Chapter 592: Brother San opens the door and free trade begins

Zhu Yijun said, “Come in and tell me.

Who is so blind? The four ministers are here. I and the four old gentlemen need to have a good discussion on whether to braise, steam, or fry.

Li Chun walked in with his back bent, and said respectfully: “In reply to the emperor, it was not the foreign enemies who arbitrarily provoked the border and challenged the majesty of our Ming Dynasty. It was Yu Dayou who led the reorganized Suzaku Navy out of Malacca Port and headed for Goa Port in India to find trouble with the Portuguese.

This is the farewell letter he sent me after a 600-mile expedited journey.”

Zhu Yijun suddenly realized, “So it was Yu Dayou who went to beat up the Portuguese. That’s good.

Come and go without indecent!
The Portuguese dared to come to my city of Malacca to provoke and cause trouble. If we don’t fight back, where is my dignity? Where is the Ming Dynasty’s dignity?
Without face, the barbarians in the South China Sea will definitely become disloyal. So, when it is time to take action, take action. After that, the world will be peaceful. “

Hu Zongxian and the other three quickly replied, “Your Majesty is wise.”

Zhu Yijun was suddenly excited and continued, “The navy is a money-eating beast, and Master Zhang knows this clearly.”

Zhang Juzheng smiled and replied, “I get along very well with General Hu of the Military Government and the other four Grand Commanders. The only difference is that I rarely meet the Grand Commander of the Right Army, Daichuan Gong (Liu Tao), and I dare not see him.”

“Why?”

“When Lord Daichuan came to see me, he kept nagging the Ministry of Revenue to increase the budget for the Right Army. Especially Minister Wang of the Ministry of Revenue, he kept nagging me every day and never got tired of it.

It’s fine if he keeps nagging. From the Navy Department, from Daichuan Gong to the ordinary military academy, every time they go to the Ministry of Revenue, they have to take something with them. Daichuan Gong didn’t get tired of it, and simply ordered the guards on duty at the Ministry of Revenue that beggars and the Navy Department were not allowed to enter the Ministry of Revenue. “

The right army is the navy, which is called the Navy Department, corresponding to the left army’s Army Department.

Zhu Yijun and everyone else knew that Zhang Juzheng was joking, but the joke was so interesting and funny that everyone couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

When everyone’s laughter subsided, Zhu Yijun continued, “It seems that everyone agrees that the navy costs a lot of money. So what is the purpose of my insisting on maintaining such a large navy?”

Yang Jinshui answered tactfully, “Your Majesty, this is for the safety of Ming’s sea borders and to maintain free trade.”

“Yes, to maintain free trade. Some people may ask curiously, if trade is free, why do we need a huge navy to maintain it? It’s very simple. Free trade is for us, and we must be very free in trade.

You can sell whatever you want and sell it at any price you want; you can buy whatever you want and sell it as cheaply as you want, and no one can interfere!

That is the essence of our free trade.”

Hu Zongxian smiled and said, “Your Majesty, this kind of free trade is a bit too much to ask.”

Zhu Yijun also laughed, “That’s why we need so many battleships and so many naval guns.

The purpose of the Suzaku Navy’s attack was, first, to return the favor to the Portuguese, and second, to open the door to the Indian market. The Shaofu Supervisor knew best how great the Indian market potential was.

The population there is no less than that of the Ming Dynasty. The fields there are fertile and suitable for growing rice and cotton. There are also abundant coal and iron deposits. In short, it is very rich. It can not only become a source of industrial raw materials for the Ming Dynasty, but also a dumping ground for the Ming Dynasty’s industrial products.

Let the people of India suffer so that the people of Ming can get rich first.”

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said.

“After the opening of the Tianzhu market, Persia, the Arab world, and Egypt and the Ottoman Empire to the west will follow. Their nobles are still very wealthy and like the three traditional products of the Ming Dynasty: silk, tea, and porcelain. In the future, they will also like the spices, glassware, and cotton cloth that are exclusive to the Ming Dynasty.”

Yang Jinshui said at the side: “Your Majesty, is this the relationship between production and exchange in political economics that you talked about? Production creates wealth, and exchange also creates wealth.”

“That’s right, but in a sense, production doesn’t really create wealth, exchange does.”

Not only Yang Jinshui was stunned, but even Zhang Juzheng and others were dumbfounded.

We have finally understood that both production and exchange can create wealth, and now you have come up with a new idea that makes my brain smoke.

