Liu Shiyi, a customs official of the Qing Dynasty, said that today was the day when he went to the Shanghai Customs Cooperation Office to collect the customs duties of the Qing Dynasty in the previous year. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoFor this great imperial court, as the importance and amount of land taxes continued to decline, other taxes, especially customs duties, became particularly important.

Since Jiaqing ascended the throne, the tariffs of the Great Qing State have not been in the hands of the imperial court itself. The original trade system has collapsed due to the full intervention of the Tang people, and the current set of trade forms is essentially imposed on this country by the Tang Dynasty. Unlike many countries that also belonged to the First International, the Tang and Qing dynasties retained tariffs, which were relatively low, with an average of only 5%-6%, which was nothing compared to the excess profits made by Datang in the Qing market.

The Tang government does not charge export tariffs to any trading companies in the country, and the Qing government collects taxes on both imports and exports, which naturally makes the Qing merchants in the competition out of a disadvantageous position. In fact, the export volume of Qing merchants to the Tang Dynasty was far less than the import volume of the Qing State to the Tang Dynasty, and bulk goods such as tea and silk, although there was an export tax, but the Tang people mastered a monopoly position through the model of industry guilds, especially tea, and the Tang merchants trafficked tea to all over the world, and through packaging, advertising, speculation and other marketing means, they constantly raised the price and made more and more money.

In the Tang and Qing trades, the Qing State was naturally in a completely passive position, and its customs were also in a state of co-management, not only the Qing people could not regulate and control the tariffs according to their own wishes, but also the customs tariffs were in the so-called customs cooperation between the two countries, and this hidden institution. The person in charge is obviously not a pure person.

Tariffs of tens of millions of taels of silver every year. It was at this time that the customs cooperation offices of the two countries handed over to the Daqing Customs. Jiaqing also relied heavily on this tariff revenue, which was the main fund for strengthening his New Army and Janissaries.

In the early years of Jiaqing, Datang assisted the Qing State in forming a new army, and the scale of its firearms was very limited, and in terms of personnel treatment and training, it was limited compared with the previous Qing army's green battalion. It is impossible to expect such an army to be combative, and Jiaqing quickly recognized this problem, as his ambitions swelled over the past few years. He paid more attention to the beginning of strengthening the Qing army.

The paper shell rifle SC-1, which was originally relatively good, could no longer meet the needs of Jiaqing. After Datang Military Industry launched a stronger metal fixed-loading SC-3 rifle, Jiaqing immediately purchased 30,000 for his Praetorian Guard, and then the new army also successively replaced some of these rifles. Fukangan, the secretary of the military department who was deeply trusted by Jiaqing, also led the purchase of a large number of artillery from Datang. The common 70 mm field guns, 130 mm howitzers, and even the 40 mm caliber small mortars exported by the Tang Dynasty were purchased by the Qing Military Department.

To strengthen the army, you have to be rich, and Jiaqing is very concerned about the income from tariffs.

However, Liu Shiyi, who came to collect last year's tariff revenue on behalf of the imperial court today, instinctively felt bad after seeing the person standing at the door of the customs cooperation office between the two countries.

Feng Shaozhi, Secretary of the Governor of the Tang United China Special Administrative Region. A guy who was born in a family of official eunuchs in Daqing and defected to the Tang people ten years ago. Liu Shiyi knew Feng Shaozhi, and he thought that Feng Shaozhi was more like a Qing man. Humble and gentlemanly, well-read and knowledgeable, but not quite similar to the simple and direct Tang people. Such a talent was not used by the imperial court, but became a lackey of the Tang people, and this character made Liu Shiyi despise.

"Lord Feng, don't come unharmed." With a false smile on his face, Liu Shizhi arched his hand towards Feng Shaozhi.

Feng Shaozhi also smiled mildly and said, "Lord Liu." ”

Liu Shiyi asked his own question: "Today's tax handover actually bothered Lord Feng, which is really unpleasant." ”

Feng Shaozhi's smile was still gentle, and he said, "I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint Lord Liu, you won't be able to take this money today." ”

The worry in Liu Shiyi's heart was finally confirmed, he straightened his face and asked with seriousness, "What does Lord Feng mean by this?" ”

Feng Shaozhi still smiled: "Don't misunderstand Lord Liu, there are some calculations in the cooperation office that have not been completed and cannot pay the taxes on time, Lord Liu should turn around first and come back next time." ”

Of course, Liu Shiyi knew that this was an excuse, and he asked, "The calculation is not completed?" Why haven't I heard of this before, even if I can't get it today, Lord Feng will always have to give the subordinate a charter, when will I get the money? ”

Feng Shaozhi shook his head, the smile on his face did not decrease, and said: "I don't know about this either, Lord Liu might as well stay in Shanghai for a few more days, maybe it will be better later." ”

Liu Shiyi was not stupid, he was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Is this matter related to the Qingzhou case?" ”

Feng Shaozhi still shook his head: "I don't dare to talk nonsense, and Lord Liu had better not think about it." ”

Liu Shiyi stared at Feng Shaozhi, his face was ugly: "Anyway, Xia Guan can't withdraw money today, right?" ”

Feng Shaozhi nodded and smiled: "Yes." ”

Liu Shiyi is impossible to move on the Tang people's own territory, and he has no way, in fact, many Qing Dynasty officials have long wanted to see such a situation, such a huge amount of money is in the hands of the Tang people every year, although it is managed by the cooperation office, its degree of integrity is amazing, and it can be regarded as saving a considerable amount of money and management costs for the Qing court, but at the critical time, it was unexpectedly choked by the Tang people.

This matter was reported to Jingli by Liu Shiyi on the same day, and Jiaqing's face was extremely ugly after hearing it. This year's tariff revenue has increased significantly, which makes Jiaqing full of confidence that it can buy more powerful weapons for its Qing army. Jiaqing originally planned to use the three-year tariff revenue to continue to strengthen its naval fleet, so that it has a certain strength to compete with the Tang Western Pacific Fleet, but the money cannot be paid, let alone buy a ship, even if it buys a rivet.

"These damn Tang people!" Jiaqing thought that the Tang people had backed down, but he didn't expect that the day after Zhu Yongfang left, the Tang people actually withheld such a huge sum of money from the Qing Dynasty, which made the court uncomfortable.

Although Shoufu Wang Jie opposed Jiaqing in the matter of sentencing the Qingzhou prefect, he fully supported Jiaqing in the diplomatic game between the Qingzhou case and the Tang State. At this time, he said: "The Tang people should have made this plan to increase their bargaining chips against our DPRK, although the amount of customs taxes is huge, and the relationship with our DPRK is also very important, but the plan must not be easily compromised with the Tang people, and the matter of paying compensation and amending the treaty cannot be abandoned." ”

(To be continued.) )