The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

Xu Mengchun looked at a middle-aged man.

This man was dressed as a Confucian scholar and was waving a folding fan in his hand.

"Hu Wenchang, it's time for you to take action!"

Hearing this, everyone present was shocked.

Because this Hu Wenchang is not a simple figure, but the son of the Hu family of Huizhou merchants and the future successor of the entire Huizhou merchants group.

Huizhou is located at the "head of Wu and the tail of Chu". It is a marginal area with high mountains and dense forests, changeable terrain and late development.

Before the Han Dynasty, the population was not large, but at the end of the Jin Dynasty, the end of the Song Dynasty, the end of the Tang Dynasty and the three waves of immigration in Chinese history, a large number of people migrated from the north to Huizhou in southern Anhui.

What should we do if we have a large population but too many mountains and little land? Doing business abroad is the only way out.

Hui merchants first dealt in mountain products and grain from other places. For example, the abundant wood resources are used for construction, ink making, paint, tung oil, and paper making. These are bulk commodities shipped overseas. Teas include famous brands such as Keemun Red and Wuyuan Green. When doing business outside, they mainly deal in salt, cotton (cloth), grain, etc.

Hui merchants with huge amounts of money appeared in the Song Dynasty. Qimen brothers Cheng Chengjin and Cheng Chenghai became rich through business. They were called "One Hundred Thousand Grand Duke" and "One Hundred Thousand Second Duke" respectively, and collectively they were called "Cheng Shiwan".

The shops and inns run by Zhu Xi's maternal grandfather Zhu Que account for half of Huizhou Prefecture (She County), and they are known as "Zhu Banzhou"!

During the war in the late Yuan Dynasty, Jiang Jia, a businessman from Shexian County, issued usury loans in Huizhou and made huge profits.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the capital of Huizhou merchants increased greatly compared with that in the Song Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor, came to Anhui and was short of pay. Jiang Yuan, the native of She, helped pay 100,000 taels of silver at a time, making him an astonishingly wealthy man.

Therefore, Huizhou merchants have become synonymous with wealth in this era.

Huizhou merchants are not just merchants from Anhui, but also include the Huaiyang area of ​​Jiangsu.

Because of the salt in the Huaiyang area, countless big salt merchants were born, and the salt merchants were the richest representatives of this era.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty had to transport grain to important towns in Jiubian to get salt. However, it was forced to change the situation soon after. The reason was the prevalence of private salt and the randomness of the court dignitaries and others. He complained to the emperor about occupying the nest and monopolizing Kaizhong, causing the distribution volume of Yanyin to greatly exceed the production capacity of the salt industry.

This forced a large number of border merchants to have salt but no salt to collect. They could only wait for the output of new salt in the salt field. Some had to wait for decades to emerge. This greatly affected the losses of border merchants. The enthusiasm of the grain branch made the implementation of the Kaizhong Law difficult, and it was difficult for it to operate as smoothly as it did during the Hongwu and Yongle years.

And the most important point is that the imperial court promoted grain payment and transferred a part of the salt profits to merchants. However, due to various reasons, the imperial court failed to achieve its expected goals. There were fewer and fewer merchants transporting grain to the border. The imperial court Although salt was given out, the military expenditure of Jiubian Military Town continued to increase, so that the imperial government's financial expenditures increased, and finally the national treasury was empty.

Therefore, in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Ye Qi, who was the Minister of Household Affairs of the Hongzhi Emperor at that time, was driven by the forces behind him and proposed a method of receiving salt by accepting silver, and changed the "paying grain and opening the middle" to "paying and receiving silver and opening the middle". , which is the so-called color folding method.

After Ye Qi's reform, it was stipulated that merchants no longer needed to transport military supplies to border towns. They only needed to pay silver to the treasury to obtain salt.

Therefore, in the past, if these salt merchants wanted to do salt business, they had to transport grain to the border towns in exchange for salt. This undoubtedly facilitated Shanxi Shanxi merchants who were close to the border military towns.

