"Your Majesty, is there anything important about summoning us here in such a hurry?" Cen Tianshi was a little puzzled by Li Xuanqing's sudden hurry to hold a meeting with the important members of the cabinet who rushed to Tianjin Port this time and the important local backbones including Zhang Jianzhong, the political envoy of Youzhou, and even Murong Hanhai, who was discussing this overseas trade with Xu Xingxia with great interest, shook his head with a wry smile, indicating that he had not received any news. However, Xu Xingxia on the side nodded secretly, but he was originally attending the meeting, and Li Xuanqing did not explain that he would naturally not speak indiscriminately.

"Naturally, it's about overseas trade." Li Xuanqing sat on the main seat with Qiaoxi and said: "In the past two days, Xingxia and the cabinet have counted how much they have gained from this overseas trade, right?" "The Tang Dynasty was not as taboo about women's participation in politics as later generations, and the imperial court established by Li Xuanqing was completely different from the previous one, so no one had an opinion when Qiaoxi appeared at the meeting, but felt that it should be so.

"Your Majesty, the Japanese trade between Xingxia and the Navy this time has been very fruitful. The navy alone snatched back 510,000 taels of gold and 210,000 taels of silver. Not counting the two local silver mines. Cen Tianshi smiled excitedly, "In the future, I think the naval fleet should go to Japan for training and training, and bring more gold and silver back." ”

"Xingxia, do you have any income statistics?" Li Xuanqing nodded, but the people from the Navy Department estimated that they did not focus on this trip, otherwise they would definitely gain more than so much from this trip. But Li Xuanqing didn't say anything, it was good to be able to grab back so much.

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister. All the goods brought by Xingxia's trip were all sold, and a total of 5.7 million taels of silver, 1.1 million taels of gold, 20 ships of local products, and there were more than three gold and silver mines in Japan. Xu Xingxia's voice startled everyone around him, how could he have so much income when he went to sea? And the materials purchased by the Xu family at that time were estimated to be less than three million Tang dollars, right? It has multiplied several times in a few months, and this is not counting the exchange rate of gold. One million taels of gold can be exchanged for 10 million Tang coins.

Looking at the sudden burning gaze, Li Xuanqing said in a light voice: "This is the key content we want to talk about today, overseas trade agreements." Li Xuanqing continued: "The Xu family earns so much from a trip to the sea, as long as it is announced, it will inevitably bring an uproar, and soon the powerful merchants within the empire are estimated to follow the example of the Xu family and set off an unprecedented overseas trade boom." ”

"Your Majesty, isn't this a good thing? Isn't the huge income from overseas trade also a huge benefit to the empire? Cen Tianshi was a little puzzled, Li Xuanqing obviously meant to curb this imminent wave of overseas trade.

"It has indeed brought great benefits to the empire, and the Xu family will definitely continue this kind of trade after tasting the sweetness, and the various goods produced by my Datang will also follow their fleet to other overseas places. But has the gentleman ever thought about the disadvantages here? Li Xuanqing's eyes were blazing and said: "One is that there will definitely be more people following the example of the Xu family in the future, embarking on the road of overseas trade, and paying more attention to overseas rather than the development of physical enterprises within the empire." After all, according to Xingxia's description, even the long-standing weapons that we have eliminated and used can be bought at a good price in Japan, not to mention those new machinery and equipment, as well as our traditional porcelain, silk and tea. In the future, there will definitely be many people who will pull those so-called useless things of the empire overseas to buy them. In this way, how many people will be able to develop the industry and commerce within the empire in a solid manner. ”

Li Xuanqing's words made Murong Hanhai stunned, and he glanced at Xu Xingxia beside him, and found the mystery, the land of China is more than one era ahead of the surrounding countries, and indeed many eliminated things in China may be sold as treasures when they are pulled to other places, didn't you see that the more than a dozen boats of copper coins shipped out by the Xu family this time were directly exchanged for silver in Japan and shipped back?

"Another point is that the huge amount of gold and silver brought back to China on a large scale with overseas fleets, if it is not properly integrated into the domestic industrial and commercial development, it will inevitably drive the major families to embark on the road of hedonism and profligacy, and the more money there is, the more people will be corrupted, and the pursuit of high consumption and luxury is actually harmful to the imperial economic system with industry as the core that we have just established, and it will also accelerate the corruption of our newly established political system, so that our officials are divorced from reality and the people. Thus the foundations of the empire were corrupted. Li Xuanqing's solemn face made everyone's eyes lower, and all the officials, including Cen Tianshi, were thinking about how to quickly benefit from overseas trade. Although their minds can ensure that they are all doing their best for the empire, and all they think of is how to contribute to the development of the empire, it is undeniable that many people below will not think so, and it will be inevitable that low-level officials will embark on the road of corruption and the corruption and degeneration of officials in the later period.

