This is not easy to do, and the hardest thing is to get a new appointment from a local businessman.

They don't even trust the Qing government, how can they be the new newcomer Zhou Lang.

The foreigners are very positive, in fact, the foreigners generally agree with Zhou Lang's trade policy in Fujian and are optimistic about Zhou Lang, otherwise the Portuguese who are as timid as a mouse will not dare to send troops, in case the Manchu Qing Dynasty comes back, they are not worried about retaliation?

Without waiting for Zhou Lang to invite, the foreigners themselves were trying to find a way to negotiate with Zhou Lang, and some of them were worried that Zhou Lang would be as difficult to deal with as the Manchu officials in the past, and hoped to determine the trade rules as soon as possible.

Now that the Manchu government has been broken and a new government has not yet been established, the foreigners are very concerned about how to manage trade.

Zhou Lang told them that the customs yamen would be set up in accordance with the Fujian model, and then the management measures would be printed and distributed to the commercial offices of various countries.

The system will definitely be reformed, Fujian is from the East Port, the early model of the East Port is Zhou Lang and the Dutch together, but there have been many problems in the operation, or the reason for the lack of adaptation, some management methods in the Netherlands, put in China and Chinese business culture will conflict.

So now that he occupies Guangzhou, which has the most developed business, Zhou Lang feels that it is necessary to sum up experience and carry out reforms.

But foreigners are very active, and local businessmen are afraid of it.

Zhou Lang specially sent people to invite them, or Wei Lianli, who had dealt with all these people, but none of them were willing to go out of the mountain.

The merchants of the Thirteen Lines did make monopoly profits under the monopoly protection of the Qing government, but in the past few years, they have been really blackmailed by the government and feared, and those who have made enough money have long wanted to get rid of the shackles of the Thirteen Lines.

The Pan family is actually very eager to transform their social identity, the best person in their family is not the current helmsman Pan Youdu, the highest status of the family is his younger brother Pan Youwei, because Pan Youwei was admitted to the Jinshi, and also participated in the compilation of the Siku Quanshu, and is now a Manchu official.

Those who lost money in the thirteen trades are not like this trip to troubled waters, they couldn't get rid of this identity when they gave gifts to the government before, and now a fool will continue to do this business.

There are also those who grab the scalp, a group of laymen, small businessmen who envy the wealth of the thirteen lines broke their heads and wanted to squeeze in, but Zhou Lang felt that they did not have enough experience and no background, which would not help him to reopen trade.

The thirteen merchants hid in the countryside one by one and refused to come out, and Zhou Lang could only patiently let Wei Lianli visit them one by one.

The Pan family, the Wu family, the Ye family and the Lu family, the four major merchants will all visit Dao, and Cai Shiwen, the head of the old bank, will also greet them in place.

After Wei Lianli's lotus-like lobbying, Cai Shiwen and Wu Bingjun reluctantly came to see Zhou Lang.

Zhou Lang talked to them earnestly and expressed the hope that they would continue to operate and restore the city of Guangzhou as soon as possible.

The tea trade is gone, Xiamen and Fuzhou have become new tea centers, one monopolizes northern Fujian, the other monopolizes the tea trade in southern Fujian, and Guangzhou can only rely on local tea to maintain, and the prosperity is no more.

But Guangdong's prosperous handicraft industry is still there, and after the transformation, there should still be a lot to be done.

Cai Shiwen said that he was already powerless, and everything that his family changed and sold was sold, so it was really unreasonable to engage in business operations, and it was impossible for him to take on the responsibility of a guarantor.

These two people are not very open, blindly shirking, Zhou Lang doesn't like to be strong, but now he needs them.

Patiently understand the difficulties in their operation in detail, and find that cash flow has always been a constraint, Zhou Lang understands that import and export trade needs to pressure a lot of funds, so in order to stimulate trade, many countries often open import and export trade banks by the state to provide credit support for import and export trade, and Zhou Lang can just do this.

The second thing they are worried about is the government's extortion and restrictions, which are excessive and restrictive. According to statistics, from the establishment to the dissolution of the Thirteen Banks, the annual return to the government was as high as 700,000 taels of silver, which was reported to the imperial court in the open, not to pay taxes, and to the officials themselves, there is no record. Anyway, the emperor has a birthday, a big wedding, and a daughter, and they all have to repay, fight, disaster relief, and Qianlong's southern tour, they also have to repay. The Qing government has made a lot of restrictions on trade, some restricting the trade of raw silk, some restricting the trade of opium, most of the restrictions have practical considerations, and Zhou Lang may continue to prohibit them. But these restrictions came and went, and the trade that was supposed to be good, suddenly the officials came, saying that the emperor was going to restrict this trade that year, and this business could not be done, which suddenly made the merchants who signed the contract at a loss. You can only stuff silver to clear customs.

