Chapter 917

Morning.

Amidst the crisp shouts of newsboys, newspapers featuring the headline “Japan Formally Submits Instrument of Surrender to the Great Yu Empire” rapidly spread through the streets and alleys of Qingzhou Province.

Last night, at Xiao Ming’s instruction, the Qingzhou Daily specifically printed this celebratory good news. And as he guessed, the news caused a huge impact once it was released.

Ever since the emergence of newspapers, a medium for conveying major domestic and international events, the common people of Qingzhou Province had increasingly embraced them. The circulation of newspapers had increased dozens of times.

Coupled with the current development of public schools, the literacy rate among the common people of the Great Yu Empire was steadily rising. Not only young students, but many common people, to integrate into the continuously changing Qingzhou Province, also began to learn characters and various kinds of knowledge through various channels.

And the rise of New Confucianism gradually made the common people abandon ignorant ideas and embrace the now strong scientific atmosphere. The entire common people was undergoing changes that Xiao Ming anticipated. A brand new Great Yu Empire was beckoning him.

“This is truly satisfying! Our Ding family’s business in Jinling Province suffered greatly from Japan, but unfortunately, Prince Wei was weak then and dared not do anything to the Japanese pirates. Now, these bastards are finally getting their just deserts!”

In the Ding family’s manor.

Ding Wanqian and Ding Wu were eating. The two ate steamed buns while reading the newspaper. When they reached an exciting part, they would occasionally cheer loudly.

Ding Wu looked excited. He said, “This is all due to His Majesty’s excellent governance. In just how many years, the enemies who once threatened the Great Yu Empire have fallen one after another. The common people of the Great Yu Empire are living better and better lives.”

“Indeed. It’s just a pity that if I, your father, had pledged allegiance to His Majesty earlier, perhaps the Ding family’s status would be even higher today,” Ding Wanqian said smugly. He was very fortunate to have left Ding Wu behind to make two-pronged preparations.

Now, the entire Ding family had moved to Qingzhou City. Ding Wu, an illegitimate son, was also being recognized by his family for his abilities, and no one dared to gossip.

Ding Wu smiled and shook his head. For him, this newspaper not only filled him with pride but also showed him business opportunities.

With Goryeo subdued, the Great Yu Empire’s goods quickly occupied the Goryeo market. Now, Goryeo people exchanged large amounts of gold, silver, grain, and various mineral resources for the Great Yu Empire’s industrial products.

Merchants profited handsomely from this. At this point, they finally tasted the sweetness of an industrial nation’s dominance over an agricultural nation for the first time. Often, wealthy households in Goryeo needed hundreds or thousands of shi of grain to exchange for a single ox-powered waterwheel for irrigation.

“Father, this newspaper says Japan is a country of over twenty million people. That market is much larger than Goryeo’s! Now that Japan has signed the instrument of surrender, Great Yu Empire merchants basically enjoy the same treatment as in Goryeo. This is a huge business opportunity!” Ding Wu said thoughtfully.

Ding Wanqian now basically no longer managed the Ding family’s business. He said, “You decide for yourself. We old-fashioned people can’t keep up with the rapid changes nowadays.”

A faint smile appeared on Ding Wu’s lips. He understood that his father was relinquishing power to him. He said, “Since that’s the case, I will go to Chairman Li Kaiyuan now and see if I can obtain a travel permit for doing business in Japan. Whether it’s Goryeo or Japan, official merchants always get the first taste of meat. We should also seize the opportunity to get some soup.”

While Ding Wu was eager to act, merchants in Qingzhou Province, upon hearing the news, also began to take action. Their experience in Goryeo taught them that once a market opened up, the imperial court often took the biggest share, while they got the leftovers.

“Immediately purchase steam engines to expand production! No delay! Go!”

In Zhu family’s white sugar workshop, Zhu Wuliu immediately ordered after reading the newspaper. Years of experience in the marketplace had given him an extremely keen business acumen.

After entering the Goryeo market, his workshop had undergone an expansion, almost doubling its size. And after the unification of north and south, his business had expanded more than tenfold. Now, Japan was another untouched market, and he naturally could not miss this opportunity.

After all, with the booming trade, more and more people were now engaging in commerce. Coupled with the Qingzhou Bank’s continuous provision of loans to support private industry and commerce, many common people could now borrow money to do business.

However, in just a few short years, workshops had sprung up everywhere in and around Qingzhou Province. Most critically, with the establishment of the Great Yu Empire’s four major industrial and commercial zones, the number of merchants in these regions had exploded.

They purchased equipment from Qingzhou Province, returned to their cities, established workshops, and produced various industrial goods, beginning to challenge Qingzhou Province’s industry and commerce.

In addition, after the agricultural production recovered in the cities west of Qingzhou Province, with the support of various provincial offices, many former powerful families transformed into local magnates. Some wealthy local households also began to invest in building factories and doing business amidst the increasingly vibrant atmosphere.

So, although the Great Yu Empire’s market was growing larger and larger, he dared not let his guard down, because he knew that his commercial rivals were also increasing. Besides expanding production, he also had to defeat his rivals in terms of quality and price.

Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce.

Li Kaiyuan had received the news before the newspaper was even published. The palace had already informed him yesterday.

So today, he was prepared for merchants to block his door.

However, although being surrounded by merchants was a headache, it had to be said that it was a pleasant headache. After all, compared to the common people, the Chamber of Commerce was the biggest beneficiary.

Currently, state-owned workshops and private workshops coexisted in the Great Yu Empire, but in trade, state-owned workshops always took the lead. After all, a large portion of the imperial court’s current financial revenue came from the profits submitted by state-owned workshops.

In the past two years, the Chamber of Commerce’s profits in the Goryeo market reached ten million Golden Dragons, which would be about three million taels of silver by previous conversions.

After the unification of north and south, Qingzhou Province’s merchants were also the first to reap the greatest profits. In one year, the profits from goods in the southern market reached eighty million Golden Dragons, which was about twenty-four million taels of silver.

Of course, their ability to gain such substantial profits was due to their control over high-end technologies like steam engines. They earned a huge sum of money just by selling steam engines.

“Japan, another big piece of fat meat is here!” Li Kaiyuan was excited. He could already imagine Japan exchanging large quantities of raw materials for the Great Yu Empire’s industrial products.

And for the exported industrial products, they could set high prices to earn exorbitant profits. Most importantly, the instrument of surrender explicitly stipulated that Qingzhou Bank could establish branches in Japan.

Japan’s permission to use Great Yu Empire currency for transactions, in his opinion, was the key point of this instrument of surrender.

He was no longer the naive person he once was. He knew very well how terrifying it would be for Japan to be financially controlled by the Great Yu Empire. Because once the Great Yu Empire’s currency became widely used throughout Japan, Japan’s economy would become dependent on the Great Yu Empire. The logic was simple: the Great Yu Empire could completely purchase Japanese goods by printing money, but leave the negative effects of printing money within Japan.

The novel has already been fully translated up to the final chapter. You can access it on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair