The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Each industry has its own rules. Wei Guangde knew that over the past hundred years, the salt road must have formed a complete set of rules from the stoves to the salt merchants. Everyone in it must act according to the rules, otherwise they will offend the public.

However, every merchant around Wei Guangde is a salt merchant.

After all, the profit from selling salt is too great, and they have disdained to engage in other industries. They just need to keep their own business.

Most of the merchants around Wei Guangde are general merchants, selling all kinds of goods.

However, because of this, he was able to contact the owner of the textile workshop and enter the wool textile industry.

After all, the textile workshop owners in Daming are generally engaged in the production of cotton, linen and silk, and wool spinning is still relatively rare.

There are textile workshop owners in the northwest who are engaged in cashmere textiles, but Wei Guangde uses wool. Daming does not have much wool, so no one has ever been involved in this industry.

In fact, if it were not for the signing of the Longqing Peace Agreement, the merchants of Daming would not have been able to conduct large-scale transactions with the grasslands, and it would not have been possible to obtain a large amount of wool.

Without this prerequisite, the wool textile industry would not have been able to develop in the Ming Dynasty.

Salt merchants are a small circle, and also a circle that is closely connected to the core of power. Although Wei Guangde is already the second assistant, he has never thought of doing salt business before, so naturally no salt merchants are willing to approach him.

Thinking of salt merchants, Wei Guangde immediately thought of the nobles.

These people can get a certain amount of salt permits from the Ministry of Households every year, and with their relationships, these salt permits can also pick up goods from salt fields in various places, so they must have connections with the salt road.

Wei Guangde must think that if he makes a call, people will introduce the salt merchants they are familiar with.

"It is better to wait until the matter of the Northern Chamber of Commerce is settled, and the nobles will participate in the Northern Chamber of Commerce before talking to them about this matter, and introduce the relationship between the upper and lower levels of the salt road, so that I can make some targeted plans."

Wei Guangde made up his mind, and he had not read today's memorials yet, and was reading the salt road documents that Lu Bu found.

With an idea in mind, Wei Guangde was not in a hurry to understand it, and naturally let it go.

"Let's do business first."

Yes, dealing with memorials is Wei Guangde's current business.

Wei Guangde received a note from outside after dealing with official business in the afternoon.

The note was written by Zhang Ji, who conveyed Wei Guangde's intention to the Northern Chamber of Commerce, and they asked whether the old shareholders should transfer part of their shares or what to do if the nobles were to invest.

At this time, Wei Guangde suddenly remembered that he only said that the nobles should talk to the Northern Chamber of Commerce about investing, but forgot to draw a line.

Transferring shares is of course not possible.

Transferring shares means that the nobles will use money to buy shares from the old shareholders, and the Chamber of Commerce will not get a penny of silver, so naturally there is no money to expand the scale of the workshop. At that time, it will still need to use profits to expand the workshop little by little, which is contrary to Wei Guangde's original intention.

Immediately, Wei Guangde immediately wrote a note, asking to calculate the previous investment of the Northern Chamber of Commerce and the expected profits after wool textiles enter the market, and estimate the current value of the Chamber of Commerce.

Well, Wei Guangde wants to use the "valuation method" of high-tech companies in the future to determine the value of the Northern Chamber of Commerce, and then let the nobles pay silver according to the valuation.

This method is popular in the future, but now, whether in the East or the West, it is the first in the world.

The current method of calculating the value of shares is actually called the "cost method" in the future. How much money you put in is the amount of money, and it will not increase or decrease.

This method is also generally accepted by the market.

Wei Guangde spent half an hour writing a lot of things, and then he felt that he should have explained the matter clearly.

He called Lu Bu and handed him the note and asked him to send it out.

Lu Bu received the note, but did not leave immediately. Instead, he bowed and whispered: "Master, I just heard that the memorial sent to the palace by the Prime Minister was approved, and he will return to the cabinet to do business in a month."

The memorial in Lu Bu's mouth was naturally the memorial of thanks after Zhang Juzheng received the imperial edict.

Up to now, more than half a month has passed since Zhang Juzheng returned home to observe mourning. It is less than a month before the 77th day of mourning.

"Yes, I know."

Wei Guangde nodded and waved his hand to let him go.

He was at ease dealing with the memorials, but soon, Wei Guangde was distracted by other matters.

