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"Mu Xiang, the dynasty still has silver." Qi Ying didn't seem to give up, and said tentatively: "There are actually many ways to collect money, when we went to war with the British devils a few years ago, there were millions of taels of silver donated by Guangzhou merchants alone, and most of the silver raised for reparations now comes from Guangdong." If Jiangnan, Huguang, and Sichuan can also apportionment a little, I am afraid that tens of millions of taels of silver can also be raised. ”

This is indeed good, the current Qing Dynasty is still very rich! Although there was an opium war, and a large amount of silver has been outflowed because of the opium trade in the past two or three decades, it has not hurt the roots. However, the Qing Dynasty's administrative efficiency was too low, and its control of the country's wealth was very poor. Although the national income of the country as a whole is not much worse than that of the United Kingdom, its fiscal revenue is only one-sixth of that of the United Kingdom - 90 million pounds in the United Kingdom, and about 15 million pounds in the Qing Dynasty. However, if the Qing Dynasty's finances had to use some special means, it could still raise a lot of silver, and in the past, whenever there was a large-scale domestic and foreign war, the Qing Dynasty government would use special means to squeeze the wealth of the people, and always raised a huge amount of money.

"The imperial court got tens of millions of taels, and the people are afraid that they will have to pay 100 million taels! Now he is benevolent, and he can't bear to take care of the people's fat and ointment like this. Mu Zhang'a just shook his head slowly, "And water can carry a boat, and it can also capsize a boat...... In case of provoking a civil uprising, the disaster of the White Lotus Sect will happen again, and the dynasty may not be able to afford it! ”

What is the truth of this? Spend less money to let the Han people do things, for fear that the Han people will be unreliable; Spend more money to let the Ministry of Internal Affairs build guns and then train the Eight Banners, and I'm afraid that the people won't be able to bear it if it is too fierce! Could it be that the Qing Dynasty could only wait for Xiyi to come to the door again and again?

Therefore, although this foreign affairs must be done, it must be carried out slowly, and if it is slow, it will be rounded, and if it is fast, it will not be achieved. Lin Shaomu was too eager that day, so Yingyi committed the disaster of the border. ”

Mu Zhang'a twisted his beard, his brows furrowed tightly, and he seemed to be quite dissatisfied with Lin Zexu's strict prohibition of opium. After being silent for a while, Mu Zhang'a continued: "The old man has been in government for many years, and his experience is a stable word, no matter when or what, you must first seek stability, and then talk about other things, and the same is true for foreign affairs." ”

He accentuated his tone, and his words were like hammers, striking on the hearts of Qiying and Bai Siwen all at once, "Twenty-five years now, it is time to seek stability, and no one can spoil the peaceful situation in the world!" ”

By this moment, both Qiying and Bai Siwen had already understood what to say when they came to meet the king in Japan. In short, it is necessary to emphasize that the world is peaceful and there is nothing to do in all directions. Xiyi is tens of thousands of miles away, and can only occasionally cause trouble, just be careful to take precautions, and the matter of foreign military training needs to be slowly advanced in order to be perfect......

By this time, Zhu Jishi had traveled thousands of miles by sea, bypassing the African continent and arriving at Calcutta, the capital of British India.

After drifting on the sea for a few months, he put his feet on the incomparably solid earth again, but Zhu Jishi did not have a trace of a smile on his face, but his eyebrows were deep, and he shook his head slightly from time to time.

What made Zhu Jishi's original good mood disappear was the Indian opium piled up on the dock of the port of Kolkata! Kolkata was in the middle of the British-Indian-China triangular trade, where goods from Europe, whether textiles, steel, Western medicines, or wines, could find buyers, and the Indian market was also extremely vast. And the goods exported from India to China have only one thing, and that is opium!

Coincidentally, as soon as he got off the boat, Zhu Jishi met an acquaintance on the dock, who was Ricardo, who brought coca leaves from South America to Zhu Jishi that day. Rodriguez. After a long period of pleasantries, Rodriguez told Zhu Jishi a great news. The commercial functions of the East India Company have now been completely suspended! In other words, anyone can now enter the lucrative opium trade, and the East India Company is no longer in charge. Moreover, last year's bumper harvest of opium in India, during this time, it happened to be made into opium paste and put on the market, the price was almost more than 100 kopecks a box, and the export tax was 780 taels of silver, and the profit of shipping to Hong Kong was twice as much! If it can be transported into the territory of the Qing Kingdom, it will be a box of several hundred taels of silver! So as soon as Rodriguez heard the news, he immediately set off from Spain with two ships to Calcutta.