After Ye Qi's reform, merchants no longer needed to go to border towns to directly exchange silver for salt, and then resell it for profit. As Hui merchants were located in the most prosperous Jiangnan region, Lianghuai had the largest salt field in the world. The Jiangnan region has been the most important grain-producing area since ancient times, so it has become difficult to separate these salt merchants and grain merchants from each other. The same is true for Huizhou merchants. They are both big salt merchants and big grain merchants, and undoubtedly more It's extremely convenient.

The Hu family is a representative family among Huizhou merchants, and it is also the most powerful family. The family is extremely powerful and has extremely huge influence in the entire Ming Dynasty. Behind it are countless Jiangnan noble families.

It is precisely because of this that Hu Wenchang, as a merchant's son, was able to sit together with court officials such as Xu Mengchun to discuss matters.

Xu Mengchun said calmly: "It's not good if there is too much money here."

"Ever since the emperor sent Tang Hao, the Marquis of Zhongshan, to sweep away the Japanese countries and establish trade in the East China Sea, cartloads of gold, silver and jewels have been sent into the internal funds, and the result is that the emperor is gradually losing control and restraint!"

"He can go to war if he wants to, and he can provide disaster relief if he wants to. Even if there is no money and food in the treasury, he still has money and food in his internal funds. He can completely bypass the gentry and act without considering the opinions of the gentry at all. He will not listen. This is the most troublesome part!”

"An emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was unconstrained and uncontrollable. I think you should also know that Emperor Taizu Gao, Emperor Taizongwen and Emperor Chenghua were like this. By then, everyone would not have a good life!"

"So, this time we must find a way to teach the young emperor a lesson, so that he can regain his respect for the gentry!"

Hu Wenchang smiled immediately after hearing this, and his expression became excited.

Teach the Ming Emperor a lesson, this is really exciting!

"Whatever you want us to do, sir, just ask!"

"This time, we, the Huizhou merchants, will definitely support us and will not let the emperor continue to mess around!"

Xu Mengchun nodded with satisfaction, then smiled.

"In fact, the current emperor is quite kind and benevolent. He is diligent in government and loves the people. He is very sympathetic to the people. I have received news that famine has occurred in northern Zhili, Shanxi, Shandong and other places in recent days. With the kindness of our emperor, he will definitely do his best to provide disaster relief."

"But the treasury is empty. The grain in the treasury has long dropped to the red line and cannot be used. At that time, the officials in the court will definitely let the emperor use his own treasury. At that time, we can use this disaster relief to drain the emperor's treasury all at once!"

"Of course, how to operate it specifically depends on you Hui merchants!"

Hu Wenchang nodded after listening.

"This matter is very simple!"

"The emperor's treasury is only a mere one million taels of silver. It can't withstand the absorption of my Hui merchants!"

Hu Wenchang's tone is very big. He doesn't even look down on one million taels of silver, but he naturally has the confidence to say this!

This is not because he is arrogant, but because these big salt merchants and grain merchants are rich enough to rival a country. Compared with them, the Ming Dynasty court and the Ming emperor are poor beggars.

Especially the emperors of the Ming Dynasty after Zhengtong, when it comes to Emperor Hongzhi, they are basically poorer than each other.

The reason is very simple. The civil officials and gentry have more and more power in the court, and all the money and grain go into their pockets. Naturally, the court will become poorer and poorer, and the people will become poorer and poorer!

The court is poor and the emperor is poor, so it is easy for the civil officials and gentry to restrain and control them. Otherwise, like the current Emperor Zhengde, they will be out of control after they have money!

Zhu Houzhao and Tang Hao have no other way but to earn military expenses through East China Sea trade. Unfortunately, they are now also targeted by the gentry!

"How to act, I won't ask!"

"But the goal must be clear, we must drain the emperor's treasury, so that he has to bow to us!"