The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance held a shareholders' meeting rather unexpectedly. Even Xu Wenbi, the Duke of Dingguo who had not been seen for a long time, attended the meeting while dragging his illness. Several princes and uncles who were recuperating in the suburbs of Beijing also moved to the newly completed day. Xinlou, no one was absent from the meeting.
The theme of the meeting was not announced at the beginning. At this meeting, Gao Jingqing first reported on the Maritime Trade Alliance's preparations to launch an attack on the Luzon Islands occupied by the Spanish, and then discussed the battle with the attendees. Strategy, post-war arrangements and other matters.
In the view of the nobles, the biggest problem with the attack on the Luzon Islands is not that the Spanish are strong or not - anyway, Alliance Leader Gao said that there are very few Spaniards there, with no more than 2,000 soldiers and no more than 20 ships.
With this little manpower, even if they are all fierce generals who can fight one against ten, it will still be in vain. The benefits of fighting at home are obvious, and it is impossible for the Sea Trade Alliance to lose this battle.
Needless to say, after listening to Liu Xin's analysis that day, Gao Pragmatic had carefully reviewed the Nanyang Fleet's investigation report on Manila and other places, and fully affirmed the success rate of the flooding of Manila strategy.
This tactic is very problematic from a humanitarian standpoint. From a very pragmatic point of view, Gao actually doesn't like this tactic that has the effect of a "weapon of mass destruction".
But what is not surprising at all is that the nobles were extremely satisfied with this tactic, and they all praised "Miss Liu is worthy of being a general and a tiger girl", "a heroine, not a man", and so on. No one mentioned anything about harming innocent people. The way of heaven is like this.
Also, when the barbarians rebelled, the Ming Dynasty killed people to the point of extermination. It would be too much to expect these people to show humanitarianism. Gao Pragmatic even wondered if he thought too much.
But having said that, in addition to humanitarianism, there is a more practical reason why Gao Pragmatic is entangled with this, that is, he does not want to turn Manila into a dead city all at once.
Dead cities cannot create wealth. Even if they can be rebuilt and immigrated, it is still very troublesome and time-consuming. What he needed was for Manila to serve as a transit point for American silver all the time, adding to his silver-standard paper currency plan.
There are only three sources of silver. One is government treasury silver. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, silver was banned from circulating among the people. In addition, the banknote collection department could only redeem gold and silver in one direction, which caused the court to hoard a certain amount of silver in the early days. quantity of silver.
Second, domestic silver mines produce silver. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, silver mines have been opened in China. In the middle and late stages, due to economic development, increasing demand for silver and improvements in smelting technology, domestic silver production increased. However, as we all know, China has no large-scale silver veins geographically, so domestic silver production is extremely limited.
Up to now, the silver that has entered circulation through the above two channels accounts for a small proportion of the total silver on the market. Most of the remaining silver comes from abroad and flows into the country through the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade.
Mr. Liang Fangzhong, a later scholar, once pointed out: "China has always been a country that does not produce much silver. Since trade with European countries in modern times, the supply of silver has mostly relied on foreign sources; domestic production is not important."
The data of Ming Dynasty's own silver mining can be tested, and there is also a special name called "Silver Lesson". As the Minister of Household Affairs, Gao Pragmatic can easily find relevant case files.
The Chengzu Dynasty and the Xuanzong Dynasty were the two periods when the Ming Dynasty's silver class income was the highest. After the Yingzong Dynasty, the silver class income began to decrease significantly; from the Xiaozong Dynasty to the Wu Zong Dynasty, it showed a straight downward trend.
To be more specific, Ming Dynasty's average annual income from silver classes was about 100,000 taels. In the later stages, it was actually less than 100,000 taels. At its peak, the number of silver courses nationwide only reached 100,000 or 120,000 taels per year.
In such a big country, what can one do with one hundred thousand taels of silver? This shows that the amount of silver mined in domestic silver mines is seriously insufficient and cannot meet the growing and huge demand for silver by the country and society.
However, if you look at the silver income of Taicang (basically equal to the national treasury), there is one thing worth mentioning. That is, the direct storage of silver began to occur during the Longqing Dynasty, and there was a sudden surge. To be more precise, it began to increase sharply in the fifth year of Longqing, that is, the second year after Gao Gong returned to power.
[Note: This is also a historical fact. I wonder if those readers who read the opening chapter of this book and said I was boasting are still reading it. Will they be speechless after reading this? 】
In the fourth year of Longqing, 2.3 million taels of silver were put into the warehouse in Taicang. This data has hardly changed since the early Jiajing period. By the fifth year of Longqing, the amount of silver in Taicang reached 3.1 million taels. Considering that finance is calculated on an annual basis, it is basically certain that starting from the year when Gao Gong returned to power, the country's income directly experienced a surge.