Rodriguez patted Zhu Jishi on the shoulder and said: "Jason, you have 7 boats, each boat can hold at least more than 1,000 boxes of opium, 7 boats will be 7,000 boxes, and the net profit of each box of opium will not be less than 150 taels of silver. ”

"More than 1 million taels? Can there be so many? Zhu Jishi said in surprise.

"Sir, there really are such numbers." Liu Peng hurriedly approached Zhu Jishi's side and said in a low voice: "If before the East India Company completely liberalized the opium trade, I am afraid it would be more than 1 million taels, and now it may be because there are more people buying, the price of opium in Calcutta has risen, and it is estimated that Guangzhou may fall a little, but after removing all the costs, there are still 1 million taels of silver." ”

Liu Peng is an old businessman, and when it comes to the opium business, he is really the leader.

"As for the shipment, don't worry, the lord doesn't have to worry, Jardine has a way in this regard, the way of the Guangdong Customs and the Guangdong Navy Division is clear, just drive the ship directly into the Tianzi Pier in Guangzhou, and immediately load the opium with tea and silk after unloading, and then ship it to ......Europe."

"Well," Zhu Jishi weighed in his heart and asked, "Excluding the two chartered sailing ships, Jishixing now has 8 galleons that can run ocean trade, and how about running the Europe-India-China route?" ”

"Good! Sir, in this case, if nothing else, you can earn 3 million taels a year! ”

Liu Peng's words aroused the interest of several people around him, and he pricked up his ears to listen to him continue.

"Of course, maritime trade cannot always be smooth sailing, if you want to run the Europe-India-China triangle route, it is normal to lose one or two ships of people and goods every year, otherwise everyone comes to do maritime trade, this profit will not be so high. However, we have eight galleons in the World Bank, which can withstand such risks. Even taking into account the loss of the shipwreck, there are still 2 million taels a year. ”

The maritime trade of this era is really profitable! Of course, the most profitable of them is the sale of Indian opium to China! However, Zhu Jishi has not reached this level, he shook his head and said: "Apart from opium, there are no other specialties in Calcutta?" ”

"Arms!" Ricardo. Rodriguez took over the topic and said with a smile: "The brown bass smoothbore guns of the Calcutta Arsenal are famous, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Calcutta Arsenal was the most important musket production factory in the entire anti-French alliance, but Napoleon was unexpectedly defeated in Russia, and the war ended earlier than expected, and a large number of stocks appeared in the Calcutta Arsenal, which is said to be as much as one million pieces, and the millions of pounds of the East India Company were deposited on these old rifles. ”

"Will they sell it?" Zhu Jishi asked.

"Why don't you sell it? The brown bass is an old gun that is more than 100 years old, and it is only a matter of time before it is eliminated, and if it is not sold now, millions of pounds will be lost in the future. "Ricardo. Rodriguez shrugged and said, "But who can these brown bebes sell to?" It was a long-pole smoothbore gun, which was too big for self-defense, and it was impossible to use it for hunting, so it could only be used to equip the army, but European countries had their own arsenals and would not buy brown basses. ”

"Jishixing bought it!" Zhu Jishi smiled and instructed Liu Peng: "Now everyone is making opium, let's not join in this fun, no one wants the brown bass of the East India Company, let's just eat a few boats." ”

Liu Peng was startled, and hurriedly lowered his voice and asked in Chinese: "Sir, do you want to use this batch of muskets to raise trouble?" ”

"Something?" Zhu Jishi shook his head with a smile and said, "It's still early!" I want to resell these muskets to the Manchu court. ”

"Sell...... Sold to the imperial court? Liu Peng shook his head, "Doing business with the imperial court is a doorway, and the business of muskets is ...... It's simply impossible! ”

"Mu Wen, do as I instruct, and get out of 5 ships, leaving only steel and explosives, and the rest of the cabins are loaded with brown bass muskets." Zhu Jishi said calmly, "To contact the Kolkata Arsenal, you can just go with Mr. Churchill and Mr. Hemming." He turned back to Ricardo. Rodriguez said, "Ricardo, let's find a place to have two glasses together, I have an 1825 Dutte here." ”