The Ming Dynasty started with caution

"Your Majesty, the spices have been stolen by Jiang."

Seeing that the entire face of the Supreme Emperor was like a mask, stiff and ugly, Yan Kesong felt a little hesitant.

Zhu Houzhao himself said that he could sue at will.

The princes looked at Yan Kesong, and saw that the navy was plundered by hundreds of river thieves, as if they heard a battle involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses between the two armies, but only sixteen people were killed in the end.

There are many unconscionable things.

"Can you please avoid me? I have important matters that need to be reported privately."

As the saying goes, family ugliness should not be publicized, and imperial ugliness should not be publicized.

Yan Kesong thought carefully and avoided the princes. It was up to the Supreme Emperor himself to decide what happened next.

East Palace,

Yan Chengjin was shocked when he heard that Zhu Houzhao had robbed the imperial court of spices.

How did Zhu Houzhao come up with such a stupid idea?

"I am ill today and need to take a day off. I also ask the new emperor not to say that he has seen me."

Zhu Houzhao was used to Lao Gao's greed for life and fear of death. He waved his hand and said happily: "You go ahead."

Next, it’s time to order someone to purchase spices from the capital.

Within two days, the price of spices will definitely skyrocket.

The little eunuch hugged Yun Zhan and ran into the bedroom: "The new emperor, the Supreme Emperor asked you to go to Fengtian Palace."

After a while, Zhu Houzhao came to Fengtian Palace very quickly. Emperor Hongzhi saw that he was holding an account book and counting the dirty things with the traitor.

"Why did you hijack the ship!"

Father and son stared at each other for a moment.

"Father, please take a look at these accounts. I promised my father that the money in the national treasury will be doubled than that of my father. Last year's autumn grain was seventeen million taels.

It’s a far cry from thirty million taels…”

During the Hongzhi period, the autumn grain was about 15 million taels.

If you look over it, it’s probably 30 million taels.

Tax rates will not rise steadily and may fall back.

The Supreme Emperor Hongzhi couldn't think of any other way, "Don't argue, what does robbing spices have to do with you?"

"My son and Lao Gao said that they wanted to raise the price of spices, but my father and the masters didn't allow it, so my son robbed it."

If he didn't admit it, his father wouldn't dare to leak it out and make everyone in the world laugh.

As for the masters, I'm afraid they have already guessed that it is him, so there is no need to explain anymore.

My father and the princes are too short-sighted, and if I tell them, they will be refuted.

A quarter of an hour later, Yan Chengjin came to the main hall and saw his father and Zhu Houzhao standing aside slumped. The Supreme Emperor glanced around with doubtful eyes, guessing that he had not asked anything yet.

"Say it!"

Yan Chengjin pondered for a moment, "I wonder what the Emperor is talking about?"

"How many things?"

"Three things. The new emperor robbed the ship, but I didn't know it. The spices were hidden in the treasury of Liangxiang Yamen. This is one of them.

The new emperor drove up the price of spices in order to increase taxes. This is the second reason.

The Supreme Emperor wants to give my father a reward, but he has not yet given it... This is the third one."

Yan Chengjin said it all.

He also understood that Zhu Houzhao's intention was that those who could do things would not reason with the masters. After all, the masters would not win if they reasoned.

"Why does Yan Qing's family have to drive up the price of spices?"

The Supreme Emperor Hongzhi frowned, but in his heart he didn't want Franji to make money.

But from these three or two sentences, we can also understand that it has a great relationship with Yan Chengjin.

“Everyone said that spices are Western goods and cannot be raised in price, but everyone knows that the price of roasting spices is worth it.

When people are hungry, they will buy chestnuts instead of silk. But when they are full, they will want to dress decently and buy silk. But after they are dressed decently, they will want to decorate their mansions and buy nanmu household items. Agarwood

Therefore, when the world develops to different stages, people will pursue different things. "

The Supreme Emperor Hongzhi looked thoughtful.

Yan Chengjin continued: "I infer that what the gentry needs right now is spices."

In layman's terms, eat well first, then eat well.

