The story of Hong Renhui, whose real name was James Flint, spoke Chinese, first as a translator for the East India Company and later as a captain.

Twenty-four years before Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty was not a one-port trade, at that time it was a four-port trade, in addition to Guangzhou, there were three ports of Xiamen, Fujian, Ningbo, Zhejiang, and Yuntaishan, Jiangsu, which could trade with foreign countries.

However, the geographical conditions of Guangzhou determined that it was more suitable for trade with the West, so at that time, Xiamen was mainly engaged in Nanyang trade, and Ningbo and Yuntaishan were mainly engaged in Japanese trade.

The British had always traded in Canton, but they were indignant by the restrictions imposed by the Canton government and the Thirteen Merchants, as well as increasing extortion, so Hong Renhui first threatened to trade elsewhere if the Canton government continued to do so.

The Guangzhou government is too lazy to deal with foreigners, they only think about whether they can squeeze out money, regardless of whether the other party is happy or not.

Hong Renhui really went to trade elsewhere, and arrived in Xiamen first, but he couldn't buy the goods he needed in Xiamen, because the habit of tea by land had been formed at that time. Xiamen's Nanyang trade, tea is not a bestseller. In addition, Xiamen does not have as many handmade products as Guangzhou can provide.

So Hong Renhui continued to the north and eventually arrived in Ningbo, where they were warmly welcomed by the people of Ningbo. Chinese officials pay attention to Huairou and distant people, in fact, the common people are also very enthusiastic about rare outsiders, mainly because they are rare.

As a result, Hong Renhui's trade went well, the tea he purchased in Ningbo was much cheaper than the one he bought in Guangzhou, and the British goods on board were also very popular in Ningbo. There is no tariff that Guangzhou Customs is tantamount to extortion, and there is no coaxing and blackmail from the 13 banks in Guangzhou.

The British thought they had found a great way to make money, so more and more British ships went to Ningbo to trade.

This worried the local officials, who feared that the increasing number of Yi people would cause trouble, so he reported it to Qianlong.

Qianlong felt that there were more and more Yi people, and he had been in contact with the local people for a long time, which was easy to bring down his simple people. Finally came up with the idea of a one-port trade in Guangzhou, of course, this one-port trade is only for Westerners, and for Japanese trade, it has never been encouraged or restricted. Because Japan is also a closed country, Japanese merchant ships will not come to China, so there is no trouble. Therefore, if it continues, merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang can still continue to trade in Japan.

The British did not know the situation, Hong Renhui was in Qianlong for 24 years, or according to the previous successful experience, came to Ningbo to do trade. This time it was unsuccessful, and the local authorities seized his ship, confiscated half of the cargo, and dismantled the ship's artillery. Hong Renhui protested and asked why, but at first the local government didn't pay attention to it at all, and later told the foreigners that they would not be allowed to trade here in the future. Hong Renhui asked why, but the government did not explain at all.

Hong Renhui felt that he had been treated unfairly, and that the officials of the Qing government must have been doing these illegal things without the help of their monarch, and that as long as their monarch knew the true situation, he would definitely correct these trade ills. So with a wave of anger, he went north to Tianjin to complain.

Hong Renhui actually sailed the ship to Tianjin, becoming the first Briton ever to enter Tianjin. He was in Tianjin, claiming that he was a "four-rank official in England", and he had grievances to face the Qing Emperor and complained to the emperor.

Hong Renhui was stopped in Tianjin, but when he saw the magistrate in Tianjin, he promised to help Hong Renhui play the emperor, so Hong Renhui wrote a detailed report accusing Ningbo of seizing his goods, but mainly accusing the Guangzhou government and the Thirteen Lines of behavior.

At that time, because of the monopoly power of the Thirteen Banks and the unkind treatment of foreigners by the Guangzhou government, the Thirteen Banks had a monopoly advantage.

As a result, there were some behaviors that took advantage of monopoly advantages to make profits, including 13 merchants who set prices at will, did not pay back the money owed to foreigners, but instead sought the government to expel foreigners, and the tea sold was seriously adulterated.

In the face of these non-commercial means, the East India Company was really forced to have no choice, at one time, the East India Company began to use such a means, they did not purchase high-quality tea, but specialized in the purchase of low-grade tea of the best quality, not that they had no money, compared to the cost of the long trade, the purchase price of tea was negligible at that time, mainly to prevent merchants from adulteration, using other leaves to pass off tea, and the British at that time did not have the ability to discern, and were always deceived.

But what made the East India Company most unhappy was the human blackmail that did not go online. Hong Renhui complained to Qianlong that in addition to collecting taxes, Guangdong Customs also collected "rules and rites", and the amount of "rules and rites" was more than the regular taxes. He thought it was an official stealing tariffs and an act of corruption against any regime.

Hong Renhui didn't know that the reform carried out by Yongzheng was to add up the additional expenses of the showdown between officials and merchants in the past in addition to taxes to calculate an amount, and issue it to officials through the government, called raising incorruptible silver, Yongzheng hoped to give officials enough money in exchange for their standard of not looting the people and raising incorruptible silver, or Yongzheng asked many local officials about the extra income, summed up, at that time, it did play a role in eliminating corruption.

But in the Qianlong period, it was not difficult to satisfy the appetite of officials, so some additional extortion began, and Qianlong also carried out similar reforms, summarizing these additional extortions into etiquette, clarifying the items that can be received, and the etiquette is a gift of compliance.

