After Liu Wei left, Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "If my guess is correct, the way to make money in Bailixia is probably in the north?"
Cao Gan was shocked: "You... how could the young master know?"
This "Master" was called out without Liu Wei present. Gao Pingshi was quite satisfied, but what was even more satisfying was Cao Gan's reaction.
It seems that my estimate is not wrong. The business that Bailixia really depends on for a living is really trading with the Mongols.
Gao Pragmatic was not like some ministers in the imperial court who firmly opposed any trade with the Mongols. In Gao Pragmatic's view, the Ming Dynasty's trade with Mongolia was not only profitable, but also because the Ming Dynasty had a huge economic volume that could completely crush Mongolia. It could achieve the purpose of using economic means to control various Mongolian ministries. Therefore, he not only supported the Carry out trade, and hope to greatly expand the scale of this trade until the various Mongolian ministries form serious economic dependence that "cannot survive without the Ming Dynasty." At that time, Mongolia will be said to be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. Why not?
This is the mindset that Gao Pragmatic developed as a minor politician in his previous life: If something can be solved by economic means, political means will not be used; if it can be solved with political means, military means will not be used.
I insist on having the ability to beat you to death, but I also insist on never starting a fight until the last moment. After all, in a war, firstly, there will inevitably be too much loss, and secondly, accidents will inevitably occur.
"Sun Tzu's Art of War: Planning and Attack Chapter" says: "In all methods of using troops, the whole country is the best, and the destruction of the country is second; the whole army is the best, and the destruction of the army is second; the whole brigade is the best, and the destruction of the brigade is second; the whole army is the best, and the destruction of the country is second. Killing is the next best thing; the whole army is the best, and breaking the army is the second best. Therefore, winning a hundred battles is not a good thing; subjugating the enemy's soldiers without fighting is a good thing."
Isn't it more cost-effective to use economic means to gradually control Mongolia and make Mongolia gradually come to my use than to devote the whole country's efforts and spend huge manpower, material and financial resources to conquer Mongolia? Besides, even if Mongolia was conquered, would the Han people go to Mongolia and build a city on the left and another on the right? How much effort did the Han people have to spend to maintain the occupation of the Mongolian grassland that was not suitable for farming?
Unless the productivity and military revolution have reached the level of later generations, Gao Pragmatism insists that using Mongolia to subjugate Mongolia is a good way to achieve long-term peace and stability.
What's more, the Mongols can not only turn enemies into friends with the Han people, but can even become comrades-in-arms with the Han people: you must know that wild boar skins may jump out and cause trouble in the future, and Mongolian friends need to send troops to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty - of course, now Not friends yet.
When Cao Gan asked this, Gao Pragmatic laughed, but did not answer his words. Instead, he continued to ask: "You are trading with the Mongols. What do you sell and what do they sell? Or are you bartering?"
Gao Pangshi's question made Cao Gan a little excited, and said: "The Mongols need a lot of things, such as silk, silk, cotton, needle thread, comb grate, rice salt, candy, tassel cloth, otter skin , sheepskin boxes... I like everything, I want everything." After a pause, he added: "As for us, our collection is pretty broad, including horses, cows, sheep, mules, donkeys, horsetails, sheepskins, etc. We’ll also take the fur coats and these.”
Gao Pragmatic was a little surprised: "Why do we still have otter skins for sale? Mongolia doesn't have them?" It has to be said that Gao Pragmatic's understanding of wild animals is not very good. He thought that Mongolia should be plentiful of all kinds of animal skins. , and the leather-making technology is also very advanced.
"Otters mostly inhabit rivers and lakes. That's not to say there are none in Mongolia, but there are far fewer compared to us. Besides, they live as nomads, so they don't often hunt otters and the like. The winter in Mongolia is quite cold, so otter skins are very useful to them. In addition, we Han people are skillful and the leather is exquisite and durable, so the Mongolians like to buy otter skins from us Han people, especially the Mongolian nobles, all like otter skins." Cao Gan explained.
