“… In the past, people often said: Suhu is ripe, and the world is full. But according to Chen's investigation, it is not the same thing in fact. In the previous dynasties, mainly during the Song and Song dynasties, the annual ripening of rice grain in the Jiangnan region was enough to supply the rations of most of the world's population, but in this dynasty, things began to change.

Since the Jiajing Dynasty, the import of rice grain from the Jiangnan region has begun to exceed the amount of rice grain it exports. In other words, in the past 100 years, the grain in the Jiangnan region has not only been unable to supply local needs, but even needs to be transferred from other places to supplement the local shortage.

So where did this grain come from, according to the records, decades ago it was mainly produced in Jiangxi, and now it is mainly in the Huguang area. The main reason for this change in the Jiangnan area is due to the increase in population. Based on the population of Suzhou today, it has long exceeded 20-30 times the local population of the Song Dynasty, and the population of the entire Jiangnan region is basically 10-20 times that of the Song Dynasty.

Even compared to a hundred years ago, the population of Jiangnan has nearly doubled. The increase in these populations has consumed the self-produced grain in Jiangnan, and it is also necessary to import a large amount of grain from other places. If there is no large amount of grain imported from other places, it will basically be a good year, and there will still be a grain shortage in the Jiangnan area..."

Many officials didn't believe Ji Jiliang's statement, and soon someone couldn't help but interrupt him and asked, "Is Di Shilang a little alarmist?" Jiangnan has always been the land of wealth of this dynasty, which used to be used for civil and military officials to distribute gold and silver, two-thirds of which came from the land of Jiangnan. If the people of Jiangnan can't even support themselves, how can they pay the land tax? ”

Since serving as the chief officer of the Household Grain Bureau, Ji Jiliang, who has conducted an in-depth investigation of grain production in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, immediately replied without thinking: "... Xia Guan only said that the grain production in the Jiangnan area was insufficient, and did not say that the people in Jiangnan could not support themselves.

According to the investigation of the lower officials, the main industry of the rural people in the Jiangnan area is no longer dependent on grain planting, but mainly on the cultivation of mulberry, hemp, cotton and other crops, while the people in the cities mainly rely on the textile industry to live, among which Suzhou is the most developed in silk textile and dyeing, while Shanghai and Songjiang are the most popular in cotton weaving.

… Planting one acre of cotton in the south yields about one-third of that of one acre of paddy field. If you plant one acre of cotton, the income is more than double that of the rice field. If it is an acre of old mulberry orchard, then the income is 4 times that of the rice field.

And one acre of mulberry garden can be born 8 catties of silk in one season, according to the price of ordinary years, one catty of raw silk is equivalent to one stone of rice, according to the spring and autumn seasons, it is the output of 16 stone rice, about the yield of eight acres of good paddy fields.

This pound of raw silk was purchased by the Chinese and then transferred to merchants or weavers, and the price doubled or tripled. If the merchants change hands and go to the port market, the number doubles or triples. When the shippers sell it to the sea, it will increase by 3 to 5 times according to the distance of the route. As for the raw silk and then woven into silk and other things, its value varies according to the skill of the weaver.

Therefore, just planting mulberry and silkworms, taking silk and weaving satin, and planting cotton for weaving, these two textile industries almost feed half of the population in the south of the Yangtze River. Basically, every textile link is related to the food of tens of thousands of families, and these two industries have also paid countless financial contributions for the imperial court.

It can be said that the people of Jiangnan do not actually depend on the fields to live, but rely on the textile industry to live. In Suzhou alone, at least two-thirds of its 1.5 million residents are engaged in work related to the silk weaving industry. The three million people in Suzhou depend on the raw silk and silk industry to live and work in peace and contentment. If there is a shortage of raw silk production or a problem with the sale of silk, then the people of the area will be in dire straits.

For example, this year, the land of Sanwu was affected by the disaster, and food prices soared. The focus is not on the soaring food prices, but on the abnormal climate in the Taihu Lake region this year, which has led to a reduction in mulberry leaf production and a large number of silkworm seed deaths, resulting in a shortage of raw silk production in the Jiangnan region. The insufficient output of raw silk will affect the weaving households in the Sanwu area, and there is no work to be done.

Hundreds of thousands of families who depend on the silk industry for their livelihoods are without food and clothing, and this is the biggest impact of the disaster in Jiangnan. The minister believes that the most important thing for the Sanwu region at the moment is not to stabilize grain prices, but to ensure that these weavers can start work. These weavers have little land in their homes, and once they lose their jobs, it is difficult for them to protect themselves, and even if the price of food is low at this time, they will not be able to support their families.

Once these skilled workers flee the famine, then when the climate improves next year, there will be raw silk but no workers to start work, which will also cause a blow to the textile industry and sericulture farmers in the south of the Yangtze River. In this way, the country's wealth and land will be greatly damaged..."

