New Shun 1730

The emperor should not be too deeply involved in such a major issue of the Confucian academic crisis, mainly because he is not that capable.

The news that Liu Yu and others have arrived in Tianjin arrived in the capital along with the express horse.

Along with it came a regular report from the prefect of Tianjin Prefecture.

Since the abandonment of the canal transport, the status of Tianjin Wei has risen, and it has been upgraded to Tianjin Prefecture more quickly.

There are also various government offices stationed here, including those in charge of grain transport, warehouses, transportation, Changlu salt, as well as those in charge of garrisons and artillery forts.

In the memorial submitted by the prefect of Tianjin to the emperor, a new industry that has emerged around Tianjin Prefecture in recent years was mentioned.

It is said that after the autumn harvest every year, the straw that used to be piled up in the fields and could only be burned has gradually become an industry with overseas trade.

People from Western trading companies place orders here, while rural women collect wheat straw and weave it into straw hat braids.

Several workshops have now been established near the port of Tianjin, specializing in weaving the purchased straw hat braids into women's straw hats.

These workshops just don't braid straw hats, but the whole process of turning straw hats into women's straw hats is done in the workshops. Including weaving, shaping, bleaching, dyeing, etc.

The finished straw hats are packed and shipped to Europe for sale.

Straw hat braids are made of wheat straw.

If used as a rainproof straw hat for labor, it is definitely not valuable.

But the wide-brimmed straw hat commonly used by European women can be exchanged for silver.

Do Europeans grow wheat? Obviously they do.

Do Europeans braid straw hats and make straw hats?

Obviously they do, otherwise this straw hat would not be popular in Europe instead of Dashun. This kind of straw hat itself is also a trend brought about by European women, and women's money is always easier to make than men's money.

In general, it is based on extremely low labor costs and extremely low rural handicraft women weaving straw hat braids, and then being purchased by vendors and shipped to Tianjin, where they are made into women's straw hats based on the orders of Europeans.

Packed and shipped to Europe, it was actually cheaper than hats woven from straw in Europe itself.

Coupled with the "mysterious oriental charm" and "China fever", as well as Dashun's advantages in handicrafts, especially weaving textiles, Dashun really had both meat and soup, and defeated the straw hat weaving industry in Central Europe, completely occupied the heads of European women, and took the initiative to drive a straw hat trend.

The feudal dregs on Dashun's side are different from those on the European side.

European women's hair is similar to hair in other places at this time, so it is best not to show it.

Therefore, sales are very good.

At the peak of history, only low-grade straw braids were made, and they were not woven into finished products, and they received a trade volume of more than 1 million taels of silver a year.

This was when some "smart" businessmen found that it took one or two years for European merchant ships to go back and forth, so they bribed the inspectors to change the size, and tampered the 0.95 yard into 1 yard, which almost led to the collapse of the entire industry and was snatched away by Japan, which had equally low labor costs next door.

Nowadays, relying on these hats woven from straw, which were originally worthless, a brand-new industry has been formed around Tianjin, and it is an absolute export-oriented industry.

As the ancients said, "You can know the flavor of a wok by tasting a piece of meat; you can know the dryness and wetness by hanging feathers on charcoal. You can know that autumn is coming by seeing a leaf."

That is to say, there was no convenient transportation from Tianjin to Zhangjiakou in those days, whether it was railways or canals, so only the best camel wool, cashmere, etc. could be transported here.

If the transportation and logistics system was developed, even an industry like straw could make Europe unemployed, and I am afraid that even European woolen cloth would be out of business by then.

The memorial from the Tianjin prefect to the emperor was definitely not just a simple description of this phenomenon, but also raised some of his own doubts.

The Tianjin prefect studied European books that were introduced in the past few years through the translation movement, and of course read a lot of pamphlets on economics published by people from Liu Yu's faction.

The prefect of Tianjin even asked someone to confirm that Europe also has wheat straw, and the technology of weaving straw hats was taught by craftsmen dug up from Europe. Otherwise, the aesthetics of the two sides are completely different. How can we know what style of straw hats European women like to wear?

