novelSusiti Chapter 29 Cao Huachun Takes Charge of Maritime Affairs, Wealth Arrives from All Sides
Chapter 29 Cao Huachun Takes Charge of Maritime Affairs, Wealth Arrives from All Sides
The obstacles that Chongzhen wanted to pilot the opening of the sea have been cleared, but the right person to coordinate the opening of the two northern ports has yet to be determined.
As for the primary candidate, Emperor Chongzhen had actually considered several options.
The current Minister of Revenue, Li Daiwen, is a capable and loyal official. If he is put in charge of the maritime affairs, Emperor Chongzhen will be completely at ease.
Unfortunately, Li Daiwen had taken leave to stay in the capital to recuperate due to health problems some time ago. He has only just begun to improve after multiple treatments by the imperial physicians, and will need to rest for several more months before he can fully recover.
Under such circumstances, Chongzhen could only let him focus on recuperating, and the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue had been fully taken over by Vice Minister Cheng Guoxiang.
Therefore, Chongzhen had to find someone else to handle the matter of opening up the seas. After much deliberation, he finally thought of Cao Huachun, who had recently retired to his hometown.
Unfortunately, most of the civil officials in the court today are deeply entangled in the interests of the gentry, burdened by selfish desires, and are not capable of being of great use.
Of the remaining available eunuchs in the palace, Wang Chengen was loyal enough, but too honest to be able to take charge of local affairs independently.
Wang Dehua is capable and loyal, but now Chongzhen needs him to manage the internal affairs of the imperial city, eliminate spies from other forces in the palace, and supervise the imperial guards.
With these heavy responsibilities weighing on him, Wang Dehua was overwhelmed and had no time to attend to anything else.
Therefore, it seems that the only suitable candidate is Cao Huachun, who has retired to his hometown and now lives in seclusion in a manor on the outskirts of Tianjin.
After all, this old fellow wasn't like Li Daiwen, who was genuinely unable to perform his duties due to illness.
In terms of ability and methods, Cao Huachun was superior to both Wang Chengen and Wang Dehua, and his economic acumen was even more outstanding; he was proficient in accounting and financial management.
In addition, his outstanding coordination skills allowed him to manage the commerce of two seaports and deal with officials, gentry, and nobles from all over the country with ease.
Late that night, a secret edict was quietly sent out of the Fengtai camp, with the Imperial Guards personally going to the outskirts of Tianjin to summon Cao Huachun to the Fengtai camp for an audience.
Now, Cao Huachun has recovered well since returning to his hometown. He has a rosy complexion, looks radiant, and has gained more than ten pounds.
Although he retired early and seemed to have suffered a loss, this former Grand Eunuch actually returned home safely, and his fate was much better than that of the powerful Wei Zhongxian.
On the day he left the capital, the emperor personally led the imperial guards to see him off as he left the palace for the canal ferry. Before leaving, the emperor draped his own cloak over him and gave him many words of advice and blessings.
Cao Huachun burst into tears on the spot. With such imperial favor, he could truly say that he had no regrets in this life. Moreover, this scene was equivalent to the emperor giving him a pardon from death.
With the emperor's favor, even though he had retired to his hometown, no one blind enough to see the situation dared to covet his wealth.
He not only returned home safely with his accumulated wealth of over a million taels of silver, but also received additional jewels and rare treasures as a reward from the emperor, making him incredibly successful.
Therefore, when he received the emperor's secret edict at night, Cao Huachun, who was over sixty years old, did not hesitate for a moment. He immediately changed his clothes and hat and rushed to the Fengtai camp with the imperial guards.
Inside the brightly lit command tent, before Cao Huachun could finish performing the formal court etiquette, Chongzhen interrupted him.
"My lord, I know you have retired from the world and only wish to spend your old age in peace. Logically speaking, since I have granted your request to return to your hometown, I should not have summoned you back."
Now that the two ports in Beiyang have opened to the sea, I wish to establish a royal merchant fleet to go out to sea and make profits, but I am troubled by the lack of capable personnel.
This vast maritime empire is the foundation upon which I will build a new army and provide relief to the people. I do not trust those court officials, nor do I trust ordinary merchants, but I trust Ōtomo.
I now command you to return to office and serve as the General Manager of the Royal Chamber of Commerce, overseeing all matters related to the Beiyang Fleet's maritime trade with Japan.
From this day forward, Your Excellency will represent me in handling overseas trade in the Beiyang Fleet. Personnel arrangements, investment and business development within the Royal Caravan, and cargo coordination will all be decided by you. You will not need to report to me on every matter; you only need to be accountable to me.”
Upon hearing Chongzhen's heartfelt words, Cao Huachun was deeply moved and once again grateful for Chongzhen's trust in him.
Furthermore, since he was not to return to the palace to take up a post, but only to manage royal business as the emperor's servant, he was at ease and had nothing to hesitate about. Cao Huachun immediately kowtowed and accepted the order.
"Hehe, Your Excellency, rest assured, I will grant you a share of the profits. If you can invest 500,000 taels into the operation of the Chamber of Commerce, you will receive 10% of the annual profits from maritime trade. I will never go back on my word."