How did this money come out? Two main sources: One is that Gao Gong sent Hai Rui to Jiangnan (Governor Yingtian) to promote the whipping method. Through the deterrence of the Songjiang land surrender case, the whipping method was implemented. Therefore, the silver tax paid in the Jiangnan area increased significantly. rise;
The second is simple. That year, Gao Gong continued to implement the "Longqing Switch" that had been almost suspended because he was ousted by Xu Jie, and Yuegang's tariff revenue increased significantly. In other words, American silver began to flow into Ming Dynasty in large quantities.
Looking back at the world history of the same period, we can more clearly see the source of China's large amount of overseas silver at that time.
Due to the development of trade economy, gold and silver were widely used as transaction currencies in Europe in the late Middle Ages (after the 10th century). By the 15th century, Europe fell into a "silver shortage" due to insufficient money supply. As a result, Europeans began their search for gold and silver all over the world.
Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 (the fifth year of Hongzhi), and arrived in 1498 (the eleventh year of Hongzhi). Gama opened a new route around the Cape of Good Hope to reach India. From 1519 to 1522 (the fourteenth year of Zhengde to the first year of Jiajing), Magellan completed the first circumnavigation of the world, opening the door to the Americas for navigators in the Western world. .
In 1545 (the twenty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign) and 1548 (the twenty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign), Spanish colonists successively discovered large silver mines in Potosi (now Bolivia) and Zacatecas, Mexico. Large amounts of low-cost American gold and silver began flowing into Spain in the 16th century.
Afterwards, these gold and silver wealth were injected into other major European countries through multiple channels such as international trade, financial operations, smuggling, piracy, and war reparations. Later scholars estimated that 1/3 to 1/2 of the total gold and silver eventually flowed into China.
At exactly this time, due to Gao Gong's persistence, the Ming Dynasty's "Longqing Switch" relied on its advantage in foreign trade, and huge amounts of overseas silver poured into China, satisfying the Ming Dynasty's ever-expanding demand for silver currency.
In 1571 (the fifth year of Longqing), Spanish colonists established the colonial capital in Manila, Philippines. At that time, the socio-economic development level of the Philippine Islands was low, and local products could not meet the colonial authorities' expenses. However, the handicrafts produced in the Ming Dynasty were cheap and high-quality, so the Philippine colonial authorities could only Relying on supplies from the nearby Ming Dynasty, they began to engage in re-export trade with China.
In order to attract Chinese to settle and do business in the Philippines, the colonial authorities initially adopted some protection and preferential treatment measures for Chinese business travelers and goods. Attracted by the huge profits from Manila trade, businessmen from the Ming Dynasty (in addition to Jinghua, mainly merchants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, Fujian Province) came one after another, stimulating the development of Mingfei trade.
According to Jinghua's report, Manila today has become one of the largest trade centers in Southeast Asia, rivaling the Portuguese-occupied Malacca.
The Ming Dynasty goods imported into Manila mainly include raw silk, silk fabrics, velvet, damask, satin, cotton cloth, linen fabrics, jewelry, handicrafts, steel, tin and lead products, saltpeter, gunpowder, food, poultry, livestock, etc., especially textiles. From Spanish America, 2 to 3 million pesos of silver flowed to Manila every year.
This data is in line with Gao's pragmatic memory. He remembered that later scholar Quan Hansheng once said in "Macao's Overseas Trade after the Mid-Ming Dynasty": "Since the opening of Manila in the fifth year of Longqing, to the end of the Ming Dynasty in the 70s and 80s, through the Philippines The amount of American silver flowing into China may be more than 60 million pesos, which is equivalent to more than 40 million kuping taels."
In fact, even with the addition of Jinghua, the current trade volume between the two parties has not reached a historical high. Because according to Gao Pragmatic's memory, in 1631 alone in the original history, 14 million taels of silver were imported from the Philippines to Macau, which is approximately equivalent to the 30-year peak of the Ming Dynasty from the first year of Yongle to the ninth year of Xuande (1403-1434). During the period, the total output of China's official silver mines was 2.1 times, which was equivalent to 3.8 times the average annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty's treasury during the Wanli period.
Why was Zheng Zhilong so rich in history? Why is Jinghua so rich now?
The income from maritime trade alone in Spain’s Philippine transit station is almost four times that of the entire Ming Dynasty! Can this not make the country rich? Looking back, how important was this silver income to stabilizing the Ming Dynasty’s silver-standard monetary policy?
It is as if there is a hand in the dark that connects the silver discovered by the Spanish in the Americas to the currency problems of the Ming Dynasty at the same time: the Ming Dynasty can produce the best commodities in the world, but what drives the Ming Dynasty to continuously expand commodity production is It is silver, a precious metal in short supply during the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the Spaniards, although they had nothing, had silver exported through Mexico.
From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, China's commodity economy developed greatly, and its market prosperity ranked first in the world. However, before the 16th century, it always experienced periodic currency shortages. Whenever business and markets develop, there is a shortage of money supply. The main reason is that there is a shortage of precious metals in the country and a monetary system based on precious metals has not been established.