It was still the envelope that Lu Bu brought back from outside, with the seal of Jinyiwei on the seal.

After getting the envelope, Wei Guangde carefully checked the seal, then opened the envelope and took out the documents inside.

Such things are already very common, and Jinyiwei will compile a copy and send it to him every two months.

Among them, there are not only news about Jinyiwei spies in Mongolia in the north and Japan in the east, but also news from the South Sea countries and the West.

The situation in Mongolia, Korea and other familiar neighboring countries of the Ming Dynasty is still stable. Except for the tribes in Mongolia who want to increase tribute to the Ming Dynasty, the others are not worth mentioning.

However, the island country that Wei Guangde has always cared about seems to be caught in a melee again.

At the beginning of the year, when Oda Nobunaga led his army to attack the Kishu Saiga clan, Uesugi Kenshin also sent troops to attack Nanao Castle Nagatsuren. While Nagatsuren was under attack, he sent his son Nagatsurenryu to Oda Nobunaga for help.

However, what Wei Guangde did not expect was that the reinforcements sent by Oda Nobunaga were defeated by Uesugi Kenshin's troops.

Now, the situation facing Oda Nobunaga in Japan is not very good. He is facing strong pressure from the Uesugi clan, the Mori clan and Ishiyama Honganji.

Wei Guangde is now very unclear about the situation in Japan, because he only knows that Oda Nobunaga is very powerful and almost unified Japan.

But in the end, he was plucked by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whom he has been paying attention to, has not been seen until now.

Given the current chaotic situation in Japan, Wei Guangde finds it hard to believe that someone can suddenly appear and complete the possibility of taking over Toyotomi Hideyoshi's power and unifying Japan.

Just as Wei Guangde was studying the international situation, or more precisely the situation in East Asia, on the other side of the earth in Europe, a time that completely subverted the balance of power in Europe was quietly opening.

In 1577, Drake led a fleet from the British Isles. Queen Elizabeth, as an investor behind the scenes, held a portion of the shares in this voyage.

Drake, the most legendary pirate in Britain, was ordered to rob and finally defeated the most powerful Spanish navy at that time, helping Britain to overthrow its most powerful enemy and giving Britain the opportunity to catch up later.

However, at this time, Queen Elizabeth of England had not yet issued a "letter of marque", so all British pirate activities were not actually considered "legal behavior".

As for why Queen Elizabeth chose to use this method to issue a "letter of marque" to pirates, it was also because she was helpless in the face of increasingly embarrassing financial problems and had to take countermeasures.

In fact, before this, Britain had always cooperated with Spain to fight against France.

On November 17, 1558, when Elizabeth I of England succeeded her half-sister Queen Mary (wife of Philip II) and became the Queen of England, Britain and Spain were still in an alliance to fight against France together.

The following year, the friendship between the two countries seemed to be still very firm, so during the negotiations before the signing of the Treaty of Cardo Campegy, Philip was ready to recapture Calais for Elizabeth, which was taken from Mary by the Duke of Guise on January 6, 1558.

Then he proposed to Elizabeth, but was rejected.

Philip's enthusiastic support for Britain was entirely based on self-interest, and his policy was aimed at Mary Queen of Scots.

Queen Mary was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England and the daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise.

From the perspective of Catholicism, she was the legitimate heir to the British throne. On April 24, 1558, she married Francis II of France.

At this time, her uncle, the Duke of Guise, was in power in France. He wanted to use Mary's relationship to unite France, England, Scotland and Ireland into a great Guise Empire.

This would be a fatal blow to Spain, so Philip helped Elizabeth at all costs for 12 years after 1558 to ensure her throne so as to maintain a confrontational force against Mary.

For Spain, a friendly England was of great importance because England's location just threatened the side of the sea transportation line between Spain and Jutland.

However, all this changed in 1560, when Francis II died and was succeeded by his brother Charles IX, who was temporarily regented by his mother Catherine.

In August 1561, Mary returned to Scotland, and in 1567, she assassinated her second husband, Lord Darnley, in Scotland, and fled to England in 1568 for asylum.

From then on, she was imprisoned by Elizabeth for the rest of her life.

The evolution, coupled with the rise of the anti-Spanish party in Britain, made Philip change his policy towards Mary.

