"Ah! Our Ming Dynasty takes agriculture and mulberry cultivation as its foundation, and pacifying military affairs as its essential task. Yet, sea trade is deemed the source of chaos for all under heaven?!..."
In the courtyard study, upon hearing such words, Shi Wende was greatly shocked, almost unable to sit steadily on the half chair. The reason for his shock was naturally not the saying itself that "agriculture is primary, sea trade is calamitous."
In fact, he had heard the mainstream scholars' rhetoric of "agriculture as primary and commerce as secondary" countless times and quite despised it. These coastal scholar-official families, on the face of it, championed "valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and advocating education," but secretly seized lands, merged fields, directed sea merchants and pirates, and seized goods and silver brought back from sea trade without any hesitation!
