Xu Naizhao showed a puzzled look: "Jianghaiguan? Are you thinking about this idea? ”

Jianghai Customs, is one of the four traditional customs of the Qing Dynasty, set up in the Huangpu River border bridge outside the east gate of Shanghai County, after the opening of Shanghai port in order to collect import and export customs tariffs from foreign merchants and foreign ships, directly set up the Jianghai North Pass in the concession.

The Jianghai Customs in the Dongmen Waiguan Bridge still collects taxes on domestic ships, while the Jianghai North Customs in the concession is commonly known as Xinguan by ordinary people, and taxes are levied on foreign merchants and foreign ships.

Not long ago, the Xiaodaohui rebelled, because the Xiaodaohui attacked and occupied the Jianghai Customs, and then entered the concession to occupy the Jianghai Beiguan, which greatly damaged the building of the yamen, and robbed a large number of firearms and tax deposits stored inside.

Because the Little Knife Society rushed into the concession, the British were greatly alarmed, and hurriedly transferred soldiers from the warships on the Huangpu River to go ashore, expelled the members of the Little Knife Society, and then took over the construction of the Jianghai North Pass, on September 9 of the Western calendar, the British and American consuls announced the "Provisional Regulations on Tax Declaration", and the interesting thing is that Wu Jianzhang, the inspector of the Jianghai Customs, actually agreed to the British and American regulations before the British and Americans announced the regulations, that is, on the day of the uprising of the Little Knife Society, on September 7 of the Western calendar.

Although a few days earlier, Wu Jianzhang tried to obtain the tax collected from the British and American consuls and wanted to re-enter the concession to control the Jianghai Beiguan, but the British refused on the grounds that "Jianghai Customs does not levy taxes on merchants from non-treaty countries, but only collects taxes on British merchants, which is a hostile act."

Today, a few days later, although the Shanghai Knife Club has disappeared, the Jianghai Beiguan Pass, which was occupied because of the Knife Society, is still in the hands of the British.

As the governor of Jiangsu, Xu Naizhao naturally learned about the Jianghai Customs from Wu Jianzhang, and he came to Shanghai this time to see if he could get Jianghai Beiguan back from the foreigners as soon as possible and re-collect taxes.

This is not because he is worried about national sovereignty or anything like that, but because Jianghai Beiguan can collect a lot of taxes every month, and these taxes are one of the important sources of military spending to support Jiangsu's current finances and maintain the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps.

So Xu Naizhao didn't think too much about it, but said directly: "I'm afraid it's not easy, this Jiang Customs has only recovered the checkpoint of the East Gate now, and the taxes of the old customs of the East Gate are not only not preserved now, even if the taxes in the next half a year have been prescribed, there is no way to embezzle them anymore, and the North Pass in the leased land is still occupied by foreigners!" ”

Lin Zhe said: "Lord Futai, rest assured, I Lin Zhe will naturally not do this kind of thing, I don't dare to expect the taxes of Dongmen Pass, but I think that now that Beiguan is occupied by foreigners, the entry and exit taxes of foreign ships cannot be collected, I think if I can get this Beiguan back, can I use the taxes of this Beiguan as the military supplies of my Yusheng Army to help defend Shanghai?" ”

Hearing Lin Zhe say this, Xu Naizhao didn't think much about it and directly refused: "Although Beiguan is still in the hands of foreigners, I have already ordered Wu Jianzhang to negotiate with foreigners to get back Beiguan for taxation as soon as possible, and I think I will be able to get it back in the near future." Besides, the checkpoint tax is a million taels per year, but it is far more than your Yu Shengjun's defense fee! ”

In a word, that is, if you want the taxes of the Jianghai Customs, there is basically no need to count on it, I don't know how many people are staring at the Jianghai tariffs, Xiangrong of the Jiangnan Daying, and Qishan of the Jiangbei Daying are all the possible income of Jiangsu Province, and the Jianghai Customs is naturally one of their key concerns.

The port of Shanghai has been recaptured, and the Jiang Customs outside the east gate has not yet resumed its office, and the taxes for the next six months at this checkpoint have been booked.

And the taxes in Jianghai Beiguan are more, once they are recovered, they will be directly targeted by many people, and even Xu Naizhao himself is impossible to intercept how much.

Lin Zhe didn't care about Xu Naizhao's words: "Lord Xu, I'm afraid that the current tax in Jianghai Beiguan is not even 60,000 taels per month!" ”

At present, the annual tax collected by Jianghai Beiguan is only about hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, which is indeed less than 60,000 taels per month on average.

So he nodded: "Shanghai is in the hands of thieves, and Beiguan can release 60,000 yuan in taxes every month for military needs!" ”

In these years, the tariff revenue in the Xianfeng period was far less than that in the late Qing Dynasty, which could reach tens of millions of taels per year, but the tariff revenue in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period was only seven or eight million taels per year.

Moreover, it is worth noting that a considerable part of the seven million taels of silver was contributed by domestic trade and transportation, because according to the principle of taxation in those years, Chinese merchants had to pay customs duties when they transported goods from Guangzhou to Shanghai.

Therefore, the total amount of import and export trade recorded in many historical materials at the end of the Qing Dynasty is inaccurate, including maritime trade between various port cities in China.

"Nowadays, both foreign and Chinese businessmen are not far away to pay taxes, and smuggling is so rampant that the dynasty loses at least 10 million taels of taxes every year!" Xu Naizhao sighed as he spoke.

