No matter how bad the camp is, as long as there is a duke with the title of Duke of England, there is no problem in intimidating the officials and eunuchs of the Jingshi.

This is all Wei Bao's dependence.

Wei Bao arrived at the British Mansion with trepidation, and Zhang Zhiji was waiting for him at the door.

Wei Bao hurriedly said: "Where do you dare to wait for Brother Labor in person?" You've had a lot of wine tonight, so get some rest early. ”

"I fell asleep, and my dad woke me up." Zhang Zhiji sighed, "You still have to let me greet you at the door." ”

Wei Bao sighed, and followed Zhang Zhiji inside, the door was not the place to speak.

The capital is full of the eyes and ears of Dongchang and Jinyiwei, Wei Bao knows very well that it is not a very urgent matter, and Zhang Weixian will not look for him so late, it will definitely attract the attention of Dongchang and Jinyiwei.

Now that I hear Zhang Zhiji say this, it is estimated that Zhang Zhiji has not reported what he said to his father-in-law.

From this point of view, the old man is also quite good, and he is also a person with better ears and eyes, and it is very likely that he was arranged by Zhang Zhiji's side and monitored Zhang Zhiji, and told his father-in-law his words.

Anyway, Wei Bao is not worried that there are people around him who monitor him, because Wei Bao is surrounded by the hardcore of the Heaven and Earth Society, and the irons of the Baojun are all personal guards or attendants who have been selected through strict political review and layer by layer.

Zhang Zhiji led Wei Bao all the way to the backyard, and when he arrived at Zhang Weixian's exclusive house, he didn't go in, "You go by yourself, I'll go to sleep." ”

"Uh, aren't you going in with you?" Wei Bao was a little embarrassed, if it was him and Zhang Zhiji, he would feel a little better, on such a big night, talking to the two big men alone, Wei Bao didn't like this kind of occasion very much.

Zhang Zhiji smiled, "I won't go, my father probably has to talk to you about dawn, I won't get any benefits, and I may be scolded a few words, I will go to sleep." ”

Wei Bao sighed, and it was inconvenient to stay, so he could only go inside.

There were many subordinates in the British government, at least fifty maids, and almost forty or fifty family members.

There are no families in the inner courtyard, they are all maids, and when they saw Wei Bao, they all called their uncles softly, and then blessed them.

Wei Bao was not polite, and nodded one by one at first, the number of people was too many, and then he simply just made a reply, which was considered a return gift.

It is no wonder that big families have developed arrogant styles, power and wealth have reached a certain level, and there are too many subordinates, and it is difficult not to be arrogant.

Everyone is groveling, and over time, they can only look up to the sky.

When I arrived outside the old man's study, the door of the study was open, a thick luxury carpet, and Zhang Weixian was drinking tea.

Wei Bao knew that Zhang Weixian didn't have much knowledge, but he looked like a scholar.

The British government seems to be basically like this, except for the first few generations of the British prince who accompanied the emperor to fight the world, which was slightly better, and the military aspect was more powerful, and the back was basically loyal, because there was an unbreakable dependence with the royal family.

As for such top nobles, they were rare in the Ming Dynasty, as long as they did not rebel, they could basically maintain eternal glory and wealth, in other words, they could not rebel!

If the son rebels against Lao Tzu, he will be spurned by the world, who will rebel.

Seeing Wei Bao, Zhang Weixian didn't get up, but beckoned, "Xiaobao, come and sit." ”

Wei Bao hurriedly saluted and said, "It's time to pay tribute to Taishan." ”

"You don't need to be polite, come and sit, you and my son are the same, and even, I compare you very well." After Zhang Weixian finished with a smile, he said to the door: "Give my uncle the best dragon well." ”

The maid outside seemed to be prepared, and agreed, and as soon as Wei Bao sat down, a hot dragon well would be delivered immediately, as well as all kinds of snacks, filling the small tables on both sides of Wei Bao's sitting.

