The benefits brought by maritime trade have now become one of the important financial sources of the Song Dynasty, and naturally Zhao Bing's money cow. However, it was thanks to the large amount of wealth brought by maritime trade that the remnant Song regime was able to survive the most difficult times in Qiongzhou and accumulate the necessary economic foundation for restoration. Otherwise, they would have only supported 200,000 troops in Qiongzhou. Most of the military expenditure of this Northern Expedition also came from the benefits of maritime trade, which supported Zhao Bing until he fought until Yingtian Prefecture, but did not allow the country's economic collapse that had only returned to Jiangnan for two years.

Now even though the Song Dynasty has seized Jiangnan and Lianghuai and mastered the traditional wallet, it is necessary to make the wallet full. Not only do we need to manage the Yellow River, build water conservancy, reclaim wasteland, clear canals and expand ports, but we also need to migrate population and resettle immigrants. As the territory expands, we need to support the expanding bureaucratic corps and army, which requires the court to continuously invest funds, and it takes at least a few years to obtain profits, or even more than ten years later.

Therefore, the Song Dynasty also needed to obtain a large amount of funds through maritime trade to maintain development and accumulate for the future Northern Expedition. However, the way of tribute trade in the past could not satisfy the Song Dynasty's pursuit of wealth. This required opening up new waterways, expanding trading countries, and cracking down on rampant pirates, and being able to win in the increasingly fierce trade frictions.

Zhao Bing thought of a trade method pioneered by the modern West - the British East India Company. For Chinese people who understand the modern history of China, when we mention the British East India Company, we will think of opium trade, and then the shameful Opium War. In fact, opium trade is just one of the businesses of the East India Company. In addition, what other businesses does this company have?

From the mid-to-late 16th century, Britain was eager to take the path of foreign trade in Shanghai. Queen Elizabeth of England once swore to declare: "We also have the freedom to engage in overseas trade. In the face of the sea and the sky, all living beings in the world are equal." The same demands as her were the princes and nobles of the Tudor dynasty who actively supported the establishment of franchise companies and vigorously developed overseas trade. Elizabeth granted the East India Company a royal charter, giving it the privilege of trade in India. It was established in this case, with the purpose of establishing direct trade relations with India, South China and China.

Of course, there are not only East India companies in the UK. In fact, other European countries have also established East India companies specializing in Oriental trade, namely the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Sweden, etc. The Netherlands East India Company was the most powerful trading company in the world at that time. The Netherlands East India Company firmly controlled the trading markets in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and other places. In comparison, the British East India Company has a small scale and a small number of ships, and the strength of the two sides is very different.

In order to compete with the Netherlands, the UK started a challenge from the spice trade. When the UK had no strength to compete with the powerful Netherlands, they chose to temporarily cooperate with the Netherlands to fight against the Portuguese forces in order to get a share of the spice trade. When the spice market gradually gained a foothold, the British East India Company began to adjust its trade ideas and gradually shifted its main imported goods from spices to India's printed cotton. The British East India Company's printed cotton trade expanded rapidly. The Netherlands relied on its strong capital to suppress British merchants in Asia, which soon caused dissatisfaction among the UK.

Dissatisfaction with the loss of the market, the trade competition between the two countries quickly developed armed conflicts, and the British East India Company quickly established its own armed forces. After three British-Dutch wars, the Netherlands was defeated, and Britain eventually replaced the Netherlands as the new maritime overlord. From then on, the British East India Company began to gradually dominate India and involved in China. Its main business was based in the South Asian subcontinent and obtained major profits through taxation.

The Mughal Empire at that time never realized what the existence of the British East India Company meant to them. Instead, after considering the interests of obtaining financial and commercial interests and military aid in front of various immediate interests, it provided various conveniences. It successively granted the East India Company the right to free trade, set up permanent commercial ports at will, garrison troops in the commercial ports, and build forts. Later, the scope of these rights even derived the right to navigate in the inland rivers. The East India Company even controlled the financial management rights of the richest Bangladesh region, which was equivalent to directly obtaining the key to India's treasury.

If iron, copper, tin, ephedra, grain, wood are transported out of India, and silk, cloth, industrial products, sugar, salt, etc. are also colonial activities within the scope of trade, then robbing the treasury is a piracy that cannot be put into the table. But the British East India Company did this, not only robbing the Bangladeshi treasury, but also robbing royal treasures worth more than tens of millions of pounds when capturing the capital of Mysore.

After that, King Charles II of England granted the East India Company administrative power, coin minting, military power and diplomatic power in the form of law. From then on, this joint-stock company with the army and the people actually had the characteristics of a "state" and was a genuine colonial government, becoming the actual master of India. It also obtained assisted rule and military functions.

