Chapter 1167: Founding a Vassal Kingdom and Selling Titles!

Blue sky, white clouds, sandy beaches, and the ebb and flow of clear blue seawater — truly a scene that lifts the spirit and delights the heart. No wonder the Spanish called this place the City of Angels.

This stretch of land, huddled in a corner of the North American continent, faces the sea and leans against great mountains — a narrow strip of coastal flatland, with a few wind-leaking (sea-breeze) valleys thrown in, plus some coastal highlands. Because the mountains lock in the moist air from the Pacific, this narrow strip counts as land with real farming value in the otherwise arid south of California. Its annual rainfall is comparable to northern Shaanxi in China, but the climate is very warm, suitable for plant growth in all four seasons.

Moreover, since this land has never been cultivated, the nutrients in the soil are extremely well preserved, making it very fertile ground — good for both farming and grazing, and especially suited to growing grapes and apples. If a wine-making industry could be developed in the City of Angels, it could probably seize a good share of the French wine market.

But for the Spanish, who already possessed far too much rich land, this territory they had named the "City of Angels" held little attraction beyond its pleasant-sounding name and its agreeable seaside scenery.

So in the more than one hundred years they had occupied this place, the Spanish had never expended much effort on development or construction. They had merely built a port and fortress at San Diego, near Mexico, as a foothold for Spanish rule over California. Later, when colonists from the Great Ming Empire reached the Gulf of the Americas, the Spanish — previously utterly uninterested in this place — were spurred into action, and built an earthen-and-timber bastion fort beside the beach of the City of Angels, garrisoned it with a few hundred troops, and also constructed a small dock by the sea.

And after the Battle of Flood Valley, everything here was quickly abandoned by the Spanish again. Don Juan José did not even wait for negotiations with the United States of New Continent to begin before hastily abandoning the Angel Fortress and withdrawing south to San Diego.

Of course, Spanish rule in San Diego could not last much longer either. After losing nearly all of California, holding on to San Diego was nothing more than a way to squeeze a little more at the negotiating table. This son of King Philip was not as single-minded as his father — he knew when to compromise, and when to tear up a treaty and start fighting again!

Although Don Juan José still regarded the Great Ming Empire as the gravest threat to New Spain, he could not win, and there was nothing to be done about it! If they did not negotiate now, what would happen when the other side later fought their way into the port of Acapulco?

So under the mediation of the Dutch, the peace talks progressed fairly smoothly. By the winter of the fifteenth year of Hongxing, the exchange of prisoners and hostages had been completed, the Presidio fortress had been handed over to the Ming army, and Zhu Cihuan — the "foolish prince with a fool's luck" — had moved with his household retainers and guards from the Sama River valley to the Angel Fortress.

Together with the foolish prince, his fellow "debt-dodger" Yao Daqiao also arrived at the Angel Fortress in mid-November. And he brought with him a fine scheme copied from Zhu Cilang — "found a country, sell titles, and rake in money" — for the foolish prince, who now had territory but no silver, and was so poor he could barely keep the pot boiling!

"My Prince, since you intend to petition for enfeoffment, then petition for a vassal kingdom!" In a hall inside the fortress — so excessively plain that it hardly deserved the name "Angel Fortress" — Yao Daqiao, who had just taken a stroll around the beaches of the City of Angels, said with a chuckle. "With the status of a vassal kingdom, this subject will have a way to get silver for Your Highness!"

Shimazu Mitsuhisa and Hoshina Masateru were also in this hall. Under the great banner of the "foolish prince," Shimazu Mitsuhisa, Hoshina Masateru, and Yao Daqiao now stood as the three great ministers, side by side. Hearing Yao Daqiao speak this way, neither Shimazu Mitsuhisa nor Hoshina Masateru quite understood.

"How does the status of a vassal kingdom make it easier to get silver?"

"Indeed. There are hardly any people here in Angel City, and the territory is not all that large. Even establishing a military governorship would be a stretch — wouldn't calling it a vassal kingdom be rather laughable?"

Yao Daqiao waved his hand and laughed. "You two are mistaken. Precisely because our land is poor and our people few, and our resources lacking, we must all the more raise the great banner of a vassal kingdom — because only a vassal kingdom holds the right to carve out territory and confer titles!"