Emperor Chongzhen took a sip of tea, smiled, and dropped the final bombshell of self-interest, which immediately made Cao Huachun tremble all over.
It wasn't fear, but excitement and exhilaration.
The maritime trade guild, personally established by the emperor, must have been incredibly large and convenient.
In the first year or two, you may need to increase your investment and the returns may be limited, but the longer you operate, the more money you will make.
Now, the emperor himself has promised him 10% of the profits.
Only a ten percent profit!
What good would it do to invest 500,000 taels?
Cao Huachun was no country bumpkin from the north who was ignorant about maritime affairs.
A significant portion of the political bribes he received initially came from silver offered by smugglers who traded goods at sea through Tianjin Port.
Therefore, he was well aware of what it meant for a large-scale merchant fleet to set sail under the royal banner.
Emperor Chongzhen's magnanimous concession brought tears to Cao Huachun's eyes once again. He immediately knelt down and kowtowed, speaking earnestly.
"This old servant will dedicate the rest of his life to Your Majesty! I will serve you with my life and never waver in my loyalty! I will certainly live up to Your Majesty's trust and manage the royal business well, earning funds for Your Majesty to promote the new policies!"
Seeing that Cao Huachun's stance was firm, Chongzhen nodded in satisfaction, helped him up, and then spent the whole night talking with him about the details and overall plans for maritime affairs.
He wanted to form a royal caravan, ostensibly to replenish the national treasury and private funds, and to earn military expenses and provide relief to disaster victims.
But in reality, they want to launch a reform that deeply intertwines interests.
The northern princes, gentry, and wealthy merchants had previously banded together to obstruct the opening of the sea and clung to the old system, fearing that imperial power would intervene in maritime affairs and take away their smuggling profits.
But now, Emperor Chongzhen is using his imperial power to pave the way and open up legal maritime trade channels between the two ports, which is like throwing an extremely tempting piece of meat to them.
Yes, Emperor Chongzhen did not intend to monopolize the maritime trade in the north through imperial power. Instead, he wanted to bring together officials, gentry, and clansmen from the north to invest in making money at sea.
The royal caravan was escorted by the navy throughout the journey. Its ships were large in scale and had a carrying capacity far exceeding that of private ships. Moreover, its routes were stable.
The pirates on the northern front dared not target the Ming Dynasty's navy, and the government dared not seize the goods of the royal caravan.
In this way, the prospect of simply investing money to participate in the royal caravan's maritime trade and waiting for dividends was a fatal temptation for the official and gentry group.
After all, in the past, when they smuggled goods to sea, they not only had to bribe officials at every level and build relationships, but they also had to constantly worry about the risk of being robbed by pirates.
This maritime smuggling trade is extremely profitable, but also very risky.
Now that they've partnered with the Royal Chamber of Commerce and invested in the company, they don't care about the preparation of goods for overseas shipments. They can simply sit back and wait for dividends, and the security of maritime trade has been greatly improved. It's practically a sure-fire way to make money.
What Chongzhen wanted was to make all the powerful and influential people in the north who had previously resisted the new policies and hindered the court's reforms in their localities envious and willingly spend money to get involved.
Once they invest real money in Royal Trading, they will be completely tied to his chariot.
From then on, the interests of the Royal Merchant Guild became their interests, and the rise and fall of the Imperial Court's maritime trade became their rise and fall.
These gentry and princes who had previously banded together to oppose imperial power and obstruct the new policies would no longer dare to arbitrarily hinder the court's decrees. Instead, they would take the initiative to safeguard imperial power and support the implementation of the new policies.
And this is just the first step in the process.
Chongzhen's long-term plans were also hidden within deeper national policies.
Once these powerful and wealthy individuals have fully tasted the enormous profits from the royal maritime trade, he will promote the in-depth development of the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry, and then venture into the open ocean to compete with Western bandits for the golden shipping routes.
By then, the northern nobles, who had long been accustomed to huge profits from maritime trade and colonization, would no longer be so fixated on land exploitation.
Even if they wanted land, Emperor Chongzhen would allocate large territories overseas for them to invest in construction, expand the Ming Dynasty's territory, and achieve great deeds on one piece of feudal land after another.
Domestically, the court could then take the opportunity to promote land reform, using overseas land and silver to exchange for and redeem the land held by powerful figures in the north, and then distribute it to poor farmers at the bottom through tenancy, thereby alleviating land conflicts.
This would completely alleviate the deep-seated land annexation problem that had plagued the late Ming Dynasty, increase investment in agricultural administration and fishing operations, and prevent peasant uprisings and riots in the north from the root.
To prevent future troubles, all land in the north that was redeemed by the imperial court would be nationalized, and the ownership of the land distributed to poor farmers would still remain in the hands of the imperial court.
As for the extremely conservative gentry in the interior, Chongzhen certainly had other ways and means to deal with them. As long as he won over most of the officials, gentry and the people in the north, the rest would be insignificant.
Let the gentlemen of Jiangnan continue to enjoy themselves for now. Once the wild boars and the unruly Mongol tribes beyond the Great Wall are dealt with, Emperor Chongzhen, wielding a broadsword, will slowly settle things with them.
