Chapter 421: The Island of Gold and Silver

“Preposterous! Utterly preposterous! Even setting aside the fact that beyond our Great Ming lie only uncivilized barbarians, why should the wealth of other nations ever be allowed to flow into the coffers of the Great Ming? And who do you think you are, anyway? Do other countries have no men of their own? How could they possibly take orders from you!”

The moment Zhu Ping’an finished speaking, Li Mo exploded, his words spraying out like venom.

To put Li Mo’s meaning plainly, it was this: Are those countries idiots, just handing money over to you for nothing? And you, Zhu Ping’an—why don’t you take a piss and look at your own reflection first, see what kind of person you really are!

“Exactly!” Another official behind Li Mo stepped forward, waving his arms as if rallying troops. “Our Great Ming is the Celestial Empire, a land of rites and propriety. We must not recklessly raise arms against other nations. Moreover, the north is threatened by the Tartar raiders, the south by Japanese pirates—our strength is already stretched thin! How could we possibly ignite yet another war?”

“He dares?!” Li Mo flew into a rage, his beard bristling and his eyes blazing. “War is the gravest affair of the state—the ground of life and death, the path of survival or annihilation! It must not be treated lightly. If he dares drag the Great Ming into the flames of war, plunging us into eternal ruin, this old man will personally cut down this cur!”

This cur. This cur! Who was he talking about, if not this beast right here?

Li Mo’s language was vicious—thief this, animal that—his mouth full of insults. Though history would later brand him a loyal and upright minister, Zhu Ping’an felt deeply uncomfortable hearing such words hurled at him. This was a man stubborn to the bone, stubborn to the point of refusing to tolerate any opinion that ran contrary to his own.

Still, Li Mo’s stance did come from concern for the state and the people. Besides, at present Li Mo held the powerful post of Minister of Personnel. Zhu Ping’an’s slender arm could never wrestle down another man’s thigh. Swallowing his displeasure, he endured in silence.

“Tsk, tsk,” came a lazy, mocking voice. “Just look at how fiery our esteemed elder is. Why not at least let the Top Scholar finish speaking before erupting like this?”

Yan Shifan tilted his head, his single eye slanting toward Li Mo, a cold sneer curling at his lips.

“Hmph,” Li Mo snorted, flinging his sleeve sharply. “Let us see what kind of flowers he can possibly conjure from his mouth.”

Before speaking again, Zhu Ping’an clasped his hands and bowed respectfully to Li Mo and the others. After completing the salute, he reached into his sleeve and withdrew two books, holding them up one by one for all to see. Then he presented them to the Jiajing Emperor, who had them carried forward by a young eunuch.

“It was upon reading these two texts that this humble minister conceived the idea I spoke of,” Zhu Ping’an began, unhurried and calm, his tone measured like a storyteller easing into a tale. “The first is titled Records of the Western Ocean’s Foreign Nations (Volume Two), written by Gong Zhen, a member of the retinue that accompanied Eunuch Zheng He on his voyages to the Western Seas. Within this book are two particularly intriguing accounts.

“The first goes as follows: when Gong Zhen and the fleet sailed to the land of Dongying—the Japanese islands, which now serve as the nest of the pirate scourge along our southeastern coast—after receiving tribute from the Japanese chieftains, the fleet replenished its stores of fresh water and produce. A purchasing officer went to a butcher’s shop to buy mutton, priced at thirty taels of silver. At the time, the officer carried only twenty taels of silver, the rest being gold. Seeing this, the butcher said: ‘Thirty taels of silver. If silver is insufficient, gold will do—six taels of gold will suffice.’ The officer glanced sideways at him, returned to gather enough silver, and paid in full. When this matter was related to the others, they all laughed at the butcher’s cunning.”

As Zhu Ping’an spoke, the Jiajing Emperor had already taken the books in hand. Only then did Zhu Ping’an continue, still at an unhurried pace, as though spinning an anecdote by a lantern’s glow.

“Thirty taels of silver equals three taels of gold, yet that Japanese butcher demanded six taels of gold—utterly greedy! Shameless to the extreme!” One official shook his head indignantly, denouncing the deceitfulness of the Japanese.

“That butcher was not only greedy, but foolish,” another said with a chuckle. “Even a child knows that one tael of gold equals two taels of silver. To be stupid without realizing it, yet still dare to plot against the people of the Great Ming—how laughable.” Many nodded in agreement.

“The second account is also quite interesting, and bears resemblance to the first. This time, a Japanese chieftain sent envoys to the treasure ships with tribute. During the ceremony, a Japanese civil official took a liking to a bolt of silk, priced at five taels of silver. Yet he paid one tael of gold, took the silk, and strode off without a backward glance. The fleet officials hurried after him to recover the five taels of silver owed, but the man walked too swiftly, and they failed to catch up. Throughout the remainder of the voyage, the officials could not help but brood over the matter.”

