"Governor Ma," Li Jicheng suddenly interrupted as Bruce Van Diemen translated Matt Solko's words into Chinese, "What's the use of that overseas colony? It's so far away and it's hard to control. , fought hard, and finally rebelled and built a country on their own, wouldn’t that be a piece of cake?”
Bruce listened to his words and thought: You have betrayed your trust, so you also doubt that others will betray their trust? It is indeed a country of robbers!
I thought so in my heart, but I still translated the words of the emperor's grandson into Dutch honestly.
Matsolko thought about the Dashun Kingdom very seriously, and then said: "The Ming Empire seems to have considered this problem for a long time, so it established vassal states overseas and gave them to the emperor's brothers and nephews. .....”
"This method..." Li Jicheng was reluctant. The Li family in Dashun now had a large population. Li Zicheng himself had no sons, but he had nephew Li Guo (who later became Li Zicheng's son) and younger brother Li Zijing. . Li Guo ascended the throne and became the emperor, and Li Zijing was named the King of Chu. He was raised in Kunming to eat, drink and have a son.
Li Guo and Li Zijing both had sons, among whom Li Guo had eleven sons and Li Zijing had eight sons. Some of these sons were adults, and the adult sons gave birth to many sons!
Among Li Guo's sons, except Li Laiheng, who was granted the title of prince, the rest are princes. Li Zijing's sons took their eldest son Li Zhong as the crown prince, and the others were granted the title of marquis.
As for the sons of Prince Li Laiheng, the eldest son Li Jicheng was granted the title of grandson, and the others were granted the title of county princes. In the future, when Li Laiheng became the emperor, these princes could also be promoted to princes.
The treatment of the princes of the Li family is much better than the treatment given by Zhu Cixiang to the sons and grandsons of the Zhu family - Zhu Cixiang has many options here and can work hard on his own. Li Guo has no way out here, so he has to support these princes. Therefore, the princes of the Li family were given "10,000 shi" for their positions, the county princes were given "5,000 shi", and the marquis was given "3,000 shi".
Thinking of these "given away" land, Li Jicheng was a little reluctant to part with it. If he is asked to spend money and effort to support these brothers who are always jealous of his position as prince, he will not be willing to do so. What good will this do to him? Not only is there no benefit, it may also have disadvantages! What if these brothers are ungrateful and rebel?
"What are the benefits of Zhu Cihong doing this?" Li Jicheng asked.
Matt Solko thought for a while, "We can export some of the population to ease the local land tension."
The land is tense... Li Jicheng's head hurts when he hears these four words!
Now the Dashun Dynasty is also encountering the problem of land shortage! We only have this little land, but more and more people want a share. How can we continue like this? And it seems that it is not easy to export the population.
"But those people may not be willing to go that far!" Li Jicheng complained, "This place in Myanmar is quite spacious. How many people are willing to come?"
Matsolko said: "That's because there is no inducement of huge profits. Business in the Ming Dynasty is prosperous. Whether you go east to Xinzhou or south to Siam and Ca Mau, it is profitable. In recent years, many people have been in Nanyang. He and Xinzhou made a fortune. With them as examples, of course some people braved the hardships and traveled long distances and crossed the sea."
To put it bluntly, the Ming Dynasty’s current foreign colonization is mainly colonization of a capitalist nature—that is, colonization oriented toward economic interests. Except for the exiled prisoners who were caught committing crimes, most of the others went to sea with dreams of getting rich. After arriving, whether it is running a farm, hunting fur animals, opening various workshops and shops, or looking for gold, the purpose is to make a fortune, and you are responsible for the profits and losses!
Among the people of the Ming Dynasty who went out to make a fortune, many were capital-hungry businessmen, some were businessmen obsessed with money, and some were the sons of rich and powerful families who had no inheritance rights (titles). With their capital and management, the Ming court's investment in the colonies was much smaller - not only was the capital invested smaller, but the management pressure was also lighter. Colonies are often thousands of miles away from the mainland, and a round trip takes a year or two. Management is a big problem.
Where could Emperor Zhu find so many officials who were both capable and incorruptible, and who were not afraid of hardship or death, so that they could be financially responsible for colonial management? Just think about it and you’ll know it’s not possible. He doesn’t even know if someone is greedy! Of course, if he wanted to take the Spanish-style colonial route, that would be another matter. However, the land in the hands of the Ming Dynasty was different from the land that the Spaniards had acquired in the early years. It was not so profitable, and he had to invest in development before he could gain anything.
