Gao Pragmatic didn't immediately stop him, and Wu Dui's anger didn't seem to be fake. On his usually gentle face, you could actually see the veins on his forehead, and even his whole face was distorted by anger.
Wu Xun had always been very courteous and courteous before, just like his name, but this time he was very stubborn. Not only was he not deterred, he took a deep breath and said firmly: "My nephew thinks that with Uncle Shi, Talent, worries are clear in your heart."
Gao pragmatic finally smiled, stretched out his hand to stop Wu Dui who had already stood up suddenly, and said: "Senior brother, please calm down and let me talk to Qianzhi."
Although Wu Dui was shaking with anger, he still had to take care of his pragmatic face. He took a few breaths and suppressed his anger: "This traitor is just incompetent, but he is still so arrogant. It seems that he has been left here all these years." Shanyin, it's my fault! Please tell me the truth, you don't have to take care of my old face, just scold me if I deserve it, if I deserve a beating... hit me hard for me!"
"No, not really." Gao Pingshi smiled gently and said, "I think Qianzhi's words are quite a wake-up call."
"He? He?" Wu Dui snorted coldly and said bitterly: "I think he needs a wake-up call." But after all, probably because Gao Pragmatic didn't seem angry, Wu Dui's tone finally Toned down a bit.
"Qianzhi, you just said that Jiangnan nobles and wealthy families will not accept the dominance of the Jinghua family, and will definitely join forces to compete with Jinghua... What is the evidence?" Gao Pragmatic turned around and asked.
Wu Xun shook his head and said: "My nephew is only a scholar from Shanyin, how can I produce any evidence? But my nephew thinks that this matter does not need to be proved, and can be known by inference."
Wu Dui heard another sneer, but because he was asking a pragmatic question at the moment, he didn't interrupt.
Gao Pragmatic was noncommittal and just asked: "So, how did you deduce it?"
Wu Xundao said: "I heard that among the several ports in Beijing, Tianjin has the largest number of ships entering and exiting the port and the total volume of goods, followed by Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Ningbo and the newly built Shanghai Port. I wonder if this rumor is true?”
In fact, Wu Xun also missed Qinzhou Port, Jingang Port, Yingkou Port and even Kaiping Port, but Gao Pragmatic didn't care because he found that the ports mentioned by Wu Xun, except Shanghai New Port, were all built during the period when Gao Gong opened the sea. The official ports are all located in the "core area" of the Ming Dynasty. It doesn't matter whether Wu Xun can only have access to news from these few places.
Gao Pangshi said calmly: "The ports you mentioned are indeed in this order."
Wu Xun said: "Tianjin relies on the capital, and its current status is understandable. However, although Quanzhou has been a seaport in the past, Fujian has been poor since ancient times, has not produced much, and has a far smaller population than Zhejiang. Why is it more prosperous than Ningbo? "
Gao pragmatic smiled and asked: "I would like to hear the high opinion."
"I don't dare." Wu Xun said: "Liu Sanbian once said, 'The southeast is victorious, the three Wu cities are there, and Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times.' However, according to my nephew's understanding, Pingyang is the most generous among the northern provinces, and within the thirteen provinces of the two capitals Second only to Suzhou, followed by Xi'an, Jinan, Kaifeng, Qingzhou and Taiyuan.
Among the southern provinces, Suzhou accounts for 11% of the world's food tax as a prefecture, and it goes without saying that it is the best in the world. Later, Songjiang became one of the top three dynasties in the country and was also a prosperous place. After that, there are places like Changzhou, Jiaxing, Nanchang, Huzhou, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, etc., and even in the top 40, Ningbo is nowhere to be found..."
Gao pragmatic asked: "Are you trying to say that Ningbo has declined and therefore cannot compare with Quanzhou?"
Unexpectedly, Wu Xun shook his head: "Quanzhou is not included in it, how can it be 'therefore'?"
"What do you mean?" Gao Pragmatic was a little curious.
Wu Xun said: "Huzhou, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, the four prefectures of Zhejiang, surrounding Qiantang, are all on the list, but Ningbo is also on the edge of Qiantang, but it failed to make the list. Don't you think it's a little strange, Uncle Shi? Oh. By the way, I wonder if Uncle Shi knows that although Suzhou and Hangzhou are both on this list, Suzhou's grain tax is as high as more than 2.5 million dan, while Hangzhou's is only 234,000 dan. As for Ningbo, it is not on the list. Those who are on the list will be even less.”
