New Shun 1730

The reason for taking action in this season.

The fundamental reason is that the negotiations with the Netherlands have made some progress and the big deal has been accomplished.

The reason for taking advantage of the issue is that a large amount of goods are directly seized in this season - the monsoon will start in January, so this period is the time when the payment has been made and the goods are still being loaded but have not yet left.

Not all of them need to be seized and confiscated, just need to be seized for one or two months to miss the monsoon.

This is also a method learned from the Dutch. In Batavia and Malacca, this is often used to deal with competitors.

Seizing two or three months to miss the monsoon on the grounds of suspicion of being pirates, thus helping VOC's monopoly.

And as long as it is seized, such a large amount of cash flow will be cut off. It is estimated that Portuguese merchants and shareholders of the British East India Company will be in tears.

From the perspective of pure "free trade" and pure academic debate, this is of course unfair competition. But all countries did not engage in free trade. The slogans of Dashun were loud, but it was not the same when it was done.

Moreover, the reason for finding fault was very legitimate: human trafficking and opium.

In fact, the whole court knew about human trafficking. Even if they didn't know it before, they should have known it after going to Southeast Asia. The court was just pretending to be an ostrich.

Macau has been in serious decline in recent years because the trade center has moved north to the Yangtze River estuary. It can only make some money by engaging in human trade by taking advantage of the opportunity of Dashun expelling Catholics.

The emperor reprimanded the governor of Guangdong, saying that the former criminal department secretary had mentioned this matter in a memorial. Naturally, he shot first and then drew the target, and specially found someone to dig it out from the pile of old papers.

In the 42nd year of Wanli in the previous dynasty, a policy was indeed introduced because of the problem of Chinese slave trade.

The introduction of this policy proves that human trafficking has become very serious.

Dashun also introduced policies, but whether it will be managed, how much effort it will put into it, or whether the policies introduced by pretending to love the people look acceptable, it is hard to say.

No matter what, human trafficking is wrong. It was turned a blind eye before, but turning a blind eye is not the same as not breaking the law.

If you close your eyes and ignore it, that is to ignore it, not that it is not wrong.

If you open your eyes, you will have a reason and it is justified.

As for the opium issue... this is really hard for the Portuguese to clear their name.

After the British East India Company issued an order to ban opium here, in theory, it was indeed not carried on its own ships, but subcontracted to the middlemen - I only produce and wholesale, but I don't retail, so I am innocent.

The main reason is that the British East India Company weighed the size of this side and found that it could not beat it now.

Before, Catholics filled the court, and Britain had the opportunity of direct trade with great difficulty, so it did not dare to cause trouble for itself in such matters and could only play a marginal ball.

The company is an entity. Once the company is embargoed, the company's tea, raw silk and other businesses will be finished.

The Portuguese are different.

They have taken root in Macau since the previous dynasty. Although there have been crises, they have passed them.

They feel that they are deep-rooted and everything is stable, so they don't worry about anything.

They have extensive connections, and there is no legal person of a large company. Arresting is just a private act.

Even the Portuguese government issued a policy because the British East India Company asked them to transport opium: they were not allowed to buy opium from foreigners in Macau. We had to collect, transport and sell opium in one go.

Of course, this was worse than the British later planting, collecting, transporting and selling opium in one go.

At this time, the Portuguese not only monopolized the market, but also created a "brand".

The opium produced in Goa was called Malva; the opium produced in Turkey was called Golden Flower; the opium produced in Bengal was called Patana.

Historically, before the British established the "Opium Planting Cooperative" in India in 1773, provided small loans and unified purchase and sale, the opium imported from the West was mainly Turkish Golden Flower, which was generally collected, transported and sold in one go by the Portuguese; the Dutch transported some Malva, mainly to Fujian and Southeast Asia.

From 1773 to 1818, in order to make money, Britain announced that only Patana produced by itself could be sold, and Malva could not be sold. At this time, Golden Flower produced in Turkey was no longer acceptable. Patana produced in Bengal controlled by Britain was the main source.

From 1819 to 1830, Jewish traders, local gentry, officials, and smugglers cooperated to build a secret warehouse on Lingding Island. Although the British East India Company wanted to monopolize, the Malva brought by a large number of traders and smugglers gradually robbed Patana's market. The process is somewhat similar to the dispute between smuggled tea and "legal" tea in North America, and smuggled tea won.

In 1830, the East India Company understood a truth: it is better to loosen than to block. So it stopped chasing and intercepting, but instead levied taxes on Malva. As long as the tax was paid, it was legal. Anyway, the company makes money, so it doesn't matter whether it is Malva or Patana.

This era is no longer a hundred years ago.

With the decline of Portugal's national strength, the establishment of the East India Company by various countries, even Sweden and Denmark, and Prussia even sent the Apollo to trade, Macau's special status has disappeared.

The decline of the transit port has accelerated the smuggling of opium.

Because they want to make money, and the disappearance of the only transit port means that there is no money to be made, so they can only resort to crooked means.

Human trafficking and opium smuggling are now the two pillar industries of Macau.

The recovery of Macau caused by the war in recent years did not stop these two industries. On the contrary, because Britain was afraid of French hijacking ships, it was more active in Macau and borrowed Portuguese ships, which made a large amount of British opium try to seize the market, but more.

However, in terms of absolute numbers, it was not so serious and the impact was not so great.

Although the court had issued a ban a long time ago, it did not care too much. It just let the customs take care of it and did not take care of the big hole in Macau.

The main reason was that it could not be managed.

Macau has been special for more than 200 years. The locals are familiar with the place and are already considered local snakes. Many local people are involved in it. Once the locals participate, the court is blind.