"More importantly, the integration of a large amount of gold and silver into the imperial market will inevitably bring about a rise in prices, which does not conform to the law of development, and this kind of price rise that does not conform to the law of development is very harmful to the Tang Empire, which has just unified the interior, will make agriculture frustrated, and the income of farmers from farming cannot keep up with the level of rising prices, disrupting the tax foundation we have laid. And the same is true for industrial and commercial development. Rising prices, rising raw material prices, will also lead to higher prices of finished products, and the items you sell overseas will also become more and more expensive, and in fact, the income from the long-distance trade will also be lower and lower. In the long run, the price level of our Datang will deviate from the normal track and dampen everyone's enthusiasm for developing industry and commerce, which will be a devastating blow. After Li Xuanqing finished saying this, he continued: "So we have to take precautions and solve the problem at the source. ”

"Your Majesty, Xingxia knows his mistake, and the fleet will definitely be forbidden to go to sea in the future." Xu Xingxia was poured cold by Li Xuanqing's basins of cold water, and quickly stood up to ask for guilt, seeing that he was indeed frightened like this, "In order to make up for the mistakes I made this time, I am willing to donate all the proceeds of this voyage trade to the imperial treasury, which should be regarded as the fine paid by me Xu Xingxia." ”

As soon as Xu Xingxia finished speaking, Qiaoxi, who had been sitting without speaking, smiled and said, "Brother Xu, you are wrong, when did the eldest brother say that he was going to ban the voyage trade?" Didn't you say that you got it before? It's all yours, and the Empire won't want your money. ”

Qiaoxi's words made everyone stunned, and then they realized that the theme of today's meeting that Li Xuanqing said before was overseas trade agreements. Xu Xingxia raised his head and said in surprise: "The queen mother means that the emperor does not plan to ban overseas trade?" ”

"Big brother, you scared everyone." Qiao Xi saw everyone's puzzled eyes and immediately smiled: "What my big brother and I want to talk about today is not to ban overseas trade, on the contrary, the Tang Empire will never ban overseas trade, on the contrary, it will vigorously support it." The markets and sources of funds needed for the economic development of the empire need to be obtained from overseas, and if the overseas market is cut off, it is equivalent to cutting off the lifeblood of the empire's development. Therefore, Brother Xu doesn't need to be careful, in the future, your Xu family also needs to become the vanguard of the empire's overseas trade and take the lead. ”

Qiaoxi's words put everyone at ease, and even Cen Tianshi laughed and said: "Your Majesty, your words almost scared me to death, if it weren't for Qiaoxi's explanation, I would have doubted that we should have issued an order to ban the sea." ”

"It's not a ban on the sea, it's an overseas trade agreement, and people from the Ministry of Finance didn't come today, but Murong Zai is the same. This is the outline of the overseas trade agreement that Qiaoxi and I have rushed out in the past few days, and I will send it to you to see, and then the cabinet will hold a special meeting to discuss one or two, and if there are no problems, we will follow the promulgation and implement it. Li Xuanqing asked Qiaoxi to send a sample of the overseas trade agreement he had driven out to a few people present, and there was basically no photocopying equipment he had made in the past few years, and this was still copied by a few people in the pro-guard team overnight.

The general principle of this overseas trade agreement is five points, one of which is the tariff system, all goods involved in overseas trade must pay a huge amount of special tariffs before going overseas, which is for the tax department and the customs, including the equipped customs anti-smuggling force, etc., involving more than one department. According to the tax rate designed by Li Xuanqing, it is basically a 100 percent tariff system, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is required to make a systematic catalogue of goods going to sea, and unless a special permit is issued for the goods, the rest will be taxed according to the types of goods traded overseas.

The second is the list of overseas trade commodities issued by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which makes hard and fast regulations on overseas trade commodities, and all commodities that do not appear on the list are not allowed to be exported, so as to ensure the technical barriers of some high-tech industrial products. Of course, these were actually only prepared for the future when the empire was developing to the extreme and when the distant Western countries, that is, the current Great Qin, were ready for trade.

The third is the qualification certification of overseas trade enterprises, for enterprises that have not obtained the qualification of customs clearance to go to sea are not allowed to operate overseas trade, which is ready to curb the preparation of the whole people to go to sea, after all, the current Tang Empire is far less populous than the later generations, and the domestic market is narrow and other factors. With most of the domestic market now undeveloped, if everyone does overseas trade, then the entire imperial economy will inevitably be made into a hollow circle. This point is actually the application of the various large-scale comprehensive companies opened by the Netherlands around the world back then, but Li Xuanqing did not involve this point.