The third worry is personal safety, business bankruptcy, the government will not only be responsible for the crime, confiscate family property, but also send people to the army, as for the kind of result, it depends entirely on the preferences of the officials, depending on whether the matter is big or not, once the trouble is big, in front of Qianlong, this businessman will basically be pulled down.

In short, under the management of the Qing government, the Thirteen Banks assumed more and more responsibilities, but the power did not increase, resulting in less and less need to operate. The trade situation during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods was quite good, the Pan family caught up with the good times, Pan Zhencheng had been a general merchant for decades, at that time the power was relatively large, and the effect was relatively small, so that the Pan family accumulated tens of millions of family properties, but during the Qianlong period, especially in the late Qianlong period, there were too many corrupt officials, and the greed was too ruthless, so that the thirteen lines could not hold on, and basically the old merchants who went bankrupt and distributed were all in the Qianlong period.

Zhou Lang first assured the two of them: "You know, I am a sea bandit. In my eyes, there is no distinction between farmers and businessmen, today's scholars, tomorrow's farmers, tomorrow's merchants, people are people, there is no distinction between high and low. There are only good people and bad people, and those who do good deeds are good people, and those who do bad things are bad people. There is only a distinction between good people and bad people, those who abide by the law are good people, and those who commit adultery are bad people. That's all. I have invited you here to discuss a way to restore trade. You don't have to worry, I won't force you to continue to be merchants, and in fact, I don't plan to set up thirteen lines. In the future, there will only be ordinary merchants, and anyone can trade with foreigners, as long as they pay taxes according to the regulations, the government will not interfere. ”

After Zhou Lang finished speaking, maybe he moved them with sincerity, maybe he wanted to show that Zhou Lang was a man of his word, or he gambled that Zhou Lang could gain a foothold in Guangdong, and the two resumed the next day and expressed their willingness to continue to operate.

Zhou Lang continued to discuss with them, and this time he also invited representatives of the British, Dutch, French and other merchant halls, and everyone sat together to discuss collectively, and the prosperity of trade must be taken care of by the interests of both sides of the trade, otherwise the trade will not last long. This is not a question of sovereignty over who governs whom, and there is no element of dignity, and it is an equal trade relationship. For the purpose of expanding trade, we are a community of interests. Zhou Lang also invited Henry Pitt and appointed him as the representative of the China (East India Company). Also participate in the discussion of trade regulations.

This discussion lasted for more than ten days, and the drawbacks that had existed for decades in a mouthful of trade were revealed.

The results of the meeting, whether it is businessmen or foreign businessmen, are very satisfied, and even say that they are looking forward to it, because Zhou Lang's attitude is something that foreigners have never seen in China, and it is also something that businessmen have never seen in Chinese officials.

Zhou Lang agreed with the foreigners' demands to abolish all kinds of bad rules, and the kind of blackmail-like, completely opaque method of charging fees really made them too risky, and a trade that was expected to be profitable could be lost due to the sudden increase in the appetite of officials.

Zhou Lang promised that the tariff collection will become transparent in the future, which should be clear to those who have carried out Fujian trade, although the tax rate is higher than that of Guangzhou, but it is very transparent, how much is how much, there is no additional charge, and there will be no sudden increase in fees because of the birthday of the customs supervision. If the tax rate changes, it will be announced.

Said to the merchants, will open a special business to provide loans to merchants, the interest will be very low, short-term financing within a month will be reduced to one percent (one percent), and their previous monthly interest is often as high as six percent (six percent), plus the interest rolling, the cost of borrowing by merchants is often between 3 cents (30 percent) and 5 cents, the maximum profit stipulated by the Qing Dynasty regulations is 36%, which is already considered usury, and the profit of British borrowing in the same period has been depressed to less than 10%, This is the difference between having a well-developed and well-developed financial market and not having a well-developed financial market.

Of course, this credit institution will not only serve the thirteen merchants, but all merchants.

After the discussion with the Thirteen Banks and foreign merchants, Zhou Lang formulated a series of new systems.

For the most part, the system in force in Fujian has been followed.

The simple tax rate is the mainstay, but more and more tax objects have been added and covered more widely.

In Fujian, in addition to the tea tax, only a fixed port tax was levied, which is equivalent to no tax on most goods, and the tax is levied on tea and merchant ships, although the economic chain has a transmission effect, and these costs will be apportioned to other goods. But what Zhou Lang wants now is to increase taxes, so one more name means one more tax.

This is a short-term consideration, and a long-term consideration is that taxation has a regulatory effect on imported and exported products. For example, heavier taxes on non-essential goods and luxury goods can effectively curb the import of these non-essential goods, reduce currency outflows without affecting the quality of life of most people, and allow trade to develop in a more favorable direction.

However, due to the cost of taxation and the difficulty of supervision, Zhou Lang still did not levy those taxes with a large number of artificial operating elements. Why is tea taxed, because the tea trade has established a standardized model, and all that is exported is a box of tea, and the standard box is fifty catties. The rest of the goods are mostly in bulk, with the exception of opium.