Chapter 545: The booming opium trade in the West
Zhu Youxiao could see that the Taipu Temple Minister Zou Yingquan was obviously addicted to drugs, so he couldn't control himself in the court and had to take a few puffs, so he had no worries about what occasion this was.
Although there are now internal factories that specialize in cracking down on the opium trade that is gradually rising and spreading, so that it cannot be poisoned by the people, there will inevitably be legacy among high-ranking officials and prominent officials.
In order to express his determination to strictly prohibit the tobacco trade and tobacco smoking, Zhu Youxiaocai wanted to pull the Taipu Temple Minister out and execute him directly without saying a word. This is rare in this dynasty. Even if he dealt with the rebels of Donglin, there was no such example of not being imprisoned first.
But now the emperor's power is in full swing, and no one dares to touch the tiger beards that rebel against Zhu Youxiao.
Zou Yingquan was already addicted at this time, his whole body was trembling all over. He hugged his head and hit the ground without any sense of being killed by Zhu Youxiao. Even after the Jinyiwei pulled him out and pressed him to the ground, he still did this. However, an embroidered spring sword flashed like the wind. His head, which was full of poisonous 0-drunk attacks, moved home immediately, and he also quieted down and closed his eyes quietly.
This may also be a relief for him.
"The order is issued, and in the future, anyone who smokes tobacco, whether it is an official or a civilian, will be executed! Those who sell tobacco will be punished with the crime of being the first, and their family business will be confiscated!"
Zhu Youxiao immediately issued such an order and ordered the government and prefectures and counties to be promulgated immediately. This order is not uncommon, but because of this, it finally killed the phenomenon of poisoning the Ming Dynasty.
Because His Majesty is now trying to crack down on the sale and smoking of tobacco, the internal factories that are dedicated to controlling the trade of tobacco continue to expand their scale and have set up offices in various prefectures, prefectures and counties. Although many mistakenly arrested, they have basically arrested all the tobacco smokers.
In this way, there was no sign of opium flooding in the Ming Dynasty. However, in the distant European Union, it was flooded with disasters because of the increasing development of the Ming Dynasty's ocean shipping industry.
A decisive battle between the Ming fleet and the Western Joint Fleet in the South China Sea did not allow the Western countries to completely decide to contact the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps they could not break up, after all, they still had to rely on the huge market of the Ming Dynasty.
On the contrary, the Ming Dynasty exchanged more frequently with Western countries, and even the Jinyiwei dispatched offices in Florence, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Prussia and other countries.
These Western fans are polite to the people of the Ming Dynasty, dare not neglect them, and are even very curious about the lives of the Ming people. Basically, the Jinyiwei and the Jinyiwei will attract a lot of attention when they appear in the bustling street market. The failure of the Java Island Battle, far away from their homeland, did not bring them much national hatred. The tea ceremony, music and short plays brought by the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty have attracted a lot of fans.
However, according to these Jinyiwei reports, the favorite of these Western fans is still the cigarettes produced by the Ming Dynasty, especially the king of opium, Meishengyan.
Zhu Youxiao did not allow domestic sales and smoking tobacco, but asked the Royal Academy of Engineering to help Meisheng Company establish a research institution to specialize in the development of various opium products.
These chemically processed eyebrow smokes are addictive to dozens of times greater than traditional opium, but they look better. They are either shiny like white powder or exquisite paper rolls are no different from modern paper cigarettes, or they are turned into pills, and they are even tanned with chicken intestine skin and processed into coated and wrapped with granular poisonous products to make Daming version capsules.
In order to attract these Western nobles to buy, they even painted Western paintings on small cigarette boxes. Even under Chinese characters, one or two exquisite English letters were engraved, all of which were chosen as sentences from famous Western literary masters, and some even specially asked some Western princes to be spokespersons.
In short, since the opium trade could not be carried out in the Ming Dynasty, the major surviving opium traders could only make money in Europa and other places in different ways.
The current Europa Smoke has already made the entire upper class of Europe in a mess. Many princes and dukes almost lost their money because of smoking Europa Smoke. Even if they did not lose their money, they had to exploit workers in a variety of ways to satisfy their own investment in tobacco. In this way, several turmoils began to occur in the European countries that were about to enter the prosperity one by one.
William Lauder, appointed as the Archbishop of Scotland by King Charles I of England, was lying on the soft soft couch with his mistress. This soft couch was a genuine leather soft couch imported from the Ming Dynasty. It was spring-loaded inside and it was very comfortable to lie on it. But the soft couch has now become a place where he and his mistress smoke.
William Lauder was wearing only a nightgown and leaned on the couch, his legs were raised like bamboo poles on the table, and he was sucking desperately with a silver smoker produced by Meisheng Company. His mistress was also like a fog, and her face was even more enjoyable than when she was doing the Wushan thing.
Coincidentally, Rietta Maria, the sister of King Louis XIII of France, is no longer obsessed with equestrianism or gambling with one or two ladies. She now prefers to have a fine wine, a beautiful child, and a beautiful cigarette in her own manor. She smokes it all day until she wakes up slightly from the daze.
Cromwell was born as a declining nobleman in the lower class of England and was the leader of self-cultivated farmers and handicraftsmen. As a legendary historical figure who made great contributions to the British monarchy, he naturally did not want to see his British Empire look like this now.
Cromwell urgently expressed to Charles I through parliament the serious phenomena caused by the proliferation of opium and opium in the Ming Dynasty and the foreseeable terrible consequences. In Chinese, it was nothing more than that if this continued, the British Empire would have no warships or people who could raise soldiers. The national situation would become more and more declining, and paganism would inevitably make a comeback. The British Empire would fall into division, civil strife and even perish, and beg King Charles I to ban smoking for the future plan of the British Empire.
Seeing his wife becoming thinner and his other royal children became numb, Charles I also felt the profound crisis brought to his dynasty by the overflow of Ming opium.
So, Charles I met the political rookie, Cromwell, in his inner garden.
In fact, Charles I did not like Cromwell, a political upstart who represented the interests of the lower class self-cultivators and handicraftsmen, because this man always opposed his frequent wars against sectarian unification.
Cromwell did not have any good feelings for this powerful and powerful king, but now the country is in trouble, so he can only be united in external affairs.
After meeting Cromwell, Charles I was very moved by his style and became more determined to ban smoking. Therefore, he directly appointed Cromwell as Earl of Holdennes and ordered him to hold an important position. In order to avoid being opposed by other nobles who were addicted to opium, he specially allocated the Cromwell silver and ordered him to train new troops among the lower-level self-cultivated farmers and handicraftsmen to implement a ban on smoking.
Chapter completed!