Fourth, overseas trade refers to trade outside the border of the Tang Dynasty, which is an important document for the customs to define whether to collect tariffs, and is also prepared for future trade in the western region. Overseas trade is not just about going to sea, but about the border of the country.

The fifth is the starting point of overseas trade, in this overseas trade agreement, Li Xuanqing, the port city of overseas trade, has all been listed, the north is dominated by Dalian, Tianjin, Yantai and Dengzhou in the Bohai Bay, the Hangzhou economic circle is dominated by several major cities headed by Hangzhou, and the south is dominated by Shantou, Guangzhou and Lianzhou and other five major ports. Navy patrol vessels and the National Guard will be treated as smuggling vessels if they do not have customs clearance instructions issued by the customs of the above cities in the course of anti-smuggling.

The last point is actually compensatory trade, that is, to encourage the merchants of the Tang Empire to bring back various production raw materials from overseas when they return, and explain that the import of raw materials will enjoy a certain tax subsidy policy. This also regulates the various tariff rates levied on imported goods.

As these more than 100 overseas trade agreements were read by everyone present, all their faces were relieved, because if they were implemented according to the terms and conditions above, it would indeed be possible to avoid the kind of situation that Li Xuanqing had just said. And it will also curb the wave of national investment overseas. The most important thing is that the responsibility that the state also needs to bear after the huge tariffs are also clearly written. The Navy would send warships to patrol all the routes that had been formed to ensure the safety of the caravans, and it was clear that merchants could request the Imperial Navy's assistance if they were treated unfairly overseas, and they would take concrete action to support the merchants in making profits overseas. This is almost explicit, saying that if they are bullied overseas, the empire will directly send troops to find the field for them.

And the most important thing is that Cen Tianshi and Murong Hanhai both understood that the empire was able to use tariffs to stabilize the rise of domestic prices, and even manipulate the rise and fall of prices, thus adding a new means for adjusting economic development. More importantly, the increase in imperial tax revenue was also conducive to the concentration of national power and the rapid popularization of large-scale domestic infrastructure, so as to truly realize trade and provide a full impetus for the development of the empire.

Compared to the imperial officials present, Xu Xingxia was the one who felt it the most, this imperial overseas trade agreement was ostensibly the empire used tariffs to divide the huge profits of overseas trade, but for a big businessman like them, the remaining benefits were enough to quickly get greater returns from it. And most importantly, this overseas trade agreement is actually protecting them, in addition to the protection of force from naval escort patrols, this agreement is actually legalizing overseas trade, and even affirming it at the legal level in the form of an agreement. This is almost the second law that has a substantial protection of industry and commerce since the promulgation of the Imperial Code of Industry and Commerce. Therefore, Xu Xingxia does not care about the number of tariffs and the number of types of goods, his Xu family is the pioneer of overseas trade, and after having the first income, they have figured out what the overseas market needs most. So after reading this, Xu Xingxia immediately stood up and said: "The overseas trade agreement made by the emperor is the gospel of my business community, and my Xu family is willing to support it with all my might, and I will immediately go to the tax department after returning to Chang'an for this first time to go to the sea, and let them collect the customs duties before making final accounts." ”

Murong Hanhai on the side glanced at the old friend beside him, nodded and followed: "Your Majesty, many departments involved here need to be uniformly deployed by the cabinet, and even need to communicate with the military. His words made everyone nod for a while, Zhang Jianzhong looked at the overseas trade agreement in his hand thoughtfully, although none of the overseas trade is related to the economic development of the mainland, but it needs a large number of supplies, these market demand will surely drive the development of all industries, with the market and orders will be afraid that the industry will not develop? In just an instant, Zhang Jianzhong thought of more than a dozen ideas for economic development, relying on Tianjin, the largest port city in the north, the future development of Youzhou will inevitably go to a higher level.

"Mr. Cen, you and Murong will implement this agreement as soon as they rush back to Chang'an, and the military needs to come forward to find Tianxiang and ask him to give orders to the National Guard and the Navy Department." Li Xuanqing stood up and clapped his hands and said: "After overseas trade is done well, the development of our empire's economy will inevitably embark on the fast track and achieve leapfrog development, and the heroic style of the Han and Tang dynasties will reappear in our generation earlier." ”

Li Xuanqing's words shocked everyone, as if the great empire in history was coming to his side step by step.