Chapter 743 Sea ban
Someone wants to mess with Qin Lang.
Qin Lang absolutely believed the information revealed by the old house. He was usually a good person in the court, and he was silently acting as the emperor's old scalper. Wei Xuancheng is stronger.
These two students, who both attended lectures under the name of Wang Tong, a great Confucian in Hedong, took two completely different paths. Wei Zheng insisted on being a lone minister, following the strategy of non-alignment, and would not let the emperor off whoever was arrested, but the more ruthless he was, the happier the emperor was.
On the contrary, Fang Xuanling seldom criticizes people. Lao Fang likes to make friends and promote people. Three provinces, six ministries, nine temples and five supervisors have one, and Lao Fang has friends everywhere. He is also the prime minister who recommends the most talents for the emperor. Even Du Ruhui was recommended by him back then.
The turmoil in the court cannot be hidden from Lao Fang at all.
In this regard, Qin Lang is much worse than Lao Fang.
After breaking up with Lao Fang, Qin Lang immediately sent someone to write a letter to Xu Jingzong. Old Xu returned to Beijing to work as a transshipment department. He has been very busy recently, and things are going well. Anyway, Li Shimin is quite satisfied with him, and his perception has changed a lot. Old Xu was even able to play right and wrong frequently, and even participated in court discussions.
"Someone wants to attack Haimao!"
After receiving Qin Lang's letter, Lao Xu directly asked Qin Lang to meet by the Qujiang River.
"Take action on Haimao? Why?" Qin Lang couldn't understand. Haimao has received strong support from the emperor and the court in recent years. It can be said that Haimao has developed rapidly. It is known as the Maritime Silk Road. In fact, in terms of trade volume, it has even surpassed The traditional Western Silk Road. After all, a boat can hold more than a camel.
The Shibo Department established by the imperial court did not underestimate taxes.
You should know that the Shibo Department not only collects taxes on the ships entering and leaving the port according to the size of the ships and the price of the goods, but even implements a tax on some more valuable imported goods, that is, one out of ten goods is drawn, and then sold by itself.
Sometimes even Bomai is launched, that is, directly buying goods on merchant ships at market prices at the port, and engaging in monopoly operations.
Now the income of the Shibo Division has already taken up a huge proportion in addition to the two taxes in the Tang Dynasty. It is the second largest tax after the salt tax, and it is more collected than the tea tax, wine tax and mining tax. , relying on extraction and blogging outside of normal tariffs to make money.
Among them, the most profitable ones are spices.
Originally, Datang’s foreign trade, exporting tea, silk, porcelain, lacquerware, etc., was a pure surplus at the beginning, earning a lot of gold, silver, copper, iron, slaves, ivory and rhino horns, etc., but Hu merchants were also smart, especially this kind In the maritime trade, it is the merchants of the Tang Dynasty who dominate, and they know more clearly what the Tang people want.
So gradually, among the foreign goods, spices are the most important. Various spices are shipped in by boats, and the value of the goods is getting higher and higher every year. Now there is even a risk of deficit.
"Some people impeached the sea trade for us to lose gold and silver, and some people impeached the sea trade for bringing too many extravagant and useless spices, jewelry, etc., to replace our silk, cloth, tea, etc., and these silks cost us countless The people labored and occupied a lot of land, etc. In addition, the sea trade brought a lot of smuggling and pirates, which not only lost tax revenue, but also threatened the law and order along the coast..."
Xu Jingzong had no reservations about Qin Lang, and told Qin Lang all the information he had collected, "I was going to meet Saburo and tell you these things."
Qin Lang poured a cup of tea for Xu Jingzong, "Do you know who is instigating the sea ban?"
"Many, mainly Guanlong nobles."
A sentence of Guanlong nobles gave Qin Lang a headache. This is not a single person making trouble, but a group of people making trouble, especially this group of people is still powerful.
In terms of folk influence, there is no doubt that the gentry represented by the five surnames and seven families in Shandong is the strongest, but in terms of influence in the court, the five surnames and seven families can't catch up with Guanlong's famous family. United is a powerful force that established the four dynasties of Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang.
Even in the Sui Dynasty, the roots of the Guanlong Group had been cut off by Yang Jian, and they had lost the core power to control the government soldiers and township soldiers. However, relying on the family shade system and the Guanlong standard, the Guanlong Group still firmly controlled the political power. that power.
When they join forces to do one thing, it's pretty scary.
Guanlong Group, sea ban.
Qin Lang suddenly understood that before the rise of maritime trade, the Central Plains’ foreign trade was mainly the Silk Road, and whether the Silk Road started from Luoyang or Chang’an, it actually had to go through Guanlong.
Guanlong is the base camp of the Silk Road.
Guanlong Group has the convenience of being close to the Silk Road. They even monopolize many businesses on the Silk Road, earning a lot of money every year.
After the rise of maritime trade, although many wealthy families in Guanlong, such as Changsun Wuji and Gao Shilian, rushed in quickly, their roots were in Guanlong after all, not in the southeast coast.
