The disaster relief work in the north is still dominated by the railway company, low-key progress, there are very few people who starve to death, and after the disaster victims save themselves, the financial burden of the Ming Dynasty has also been greatly reduced, a large number of handicrafts in the disaster area are exported to various countries, but also with a kind of emotional color, many Western countries not only do not prohibit it, those with idealism or moral nobility of the media, but also loudly call for the purchase of these handicrafts from the disaster area, that is, in the disaster relief, religious groups are also in their own country to promote this concept, every time the organization of fundraisingIn the form of selling these goods, under this moral inspiration, buying Chinese handmade products has even become a popular culture. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Although it is said that Westerners have a moral advantage and buy Chinese handicrafts with a kind of graceful mentality, it hurts self-esteem, but it objectively drives the popularity of traditional Chinese handicrafts in the West, and the biggest difference between handicrafts and industrial products is that there are cultural factors in it, which also plays a role in promoting the spread of Chinese culture in the West.

In fact, the disaster relief work has been completely formalized, and it can even be said that it has been basically successful, because the disaster situation in various places has begun to improve, and at most next year, the disaster area will no longer be a burden on the Ming Dynasty's finances, and it can even bring economic benefits through expanded trade.

In this case, the work of the Ming government gradually returned to the right track, no need to revolve around disaster relief, with the improvement of transportation, the food in the disaster area mainly came from the Americas, the price of food in the Ming Dynasty began to fall, from the highest four two one load, down to two two one load, but before the era of one two one load of food, is gone.

The disaster was saved, but the government was burdened with a huge burden and had to start looking for the aftermath.

At this time, Zhu Jinglun put forward the demand for innovation, and for the government, there is also an objective demand, because it is too necessary to expand the financial base, otherwise even the interest on the debt may not be repaid, so that the Ming government will be taken over by creditors.

The Ming Dynasty owed 500 million taels of domestic debts, as well as the debts of the United States and Britain equivalent to 1.3 billion taels of silver, with an average low interest rate of 4 percent, and more than 70 million taels per year, and there was also the problem of pound loss, and the annual interest was probably 80 million taels.

Therefore: "Our government must pay off its foreign debt by raising tariff rates and expanding its tariff revenues." ”

Zhang Ziliang, the general tax department of Daming, said to Wei Tuma.

Zhang Ziliang more than 10 years ago has become the largest port of the Ming Kowloon Taxation Division, more than ten years down, finally climbed to the high position of the Ming General Taxation Division, he unloaded the Kowloon Taxation Division, went to Europe to study for two years, when Germany had just defeated France, is becoming a rising country to explore the model, German economists in the international voice is also louder, so the German economist Liszt that set of tariffs to protect the development of fragile industries, rather than the British set of comparative advantage theory, moved Zhang Ziliang.

In other words, Zhang Ziliang is mainly inclined to raise tariffs because he is the chief tax department, and he needs to increase fiscal revenue to achieve political achievements, and he can also add a set of grandiose banners to protect his country's industry, why not.

Wei Tuma did not accept it, he learned that after learning about the tax regulations for next year adopted by the Ming Taxation Department, he received an order from the British Foreign Secretary to try his best to stop Daming's policy of infringing on British business interests, and the British believed that Daming's new tariff was almost aimed at Britain.

"No, no, no, your country must follow the agreement with our country, otherwise our country has the right to take corresponding checks and balances, which will put the two countries in a disadvantageous position."

Zhang Ziliang nodded: "I hope your country understands that China's tariff increase is actually to repay debts, especially foreign debts, and it is among the priority repayment, and your country is my country's largest creditor, I think your country can't turn a blind eye to the gains and losses of its own financial industry, right?" ”

Wittoma shrugged: "These are two different things, it is your country's responsibility to repay the debt, and when your country borrowed the debt, you have already made a promise, using the promise that you should have fulfilled as a reason to harm the interests of our country, which is unjustifiable in any way." As for your country's debt servicing problem, there are other ways to raise funds besides tariffs. ”

Zhang Ziliang shook his head: "Looking at the tariff rules of other countries, your country implements a free trade policy, France follows, and China follows, and China's tax rate is five percent out of 100, which can be called the lowest in the world." Dare to ask your envoy, have the interests of our country been violated? ”

After the completion of the industrial revolution, Britain formed an absolute advantage over other countries in various industries, so it began to advocate free trade, in order to set an example, they were the first to unilaterally announce a drastic reduction in the level of British tariffs, limiting the tax rate on most goods to less than 15%.

The French, fooled by the success of the British, also joined the free trade system, cutting a large number of high tax rates. However, two countries, one is Germany and the other is the United States, but they have always believed in protectionism, and Germany's tariffs have averaged more than 30 percent, and the United States has raised tariffs by a large margin to 47 percent during the current economic crisis.

The low tariffs of the Ming Dynasty, but it was not fooled by the British, mainly caused by historical reasons, when the Ming Dynasty was independent, if it did not accept the relevant tariffs of the United Kingdom, they could not recognize the Ming Dynasty, and did not recognize the Ming Dynasty, it was a matter of life and death for the Ming Dynasty, and the customs power of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was transferred to the United Kingdom at that time, even if the Ming Dynasty accepted the low tariff, at least the customs power was taken back.

Now Da Ming wants to exercise this power.