The actions of the East India Company and the Opium Trade triggered a century of humiliating Opium War, which made the Chinese people despise and hate their behavior. However, it cannot be denied that this business model made great contributions to Britain becoming the world hegemon, laid the foundation for the British colonization of the world, and also verified that "the big fist is the truth", thus affecting the world political pattern for a hundred years later...

Now the Royal Ocean Trade Fleet formed by Zhao Bing has the shadow of the East India Company in terms of trade methods. It also starts with the most profitable spices, and uses the method of controlling the origin to compete for the market, expelling the Persians who control the spice trade from South Asia; establishing a permanent commercial port at the route hub through aid and exporting interests, becoming a stronghold for controlling the waterway and a bridgehead for further opening up the market; and the establishment of an armed fleet was determined at the beginning of its implementation, which is not only used to deal with pirates, but also to deter countries that are "not blind".

Now the ocean fleet has gained a foothold in South Asia, seizing most of the spice trade in this region, and monopolizing the traditional trade in silk, porcelain and tea with the advantages of its origin, and entering the Arabian Sea to the west to seize the Central Asian market. Zhao Bing's ambition is not only that, he also wants to continue to explore the African market westward. Unfortunately, the Suez Canal was abandoned hundreds of years ago and the ship could not continue to move forward. When we go to Europe, we can only reach the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by land. They can only stop here as a wholesaler.

Compared with the vigorous development of the Nanyang and Western maritime markets, Zhao Bing's East China market was basically stagnant. First, it was necessary to go to Japan and Goryeo to pass through the Mongol-Yuan ruling region, and the fleet was difficult to replenish the supply along the way; second, Goryeo, as an important trading place, was a vassal state of the Mongol-Yuan, and in principle was a hostile country with the Song Dynasty; third, the Oriental market was mostly small, accounting for a small proportion of the maritime market. Therefore, Zhao Bing mostly used smuggling trade, and traded mainly for barter, in order to obtain Oriental specialty medicinal materials and sulfur with high demand.

But now it is different. Since the pirates in the East were making a fuss, he took the opportunity to recruit various pirates and use them to open the market to establish colonial sites, so that the devils could taste the taste of being colonized eight hundred years ago. The time is also good. Zhao Bing knew that the Mongols and Yuan attacked Japan twice, but although they failed to return and were unable to set foot on the Fusang land, their invasion became a catalyst, which turned the Japanese shogunate rule to decline and entered a period of long-term turmoil again.

The economic foundation of the shogunate comes from the "Kanto Success and Failure Land". Here "Success and Failure" means "discipline", which refers to the territory where the shogun has the right to manage and can be disciplined at will. These territories include "Kanto Yu Territory", "Kanto Yu Territory", and "Kanto Yu Territory Leadership". The shogunate can set up the power of the land in many manors and public lords. By the way, various countries have no salary, and generally serve as the land and receive remuneration from the land.

After the Anti-Yuan War, the shogunate did not receive land confiscated from its political enemies, so the shogunate could not satisfy the Ou family who had achieved military achievements and came to Kamakura to ask for the Ou family, which destroyed the foundation of the relationship between the Shogunate and the Ou family, which was obtained from "dedication to public", was accelerated. The land was separated from the "home office" and the "grandfather" and the Shogunate, but most of the Ou family members were poor and declining due to the burden of war, and began to pawn the land to usury or sell it.

This caused economic chaos, and the poverty decline of the Yu family accelerated the collapse of the Yu family system, weakened the economic foundation of the shogunate and reduced its control. As early as before the Anti-Yuan War, some of the "Number Lords" had risen to samurai. In order to develop their own power, these emerging masters used the poor people who resisted the lords, the fleeing servants and the lower masses who followed them to gather them around them, armed them with bows, arrows and stomachs, and fought against the shogunate and lords, and became "evil parties".

The activities of the evil party pose a serious threat to the shogunate rule, but there are also some families who are dissatisfied with the shogunate. Out of their need to oppose the shogunate and accumulate their own strength, they often win over the strategies of the evil party. In this way, the conflicts within the shogunate have also deepened. So far, in order to prevent the division of the Imperial family's territory from being too detailed and bringing poverty to the Imperial family's family, the shogunate has changed the common inheritance system for the inheritance of the Imperial family's property to the Kiln inheritance system, and the concubine's son is supported by the eldest son.

Some Yu family members strengthened unity with the "风" as the center, formed strong protection, and formed new forces. Conflicts between the various parties intensified, leading to the outbreak of civil war. The civil war further intensified the conflicts between the Yu family. At this point, whether it was the external Yu family or the non-Yu family, most of the samurai also rebelled against the shogunate and waited for an opportunity to rebel. Zhao Bing calculated the time, and the time when the rebellion broke out was not far away...
Chapter completed!