So for the great unified dynasty in the north, how to ensure that the south does not make independence, or that it cannot become independent.

There are many methods, among which the ban on the sea is a means, sea trade means huge amounts of money, organized groups, workshops for building large ships, a large number of people, and frequent contact with overseas powers, once there is a change, it will lead to the loss of the largest money bag in the urban area of the empire, and then lead to the destruction of the entire empire.

To give the simplest example, a certain maritime group pulls thousands of mercenaries from overseas, and the local sailors distribute weapons to 20,000 people, take a large ship into the Yangtze River, divide the troops into two routes to cut off the Cao Yun, and besiege Nanjing.

We all know that the north of the Ming Dynasty points to Caoyun to eat, and the army in the south is basically scum, and the mobility of the ancient army is slow, and the troops are transferred from the north for at least half a year, and when you come over, the daylily is cold.

"Eight, eight treaty ports! That's it! Nine million taels of silver shall be handed over to the inner treasury within five days. For other things, you can discuss it with Gonggong Li yourself. Wei Zhongxian smiled and walked away, not wanting to grind with Wei Bao anymore.

The previous unhappiness of Wei Zhongxian and Wei Bao seemed to have faded in Wei Zhongxian's smile.

Wei Bao was actually satisfied with this result, and he controlled eight ports at once, which was very bullish, which was equivalent to getting eight base areas for Baojun at once.

Moreover, a province with a harbor is equivalent to having a strong power of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Although the sailor division is not as effective as the infantry army and has such a great deterrent effect on land, it is also an army after all.

Li Yongzhen smiled and patted Wei Bao's shoulder: "Lord Wei, it's okay!" Eight treaty ports, how much silver is this? Don't say 30 years, you can pay back in 3 years! Nine thousand years old is enough for you. ”

"Father-in-law Li, otherwise you should go and contract this deal, I see how you will return your capital in three years? When there was a treaty port in the Ming Dynasty, the tax silver for a year did not exceed 50,000 taels, eight were only about 400,000 taels, and ten years were only 4 million taels of silver. Wei Bao said with a bitter face.

Li Yongzhen smiled: "That's on the surface, under the table, but there is definitely more than just a little silver, not to mention that after being monopolized by your Lord Wei's family, in the future, the gentry from all over the Ming Dynasty want to hoard Juqi, they have to ask you Lord Wei first!" It may be an exaggeration to say that the return on cost in three years may be an exaggeration, but you definitely don't have to pay back in 10 years. ”

"Father-in-law Li, I am very happy to be able to return to the capital in fifteen years, the most important thing is that I want to take out nine million taels of silver at one time, where can I take it out? Also, who can say clearly about things in officialdom? I took out the silver, and in a few days, I will take away the yamen of my governor of Haiphong, cross the river and tear down the bridge, who will I go to? ”

Li Yongzhen was laughed angrily by Wei Bao, Wei Bao was really a profiteer, "Lord Wei, are you kidding?" You are talking to the nine thousand years old, how can you go back on your word. Moreover, Your Majesty has accepted your money and issued a holy decree, and everyone in the world knows about it, if you regret it, doesn't Your Majesty lose your credit? Do you think it's possible? You really think of it as a farmer doing business, thinking of a play is a play. ”

"Grandpa Li, I didn't say that. Let's not talk about those things, I'll sort out which treaty ports to open and give you the list. Now the most important thing is that I can't get so much silver, nine million taels of silver, which is equivalent to more than a year of tax silver in the Ming Dynasty. Wei Bao vomited bitterness again.

Wei Bao knew that once it was decided, the royal family would not regret it, and the most important thing was that in two years, Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youxiao would have to hang, and it was really hard to say whether the new policy he had set would continue.

"That's the lord's own business, I'm just an old slave who does things, and I can't take care of anything else." Li Yongzhen said.

Wei Bao knew that it was useless to talk to Li Yongzhen no matter how much, so he chatted a few words and arched his hand to say goodbye.

Although nine million taels of silver is a lot, it is nothing to Wei Bao, and the wings of the Heaven and Earth Society are already hard.

What Wei Bao has to do now is to discuss it with the British public Zhang Weixian and listen to the opinions of his father-in-law.

