Chapter 306 Jiajing Opens the Sea

Accompanied by a loud slogan.

The people of Changping, who had already avoided the hottest period, began to carry their farm tools and go down to the sweet potato fields.

A lot of sweet potatoes were planted in Changping this year.

According to the plan, these are all to be used as seeds.

Last year it was just a small-scale effort to expand the number of sweet potato varieties.

And this year.

This amount is enough.

We need to harvest all the sweet potatoes in the fields while the weather is best, so that by next year this batch of sweet potato seeds can cover the entire Shuntian Prefecture.

Wait until next year.

The area that could be used to grow sweet potatoes in the Ming Dynasty would increase exponentially.

Take advantage of this time.

Emperor Jiajing, who was determined to live forever with the Jiajing sweet potato, naturally did not forget to ask for details about sweet potatoes over and over again.

from now on.

How to store.

How to breed.

How to plant.

How to promote.

The emperor asked in great detail.

He really took it as a serious matter and asked carefully.

The old Taoist priest not only asked himself, but also called the Minister of Revenue Gao Yao who was present today, as well as the several officials from the Ministry of Revenue who followed Gao Yao out of the city.

of course.

There is also Zhang Juzheng, the current governor of Shuntian.

The most important person, of course, was Yan Shaoting, the prince's guest who brought sweet potatoes to the Ming Dynasty.

"This Jiajing potato needs to be planted!"

“Not only do you need to plant, you need to plant a lot!”

The old Taoist priest sat on the edge of the field with his legs spread out and his hands on his knees, speaking in a very imposing manner.

Several heads that were named nodded repeatedly.

The chairman of Daming Limited Liability Company has spoken. If they, the department managers, want to continue to get promoted and make money, they must strictly implement the chairman's will.

Jiajing looked at the people who had already started working in the sweet potato fields and said in a long voice: "We must make sure that the people can have enough to eat!"

As soon as these words came out.

The people present couldn't help but look at each other silently.

Even Yan Shaoting.

He brought sweet potatoes, a high-yield crop, to the Ming Dynasty, but he felt that the old Taoist priest's request was impossible to fulfill in the short term.

Let the people have enough food?

Isn't this going to cost the lives of all the officials, gentry and landlords in the world?

I think you, old Taoist priest, are a little immature.

I thought about it.

Yan Shaoting felt that he should be more realistic.

He slowly said, "Your Majesty, after the Rui potatoes are harvested this year, they must all be saved as sweet potato seeds for next year. With this batch of Rui potato seeds saved this year, Shuntian Prefecture will be able to plant them on a large scale next year, and by the year after, Northern Zhili, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other places will also be able to plant them."

Although sweet potatoes now have another imperial name, Jiajing potato.

But as ministers, how could they always talk about the emperor's reign title?

After much thought, Yan Shaoting could only come up with the name Ruishu.

And as Yan Shaoting spoke.

Zhang Juzheng immediately bowed and said, "Your Majesty, as long as Yan Binke keeps the potatoes and doesn't use them for other purposes, I can guarantee that they will all be planted in the fields of Shuntian Prefecture next year!"

Gao Yao frowned slightly and said, "I think this sweet potato can be grown not only in the fields, but also in the mountains. It would be better if Shuntian Prefecture began to gather the people to reclaim the mountains this year. In addition to planting in the fields next year, more should be planted in the mountains."

Zhang Juzheng did not respond immediately.

Instead, he turned his gaze to Yan Shaoting beside him.

Sweet potatoes were invented by Yan Shaoting, so he naturally knew best how to grow them.

Yan Shaoting also concealed his incompetence and spoke softly, "Your Majesty, sweet potatoes are not meant to be staple food. They are not like the jade-like rice and beans that grow in the soil that I mentioned today. What Minister Gao said about sweet potatoes being planted in the mountains is indeed appropriate. Sweet potatoes will not occupy the land originally used to grow staple food."

If I remember correctly.

When I was young.

The sweet potatoes at home are also planted in the dry land on the hillside, but I have never seen any family foolish enough to use the good land to grow sweet potatoes.

Moreover, sweet potatoes are suitable for planting in the soft soil on the mountains.

Jiajing smiled and waved his hand: "Then do as Yan Shaoting said. Shuntian Prefecture has issued an order to all counties and prefectures to reclaim mountain land and plant Jiajing potatoes next year!"