Therefore, the prefect of Tianjin obviously felt a crisis.

In the memorial to the emperor, the prefect of Tianjin, who was open-minded and looked at the world, analyzed it for the emperor and said, "Good quality and low price are not the reasons why others will definitely buy it. The idea of ​​free trade between countries proposed by the Duke of Xingguo is just because it cannot be achieved, so it is better to mention it to Westerners from time to time."

Nowadays, as the gateway to the capital, Tianjin is definitely not allowed to communicate directly with the West. But even if it is not allowed to communicate directly with the West, many industries in Tianjin rely entirely on overseas trade in Songjiang Prefecture.

Take the straw hat industry as an example. If Westerners increase taxes like cotton and tea, what will happen if straw hats cannot be sold?

Different people will have different solutions to the same problem.

If you are a closed-minded conservative, facing this kind of thing, most of the time you would just end it all. Just issue an order to close down the straw hat industry and destroy it before it grows. If people don't buy straw hats in the future, won't it cause unemployment and vagrants soon?

The prefect of Tianjin was not a closed-minded conservative. Faced with the same thing, his memorial suggested that the court should build more warships. If people don't buy them in the future, they can knock on the door for free trade.

Of course, the prefect of Tianjin could not write so straightforwardly, but used the allusion of "Imitating the Japanese Opening Story" which can be regarded as an allusion in Dashun.

The main reason is that although the reform of the grain transport was only completed recently. But before that, Tianjin had already begun to try to receive the grain transport from Jiangsu by sea, and only after the trial was successful did it have the foundation for comprehensive sea transport.

And with the development of sea transport, Tianjin Port has gradually become commercial.

For example, several nearby counties began to grow peanuts in large quantities, which is more profitable than growing grain. Liaodong wheat, Ezo rice, etc., have ensured that the price of grain here fluctuates very little.

Peanuts are transported to Tianjin and then to the south.

Steam-powered mills and oil presses targeting the Beijing market, primitive and simple match workshops, cigarette factories, etc.; black date processing prepared for European export, etc., have also gradually developed, and even peanuts have begun to appear in futures.

This gradually changing economic foundation made the prefect of Tianjin realize the great value of trade. In addition, Tianjin itself is not a good agricultural prefecture at all. It rose purely because of the sea transportation of grain. In essence, it is just a commercial city like Huai'an.

If the prefect of Tianjin wants to be a good one, he has to understand these things.

And the more he knows, the less likely he is to come up with the idea of ​​banning the straw hat weaving industry.

He doesn't want to ban it.

The power to buy or not, and the power to increase tariffs, are still in the hands of others.

What to do?

The answer is obvious.

Remind the court that it should continue to expand the navy and maintain its maritime advantage, otherwise there may be a big mess in the future.

This is the crisis awareness of the prefect of Tianjin.

The emperor was quite satisfied with this memorial and approved it as promising and insightful.

But he still had some unspeakable perspectives on this matter.

He wondered why the people of this dynasty were so poor? It would be fine if silk, tea, and porcelain were exported in large quantities.

But Europe grows wheat, not rice. How can things made of wheat straw be cheaper than those made in Europe after crossing the ocean, and have good profits?

He had heard Liu Yu talk about gold and silver and the price revolution in America.

But wheat straw is so common, so ordinary, and even so cheap that the emperor was really surprised that it could be sold across the ocean.

After reading the memorial from the prefect of Tianjin, the emperor picked up another memorial about the sense of crisis.

This is a memorial from Nanyang.

The matter is simple.

During the inspection, the Nanyang Navy caught a British smuggling ship. It was called "Neptune", which is translated as Poseidon or Poseidon according to Greek mythology.

The smuggling ship was loaded with opium, and the captain held a license signed by the Deputy Governor of Bengkulu, but it was not a ship of the British East India Company.

After the interrogation, it was confirmed that the ship was not going to China, and there was a special warning on the ship that opium was not allowed to be sold to China, so as to avoid further trouble.