In short, although this is the case, the overall import volume of opium has not reached the point where the court has to take special care of it. It is still a pipe burst before the dam breaks.

This time, he wants to find fault in Macau. From a subjective point of view, the emperor has no awareness of preventing and controlling it.

Subjectively, it was purely for the future profits of the Western Trading Company and to strike Portugal and the British East India Company through non-war means and cut off their capital flow to create trouble. Subjectively, it was not for the population trade and opium issues.

Objectively, through this kind of campaign-style action, where people were sent directly from the Children's Army to investigate opium and find faults, it did play a role in completely eradicating and preventing it from happening.

As for selling opium to Europe in reverse, Liu Yu never thought about it.

First of all, this thing is not something that people do.

Secondly, it is unnecessary.

The French are always worried about how to get enough silver to buy goods from China; the Swedes are worried that China has nothing else to exchange for Chinese goods except the Spanish silver dollars exchanged in Cadiz.

In the article "History of Opium Trade", Lao Ma also wrote about this:

[Montgomery Martin once asked the Shanghai governor what was the best way to promote our trade with China. The Shanghai governor immediately replied to me in front of Her Majesty's Consul Captain Balfour: Stop sending us so much opium, and we will be able to buy your products (with currency). 】

The Martin here seems to be Robert Montgomery Martin, who may be the first pseudo-Financial Secretary of Hong Kong.

Lao Ma's judgments and predictions are indeed terrifyingly accurate.

[The British government's finances in India actually rely not only on the opium trade with China, but also on the illegality of this trade. ]

[If the Chinese government legalizes the opium trade and allows the cultivation of cherry blossoms in China, the British Indian government's treasury will suffer a serious disaster. ]

[The British government publicly promotes free trade in opium, but secretly maintains its monopoly on opium production. ]

[Any time we carefully study the nature of heroic and free trade, we will find that its "free trade" is actually a monopoly. ]

In other words, Lao Ma believes that the reason why Britain can obtain excess profits is that the Qing government still opposes the opium trade and considers it an illegal trade.

Or to extend it further, if I can produce and you don't, I will shout for free trade. Anyone who shouts like this, no matter how nice it sounds and how much freedom it has, is essentially a monopoly.

As for opium, once free trade is really implemented and cultivation is liberalized, not only will you not make a penny, but you may even become the largest opium producer.

That's why Britain publicly promotes free trade while secretly maintaining a monopoly.

This argument and prediction are very accurate.

It's even scary.

Because it won't be long before it really becomes the world's largest opium producer, at least smuggling opium will not make a penny.

That's why Tang Tiezui no longer smokes opium, but instead smokes British Empire's Hardman and Japanese white flour. Instead of British Empire's hibiscus cream.

Because of technical reasons, foreign hibiscus cream has no competitiveness; because of technical reasons, white flour cannot be made in China.

So.

On the one hand, the essence of Dashun's development of trade in Europe is not for silver and trade surplus, because this thing can be sent by others while sitting at home.

Liu Yu's purpose of engaging in European trade was to pull up and expand the emerging class through the external market, not to make a few silver coins.

If he really wanted to make silver to enrich the national treasury, wouldn't it be better to open trade in Malacca? Wouldn't that improve the stability of this reactionary fortress?

But if you just sit and wait for people to come to pick up the goods, you will never develop a machine textile industry in your lifetime: if you develop it, won't they impose tariffs and ban cotton cloth? The initiative of trade is in their hands, and they can just say no.

On the other hand, the only possibility of making money by selling opium to others is that they don't grow it themselves, which is illegal.

If they are really pushed to the edge, silver will flow out rapidly, won't they grow it themselves?

What technical difficulty is there in this broken thing?

It is more technically difficult for the old man in the square to play spinning tops than to cut this thing.

If the government adopts a method similar to the salt and iron monopoly and legalizes it, it will not only make a lot of money, but also raise a navy to fight back.

By then, there will be a lot of messes, and a lot of people who grow this stuff can't sell it. Won't they all try to sell it back home?

This stuff can only be profitable if it is illegal.

And Dashun must be illegal, so it must be profitable.

By then, the trouble will be spread to me, and I will definitely feel uncomfortable.

It is easy to guard against foreign thieves, but how to guard against domestic thieves? What if a group of interest groups are raised to make a fortune from this thing, and they will coerce public opinion and demand legalization? Even the next emperor himself thought, what if this thing is really profitable when combined with the salt and iron franchise?

Therefore, whether it is for personal reasons, the conclusion derived from a set of economic theories, or the consideration of boosting the country's manufacturing industry.

Liu Yu didn't want to engage in any opium war or lotus paste war at all.

It is meaningless, but will seriously restrict the sales of normal goods. I have spent all my money on cigarettes, but I have no money to buy Songjiang cotton.

He neither wants to go to war with Portugal now, nor does the emperor realize the seriousness of the problem subjectively, nor does the court want to take care of a large number of expelled Catholics in Macau - there is a place for exile, but the court even has Huanghuai immigrants We can’t even afford it, so how can we spend it on these people who would rather die than quit their religion?

Therefore, this investigation of Macau is a standard, Dashun-style "some things don't weigh four taels if they don't weigh on the scale, and they can't be stopped if they weigh a thousand kilograms."

And this kind of matter of four or two thousand kilograms has always been handled very strictly.

Because doing it, in itself, means that the emperor wants this matter to be done.

The emperor's attitude determines the extent to which the people below will take action.

In order to avoid interference from local snakes, the Jiedu envoy was directly responsible for the supervision, and the Hai'er Army, Navy, and local garrison jointly investigated and monitored each other.