In fact, Wei Bao doesn't attach importance to Zhang Weixian's opinion, this is a big deal after all, if he doesn't tell Zhang Weixian, Zhang Weixian will definitely be angry.

Zhang Weixian, in Wei Bao's opinion, is still very mediocre, that is, an ordinary nobleman.

The reason why Zhang Weixian has certain eyes and ears, and can even go straight to the emperor, know things in the palace, and know a lot of things in the capital, is very normal, not how strong Zhang Weixian's ability is.

Because the British government has been very close to the royal family for generations, from generation to generation, the British government naturally has many eyes and ears.

The Yongle Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty ruled by Zhu Di, as well as the Hongxi and Xuande dynasties that were in the same vein, had Zheng He's seven trips to the West, which should be a very open era to the outside world.

However, the sea ban of the Yongle Dynasty was actually extremely strict.

In the second year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, in 1404, the ban on civil sea ships was ordered, and the original sea boats were changed to flat-headed boats. There is a division to prevent it from entering and leaving.

Flat-headed ships could not sail to the sea, and the Zhu Ming Dynasty used the method of drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle to achieve the purpose of the sea ban, forcing the maritime merchants to lose their means of transportation, which shows how resolute Chengzu's precautionary heart is.

Even for the merchants who fled overseas during Hongwu and Jianwen, Chengzu never let go.

In October of the same year, he sent people overseas, commanding that "those who flee from the other side should be pardoned before the barnyard and restore their own business, and they will always be good citizens." If you are still in danger and stubborn, you will be ordered to send troops and kill them all, and you will not regret it."

Cheng Zu did what he said, and in the fifth year of Yongle, Zheng He returned from the West to the old port near the Singapore Strait, and exterminated Chen Zuyi's maritime merchant forces who refused to return.

In July 1405, in the fifth year of Yongle, the Ming Dynasty also insisted on implementing the policy of banning the sea in the newly conquered areas of the Jiaozhi Cloth Political Department established after the pacification of Annan by force.

In the edict to pacify Annan, Cheng Zu affirmed that "soldiers and civilians are not allowed to privately enter the outside world and go to the sea to sell goods without permission, and violators will be punished according to the law." ”

Under the influence of Zheng He's voyage to the West, the number of private trade in the sea began to increase in the last years of Yongle.

Just as Zheng He returned to Beijing in July of the eighth year of Xuande on his seventh trip to the West, Xuanzong immediately ordered Shen Yan to ban the sea: "The order is to strictly prohibit fornication with Fanguo in the Metropolitan Procuratorate." …… There are already prohibitions on fornication. In recent years, officials, the military and the people do not know how to abide by it, and often build sea boats privately, and search for them under the pretense of the imperial court, harassing foreign officials, or luring them into crimes. Guilty of a felony. It is advisable to affirm the previous ban, and the example is to the navy and the people, and those who have already been captured, and those who have the offenders are allowed to give half of the prisoner's family salary. If you know but don't tell you, and the military and the guards have a ban on the crime together. ”

Such a strict sea ban cannot be explained by the prevention and control of pirates and dangerous elements.

On the one hand, Zhu Di, a generation of heroes, went to the West on a large scale, but on the other hand, he implemented the sea ban so strictly.

Yan Congjian's "Shuyu Zhou Advisory": "Since Yongle changed the yuan, sent four envoys, summoned Haifan, and made contributions. Strange goods and heavy treasures, the previous generations hoped, overflowing the reservoir city. The poor are ordered to buy bo, or get rich, and the state is also envious. ”

In the second year of Tianshun of Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, in 1458, the eunuch played: "Yongle, Xuande repeatedly went to the West to buy gold, pearls, precious stones, etc., and now it has stopped for more than 30 years." The treasury is exhausted. ”

Huang Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry of Xuande, also said: "Yonglejian, although Beijing is built, Jiaozhi is discussed in the south, and the desert is conquered in the north, and there is no shortage of resources. There is no big expense than the country, and the year is only given. That is, if there is unfortunately a flood and drought, how will the requisition help? ”

Even if they go to the West itself, they have a certain amount of rewards for the purpose of paying tribute. But when the nations came to pay tribute, the trade that took place was undoubtedly mutually beneficial.

