New Shun 1730

"You're right."

Liu Yu was never stingy with compliments to his subordinates.

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Yu said: "Well, if you have any other ideas, hold a meeting to discuss it in the evening. As for the construction of the city in Temasek, we will also send someone to inspect it as soon as possible and calculate the price."

"Within ten days, I will send someone back to the capital to report the victory, and also have the DPRK prepare for the grand event of 'all nations coming to DPRK'."

"This is a serious tribute, but it is not a tampering with the interpretation to change diplomacy into tribute."

"At that time, if no advance notice is given, hundreds or even thousands of tribute envoys from various Southeast Asian countries will be gone, which will bring disgrace to the Celestial Empire."

…………

More than a month later.

In the study room of the Forbidden City, Emperor Li Gan put aside Liu Yu's memorial regarding the Fourth Army Town in Nanyang and the construction of Temasek Fortress.

Send the news that the Nanyang countries are coming to pay tribute to Tianyou Hall, which will be responsible for it and the six governments.

What the emperor picked up first was the account statistics of the Dutch East India Company that were sent along with it.

Putting on his glasses, it was the first time the emperor paid so much attention to such tedious accounts.

Fortunately, the accounts sent for "imperial review" have been carefully compiled. Although it is cumbersome, some important data have been collected.

The emperor did not doubt that Nanyang was valuable.

Regardless of whether it is because of Liu Yu's trust in always making correct judgments.

Still out of normal thinking, I understand that spices make money.

After the emperor looked through the compiled accounts of the Dutch East India Company and truly saw how much money the Dutch made in a year, the emperor's only thought at this time was that the navy spent so much money was worth it.

However, what shocked the emperor the most was the difference between the purchase price of spices locally and the sales price in Amsterdam.

In addition to spices, there are also sales prices of Chinese goods including tea and porcelain in the European market.

Although Liu Yu had already brought these data back when he visited Europe.

But at this time, coupled with this detailed account of how much money is earned every year, the same thing brings a completely different feeling to people.

After looking through these accounts, the emperor took off his glasses, soothed his aching eyes, and asked someone to fetch a memorial that Liu Yu had handed over before.

This was a memorial that was handed directly to the emperor without going through the Tianyou Palace, and the Tianyou Palace had no right to view or approve it.

The above content is about what to do after conquering Nanyang.

Apart from the cooperation with the Netherlands, the most important thing is the form and nature of the monopoly.

As far as the Chinese dynasty is concerned, the royal monopoly is a very traditional situation.

With the foundation of salt and iron theory and the two thousand years of salt and iron monopoly, monopoly and monopoly is the approach that is most in line with the habits of the Chinese court.

However, in the memorial, Liu Yu hoped to adopt a joint-stock system to raise private capital as much as possible.

The imperial court can use the monopoly rights directly as equity capital and receive dividends from the shares. It is best not to let the court have a monopoly, because the court cannot control it.

It would be too expensive to adopt the Zheng He model. The vast Southeast Asia has to face various situations such as smuggling, piracy, uprisings, riots, resistance, and Western infiltration.

Now with the East India Company's accounts, we can intuitively understand how much the East India Company spent in Nanyang.

If the Zheng He model is not followed, the imperial merchants will need to take responsibility again. No one can tell how much the imperial merchants were greedy.

Instead of doing this, it is better to learn from foreigners and use their skills to raise private capital through joint-stock raising. At the same time, the imperial court invested in the company with monopoly rights and paid dividends every year.

Of course, the national conditions in Dashun are completely different from those in the UK and the Netherlands. Not to mention Dashun, France, Spain, etc. cannot completely copy the model of the Anglo-Dutch East India Company.

As far as Dashun is concerned, it is simply unrealistic for a private company with the participation of wealthy private businessmen to have armed forces, warships, overseas governance, legal power, and even the right to go to war.

Absolutely impossible, there is no doubt about that.

Even Liu Yu, who has been trying to engage in Southeast Asian trade, has never had the slightest illusion about this.

If anyone dares to propose this idea, the emperor will definitely be angry, and if he proposes it in the court, he will immediately explode.

Japan's trade monopoly companies have their own particularities. The first is that Japan itself has locked itself into the country, so it has blocked smuggling channels in the market, and the trading companies with Japan do not need large-scale armed forces; the other is that the monopoly companies that trade with Japan are, to put it bluntly, just second-rate dealers, collecting goods and selling them. For goods, the most you can do is consider pirates.

But if you set up a trading company in Nanyang, you have to consider many things.

Management, governance, diplomacy, politics, tribute, anti-smuggling, fighting against harassment by Western countries, etc. are more responsible than Japan's monopoly trade.

Relying solely on private capital is impossible.

But if the imperial court takes matters into its own hands and turns into a royal monopoly Zheng He model, or a royal merchant monopoly model, it will not be able to put an end to smuggling at all, and the corruption will be astonishing.

Therefore, Liu Yu’s suggestion is to use private capital to share the cost of ruling Nanyang, but also to ensure that the dividends based on shares are honest as much as possible - if the emperor does not want to be honest, the cost is extremely low, and he may be slapped on the head by the bourgeoisie in the UK. Let him know the consequences of dishonesty, but the cost is almost zero in Dashun.

Liu Yu still meant "standing in the interests of the emperor", and said that in the future, it would be fine if he did not practice integrity, defaulted on debts and did not pay dividends, or simply did not become an official. But this is a one-time deal, so it’s best not to use it as a last resort.