"You should have had a lot of drinks at night? I definitely didn't eat well, drink some tea to sober up, and eat more to pad my stomach, the food in my house is definitely not as good as your side, Meiyuan told me, your Wei family's meals are more exquisite than those in the palace. Zhang Weixian said with a smile.

"No, no, the U.S. dollar is a bit exaggerated." Wei Bao smiled: "But there are dozens of cooks around me, and each level is no worse than the imperial chef, this is true, as for the ingredients, they will not be specially prepared, and they will eat whatever they are fresh now." ”

Wei Bao knew that Zhang Weixian came to him, and he must have said something about the opening of the treaty port and his desire to control all the Daming sailors, and it was impossible to just talk about such trivial things as eating and drinking.

Spend a little more money, just have money anyway, it's not a problem.

Wei Bao doesn't have to hide anything here in Zhang Weixian, his expenses must be several times that of the Daming Palace.

However, Wei Bao personally spends a lot, but the institutions around Wei Bao don't spend much, the Heaven and Earth Society Statistics Bureau, plus the president's secretariat, and subordinate institutions, the total number of people is about the same as the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace, but it is definitely not as much as the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace.

The efficiency and coverage of the work are incomparable to the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace.

Whatever Zhang Weixian talked about, Wei Bao accompanied Zhang Weixian to talk about something, and deliberately did not say anything about the treaty port and the control of all the sailors in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Weixian also admired Wei Bao's kind of city government, and felt that Wei Bao was indeed a very calm person.

Especially Wei Bao is still so young, more than ten years younger than Zhang Zhiji, far more than his own son.

"Xiaobao, I heard that you want to advise the imperial court to open more than ten government offices for trade purposes and open up overseas trade? Do you still want to bring all the sailors of the Ming Dynasty under the name of your Yamen, the governor of coastal defense? Is there such a thing? Zhang Weixian finally couldn't help but ask.

"There is this matter, I just said it occasionally at the wine table today, but I didn't think about admonishing the court and His Majesty, I was always asked by those people to donate money to the court, and the words came out, otherwise where do I have so much silver, I am also doing this for the Ming court to be able to open up sources and reduce expenditure, and tide over the difficulties." Wei Bao's words are very mellow, even in his father-in-law's place, he does not leak.

Zhang Weixian was a little unhappy, feeling that Wei Bao was a little bit of an outsider, but he didn't show it, just nodded.

Then the two fell into silence, and Wei Bao didn't know what Zhang Weixian meant.

In Wei Bao's view, the opening of treaty ports, in the era of the Ming Dynasty, is definitely a good thing for the country that does more good than harm, which is definitely different from being forced to switch at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Even treaty ports in unequal treaties are beneficial to China in the long run.

The so-called economic base determines the superstructure, so what is the economic basis that determines the superstructure of highly centralized feudal rule in ancient China?

High school history textbooks tell Wei Bao that it is a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, a natural economy that we have inherited for a long time.

In that era when the industrial revolution was vigorously unfolding and the world was changing with each passing day, was there a future for China to do this unchanged? No!

With the establishment of treaty ports, Western products will be continuously transported to China, gradually impacting China's traditional self-sufficient feudal economy, and with the development of the number and location of treaty ports, this influence will be carried to various cities along the coast of China and even to the interior of Chinese mainland.

In the vicinity of ports, the traditional economic model is gradually collapsing, and whether it is factories set up by foreigners, factories set up by the government, compradors, or enterprises set up by capitalists, it is spreading and expanding throughout the country with an unstoppable momentum.

Cities are expanding, industry and commerce are developing, and the two opposing classes are growing. China has ushered in change, ushered in development, and taken steps towards the future.

Although this footstep was accompanied by the blood of the soldiers, the humiliation of the country, and the despair of countless people at the bottom.

Future generations don't need to open up the free trade zone.

Wei Bao thinks that trade in this era of the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to opening up the free trade zone on its own, and it is a good thing to be able to rush the small-scale peasant economy and bring more and greater stimulation to the national economy.