The purpose of the ban on the sea and the suppression and restriction of private sea trade was to make the sea trade official and collect its profits, which was the same as the salt and iron official camp in the Han Dynasty.

The maritime trade of the Song and Yuan dynasties was extremely developed, but because private maritime merchants often evaded and evaded taxes, the trade volume was huge, and the state made little profit.

Therefore, the Song and Yuan dynasties both tried to ban the sea, but they gave up because the government control was not strong, and it was not until the Ming Dynasty that it had the ability to implement the sea ban.

In addition, the excessive mercantilization of the Yuan Dynasty also led to the cultivation of cash crops on large tracts of fertile land, limiting the maximum grain output.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, with a population of less than 90 million, a large peasant uprising broke out due to population saturation, and it perished.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang is well aware of the role of business, and he knows the harm of business. The anti-business policy of the Ming Dynasty contained many provisions to protect commerce, and it was by no means a blind suppression of commerce, but aimed at controlling the amount of commerce within the most appropriate range.

In order to maximize profits from the limited share of commerce, the government-run maritime trade was the preferred choice in the early dynasties, and the ban on the sea to prevent private maritime trade became an essential auxiliary measure.

However, the government-run trade also has its disadvantages of mechanization and rigidity. In the Ming Dynasty, the tributary trade lacked restrictions at the beginning, and those who came to the door did not refuse, but in the later period of the Yongle Dynasty, because of the excessive number of Tibetan goods entering the market, the depreciation of Tibetan goods was a good example.

And because after Xuande, the Ming Dynasty's government control continued to decline, and it was difficult to organize and plan large-scale government trade, so the Ming government had begun to consider liberalizing private sea trade.

In the Zhengde Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, restrictions on maritime trade in Southeast Asia were relaxed. In the fourth year of Zhengde (1509), a Siamese ship was blown into Guangdong by a wind, and according to the regulations, the ship was a non-tributary private ship and was not allowed to trade, but the governor of Guangdong Town allowed it to trade and levy its excise tax for military purposes.

Officials of the Ministry of Rites affirmed this practice, holding that the "ocean-wide merchants and wind boats" were neither recruited by the rescue book, nor were they contained in the old regulations, were not tributary ships, and did not fall within the purview of the city shipping department, and should be under the supervision of the town patrol and the three officials.

In doing so, the Guangdong officials clearly negated the principle of tributary trade that "if there is a tribute, there is a mutual market, and if there is no tribute, they are not allowed to trade with each other", and it marked the beginning of the Ming Dynasty when China's trade with Southeast Asia entered a new period of private overseas trade.

As for the Zhengtoku Dynasty, the Western Ocean and Japan were still subject to a maritime ban.

Westerners are unpredictable and unpredictable.

At that time, Japan was in the Warring States period, and the situation was chaotic, and pirates and maritime merchants were often confused.

Therefore, when it arrived in the Longqing Dynasty, the Moon Port was completely banned.

However, from the perspective of maritime trade in the Ming Dynasty, Southeast Asia and South Asia were the bulk of the revenue from maritime trade, and it was not important whether the West and Japan were banned at that time.

In ancient maritime trade, the merchants involved could be divided into three types: small merchants, medium merchants, and giant merchants with official backgrounds.

In the context of the ancient Chinese agricultural society, which emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, the newly created giant merchants also often sought official backgrounds, some of them were rejected and suffered devastating blows, such as Wang Zhi, Xu Hai, Ma Ye, Chen Dong and others in the Jiajing Dynasty, and some were allowed because they made certain contributions to the imperial court or other reasons, such as Zheng Zhilong, but it was very difficult to obtain the highest official permission, and the vast majority of the giant businessmen sought to collude with local bureaucratic forces and benefit each other.

Hai Rui's adopted grandson Hai Shuzu, his father Hai Zhongshi with Hai Rui's niece and son-in-law, successively served as Guizhou Township Test, Deputy Envoy of the Ministry of War, Governor of Huguang, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War and other high-ranking officials Liang Yunlong and his family, became Hainan's maritime trade wealth.