Gao Pragmatic pondered for a moment and said: "Are you trying to say that when the dynasty was first established, either the power gap between Suzhou, Hangzhou and Suning was extremely huge, or... Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places seriously concealed their economic strength? "
The word economy has existed since ancient times, but its original meaning was different from that of later generations. However, after Gao Gong and Gao pragmatism vigorously promoted practical learning, the word gradually became more used in the Ming Dynasty. Now it is close to the meaning of later generations, and Wu Xun naturally understands it.
Who knew that Wu Xun smiled slightly and said: "It is not impossible to say that it is concealed, but in fact, from my nephew's point of view, it cannot be said to be concealed, but the court gave up on its own initiative."
Gao Pingshi's heart moved, and he vaguely guessed what he was going to say.
Sure enough, Wu Xun curled his lips slightly and said: "At that time, the imperial court divided household registration, and merchants were neither registered nor taxed. At that time, the wealth in Qiantang was no longer in the fields, but in silkworms and merchants, but these silkworm households were not Wealthy, the truly rich are all merchants, so when the Yellow Book was compiled, the grain tax in Qiantang was much lower than that in Suzhou."
Gao pragmatic knew that although what he said was true, the reason why Suzhou's grain tax was exceptionally high was because Zhang Shicheng, Zhu Yuanzhang's number one enemy in the early days, had Suzhou as his base camp, so Zhu Yuanzhang levied heavy taxes on Suzhou.
Of course, it later turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang's overall taxes were set too low, so that Suzhou clearly paid the highest grain tax in the country. Suzhou people could also say with disdain: I don't care about this tax break.
However, it seems that the grain tax in the Qiantangjiang area is indeed too low, and even if the situation mentioned by Wu Xun is taken into account, Gao Pragmatic still feels that something is wrong - if the economic level of Suzhou and Hangzhou is roughly the same, is it possible that Hangzhou Should the commercial tax be as high as nine times the grain tax? This is too exaggerated.
Even if we discount it in half, it seems that Hangzhou's economic strength was only half that of Suzhou during the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and the commercial tax that should have been paid should have been four or five times the grain tax. This seems to be a bit excessive.
Wu Xun saw Gao Pragmatic's doubts and became more confident at this time, talking eloquently: "Uncle Shi, whether it's Hangzhou or Ningbo...especially Ningbo, this place has been a trading seaport since ancient times, and there are many people who go to sea to do business. , the country first did not recognize merchants, and then began to ban the sea. Can these people quickly switch careers and return to land farming? Obviously not.
Therefore, they just moved from the stage to the stage, and sea merchants turned into pirates. Later, it was said that Japanese pirates had invaded our waters for more than a hundred years, but in fact, how many Japanese pirates were there? Most of them are just "maritime merchant families" from the coast. "
Needless to say, this matter has been publicly discussed for a long time. Gao Pragmatic was not surprised. One thing he noticed was that Wu Xun deliberately emphasized the word "maritime merchant family".
Gao Pragmatic nodded slightly and said with a smile: "Are you saying that the reason why Ningbo Port is not developing smoothly is because these 'maritime merchant families' are obstructing it?"
Wu Xun also laughed, cupped his hands and said, "Uncle Shi is a sensible person, that's right." Then he paused, and then said, "My nephew also knows a lot about these maritime merchant families in Shanyin."
"Oh?" Gao Pingshi became interested and said seriously: "I would like to hear the details."
"In fact, these maritime merchant families have now become three shares, and the weakest one has been invested in Jinghua. They have contributed a lot to Ningbo Port's current situation."
Gao Pragmatic nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.
Wu Xun then said: "However, compared to the other two groups, their strength is very different. There are two points that those two forces are arguing about now: one is to gather their own strength and form a new Zhejiang alone. The Maritime Trade Alliance is to compete with Jinghua’s power in Zhejiang; the second is to join forces with Nanjing Xungui to build a broader Nanjing Maritime Trade Alliance to compete with Jinghua’s Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.”
