"Of the Foreign Merchant Ships in Ningbo, how many belong to foreigners and men of Wa, and how many belong to coastal gentry and local strongmen?"
Hearing such a pointed question from the provincial administration commissioner, Shi Wende trembled all over, terrified beyond measure. As one of the sea merchants, he actually knew the answer to that question. It was that "of ten Wa ships, seven are fake Ming ships," and "of ten seagoing ships, nine use Tally Permits that cannot bear inspection"!
And behind the sharing of profits from Ningbo Harbor's maritime trade, thirty percent went to the eunuchs managing the Maritime Trade Office, forty percent to the entrenched tiger-like gentry clans, twenty percent to the shipowners who transported the goods back and forth, and ten percent to the Wa merchants who provided Tally Permit affiliations. Not a single cent was handed to the court!
This was an extraordinarily vast web of profit, pouring great quantities of luxuries and silver money in a steady stream into the Jiangnan hinterland of Great Ming. The wealth of the coastal gentry expanded sharply, and their annexation of land grew by the day. If a provincial administration commissioner came from Jiangnan, he would naturally know all about this sort of private coastal trade, and would not truly strike it with a heavy hand.
In the three coastal provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, every coastal gentry clan of rank took part in Maritime Trade Office commerce to one degree or another. No great clan's backside was truly clean, and no one would bring the knife down on himself!
But now, this provincial administration commissioner from Shanxi, transferred from Shaanxi to Zhejiang, truly had not the slightest tie to the enormous interests of coastal maritime trade!
If he truly intended to represent the court,