For example, these compliant gifts of Guangdong Customs are listed in the "List of Gifts for the Import and Export of Foreign Ships Collected by Guangdong Customs in the 24th Year of Qianlong", and there are more than 100 items. When a foreign ship enters the customs, it must first pay a measurement fee, a general fee, a management fee, a warehouse fee, a manuscript fee, and so on......

These more than 100 items add up to the rules and gifts that can be legally collected by the Guangdong Customs, but Hong Renhui does not know, he thinks that only regular taxes are legal, and these rules and gifts are illegal income collected by officials privately. In fact, not only were these not collected privately, although they were not handed over to the treasury, but these rules and gifts were handed over to Qianlong at the meeting.

According to the regulations, a foreign ship is taxed at 1950 taels, and it is levied at one time. However, foreign ships have to pay for the silver when they enter the customs and pay for the customs exit. On the list of rules and gifts that Hong Renhui complained to Qianlong, there were 68 rules and rites, 30 customs rules, 1125,96 taels of cash, 38 items of customs rules, 533,8 taels of cash, and a total of more than 1,600 taels of silver.

These 68 items are only for ships, and there are also for goods, which are called splits. When foreign businessmen buy goods, the payment for the goods is calculated according to the silver taels, and every tael must be drawn by the Guangdong Customs. One or two payments to draw 0. 054 taels to 0.06 taels.

How to divide the money collected, the practice is that two-thirds of the rules and regulations go to the customs supervision, and the rest goes to his family. Why is it his family, because the Guangdong Customs is under the management of the Internal Affairs Office, which is essentially in charge of royal affairs and is Qianlong's private institution. Therefore, the management of the internal affairs office is very characteristic of family management, and the duties of the internal affairs office are often the benefits of the emperor to his cronies.

Guangdong Customs is an agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it also has this characteristic. The emperor handed over the Guangdong Customs to his cronies, who brought their own cronies, usually family members and relatives, to take office, and they held various positions in the customs. The rule is that you can bring 60 people, but generally you will bring a few more, after all, it is an opportunity to make a fortune, of course, you must try to take care of your family. For example, when Li Yongbiao was a customs superintendent, he brought 73 people and took care of all customs affairs.

These people not only divided one-third of the rules and regulations, but also extorted money inevitably, using their power to collect all kinds of gray income, for example, the British once recorded such a case, a British merchant ship entered the port, and the customs surveyors measured it from the bow to the stern, and after stuffing the silver, they changed it from the foremast to the backmast. After measuring, to pay the ship bill, first the price is 2000 silver taels, after bargaining and giving 320 silver taels, 500 silver taels.

Therefore, Guangdong Customs is really fat, Lin Zexu's proud protégé Feng Guifen once mentioned Guangdong Customs in the article "School House Protest Strike", saying that the monthly salary of the customs gatekeeper is 800 taels of silver.

But the people at the bottom can only get a small amount of money, and the Guangdong Customs Inspector gets it, in fact, it is not a big head, and he still has Qianlong above. Since the rules and regulations are formal and legal income, and there are account records, the customs supervision does not dare to take more of this income, and most of them are taken out to honor the above. Generally, it is through the Minister of the Interior and Shen Bao, and it is no less than 1 million taels per year.

The big heads are filial piety to the superiors, and of course the customs inspectors will not be satisfied, so they will develop new income. Typically, in the 46th year of Qianlong, when Li Zhiying, the superintendent of the customs, took office, he first used the old practice of raw silk trade as a pretext to reintroduce the old rule of limiting each ship's raw silk to more than 100 quintals. At this time, the trade of raw silk and tea was already the largest trade, and foreign ships often purchased thousands of quintals. The old precedent is long outdated, and no one mentions it.

Li Zhiying understood that she was looking for fault, and Pan Zhencheng, the general merchant of the Thirteen Banks at that time, immediately sent 4,000 taels of silver, and Li Zhiying let go of this matter. Pan Zhencheng negotiated with the East India Company for this money, and the East India Company bore the cost.

If the money is one-time, random, it is blackmail.

However, Pan Zhencheng was worried that the customs would bring up the old matter again in the future, and Pan Zhencheng opened up the relationship and asked the customs superintendent to announce the abolition of the restriction on the condition that he would draw an additional 5 taels of silver for each load of raw silk. The five taels of silver, which the East India Company expressed its willingness to bear, formed a regular gift to the Governor.

This kind of newly opened "rites", which are no longer on the official record list of etiquette, are not etiquette and are called bad rules. It is a fee that is illegal but has certain rules, so it is a bad rule.

In the second year, in order to make up for the shortage of treasury and money caused by the Anglo-French war, the East India Company sent warships to smuggle opium to Guangzhou for sale. The Qing Dynasty ordered a ban on the sale of opium as early as the Yongzheng period, and after the customs superintendent demanded a huge amount of gift silver, the British East India Company successfully shipped 200 boxes of opium to Guangzhou for sale.

This kind of sporadic and one-time gift is also an important income for customs supervision.

As a result, the customs duties and etiquette recorded by the government in the tax books and account books add up, and a ship collects more than 3,600 taels of silver, but other uncertain charges make it unbearable for the British. If it is averaged, the cost of a ship may exceed 5,000 taels.

Therefore, Zhu Jue said that the tax collected by Haikou is not high.

The whole country is in this state of opaque taxation, which is why later generations of experts believe that the tax in ancient China is the lowest in the world, but the common people feel that the government is harsh and fierce, and in the late dynasty, the officials will even force the people to rebel.