Matsumaki Masahiro returned to Fukuyama Castle.

He has stepped down as Shima Guardian appointed by the shogunate. He has no official position and is light. He can return to Fukuyama Castle to live in leisure, so he should not have a good time. Of course, he is also worried about his eldest son Matsumae Katsuhiro, because he is currently living in Edo with his little family and serving as a public official who is not big or small, which is considered a disguised hostage.

Fukuyama Castle is much larger nowadays. Of course, this is Fukuyama Castle in a broad sense, that is, a vast area including the castle of Matsumae's house and the castle town. Not only are there fashionable street car companies appearing in the city, but an additional small water plant has been built for the big people in the city to use.

The most eye-catching building in Fushan City is actually the newly completed Fushan Department Store. The building has six floors, designed by East Coast designers and undertaken by Heishui County Transportation Bureau (the only one in the Far East has this technical level), and specializes in selling all kinds of "barbarian goods". The so-called "barbarian goods" are all kinds of goods from the Japanese that are considered to be barbarian territory, or to be more precise, they are wild goods, furs, medicinal materials, etc. from Northeast Asia. A few years ago, there were some goods from North Korea, but after the North Korean army brazenly invaded Tsushima Island and the two countries had armed conflicts, Fushan Department Store quietly removed North Korean goods from the shelves to avoid criticism.

Matsumaebashi has already discussed with people from the East Coast that whether it is a Taiwanese bank or a Japanese company in the East Coast, they will rent special shops at Fukuyama Department Store to sell goods, which is enough to ensure considerable popularity. In addition, many daimyos or merchants who are familiar with Matsumae will also send people regularly to see if there are any wholesale products they need.

In short, please note that although Fukuyama Department Store also has a retail business, this is really not the main thing. More importantly, the possibility of wholesale success is still very high. It can add icing on the cake to Matsumae's already abundant finances and make their strength a step further.

"Yimami-kun. I'm really happy that you can come to Fukuyama to help me this time." Matsumae Masahiro sat cross-legged on the tatami mat, with two guards holding samurai swords standing behind him. In front of him was a middle-aged samurai with a frosty face named Yimi-kunai, from Shimahara vassal in Kyushu.

Speaking of this Shimahara vassal, it is really difficult now. The "Shimahara Rebellion" broke out decades ago. After quelling, the Koli clan took over. As a result, due to financial difficulties, he made a big move and taxed the samurai, which eventually triggered a riot. The Koli clan also left the Shimahara clan sadly.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Koli clan imposed taxes on samurai was that it was financial difficulties and forced. The direct reason for the financial difficulties was that the shogunate has been vigorously promoting economic monetization and engaging in new policies in recent years, intending to develop industry and commerce to "self-improvement" was slapped nakedly in the face by the Koreans, which is unacceptable to Japan.

However, this new economic policy also brought great problems, that is, the original vassal lords, Daming, mainly relied on collecting physical land rent from farmers and then commoditizing them to obtain income. However, after merchants entered the rural market and the commercialization of agriculture was thoroughly deepened, the vassal lords lost a large amount of income, that is, the premium income of selling land rent (agricultural products). On the other hand, due to the in-depth implementation of the commodity economy, the prices of various daily necessities and production tools began to rise, and the cost of living in cities increased. However, the expenses of Daming and Samurai in etiquette, clothing and entertainment became increasingly large, and the income and expenditure were imbalanced, and the finances were in crisis.

Especially those samurai who rely on the Rumi to support their families, their lives are becoming increasingly difficult. Even the samurai who was personally under the jurisdiction of the Tokugawa Shogunate, because of the "price revolution" in Edo, life was so difficult that "many people had no quilts when they were at night." What's more, many daimyos and samurai were forced to borrow money from usury merchants, as the people of the time described: "Many daimyos borrow money from merchants in a low voice, and only rely on the assistance of wealthy merchants from Edo, Kyoto, Osaka and other places to maintain their lives. All the annual tribute collected from farmers is used to repay the merchants' loans... and they are often accused of holding banquets to entertain usury lenders for apology."

From here we can see that after the so-called reforms in Japanese society over the years, some samurai and Daimai have partially relied on or subordinated positions in society, and the power of merchants is increasing. They have huge funds and hired a large number of destitute ronin around them, so it is difficult for Daimai to be relied on his debts unless you don’t go to Edo, but this is impossible. It is not that no one has tried relied on his debts. However, the group organization of the merchants, the "Edo Business Association", protested to the shogunate, while organizing the creditors to flock to Daimai’s house in Edo with paper flags, and posted posts everywhere, asking them to repay the money. Daimai, who owed debts, had no choice but to borrow money from the shogunate to repay the debts, and was in a mess.