Zhu Yijun explained: “What is wealth? Let me give you an analogy. A is good at picking fruits, and B is good at fishing. A eats fruits every day, and B eats fish every day. Then, for A, fruits and fish are wealth for B?”

Yang Jinshui was the most alert and answered immediately, “Your Majesty, it doesn’t count. Fruits to A and fish to B are just the basis for survival, not wealth.”

“Okay, now A exchanges his extra fruit with B, and gets B’s extra fish in exchange. So, are the fish and the fruit considered wealth for A and B?”

“Your Majesty, I understand. Creating something from nothing is wealth, so Your Majesty has always said that wealth is created.”

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, “Yes, that’s about what I mean. If the Ming Dynasty is short of food, we can exchange it with silk. The silk produced by 100 people can be exchanged for food for 3,000 people.

If the Ming Dynasty was short of cotton, it could be exchanged for cotton cloth. The cotton cloth woven by one hundred people could be used to weave cotton cloth for another ten thousand people.

That’s wealth creation!”

Yang Jinshui flattered, “Your Majesty is wise, and you have spoken the truth. We keep purchasing raw materials from all over the world, using machines to produce a large number of goods in Daming, and then selling them to all over the world for trade exchanges, obtaining more raw materials and goods, which makes Daming’s wealth continue to multiply.”

“Yes, one of the manifestations of the Ming Dynasty’s doubling of wealth is that the price of goods has become extremely cheap. In the past, one stone of rice in Jiangnan cost eight coins of silver. What about now?
A large amount of rice from Annan, Champa, Siam, Zhenla and Japan poured in. The price of rice was only fifty cents of a silver dollar, which was equivalent to a little more than five cents of gold and silver, a reduction of one third.

Previously, plain cotton cloth in Jiangnan cost 15 wen per foot, but now it costs 2 fen per foot, equivalent to 12 wen, which is one-fifth cheaper. If the Tianzhu market is opened and a large amount of cheap and high-quality Tianzhu cotton is obtained, the price of cotton cloth may drop to 1 fen per foot.

At the same time, as rice prices have dropped, the prices of pork and chicken have also dropped by one-sixth in the past two years.

If we open up the Indian market, a large amount of cheap food will flow into our Ming Dynasty. If we also plant new crops such as corn and sweet potatoes on a large scale, not only will the price of wine be cheaper, but pork and chicken will also be cheaper. Isn’t this a good thing for the people?”

Zhu Yijun looked at everyone and said meaningfully: “Gentlemen, the reduction in prices will greatly reduce the burden of life for ordinary people.

The burden was lightened, and the income increased. With extra money, the people could buy more meat to keep themselves healthy; send their children to school to learn to read and write, so that they would have a brighter future; buy more cloth to dress more decently; and listen to operas and stories to enrich their spare time.
Gentlemen, this is what I mean by a rich people. To achieve this kind of rich people, we need to go out, expand the four seas to support the people, and gather goods from all over the world to support the Ming Dynasty. “

Hu Zongxian and the other five said in unison: “Your Majesty is wise and insightful. We are grateful for your guidance.”

Zhu Yijun waved his hand. “After a thousand years of changes, the Ming Dynasty has also entered the Age of Exploration. In this era, we only need to remember two things: one is free trade; the other is that truth is within the range of cannons.”

The truth is within cannon range!

Hu Zongxian, Zhang Juzheng, Zhao Zhenji and Tan Lun looked at each other. What the emperor said made sense, but it was too shocking.

Zhu Yijun turned his head and looked at the south window, and said leisurely: “Yu Dayou’s memorial was sent a month ago. According to the itinerary, they should have arrived in Tianzhu Goa by now.

We have so many sailing ships and cannons, and our attitude is so peaceful and kind. I wonder if the Portuguese and Indians are willing to accept our small request. “

Zhu Yijun added in his heart.

Brother San, open the door, it’s free trade.

Just as Zhu Yijun expected, the Suzaku Navy led by Yu Dayou was marching towards India in a mighty manner. Their first stop was Chittagong in Bengal.

José Alfonso, the adjutant of Calderon, the Portuguese Governor-General of India who had already met God, the first Portuguese officer to raise the white flag, and now a loyal servant of the Ming Navy, was on the stern deck of the 2,100-ton Class B battleship Ningbo, the flagship of the Suzaku Navy, telling Yu Dayou and other naval commanders the “history of the conquest” of the Portuguese in India with a beaming face.

Afonso was once the aide-de-camp of León, the Portuguese deputy governor in Malacca. He followed the Portuguese on the diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty and learned a lot of Mandarin.