The annual tariff revenue of a large country in China is only a few million taels, and the five major treaty ports export countless raw silk, tea, and porcelain every year, while Jiang Customs, one of China's major customs customs, can only collect a million taels of silver tax every year, which Xu Naizhao himself finds unbelievable.

But that's the truth, as for why? Two words: smuggling!

In the late Qing Dynasty, smuggling was rampant to the point of smacking, and there were countless foreign and domestic merchants who took the risk of smuggling in order to avoid paying customs duties.

As a result, the tariff revenue in the late Qing Dynasty was far lower than the receivable standard.

Lin Zhe also nodded and said: "If coastal smuggling can be strictly prohibited, then the customs tariff levied can at least be increased several times." ”

The Lin family is engaged in import and export trade, although the Lin family does not run ships to smuggle, but the Xinde foreign company that cooperates with them is often smuggled.

For example, these Mini Infantry guns currently used by Yu Shengjun, and the brown bass infantry guns before their modification were smuggled into imports. Tax avoidance is one thing, but avoiding trouble from the British and American consuls and the Shanghai government is also the main reason.

For example, last month, the ship of Sindh & Co. returned to Europe, loaded about 2,000 bales of raw silk and 8,000 boxes of tea, and left Hong Kong secretly without paying a penny of tax.

Such large-scale smuggling can be found just by being around, which shows how rampant smuggling was in the late Qing Dynasty.

But it is impossible to strictly control smuggling, why? Because it also involves smuggling.

After the first ** war, although China was forced to open its doors, bringing a series of negative effects, it is worth noting that even if the British launched a war for **, they still failed to legalize **trade.

After the war, the ** trade was still illegal from the official law, and those foreign merchants still had to smuggle secretly if they wanted to carry out the ** trade.

However, due to the open support of various countries, especially the British, this makes the smuggling of foreign banks in various countries very rampant, and the Qing court does not know that the foreigners are still engaged in the smuggling trade, but they no longer have the courage to care, even if there are smuggling ships in front of them, those customs officials would rather close their eyes.

At present, Jardine Matheson smuggles at least 10,000 boxes of silver every year, worth five or six million silver, while foreign banks in the entire Shanghai area smuggle at least 30,000 boxes every year.

**Smuggling is rampant, as is smuggling in other department stores, and if Chinese officials want to strictly control coastal defense, cracking down on smuggling is almost an impossible task.

The end of large-scale smuggling, the regularization of customs and the significant increase in taxes were after the Second ** War.

The British saw that the first war could not legalize the trade, so they did not hesitate to launch a second war and finally legalized the trade.

In addition, China's coastal areas became the backyard of the Western powers, and the trade was legalized again, and the Western powers began to support China's fight against smuggling, and even personally sent warships to crack down on smuggling, so that the large-scale smuggling along China's coast gradually disappeared, and the tariff revenue in the late Qing Dynasty skyrocketed.

It is not so easy to ban smuggling, and it is even more impossible to ban smuggling, you dare to check, you don't have to wait until 1856, the next day the British will directly hit the door and launch the second ** war.

And Lin Zhe told Xu Naizhao about Jianghaiguan and smuggling, naturally not to sigh, but to predict it, seeing that Xu Naizhao had already begun to sigh, for fear that he would forget what he was going to talk about now if he was worried about the country and the people.

immediately said: "My lord, now Jianghai Beiguan is still in the hands of foreigners, and the younger brother is not talented, and he is willing to drive forward for adults and claim back Jianghai Beiguan from the hands of foreigners!" ”

Hearing Xu Naizhao say this, he didn't say anything directly: "This thing is not easy to do, those barbarians are all vulgar, and they will abandon their shame for a little profit." It's hard to deal with them! ”

Lin Zhe knew what Xu Naizhao and other traditional officials were thinking, that is, they had a great disdain for foreigners, although China was beaten by the British once, but the vast majority of people still regarded themselves as the superior country of the Celestial Empire, and regarded foreigners as barbarians. On the other hand, they are afraid of the strong ships and cannons of the foreigners, for fear that if they deal with the foreigners, they will cause trouble if they do not delay, you must know that those foreigners will start fighting if they disagree, and if they cause a war, their official hats will definitely be lost.

The mentality of contempt and fear is the general psychology of contemporary Chinese people, especially officials, towards foreigners.

But it is estimated that they will not know that the Western powers do not regard China as a member of the modern civilized world at all, and in the eyes of contemporary Westerners, Chinese wearing skirts and dragging long braids are just a bunch of uncivilized barbarians!

Lin Zhe knew that Xu Naizhao was angry and afraid of foreigners, and he didn't want to deal with them, but he wasn't afraid!

In his eyes, these foreigners are just a group of businessmen, but a group of people who seek wealth from thousands of miles, and have nothing to do with good and evil, as long as there are enough interests, they will launch a war against you by the domestic government, and they will also have enough interests, they can sell the crown of the Queen of England to you.

"As long as you don't worry, I promise to let you see the initial results within a few days!" Lin Zhe made a promise.

However, Xu Naizhao didn't promise anything in time, but turned his face and said: "Even if you take back Jianghai Beiguan, it is impossible to give you much of the 60,000 taels of silver per month!" ”

Lin Zhe said: "I know! ”

Xu Naizhao didn't believe that Lin Zhe said so much about Jianghai Beiguan, it was just a waste of each other's time, this Lin Zhe must have a plan, but what did he want?

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