Xinshun 1730

Chapter 231 Tariff Issues
The wind was smooth all the way. When they arrived in Songjiang, merchant ships from various European countries were berthing here, waiting for the monsoon in January next year.

Flags of various colors were fluttering in the port, not many in number, the most conspicuous ones were two Swedish merchant ships.

It may be that ships from other countries trade mostly in Guangdong or Fujian, where Wuyi tea and Jiangxi porcelain are all in short supply.

Those who come to Songjiang for trade mainly buy Songjiang cotton cloth.

Liu Yu estimated that the Swedish East India Company might have sensed the treacherous war clouds in Europe and planned to take advantage of the opportunity of war in Europe to smuggle them wantonly, so they increased the number of merchant ships?
European countries are basically mercantile. The goods of the Swedish East India Company cannot be sold locally, but can only be sold to smugglers in Britain, France, Holland and Spain.

Songjiang cloth is not allowed in Britain at all, and tea has extremely heavy tariffs, which make smugglers rampant.

The Boston Tea Party, a landmark event of the American War of Independence, was due to the abolition and reduction of tea tariffs by Britain, which made a group of smugglers unprofitable.Because the tea from the East India Company was cheaper than the smugglers after removing the tariffs, it can be said that Wuyi tea was the trigger for the independence of the United States.The Swedes were out of luck and ill-fated. The Gothenburg sank, or they might not be able to get away from the second-hand tea dealers.

I observed two Swedish ships. Before the fateful Gothenburg appeared, the Swedish merchant ships were not well-known. It was estimated that they were only seven or eight hundred tons. It still shows the poverty of a small country.

After observing the tonnage and weapons of the merchant ships here, Liu Yu spotted a Dutch ship.It should be that the East India Company did not upgrade its ships in order to save money. Its own fleet is sufficient to deal with such thin-skinned armed merchant ships at sea.

This time, I happened to have a talk with the Swedes by the way. About the return of Ping Zhun’s captured Lenart and others, it happened to be done smoothly. At the same time, I had to find out about the Dutch.

On the other side of the European merchant ships, there are a large number of local merchant ships from the north.

It is the autumn harvest season, and the soybeans in Liaodong are in short supply in Jiangnan.In addition to the demand for bean products, the bean cake left after oil extraction has also become the fertilizer of the vegetable fields in the south of the Yangtze River. It is said that the womb cabbage grown in this way is particularly fat.

It is said here that it is Songjiang Customs, but in fact it should be said that it is Jiangsu Customs. It does not know that Shanghai is under its jurisdiction, and there are nearly 30 sea or road checkpoints such as Liujiahe, Fushan Port, and Renjia Port.

The navy is weak, officials are corrupt, and things like smuggling are distributed in more than 30 checkpoints, as you can imagine.

Soybeans from Liaodong, bean cakes and wheat used as fertilizer for vegetable fields in the south of the Yangtze River all need to be transshipped in Songjiang; sucrose, mahogany, spices, etc. from Fujian, Guangdong and Nanyang are also subcontracted here; cotton cloth, medicinal materials, etc. needed by Western ships are also here. loading.

Excluding the smuggling elements, this customs in Songjiang is still the busiest place in the entire Jiangsu customs.

I have heard about the prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River, and I have even heard about the sights of thousands of sails in Songjiang and other places, but what I hear is different from what I see.

Before the ship docked, someone on the pier had already flown to report the news.

As early as more than half a month ago, they knew that Liu Yu was going to come to Songjiang. The major shareholder of this trading company had never shown up. He had heard of it but had never seen it. big thing.

Soon, a group of people arrived at the pier, and the scene was quite grand.

When they arrived at the shore, the leader greeted him in front, Tian Ping, who had gained weight again, but today he did not wear an official uniform, but an ordinary noble dress.

Seeing Liu Yu, Tian Ping also beamed with joy.

At the beginning, Liu Yu told him to prepare some capital to do big business. He also invested in 1 taels of shares in the Japanese trade. The annual dividends are very large and extremely stable. Although it is slightly worse than usury, it is better than one steady.

Now he has been transferred to Songjiang Customs as a deputy, which is a fat job.

Today, people from the trading company came to greet him. Tian Ping was an official, so he naturally stood at the front.

Walking towards Liu Yu, he cupped his hands and said with a smile, "I don't know if it's called Brother Shouchang? Or the young master?"

"roll!"

After cursing, the two looked at each other and smiled. Lin Yunwen and other businessmen behind knew that they had no official status and no such ties, so they were about to pay respects when Liu Yu said: "Today I am only a shareholder of this trading company. Shang, don't talk about official affairs."

Telling everyone not to see the official worship, the great kindness, these businessmen have a little more trust in their hearts. Of course, the basis of this trust is the punctual dividends every year and the clear accounts.

Lin Yunwen introduced all the businessmen who were worthy and qualified to welcome Liu Yu. Even though Liu Yu said that they were talking about business and not about official affairs, these people still habitually hunched over and assumed the posture of inferiors.

Usually he is a wealthy businessman who shakes one side, but now he is like a humble dog. This mentality can be reversed from time to time.

"My lord, according to the news you sent last time, all the shareholders who have invested more than a thousand taels of shares have been summoned. There are still some who have not invested in the shares but have some money. I have asked people to prepare the food and drinks. Please invite me My lord, move."

Liu Yu arched his hands and said: "It's not that I have airs, but I want to take a look around Songjiang first. Let's arrange the banquet until the evening. I'll take a look around here first, and everyone can do what they want first."

