Thank you for the 100 yuan reward from the big guy who "looks back at the old people", as you wish, the people of the Restoration on Mount Fuji will sing!

…………

The full name of the East India Company mentioned by Gonggong Wei is the British East India Company, also known as John's Company.

The company was founded in the 28th year of Wanli, that is, eleven years ago, by Queen Elizabeth I of England to grant a royal charter and give India the privilege of trade.

The greatest achievement of the East India Company in history was the establishment of British India, and the most Chinese known was the company's opium business.

The company is a symbol of near-modernization.

The East India Company, which had already appeared, was deeply aroused by his father-in-law, and he became more and more eager to form a modern commercial system.

Therefore, after sitting alone on the windowsill for a while, he picked up his pen and wrote a white topic book for the emperor.

The title of the book is "Please build the Royal Overseas Trading Corporation".

In this book, Gonggong Wei focused on explaining to the emperor the trade system of Western countries, and told His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in as easy to understand as possible - someone is robbing your money, if we don't care about it, the foreign wealth in this world will not be surnamed Zhu.

Therefore, in order to integrate the current chaotic sea trade, and to fight against those Westerners who are grabbing money, it is necessary to operate an overseas company to compete and confront it.

This overseas company was franchised by His Majesty the Emperor and granted a royal charter granting all privileges to overseas trade, directly under the Inner Court.

After the establishment of the company, some matters that are inconvenient for the Ming government can be handled by the company on behalf of the company, so as to avoid unnecessary containment and interference by the domestic bureaucracy.

This bureaucratic system, as the father-in-law said very clearly, is the foreign dynasty.

In order to cheer up the emperor, the father-in-law deliberately summed up with "measuring overseas material resources and forming the favor of His Majesty".

Finally, my father-in-law told some anecdotes about the chatter with foreign merchants and Western priests in Jiangnan, such as the fact that Japan has a silver mountain, Western artillery is sharp, and there is a strong fleet built by the Francophone country, which is invincible. There is also a certain country with a woman as the emperor, a certain royal family's private life is chaotic, a certain country does not take a bath all year round, a certain country instructs domestic prisoners to go abroad to occupy wild land, and there are countless gold, silver, and spices, and so on.

This makes the question book look more like a "tabloid" except for the first few paragraphs.

The anecdotes are very interesting in the father-in-law's pen, and they are interesting to read to the emperor and the concubine.

After drying, my father-in-law put down his pen, went to the window, looked at the canal from afar, and closed his eyes to recuperate.

He knew that at this moment, there were many pairs of eyes in Yangzhou City staring at this Zuiyuan Tower.

Zhongguan came to the capital, and there was a Jinyi Ti cavalry escort, and when he arrived in Yangzhou, he went straight to the place where the Wei eunuch was in Zuiyuanlou, such a big event, it was impossible for the officials of Yangzhou City not to know.

Gonggong Wei can imagine that now, together with the prefect Yu Zhengxue, the big and small officials are asking about the will of the capital.

But they guessed theirs, and the father-in-law didn't bother to pay attention to it, because the officials would know.

No later than the afternoon.

………

There are so many rich people in Yangzhou that they can probably rank among the top three in Nanzhi.

And among them, the richest is definitely the salt merchants.

Yangzhou is an important town of salt industry in Lianghuai.

In the intelligence of Gonggong Wei, Yancheng in Yangzhou City is now divided into two forces.

One is a Western businessman, and the other is a Hui businessman.

"The merchant is the most luxurious under the river, and the windows are all covered with fine yarn.

The salary is 300,000 yuan, and the Western businessmen have left home since they were young. ”

This is one of the widely circulated "Yangzhou Bamboo Branches", which may have existed in the Jiajing period, or it may have emerged in recent years. When it came out, no one can say. The Western merchants mentioned in the word refer to the merchants from Shanxi and Shaanxi in the northwest.

Yangzhou Goods Number Dadong Zhao Shengjie is now very stammering with Father-in-law Wei, there is no way, who let his backstage Li Sancai fall. Wang Jike, the new governor of Caoyun, did not buy his Zhao family's account, which caused the Zhao family's business to plummet.

In these years, if you don't do business and collude with officials, you won't be able to make a fortune.

Therefore, Zhao Dongjia, who had been trained by Father-in-law Wei for a long time, naturally put his hot face on his father-in-law's hot ass.

He worked really hard.

According to him, most of the Western merchants lived in the Xiaguan area, which was the most prosperous area in Yangzhou, because it was close to the canal, the salt transportation department, and the banknote customs (tax customs).

Since ancient times, most of the people who can be called salt merchants are local tyrants who dominate one side.

In history, there is no shortage of salt traffickers who rebelled, such as Zhang Shicheng.

There is a Dongguan Old Street in Xiaguan, where there is a Shanxi Guild Hall, which is the main activity place of Western businessmen in Yangzhou City. In future generations, it is a special club, and you should not enter it.

At first, my father-in-law was quite surprised to hear that the majority of salt merchants in Yangzhou were merchants from the northwest. But after listening to Zhao Shengjie's words, he knew why the northwest businessmen could become local tyrants in Yangzhou, an important town in Lianghuai.

The reason is the "Open China Law" in the early years.

To put it bluntly, the merchants transported grain to the border in exchange for salt, and the most beneficial people from such a policy must be the northwest merchants who are close to the border pass.

The land of Yangzhou is not only an important town of Lianghuai, the gateway of the southern capital, but also an important town of salt industry. Therefore, under the influence of the "opening of the Chinese law", it has lost its economic significance to stay in the northwest to grow grain, and Shaanxi merchants and Shanxi businessmen have come to Yangzhou, the salt transshipment hub of Lianghuai along the canal, to become professional salt merchants.

Salt sellers make huge profits.

Over time, Western businessmen basically monopolized Yangzhou's salt industry and became a hegemon.

However, in the Hongzhi period, the "Kaizhong method" of grain exchange was changed by the imperial court to the "color folding method" of silver exchange.

The Hubu Shangshu who presided over the reform of the law was a native of Huai'an, quite close to Yangzhou.

The introduction of the "folding method" made it possible for merchants to no longer have to travel thousands of miles to send grain to the border gates, but to directly take out silver to buy salt, that is, to obtain permission to sell salt.

This move obviously broke the inherent advantages of "border merchants" such as Shaanxi and Shanxi, and gave merchants who were geographically closer to the two Huai and Huai an opportunity to take advantage of it.

As a result, another emerging salt merchant force appeared in Yangzhou, that is, the "domestic merchants" dominated by Hui merchants. However, after all, the Western merchants have occupied Yangzhou for a long time, and the thick foundation of their power is not something that the Hui merchants can replace in the short term.

The Western merchants are not fuel-efficient lamps, so they naturally don't want the Hui merchants to share their profits.

However, the Renhui merchants not only occupy a favorable land, but also win people, and have the tradition of "left Confucianism and right Jia", the cultural level is generally high, often like to initiate lawsuits, and there are repeated commercial conflicts with Shanxi merchants, the former can often get the official favorable judgment, in the battle to gain the upper hand.

This made the Western merchants helpless to take the Hui merchants, but the Hui merchants could not drive the Western merchants at the same time.

This situation lasted until the first year of Hongguang, when the city of Yangzhou was broken.

At present, Yangzhou's famous Western businessmen include Sanyuan Liang, Jingyang Zhang, Guo, Xi'an Shenjia, and Tongguan Zhang.

It was Zheng Duo who was responsible for borrowing money from these Western tycoons.

It was Cao Wenyao who was responsible for borrowing money from the wealthy Hui merchants.

This was carefully arranged by Grandpa Wei.