Chapter 165 The customs is going to change its own people

The Empire's Magic Capital Harbor, where the busy crowd rarely glances at the towering lighthouse, which is the highest beacon in the Empire, and its light can be seen from fifty nautical miles away, guiding the course of the ship at night. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Opposite the lighthouse is a five-story building that housed the General Administration of Customs of the Chinese Empire. On the top floor of the fifth floor, there was an old man with gray hair looking out the window, looking at the busy crowd opposite, his face was very solemn.

This man's name was Hurd, and he was the chief of the General Administration of Customs of the Chinese Empire. This is an Englishman who has been in this position for more than thirty years. Today is the time to lift the curtain.

On his desk was a letter of appointment, which was signed by He Ziyuan, vice premier of the Chinese Empire and concurrently minister of education, to appoint him as the president of the Huaxia Imperial University of Economics and Business. The university was built on the Bund in Shanghai, and the other day HD went to see where the preliminary construction had begun. Now that the improvised road has been repaired, the construction team has begun to build the main teaching building of the university.

After the empire changed its name, Hurd thought that his mission would end, but what he didn't expect was that the Chinese empire did not completely deprive him of his rights, he was still the head of the General Customs Administration, but the empire sent many officials into the customs system, most of these people were young children studying abroad.

With the development of the empire's economy, the customs system, which originally had only a few hundred people, had no way to deal with it, so the customs went through several large-scale expansions, and in the process of expansion, Hurd was involved in the whole process, and many new concepts Hurd could not understand, such as the concept of export tax rebates was implemented among these people.

As an Englishman, while fulfilling his duties, he also had to always take care of the interests of the British Empire, especially in terms of the goods that Britain exported to the Chinese Empire, so there were many times when Hurd felt very embarrassed.

The original Chinese Empire was already in deficit in terms of import and export trade, and it was only after Britain promised not to export opium to the Chinese Empire that it improved somewhat, and what followed was something that Hurd did not expect.

After the Chinese Empire once bought a large number of machinery and equipment from the West, everything has changed dramatically, after the steelmaking equipment has entered the Chinese Empire, the steel industry in China has begun to develop on a large scale, and a large number of spinning equipment has entered, which makes Hurd very worried, because the human resources of the Chinese Empire are too strong, if China uses these equipment to manufacture cotton cloth and textiles, then the pillar industry of the United Kingdom, the cotton spinning industry will definitely be impacted.

But what he didn't expect was that the Chinese Empire not only did not export cotton fabrics on a large scale, but imported a large number of cotton fabrics from Britain, which made Hurd very surprised, where did the cotton cloth go.

And Huaxia has always been a major exporter of tea, but since Britain cultivated its own black tea in India, Huaxia's tea exports have declined, but Huaxia will rarely import British black tea, but after the emperor's pro-government, Huaxia began to import British tea, and the amount is very large.

These measures will definitely have an impact on the country's cotton spinning industry and tea products industry, but Hurd found that the cotton cloth and tea industry produced by the Chinese Empire are also very prosperous, and there are exports, but the export price is very high, take the high-end route, high quality, exquisite packaging, limited supply!

Moreover, high tariffs are levied on export products, which means that the price of Huaxia's products in foreign markets is much higher than the price of similar products, which will seriously affect the sales of Huaxia products. These measures made Hurd feel very incomprehensible.

But the fact is that Huaxia's export volume is still very huge, and there are many industrial products, especially the export of automobiles, neatly placed containers on the wharf, each standard container can hold six taels of cars, and the Chinese Empire levies 100% tariffs on automobile exports, which means that in the Chinese Empire, a car of 50,000 dragon yuan will be sold at least 100,000 dragon yuan abroad, which is simply a huge profit!

In this way, it is necessary to limit exports, and the countries that are friendly to the export and the Chinese Empire, because of the support of strong industrial products, the Chinese Empire has set the import tariff very low, and has implemented very low tariffs on grain, ore, cotton cloth, and other imported products, so many countries like to do business with the Chinese Empire, which has led to the Empire's ports and customs are very busy.

Hurd now knows very well that the total amount of import and export trade of the Chinese Empire is very large, and according to the current amount, a quarter of the world's trade volume takes place in the ports of the Chinese Empire.

Moreover, the trade of the Chinese Empire is generally in deficit, the amount of the deficit is not very large, but there is still a deficit, and when the Chinese Empire settles these deficits, it often issues treasury bonds and dragon yuan and other paper money.

The original international trade must be exchanged for gold and silver hard currency when it is finally settled, but the Chinese Empire uses these banknotes to settle, and the use of these banknotes has an advantage, that is, these countries that use the dragon yuan can give priority to doing business with the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese Empire can only use the dragon yuan to trade when the goods are full of goods.

This makes all countries in the world begin to store a certain amount of dragon yuan, dragon yuan has become the hard currency in the world's ratio, he and gold and silver use value is the same, because only in but not out, now the gold and silver reserves of the Chinese Empire have been very huge.