The difference between Daming and Samurai gradually fell into financial difficulties is that urban and rural wholesalers, exchangers, usuryers and some Daming who participated in the business quickly became rich and accumulated considerable monetary wealth in just a few years. As Dazai said, "The wealth of gold and silver is all hidden by merchants." At this time, Osaka's famous wealthy businessman Honchi Seon-emon, whose family's income was equivalent to the income of ten Daming territories. He invented the sake brewing method, and the wine produced was not only sold locally in Osaka, but also sold very much across the country. Recently, he began to operate the shipping industry from Osaka to Edo, ordering multiple ships from Kuroshui, intending to make the business bigger and stronger.

The Sumitomo family, who made a fortune by operating medicinal materials and bookstores, has now developed copper mines with the Hongchi family and made a fortune. Mitsui, who was born in Ise Matsusaka, made his fortune by operating silk cloth. Now he is discussing with the Hongchi family to expand his voice in the financial industry. Hongchi, Mitsui and Sumitomo are representatives of the rise of the Japanese business group at this time. They started from the situation where they could only look up to Daming, and took advantage of the trend to rise with the east wind of Japan's reforms and have already surpassed most Daming.

As the first Daimai family to participate in the Shantan trade, the Matsumae family has accumulated considerable wealth. You should know that at least one-third of the copper coins circulating in the Japanese market are taken through their and Ida families. In addition, with lucrative businesses such as fur in Northeast Asia, the Matsumae family is not as good as the Hongchi family, which has controlled more than 30 vassal economies (one branch manager can summon 70-100 samurai at any time, and they are all serious samurai who receive salaries from Daming), nor is it as good as the Osaka Giant Shop Yodoya, which is a wholesale market for rice, fish, vegetables, and wood, and lends to 33 daimai. It is even more like the old commercial families such as Mitsui and Sumitomo who have been famous for at least 100 years. However, at least in Northern Japan, the Matsumae family is also a well-known font in the commercial field.

Masahiro Matsumae is smart. As Wei Boqiu's illegitimate son, his contact channels with the East Coast are also very smooth, and he has many new talents under his command who have studied at Yantai College and Hei Water Transportation College. If they weren't for their Matsumae family living in a corner and their background was too poor, I'm afraid they would have surpassed Hongchi, Sumitomo, Mitsui, Yodoya, Hiranoya, Tennojiya and other merchant families that have long been called for the wind and rain in the country.

But Matsumasa Matsumasa is confident of surpassing these people because his close contact with the East Coast people is beyond the reach of anyone. The senior executives of Taiwan Bank, East Coast Japan Company, East Coast North Korea Company, Black Water Management Committee, Manchuria and Mongolian Development Team and other institutions often communicate with him. Many East Coast products entered Japan's first stop at Matsumasa. For example, the copper coins he had been sold through his hands, the fur goods they had been sold through their families, were no less than the strongest Ida family in the Northeast, and the profits were simply unimaginable.

Last year, Matsumae Masahiro's eldest son, He Guang, went to Shibada Port and jointly established a large-scale logging farm with local merchants on the East Coast to export high-quality wood to Japan. In the Hokkien land, their family also has many logging farms. In recent years, they have purchased many East Coast machines. At the same time, they recruited ronin and bankrupt farmers to work, and launched a powerful challenge to the Yodoya family, the No. 1 person in the Japanese timber market. Isn't your Yodoya family said to have a property of 120 million taels of silver? Didn't Yodoya Tatsugoro still wear a dress rewarded by the general and go out to the Huajie Street and Willow Alleys and jealous with all the big names? Such arrogance, I am afraid that there will be an unexpected disaster in the future. At that time, the rise of my Matsumae family!

The people of the East Coast appreciate Matsumae Masahiro's ambitions and pointed out to him that the Tokugawa shogunate has ordered the whole country to monetize the economy, build new industries, and train new troops. Reform has become the general trend. In such a great era of change, if you seize the opportunity to do something well, it may not be an opportunity to stand out. On weekdays, you have not yet wanted to find such an opportunity! The shogunate has tightly controlled the world, Sendai, Satsuma and other powerful factions, and you can only complain a little, and you can't find a chance to rise!

Matsue Masahiro thought further than the East Coast people. In his opinion, the shogunate had carried out reforms for several years, and although it had accumulated a lot of wealth, it also caused turmoil across the country. The vested interest class (Damin and Samurai) were angry and resentful, and they wanted to kill Edo and kill the general. However, the strength of the shogunate is too strong now, with 80,000 samurai warriors on the side, and the existence of many shogunate relatives made them dare not speak out.
Chapter completed!