Gao Pragmatic was not stupid enough to ask Wu Xun where he got the news from. He just remained silent for a moment and then asked: "Does Qian Zhi know which faction has the upper hand now?"
Wu Xun simply said: "Zhejiang faction."
Gao Pingshi smiled, shook his head and said, "Short-sighted."
Wu Xun also laughed and said: "Uncle Shi's evaluation is indeed to the point, but Uncle Shi and my nephew feel that although the Zhejiang faction still has the upper hand at the moment, sooner or later, the Nanjing faction will overwhelm the Zhejiang faction. That'Nanjing faction The Sea Trade Alliance is very likely to appear, so Uncle Shi must not be careless."
Gao pragmatic did not answer directly, but thought for a while before asking: "What role did the Duke of Wei and the Marquis of Linhuai play in this?"
This question may be a bit over the top. Wu Xun shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Uncle Shi, my nephew is just ordered to guard the house in Shanyin. My nephew has no way of knowing these in-depth situations."
Gao pragmatic thought the same thing. Wu Dui's hope for him should be to become an official. The best way is to take the imperial examination. If not, Enyin could get through the position of Jin Yiwei and do the martial arts examination himself. In this case, Wu Dui could not give him much power to hand over the Nanjing nobles - Wu Dui himself was both a civil servant and the Minister of War, and he did not dare to let his son fight with the Nanjing nobles. If it were a book, it would be very sexy.
You must know that Nanjing Xungui and Yanjing Xungui are not from the same lineage, and they guard one side alone and are not under the emperor's nose. Therefore, it is much more dangerous for civil servants to associate with Nanjing Xungui than with Yanjing Xungui. , easier to get references.
One of the important reasons why Gao Pingshi traveled through time more than ten years ago was that among the nobles of Nanjing, there were only two reluctant friends, Duke Xu Bangrui of Wei State and Li Yangong, Marquis of Linhuai. That was because he had a hand in the Xu family's internal affairs and helped Li Zongcheng in the past.
"However, if we look at the external situation alone, the Linhuai Marquis Mansion does not seem to care much about wooing Zhejiang maritime merchants, and even deliberately avoids it. As for the Duke of Wei... Uncle Shi, with the status of the Duke of Wei, will not be able to win over the sea until the end. For a moment, they can not take a stand - because no one dares to ignore his family, and no one dares to force his family to take a stand."
Gao pragmatically nodded, expressing understanding. Wei Guogong's status among Nanjing's nobles is similar to Cheng Guogong's status among Yanjing's nobles. He is a leader in the world.
If he doesn't speak, you can only guess. Even if you are here to discuss some benefits, you have to count him in if he doesn't say a word. This is the "habitual prestige" formed after the continuous blessing of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. It's useless no matter how much you envy, envy or hate.
Gao pragmatic decided to ignore this issue for the time being, and changed the topic back, saying: "It seems that the Zhejiang faction's maritime merchants have the upper hand now, mostly because the Duke of Wei did not say anything, and the Linhuai Marquis' mansion did not intervene. So, Qianzhi, you just proposed that I leave the sea trade matter to you, it seems that you have a way to deal with it?"
Before Wu Xun could speak, Wu Dui couldn't help but interrupt this time: "Please tell the truth, don't listen to his nonsense. How much money does this scoundrel manage in Shanyin? Don't I know? Add it together." There is less than 3,000 acres of land, and there are only a few shops. Let him take charge of Jinghua Sea Trade? It’s a joke, he has no idea how big the plate of Jinghua Sea Trade is!”
Of course, Gao Pragmatic would not give him the helm of the huge Jinghua Sea Trade just because of Wu Xun's words. That would be crazy, so he smiled and said: "The amount of money transferred by Jinghua Sea Trade every year is not as high as that of Taicang Silver." few."
The so-called Taicang here is not limited to Taicang. Ming Dynasty people often used Taicang to refer to the treasury, and Gao Pragmatic also means the same here.
He felt that there was no need to hide this matter from the Wu family and his son, because Jinghua paid taxes seriously. Although the Ming Dynasty's customs tax was based on the "tax based on the ship" that Gao Pragmatic originally suggested to Gao Gong, the actual value of the goods on board was not The estimates of profit and profit are not accurate, but the general scale is obvious. Anyone who is interested can find out the roughness by checking, and there is no need to hide it.
