Zhu Yingzhen went back to his hometown with the "constructive opinions" given by Gao Yingshi, and Gao Yingshi basically left all matters related to contact with the Shimadzu family to him.
In general, this "constructive opinion" is to let Zhu Yingzhen deceive the Shimadzu family into carrying out development-oriented reforms, making them feel that the fundamental reason why they were defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not that the Satsuma warriors were not good at fighting, but that Yu Toyotomi Omi Hideyoshi's economic strength crushed Satsuma, so he could forcefully push back with ten times the force.
This is not a lie but a fact. The people of the Shimadzu family will definitely understand it, so that they can make the next plan. This plan is naturally what Gao Pragmatic is best at: gradually strengthening economic penetration to economic control, and finally forming a state where Kyoko is a tree and Shimadzu is a vine, just like today's Tumut.
At that time, no matter what Kyoka wants to do, the Shimadzu family will have no choice but to follow, otherwise there will be a total economic collapse. That kind of collapse would not only mean the decline of people's livelihood, but also lead to the chaos of the feudal government and the rise of the lower-level samurai. For the Shimazu family, it would be a disaster.
To achieve this goal, the main purpose is to grasp the economic lifeline of Satsuma. However, Satsuma is still very backward at the moment. The so-called economic lifeline is nothing more than agriculture, and trade is only a supplement.
Mastering agriculture is obviously not what Gao pragmatism is interested in, and it is impossible to do it. In the final analysis, Japan currently has a land feudal system. What can Gao pragmatism do to control other people's fiefdoms?
Therefore, what Gao pragmatic means is to let the Shimadzu family produce one or two flagship products, and the income from these two flagship products must be able to overwhelm traditional agricultural income and become the majority of the Satsuma feudal government's income, thereby forming the capital of the entire Satsuma feudal lord. It is impossible to do without this profit situation.
This kind of thinking is very useful for small countries. For example, the economic rise of South Korea in later generations relied on a few chaebol giants?
However, the purpose of Gao pragmatism is to control them after all, rather than develop them as locals. Therefore, the first thing that these two flagship products must satisfy is that they cannot do without Gao pragmatism's support. Once Gao pragmatism is separated, industries will appear. The collapse became the "unbearable pain" of Satsuma Domain.
Gao Pragmatic had a rough understanding of the history of Japan's rise in his previous life. In his opinion, if Japan was Germany, then Satsuma should be Prussia. The Satsuma Domain is undoubtedly the engine of Japan's modern rise, and its importance to Japan's modernization is even more important than the Choshu Domain, which "owns the Japanese army."
The Satsuma Domain, as it is known to later generations, belongs to the Shimazu clan. Its height is 770,000 koku, ranking second in Japan. The feudal castle is Kagoshima Castle. However, unfortunately, the current Satsuma clan was taught and punished by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and its height was reduced to just over 600,000 koku, and its strength was greatly reduced.
The history of the Satsuma Domain and the Shimazu family has been briefly mentioned before, so I will not go into details here. I will only talk about the economic problems of the Satsuma Domain at this time.
If financial problems are a common problem that plagues all feudal clans from the Azuchi-Momoyama period (Oda Nobunaga-Toyotomi Hideyoshi) to the Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate), then the situation in Satsuma is probably the most difficult among the clans.
Due to many historical reasons, it is no exaggeration to say that the Satsuma Domain was basically on the verge of bankruptcy for more than two hundred years during this period. Due to long-term financial constraints and geographical remoteness, the Satsuma clansmen were regarded as country people and suffered repeated discrimination.
Regional discrimination is very common in Japan. For example, the Asano family of the Ako clan was regarded as a "country daimyo" and was required to learn etiquette. As a result, the story of Zang Zhongchen, a loyal minister. And this Ako clan is in Harima country, and discrimination is not very far from Kyoto.
In comparison, the status of the Satsuma Domain, which is further away than the Ako Domain, can be imagined in the eyes of "city dwellers". This unfair treatment can be said to have played a great role in promoting the Satsuma clan's active participation in the overthrow movement in the future.
Because they were regarded as rural and even barbarians, for the Satsuma clan, the significance of successful financial reforms was quite extraordinary. As the most powerful of the four major feudal lords at the end of the Bakumatsu period, the Satsuma Domain was able to transform from a domain that had been on the verge of bankruptcy for two hundred years to the head of a powerful domain, and even created the feudal politics that would last nearly a hundred years without stable financial support. That is impossible.
