New Shun 1730

"Now that this dynasty is in its prosperous age and the world is at peace, the business of having police on the border is very different from the business in the prosperous age of peace."

Although we have just recovered from the tidal and yellow flood disasters a few years ago, which affected more than 40 prefectures and counties, nearly one million people were homeless. Households cooking salt stoves ate shrimp paste with raw maggots as a delicacy, at a quarter of the price of black slaves. They can deceive Nanyang and Northern Jiangsu, where more than 30 people were buried alive a few years ago, to come to Beijing.

But Liu Yu said that he was "in his prime".

The Shaanxi businessman had no objections and felt that this was indeed the case. This year, I don’t seem to have heard of cannibalism, food exchange, or human flesh weighing twelve cents a pound. It’s just that 450,000 people died in disaster years all over the country. How can we not have a good year?

They started from war, and their ancestors got their first pot of gold from the military supplies at the military camp on the border of the castle. Now that the Mongols have been completely trapped and surrendered, the north no longer needs a large number of border troops. Some profitable businesses in the past were indeed difficult to do.

The business during Shengping was indeed different from the past.

This businessman is also smart, thinking that the machines that Liu Yu led them to see yesterday were either related to salt or mining.

When there is a war on the border, food is transported, and when there is peace in the world, salt is sold. These are the two most prosperous businesses.

It's just that even if he is somewhat smart, the most he dares to think about is that the imperial court may want to reorganize the Sichuan salt industry in order to prepare for the return of land in the southwest and the tight control of the Western Sichuan Plateau to stabilize the access to Tibet.

But I really don't dare to think that Dashun's reforms will take such a big step this time, and they even want to allocate the Xiangchu monopoly sales area to Sichuan Salt.

"What the Duke said is true. The business during the time of peace is very different from the trade when there was police on the border. We are not afraid of the Duke's admonishment. To be honest, we hope that Emperor Wu will intervene. My ancestors It was through this that we built our family's fortune. Therefore, we were really happy when the imperial court rebelled against Western Sichuan and transformed the Miao tribe."

"The move to enter Sichuan was, on the one hand, as the Duke said. He was beaten in disgrace at Lianghuai and retreated in disgrace; on the other hand, the imperial court sent troops to the southwest. We followed in as we had settled the old affairs of the alliance and barbarians."

"Now when our Qin merchants enter Sichuan, the Sichuan merchants only say that we are not qualified to worship the Second Master Guan, and should worship Sima Cuo and Zhonghui Deng Ai. They only think that we have robbed their business."

"It's actually not true. It's like some Western tricks that were first spread in Fujian and Guangdong. When you can't deceive people in Fujian and Guangdong, you can still deceive people if you come to Qin and Jin. If you come to Qin and Jin, you can't deceive people either. If so, he will either enter Sichuan or go to Liaodong."

"We are the same, because our ancestors sold salt. Although we are not as good as the Hui merchants in various means, they were driven away from Jiangnan. But if we can't win against the Hui merchants, how can we not win against the Sichuan merchants? We are proficient in selling salt. After all, the people of Sichuan have never experienced the Lianghuai Salt Industry, their methods are crude, they are still learning, and they cannot compete with us. "

He followed what he guessed Liu Yu meant, and at this point he was already at a loss for words. He said with a flattering smile: "If the court wants to inspire Sichuan salt, it is not necessary to use people from Shu. It is also common to use people from Qin, or even worse." good."

Hearing this, Liu Yu said with a smile: "You know how to find opportunities. The imperial court means that it is not good to eat alone. You have seen the machines of the Academy of Sciences before, and you also know that the seaside of Songjiang Mansion has been there in recent years. Trade matters.”

"If it were in the past, the court would really not dare to say something."

"Now, it can be said that the imperial court now needs technology and capital."

"You know in your heart that Qin Shang and Huai Shang all just followed the trend. The only one who creates the world's power is the imperial court."