The actual meaning of the free trade zone is a free trade zone, or free port, the biggest feature of the park is that the park is mainly economic and trade, and the international goods in the park are usually duty-free and can not be subject to the regular management of customs officers.

Although the details of the rules and regulations of each free trade zone will be different, in the final analysis, it is a policy introduced by the government to promote trade and promote economic development, which is of course fair.

Treaty ports, on the other hand, theoretically only allow this place to do business with foreigners.

According to this standard, in fact, most cities in the world can now be regarded as treaty ports.

Why is it said that the treaty port is an unequal treaty?

It depends on the background of the times, when China, Japan and other countries adopted a policy of locking down the country, except for specific cities and ports, other cities were not allowed to trade with foreign countries.

It doesn't matter if it's beneficial to me, I don't want to do it, you force me, it can't be considered equal.

Moreover, judging from the conditions at that time, the opening of treaty ports did exacerbate the hardship and poverty of the Chinese people.

Moreover, the opening of treaty ports at that time was usually accompanied by some harsh additional conditions, such as the need to settle foreign merchants in the designated areas of the ports, the opening of consulates, consular jurisdiction and extraterritoriality, which were inseparable from the opening of treaty ports in history.

The Qing government also gave the most favored nation treatment to the foreign powers, opening a port and a bunch of foreign devils came over to join in the fun.

Under such historical conditions, treaty ports, of course, were not equal.

Treaty ports only allow foreigners to come to China to do business, and the taxes that should be paid must still be paid, but the amount of tariffs to be collected and how much to collect must be discussed between China and foreign countries.

That being the case, it is clear that China's sovereignty has been undermined.

Moreover, such a customs model has also had a huge impact on China's internal affairs, and the penetration of foreigners into China's financial power can be said to have spread to the bones little by little.

Under such circumstances, the Qing government naturally could not build any trade barriers, and could only engage in hand-to-hand combat with the mature industrial production of Western countries.

This is a contest between children and adults, and there is no fairness at all.

But the Ming Dynasty was different.

The content of the same treaty has a completely different impact in different historical backgrounds, and coercion and voluntariness are not the same thing, nor is it the same thing when the national strength is different, just as the "Sino-US Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation" in the Republic of China can force the Chinese bourgeoisie to rebel.

But if in the later generations, the developed and powerful Great China, foreigners are still willing to sign this thing with the Great China, and Huaxia can grin to the back of the head.

At that time, the treaty was not only about opening treaty ports, but also about one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, unilateral consular jurisdiction, and so on, which were not related to equality under any historical conditions.

The impact of the opening of treaty ports on Chinese society in modern unequal treaties has both negative and positive aspects.

On the negative side, the opening of treaty ports was a product of China's defeat and reflected the demands of aggression by the great powers.

It facilitated the dumping of commodities and opium by capitalist countries into China, and deepened China's semi-colonial and semi-localization.

The treaty ports became the main base of economic plundering of China by the great powers, and a large number of Chinese raw materials were plundered, and a large number of peasants and handicraftsmen lost their jobs and went bankrupt.

However, it is not completely without positive effects, and the positive aspect is that the treaty ports are the integration point of the development trend between China and the world, and facilitate the transmission of Western ideology, culture, science and technology, which is conducive to China's understanding of world civilization.

The establishment of enterprises in treaty ports and the export of early capital by foreign businessmen contributed to the disintegration of China's natural economy and the emergence and development of Chinese capitalism.

It has facilitated China's learning of foreign strengths and the introduction of technology.

It had an impact on the Qing government's Westernization Campaign.

In modern times, the great powers forced the Qing government to sign unequal treaties by waging wars and opened the door to China, which was a shame for the Chinese nation, but the opening of China's door also caused a large influx of Western civilization and promoted China's modernization.

In fact, there are no particular benefits.

The opening of treaty ports and the exchange of markets between the ethnic minorities of the Central Plains and the northern ethnic minorities in the early days were the same thing.

In terms of doing business with each other, the purpose of the Western powers is nothing more than to make money.