Just eight words, but it contains Maslow's principle of changing people's needs, but the emperor probably didn't understand it.

The Supreme Emperor Hongzhi's eyes narrowed slightly, "How dare the Yan Qing family be so sure that spices will continue to flourish?"

The price of silk will fall, let alone spices.

"I guess the only thing that the gentry is looking for right now is spices."

Every era has different products.

Spices will remain popular for at least several decades. The only thing that can beat spices is...

opium.

The Supreme Emperor Hongzhi raised his eyes and glanced at Yan Chengjin, "I believe that if you two sold the money and put it into the national treasury, I will not pursue it any further."

He came out of Fengtian Hall and left the palace.

Chang'an Avenue is a bustling scene with busy traffic. Not far away there are merchants selling spices, which must have been bought from the Franji people.

"Lao Gao, the imperial court can't openly sell spices, right?"

Chao Gang has said that one must not compete with the people for profit.

Therefore, the imperial court confiscated the wealth of officials and transferred most of it to the palace or entrusted tooth shops to sell it. There was no direct sales by the imperial court.

After all, the spices have to be sold by Yahang, so the treasury will not get any money.

"Just by raising the commercial tax on spices, won't we be able to collect tax money?"

Many spices will be worthless in later generations.

But in the Ming Dynasty, spices were extremely valuable.

The capital and areas south of the Yangtze River are relatively good, but in remote areas such as the northwest, even the gentry may not be able to eat fried eggplant.

It’s not that there’s no money, it’s that even with money you can’t buy materials.

This is a need brought about by extreme scarcity of materials, and spices are exactly the same.

The gentry only had money, but there were no spices in the land of the Ming Dynasty, and the condiments were single.

Therefore, spices such as pepper, fennel and star anise were very valuable in the Ming Dynasty, just like the original salt.

In later generations, it is estimated that few people would be rare.

Arriving at the Yingkesong Restaurant in the capital, Yan Chengjin and Zhu Houzhao ordered all the dishes in the restaurant and found that only one dish used spices.

Yan Chengjin looked at it with some displeasure, "Call your shopkeeper."

After a while, Wang Bushui came in a hurry.

Zhu Houzhao almost forgot that this was Lao Gao's restaurant.

"Why are there no spices?"

"Sir, if you put spices in, the price will be expensive, and I will lose money..."

"If you don't put them in, how can the gentry know that spices are for eating? By the way, Lao Gao, can agarwood be eaten?"

"..." Yan Chengjin.

A few days passed, and all officials suddenly found that the price of their favorite spices had increased.

Pepper, from twelve taels to twenty taels, fennel from one qian of silver to three qian of silver.

But the court did not make any move to catch the river thieves.

All officials submitted memorials to the retired emperor Hongzhi, and all of them were kept in the court. After the price of spices rose, some people began to think about growing crops such as fennel and agarwood.

Some gentry even hired large ships to go out to sea to look for spices.

Such trivial matters would not have been reported to the court.

It can be seen that the court has not made any moves for a long time. Wang Qiong's face was full of heartache: "Retired emperor, the price of pepper, cloves, agarwood and other goods has almost doubled, but the court has not found eight ships of spices yet..."

"Some people are hoarding futures, I beg you to investigate according to the law!" Zhang Zuo, the military official, spoke.

Zhu Houzhao turned his head and looked at the gentlemen with a guilty conscience.

He found that the gentlemen were also looking at him. I conspired with Lao Gao to raise the price of spices. I think the gentlemen knew about it, so they stood quietly aside.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Yan Chengjin stepped forward and said, "I beg you to raise the tax on spices by 40% to lower the price of spices."

"I second the motion!"

"I and others second the motion!"

The officials were stunned for a moment and nodded in agreement.

The damn French drove up the price of spices, which was just right to take away their hard-earned money.

Jiang Mian knew who was really driving up the price of spices, "This move will make the price of spices even higher. The French will trade spices for silk and will get more silk. Lord Yan, don't you know?"

"I can order the Tang and Song countries to pay tribute to spices." Zhu Houzhao said happily.

The retired emperor Hongzhi was slightly startled, and the next moment, his eyes shone.