Hearing Yu He's words, Liu Cheng couldn't help but be dumbfounded, in the Ming Dynasty, the emperor Lao Tzu was the biggest, and even the emperor Lao Tzu didn't take the ancestors' laws seriously to earn private money, so the people and merchants below didn't seem to have any obligation to abide by the ban. After all, in the seventeenth century, there was no concept of "people's sovereignty", and the Zhu family belonged to the country.

Yu He saw Liu Cheng's silent appearance, thinking that what he had just said offended him, and hurriedly smiled: "Most of what the villain said just now was hearsay, if there is anything untrue, Lord Liu should not be surprised." “

"Mr. Yu told the truth, how could I blame Mr.!" Liu Cheng laughed, as a traverser, his knowledge naturally far exceeded the level of an officer at the level of garrison and capital division. Since ancient times, the wars between peasants and herders in Northeast Asia have never stopped, and the peasants have done everything possible to protect their fields and the grain in their barns, for which they have built cities, walls and even the Great Wall. The herders, on the other hand, managed to overcome these obstacles and rob the peasants of their grain to avoid starvation in the cold winters. For the most part, the dividing line between farmers and herders coincides with the 400 millimetres of rainfall – the life-and-death line of rainfall agriculture. For thousands of years, hundreds of thousands of troops faced off and fought on both sides of this line, and it can be said that it was the largest and longest war in human history. In this war, the herdsmen had the advantage of mobilization cost and mobility, while the peasants had the advantage of the number of troops, technology, and financial resources. Because of the "asymmetrical" superiority of each side, for the most part there were no decisive battles along this long border, but numerous sneak attacks, ambushes, and raids, with the peasants trying to replace bloodshed with tactics, fortifications, technology, and money, and the shepherds confronting it with deception, perseverance, agility, and ferocity. In this protracted conflict, the embargo on two extremely important strategic goods, salt and iron, is particularly necessary. Iron is a necessary material for the manufacture of weapons, and it is impossible for people not to eat salt, both of which are almost impossible for the steppe herders to produce themselves, in a sense, an important indicator of whether the dynasty will turn from prosperity to decline is the level of the embargo on salt and iron. A housekeeper like Daming, who even the Son of Heaven shares dividends in the smuggling trade, is really laughable.

Liu Cheng thought for a moment, and finally decided to ask a few words: "Mr. Yu, Brother Xu intervened in this salt business, presumably offended the original businesses, since they have such a big backstage, aren't they afraid that they will use the power of the government to harm you?" ”

Yu He listened to Liu Cheng's question, and thought that Liu Cheng had the intention to join but was afraid of being implicated, so he hurriedly explained with a smile: "Lord Liu doesn't know, although those few businesses are hand-eyed, those bigwigs just take advantage of the dry shares, shelter them from the wind and rain, and deal with the official stakeholders, how can they do these sloppy things for these businesses?" To put it bluntly, these adults and gentlemen just treat these businesses as cows and sheep that can be milked, and at most they will not let the jackals take the sheep away, and let them cut the grass and feed them, which will never be done. To put it mildly, our religion has developed in the northwest over the years

Very fast, there are more than 100,000 sectarians, and there are incense altars everywhere you see on both sides of the post road, if those few businesses tear their faces with us, I am afraid that their business outside the mouth will not be easy to do. “

"And what about the chiefs of the steppes? Will those companies put pressure on them not to buy your salt? ”

"My lord is laughing!" Yu He smiled: "Think about it, if you are one of those chiefs, do you want to buy salt from several houses at the same time, or do you prefer to buy salt from only one?" Those merchants are asking for money, and those chiefs can buy salt or not, but life and death, which one do you say is the best of which one? ”

When Liu Cheng heard this, he couldn't help but nodded. Yu Fangcai's words analyze the benefits and disadvantages very clearly. For those chieftains on the grassland, salt is a need of the militaristic state, and if they have a bad relationship with the Ming Dynasty, it is likely that the Ming Dynasty will order to step up border patrols and block the export of salt, and then one more salt import channel may be the difference between life and death; And what the business is asking for is to make money, for them to block Xu Hecheng, a new salt export channel, is nothing more than a matter of making more money and less money, and the winners in this round of game must be the chiefs of the grassland.