And making money is divided into two aspects, taking Western things and selling them, and China's small-scale peasant economy is the main one, so they don't buy much.

Sell what is Chinese back to Europe.

The things bought in China are mainly specialty products and raw materials, and it is more convenient to open more ports.

In the 38th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, in 1610, Dutch merchants bought tea shipped from Xiamen for the first time, and in 1644, Thomas Calloway, a famous British tea merchant, said in the book "Tea Planting, Quality and Quality": "British tea was originally introduced from Xiamen by the East India Company. ”

In the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1689), he entrusted the Xiamen Merchant House to buy 150 quintals of tea and ship it directly to England.

In 1699, the company ordered 300 barrels of high-quality green tea and 80 barrels of Wuyi tea. In 1702, the company carried 2/3 of the whole ship of tea, pineapple tea, 1/6 pearl tea, and 1/6 Wuyi tea.

At this time, the export of green tea and oolong tea was carried out at the same time.

From 1751 to 1760, the British East India Company imported more than 1,678 kilograms of tea from China.

Among them, Wuyi tea is 23.63 million pounds, 10.6335 million kilograms, accounting for 63.3% of the total import, which shows that the tea imported into the UK during this period is mainly Wuyi, with an average of about 1 million kilograms per year.

In the United Kingdom, Wuyi tea is known as the "Oriental Beauty".

Due to the ban on transportation, China's foreign trade is all concentrated in Guangzhou, and if Fujian tea is to be transported to Guangzhou, although the simplest is by sea, in fact, it must go to Guangzhou through the Beijiang waterway.

However, the donation rent added when the White Lotus Sect was destroyed at the end of the Qing Dynasty was very high, and it was very heavy for Fujian tea.

Previously, the British had hoped to open a Fujian port and ship directly by sea, but they were refused.

In 1684, the 23rd year of Kangxi opened the sea ban, and many foreigners came to Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou and Ningbo to trade.

At that time, there was already customs supervision, Guangdong Customs sent people for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Fujian Customs by Fuzhou generals, Zhejiang Customs and Jiangxi Customs by the governors of various provinces, that is, "imperial merchants", "governors", "military merchants", "governor merchants", and so on.

However, the management of various places is not standardized, and there are many bad rules, so foreign investors first focus on Xiamen, then Ningbo, and finally Guangzhou, and thus derive the thirteen lines pattern.

By 1756, Canton had become the only legal place of commerce. This is probably one of the reasons why foreigners choose ports.

Xiamen is Asia's largest piglet, slave, Chinese industry and trade center, with destinations in San Francisco, Cuba, South America and other places.

Before the Opium War, it was already the largest illegal smuggling port, and after the war, it was the legal slave trade.

So when the United States fought the Civil War and the black slaves were emancipated, Xiamen began to decline.

As for Fuzhou, Westerners imported Chinese tea mainly black tea, and the Dahongpao and Zhengshan small varieties near Wuyi Mountain in Fujian, foreigners did not like to drink green tea, which was the most important black tea variety in China at that time.

Wuyi Mountain is in northern Fujian, and there are many mountains nearby, so it can only be exported through Fuzhou.

However, when the tea industry in India emerged, such as Assam and Sri Lankan black tea, because of the machine roasted tea and the duty-free, the price was much lower and the taste was not bad because it was exported to the UK.

After that, the British rarely bought tea in Fuzhou, and other European countries preferred to drink coffee and beer.

Without the export of black tea, Fuzhou also declined.

One must build on a firm foundation.

It is only for the sake of the gains and losses of one place or one district of the treaty port that the foundation of the country and the nation is harmed.

Such an approach is undesirable, and the prosperity that comes with sovereignty and the economy that comes with dignity comes with blood.

At that time, the treaty ports were not only economic issues, but also political and ethnic issues.

If the economy is embezzled, then politics will inevitably be manipulated and the nation will inevitably be assimilated.

It is extremely undesirable to harm the fundamental interests of the state for the sake of some economic interests.

At that time, people of insight realized this point and tried their best to obstruct the opening of treaty ports.