On the contrary, many southern gentry tyrants, and even the barbarian kings of the Baiyue chieftains in the past, also took a ride to make a lot of money. The Guanlong Group has always been superior, and playing with words and academics is no match for those thousands of thousands of people with five surnames and seven families in Shandong. The hundred-year-old noble family, they serve.
Why do they make so much money every day?
The most terrible thing is that the sea trade is getting more and more prosperous, which has begun to affect the trade volume of the Silk Road. Although the imperial court won successive victories in the Battle of Tuyuhun and the Battle of Western Turks in recent years, they directly stationed their troops in the Tianshan Mountains. But this still does not change the fact that the center of gravity of foreign trade has begun to tilt towards the sea.
Many capitals and craftsmen began to flow eastward, which they could not tolerate. Coupled with Qin Lang's two-capital centralization system, the eastern capital of Luoyang was to be strengthened, and many population workshops in Chang'an were to be moved to Luoyang, which would inevitably weaken it again. Chang'an.
Someone is going to fight back.
One call and a hundred responses.
They pick at each other from all sides, and the ultimate goal is very direct, they want to ban the sea.
Qin Lang is the proponent of Haimao, and also the vested interest of Haimao. His fief is by the sea, and he has invested countless money in the construction of Taiping Port in Wu'an Prefecture. If the sea is banned, Qin Lang's fief will be abolished.
"You are a transshipment envoy, and you are in charge of the Shibo Department. You should know that the sea trade has brought huge benefits to the court and the emperor's internal treasury, right? It is impossible for His Majesty to agree to ban the sea."
Of course, Xu Jingzong is aware of these accounts. The current income of the sea trade is tens of millions a year. What about the price difference earned by selling at a higher price?
"But I'm afraid I can't stand those people."
Although the emperor has supreme authority, the emperor will not go against the trend. No emperor will be as straightforward as Yang Guang.
In many cases, it is not right or wrong, but how many people are standing opposite. When there are enough people standing opposite, even if they are wrong, the emperor dare not ignore them, and even have to compromise. This is the essence of power .
"The five surnames and seven families in Shandong are also starting to move around, Saburo should be careful." Xu Jingzong said another bad news.
It’s not that the Guanlong Group didn’t benefit from the maritime trade, but they felt that the profit share was less and affected their traditional core interests, so now they want to fight back.
As for the Kanto gentry represented by the five surnames and seven families, they were purely making trouble.
Qin Lang thought of Lao Fang. Why did Lao Fang reveal this to him? It was definitely not as simple as listening to the Three Kingdoms addiction.
The sugar and cotton share he said at the end of the day seems to be a very direct reminder. Lao Fang is the prime minister, but he is also the emperor's in-laws. More importantly, Lao Fang's mother is Longxi Li with five surnames, and his wife is five surnames. Fan Yanglu, so although Lao Fang himself is a strong man in Shandong and a military upstart, his **** has always been in the Kanto Dashi group. Lao Fang actually wants to become a Dashi with the same five surnames.
In this incident, it is estimated that Lao Fang is the mantis catching the cicada, and the oriole is behind, and he, Qin Lang, is the cicada that the Guanlong Group wants to catch.
Qin Lang is the representative of the Maritime Trade Faction. If Qin Lang is eliminated, the Guanlong Faction will naturally be able to redistribute the interests of the Maritime Trade Faction.
In this way, Lao Fang should be regarded as an ally that can be drawn.
"Old Xu, please keep an eye on me for me. If there is any change, please let me know."
Xu Jingzong admired Qin Lang's calm look when he saw Qin Lang. Could it be that he wanted to single out the entire Guanlong Group?
Qin Lang asked Xu Jingzong to give Xu Jingzong two packs of spices, one pack of pepper, and one pack of frankincense. These things are all bulk goods imported by sea trade nowadays, but the price is not cheap. Now frankincense imports more than 300,000 catties a year from Champa and other places, and the price of entering the customs ranges from a few hundred yuan to more than a dozen. A catty is divided into thirteen grades. More than a hundred strings.
Pepper is also expensive. It costs several hundred dollars per catty, and the best pepper is worth a tael of gold per catty.
Hu merchants exchanged hundreds of spices such as pepper and frankincense in exchange for good things such as silk and porcelain from Tang Dynasty, and the court, emperor, and Qin Lang also made a lot of money by changing hands of these things.
For things like frankincense, the customs price and the retail price in Chang'an can vary by up to ten times.
It is conceivable how big the profit is here, no wonder some people are jealous.
Two packs of spices, each weighing about ten catties, are already worth a lot of money, enough to meet the standard of taking bribes, but Lao Xu accepted it with a smile. What Qin Lang gave him, not to mention spices, was gold. , I know it's not suitable, but I have to accept it.
Sitting in the study and sorting out his thoughts, Qin Lang changed into the scented clothes and went directly to the Wubenfang next door to find the old house, and brought the manuscript of Chapter Six of the Three Kingdoms along with him.
Lao Fang saw the manuscript of Chapter Six of the Three Kingdoms, looked at Qin Lang again, and smiled.
"Dong Zhuo committed murder in the golden palace, and Sun Jian broke the contract with the hidden jade seal. Just looking at the replay of this time, you know it must be exciting. Saburo, wait for me to take a look first!"
(end of this chapter)