Although Hurd didn't know how much silver Huaxia had stored, he knew that there were 110,000 taels of gold that passed through the customs, as well as gold reserves, and the specific number Hurd didn't know.

Behind the dragon yuan, there is a sufficient amount of gold and silver physical currency support, but the Chinese Empire has never announced how the dragon yuan and gold and silver should be exchanged. This policy of the Huaxia Empire made Hurd feel that there must be something he couldn't understand, but now he still didn't understand what was going on!

At this time, he saw several cars parked below, and several people got out of the car, all of them were wearing Tang costumes unique to the Chinese Empire, which was one of the unique symbols of government officials, and these people were very familiar and walked towards the building.

Hurd knew it was time for him to go, when a high-ranking official from the Nanjing government came to attend his retirement ceremony, which was also an important ceremony for the transfer of customs power, although he, the head of the General Administration of Customs, had long since lost any real power.

Then one of Hurd's assistants came in, and he said; "Director! It's time for us to go! ”

Hurd turned, then nodded!

The assistant came over and helped Hurd put on his uniform, which was the uniform of the customs officer, and the whole wanted a military uniform, which was also marked on both shoulders, the epaulettes of the customs marking. On the periphery of the epaulettes is a figure of the Great Wall, and on the inside are three gold buckles in the shape of a dragon. In fact, this image is not a dragon, but a Pixiu. Hurd deliberately checked the meaning of this thing, a kind of divine beast that "only enters but does not leave", customs! He collects taxes, and he never sends you money.

The epaulettes of the three Pixiu means that he is the highest official of the General Administration of Customs, and the highest customs in other important cities are two markers, so Hurd still values this kind of respect.

Then the man who went upstairs came to Hurd's office and spoke; "My lord! You're ready! The ceremony took place at the Shanghai Automobile Factory, and today is also the day that the 200,000 vehicles of the Shanghai Automobile Factory will roll off the assembly line, and at your invitation, a batch of vehicles will be exported to the United Kingdom, as a way to draw a successful end to your customs career.

Hurd nodded, signaling that it was time to go!

。。。。。。

In a small town in Zhejiang, in an abandoned ancient house, two brand-new cars were parked at the gate, and two middle-aged people got out of the car, followed by four young people, and saw the dilapidated house, and the two middle-aged people asked the four young people to kneel and kowtow.

At this time, the old house of the Li family, but the Li family was also a big local family, but later declined, and the reason for the decline was a sad past.

In the winter of 1870, another blacksmith shop in the town invited the whole town to come to the square, where there was a blast furnace with boiling molten iron, because the blacksmith business was becoming more and more difficult to do, the two blacksmith shops were open, and they could not survive, so the Zhang family came up with such an idea.

In the face of the boiling molten iron, the Zhang family said loudly to the parents and villagers in the town; "Two blacksmith shops can only open one, and now whoever jumps into the molten iron can continue to open the door to do business in the future, and those who dare not jump will close the door and leave!"

The boiling molten iron bubbles black bubbles from time to time, and the rushing heat wave hits from time to time, making people unconsciously retreat, and the red molten iron will make a sound from time to time, as if telling people about its danger.

Just when the Li family was still hesitating, the old lady of the Zhang family jumped into the boiling molten iron, and the old man of the Zhang family did not have any chance to struggle, his whole body melted into the molten iron, and the smell of burning immediately filled the square of the town.

The Li family lost in this battle, and after returning home, the old lady of the Li family fell ill and died within a few days, leaving behind a large family.

After taking care of the old man's funeral, the Li family dispersed, and the Li family scattered to nearby cities, relying on the craft of ironsmithing to make a living everywhere.

Knowing that the Chinese Empire began to reform, and the industries related to steel and iron once again ushered in an opportunity for great development, the Li family's clansmen began to operate a steel business in these cities, coupled with the original experience, and soon the strength of the Li family began to gather again.

Until the patriarch sends them a letter, and then they go home, your old house is going to be demolished, build a railway, come back to see the old house, and then negotiate with the government to see the compensation.

At this time, the Li family remembered the ancestral business of their hometown, and when they came back, they went to the Zhang family's blacksmith shop to take a look, and the business was very cold.

It turns out that many of the blacksmith products have begun to be made with more advanced tools, such as horseshoe, and now the price in the market is very cheap, so there is very little business in the blacksmith shop.

Looking at the declining blacksmith shop, if the old lady of the Zhang family had a spirit in the sky, I don't know if he would have chosen to jump at that time!

The current patriarch of the Li family, he asked the lieutenant chief; "Isn't this ancestral house demolished? I want to fix it! ”

The lieutenant said; "Tear it down! After the railway is repaired, a new road will be built here to facilitate business, and my family's old house will be demolished!

And the village can give you a new piece of land, where are you building a new house! ”

The patriarch of the Li family looked at the dilapidated ancestral house, and his heart was very uncomfortable!

An era has passed, and there is not even a trace of memory left!