"A gentleman's words are better than ten years of reading! Thank you Liu! Liu Cheng solemnly bowed to Yu He Chang, Yu He hurriedly stood up and let Liu Cheng go: "The villain can't afford it, he can't afford it." “

"Deserved, deserved!" Liu Chengqiang pressed Yu He on the chair, accepted his own salute, and shouted to the outside world: "Come on, get some wine and food, I want to have a few drinks with Mr." “

The outside responded, and after a while, a pot of wine, two pairs of bowls and chopsticks, a plate of broad beans, a few pieces of mutton, and a plate of pickled leeks, Liu Cheng smiled and poured Yu He full of wine, and poured himself full, raised his glass with both hands and smiled: "A glass for me, three wishes for you, one wishes for the world to be peaceful, and the other wishes for good health!"

With that, he drank all the wine in his glass. Yu He listened to it and knew that what Liu Cheng was quoting was the first half of the poem "Gift Dreams" by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, his heart was slightly hot, and he hurriedly drank all the wine in his cup, and replied: "Three wishes to come to the old man, count and see you!" The two looked at each other and couldn't help but smile.

Liu Yu and the two of them drank two glasses of wine and talked about some business trips, and they couldn't help but feel a lot more lively. As a veteran diving party who had been diving in major military history forums on the Internet for many years in his previous life, Liu Cheng knew very well that long-distance trade in the seventeenth century was an extremely important industry, and it can even be said that the modern bourgeoisie was a product of long-distance trade. Contrary to what many people think, large-scale long-distance trade is actually a very late thing in human history. Unlike regional, regional markets and trade, long-distance trade had to be done by a merchant class that was completely disconnected from production and had huge capital. The former are nothing more than "traders" - so-called peddlers' pawns - who produce and sell in the surrounding area. The latter is quite different, in that long-distance (usually cross-border) trade requires the goods to be sold first and then sold in transshipment to distant lands, which means that these merchants must first pay for the production and transaction costs of distant consumers, and given the ancient transportation conditions, they often have to pay for their costs and profits after several years. Since there was no unified monetary system in the ancient world (i.e., the US dollar, the British pound), and the only unit of currency between countries and regions was often precious metals, it is not difficult to imagine how large reserves of precious metals could have been possessed by merchant groups capable of long-distance trafficking. In order to raise such a large amount of capital, in addition to years of trade accumulation, these merchant groups often also operated ticket numbers to absorb scattered funds, and issued various bills of exchange to avoid the transportation of large quantities of precious metals, which was actually the germ of modern finance.

In Europe, these financial groups used lucrative assets such as taxes, minerals, and ports as collateral to lend money to the monarchs to wage war, so that these monarchs could arm armies far beyond their financial resources to fight wars, and they could continue to grow and grow from the profits of war.

Many history buffs believe that the rise of Europe in modern times is due to the Industrial Revolution, but if you know a little about history, you will find that the beginning of the Industrial Revolution was in England in the sixties of the eighteenth century, the invention of the Jenny spinning machine was in 1765, and Watt's improved practical steam engine was in 1769. France, Germany and other countries located in Western Europe had an even later industrial revolution, after the 19th century. For example, in 1757, Clevou, a member of the East India Company, defeated the governor of Bengal of the Mughal Empire, who had ten times his size, and seized one of the most fertile lands in the Indian subcontinent with a small army, and became a millionaire. It was the gold that came to Britain from India that contributed to the birth of the Industrial Revolution, so the Industrial Revolution was the result of the dominance of Western Europe, not the cause, and at most it can be said that the Industrial Revolution expanded and consolidated the dominant position of Western Europe, but it cannot be said that the Industrial Revolution contributed to the hegemony of Western Europe in modern times. If it is said that it is possible to conquer the world by making cheap and high-quality goods, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, China has produced the most and best manufactured goods in the world, and it is also the country that smelts the most iron, so why did Western Europe conquer the world instead of China? There is only one reason, in the Ming Dynasty China, this kind of financial group that started from long-distance trade was not combined with military power, but gathered a large amount of silver and precipitated it, becoming a malignant tumor. And there was a budding seed in front of Liu Cheng's eyes, thinking of this, Liu Cheng's heartbeat became rapid.