Moreover, the native population of the Ming Dynasty was too large. In the blink of an eye, it was 200 million, not just a few million like Spain. Therefore, it had to be exported, which required a large amount of manpower and material resources to be invested in the development of the colonies.
Therefore, Ming Dynasty's colonial development had to rely on evil capital and feudal lords, and the feudal lords had to raise their own capital. Under this model, the Ming court's investment in colonies was very limited. For the Ming court, the cost of colonization was very low.
The cost is very low, so we can make it big!
If the cost of colonization is too high, the colonial enterprise will lose money, and expansion at a loss is unsustainable.
Of course, this kind of low-cost colonization is not without its shortcomings. Its shortcoming is that it is difficult to control unprofitable territories, and the Ming Dynasty and these vassal states are bound by economic interests. It's good and united when the economic interests are the same. But once financial interests conflict, sooner or later there will be a falling out.
"No, no," Li Jicheng was already shaking his head, "Well, he's not a profiteer. He's a real person, and he doesn't know the tricks of deception."
The great success and suppression of business naturally highlight the treachery of businessmen. Li Jicheng was taught the concepts of treacherous businessmen, slippery craftsmen, duty of farmers, and loyalty and bravery of scholars (soldiers) since he was a child, so he just said this when he opened his mouth, completely forgetting that today's guests, Matt Solko and Bruce Dimento, He is what he calls a profiteer.
Of course Matt Solko and Bruce Dimen were unhappy when the Crown Prince pointed their noses at the profiteers. No matter how much they cheated, Li Jicheng would never cheat!
The two foreign devils exchanged glances with each other and decided to trick Li Jicheng.
"If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince doesn't know how to do business and wants to make profits from the sea," Bruce Van Diemen now took over the topic and said to Li Jicheng, "then it's better to rob it!"
"Grab..." Li Jicheng touched his beard. This is a craft passed down from his ancestors, but his family's craft is used on land, not at sea. Every row is like a mountain! Going out to sea to grab things is Zheng Zhilong's specialty.
"But we don't know how to fight in the water!" Li Jicheng was pragmatic, "I faint when I go to sea, how can I fight?"
Bruce Van Diemen heard this and thought to himself: You landlubbers still want to be pirates? But don't capsize when you get out of the sea, otherwise Emperor Zhu will not send troops to destroy your family.
"It doesn't matter if you don't know how to fight on the water," Bruce Van Diemen said. "In fact, the best target for plunder is right next to you. The navy of Arakan is enough... If you still If you feel uneasy, we in the Netherlands can also provide some help to build you a navy strong enough to operate in the offshore waters of the Bay of Bengal."
"Around us?" Li Jicheng thought for a while, "You mean Dagu Laguo?"
The Dakula Kingdom was located in the Tanasalin area in later generations. Now it is not a unified country, but a bunch of small states of the Mon people. Dashun and Daming were not interested in them, so they kept them as a buffer.
"Of course not," said Bruce Van Diemen, "Look to the west!"
"To the west?" Li Jicheng understood, "You are talking about the Kingdom of Tianzhu! But the Mughal Empire in Tianzhu has strong soldiers and strong horses, and there is also a very capable Aurangzeb, which is very difficult to deal with! They are still fighting with each other now The Ming Dynasty is at war, and there is not much power available for the Western Expedition!"
It's not like Li Jicheng didn't peek at Tianzhu during these days in Miaowu. But the information he collected told him that the Mughals next door were very difficult to deal with! The soldiers are strong and the horses are strong, and a wise king is at court!
Bruce Van Diemen smiled and said: "Don't you Chinese often say that hearing is false and seeing is believing? Whether the Mughals are easy to mess with or whether Aurangzeb can fight, you still have to send reliable people. Seeing... In the eyes of us Dutch, although Emperor Aurangzeb was powerful, he was not invincible, because his power was all on land, and his ambitions were too great, and he attacked from all sides. , there is not much spare power to defend India’s long and fertile coastline. If you want to occupy Indian land for a long time, you may not have enough strength, but what if you just grab it and leave?”