A ripple of laughter spread through the hall. What was wrong with these Japanese? First a butcher who couldn’t tell the value of gold from silver, and now an official so careless with money! Truly uncivilized barbarians, ignorant of proper customs.

“Zhu Zihou!” an official behind Li Mo snapped, unable to hold back any longer. “You speak not of how to enrich the treasury without increasing taxes, but instead prattle on about these trivial travel anecdotes. Do you take us for fools like those Japanese pirates?”

“Your Excellency, please do not be impatient,” Zhu Ping’an replied with a faint smile. “What I am speaking of is precisely the method by which the treasury may be doubled without burdening the people.”

What?

This was a method to double the treasury?

Wasn’t it just two inconsequential travel stories—one foolish butcher, one careless official? What, were they supposed to squeeze money out of these two individuals? Even if you drained them dry, it would amount to nothing more than scraps. Utterly useless!

A chorus of derisive murmurs rose among the officials. The one who had just spoken even laughed aloud.

“Zhu Zihou, are you jesting with us?” Li Mo bellowed, barely restraining his fury.

“How would I dare joke within the Golden Hall?” Zhu Ping’an said solemnly. “What I speak of truly is the means to multiply the treasury. If these two accounts are still insufficiently clear, then let me speak of the other book. The second text I consulted is a record from the Court of State Ceremonial. It documents tribute from Dongying twenty years ago. One incident is recorded thus: after presenting tribute, the Court of State Ceremonial, in accordance with imperial decree, rewarded the Japanese envoys with one hundred taels of gold. The envoys, claiming that the gold would be inconvenient to divide among their many members, requested that it be exchanged for an equivalent value of silver—five hundred taels.”

Zhu Ping’an shook his head slightly, then calmly continued his narration.

Still incomprehensible.

What kind of treasury-doubling method was this supposed to be?

Many officials remained utterly baffled. What in the world did these three records have to do with enriching the state coffers?

“Zihou,” Yan Shifan suddenly spoke up, the first to grasp the implication. His face lit up with delight, both eyes gleaming as though he had glimpsed a path to sudden fortune. “Are you saying that in Japan, one tael of gold is exchanged for five taels of silver?”

“Precisely so, Lord Yan,” Zhu Ping’an nodded. “After extensive verification, this humble minister is confident that the gold–silver exchange ratio in Japan differs greatly from that of our Great Ming. In our realm, it takes ten taels of silver to exchange for one tael of gold. But in Japan, ten taels of silver can be exchanged for two taels of gold—fully twice as much.”

Zhu Ping’an deliberately laid bare this conclusion, his voice firm and resolute.

What he sought was to plant the first seed of financial warfare in their minds—to lure their gaze outward with the promise of profit, and little by little force the Great Ming to open its eyes to the wider world.

What? Japan’s gold-to-silver ratio was one to five? How could there be such a bizarre exchange rate!

The officials in the hall were stunned. This was the first time they had ever heard of such a thing. With such a disparity, a single round of exchange would yield twice the gold. Without Zhu Ping’an needing to say more, even the most straightforward minds could sense the enormous opportunity hidden within—just as later generations of shrewd housewives would storm Wall Street with fearsome prowess.

“But how much gold does Japan actually have?” someone asked.

“During the Yuan dynasty,” Zhu Ping’an replied, “there was a Westerner named Marco Polo who sailed from across the seas to China. In one of his travel accounts, he referred to Japan as Zipangu—which, translated, means ‘the Land of Gold.’ He recorded that every Japanese possessed vast quantities of gold, that palace roofs were tiled entirely with pure gold, and that even the floors were paved with gold layers two fingers thick. Many rooms held small tables of solid gold, and windows were adorned with gold as well. He also wrote of a temple in Japan housing a giant Buddha over ten zhang tall, cast entirely of gold. In the same account, Japan was called the ‘Silver Islands,’ said to possess countless silver mines, with entire mountain ranges where silver sand could be gathered simply by bending down.”

Zhu Ping’an vividly embellished the contents of this travel account, one compiled during the Yuan dynasty from Marco Polo’s oral descriptions. It was not the later, more famous Travels of Marco Polo, but an earlier text Zhu Ping’an had unearthed two days prior while organizing the library—a forgotten volume gathering dust in a corner.

As for its authenticity?

Heh—who cared?

In any case, history did indeed record that this period was one of abundant gold and silver production in Japan. The coming age of warring states there would be sustained precisely by these mines.