Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 213 Open the door, free trade!

Zhu Youjian was by no means a greedy or lustful man; his visit to see beauties from various countries stemmed entirely from a curiosity for knowledge. However, when he actually saw these so-called beauties, he was struck dumb. He had assumed that all lecherous men had similar tastes, but what he was seeing now was utterly disgusting—he couldn't bring himself to touch them!
Zhu Youjian cursed his bad luck and ordered Wang Chengen to send the beauties back to the Court of State Ceremonial, instructing the delegation to take them with them on their return journey. He was already worried about what return gift to give them. He had no intention of sending Ming Dynasty women across the ocean to serve barbarians; the Ming Dynasty did not practice a policy of marriage alliances.

However, after Zhu Youjian had his intentions conveyed to these Western women through an interpreter, they became unhappy, stating that even if they couldn't be His Majesty's mistresses, being court maids would be fine. To this end, they even went so far as to betray their superiors, revealing their secret of impersonating their own envoys and not having received authorization from the King.

These situations were actually within Zhu Youjian's expectations. After all, in addition to the traditional tributary states, dozens of new countries were invited to join this time. It was difficult to verify their identities in such a hurry, and it was inevitable that some would be mixed up with the real ones.

But whether it's real or fake, once trade is established between two countries, there's always a chance for things to get on track; if they remain closed off and overly wary and resistant to outsiders, then they'll never see a breakthrough. Zhu Youjian had no interest in maintaining the ancient tributary system; the tributary system was too inefficient and too small-scale.

In his return gifts to various countries, he generally followed the principle of commensurate value, without giving lavish gifts or trying to appear wealthy beyond his means. After all, the Ming Dynasty was not doing well either, and the peasant army in Shaanxi had already made a name for itself, with the name of Gao Yingxiang, the leader of the rebels, officially on his desk.

These women from East Asia weren't exactly ugly, but in Zhu Youjian's aesthetic standards, they weren't considered beautiful either. After all, it turned out that Han Chinese women were the most beautiful. And these women from the East didn't want to go back. Zhu Youjian thought to himself: Good heavens, the Ming Dynasty has become a beacon; everyone wants to be brought over!
Ultimately, Zhu Youjian decided to respect their wishes and incorporate them into the Ming Dynasty's female official system. In addition to the existing six bureaus and one department, a new department called the "Ten Thousand Nations Department" was established specifically to house these foreign women. After all, they were not ordinary people; if what the envoys from various countries said was true, these women were all highly capable.

Since they are talented, regardless of whether they are male or female, black or white, they cannot be wasted. Zhu Youjian put Sun Shiwan in charge of the Bureau of All Nations, responsible for training them.

After the Emperor's birthday celebrations, the envoys from various countries did not leave immediately; both sides still needed to seriously discuss trade cooperation. The production of soft-sailed ships by the Dengzhou and Laizhou navies had made little progress. The East and West had different technological paths, and the Ming Dynasty could not find suitable shipbuilders.

Even if we manage to build it by simply copying the design, figuring out how to operate the sails isn't something we can figure out in a short time through trial and error. Instead of tackling the challenges ourselves and repeating the research path taken by the West, it's better to take it directly, combine it with our own technological advantages, and then find ways to improve it. In fact, to expedite deployment, we could even purchase some equipment.

Western-style muzzle-loading flintlock muskets, with their rifling, are superior to the existing matchlock muskets of the Ming Dynasty in terms of ignition efficiency, range, weather resistance, and accuracy. Their only drawbacks are their high cost and the Ming Dynasty's lack of high-quality flint, making complete replication difficult. However, given sufficient financial resources, small-batch, frequent replacement is still feasible.

The improved matchlock guns of the Ming Dynasty were imported from Portugal; and the breech-loading cannons, which are now completely manufactured domestically and are deployed on a large scale, also originated from Portugal.

Among the interactions between the Ming Dynasty and Western countries, the relationship with Portugal was the closest, with both sides gaining a deeper understanding, cooperating more, and influencing each other more.

Unfortunately, Portugal was merely a "god in the previous version," and the two "teeth" were locked in a power struggle; the 17th century belonged to the early Spanish Empire, the "empire on which the sun never sets." Of course, nothing lasts forever, and Spain was also declining, while England and France were rising in the next version.