The monetization of silver greatly promoted the development of commodity production and exchange relations in the Ming Dynasty. It also restricted the power of those in power to issue excessive currency, and cut off the Ming court's path to hyperinflation. The country could not use it as easily as it could when it excessively printed banknotes. A large amount of social wealth was gathered under his control for nothing, which also greatly promoted the growth of production and trade.
However, although such a fiscal system is stable, it is not flexible and is a very rigid system.
For example: if the court could use flexible monetary policy to a certain extent in the last years of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty would not have died in such a way - when the gentry were all extremely wealthy and the people in Jiangnan were generally well-off , this court actually died of poverty.
Banknotes require reserves, but when the economy needs to be regulated, banknotes can be issued in excess according to specific circumstances. The biggest significance of reserves is actually to build confidence in those who use banknotes and build credibility for the banknotes.
When credibility is absolutely guaranteed, the amount of banknotes can actually be adjusted according to the specific economic conditions at that time. When there is a danger of deflation in the country, he can issue more banknotes to alleviate the money shortage; when inflation begins to appear, he can issue less banknotes and replenish them after withdrawing banknotes to stabilize prices.
And if the court is in urgent need of money, he can also gain wealth by directly issuing additional banknotes to tide the court through the crisis - this will of course lead to inflation, but sometimes a certain degree of inflation is better than losing the war. A situation like this is better, as long as the extent of inflation is still under control.
This is roughly what the so-called fiscal flexibility means.
However, the cash in Gao Pragmatic's hands alone is not enough to create a "Ming Federal Reserve". Even if it was enough, he would not dare to do so - if your capital alone controls the economic operation of the country, then what's the point? Come on?
Therefore, he must recruit more forces, among which the nobles and the emperor are the two key forces, because these two groups of forces are the most stable from a legal perspective-they are hereditary.
The investment of civil servants is not so stable, because civil servants are selected through the imperial examination. If a family fails to pass the Jinshi examination for two or three generations in a row, the family is likely to decline. Therefore, the investment of civil servants can only be regarded as the investment of the "feudal landlord class" or the "emerging bourgeoisie" and has little to do with their official status.
In order to win over the Beijing Masters, the most critical and first group that must be won over, Gao Jingshi immediately came up with the concept of "Ming Fed" after talking about matters related to the attack on Manila.
According to him, the "Ming Fed" will be built on the basis of Jinghua Bank. Within the "Federal Reserve", silver is no longer used as a direct transaction currency. All merchants who join the "Federal Reserve" need to pay varying amounts of silver as a deposit to the "Federal Reserve" to obtain credit for the deposit.
For example, if the Duke of Chengguo paid a deposit of 100,000 taels of silver, then Zhu Yingzhen could directly own banknotes worth 200,000 taels of credit, and these banknotes could be used to purchase all the goods he needed from within the "Federal Reserve" based on currency value. The excess risk will be borne by the "Federal Reserve" - considering the proportion of capital contribution, it can also be said that it is mainly borne by Jinghua.
However, while Jinghua bears such risks, it also has the right to dispose of the deposit of the Chengguo Government, and the power to punish possible violations of the Chengguo Government's trade process in accordance with the rules and regulations agreed in advance.
When everyone heard this, they first understood the benefits: one tael of silver was spent as two taels of silver, which is equivalent to doubling the capital! With such huge profits from sea trade, who wouldn’t drool after hearing the effect of doubling the capital?
But everyone did not agree immediately because they needed to think about the benefits of Jinghua's move. No one is a good person. Even if Gao Pingshi has the reputation of "Buddha of all families", the nobles will not forget that he is the world's number one golden touch master.
How does Jinghua make money? Well, when everyone pays the deposit, the deposit is actually Jinghua's money. Although everyone will use the credibility brought by these deposits for internal transactions, since they are not directly taking the money, Jinghua can operate easily. And Jinghua itself may use the real money to do other things...
You can't think of what it does specifically right now, but the principles behind it should be pretty much the same. In this way, what still needs to be considered is the supervision and punishment system, but since Gao Pragmatic said that this must be discussed in advance and approved by both parties, there should not be any big problem.
However, it is obvious that they underestimated Gao Pragmatic's handiwork. If it were just internal transactions, it would not make much sense for Gao Pragmatic to engage in this "Ming Fed", because everyone is already using the banknotes from Jinghua Bank.
Therefore, after Gao Jingyi received their principled agreement, he immediately came up with a further plan: he would persuade the royal family to take shares and join the "Ming Fed". According to him, he would ask the emperor to invest all the internal funds directly into the "Ming Federal Reserve", and all of them would become a deposit!
What makes the nobles even more stunned is that Gao Pragmatic also said that allowing internal funds to join the "Ming Fed" is only the second step of the plan. He has a third step, a fourth step, and even more...
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