Since the establishment of the Satsuma Domain, financial problems have always been the top issue in the feudal administration. It is precisely because of financial difficulties that the Satsuma Domain has been unable to carry out various reform projects, resulting in the Satsuma Domain's long-term backwardness, and the awareness of long-term backwardness has become an obstacle to reform.
The main financial problem of Satsuma Domain is that there are too many recurring and non-recurring expenditures.
The first problem comes from the feudal organizational system of the Satsuma Domain. The feudal organizational system of the Satsuma Domain is quite unique, called the outer castle system. This unique system is similar to the imperial family system of the Kamakura shogunate. It is a historical legacy of the Shimazu family since they were named guardians by the Kamakura shogunate.
The biggest feature of the outer city system is that its warriors do not gather and live near the main city, but live in small strongholds near the fields. There are a large number of small military strongholds such as mountain castles and plain castles called "roku" in the Satsuma Domain. These places are collectively called the outer castle (the main castle of the Shimazu family is the inner castle).
In these military strongholds lived large groups of semi-samurai or quasi-samurai. These people farmed in peacetime, and organized and attacked in time of war.
The reason why this situation exists is that on the one hand, the Shimazu family, as the guardian daimyo during the Kamakura shogunate period, inherited the imperial family system in order to unify the local area as soon as possible, and retained a large number of local wealthy families and their clans in the territory, and entered the Warring States Period During this period, these gang members were transformed into the so-called outer city warriors, that is, quasi-warriors.
On the other hand, the outer city system is also a result left over from the long years of war in the Satsuma Domain. Since the Satsuma Domain entered the Warring States Period and had never stopped fighting until the establishment of the Tokugawa clan, the Satsuma Domain needed more mobilized troops to maintain its combat effectiveness than other clans.
Therefore, in order to be able to balance war and farming, and to facilitate control of the country, Satsuma established a large number of quasi-samurai personnel throughout the countryside. The samurai of the Satsuma Domain accounted for more than 26% of the total population, close to 40%, a high proportion that was rare even in Japan.
Moreover, when the Shimazu family had almost completed the goal of unifying Kyushu, they were defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and were forced to vomit out a large amount of land. This caused a serious consequence: a large number of samurai and quasi-samurai who had been established during the period of unifying Kyushu. The land was lost, but the Shimazu family could not abandon it, which resulted in a large number of Satsuma feudal lords. Since there were too many feudal lords and their territories had been reduced, the issue of salaries for these feudal lords naturally made the Satsuma clan scratch their heads.
The second question came from the later Tokugawa Shogunate, but since it has not happened yet, I will not go into details. Generally speaking, it can be expressed in one sentence: Since the Shimazu family sided with the Western Army in the Sekigahara War, Therefore, the Tokugawa shogunate kept giving them small shoes, which caused various inexplicable extra expenses for the Satsuma domain.
The financial problem is nothing more than revenue and expenditure, that is, "source" and "flow." In addition to the complicated expenditures, the Satsuma Domain also has big problems with its income.
As mentioned before, the measure of wealth in Japan during this period was the output of rice. Therefore, the land that produces rice is the cornerstone of finance. The land of the Satsuma Domain was divided into two prefectures, Kagoshima and Miyagi in later generations (Japanese counties are larger than cities, you can search for the reason yourself), a large part of which is a small plateau unique to Japan, called the Surasu Plateau.
This small plateau was formed by the eruptions of active volcanoes, which deposited lava and rock fragments. Such land accounted for 52% of Kagoshima Prefecture and 16% of Miyagi Prefecture in later Japan (Satsuma land is located in these two counties).
A very serious problem with this kind of land is that the soil has extremely poor water retention. Water often flows in after rains, making it very difficult to cultivate crops. Moreover, due to the accumulation of volcanic ash and debris, coupled with the erosion of rivers, this kind of land is prone to various occurrences. Strange landforms.
The changing landforms exacerbate the difficulty of irrigation, and Satsuma Domain is located facing the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, often becoming the landing point of large typhoons. Irrigation difficulties and a large number of natural disasters meant that although the Satsuma Domain had a nominal income of 770,000 koku (now 600,000 koku), its actual income was often only a little over 350,000 koku (now 300,000 koku).
Low income and high expenditure, coupled with the consumption of long-term wars, make the current actual situation of Satsuma Domain one of extreme poverty.