The Ming Dynasty's imitation of the Hongyi cannons, due to a lack of copper, used cast steel throughout, and their performance was inferior to the original Western cannons with "iron cores and copper bodies".

This is entirely a difference in resources, which cannot be bridged by the superior skills of artisans. For example, the formula for hand-building an atomic bomb is written in physics textbooks, but yellowcake and the large amounts of electricity needed to power centrifuges are things that most countries cannot obtain.

Therefore, in order to have cheap and effective cannons, imports were still necessary—this is the charm of international trade: complementary resource advantages. In terms of gunpowder, the granular gunpowder used in the West had already surpassed the powdered gunpowder of the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty had begun to imitate these powder cakes and pellets, because they were hand-rolled, the shape and size could not be guaranteed to be consistent, causing other problems; coupled with cost, this prevented widespread adoption.

This is the drawback of cheap and developed handicrafts: there were too many people in the Ming Dynasty, and the common people were too hardworking, to the point that they stifled machinery.

The West had indeed far surpassed the Ming Dynasty in mechanical engineering, with inventions like the "spiral waterwheel," "water-powered forging hammer," and multi-spindle spinning wheels. The most compelling evidence of this was the bizarre and complex clocks that made one dizzy just by looking at them. Their research in mechanics even bordered on the cultish; they were practically on the verge of building a "difference engine."

Western craftsmen, lathes, firearms, and other equipment were all urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty, something that private trade could not provide. Free trade between East and West was still primarily based on the Ming Dynasty selling goods and the West importing silver, thus requiring deeper cooperation.

The emperor's high regard for Westerners led to the rise of the Western learning faction, which had previously been marginalized within the court. While scholar-officials looked down on merchants, everyone knew they were wealthy, with the wealthiest being the maritime merchants.

The emperor's supreme decree is to do business with these foreign devils. A huge market is about to emerge, and that's all pure silver. Getting involved will greatly increase one's influence, and one's mouth will be full of oil!
As for traditional tributary states, both sides are in the same cultural sphere and have had a friendship for hundreds or thousands of years. They know each other well, so there are relatively few projects that can be cooperated on.

For example, the elephants of Siam were just something the Ming Dynasty enjoyed watching. Feeding elephants was too expensive and they couldn't be used as commodities in large-scale trade between the two sides. Spices and other items were not necessities either. It was better to let the people handle these things. If the court were to do it, it would likely mess it up and end up paying salaries with moldy pepper.

Of course, there were things that could be traded. Southeast Asian grains and timber were still very useful to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty could also consider importing Japanese firearms.

Japanese ronin (masterless samurai) became the backbone of pirates like Zheng Zhilong, and Zhu Youjian (Emperor Zhu Youjian) even considered hiring Japanese to help in the war. After all, Japan was even more resource-scarce, and people could starve to death even without natural disasters, making their lives even less valuable. However, after much deliberation, he didn't dare to bring it up.

The restoration of diplomatic relations with Japan has already drawn considerable criticism. People in the Ming Dynasty regarded Japan as a "source of trouble" and considered it "deceitful and cunning."

The Ming Dynasty's resistance against Japanese pirates lasted for over a century. The Japanese were referred to as Wokou (Japanese pirates) and Wonu (Japanese slaves), synonymous with cruelty, cunning, and bloodthirstiness. In the social and public opinion environment of the Ming Dynasty, there was no place for Japan or the Japanese people.

If the other soldiers knew they were fighting alongside Japanese pirates, their morale would have plummeted. In contrast, foreigners didn't face obvious exclusion; otherwise, the Western-style school of thought wouldn't exist.

As early as the Wanli era, many missionaries visited the Ming Dynasty. For example, Xu Guangqi currently had the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell and the Italian Jesuit missionary Long Huamin under his command. However, due to the Ming Dynasty's rule that "one cannot enter officialdom without passing the imperial examinations," they could not yet obtain formal positions.

Xu Guangqi did recommend them to the emperor, but Zhu Youjian did not agree to grant them special treatment.

(End of this chapter)