Back in Xiamen, Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Tai inspected Xiamen's specialties and foreign trade together, and organized ship trade.

Xiamen, also known as Egret Island, referred to as Egret, is said to be the place where egrets inhabit in ancient times, so it is also called "Egret Island".

In the twentieth year of Hongwu (1387), the "Xiamen City" was built, which means the gate of the National Building, and the name of "Xiamen" has been included in the history since then.

Xiamen is located at the southeast end of Fujian Province, bordering Zhangzhou in the west, Quanzhou in the north, and Kinmen and Dadan Island in the southeast. It is one of the main cities in southern Fujian, and is called "Xiamen Zhangquan" together with Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.

Xiamen has a natural harbor with superior conditions, and has historically been an important port for foreign trade along the southeast coast of China.

Since Zheng Zhilong Zhao'an, he has regarded Xiamen as his important base, in addition to most of the Zheng family's naval divisions stationed here, there is also an artillery workshop that he tried his best to organize.

Zheng Chenggong seized Xiamen, and with the important ports of Quanzhou and Haicheng in Fujian, foreign trade could also be expanded. In order to facilitate trade, under the instruction of Zheng Chenggong, Zheng Tai established the Four Seas Commercial Bank.

Although the southeastern provinces had already been conquered by the Qing Dynasty, when the profits reached 10%, the merchants would be ready to move; When the profit reaches 50%, they will take risks; When the profit reaches 100%, they dare to trample on all the laws of the world; When the profit reached 300%, they dared to risk hanging.

The profit of maritime trade could be more than 300%, and those merchant gentry disregarded the strict orders of the Qing Dynasty and sold raw silk, yarn, silk, porcelain, ironware and other goods to Zheng Chenggong through secret channels.

Zheng Chenggong used a ship to transport a large amount of raw silk, various textiles, black and white sugar, musk, soil and other medicines to Japan. exchange for silver, weapons, armor, brimstone, and household items;

Loaded with silk, porcelain, ironware and other goods, sailed to Cambodia, Siam, Champa, Cochin, Sriwijaya, the Philippines, Chewyuba (now Jakarta), Malacca and other countries for trade, in exchange for famous wood, pepper, ivory, rhino horn, jewelry, spices, grain, etc.;

Zheng Chenggong then sold these to wealthy landlords everywhere;

In this way, the Four Seas Commercial Bank used the semi-monopoly trade mode to obtain huge profits, which greatly solved the problem of Zheng Chenggong's military expenses and salaries.

After his money and food were secured, Zheng Chenggong began to think about the future.

The Four Seas Trading House is too closely connected with the sailors, and the army is connected with business, which will cause many problems, such as low will to fight, and at the same time, it is easy to produce corruption, and even some people will inevitably have different hearts when they see the huge wealth.

With all kinds of considerations, Zheng Chenggong needs to consider completely separating the two of them at the right time.

Moreover, the market of sea trade is so large, it is impossible for the Four Seas Commercial Bank to occupy all of them. At the same time, Zheng Chenggong did not want to continue to concentrate the accumulated property to buy land after he occupied Kyushu, China, causing the problem of land annexation.

The smallholder economy is not suitable for the times, but Zheng Chenggong wants to change it in a moderate way.

Otherwise, even if it swept Kyushu, it would not be able to sit firmly.

The largest population in China is the peasantry, and once the peasants have no basic land for survival, and cannot provide them with other livelihood work, then even the most docile people will become ferocious beasts in the case of hunger.

Therefore, Zheng Chenggong hopes to let more people participate in the Age of Discovery, with the expansion of the scale of maritime trade, trade exchanges have increased significantly, which will inevitably guide people to invest more energy in the production of products needed for trade.

In addition to the decrease in the number of peasants, more people will be able to transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, and accelerate the decline of feudalism and the development of capitalism.

However, these cannot be enforced by military and political means, otherwise it will only make things worse, especially when Zheng Chenggong has not yet sat firmly in the country, so Zheng Chenggong decided to use inducing methods to implement it.

Zheng Chenggong's vision is to promote overseas trade so that more people can become rich.

Those businessmen who make huge profits through overseas trade will stimulate the nerves of many people, and when they see them become rich, many people will be unwilling to be unable to have wealth, and there must be many people who are willing to take risks to go to sea to do business.

At that time, as long as Zheng Chenggong can ensure the sanctity of private property, those businessmen will not end up like Shen Wansan.

With the wisdom and diligence of the Chinese people, China will inevitably become the world's commercial center, and let China continue to lead Western Europe and become a world hegemon.

In order to achieve this goal, Zheng Chenggong issued a policy to encourage maritime trade, reducing the protection fee of Chinese merchant ships from 3,000 taels to 1,000 taels per year. At the same time, Zheng Tai invited famous merchants and landlords from all over the southeast coast in the name of the Four Seas Commercial Bank.

I heard the news that the Zheng family issued to encourage maritime trade. Those private businessmen and foreign businessmen poured into Xiamen City like sharks smelling blood. The ships shuttling back and forth, sailing like clouds hanging from the sky, and the sky covering the sun.

In the hall of Xiamen Wanghailou Restaurant, people who don't know each other say hello and greet each other.

Those who dared to come to Xiamen at this time, except for those who fought hard, were basically people with a deep background in the southeast coast.

Looking at the businessmen who walked around in the lobby and talked to each other to communicate with each other, Zheng Tai said excitedly: "General, you still have a big face." These are all families that the old man wanted to make friends with before, and they didn't expect to hear the news you released, so they hurried over! ”

Zheng Chenggong looked at the people in the lobby through the paper window, shook his head and said: "It's not that my face is big, these people don't just want to see if there are business opportunities, I'm afraid they want to bet in many ways." ”

"Bet?" Zheng Tai heard some doubts.

Zheng Chenggong said with certainty: "Yes, bet!" Bet on whether Zheng Chenggong has a chance to defeat the Manchu Qing and even win that position. Losing is nothing more than a loss of silver for them. Winning, but a tenfold hundredfold return. These old foxes are the best at playing this kind of trick, otherwise it would be impossible for a family to stand tall for a hundred years! ”

"Aren't they afraid of being implicated?"

"Gongye, you underestimate them too much. For them, it is impossible for the cunning rabbit to put all the treasures on me alone. There must be some people in these families who have already served in the Manchu court and served the Tartars! Whether it is the Manchu Qing Dynasty or I win, at most, these big families will only push out some side clansmen to take the blame, and the family lineage will not be implicated. So no matter who loses or who wins, it doesn't really make much difference to them, at most it's a matter of winning more and winning less. ”

"Since their family is not very reliable, why did the general invite them here?"

"Public business! The sea is inclusive, and tolerance is great! If we can't even accommodate these people, how can we manage more people and land in the future, don't forget that many official histories are now serving the Manchu court, if the territory is recovered, but they refuse to accept them, who will manage it then. And everyone is here to survive, but the way of survival is different! As long as they are involved, when they taste more wealth and we can create more wealth, they will also become a strong force to support us! ”

"General, I want to tie them up to us through interests!"

"It's one of the reasons, but not the biggest one!"

"Then dare to ask the general, what is the biggest reason?"

"You'll find out later, now go in and meet our guests. Inviting people, but making them wait for a long time, is not hospitality! ”

Zheng Chenggong walked in and sat directly on the central seat. The people who were talking in the living room all stopped, and they all looked at Zheng Chenggong, the protagonist of this banquet, to see if he had anything to say.