The beggar emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty - Chapter 576
Qin tie, the great general of the eastern expedition, had just left. Qin Huan could not wait to leave Nanjing and went to Shanghai for another inspection. This time, he did not take Zhang Yan’s women, but only Li Waner.
After nearly two years of construction and massive material and human investment, earth shaking changes have taken place in Shanghai at this time.
One third of the two civil docks have been completed and can barely be put into use. When you look at them, there are rows of huge warehouses behind the docks, and you can’t see the end at a glance.
Further away is the newly-built state city of Shanghai, with countless shops and restaurants and teahouses. Although only a small part of the area has been completed, it is still crowded and lively.
Millions of workers, except a few craftsmen who have been working for a long time, live in long-term bungalows. Others live in temporary sheds. They have a holiday every half a month. Everyone wants to go to Shanghai for consumption.
After an inspection tour, Qin Huan decided to officially open the civil docks in Shanghai and build them while operating. At the same time, he asked the Government Council to issue a decree. In order to strengthen the management of sea trade, from May this year, all foreign trade goods from Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Huaixi and huaidong provinces must be transported to the river docks in Shanghai by inland ships, Then they are transferred to the sea and sold around the world.
Naturally, Qin Huan would not wait passively for western countries to come to trade, but planned to take the initiative to trade in the West. Of course, this is the long-term goal. The short-term goal is to expel the West from Southeast Asia and then trade in India.
That is to say, China is transporting goods to India, and Western businessmen are transporting goods from India to Europe, which can undoubtedly greatly reduce the transportation cycle. If the Suez Canal is opened, it may only take two or three months from Europe to India, while China seagoing ships from Shanghai are estimated to take only one or two months.
Of course, the sea merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang alone can’t afford such a heavy task. These guys are all mercenary and short-sighted.
Most of the goods are only transported to Manila in Luzon and traded with the Spanish. What’s more, they are only transported to Macao and traded directly with the Portuguese.
Even if these big businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have a little vision and a little adventurous and open spirit, Southeast Asia will not be occupied by Europeans from thousands of miles.
Because even if the government does not allow it, as long as these businessmen do it secretly, they are not comparable to Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch.
After all, these people have plenty of money. It’s not a problem how many people they want to recruit and how many craftsmen they want. They can build a base in Southeast Asia, log and build ships, train private soldiers and carry out maritime trade.
However, for hundreds of years, apart from some pirates trying, no businessman has chosen to do so. The reasons are nothing more than a few points.
First, after making money, these businessmen only know how to eat, drink and have fun, drill for officials and focus their energy on the country.
The second is to be afraid of being exposed and end up in an overseas conspiracy and being robbed of one’s family.
Third, the local plot is serious. We can’t see the barren land outside Shanghai. As a last resort, no one is willing to leave their hometown and live overseas.
For example, when Zheng Zhilong was a pirate, he recruited people to reclaim wasteland, cut wood and build ships on Dayuan island. As soon as he was recruited, he immediately went to Fuzhou to enjoy his happiness. The people on the island were too lazy to care about their life and death, resulting in a waste of money for the Spanish and Dutch.
What can you say, that this guy is short-sighted? Instead of being a local emperor, he wanted to be a general in Fuzhou.
Therefore, Qin Huan planned to set up an ocean trade fleet by the royal family, so as to drive other merchants to follow suit. At the same time, he was setting up a Yangtze River transport fleet to help merchants transport goods in the future.
After all, some small businessmen in all provinces buy large ships and organize people to transport. In order to unify management, cargo ships on the Yangtze River must be built in accordance with the specifications formulated by the imperial court in the future.
Because only those that meet the specifications will be licensed, and cargo ships without licenses are not allowed to pull goods on the Yangtze River. Once found, they will be confiscated and fined.
There’s no way. It’s too troublesome to collect river transportation tax. After all, there are large and small cargo ships in this era. A ship of goods often has all kinds of goods. It’s unrealistic to collect tax reasonably.
Therefore, for the time being, it is better to collect business tax once a year according to the size of the ship, which is simple and can effectively avoid arbitrary tax collection, thus affecting economic development.
There are four kinds of river transport ships, mainly flat bottomed sailboats.
There are two kinds of large, 200 ton and 100 ton. The main route is from Wuhan to Shanghai. The 200 ton will pay 9000 taels of silver a year and the 100 ton will pay 5000 taels a year.
The medium-sized 50 tons pay 3000 Liang silver of business tax every year, which is mainly suitable for the transportation tasks of Hanjiang River, Xiangjiang River and the main trunk stream to upstream Sichuan.
The small-scale is about 10 tons and pays 1000 Liang silver of business tax every year. It is mainly used for the transportation of tributaries on the main stream and shallow areas in the upstream and canals.
Those below 10 tons do not need to apply for an operation license. Similarly, those below 10 tons are not allowed to dock at Shanghai River Wharf.
In this way, some small businesses may not be able to afford it. They can only hand over the goods to a professional transport fleet. After all, 9000 liang of silver a year for a 200 ton ship is not low.
A 200 ton cargo ship can carry at least 200000 kg of goods. Most businesses do not have such a large shipment, let alone a whole year, so it is undoubtedly the best choice to hand it over to a professional fleet for transportation.
Qin Huan’s plan was to support the two fleets and compete with each other in addition to the royal family. The transportation range was mainly from Chongqing to Shanghai, the main flow channels such as Han River, Xiang River and Jialing River, as well as the canal.
The ships operated are mainly 50 ton and 10 ton flat bottomed ships, coupled with a small number of large ships. There is no way. I’m afraid that the terrorist transportation capacity of large ships only needs to run once a month.
In the future, Wuhan will be used as the shipping transfer station and Shanghai as the terminal, and more than a dozen small transfer stations will be set up, such as Xiangyang, Chongqing, Yongzhou, Nanchang, etc.
First, the goods from the provinces along the Yangtze River will be transported to these small transfer stations by small boats of about 10 tons or smaller, and then transported directly to Shanghai by large ships of 100 tons in abundant water seasons.
In the dry season, 50 ton medium-sized ships will be replaced and transported to Wuhan transfer station, and then 200 ton ships will be transported to Shanghai. Of course, it is not necessary in the lower reaches of Wuhan and can be directly transported to Shanghai.
Although there is some trouble in loading and unloading, as long as the pulley crane is made and equipped with square containers, I believe there will be no waste of manpower.
As for the canal, there is no need to set up a transfer station for direct transportation. 50 ton ships are used when the water is large and 10 ton ships are used when the water is small.
This was only the Yangtze River Basin and the Beijing Hangzhou canal. As for the transportation of other water systems, Qin Huan planned to set up his own fleet by local businessmen.
Larger merchants can also establish a transportation network to undertake transportation tasks. Smaller ones can buy a boat and do it alone. They can also help others transport by the way.
Qin Huan couldn’t help paying no attention to it, because in ancient times, shipping was definitely the cheapest and fastest way, and the Yangtze River system accounted for at least 80% of the whole shipping industry, so he had to make a good plan to avoid making a mess in the future, setting up cards and charges everywhere, and ship collisions everywhere.
After all, even if the train comes out, the Yangtze River water transportation is also indispensable and irreplaceable.