Putting aside other considerations, it would be worthwhile to ask them to return most of the wealth accumulated over hundreds of years to alleviate the country's burdens.
By using commerce to bind the powerful and wealthy, and by implementing new policies to secure the country, this approach, implemented layer by layer and spread over ten years, was enough to silently resolve the century-old problems of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, Chongzhen only told Cao Huachun this much. He didn't mention at all his plans to exhaust the Jurchens after the plan failed, and then lead hundreds of thousands of northern border troops from north to south to "clean up" the country again.
Old Cao is getting on in years; it wouldn't be good if he got scared.
Cao Huachun, unaware that Emperor Chongzhen had already wielded a large sword behind his back, could only admire the visionary emperor before him.
The next day at dawn, Cao Huachun bid farewell to Emperor Chongzhen and immediately went to Tianjin Port to formally take over all the affairs prepared by the Royal Chamber of Commerce.
After his return to public life, Cao Huachun shed his leisurely lifestyle and became rejuvenated. He acted decisively and methodically, demonstrating the shrewdness and experience honed over decades of court life.
Upon arriving in Tianjin, he established the Royal Chamber of Commerce headquarters at the port, posted notices outlining the rules for shareholding and profit sharing, as well as the safeguards and profit cycles.
With the backing of imperial power, clear and transparent rules, and the presence of Cao Huachun, a former high-ranking official in the inner court, the merchants and nobles who were observing the imperial court's pilot program for opening up the sea immediately became restless.
The news of the Royal Chamber of Commerce's establishment spread rapidly with the help of the Imperial Guards, instantly stirring up waves among the elite circles of the North, with everyone eager to participate.
It should be noted that they had accumulated their wealth through private trade in the Beiyang region for many years and were well aware of the potential of this maritime route to wealth.
With legal channels now wide open, backed by the emperor, and escorted by the navy, large-scale royal trade is a sure-fire way to make money.
Gentry and noble families from the surrounding areas of Beijing, Zhili (north and south), southern Shanxi, eastern Henan, and Shandong, as well as northern nobles, all humbled themselves and quickly sent people to the Tianjin General Administration to inquire about investment opportunities.
Within just three days, powerful and influential figures flocked to my door to offer their money and make reservations to invest.
After receiving Cao Huachun's promise and learning of the emperor's determination to manage maritime trade well, their accumulated wealth from many years began to flow into the Royal Merchant Guild Treasury located in Tianjin Weicheng.
Previously, the northern interest groups that had banded together to resist the opening of the sea and obstruct the new policies have now changed their tune and are actively requesting to invest and cooperate, wanting to follow the emperor's lead and get a share of the profits.
These men ultimately succumbed to the lure of enormous profits, and all willingly jumped into the game set up by Emperor Chongzhen, becoming bound to imperial power.
After stabilizing the overall situation of investing in merchants, Cao Huachun immediately used the three million taels of silver that Emperor Chongzhen had transferred from the Fengtai military camp to the Tianjin Chamber of Commerce treasury to stockpile grain and goods on a large scale for disaster relief and trade with Japan and Korea.
With his keen eye and quick thinking, he directly abandoned the drawbacks of purchasing from the north at high prices and turned his attention to Shandong and Nanzhi, where supplies were more abundant and prices were lower when buying in bulk.
Thanks to Emperor Chongzhen's life-saving protection last year, Shandong was spared from invasion and plunder by the Jurchens, and the situation was relatively stable. In addition, the commodity economy in the southern Zhili region was developed, and the amount of cloth and silk produced in the two regions was enormous.
Cao Huachun immediately sent people south to contact local gentry and nobles in Shandong and southern Zhili, and to purchase various materials on a large scale at reasonable low prices.
He was shrewd and knew the hearts of merchants well. He was extremely perceptive during negotiations, using long-term cooperation and overseas profit sharing as bait, and royal endorsement and the court's credibility as guarantees, promising to give priority to attracting powerful southern families to invest in Royal Maritime Trade.
Tempted by the promising prospects of maritime trade and the prospect of large-scale cash settlements, the gentry and nobles in the south chose to offer discounts and sell off large quantities of their stockpiled surplus grain, coarse cloth, silk, pig iron, and other important materials.
In a short time, hundreds of privately owned cargo ships and transport boats set sail from Jiangnan to the north, carrying goods from Xuzhou, Huai'an, and Shandong to Beizhi along the way.
However, under Cao Huachun's overall coordination, these cargo ships remained orderly and waited in an orderly manner, entering the port in batches for inspection and unloading.
A large number of horse-drawn carriages that had been prepared in advance were also arranged to receive and transport the goods at the temporarily widened and reinforced river port wharf.
Tianjin, where the three cities of Sanwei had been occupied by troops sent by Emperor Chongzhen, had a large number of barracks vacated and used as temporary warehouses.
The original Tianjin garrison troops were also reorganized into local standing corps and were being transferred to Fengtai Camp in batches for reorganization.
Truckloads of supplies were then brought into the city and stockpiled, waiting for the ships to be ready and the weather to be right before setting sail to exchange them for the enormous amounts of gold and silver.