Take the difference between a commercial port and a treaty port at that time.

What is a commercial port, a commercial port is a special economic zone set up by China similar to that of later generations, which is a place of legitimate economic exchanges with sovereignty and governing power.

Treaty ports are only opened on Chinese territory, but China does not enjoy sovereignty, China is just a puppet.

Therefore, the enlightened minister supported the commercial port, rather than being forced to open it and set up a treaty port.

Therefore, treaty ports are not just an economic issue, but a matter involving national sentiment and the fundamental interests of the state.

Therefore, it was not advisable to open more treaty ports, on the contrary, at that time, the main task was to prevent the opening of treaty ports.

Because it is necessary to integrate into the world market, develop itself with the help of international trends and the relationship between the two sides is equal, the relationship between the two sides was unequal when the Manchu Qing Dynasty opened the port.

Wei Bao had a lot of things to say to Zhang Weixian, and Zhang Weixian was the same.

Wei Bao felt that if he wanted to explain to Zhang Weixian the benefits of opening the treaty port of the Ming Dynasty, it would take at least two or three days, and at least twenty working hours.

Zhang Weixian also thought about it like this, so if two people have a belly, they don't know where to start.

"Xiaobao, if you really treat me as a father, you will give me a real truth, what do you want?" Zhang Weixian said: "With the foundation you have laid now, you not only occupy such a large piece of land as Hejian Mansion, Cangzhou Mansion, Shandong and Denglai, but also have absolute real power in Liaodong, and you have more strength than Li Chengliang back then, you are already very jealous, why don't you hurry up and cover the things at hand, and dare to do things that are hated by others?" If the Governor of Haiphong, Yamen, controlled so many treaty ports and controlled all the sailors of the Ming Dynasty, wouldn't one to two percent become surnamed Wei? At that time, will not all the people of the world be jealous of you? Can a man who is envied by the world have any good fruit to eat? ”

Zhang Weixian's words, in Wei Bao's expectations, his father-in-law could say this to himself openly and honestly, in fact, Wei Bao felt quite warm in his heart.

As far as Wei Bao is concerned, it really doesn't matter whether the development of the force is faster or slower, after all, Wei Bao knows that Zhu Youxiao will not live for two years, and the New Year will be celebrated next month, which is the sixth year of the Apocalypse!

Zhu Youxiao had to hang in the summer of the seventh year of the Apocalypse.

Anyway, the real history is like this, and Wei Bao is now very familiar with the laws of this life.

Ordinary historical events cannot be changed, even if they are forcibly changed.

For example, Wei Bao rescued Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others, and they still had to die in a short time.

Unless it is some small people who are dispensable to the course of history and change their fate, nothing will happen.

When Zhu Youxiao dies, the entire court, the entire Ming Dynasty, the entire Ming officialdom, and the entire Ming Dynasty's sphere of influence will be reshuffled, so what you get now may not still belong to you when you reach the Chongzhen Dynasty!

Wei Bao is now like renting a storefront to do business.

There are always gains and losses.

Business is good, and I am afraid that the landlord will raise the rent.

Business is poor, and I am afraid that the landlord will raise the rent.

The source is that the property is not one's own, he is a courtier, and no matter how much he obtains, he is just renting a house.

Renting a house is as thoughtful as possible, and all expenses may be pitfalls.

As the bottom of society, Wei Bao has rented a house in modern times.

I remember once renting a house for a month, and when I quit the rent, I deducted 200, saying that I didn't clean public health, water and electricity, sanitation, property, and monitoring.

At that time, the expenses that could be thought of had to be clearly written on the contract, and in addition, a big hole was that the landlord was polite when renting a house, and once the deposit was paid, it was not necessarily what happened in the future.

It is very important to read the contract, read it carefully, don't care how the landlord urges you, you must read it clearly.

Wei Bao is also living in the Ming Dynasty with this mentality, the old Zhu family is his landlord, and the current landlord, Emperor Zhu Youxiao, is okay, who knows what will happen in the Chongzhen era.