Hearing this, Chongzhen finally couldn't help but ask, "So what do you think is the way to solve such a situation?" ”

Ji Jiliang replied without hesitation: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that we should order a ban on the export of textile raw materials such as cotton yarn and raw silk, and encourage the import of cotton and raw silk from overseas, so as to solve the problem of these textile workers' employment, and then to stabilize local grain prices." ”

Ji Jiliang's proposal immediately aroused the opposition of many officials, and only a few people supported him, such as Bi Ziyan and Xia Yunyi, and Ji Jiliang was not surprised by this. After all, the ban on the export of cotton yarn and raw silk has hurt the interests of these officials who invested in cotton yarn factories and ocean trade, but a few conservative officials even said a few good words for him.

However, Ji Jiliang also knew that these old officials did not really support him, but were skeptical of all overseas trade. On the one hand, they firmly believe that there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world, and if a large number of domestic materials are shipped overseas, then there will obviously be a problem of insufficient use in China. The large import of silver, in addition to causing prices to rise, does not solve the problem of material shortages.

On the other hand, the various heretical ideas that had been introduced from Europe had begun to threaten the dominance of Confucianism. For example, the emergence of new schools that absorbed natural sciences and European philosophical ideas now firmly grasps the right to education at Yenching University, and as Yenching graduates thrive in all walks of life, the dominance of Confucianism is slowly disappearing.

For these old-fashioned officials, all this is because the Ming Dynasty's foreign exchanges are too frequent, so they can take this opportunity to crack down on officials who support overseas trade, and they naturally spare no effort.

Despite the opposition of many officials, Zhu Youzhen still partially agreed with Ji Jiliang's suggestion to implement a quota system for the export of cotton yarn and raw silk, rather than a blanket ban.

The second suggestion put forward by Ji Jiliang is to relax the restrictions on overseas colonization. In the past few years, the Ming Dynasty has been quite successful in its overseas colonization operations. However, because of the influence of the Dutch East India Company and the princely states of the South Seas, the people who participated in this kind of overseas colonization were either colonial companies invested by the clan elites or those forces united by the gentry, and ordinary merchants and small and medium-sized landlords could not afford the expensive overseas colonization activities.

However, with the expansion of the Ming maritime power, from Sakhalin Island to the Strait of Malacca has become the control area of the Ming navy, and the Spaniards, the Dutch and even the princely states of the Nanyang Islands can no longer cause obstacles to the colonization activities of the Ming Dynasty. In particular, the establishment of the Nanyang Governorate and the Malacca Governorate further strengthened the control over the Nanyang Islands, the adjacent waters, and the mainland.

In this way, the cost of colonization of the South Sea Islands and Southeast Asia has been greatly reduced. According to a survey of this vast area by the Ministry of Households, it is believed that there is still a lot of wasteland in this area that can be reclaimed as good and good land. Even some islands that are not suitable for rice cultivation are ideal for the cultivation of cash crops such as rubber, burnt linen, and cotton.

However, the clan magnates and gentry who had colonized this area in the early days were reluctant to open these areas to ordinary merchants and small and medium-sized landlords in the country. They would rather let these lands be wasted, and then develop them slowly and step by step, relying on the proceeds of colonizing the land to develop the adjacent wastelands, hoping to occupy all these wastelands.

As a result, ordinary merchants and small and medium-sized landlords in China either watched these noble and noble families make a fortune overseas, or they had to venture to the areas on the edge of the Ming Dynasty's naval power to open up. Because of this situation, it directly led to a bottleneck in the speed of Daming's overseas colonization.

If it was an ordinary year, even Di Jiliang would not be willing to confront so many powerful people and move their plates. But in the current year of the great famine, he can't care about the opinions of these magnates. In his opinion, at such a life-and-death juncture, it is obviously unreasonable for those powerful people to occupy the pit and not.

Since the coinage bill wanted to obtain resources from ordinary gentry landlords, it was natural that the restrictions on overseas colonization should be relaxed, so that ordinary gentry landlords could also enjoy the benefits of overseas colonization. Although the financial resources of a single gentry landlord are not as good as those of those wealthy families, when the financial resources of these gentry and landlords are united, it is a force that these wealthy and large families cannot match now.

This suggestion was supported by nearly half of the officials, who apparently believed that opening up restrictions on overseas colonization would appease the gentry's discontent and minimize the burden on the country's population. Transporting people overseas can obviously reduce the pressure on local disaster relief rather than constantly sending grain to China.

After listening to the opinions of several ministers, Zhu Youzhen chose to agree to relax the restrictions, allowing the people to form their own small colonization companies, and set aside a part of the land for public bidding, bidding for grain instead of gold and silver. Whether it was Chongzhen or the officials present, they all intentionally or unintentionally ignored who the original owners of these lands were, and no one even asked this question.

(. = )