"Mr. Yu!" Liu Cheng toasted the other party with another glass of wine and said with a smile: "What do you think is the most difficult thing to do in this foreign trade?" “

Yu He already had four or five points of alcohol at this time, his face was already red, and his speech was much more relaxed: "My lord, if you say that there are many difficulties in this foreign trade, wind and sand, climate, and bandits, but there are only two things that are most troublesome: one is money, and the other is money!" ”

"Oh?" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "What you said is clearly one thing, how can it be two things." ”

"Adults don't know, there is a big difference between this money and money, let me tell you carefully!" Yu He put down the wine glass in his hand, took a few more broad beans, and said while eating: "The first money is the payment for the goods." Think about it, this foreign business is not as good as the small business in the alleys of the village, and it will run once a year, if the goods are less, then even the labor money will not be earned. Therefore, the more money we bring the goods, the better, like we have 200,000 taels of silver this time, plus no less than 350,000 taels of small merchants with shares, do you think this money is a big problem? “

"Yes, this money is really a big problem." Liu Cheng nodded (in order to let readers vividly understand what the concept of 350,000 taels of silver is, Weber gave an example: from the 46th year of Wanli to the 48th year of Wanli, the Ming government's levy of Liao Salary caused an uproar in the world, and a total of 5.2 million and 62 taels were collected in the past four years): "But if there are too many goods, will it not be sold or the price will be lowered, and finally the cost will be discounted?" “

"Your Excellency is too worried!" Yu He laughed: "Those Sao Tartars don't pay with copper coins and silver, but only use skins, tendons, medicinal herbs, livestock and other hard goods, they have everything there, how can they have too much tea, salt and groceries?" Even if you can't sell it for a while, you can store it in the warehouse, and then other tribes will come and buy it, and bring it back next time. “

"What the gentleman said is reasonable!" Liu Cheng nodded, indeed, with the transportation conditions at that time, the goods transported out by a few caravans could be said to be negligible compared to the needs of Mongolian herdsmen: "It's just that if the goods are stored there, won't anyone rob them?" “

"My lord, the Great Khan of the various ministries is not a fool, let's go and trade, bring him all kinds of goods, and the ministries come to him to do business, and he can also draw taxes from them. If someone robs the things in our warehouse, no one will come to do business, and he will suffer the most. “

"Not bad!" Liu Cheng smiled and poured wine for Yu He's empty cup, and asked with a smile: "What about the second money?" ”

"That's the payment!" Yu He took a sip of wine, ate another piece of mutton, and continued: "Those Tartars on the grassland are easy to say, their business is barter, don't worry about the payment. In the interior, it is different, not to mention the salt goods, the official business is not delayed, that is, tea, ironware, and groceries must be bought with cash, while leather goods, tendons, and livestock are different, those who have cash are fine, and those who do not have cash must wait until they sell their things to get back, two or three months is less, even a year and a half are not nothing, and the headache is tight. ”

"Mr. Yu." When Liu Cheng heard this, he smiled slightly: "I have a way, I don't know if it will work out." ”

"Oh, I didn't think you had a way to do this, my lord? The villain wants to hear about it. ”

"In fact, the difficulty that Mr. just said is only one thing in the final analysis, that is, there is less money, if you can use one copper plate as two copper plates, and one tael of silver as two taels of silver, wouldn't it be good?"

Yu He Wenyan shook his head and smiled: "Hahaha, my lord, don't you have the art of gold counting taught by immortals?" If there is such a method, then what can we do by traveling thousands of miles to chase the benefits of tithes? Wouldn't it be nice to count the money at home every day? “