Mage Joan

In the month after the "Golden Horn Battle" ended, the Far Easterners won one after another on the Eastern Front, crossed the river to regain their positions, and drove the Imperial Corps to the isolated city of "Olevi Fortress" and besieged it. Qiao An's mentality It also becomes more complicated.

Now he no longer doubts that the Far Easterners have the ability to win this war, and instead worry about the turmoil in the empire due to the defeat of the Far Eastern war. After all, this country is still his motherland legally, and he does not want the Holy Asshan Empire with a thousand-year glorious history. In this way, it was devastated and even collapsed.

While Qiao An was immersed in thought, Rebecca went on to talk about the new trends in the political turmoil in Leiden Harbor.

"Since the wave of boycotting land taxes started in Alfheim this spring, the imperial cabinet has gotten ashamed. After some investigation, it was learned that the'sons of freedom' who led the trouble in the anti-tax movement had colonial smuggling groups behind them. Providing funding changes the strategy. On the one hand, it actively wins over the'royalists' in the colonies, while at the same time it carries out targeted crackdowns on the'independent' funders-smuggling groups."

"The senior empire realized that taxes were not collected in the New World anyway, and they simply dumped goods into the colonies at low prices. This would not only fight the smuggling syndicates, but also return funds as soon as possible to transfuse the expeditionary forces trapped on the front lines."

"Over the past many years, the best-selling of all kinds of bulk commodities imported from the empire to the colonies was tea. Alfheim's smugglers made their fortunes mostly by selling tea."

"The imperial authorities decided to use tea as a weapon to launch a war without gunpowder against smuggling syndicates."

"At the beginning of April 1625, the imperial royal family licensed three traders to ship their stocks of tea to the New World for sale at low prices, which sounded the charge of this war!"

Rebecca's tone became heavy.

"The royal franchised traders wholesale tea to their distributors in Alfheim, the so-called "consignee", who pays the transportation cost of the tea and a tariff of 5 copper coins per pound. "

"Because the price of this batch of imported tea is extremely low, even if shipping and tariffs are included, it is still cheaper than smuggling tea."

"According to the tea market in previous years, the imported tea on the market has to be sold at 3 to 4 silver duga per pound, and the price of smuggled tea is generally not lower than 3 silver coins per pound. This year, this batch of imported tea from legal channels Tea is expected to sell for no more than 2 silver coins per pound."

Rebecca smiled sarcastically, and then said: “For the vast majority of the residents of Alfheim’s colony, it is a good thing to be able to buy tea at a lower price. However, those merchants who make money by smuggling tea can are you happy?"

"I'm afraid not." Qiao An shook his head lightly, "Let's not say whether this business is legal or illegal, but if someone gets smashed into a job, it will definitely be unhappy."

This open and secret struggle surrounding "tea" reminded Qiao An of the prediction Rebecca made a month ago:

Suppose one day in the future, the prices of goods sold in the empire’s colonies are lower than similar smuggled goods. It stands to reason that this is a good thing for the public. However, the "sons of freedom" controlled by smuggling groups will still make trouble.

The reality once again verified Rebecca's vision. In order to protect its own interests, the smuggling group began to actively build momentum as early as a week ago, trying to resist the aftermath of the land tax and instigate the people to resist low-priced tea entering the New World market.

On May 6, a flyer named "Alert" appeared on the streets of Leiden Harbor.

The flyer is anonymous, but everyone can see that this article is from the Leiden Post under the control of the "Freedom Sons Association".

The flyer author claims:

"The imperial authorities dumped large quantities of tea at low prices to the New World, fearing to monopolize the market and drive other traders to a dead end."

"Those royal franchised dealers who wear the same pair of trousers as the imperial bureaucracy, once they taste the sweetness, will extend this dumping policy that disrupts market order to other commodity areas, forcing the merchants who do not collude with the bureaucracy to go bankrupt, and then to The foundations of freedom cause fatal injuries."

"What's worse, if the Alfheim people buy these teas, it will be equivalent to subsidizing the despicable and corrupt official businessmen to suppress the honest and honest businessmen. They will invisibly become an accomplice of "bad money expelling good money", and they are reluctantly Import taxes are paid under circumstances-after all, the dealer’s tax burden will eventually be passed on to consumers."

"If things go on like this, other more excessive taxes will also be flooded in, until the colonies completely bow to the feet of the imperial tyrant and its corrupt bureaucrats."

Rebecca sat on the bench by the garden pool and read the leaflet entitled "Alarm Bell" aloud, and then asked Qiao An what he thought of the author's point of view.

"The reasoning logic of this article is not rigorous enough, and it is alarmist, but the main point is not unreasonable. It is possible to use cheap dumping to destroy competitors, thereby monopolizing the market, and then raising prices to obtain high profits. of."

Qiao An gave his evaluation from a perspective as objective as possible.

"The competitors you are talking about are the poor ones on the flyers, the so-called'honest and honest businessmen', who are they specifically?" Rebecca asked.

Scratching his head awkwardly, Qiao An answered truthfully: "The main thing is smugglers."

"You can say that people are short-sighted and greedy for small profits, but they cannot engage in double standards. Low-price dumping is indeed suspected of monopolizing the market. At least during this period, ordinary consumers can get real benefits. However, what benefits do smugglers bring to the public? Up?"

"If the smugglers who claim to be'righteous and honest' gain the upper hand, won't they monopolize the market and raise the price of goods to make higher profits?"

"The fox and the jackal bite each other, and the fox cried to the chick for help. The chick saw that the fox was in a weak position and believed his high-sounding statements. Based on his righteous indignation and sympathy, he would help him drive away the jackal without hesitation if he was injured. How to repay the chicken?"

Rebecca's series of sharp questions left Qiao An speechless.

After a long silence, he tried to calmly state his views on the dispute.

"Rebecca, you predicted that smuggling groups would instigate people to boycott low-priced goods imported through formal channels in order to protect their own interests. Now it seems that you are right."

"But I still feel that the'sons of freedom' are not so despicable. The propaganda of the boycott may have an inciting element, but if the people are willing to be incited by them, I believe that the folks around you are better than the bureaucrats and bureaucrats across the ocean. Nor can it be asserted that the people are short-sighted."

"The campaign against the land tax has shown that in order to fight tyranny, people need the leadership of the'sons of freedom'. Although the latter is not as selfless as they preach, it is better to be organized than unorganized to mobilize the people."

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