"To put it bluntly, if the imperial court wants to support someone now, just find any big Sichuan businessman. Need money? Lend capital; lack technology? Help install steam engines. Can you fight for it? You all know that it is not your own ability. Unparalleled in the world, just caught up with the trend. "

"In the past, the court could only provide outlets."

"Now, the imperial court has the ability to support the plutocrats. Support whoever you want to support."

"If we want to support Songjiang Prefecture, within twenty years, Guangdong's foreign trade will plummet. Sichuan Salt, even more so. Am I not being alarmist?"

The Shaanxi businessman nodded repeatedly without any look of disbelief.

Sincerely convinced.

After all, Liu Yu told the truth.

The imperial court...or rather, the power that many people in the imperial court didn't know was that the imperial court had really reached the point where it could support several plutocrats.

In itself, salt is the easiest way to support plutocrats. As an extension of the monopoly power under the feudal imperial power, which of the big salt merchants that have appeared since the previous dynasty does not have the shadow of the imperial court behind it?

However, because the salt merchants of Huaihe and Huaihe, as well as the salt merchants of Shaanxi and Shanxi in the previous dynasty, took the initiative to move closer to the imperial court, and by relying on the imperial examination, they themselves became part of the imperial court.

But now, the imperial court that Liu Yu spoke of is more like a new, detached, and sane monster that is independent of the past.

In the past, the behavior of the imperial court was unconscious.

For example, Kaizhongfa created big salt merchants, and the big salt merchants gradually entered the imperial court through imperial examinations and became part of the imperial court's consciousness.

The whole process, in the abstract sense of the court, was unconscious.

There is neither the initiative to cultivate a group of large salt merchants who will open up China and France, nor the awareness to actively absorb these large salt merchants as the core of the rule.

Now, this court in the abstract sense, the awakened sanity monster, is conscious.

Under conscious circumstances, take the initiative to cultivate a group of controllable chaebols.

To the ears of Shaanxi businessmen, Liu Yu was really not trying to scare them, but was just telling the truth.

What do Shaanxi merchants have?

Do they have technology?

No.

The technology belongs to Sichuan craftsmen.

Do they have land?

No.

Otherwise, there would be no need to rent land.

So what do Shaanxi merchants have?

They have capital.

They have capital that is almost completely unregulated in Dashun.

And what does the "court" Liu Yu mentioned have now?

It is precisely what Shaanxi merchants do not have that the court has.

What Shaanxi merchants have, the court does not seem to lack.

Liu Yu said that he was supporting "Sichuan merchants", but to Shaanxi merchants, Liu Yu's words were full of meaning - the capital behind Liu Yu was not Sichuan merchants, but another capital group.

Similarly, after watching the steam engine, Shaanxi merchants realized that they could not compete with Liu Yu's "competition".

Even under the most perfect rules and systems imagined by merchants, they could not compete.

Those who made their fortunes from war logistics, especially the first batch of entrepreneurs, rather than the subsequent wealthy people, are very clear: their struggles can only depend on the course of history, rather than their genius and huge family business.

Therefore, they are also very clear that it is too easy for the court to support a group of new chaebols now.

For example, now Liu Yu went to Zigong, looked around a few times, wrote down the list of merchants operating salt wells there on paper, and then drew lots.

He closed his eyes and drew one, called Wang Ermaizi. Then he said, it's you.

Lack of money? Give a loan.

Lack of technology? The Academy of Sciences steam engine support.

Lack of connections? People supported by the court don't need to consider connections.

This Wang Ermaizi will become the richest man in southern Sichuan in five years at most, this is inevitable.

Liu Yu spent twenty years to build the foundation of Dashun.

These twenty years of foundation building were not built in vain.

Since the foundation was established, many officials who have fallen behind the times actually don’t know that the power that the court can mobilize now has almost doubled compared to 20 years ago.

Especially in the offshore areas, the resources and power that can be mobilized, if you really count them carefully, are more than four or five times.

However, this power is hidden a little.

Just like the rice in Siam, is Siam a province of Dashun? No.