In the early stage, it is better to rely on the reputation of the Japanese trade company and talk about integrity. Make the accounts as clear as possible, distribute dividends when necessary, and do what needs to be done.

Since the Dutch East India Company has so many major shareholders, it is still a board of directors of 17 people who are responsible for everything. Dashun can also use similar means.

At least, it can be used for the early transition.

Major shareholders only have some right to know, but not decision-making power, and the decision-making power is still in the hands of the court.

Regarding this point, there is still a certain possibility, relying on Liu Yu's reputation over the years, or the reputation of the royal family represented by Liu Yu in the maritime merchant community.

Reputation is very fragile and easy to break.

However, for the time being, this reputation can still be used.

In addition, the shareholding business atmosphere cultivated in places such as Weihai and Songjiang in recent years will be no problem for short-term transition.

Moreover, as long as the reputation is not lost, most people are actually similar to the small shareholders of the Dutch East India Company: as long as the dividends can be distributed on time, who cares whether it should be a group of 17 gentlemen or a large board of directors of 70 or 80 people? Who cares whether the accounts should be made public once a year or once every ten years?

Many things are obtained through struggle. And the premise of struggle must be that something has happened.

Otherwise, if the VOC guarantees a 20% dividend rate every year, as long as it can be guaranteed, no one will really question why there are only 17 people on the board of directors in another hundred years.

After the transition period is over, we can learn from the way Britain controlled the East India Company since the 19th century.

Separate economic activities from political activities, and the major shareholders are only responsible for economic activities.

Of course, the premise is that the road has been paved, and the problems that should be dealt with have been basically dealt with. Just follow the steps to carry out some purely commercial activities. For example, build a warehouse, grow coffee in a certain place, build a few merchant ships, what goods should be loaded this year, etc.

The general manager appointed by the court is in charge of political, military, diplomatic and other activities.

But the trade in Southeast Asia and Europe is definitely not a simple economic activity. The mainstream is still war, diplomacy, and rule.

In fact, the court borrowed the power of private capital to share the cost of ruling Southeast Asia without using the money of the national treasury. At the same time, it can also allow private capital to eat some meat and drink some soup.

The real reason for letting the emperor eat less meat and leak some soup is that Liu Yu reported a rough account, thinking that the emperor's treasury could not afford so much money.

Especially now that the Dutch rule in Southeast Asia has been completely replaced overnight, it is necessary to spend money in all aspects to take over the market, which is definitely not something the emperor's treasury can afford.

This is not the time when the Dutch talents came to Nanyang, starting from scratch and developing little by little. Relying on the initial millions of shares, it gradually became a large company with a scale of hundreds of millions.

Instead, it took over a large company with a scale of hundreds of millions at once, and the cash flow to maintain its operation was simply incomparable to the money that was developed from scratch.

As for the money in the treasury, Liu Yu also mentioned the emperor's inner touch.

Going to Nanyang is certainly to make money, but the court or the emperor makes money, in addition to personal enjoyment, there are always other uses.

Money must be spent, otherwise what's the point of guarding a pile of money?

Considering the interests of the royal family and the court, it can be said that in the long run, going to Southeast Asia is to ease land conflicts and maintain the tradition of small peasant economy.

In the short term, the court has another big thing to do. And this big thing also requires a lot of money, and private capital has absolutely no interest in this money, so it can only be paid by the court.

That is... abolishing the canal and changing to sea, and rectifying the Huanghuai area.

From a purely military perspective, going to Southeast Asia is the basis for abolishing the canal and changing to sea.

Otherwise, Western warships would have attacked Macau and robbed Zhoushan in the late Ming Dynasty.

In this case, if the emperor rashly changed to sea transportation, he would be afraid that his canal rice would not be cut off and the contradictions between the central and local governments would be suppressed.

Now this military foundation has been established, and the previous trial of sea transportation of canal rice in Jiangsu Province was also a great success. As the connection between the north and the south and the hinterland of the Celestial Empire, the Huanghuai area has almost become a powder keg due to the floods that occur every year to protect the canal.

If it can be cured, it will certainly be a good thing that will benefit future generations. If the disease can be cured, the emperor would have no problem extending the life of Dashun for a few decades.

Of course, it costs money to abolish the canal and change the sea.

Moreover, private capital will never contribute a penny.

At most, the court hopes for donations, and the whole country can donate tens of thousands of taels, which is the best. Compared with such a grand project, it is simply a drop in the bucket.

In this case, it can be regarded as a lifeline for the emperor, and he has to make concessions to private capital in the Nanyang trade.

In the short term, the court is about to spend a lot of money, and it cannot throw all its wealth in Nanyang, and it cannot afford it.

In the long term, if there is not enough money in the future, what is the field garrison outside Songjiang for? Directly entering and merging it with the official camp can also allow the court to have money to use.

As for some military operations in the Nanyang trade, Liu Yu's intention is to let private capital raise funds to "hire" the court's army to do it, so as to ensure that the Nanyang Trade Company has no fleets and troops.

This hiring is of course not private hiring.

Instead, they gave money to the court, paid for the military, and the court sent generals to help them occupy, open the country, force trade, cede land, etc.

When distributing dividends in the future, these will be counted as costs and can be eliminated.

Including the expenses of the garrison troops and officials in Nanyang, all should be counted as costs. This is also reasonable.

The early transition was very troublesome, as it was necessary to negotiate with the Netherlands and take over a lot of messes in Nanyang. If the court intervened strongly and took a tougher approach, it could also help to get through this chaotic period in a stable manner.

In the memorial, Liu Yu frankly recommended himself, hoping to preside over this transition period.