Because Mary was no longer a direct tool of the Guise family, Philip no longer stood on Elizabeth's side, but used Mary as a pillar to create anti-Elizabeth conspiracy.

In this work, he was also supported by Pope Pius V, who had sentenced the Queen of England to excommunication in 1570.

Another factor in the breakdown of relations between Britain and Spain was economic conflict.

John Hawkins of Plymouth began to rob the African slave trade, which was originally a patent trade of the Spanish royal family.

Because this illegal business could bring extremely high profits, the Queen of England actually partnered with Hawkins and lent him one of her own ships, the "Jesus".

On October 2, 1567, Hawkins set sail from Plymouth with two other ships, the "Millon" and the "Judith", the latter of which was commanded by Francis Drake.

Hawkins first sailed to the coast of Guinea, where he captured or bought more than 500 blacks, and then sailed to the West Indies and secretly sold them to Spanish colonists.

On the way, he entered the port of San Juan to find drinking water and shelter, and set up defenses in the port to prevent Spanish ships from entering.

At this time, the newly appointed Governor of New Spain, Enriquez, also arrived with a fleet. Because there was a storm, Enriquez was afraid of capsizing, so he negotiated with the British and promised that as long as he was allowed to enter the port, he would never invade the British and let them replenish food and water and leave on their own.

A few days later, Enriques suddenly opened fire on Hawkins' ships. After a battle, the Jesus had to surrender, but the other two companion ships escaped and returned to Plymouth in January 1569.

Just as Hawkins was returning to his homeland, another incident occurred, and it was quite serious.

A group of privateers drove a Spanish detachment into British ports such as Forvey, Plymouth and Southampton. The gold bars on board belonged to the Bank of Genoa and were to be delivered to the Duke of Alva in Antwerp, who was sent by Philip to the Netherlands to suppress the local commander.

Elizabeth confiscated the gold bars for her own use, which caused great dissatisfaction among the Spaniards. In retaliation, Alva confiscated all the British ships and goods left in Jutland.

So Elizabeth was not to be outdone, and confiscated the Spanish ships and goods left in Britain as usual.

At this time, news came that the "Jesus" was lost.

As a result, the two countries of Britain and Spain completely parted ways. Philip supported the Catholics in Britain, while Elizabeth opened England to provide a refuge for the Dutch Protestant traitors.

In fact, there were fifty of these privateers, of which no less than thirty belonged to the British.

Queen Elizabeth had gained huge benefits through British privateers, so she chose to support Drake's action, because Drake gave her the message that he would lead the fleet to find a passage into the Pacific Ocean and find a larger hunting ground for British privateers.

You know, there was no Panama Canal at that time, and the only passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was the Strait of Magellan. People believed that Tierra del Fuego on the south bank of the strait was the northern end of a southern continent, and there were not only high winds and rough waves, but also heavily guarded by the Spanish.

Since Magellan completed the first human circumnavigation in 1519, the Spanish have controlled the Strait of Magellan and strictly kept it secret.

However, when the Spanish continuously transported back spices similar to those of the Portuguese from the west, Drake became suspicious.

Drake's crossing the Atlantic to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean was not an impulse. He also brought a letter from the Queen of England to the Emperor of China on this trip, expressing Britain's intention to trade.

Don't be surprised by this. In fact, when Columbus was sent by Queen Isabella I of Spain to sail around the world, he set off with letters to the Indian monarch and the Chinese emperor.

It is no secret that there are huge countries in the East, and they have been looking for opportunities to trade directly with Eastern countries.

It can be said that whether Drake can reach the Ming Dynasty is not important. What is important is that he will definitely bring letters from the Queen of England on this voyage.

It was soon time to leave the court. Wei Guangde was about to summon Lu Bu to Zhang Siwei to see if he needed to discuss government affairs, but Lu Bu had already come in.

"What's the matter?"

Lu Bu must have something to report if he was not summoned.

"Master, this is the note handed over by Eunuch Chen."

Lu Bu stuffed another note into Wei Guangde's hand and took two steps back.

Wei Guangde looked down and was stunned.

There was only one name on the note, but Wei Guangde knew that this name would soon be known to the officials in the capital because she would become the new queen of the Ming Dynasty.

The thirteen-year-old queen, Sister Wang Xi. (End of this chapter)