Is the rice in Siam the rice of Dashun?

No.

But is the rice in Siam a resource power that Dashun can mobilize?

Obviously, it is. And as long as Dashun’s navy continues to dominate the east of Malacca, it will always be.

The power that the court holds now, which those people in the old times can’t see clearly, is the same.

For example, the maritime merchant group that has trained a large number of sailors and can sail to Europe and Japan to sell goods, whether it is the ship, the sailors or the cannons for self-defense on the ship, is it the Dashun court?

No.

But when the court needs it, are these merchant ships, sailors, cannons, and captains the power that the court can control?

Yes. And now even if the navy of Dashun is completely destroyed, within three years, it can still build a world's top five fleet with full equipment, sufficient sailors, and merchant ship captains who have transoceanic sailing experience.

It is not only the resources that are collected in the treasury that are the resources that the country can mobilize.

And the resources that Dashun and the previous dynasties twenty years ago could mobilize, after the collapse of the equal-field system, were actually only the resources of the treasury and "salt".

After the collapse of the military household system of the Ming Dynasty, the national defense mobilization force was actually only the "salt law".

The foundation that Liu Yu built for Dashun in the past twenty years is not reflected in, or even not reflected at all in, the treasury income.

Looking at the treasury income, it is not clear that Dashun has become stronger.

Instead, it directly opened up a generation gap between Dashun's mobilization capabilities and disposable resources and those of neighboring countries.

Relying on the advantage of size is not called generational difference.

It is this generational difference that makes the salt policy reform of Dashun so radical this time.

Because the economic foundation determines that the salt policy of Dashun is completely different from that of Daming.

The national defense mobilization of Daming can only rely on fiscal revenue and salt policy to allocate resources.

Dashun's salt policy has already been among the top three in Dashun's national defense mobilization system.

It is said that ducks know first when the spring river water warms.

Those who can feel this change are those in the central government of the court; the other is these big businessmen.

Merchants cannot see clearly and cannot control the mobilization of forces.

But they can intuitively understand a sentence.

"See him build a high building."

They witnessed the high-rise building of Songjiangfu Haishang Group rising from the ground with their own eyes, and they can even hear the sound of joints.

So the words Liu Yu said to the Shaanxi businessman at this time have a different taste than before.

In the past, when the court officials talked to the merchants, it was a struggle between power and money, and they relied on power to suppress.

But now, what Liu Yu said was a dialogue between capital and capital, and power did not need to show up at all, and was even too lazy to show up.

In the previous speaking mode, the merchants had to obey, but they were unwilling to obey in their hearts, thinking that one day their children and grandchildren would also pass the imperial examination and become officials, otherwise they would always be inferior to others.

Now, it is Liu Yu who stands within the rules that the merchants like and directly breaks the defense of the Shaanxi merchants.

Standing within the rules of the merchants, Liu Yu took the initiative to give up the power that the merchants did not have to speak.

And the power that he did not use first was the most powerful power in the hands of him, the Duke of the Dynasty.

Songjiang capital and steam engines are powerful forces in Liu Yu's eyes, but they are not the most powerful forces in the eyes of Shaanxi merchants at this time.

In the eyes of Shaanxi merchants, the most powerful power in Liu Yu's hands is his red gate, gilded bronze animal heads, seven-column main hall, imperially built plaques, and the dark blue clothing that represents the ultimate virtue of water and ministers.

That blue-green ragged clothes is worthless. If you count it in money, the wealthy merchants can buy it from Yilipu to Xi'an. There are many tailors in Xijing who can make it, but they just can't wear it. That broken Duke's Mansion is worthless. The wealthy merchants in Dashun who can afford to build such a Duke's Mansion, if you count money, it will cost no less than two or three hundred, but they can't even build a gate.

This is the strongest power that Liu Yu has in the eyes of Shaanxi merchants.

But Liu Yu did not use this power, but used the rules that merchants like, the rules of competition, capital, and technology, to directly break the defense of Shaanxi merchants.