In the past few months since he turned from evil to good, he has worked even harder to learn Mandarin and Ming history, and he also named himself Hesai, with the courtesy name Fengxian.

It’s just that some of the more difficult words require additional translation with the general translation next to them.

“In the eleventh year of the great Hongzhi reign, which was May 18, 1498, the year Jesus was born, the Portuguese fleet of Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in southern India for the first time.”

The clerk next to him explained to Yu Dayou and others, “Master, this place is the Cochin Port recorded by the eunuch Sanbao when he sailed to the West.”

José danced with joy and said, “In the eighteenth year of the Hongzhi reign, the eighth year after Da Gama arrived in India, which was also the year 1505 in the Western calendar, King Manuel I of Portugal sent the first Governor-General of India, Don Francisco de Almeida, with twenty-one large sailing ships to strengthen the newly established colony in India.

In March, the fleet set out from Lisbon, with a crew of 400 sailors who had received military training, 1,500 soldiers, 300 gunners, more than 100 craftsmen of various kinds, and more than 20 missionaries who were proficient in mathematics, astronomy, and geography.

At this time, Jose completely regarded himself as a Ming Dynasty officer and narrated the history from the perspective of a Ming Dynasty person.

“By the fourth year of the Zhengde reign, which was 1509 AD, the Portuguese fleet had established a string of ports from Diu in the northwest of India to Cochin in the south, controlling trade on the west coast of India.

In the past, the trade here was controlled by the Arabs. Unwilling to accept this, they colluded with their business partner the Venetians, transported Venetian galleys from Egypt, as well as Ottoman Arab sailboats, and besieged the port of Diu. In the end, the Portuguese won.

The victorious Portuguese captured the city of Goa and built the Governor’s Palace there. From then on, all Arab merchants in the sea area of ​​Aden, Oman, Diu, Goa and Cochin Port had to pay taxes to the Portuguese.

The Portuguese continued eastward, and seized the port of Malacca in our Ming Dynasty, and followed the footsteps of Arab merchant ships to capture the Spice Islands.

Jose said indignantly.

“These damned robbers have spent fifty or sixty years operating this route that brings endless wealth. Starting from Malacca, they go to Chittagong for supplies, then turn southwest, go south along the east coast of India, pass Brigade, turn around Cape Mannar, go north along the west coast, and reach Goa via Cochin.

If you want to go to Arabia, you can continue northwards, passing through Surat and Diu to Oman, Basra and Aden. If you want to go to East Africa, you can take advantage of the wind from Goa to cross the Southern Ocean and go straight to Kilwa or Sofala.

Yu Dayou nodded: “The Chittagong we are going to now is an important supply station for the Portuguese from Malacca to India?”

“Yes, Marshal.” Jose called out in a clear and loud voice, “Chittagong was an important trading port for Arakanese, Arabs, Persians and Indians two or three hundred years ago, and it was also a place of contention between the Bengal Sultanate and the Arakan Sultanate.

In the 13th year of Zhengde, which was 1518 AD, the Portuguese tried to seize Chittagong from the Bengal Sultanate and monopolize the trading rights.

The group that went there was just an exploration team for geographical survey, with few ships and few people, and was defeated by the army of the Sultan of Bengal.

In the 17th year of the Jiajing reign, which was 1538 AD, the Arakanese, with the support of the Portuguese, seized Chittagong from the Sultan of Bengal.

So far, after several struggles, Chittagong currently belongs to Arakan in name, but in fact it is controlled by a Portuguese army in the name of Arakan mercenaries, and the pirates from Pagan (Myanmar) also have a lot of say in Chittagong. “

Yu Dayou snorted, “Pirates also have a say? Then is there still law in Chittagong?”

Jose replied flatteringly: “A lawless place, a place without laws.”

“That’s the pirates’ lair?”

Jose understood immediately, “To answer the master, it’s a pirate den, a den within a den, full of old pirates, pirates who have been around for many years, the kind that would be cheap if they died.”

“It’s cheaper to die?”

The interpreter, who was in perfect harmony with the situation, quickly added, “Master, he deserves to die.”

“That’s right, the pirates deserved to die! Do you know how our navy started?”

The generals around him answered in unison: “In compliance with the Emperor’s order, we started out fighting against Japanese pirates!”

“Since Chittagong is a pirate den, we don’t need to be so polite. There’s no need for any letters of challenge or envoys. Let’s just go over there and start fighting!”

“Follow the order!”

(End of this chapter)