Wei Tuma knew what Zhang Ziliang meant, but he still said with a straight face: "I also ask your country to take public international law as the code and respect the trade agreement signed between your two countries." ”

Zhang Ziliang sighed: "The terms of trade between China and your country are the commercial agreement signed in 1866, and this agreement has passed for 12 years, and there are still three years to expire. If we fail to reach a new trade agreement this time, I don't think our government will continue this trade agreement, which is extremely unfavorable to our country. ”

The "1866 Trade Agreement", in fact, was mainly caused by the problem of coolies in Hong Kong, the Ming Dynasty threatened the opium trade, and finally greatly increased the import tariff on opium, and took back the autonomy of the opium tariff, but other tariff rates still had to be negotiated with the United Kingdom, and in this agreement, more than ten industries were exempted from the British commodity tax rate, and textiles were one of the most important duty-free industries.

The completely duty-free policy was mainly in exchange for Britain's support for the abolition of coolie trade, so at that time, he knew that this agreement would give a devastating blow to his country's textile industry, but Zhu Jinglun still had to agree.

Now that the coolie trade has been abolished all over the world, and the opium has basically disappeared in the Ming Dynasty, if it is only for the sake of profit, it is time for the Ming Dynasty to reconsider this trade agreement.

Wei Tuma knew that this was a threat, the Eastern countries did not attach importance to commerce, so that Westerners were very puzzled, although the Ming Dynasty was opened, but the Chinese people still did not have a good impression of trade, thinking that foreigners came to Daming because of trade, they did not like foreigners, and they did not like trade.

But Wittoma did not dare to compromise easily, and in the past October, the economy of the British Empire, which had stubbornly persevered during the entire economic crisis, finally ushered in the heaviest blow, and the Bank of Glasgow, one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom, collapsed due to a debt of 12 million pounds, which finally triggered a deep economic crisis in Britain. Soon, the Bank of West England and South Wales, with a debt of £5 million, went bankrupt. The UK has a steel casting production capacity of 3 million tons, and the actual output is only 1 million tons. The price per tonne of Scottish pig iron fell from 102 shillings in 1872 to 47 shillings. The textile industry is in dire straits, with 20 per cent of the yarn and weaving machines in Lancashire shut down and 60 per cent only partially operating.

The world economic crisis, which had begun in 1873, was not so severe for Britain, and this crisis was mainly caused by excessive speculation after the Franco-Prussian war in Germany and railroad speculation promoted by Wall Street in the United States, and the crisis was mainly in the field of heavy industry.

Speculation in Britain was not serious, there was no overproduction in the various industries, and among the heavy industries with the greatest impact, pig iron production fell to 6.85 million tons in 1872, 6.67 million tons in 1873, and 6.09 million tons in 1874; The impact was also mainly due to the economic crisis in the United States and Germany, especially after the cessation of American railroad speculation, which led to a sharp decline in British pig iron exports, from 3.96 million tons in 1872 to 3.47 million tons in 1873, to 2.96 million tons in 1874 and to 2.59 million tons in 1876. In Britain, because of the saturation of investment, the production of railways and shipbuilding naturally declined, which led to a decline in the production of machine building.

But in Britain's main cotton textile industry, production has increased despite falling prices.

But who would have thought that just when the United States and Germany began to come out of the economic crisis one after another, the British economic crisis was further aggravated after a long period of perseverance.

Under these circumstances, it would be tantamount to political suicide if Wittoma had agreed to a trade agreement that would have raised tariffs and restricted the import of British goods.

Therefore, Wittoma resolutely refused, and the negotiations reached an impasse.

Zhu Jinglun, who has always followed the negotiations, also knows that the sudden outbreak of the deep economic crisis in Britain makes this negotiation not a good time.

However, he believes that the time has come to raise tariffs and protect related industries.

Britain must be forced to compromise, but in ancient times or in later generations, in the process of China's exchanges with Western countries, there has always been a huge advantage, that is, China is a superpower, equivalent to the whole of Europe, while European countries are full of princes, in this huge size gap, China can always take advantage, because China is on a European scale, negotiating with provinces, cities, and even county-level opponents.

Although the current Ming Dynasty does not represent the whole of China, the actual control area has reached 100 million people, the economic development is very fast, and the huge market brought by the growth of consumption capacity cannot be ignored by European countries. Therefore, it is a very good way to divide and system, and to put it bluntly, it is Li Hongzhang's admiration for razing and razing.

Zhu Jinglun understood that the key to razing was to divide and rule, but when Li Hongzhang was operating, he was evenly treated, and the Western powers, no matter how big or small, could enjoy the same tariff preferences and extraterritoriality as small countries like Belgium.

In this case, it is strange that people do not join forces, because as long as any wolf can bite a hole from the Manchu Qing, other hungry wolves can suck blood from this hole, so why let them fight?

If you want wild wolves to fight, you have to have enough food, and you have to make them think that if other countries eat more, they will eat less, so that they can fight.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun wants to play the game of razing and razing, and the most critical core is that he must first find an opponent for the British to grab food.

Looking through the major powers that have opened up their interests in the East, Russia is the weakest in economic strength, and Britain will not have a sense of crisis; Although the United States has strong economic strength, it has never competed with major powers; As Germany digested and absorbed the fruits of the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck's main concern was how to solidify the symbolic German Empire into a real Germany through soft means.

Therefore, it is most suitable to choose between France and France, which lost too much blood in the Franco-Prussian War and is eager to grab nutrients all over the world and restore its national strength.

"Let's talk to the French. Negotiate some constructive agreements, and the British can't live too comfortably in the East! ”

After the negotiations reached an impasse, Zhu Jinglun decided to suspend the negotiations with the British and instead cooperate with the French.