But this amount is still too astonishing. Although Gao Pragmatic is only talking about postings, not profits, the amount of silver posted exceeds Taicang, which means at least six million taels were posted.
How profitable the sea trade is? You can guess from what Wu Xun just learned about the sea trade in the Qiantang area. He is knowledgeable. The profit here is at least two to three million. In fact, it is more than that, because they don't know what Gao Jingshi just said. This statement should be taken with a grain of salt. Jinghua's annual transactions in maritime trade are almost twice that of Taicang.
Although this transaction amount is not even comparable to the annual profit of brother Zheng Zhilong later. If you count the current net profit of Jinghua, it is far less than the Zheng family. However, this is not the period of Zheng Zhilong after all. Both the Wu family and his son were overwhelmed by this amount. The shock was severe.
Of course Wu Dui knew that Gao Jingshi was rich, but to what extent he was rich, he didn't actually know much about it. He also didn't know that Jinghua's maritime trade alone was so amazing that he was stunned for a while and gasped for a long time. He took a breath and sighed: "Now I finally know why Zhu Yingzhen, Zhang Yuangong and the rest of the group of fancy Taisui obeyed you in everything, and almost became your helpers in the capital... This Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance can at least do it a year. Can a few of them earn hundreds of thousands of taels?"
Gao pragmatic smiled, but did not take the challenge. Instead, he said to Wu Xun: "Qianzhi, do you think you can help me take charge of Jinghua Maritime Trade now?"
Wu Xun's face turned pale, and he waved his hands and shook his head quickly: "No, no, no, how can my nephew afford such a big deal? My nephew was arrogant before, so arrogant... I still want to ask Uncle Shi for tens of millions of dollars. Forgive me."
Gao pragmatic laughed and said: "What you just said is quite insightful... Well, if you really don't want to be an official and want to work hard in the business world, I can give you a Ningbo Port colleague. I wonder if you can Are you willing to give in?"
Tongguan is actually the deputy to the supervisor. This term has a strong "Ming style". Although Gao Qingshi felt that what Wu Xun just said was indeed insightful, he had not really done it after all. It would be difficult to convince the public if he was directly in charge of a port. It might even cause discord between the old and the new within Ningbo Port, so he gave it to his deputy to see how good it was.
After hearing this, Wu Dui still felt that it was too high, and was about to decline on his behalf, but Wu Xun gritted his teeth and said, "My nephew is willing."
Before his father could get angry again, he took the initiative and said: "Uncle Shi, please give my nephew three years. If Ningbo Port's ranking among the ports in Beijing does not improve within three years, there is no need for Uncle Shi to ask. My nephew will come to Uncle Shi on his own." Please forgive me."
Wu Dui's face looked a little ugly, but he finally held it back and didn't say anything.
Gao Pingshi smiled at Wu Xun and said, "It's a deal."
"It's a deal!" Wu Xun's expression looked as if he had just made a decision about life and death.
Gao Pingshi laughed and suddenly asked: "Does Qianzhi have a name?"
Wu Xun was startled, shook his head and said, "If you don't succeed in your studies, how dare you call yourself a master?"
Gao pragmatic turned to Wu Dui and said: "Senior brother, I will give you the number one and Qianzhi as a gift. What do you think?"
Wu Dui was stunned for a moment, as if he had guessed something, and said with a wry smile: "You are the teacher, so of course you can, but this scoundrel...can actually get the title of Sixth Number One Scholar. Brother Yu really doesn't know what to say."
Gao Pingshi laughed, looked at the excited Wu Xun, and said with a smile: "Your name is Xun, and your name is Qianzhi. This word agrees with the name, and it is derived from it, but I gave you this number, but I have to go against it - —No."
Wu Xun was overjoyed and said, "You must do your best. This is exactly what my nephew has wished for in his life! My nephew, thank you uncle Shi for giving me the title!" After saying that, he immediately kowtowed in thanks.
----------
Thanks to the book friend "Single Rider Zhao Bixin" for the reward and support, thank you! Thank you to book friends "Not a Romance", "Sitting at the Door of the Tavern", and "Shen Domination 2" for their monthly support, thank you!