In the original history, in order to alleviate this poverty situation, the Satsuma Domain's solution was to send troops to Ryukyu. During the Shimazu Tadahashi period, through the conquest of Ryukyu, the Shimazu family seized 40,000 koku of land on Amami Oshima. At the same time, they gained the right to profit from Ryukyu's tribute trade.
This move not only greatly alleviated Satsuma's financial difficulties in the early and mid-term, but also allowed Satsuma to obtain powerful economic sources: such as the brown sugar produced in Amami Oshima.
Sugar was a valuable commodity in Japan at the time, and brown sugar was needed to make confectionery and traditional sake brewing in various places from Honshu to Kyushu. At this time, the largest producer of brown sugar in Japan was Ryukyu, so this huge benefit was exclusively owned by Satsuma.
Brown sugar even established financial credit for the Satsuma Domain. With the benefit of brown sugar, the domain office successfully obtained a large number of loans from merchants in Osaka and other places, which provided immeasurable help to the domain's finances in the early and mid-term.
However, the Satsuma Domain's seizure of the interests of Amami and Brown Sugar only effectively alleviated its financial distress. In fact, it only left Satsuma in a state of half-starvation. The finances still needed to borrow money to maintain daily expenses, and The high interest attached to borrowing gradually became another major burden on Satsuma's finances.
Therefore, the early reforms in Satsuma only alleviated the fiscal crisis, but did not really reverse the financial predicament. It even adds major financial difficulties (interest) to the future, and is essentially still on the verge of bankruptcy.
And now due to the existence of Gao Pragmatism, Satsuma Domain will definitely not be able to get even the Ryukyu Islands, so Satou's death money is destined to miss them. It can be said that the financial problems of the Satsuma Domain at this time were actually more serious than those of the Ming Dynasty.
Gao pragmatically planned to give them constructive suggestions through Zhu Yingzhen, which sounded like a consistent feature of ancient China: the monopoly system.
Of course, it is not a monopoly on salt and iron, but a resale system on sulfur and camphor. Sulfur and camphor are the main products of Satsuma Domain's foreign trade. The main goods purchased by Jinghua on Kyushu Island are sulfur, while Zhu Yingzhen's family is engaged in camphor trading - this was mentioned in the previous conflict at Miike Port.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic knows very well that the camphor production in Taiwan Island is larger and the quality is better. However, Taiwan's development has only just begun. As of this year, only less than 200,000 Han people have immigrated, which is far from the level of running away. The period when camphor was developed in deep mountains and old forests. At this moment, Satsuma Domain can continue to operate the camphor trade as its main financial force.
However, the Satsuma Domain's backward production and sales system obviously did not match the strong purchasing power of the Ming Dynasty people. According to Gao Situ's estimation, even if the Satsuma Domain's camphor production increased tenfold, it would be nothing more than a splash in the Ming Dynasty. This made it completely necessary for the Satsuma Domain to abandon its laissez-faire development and management in the past, carry out official reforms, let the domain office take over management rights, and sign an exclusive supply and marketing contract with the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.
Meanwhile, the same goes for the sulfur trade. For Japan, which has many volcanoes, sulfur is a gift from heaven—a free gift. It is produced throughout Japan from north to south, but the main production areas in later generations are Tohoku and Kanto.
There is no need to worry about the high output, and there is no need to compare with later generations. After all, the amount of sulfur used in later generations is many times higher than the current one. Anyway, judging from the current situation, as long as Satsuma develops and manages it well, his family's output will be enough for the entire Jinghua to go to war.
Of course, having said that, Gao Pragmatic does not really intend to let Satsuma become the only supplier of sulfur to Beijing. Maybe he can tolerate getting goods from Satsuma in normal times, but he will definitely maintain low prices in other places with sulfur output such as Taiwan. degree of development, in order to avoid the problem of sulfur shortage in Jinghua if the situation in Satsuma or Japan gets out of control.
However, according to a rough and pragmatic estimate, even if Satsuma reformed sulfur and camphor into a monopoly system, it would not be enough to become truly powerful. It would probably be slightly stronger than after the seizure of Ryukyu sugar in the original history - unless Kyoka really went to war everywhere. Demand for sulfur surged.
Therefore, in addition to the two traditional products of sulfur and camphor, Gao Pragmatic also needs to point out another clear path for Satsuma, and at the same time tie it more firmly to the big ship of Jinghua.
