yu and the emperor were on the same path. Regardless of the purpose or the core, the process of Nanyang was consistent.

But after going to Nanyang, the two actually had considerable differences.

And this will also be directly related to the future policy of Nanyang.

Niu Er and others' butts determine their heads. They think that the Dutch's forced planting system and the policy of winning over gentry and village heads are indeed good.

From the perspective of the emperor's attitude towards Nanyang, it is indeed right.

Out of ten acres of land, six acres belong to the owner, and four acres must be planted with cash crops as land tax. Coffee that sells for 10 silver coins in Europe, forced planting as land tax, or monopoly acquisition, may only cost 1 silver coin.

Ten times the profit, and it will take effect within a few years.

Coffee trees grow best in places with high altitudes, volcanic or limestone or granite soils, cloudy or shaded by trees during high temperatures, large temperature differences between day and night, obvious dry and wet seasons, and fertile soil.

Ceylon or Java, with mountains, high altitudes, and volcanoes, are the most suitable for growing this thing. And the coffee in Java is really good because it is very suitable.

Generally speaking, it only takes four years from planting to harvesting coffee. And now the price of coffee in Europe is very high, and the profit is higher than that of spices that have receded due to the "four fluids in the human body" theory.

As a crop for extracting indigo dye, blue leaf vines are also very suitable for planting in Java. With the development of cotton textile industry, Britain began to gradually relax cotton cloth control, and the Manchester Act began to break the barrier of cotton cloth prohibition, etc., the price of indigo grass has also been rising.

At the beginning, the Dutch wanted to massacre the Chinese in sugar factories and sugarcane plantations, and the route they envisioned for industrial transformation was to engage in coffee and indigo grass.

That's why the Burangan system, that is, the forced planting system, was tried in the Bandung area.

Before the Chinese uprising, the forced planting system in the Burangan area once gave the company's board of directors hope and profit growth points.

From the perspective of conscience, is this policy right? It is simply wrong, it is completely a variant of serfdom.

From a long-term perspective, is this policy right? It is also wrong. Within 30 years of promotion, if there is no large-scale uprising, it will be a ghost.

But from a short-term and profit perspective, is this policy right? It is absolutely right. The purchase price is almost zero cost, and the local village chief acts as a traitor to suppress and force the villagers.

Four years for coffee, three years for blue-leafed vines, five years at most. As long as they can be sold to Europe and the smuggling market for dyed cotton cloth is opened, Java will contribute at least three to five million taels of silver a year.

Moreover, it will be effective in the short term.

For officials, this is of course a merit. What does it have to do with me if there is a major uprising in 20 or 30 years? Which bastard can be the governor of Java for 20 or 30 years? After being the governor for 20 or 30 years, is the court preparing to make him the king of Java? Or is it preparing to create a Java chieftain? Obviously, there is no need to consider what will happen in 20 or 30 years.