After saying that.

The old Taoist priest looked at Zhang Juzheng and Gao Yao with a sharp gaze.

"Shuntian Prefecture and the Ministry of Revenue should keep an eye on this matter. My Taicang in Beijing has been empty for many years."

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Yao immediately bowed and clasped their fists to accept the order.

There are many warehouses in Beijing.

There are two major granaries in Taicang alone, the old and new, both of which can store millions of grains.

The remaining ones include Guangping Warehouse, Haiyun Warehouse, Lu Mi Warehouse, Taiping Warehouse and Guanglu Temple Warehouse.

As the capital.

The city of Beijing has always had many warehouses for storing various supplies. In addition to weapons and armor, the largest amount is food reserves.

After all, the capital not only had to supply daily necessities to the millions of people in Shuntian Prefecture, but also had to maintain military supplies for the nine borders.

After talking about sweet potatoes.

Jiajing let out a long sigh.

"The theory of sea power..."

The emperor's words.

Several people's brows twitched.

Opening the sea.

The emperor mentioned the matter again.

As the emperor spoke.

The others behind them also looked over.

Whether the imperial court will open the sea and allow merchants from the southeast to go out to sea to do business on their own will depend on the emperor's final decision.

Yan Shaoting was also cautious.

I have done enough things today.

In order to open the sea, he not only used sweet potatoes, but also took out corn and potatoes that might not be found.

What made some people even more dumbfounded was that they stood on the side of the southeastern merchants and wanted to bring justice to the maritime merchants who were originally smuggling.

I have done everything I can.

It is unlikely that anyone in the court would openly oppose this matter.

Anyone who openly opposes must consider how to deal with retaliation from the southeastern gentry group in the future.

even.

Anyone who holds back in this matter may be hated.

What a good thing it is to open the sea. It is not like before, when only the imperial court was allowed to go out to sea to make money.

Now it’s something that everyone can make money on.

The imperial court made money from taxes, and the gentry and merchants made money from money.

Even the common people could earn more money because of their increased production.

Hello, I'm fine, and everyone is fine.

Do you want to object?

Then you just don't fit in!
Everyone looked around again.

I want to see if there is anyone here who is not sociable and ignorant.

Fortunately.

No one present today, at least until now, has dared to openly oppose the opening of the sea.

And Jiajing's gaze also turned to Yan Shaoting.

"What do you think about opening the sea? If the court wants to open the sea, how should it be done?"

Yan Shaoting was actually prepared for this.

He immediately said, "Your Majesty, if our dynasty decides to open up the sea, we should reopen the seven customs offices in Quanzhou, Ningbo, Songjiang, Guangzhou, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, and Haiyan, and dispatch the tax soldiers that have been formed in Suzhou and Songjiang to each office to collect and distribute the maritime trade taxes and raise revenue for the court."

The Maritime Customs System has a long history.

In the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a Maritime Customs Office in Guangzhou.

However, the Maritime Customs Offices established by the Central Plains dynasties have always been public institutions, and ordinary people are not allowed to go out to sea for trade.

The imperial court made a living by selling goods to foreign merchants through the Maritime Customs, and also purchased goods brought in by foreign merchants through the Maritime Customs.

These commodities have rarely flowed into the civilian population and were mostly used by the imperial court and the powerful.

So the trade volume has actually never been too large.

In recent years, the imperial court has repeatedly opened and closed maritime customs offices along the coast.

Now that the old Taoist priest has been persuaded, he is willing to open up the sea.

Then all these customs offices must naturally be reopened.

However, in order to ensure that taxes could be collected normally and returned to the court, Yan Shaoting also specifically mentioned that the tax soldiers that had been organized by Xu Wenbi and his men in the two prefectures of Suzhou and Songjiang should take over the tax collection tasks of the seven major maritime customs offices along the coast of the Ming Dynasty.

Gao Yao immediately raised his eyebrows and said, "The Maritime Customs Office is responsible for overseas trade, and the taxes collected are also for the purpose of increasing the revenue of the court. In the future, there will not only be official business, but also more private business. The court still needs to set the tax amounts for various types of taxes. The Ministry of Revenue should also send people to each Maritime Customs Office to handle the business."

Gao Yao was very clear about the affairs of the soldiers in Susong Prefecture.

He had no objection to letting these soldiers collect taxes.