Hoshina Masateru asked, puzzled, "What does the right to carve out territory and confer titles have to do with getting silver?"

Yao Daqiao laughed. "Of course it has something to do with it. First carve out territory and confer titles, then sell them off at a high price!"

"Carve out territory, confer titles, and then sell them at a high price?" Shimazu Mitsuhisa stroked his goatee, his brow knitting into a ball. "How can that be done? Can it work? How can a nation's titles and fiefs be sold?"

"Why not?" said Yao Daqiao. "Hasn't the United States sold plenty of titles? One special share can be exchanged for a viscountcy! Is that not selling titles? If the Son of Heaven were not selling the United States' titles, where would he have gotten so much silver to establish the United States of New Continent?"

The United States of New Continent, to put it bluntly, was built by Emperor Zhu burning money! And the money Emperor Zhu burned had been raised through the stocks and titles of the United States of New Continent.

Yao Daqiao said with a smile, "Since the Son of Heaven can establish the United States of New Continent and sell its titles, why can't Your Highness also set up a vassal kingdom to sell titles and fiefs? Besides, with a vassal kingdom, people like us can also get ourselves a marquisate or an earldom to enjoy!"

That was true enough! Although the marquisates and earldoms of this poor vassal kingdom would not have much profit in them, the titles would still sound fine!

"Can they actually be sold?" Shimazu asked.

Yao Daqiao patted his chest. "Leave it to me!"

"How much can they be sold for?" Shimazu asked again.

"That depends on how many titles we sell." Yao Daqiao thought for a moment, then asked, "How big can our country be? Not counting desert and mountains — just counting fertile land!"

Hoshina Masateru answered, "At least sixteen thousand li square!"

What he meant by "sixteen thousand li square" was actually sixteen thousand square li — not square kilometers, since the Ming dynasty did not use the metric system. One square li is roughly one quarter of a square kilometer, so sixteen thousand square li is about four thousand square kilometers — that is, six million mu!

Of course, this was only a conservative estimate, not a precise survey; the actual figure was certainly larger.

Yao Daqiao did some mental arithmetic, then said, "One li is roughly three hundred seventy or eighty mu. Let us calculate at four hundred mu per li, and take the fertile land as fifteen thousand li. His Highness is a Commandery Prince, and by precedent, the domain of a Commandery Prince may enfeoff four ranks of nobility: marquis, earl, viscount, and baron. Let us take the baron as the baseline — one baron governs ten li square of land, that is, four thousand mu of arable fertile soil. Fifteen thousand li of land can be divided into fifteen hundred titles. We keep one thousand for ourselves, then sell five hundred. At ten thousand taels per title, that yields five million taels! Your Highness, does this business seem acceptable?"

"F-five million?" Zhu Cihuan's eyes went wide!

Business could be done like this!

Wouldn't that clear his entire mountain of debt?

"Can they be sold?" Zhu Cihuan pressed.

Shimazu Mitsuhisa and Hoshina Masateru also stared at Yao Daqiao. Five million taels! Deposit that silver in a Great Ming salt merchant's or maritime merchant's bank, and earning three hundred thousand taels a year in interest would be no problem at all. That was equivalent to taking a three hundred thousand koku fief in Japan.

"Of course they can be sold!" Yao Daqiao laughed. "Scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants — scholars rank first, merchants last! And carving out territory and conferring titles ranks even above scholars. At the grandest, it makes one a feudal lord; at the least, a grandee!

For a merchant to spend ten thousand taels of silver to raise himself from the lowest of the four classes to the status of a grandee — that is far too good a bargain. Moreover, the Great Ming still has many non-heir sons of noble houses! To keep their noble status, they would have to join the army and win merit — and that is terribly difficult! Far easier to spend ten thousand taels of silver and buy a title!"

That crafty merchant Yao Daqiao was absolutely right. The Chinese are, after all, official-rank-oriented! No matter how much money a commoner has, he still stands a rank lower before a great official. Now, for ten thousand taels, one could purchase a viscountcy — and one with actual fief land at that. Never mind how far away the fief, he would still be a titled lord, and could hold his head a bit higher when meeting officials.

(End of Chapter)