When the Haishuzu generation reached a higher level, the wealth rivaled the country, and the Haishuzu once killed 38 smugglers on his big ship at sea, seized their goods and goods, and then lied that the wind was defeated, but fortunately with Optimus Prime, he was rescued.

Whether or not Hai Shuzu is smuggling is actually quite controversial, and the "Continuation of Yao Yu" says that there are 38 people who are from the sea, and they rent their boats to carry goods, and they exchange markets with overseas countries to describe the ancestors, but it does not say that they are smuggling.

The fact that Hai Shuzu went to sea was well known at the time, and it may have been a normal trip to sea after getting official permission and paying taxes.

And the location where Haishuzu went to sea seems to be Qiongzhou. If this is the case, then the location where merchants and people were allowed to go to sea legally in the late Ming Dynasty was not a place in Yuegang, Zhangzhou.

The maritime ban policy of the Ming Dynasty has always left enough room for small merchants who could not afford to buy boats to go to sea.

Even in the Yongle Dynasty, where the sea ban was strictest, small merchants could choose to participate in the official trade.

In the Zhengde Dynasty, foreign countries were opened to private trade with the Ming Dynasty, and small merchants could trade with foreign ships when they were trading with them.

This form of trade was easy to manage, and it was the source of the vast majority of trade revenues in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties before foreigners used steamers to crack down on smuggling for the Qing Dynasty.

However, it seems that the life of the middle merchant in the Ming Dynasty was not as good as in the Qing Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty restricted merchants from going to sea, and later Longqing opened the sea, but it was only the port of Kaiyue, and 88 ships were issued every year, which was later increased to 110.

Of course, 110 pilots are actually quite a few. According to the "Seventeenth Year of Qianlong (1752) March 1 Arigun Song" said: Guangdong Sea is a pass, inland rivers and open seas, there are many ports, merchant ships, and miscellaneous goods...... Customs tariffs depend on the entry and exit of foreign ships, and the number varies over the years. Probably every year, there are about 20 to 30 mainland merchant ships entering and leaving the sea, and about 10 to more than 20 foreign ships.

The number of ships that the Guangzhou Customs paid taxes to the Qing court every year was only 20 to 30 in the 17th year of Qianlong.

Kangxi once said: Suzhou shipyard ships ships to the sea every year to trade more than 1,000 ships, and those who come back are only five or six out of ten, and on the 26th, he ordered the ships to go to sea not to bring many rations, and to intercept the ships of the South Seas in Haitan.

And Chongqing: "Overseas countries such as the West, thousands of years later, China is afraid of suffering. This (Kangxi) is contrary to the material".

There are very few businessmen who are willing to pay taxes, and most of them choose smuggling.

This is also the reason why the merchant-heavy Song and Yuan dynasties still couldn't collect much commercial tax, and in the early days of the Southern Song Dynasty, counting the stalls and other people who came to the door, the total amount received was only 1 million taels.

It is said to account for 20% of the annual income of the Southern Song Dynasty, even considering that silver was relatively valuable in the Song Dynasty, it was very small.

As for why Song often has strange data such as tens of millions and hundreds of millions of yuan in annual income, it is due to inflation under the paper money standard.

Dayuan also once earned billions of yuan, and Hurd's ability to collect 20 million taels a year after taking care of the Qing Customs' use of steamships to catch smuggling shows this.

However, compared with the Qing Dynasty's restrictions on merchants going to sea, there were no restrictions except for the number of years, and the restrictions were because the Qing Dynasty was very afraid of the Han people establishing their power in Nanyang, and they hated it when they saw the expansion of the Han people's power.

Daming's 110 ship guide still seems to be a little less, and there was not even 110 ship guide before.

Zhu Kun of the Jiajing Dynasty severely cracked down on smuggling, and was attacked by the gentry of Zhejiang and Fujian in the center, and was forced to commit suicide, and the gentry of Fujian and Zhejiang were unwilling to open the sea.

Under the premise of the ban on the sea, smugglers with bureaucratic support were not at risk of being cracked down by the imperial court.

Smugglers without official backgrounds have this risk, although it is small, and most of the time the Ming Dynasty maritime ban was very lax.

Such a situation is not good for middle-class businessmen who lack background.

