In fact, if you want to gain a population, there are other ways and ways to recruit refugees. For example, Zhang Cai’s son Zhang Jiafu gave Marin an idea - to buy slaves from Yashang.
In fact, although those refugees were in trouble, they were still people with status. The slaves to be sold in the Yashang were all slaves who did not even have the status of ordinary people.
It should be pointed out that the Ming Dynasty law prohibited ordinary people from raising slaves and servants privately. Because if the number of slaves increases, the number of good people who pay taxes to the country will decrease, affecting national tax revenue.
However, this policy was only seriously implemented during the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty. As time went by, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it had been much looser.
During the Hongwu period, only those top wealthy families with nobles and third-rank officials and above were qualified to raise slaves. Others were not qualified. Even if merchants were rich, they were useless. Not only were they not allowed to wear silk, nor were they allowed to buy slaves. The phenomenon of ordinary merchants being able to buy slaves on TV did not exist. Of course, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, merchants could do this. In the Hongwu period, merchants had to jail if they dared to do this.
At present, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's population policy had been loosened. However, it had not been popularized by the people. Little private landlords and merchants were still not qualified to buy slaves. But they also had countermeasures, such as ordinary people could evade legal restrictions by "taking adopted sons and daughters". Or, directly enter into employment contracts to evade legal restrictions.
But there is one kind of person who can legally buy slaves, that is, the scholar class with officials as the main body...
As long as you have fame and fortune, there is no limit. In the early Ming Dynasty, only nobles and third-rank officials were allowed to raise slaves. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, even officials and scholars with fame could raise slaves freely. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, even ordinary wealthy families could raise slaves...
Why is this? In addition to the loosening of policies, the large increase in the population is also an important reason.
The Ming Dynasty had a stable society and a prosperous economy, and the population naturally increased year by year. In the early Ming Dynasty, the population was only more than 60 million, and the natural labor was precious. Zhu Yuanzhang never allowed to waste precious people on slaves. Therefore, he restricted the existence of slaves in every way and liberated a large number of slaves.
But in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, that is, during the Hongzhi Dynasty, the population of the Ming Dynasty reached 80 to 90 million, and there is even more saying that it reached 100 million. Because there were a large number of hidden people among the people.
The population has grown so much, but the land area has not increased, so there is a large surplus of labor. Many poor families cannot afford to raise so many children at all. In order to keep their children alive, those poor families voluntarily send their children to wealthy families as slaves and servants. Because only in this way can children be given full food. Moreover, selling the money from children can also support the children left behind in the family.
The mid-Ming Dynasty was not serious. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the population of the Ming Dynasty reached about 150 million, which seemed to be large in number and small in number. At this time, the court had to turn a blind eye. At this time, ordinary families could legally buy slaves as long as they paid...
...
It is now in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with a small population and a large number. In theory, ordinary people are not allowed to buy slaves. However, Malin is not an ordinary person. He is the king of the Beihai Kingdom and the Eastern Fan Xuanwei envoy. He belongs to the imperial court and is just a class that allows to buy slaves.
So, Ma Lin took Zhang Jiafu and others directly to Yashang to buy slaves...
However, Malin's work was a bit big, which alarmed the court...
In just three days, Malin swept the capital's Yashang and bought 3,500 slaves at a low price of a few taels of silver per slave, of which 2,000 male slaves and 1,500 female slaves. Moreover, most of the slaves were adults. After all, these were used to reclaim wasteland, which was not easy for children to use.
Such a huge move naturally aroused the idea of ​​the Ming court. So, Li Dongyang, on behalf of the Ming court, summoned Ma Lin to talk to...
"Master Ma, why did you buy so many servants?"
"Dongfan Island needs to be developed, so it naturally requires a large population. I don't know how many disaster victims can recruit, so I will buy some population first."
"Cough cough..." Li Dongyang coughed twice and continued:
"You are right to buy a servant, and you are not a problem as the Lord of Horse. However, your work is too big. You can take 3,500 people at one move. It is too eye-catching. It has a bad impact, and it has a bad impact..."
It is indeed not a good influence, and the people of the Ming Dynasty are very conceited. It is indeed very harmful to the feelings of the people of the Ming Dynasty when a king of the foreign ghost country bought a large number of Ming Dynasty people in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Li Dongyang interviewed Ma Lin and asked him to stop. It is not that he could not do it, but that he was too arrogant and had a bad influence...
"I understand..." Marin is a smart person, so he naturally understood what Li Dongyang meant - don't be too arrogant and work quietly...
"From then, I will buy people quietly in Fuzhou, Ningbo and Guangzhou?" asked Ma Lin.
Li Dongyang shook his head and said:
"You can't say you buy people, otherwise the people will be unhappy. You have to say - hire people... For example, in the name of hiring boat workers, hire female weavers..."
Malin understood in seconds - just to save some face for the Ming Dynasty... In other words, slaves will buy them normally, but when they report to the Maritime Bureau, they will have to report to "hired workers". In this way, they will not harm the face of the Ming Dynasty...
...
Seeing that he could not continue to buy slaves in the capital, Ma Lin had to stop temporarily. Anyway, the future is long. Moreover, Li Dongyang also pointed out the direction - continue to buy in the name of "hired workers" in the future...
But now the matter is basically done, and you can't sit in the capital. Europe is still waiting for itself to go back, and the matter in the Ming Dynasty has not been completed yet...
For example, one very important thing - after Zhang Cai purchased Taihu pig and Biluochun tea seeds in Taihu area, how should he transport them to Keelung?
It’s okay to say that tea seeds take up a lot of space. But those Taihu pigs take up a lot of space...
After thinking about it, it is most suitable to let your ship transport it...
...
Moreover, Malin also plans to go to Anhua, Funan to buy black tea seeds and hire craftsmen who know how to make black tea. Then, he grows them in Taidao and Cuba and produces tea.
It’s not that Marin likes to drink black tea, but that black tea has a long shelf life and is not worried about the tea breaking down. Moreover, the requirement for making tea is lower than that of making tea. It is more appropriate to use black tea bricks to cook milk tea.
In addition, Malin plans to go to Fubei, Shuzhong and southern Yunnan to buy medicinal materials that are very useful, as well as seeds of medicinal materials such as Coptis chinensis, Youyang Artemisia anesthesia, Panax notoginseng, and seeds of medicinal materials for the sake of needs.
Coptis chinensis can be extracted in a simple way, which is a good medicine for the treatment of dysentery, tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid fever, diphtheria and other chronic diseases. Moreover, the extraction method is super simple and is a must-use thing for time travelers.
Needless to say, Artemisinin is the first step toward the process of artemisinin...
Panax notoginseng is the main medicine of Baiyao for the famous bruising and injury, not to mention...
Anyway, these need to be obtained. The Ming Dynasty only allowed trade at the ports of three maritime companies, and it was difficult to acquire these drugs in large quantities. Therefore, Marin planned to go to various places in person this time and get as many as possible. But first of all, he must be qualified to go to various places in the Ming Dynasty...
Chapter completed!