It is always easier for people with knives to collect taxes than for people from the Ministry of Revenue to collect taxes.

However, the Ministry of Revenue must have control over the accounts of the seven Maritime Customs Offices.

Otherwise, what if those tax soldiers clearly collected one million taels of silver, but then turned around and told the Ministry of Revenue that they only collected 500,000 taels of silver?
Jiajing turned his eyes and nodded, saying, "Let's supervise it accordingly. The cabinet will issue a document to have the Ministry of Revenue and Zhejiang Qingli Division take charge of the matter of opening up the sea trade for seven Maritime Customs Offices including Quanzhou."

After saying that.

Jiajing looked at Yan Shaoting again, and then his eyes swept towards Xu Jie and Gao Gong.

"cabinet."

Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Yuan Wei stepped forward immediately.

"I'm waiting here."

Jiajing smiled and said, "I never thought that the training of tax soldiers in Suzhou and Songjiang proposed by Yan Shaoting would be of great use now. The cabinet issued another decree to grant Xu Wenbi the post of assistant to the Central Military Governor's Office, and to supervise the tax and military affairs of Suzhou and Songjiang and the seven Maritime Customs, specializing in the collection of taxes and silver in various places."

Supervise tax matters!
Xu Jie raised his eyebrows, while Gao Gong and Yuan Wei looked at each other.

It is obvious that the emperor's oral order gave Xu Wenbi a temporary official title.

Just like the positions of governor, governor-general, and inspector-general at the beginning.

From then on, Xu Wenbi was specifically responsible for the collection of commercial taxes and defense silver from the two prefectures of Suzhou and Songjiang, as well as the collection of tax silver from the seven maritime customs offices of the Ming Dynasty.

This is a big piece of fat meat.

But no one dared to object.

The emperor only let the Zhejiang Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue, that is, Yan Shaoting, be in charge of the foreign trade affairs of the seven customs offices.

However, the task of collecting taxes was not given to Yan Shaoting, but to Xu Wenbi.

Now is the time to consider Xu Wenbi's identity.

Who is Xu Wenbi?
The son of Xu Yande, Duke Dingguo of the Ming Dynasty.

That is to say, he is the only candidate for the future Duke Dingguo of the Ming Dynasty.

He is a nobleman.

His entire Xu family had been royal relatives who shared the same fate with the country since the time of Emperor Taizu Gao.

Xu Wenbi, who came from a noble family, was given the power to collect taxes and silver from overseas trade.

This is the emperor's balance of power.

Even Yan Shaoting did not expect that such a popular item would fall into the hands of Duke Dingguo's Mansion.

It seems that in the old Taoist priest’s heart.

No matter what the nobles of the Ming Dynasty were like, compared with the court officials, he still trusted these noble families who were deeply tied to the Ming Dynasty.

But this is also easy to understand.

If even the task of collecting overseas trade taxes by the Maritime Customs falls into the hands of court officials, it is still unclear what will happen to the money in the end.

Rather than that.

It would be better to put it in the hands of a noble family like the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion from the very beginning.

But for that.

Yan Shaoting didn't have much objection either.

What the old Taoist priest has always done is to balance power.

Since last year, the children of the three dukes' mansions have performed well in Zhejiang, winning battles and making considerable contributions.

At this time, going with the flow and giving the nobles some power will also be beneficial to the balance of the court.

However, Zhang Yuangong, who was born in the Duke of Yingguo's Mansion, and his elder brother-in-law Zhu Shitai, who was born in the Duke of Chengguo's Mansion, will probably be jealous for a while.

Xu Wenbi quietly got an official position in the Central Military Governor's Office and was also in charge of the power to collect taxes from the seven maritime customs offices.

He is already considered the best among the younger generation of nobles.

Xu Jie's eyes turned and his thoughts raced.

After a while.

Then he spoke slowly and tentatively: "As for the tax supervision, should the court send the inner court to supervise it?"

Yan Shaoting frowned immediately.

This Xu Jie.

It was clear that the imperial court could no longer interfere in the tax collection affairs of the Maritime Customs.

However, he chose to bring up the inner court and send eunuchs to act as supervisor.

Its heart is awkward!

Gao Gong, however, glanced at Xu Jie.

Then he said in a muffled voice: "Lord Xu, His Majesty has just said that the seven coastal customs offices will be responsible for foreign trade in the future under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue. Adding more staff will only increase the cost, right?"

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