Regarding Su Yonglin's plan to search for precious metals overseas and explore unknown areas, at first, most people in the court did not understand this action.
They generally felt that doing so would cost a lot of money, a lot of manpower and material resources, and would add a huge burden to the government's finances.
If you cannot get enough benefits, then it is meaningless and just a waste of national money.
A large voyage requires a lot of money. If you just want to explore because of the unknown, this reason may not be enough to convince the public.
Exploration requires a lot of wealth, and wealth is gathered from the hard work and taxes paid by the people. Every penny should be used with value, whether it is to expand territory, civil engineering, water conservancy construction, or reclaiming new land. Well, these are all gains that will not be wasted.
But sailing and exploring the oceans...
To put it bluntly, if you encounter a storm at sea, you will really lose all your money. Is this really necessary?
Is it really worth it?
This view has a relatively large support group within the imperial court and within the Renaissance organization.
To put it bluntly, the reason why Europeans were able to make great voyages was not only driven by capitalist production relations, but also because they were stimulated by the actions of pioneers like Marco Polo and the writings they left behind.
Their forerunners have already been to China and wrote books to let them know that China is a country "flowing with milk and honey and filled with gold". They came here to find China and to make a fortune.
They have clear goals.
And the earliest exploration was not a government organization, but a private exploration behavior by private individuals. The government did not pay any fees for this and did not bear any risks.
When private behavior indeed discovered vast possibilities, the government got involved and plundered, developing this private exploration into a comprehensive exploration policy of a global nature, laying the foundation for subsequent plunder.
But at this time, Su Yonglin could not say that he knew that there were a large number of precious metal mines, especially silver, in the Pacific coast from North America to South America.
He cannot say that the Native Americans were so rich that they used gold and silver as daily necessities to make various ornaments and wear them on their bodies.
Moreover, their productivity, social organization form and civilization form are far inferior to those of the Ming Dynasty. Even if the Ming Dynasty did not use the form of war and colonization, it could still use productivity to form a dimensionality reduction strike.
Use various handmade goods and agricultural products that are not available in the Americas to open up the market. Through legitimate business models, we can obtain excess gold and silver from the Native Americans. We can also spread culture, spread revolution, and establish advance teams in the Americas. The development of territory and so on.
Anyway, given the vastness of the Americas, there are many unclaimed lands. Whoever discovers them first belongs to them. There is no moral burden at all.
In this way, a steady stream of gold and silver will flow into the Ming Dynasty, adding enough gold and silver savings to the Ming Dynasty, thereby laying the foundation for promoting currency reform.
This is something that only Su Yonglin knows and others don't know and dare not believe.
Despite this, Su Yonglin still used his power and prestige to push forward the matter. He also said that if it was possible to break the currency deadlock, not to mention an expedition fleet, three, four or five could be sent out.
When the domestic demand cannot be met, we must go abroad to find infinite possibilities. This is something we must do sooner or later. Since we have the demand and the ability now, why not do it instead of holding on to this acre of land and working hard. What about involution?
Why can’t we look for new possibilities externally?
Comrades, it is important to open up your horizons and your structure.
With this as the core point, Su Yonglin delivered many speeches at the State Council and the Renaissance Society meetings, talking about the significance of commercial expansion to the economy, the significance of territorial expansion to the country, and the significance of revolutionary expansion to the Renaissance itself.
It was at this time that Su Yonglin talked about arranging the revolution as outward as possible for the first time. He said that it is not only the success of the revolution in Ming Dynasty that is considered a success, but the success of the revolution in the entire world is the ultimate success.
As long as there is still one person who is oppressed, then the ideals of the Renaissance are not considered a success. No matter where they are, as long as they are human beings, that is the goal of the Renaissance to liberate.
Is it enough to just liberate the Chinese people?
Has the revolution succeeded?
No, no, that's not the case at all. It's not enough.
Revolutionaries must open their horizons, open up the pattern, and look at revolutionary issues from the perspective of a global chess game.
In this way, we can find that from a global perspective, although the Ming Revolution was successful and formed an advantage in the region, when it comes to region and scale, from a global perspective, it is still just a spark.
And as the frequency of our exchanges with foreign countries increases and the mutual understanding between the two sides deepens, sooner or later the superior people on the other side will discover the differences between Ming Dynasty and them, and sooner or later they will become afraid of Ming Dynasty's revolution.
What will they do after that?
They will close themselves off and cut themselves off from us.
They are also afraid that if their people have more contact with us, they will have the idea of hanging their royal family on the southeast branch. They are afraid that what happened in the Ming Dynasty will happen to them, so they have to prepare for a rainy day, even if the Ming Dynasty does not have that idea.
Then it's not just an issue affecting the economy.
Even if they can't defeat us, won't they close themselves off and cut off contact with us?
There are thousands of miles between us, how can we still launch an expedition thousands of miles away to ask them to open the country?
How much money and manpower and material resources will it cost?
We cannot allow ourselves to become a minority, we cannot allow ourselves to be isolated, we cannot allow ourselves to become aliens. We must make many friends and few enemies. Therefore, in addition to bringing the revolution to their lands and vigorously developing it, We have no other way.
The more scared they are, the more proactive we must be!
Only by liberating humanity all over the world can we finally liberate ourselves.
This was the first time Su Yonglin expounded his theory of world revolution, and initially elaborated on the necessity of comprehensive revolution from an economic perspective. He then wrote an article and distributed it nationwide, which triggered a wave of heated discussions within the imperial court and at local revival meetings.
And thus took the lead in opening a gap in the Ministry of Finance, which has the broadest vision.
A series of high-ranking officials and senior cadres of the Renaissance Association made statements one after another to support Su Yonglin's view. He believed that in the process of interacting with countries around the world, even if they were just doing business, when they really came into contact with the Ming Dynasty society and Ming Dynasty's revolutionary policies, they would also It will affect some people's thinking.
And after the thinking of these people is impacted and changed, it will have an unexpected impact on their home country.
And when the rulers of the mother country realize the changes brought about by this influence, they will irreversibly feel disgust and fear towards the Ming Dynasty.
This kind of disgust and fear will prompt them to cut off all contacts with the Ming Dynasty, and ban them from the government to the private sector to prevent the Ming Dynasty's revolutionary ideas from spreading too deeply, affecting the interests of the ruling class, and triggering revolution in the local area.
And if similar revolutionary actions occur in their homeland, it will prompt them to resolutely cut off contact with the Ming Dynasty, even if this kind of revolution was not initiated under the initiative of the Ming Dynasty.
Although such a problem will not occur in the short term, in ten or twenty years, this situation is very likely to become a reality.
Once this situation becomes a fact and Ming Dynasty has no corresponding preparations, it will have a profound impact on Ming Dynasty's economy.
Ming Dynasty never thought of being alone.
