Zhao Ming took a boat all the way to Nanjing and landed at the wharf outside the city."
Regent!"
A group of officials in Nanjing stood on the dock to greet them.Zhao Ming bowed slightly, "Let's go back to the city first, don't affect the landing of merchant ships." ”At that moment, Zhao Ming got into the carriage and returned to the regent palace surrounded by many guards.Zhao Ming took a shower first, changed into regular clothes, and came to the hall where the guests came, where several scholars had been waiting for a long time."
Regent!"
The crowd stood up to greet them.Zhao Ming waved his hand, walked straight to the main seat and sat down, and said with a smile: "Sit down!"
Let the secretary wait for a long time. ”Several scholars sat down, the maid served refreshments, and Du Yinxi asked, "What did the regent find when he inspected Jiangnan this time?"
”Zhao Ming said in a deep voice: "The widow inspected several mansions and found that the problem of unsalable cloth in Jiangnan was quite serious, and many workers were unemployed, and the imperial court must solve it as soon as possible." ”The cabinet has long understood these problems, and Du Yinxi said in a deep voice: "The ministers have discussed it before, and found that this problem is indeed difficult to solve.The sales of Jiangnan cloth are mainly divided into two parts, one is the internal sales of Daming, and the other is sold overseas.Now that the production of the workshops has been reduced, the workers are unemployed, and the income of the employees who go to work is also decreasing, and the internal sales are naturally sluggish.The overseas market has also been declining in recent years, since last year, because of the conflict between the Yanping Domain and the Dutch, as well as Li Chengdong's war with the Spaniards in Dongzhou, it has led to the merchant ships of these two countries no longer going to Daming, which can be described as a significant decrease in sales. ”Zhao Ming bowed slightly, he basically understood these situations.Most of the country is a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, and most of the people do not buy cloth from the workshop, but will weave some homespun cloth and sell it in the market.In the Ming Dynasty, there were mainly urban residents, the army, and farm workers, and now the cloth was unsalable, affecting all walks of life upstream and downstream, resulting in a decrease in the income of the urban military and civilians, and the farmers could not get the money for raw materials, which led to sluggish domestic demand.In terms of overseas markets, in addition to Zheng Chenggong's war with the Dutch for Malacca, Li Chengdong's exchange of fire with the Spaniards, which affected trade, was mainly due to the rise of Western handicrafts.After all, in the case of similar textile technology, Jiangnan's cotton cloth is exported to Europe, and the transportation cost is too high, resulting in the price of cotton cloth arriving in Europe five or six times higher than that of Jiangnan, or even more than ten times.Such a price, in the face of the rise of the handicraft industry in the West, naturally has no competitiveness, will be gradually driven out of the market by Western capital, and eventually there may be only a few high-end silks, and there are still sales, and the low-end cotton cloth will be replaced by textiles from Britain and other countries.Zhao Ming bowed slightly: "This problem is relatively difficult to solve, but the imperial court must find a way to overcome the difficulties." ”Several scholars exchanged heads, and Du Yinxi asked, "After the regent inspects, what is the solution?"
”Zhao Ming said in a deep voice: "To solve this problem, one is to expand domestic demand, and the other is to expand overseas markets. ”Everyone bowed slightly, and they also knew that there were only these two ways, otherwise they would only have to requisition the unemployed people and go to the border to pioneer the fields.Zhao Ming continued: "These two statues will also be the specific direction of the imperial court's governance next year. ”The scholars hurriedly saluted and said, "Please show the Lord Regent!"