Gao pragmatic thought for a while and asked, "Don't you sell those iron pots and the like?"
Cao Gan shook his head and said: "It's true that the price of iron pots and other items is uneconomical, but the government and border troops sometimes check. The villain thinks that anyway, he can support Bailixia and his gang by doing other businesses. , there is no need to violate the ban for a few iron pots, attract the attention of the government, and ask for trouble."
Gao Pingshi praised: "Okay, your idea is very smart." Then he asked: "But I heard that the official market is not often open...are you going to the private market?"
In fact, the direct trade exchanges between the Mongols and the Han people have not been interrupted at all. Let’s not talk about the distant Ming Dynasty. During the Yongle period, Arutai started the "tribute trade" with the Ming Dynasty. "One tribute per year, or another year." Paying tribute is considered normal." This kind of "tribute trade" is an official trade, mainly at the request of the Mongolian feudal lords. They hope to get double rewards through paying tribute and obtain high-end products such as silk and satin that they cannot produce themselves but want to enjoy.
This kind of "tributary trade" and the mutual trade between common people are commercial activities of different nature, and are not the same as the exchange activities between nomadic and agricultural economies. Didn't Marx say, "The mutual relations among various nations depend on the productivity, division of labor and development of internal exchanges of each nation." The "tribute trade" in the early Ming Dynasty was a trade method that was compatible with the socio-economic development of Mongolia at that time.
Around the mid-Ming Dynasty, Mongolia's social economy developed. In the 16th year of Chenghua, Dayan Khan, known as the little prince in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", eliminated the separatism and melee within Mongolian society. During the Jiajing period, "the little prince was the most prosperous, with more than 100,000 strings in his hands, many livestock and shells, and he was a little tired of soldiers, so he moved to the east and was called a barbarian. There were many tribes in the northwest." "Over the years, I have adopted Zanzi. I have given birth to a child, and I am nourishing it day by day. I will order the little prince, Ji Nang, and I to answer the tribes for three or four hundred thousand. Looking at the people who used to run for their lives and live in poverty without seeing horse arrows, how great is it?" It's bad."
It can be seen that the development of livestock production and population growth in Mongolia during this period enabled them to exchange more livestock products as commodities on the one hand, and on the other hand they also experienced the situation of "many tribes and insufficient food". Under such circumstances, Mongolia will inevitably have a strong demand for foreign trade in order to exchange its own livestock products for grain and other consumer goods produced by the Han people. When this demand could not be met, the Mongolian rulers could only launch a war in an attempt to open the door to trade with the Han people. The "Gengxu Revolution" is actually a microcosm of this type of war.
During this period, although there were frequent armed conflicts between the Mongolian and Han rulers and inter-ethnic wars on and off, trade activities actually appeared spontaneously among the people, which was known as "private market" in history.
"Private markets" are not a recent phenomenon. In fact, they have already appeared as early as the Hongzhi period. "Recently, it has been heard that the northern barbarians brought tribute and brought their horses to private markets at the border. Those who got the goods in the market returned to their powerful families because they made huge profits." Under the "huge profits", merchants and people will flock to it. "Merchant merchants from far and near often trade iron goods with captives, and residents in villages and cities also follow suit and violate the prohibition." Although the Ming Dynasty issued a series of prohibitions in an attempt to ban the "private market," trade activities between Mongolia and Han were an inevitable product of the social and economic development of Mongolia and Han people, and could not be suffocated by the Ming Dynasty using the coercive power of the state.
If this is not the case, how could Gao Gong take the opportunity to promote the important matter of "I answer tribute" in the coming year? It can be seen that there are various foundations for doing this. As long as the Ming court has a politician who can truly look at the problem from a practical standpoint, it will definitely follow the trend.
The private market is a concrete manifestation of this foundation.
