Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

What Zhang Shikang said was true. The Donglin Party group at the time took advantage of their status and position to seize the benefits that should have belonged to the court.

Now if they really have difficulties, they will let the Ming navy solve them, and then rely on their status and position to make money. They are really the same as the Donglin Party gentry group.

Seeing that no one spoke, and that they did not seem to agree with what he said, Zhang Shikang continued:

"My dear uncles, I am not kidding you. Without the support of the imperial court, our maritime trade will not go far.

Therefore, the imperial court will definitely invest, and its share will not be small."

What Zhang Shikang meant by this was that no matter what you think, he is going to exercise his veto power and the court must get involved.

Because he understood that in the future they would face not only the Zheng family, the French, and the Dutch, but also the British and the French.

They not only want to go to Asia and Southeast Asia, but also to Australia and America. If the imperial court wants to protect them, it will inevitably cost a very high price.

Zhang Shikang would never allow them to occupy the country's military power for no reason.

"A greedy person will never be able to swallow an elephant. Uncles and uncles, please think carefully about this," Zhang Shikang reminded.

As soon as these words were spoken, all the nobles became a little dispirited.

In the end, Chen Yanzuo compromised first.

"I have no objection. I'll listen to you, nephew. If you're not afraid of making less money, I'm not afraid either."

After Chen Yanzuo said this, the eyes of others also lit up. Yes, Zhang Shikang’s nephew was not afraid of the court taking away his profits, so what were they afraid of?

Seeing that everyone agreed with him, Chen Yanzuo felt a little proud and thought that he was still smart.

"That's right, you guys still underestimated the profits of maritime trade.

Just think about it, if we make a voyage across the ocean and bring back several ships full of gold, I'm not kidding you.

Do you know how much a few ships' worth of gold is worth?"

Zhang Shikang had learned the true art of giving a date after hitting someone with a stick, and he immediately handed over a big red date.

All the nobles' eyes widened.

The Ming Dynasty was short of both gold and silver, and the exchange rate between gold and silver was as high as one to ten. The imperial court stipulated that gold was not allowed to circulate among the people, in fact, it was because there was too little of it.

"Nephew, is this true?" Song Yude said with some stammering.

"Of course it's true, and I know where the gold is." Zhang Shikang vowed.

The so-called primitive accumulation of capitalism actually came in large part from the gold mines in America.

After the Spanish occupied most of America, they shipped shiploads of gold to the Iberian Peninsula, directly causing inflation throughout Europe.

The reason why Zhang Shikang was not very happy with the Ming Dynasty's use of silver as currency was because silver was only circulated in circles around China.

Outside of East Asia, other places only recognize gold, not silver or copper coins.

"Then what are we waiting for? Nephew, I will listen to you in everything!

When are we going to pull the gold? !

I can pay any amount of silver!!!" Taining Marquis Chen Yanzuo said excitedly.

The other nobles were also very excited and echoed the sentiment.

"You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, uncles and uncles, sharpening the knife will not delay the chopping of wood, but now, we don't even have a knife.

Those places may have been occupied by Europeans. They will not give up so many gold mines to us.

This is also the reason why I insisted on suggesting to Your Majesty that you form the Ming Navy.

Our Ming Dynasty must have a strong navy to seize all those gold mines into our own hands.

Now, you understand why I want to involve the court.

If the gold mines were only in the hands of us and our descendants.

My dear uncles, do you think that the imperial court or the future emperor will let us go?

"A man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure!" Zhang Shikang warned.

"What my nephew said makes sense. I've always said that my nephew never wants to suffer any loss.

We old guys have outdated ideas. As far as I am concerned, just listen to our eldest nephew.

We should do whatever our nephew tells us to do." Chen Yanzuo said seriously.

With the lessons learned from the Donglin Party in the capital and the lessons from the Nanjing nobles, although Chen Yanzuo was very interested in making money, he was more interested in his own life.

After hearing this, all the nobles present nodded one after another, indicating that they would obey Zhang Shikang's orders in everything.

“It’s too early to tell the exact share distribution, but the court will definitely get a fair share.

Besides this, our Majesty will also get a share." Zhang Shikang added.

As early as after the imperial farm was confiscated by him, Brother Chongzhen had implicitly expressed that it would be too painful to lose the income from the imperial farm.

Although the Ministry of Revenue would allocate silver for the daily expenses of the palace, there was a quota. If Emperor Chongzhen wanted to ask the Ministry of Revenue for silver, he had to have a sufficient reason.

The Minister of Revenue, Hai Zhongqiu, was a notorious miser.

"If Your Majesty can join, we will be more stable!" Chen Yanzuo nodded.

The other nobles thought the same thing. Even if the profits were too huge, the court couldn't liquidate His Majesty as well, right?

That's nonsense.

Therefore, this proposal was readily accepted by all the nobles.

"But nephew, if we have to wait until our Ming navy becomes stronger, how long will it take?

Are we just going to keep waiting like this?" Chen Yanzuo said in a very frustrated tone.

"Of course we can't wait, there is still a lot we need to do.

Let me ask you, when doing maritime trade, we must have something to show for it, otherwise it would be like robbery, right? "

"It's not like they're robbing the Ming Dynasty. There's nothing wrong with robbing..." Song Yude muttered quietly. Seeing Zhang Shikang looking at him, he quickly changed his words:

"Oh, yes, yes, since we are doing trade, we must have trade goods."

"My family runs quite a few businesses, including a grocery store, a grain store, a cloth shop, and, oh, a pawn shop," said Gong Yonggu, the son-in-law of the emperor.

Zhang Shikang shook his head.

“These are not very good. The three best-selling artifacts of my Ming Dynasty overseas are silk, tea and porcelain.

A shipload of fine porcelain shipped to Japan could earn three times the profit.

If it is shipped to Persia, the profit can be five times, and if it can cross the Indian Ocean and then the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, the profit can be eight to ten times.

Of course, I also plan to develop some new products. The Ming Royal Manufacturing Bureau that I suggested to Your Majesty to set up will not only develop various types of firearms, but will also develop some products that will definitely be best-sellers.

At that time, these goods and the profits generated will all belong to our maritime trade." Zhang Shikang thought for a moment and said.

After hearing this, everyone no longer had any complaints about the court sharing the profits. After all, the court not only provided military support, but also commodity support. It provided money, manpower, and commodities, so it should be so.

Chen Yanzuo was very sensitive to words like profit margin. When he heard three times and ten times, he immediately said:

"Nephew, I will sell all the shops at home when I get back, and use the money to buy porcelain!"

……