”Zhao Ming's prestige is now in full swing, and there is no doubt about the emperor, the cabinet scholars generally do not dare to oppose Zhao Ming's opinions, and even if they have different ideas, they will only express them in a more euphemistic way.Zhao Ming is quite satisfied with this, it is not that he wants to be arbitrary, he is also a kind of temptation, to see if the conditions for reform are ripe.Zhao Ming explained: "Let's talk about expanding domestic demand first, first of all, the imperial court will support the bottom, purchase a batch of cloth, and reward the army.Second, the state treasury issued bonds, renovated the country's customs roads, dredged canals, and built water conservancy, so as to pay the people.Finally, let the Ministry of Industry come forward and unite the major silk weaving workshops to study new textile technologies, improve looms, improve cloth quality, and reduce production costs.The Ming Dynasty has a vast area, and many local people produce their own homespun cloth and do not buy Jiangnan cloth.It's not that Jiangnan cloth is bad, but that people can't afford it, and it's not cost-effective for them.Therefore, the imperial court increased the people's income through various projects, and on the other hand, urged the workshops to produce high-quality and low-cost products, which inevitably made more people buy the factory's cloth. ”Du Yinxi and the others nodded, if the tens of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty use Jiangnan cloth, then the existing output of the workshop may not be enough.However, they knew in their hearts that it was impossible to squeeze the homespun cloth out of the market, and it would be good to have 30% of the population and buy Jiangnan cloth."
As for expanding overseas markets."
Zhao Ming continued: "The imperial court must do a good job, and for a long time in the future, Xiyi's procurement will gradually decrease the reality. ”Du Yinxi said: "Your Highness, since the opening of the sea, the overseas sales of Jiangnan cotton cloth have accounted for the majority.Among them, Spain and the Netherlands purchase the most, if Xiyi no longer purchases in the future, the overseas market may shrink!
”The Dutch are known as the coachmen of the sea, who used to turn their doors to buy Chinese goods and sell them all over the world.However, now that the Netherlands is in decline and Britain is on the rise, and Britain has its own handicraft industry, it is unlikely that it will come to buy Ming cloth.For more than 100 years, most of the silver dug up by Spain in the Americas has flowed into China, which is the largest overseas buyer of Chinese goods.Now, Spain and the Ming Dynasty have completely become hostile, and the Ming Dynasty has also lost this market.Without these two Xiyi, the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty has indeed shrunk very much.Zhao Ming suddenly asked: "The New Year is approaching, are the envoys of Japan and Nanyang countries here this year?"
”Everyone was stunned for a moment, and Dai Zhijun saluted: "Back to Your Highness, the envoys from various countries have arrived one after another." ”Zhao Ming nodded and said in a deep voice: "The East Asian market is actually very large, but it has not been fully developed and opened.The widow is ready to establish a pan-Asian military and economic alliance dominated by the tribute system of the Ming Dynasty, integrate the Ming Dynasty and the surrounding countries of the Ming Dynasty, and form a huge market at the same time!
”These concepts of Asia, along with the exchanges between the East and the West, have been introduced by Zhao Ming, and some of the titles have been used, while others have adopted the names given to the world by the Ming Dynasty.Pan-Asianism is a trend of thought that emerged in Asia after the rise of the West.Sun Yat-sen proposed that China was too weak to lead this trend of thought at that time, and was later used by Japan to make a ***** circle, but Japan was too small and did not take into account the feelings of Asian countries, which brought a disaster to both China and North Korea.Later, when China developed and gained strength, it began to develop a free trade area between China, Japan and South Korea, and these three countries, once they form an economy, will become the largest economy in the world, and US imperialism will naturally not do it.Therefore, whenever there is a slight progress in the China-Japan-South Korea FTA, it is either the Diaoyu Islands that cause an incident and the contradictions between China and Japan intensify, or the large-scale protests between Japan and South Korea because of the legacy of aggression.Under the intervention of US imperialism, pan-Asianism, the East Asian Free Trade Area, is still far away.However, at this time, the Ming Dynasty was the hegemon of Asia, and Xiyi had not yet penetrated its tentacles into East Asia, so Zhao Ming was fully capable of establishing a pan-Asian alliance dominated by the Ming Dynasty to confront the rising Western powers.
(Updated tomorrow) ()