The ship was going to Banjarmasin in Borneo, where there was a trade warehouse of the British East India Company before.

In Nanyang, the emperor sent the spice trade to report to the emperor, asking what to do with the captured British Poseidon?

The East India Company did not admit that it was their ship, but only said that they signed a license allowing them to trade in Bengkulu.

After the interrogation, there was indeed no evidence that the opium on the ship was still sold to Dashun.

The Governor of Bengkulu, the British East India Duke, hoped that Dashun would protect the legal property of British citizens.

Because Britain recognized that Dashun replaced the Dutch occupation of Nanyang.

But "as long as there is no Chinese flag flying, it can be regarded as a free route and neutral port."

Although Dashun certainly did not think that the whole world belongs to the king in Nanyang, because they did not recognize it.

Since we are doing business, we have to negotiate an international law that both sides can accept. You say that the whole world belongs to the king, but others say that it is legal to hijack Chinese merchant ships in the Atlantic Ocean. Mutual threats can only lead to compromise.

Dashun uses its control over tributary states to strictly prohibit countries from trading with each other privately. But... it is not so easy to control.

Mingguru is stuck in Nanyang, and from time to time it gets some smuggling ships.

These smuggling ships are indeed not from the British East India Company, sometimes they are from small countries, chiefs, and private merchants in Nanyang.

It is hard to guard against.

In the memorial, after explaining these situations, it said that it hoped that the court could make a decision early and directly take back the territories of other Western countries in Nanyang.

Start the war early.

Otherwise, this kind of smuggling is really impossible to prevent.

And it can't be too rigid.

Dashun now monopolizes the specialty trade in Nanyang, and monopoly will inevitably lead to smuggling.

It is impossible to catch them, and it is impossible to catch them.

So much so that the memorial clearly stated: "Any smuggling ship that buys goods in Nanyang and sells them to the West without the permission of this dynasty is like reaching into the bag of this dynasty to steal things. Every smuggling ship is a loss to this dynasty's overseas trade."

"In view of this, the court should make preparations early, at least drive out the British in Mingguru. All Western colonies in Nanyang should also be driven out, otherwise, this kind of smuggling trade with Western strongholds as transit will be difficult to eliminate."

"I think that the navy should continue to expand and completely solve the Nanyang problem. Otherwise, the special products stolen by them every year are worth at least one million taels of silver."

"If you want to treat the symptoms, you need to add 20 cruisers."

"If we want to cure the root cause, we should start the war as soon as possible."

In addition to the issue of smuggling and the suggestion to continue to expand the army and start the war, the memorials from Nanyang also asked the court to send an envoy to Turkey.

"Merchants of this dynasty have found new business opportunities. Indian merchants in Nanyang provide new business opportunities for merchants of this dynasty. Turks like pure white cotton cloth for summer clothes, but the British are playing tricks there. Merchant ships sent from Nanyang to Mukha and Jeddah were treated unfairly."

"Only 3% tariffs are imposed on the British there, while 12% are imposed on us. In Jeddah Port, the governor of Mecca imposed a high tax of 18%. It makes it difficult for merchants of this dynasty to sell their goods. It is suspected that the British bribed the governor of Mecca, but the British have been entrenched there for a long time, and merchants of this dynasty want to bribe but have no way..."

"Therefore, I implore the court to send an embassy to Turkey to discuss tariffs."

"There are more and more conflicts between merchants of this dynasty and the British East India Company. The court should make plans early. On the one hand, it should start negotiations, and on the other hand, it should also prepare for war..."

There are many memorials similar to those submitted by the Tianjin prefect and the Nanyang issue. Basically, they are all about the crisis awareness of the Open Eyes to the World Party about the continuous increase in Dashun's overseas trade volume.

This sense of crisis is not the kind of crisis of saving the nation from extinction, but simply a feeling that either Dashun should not expand overseas trade in the first place; or Dashun must go all the way and make early plans for war.

In the current situation, if Europe cuts off trade with Dashun, at least half of Dashun's foreign trade industries will die.