He didn't have too much airs, at least it seemed so in the eyes of the businessman, but thinking that this was the youngest earl of Dashun who had gone to the battlefield to kill people, everyone felt a little scared in their hearts.

Taking a look at Lin Yunwen, Lin Yunwen knew Liu Yu's temper, so he said: "In that case, let's go around first, my lord, and let's go get ready. The money on the ship must be loaded and unloaded quickly, so let's do it at night."

After the courtesy, the merchants all left, only Tian Ping's people remained.

Turning around on the pier, Tian Ping pointed at the hired workers who were carrying Songjiang cloth to the merchant ship, and showed Liu Yu some Western language.

"This Songjiang cloth, Westerners call it 'nankeen', Nanjing cloth."

Liu Yu also laughed and said: "It can be seen that Shanghai and Jinling are still far behind. I didn't have 'Nanjing' in my dynasty. Even if there was, it should be Xiangyang. If you count this, these Westerners are all The remnants of the previous dynasty have been shrewd for a hundred years."

Tian Ping also laughed, and said after laughing: "Call them what they are, as long as you buy the cloth here. I heard that although those Westerners also have cotton cloth, the quality is too poor. Guangdong native cloth is easy to fade, and this Songjiang cloth is not only not easy to fade , some are as thick as the canvas of a Western-style ship, but after a little washing, they become soft and close-fitting. Although I don’t wear cotton cloth, I have learned a lot of patterns in the past few years.”

"Well... Song Jiangbu, it's really good."

For Songjiang's textile industry, Liu Yu is quite confident, and it will be 100 years after a complete defeat.At this time, the only thing restricting the development of Songjiang's textile industry is the non-import policy of European countries and cotton production. Dashun should raise the banner of free trade as soon as possible.

"By the way, I heard a while ago that the weavers here called for a rest and asked the master to raise their wages? What's the matter?"

"It's okay. After some salary increase, there will be no more trouble. Tell me, what are these people making trouble for? Westerners' ships have to catch the sea wind. If they miss the Westerners' goods, it will be difficult for me to do it here."

The ass decides the head, Tian Ping naturally expressed his objection to Qi's call for rest.

Liu Yu asked about the details of the strike again, and nodded secretly. It was obvious that these people already had some organizational skills.

Tian Ping briefly talked about the customs affairs, and then he talked about the customs reform that Liu Yu had told him before, and he couldn't help complaining for a while.

"This customs reform is really difficult. You say that some taxes should be increased, and that the tariffs of this dynasty and even the tariffs of the previous dynasty are too low. However, this matter is not up to me alone. I have increased taxes here. But Fujian and Guangdong don’t raise taxes, so don’t they all go there?”

Liu Yu smiled and said, "Brother Tian, ​​give me a real deal. The tax is low, but the bribes and benefits are many, right? If you get stuck a little bit, don't the Westerners obediently pay tribute?"

Tian Ping wasn't embarrassed at all, everyone in the customs was like this, otherwise how could he say that this was a big vacancy?
"Hey, there are many things like paying tribute and bribery. It has become a practice. I thought Westerners didn't know what 'meaning' means, but I didn't expect them to be clear. Brother Shouchang, it's not me who advises you. Reforming the Customs will offend too many people. In fact, His Majesty is not ignorant, but he just turned a blind eye, and it is impossible to control it."

Liu Yu gritted his teeth and said, "If it has nothing to do with me, I naturally don't want to care about it. If the damn tax is not paid, the treasury will have no money. If the treasury has no money, how will the navy be built?"

Tian Ping waved his hands and said, "It's hard, it's hard, it's hard! Even if you pay heavy tariffs, what can you do? There are dense ports and many rivers, so you can handle smuggling? Just one Jiangsu Customs is eighteen sea gates, like It’s like a sieve. Inspection and inspection, how did you inspect it? Let me tell you, it’s better to make small profits and sell more.”

Liu Yu was taken aback, and wondered, "Why do you make small profits but sell quickly?"

"Hey, look at my mouth. That is to say, Westerners come to buy more merchant ships. Even if the tariff is not increased, isn't that an increase in income?"

Liu Yu shook his head, not very optimistic about this idea.

"Forget it. In the short term, it is impossible for Westerners to come to more ships. However, Europa is already in chaos. I am afraid that the war is imminent. In a few years, not only will there not be more ships, but there will be fewer."

"It's not easy to talk about it, but you are right. If the customs is to be changed, several major customs must be changed together. And the navy must be built to be able to suppress smuggling and patrol."

After carefully asking Tian Ping about the customs, Liu Yu also had a general understanding of the problems of Dashun Customs.

Indeed, almost unsolvable.

There is no clipper ship, no steam ship, and it is pure nonsense to want to patrol such a long coastline.

If you want to solve it, it seems to be in Nanyang.As long as several key points of the Dutch are taken and the Malacca and Sunda Straits are stuck, the existing ship technology can be used to strictly investigate the tariff issue of export goods to Europe.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to increase taxes only on exports to Europe.Just like Songjiang, the owner of the ship bought a shipment of silk and cotton and said he was going to Shandong, so he couldn't add taxes to these goods.However, after changing hands, they went overseas to trade with Europeans and evade tariffs. There is no way to control this.Businessmen seek profits, and whenever there is an opportunity, they are as sensitive as sharks that smell blood.

Either make clipper ships and steam ships to inspect the coast, or occupy the main roads of Malacca and Sunda Strait to check taxes.

Considering the reality, the latter is obviously simpler.

(End of this chapter)