This time, Gao pragmatically created an industry that was in line with the original historical development and could be controlled by him: glass manufacturing.
The Satsuma clan in the original history later developed "Satsuma Kiriko", which is the process of using emery to cut and carve delicate patterns on the surface of crystal or glass by hand (see "Satsuma Kiriko" and "Edo Kiriko" on Baidu). However, this technology appeared very late in original history, in the 1830s. The reason is very simple. Glass was relatively popular at that time.
However, with the expansion of Beijing and China's two-ocean fleet, the production of binoculars urgently needs to be increased. Therefore, Gao Pragmatic is also considering putting the development of the Oriental Glass Industry on the agenda. Previously, natural crystals were used, and there were some problems with raw materials.
It stands to reason that this industry should not be located in Satsuma, Japan, which is not native to Japan, but Gao Pragmatic is not too worried about this, because in this era of Japan, the development of the glass industry cannot be separated from Gao. This confidence does not come from technical control, but from raw material control.
There is a misunderstanding in many time-travel works that glass is waiting for time-travelers to discover it and then sell it overseas to make huge profits. But in fact, glass has been invented by the ancients a long time ago. About 3700 BC, the ancient Egyptians had made glass decorations and simple glass vessels, but at that time they only had colored glass.
About 1000 BC, colorless glass was produced in China. Commercial glass appeared during the Northern Song Dynasty and began to become an industrial material. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, optical glass was produced to meet the needs of developing telescopes.
But one thing is very important, that is, the glass in ancient my country has always been relatively simple low-temperature lead-barium glass. Due to its chemical composition and firing temperature, it will explode when exposed to hot water, so it cannot be used as household utensils at all. This belongs to two different glass systems from the Western "soda-lime glass". Although the latter is less transparent, it is strong and durable and will not burst when exposed to heat.
Therefore, the glass in ancient my country can only be limited to decorations, and is rarely used as eating utensils, let alone making optical glass. However, it is obvious that what high pragmatism needs is optical glass, which is the common glass in later generations.
Everyone knows that the raw materials of glass are nothing more than quartz sand, limestone, feldspar, and soda ash. The first three raw materials are available almost all over the world, and Japan is no exception, but the last one, soda ash, is different.
In ancient times, the technology for making soda ash was reasonable, but it was cumbersome and uneconomical. In fact, only natural soda ash could be used, and the soda ash used in the high-pragmatic soap business was also natural soda ash.
Natural soda ash is not that common, especially the ones that have "mining value" are even less common. This thing is sodium carbonate, also called soda, soda ash, soda ash, and soda ash. It is widely used in printing and dyeing, tanning, and food. Natural soda ash mainly exists in salt lakes with limited production. It has been used by ancients for a long time. However, before the advent of modern "artificial soda", this was a major restriction on industrial production.
Unfortunately, Japan is very poor in this regard, and its natural soda ash production is negligible. By the way, to correct a mistake, the alkali juice prepared from plant ash is not sodium carbonate, but potassium carbonate. What is produced in salt-alkali lakes is sodium carbonate.
Who has this thing? Tumut has it. The mainstream name of soda ash in the Ming Dynasty is "mouth alkali", and the reason is that it comes from Tumote: because it comes from outside the mouth, it has this name.
In addition, there is a huge production area in Henan - but Gao Qingshi didn't know it at first. He was only informed by Liu Xin not long ago, so he hasn't started mining it yet.
All in all, in East Asia, the soda ash production areas worth mining are now directly or indirectly controlled by Gao Pragmatic. He does not have to worry about Satsuma mastering the glass manufacturing process and getting stuck in his neck.
Moreover, with his superior caution, he did not intend to hand over the entire manufacturing process and production base to Satsuma. His idea was that Jinghua would handle the basic manufacturing, and the subsequent processing and polishing would be handed over to Satsuma.
Of course, the glass industry is hugely profitable, and the added value of finishing is even higher, so it can be expected that Satsuma will gradually increase investment in exchange for this profit.
But this is in line with high pragmatic needs, because in this system, Satsuma is the fish and Jinghua is the water.
Water without fish is still water, and fish without water can only be dead fish. The more Satsuma invests in this area, the more inseparable he will be from Jinghua. Coupled with the previous sulfur and camphor, Satsuma will have no choice but to stay on Jinghua's pirate ship and not dare to jump off the ship.
The sugar-coated poison is ready, just waiting for the hungry Shimadzu family to take the bait.
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