Once the sea is opened, the middle businessmen will be able to compete relatively fairly with the giant businessmen who collude with the government and businessmen.

Fujian and Zhejiang regions are known for their affluence, and in the Song and Yuan dynasties, their rich people evaded taxes and served for a long time, colluding with bureaucrats, and making the treasury empty.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang once attacked the rich people in Fujian and Zhejiang, but the symptoms were not cured, and the gentry power in his place soon rose again, affecting the court.

Therefore, the slowness of the process of opening the sea in the Ming Dynasty and the limited nature of the opening of the sea in Longqing are of course inseparable from the manipulation of these rich people in Fujian and Zhejiang.

The land annexation of the Qing Dynasty was the first in all dynasties, and the Jin merchants also lived a prosperous life in the Qing Dynasty.

Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, the donation system of the Great Bank, the combination of wealth and wealth, and the influence of the power became stronger; As a result, the opportunities for upward mobility of civilians have been greatly reduced.

It can be seen that the influence of the Fujian and Zhejiang gentry in the Qing Dynasty declined, and Emperor Qianlong preferred to give face to the Guangdong gentry and change the four-port trade to one-port trade.

Because Fujian and Zhejiang were the richest areas that the Qing army passed through in the south, and the Qing army basically had no military pay at the time of the founding of the country, the military discipline was extremely poor, and an extremely cruel massacre was carried out in the Fujian and Zhejiang regions.

In order to fight against Ming Zheng, the Kangxi Dynasty implemented the relocation of the border and the forbidden sea, causing huge damage, and the strangulation period was only three days. More than two days, the ride is coming, a moment of staggering, the rich abandon their money, the poor husband and wife, wives and children, carrying buckets of rice, coercing the manuscript, looking at the door and perching. From Jiangsu and Zhejiang, to Fujian and Guangdong, thousands of miles of fertile soil were donated as basil, and the indigenous people migrated as far as possible.

These activities caused hatred among the people towards the Qing court.

Therefore, it is reasonable that the Qing court did not trust the gentry in Fujian and Zhejiang.

The fact that the Guangdong gentry gained the trust of the Qing court proved that the Cantonese people were not as backbone as the Fujian and Zhejiang gentry in the late Ming Dynasty and had little resistance.

Otherwise, the people of Guangdong were fierce, and they were particularly backbone in the late Ming Dynasty, and Li Dingguo and the Qing court had many tug-of-war in Guangdong.

So in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the destruction was even more amazing, such as Shang Kexi slaughtered Guangzhou, it is said that 800,000 people were slaughtered at one time.

As a result, the Cantonese gentry suffered an almost devastating blow in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

The new gentry class, many of which were remnants of the Shang clique, was propped up by the Shang Kexi clique and the Qing court.

This is undoubtedly the reason why the Thirteen Banks of Guangzhou can gain the trust of the Qing court.

The Ming Dynasty restricted merchants from going to sea, which harmed the interests of medium merchants.

The existence of the Thirteen Banks in Guangdong proves that in the Qing Dynasty, the giant merchants who colluded with the government and businessmen were no longer satisfied with competing with the middle merchants, and they even extended their hands to the trade with foreign merchant ships on land, and formed a monopoly by seeking agency for the government, so that the livelihood of the small merchants who could not go to sea was also dealt a fatal blow.

This situation became even more obvious after Qianlong changed the four-port trade to one-port trade.

The prosperity of Canton's trade was achieved at the expense of trade in the coastal ports.

Products from all over China cannot be shipped to the nearest convenient port, but must travel long distances to Guangzhou, increasing the transportation cost of goods.

From the perspective of the overall situation, it is obviously detrimental to China's economic development.

In the Qing Dynasty, there were many pirates from the bottom, but after Qianlong changed the four-port trade to one trade, the low-level merchants were unable to transfer goods from all over the country to Guangzhou Port to trade with foreigners, so they had no way to make a living and had to go to sea to become pirates.

However, in the Qing Dynasty, the whole world entered the colonial era, and the share of Nanyang trade was gradually controlled by European colonizers, and naturally the maritime trade with European and American countries became the bulk of the maritime trade.

It is absolutely impossible for the four-port trade to become a one-port trade that has no impact on the livelihood of the low-level merchants.