Wen Han suddenly had a feeling of shooting himself in the foot, but since he had come to this point, it was impossible for him to turn back, so he could only argue with Xiao Yungui head-on. Soon people from both China and Britain joined in the quarrel, and the scene became lively again. In fact, the opium trade was the most beneficial to Britain, and there were only some retail merchants in the rest of the countries who were engaged in the opium trade, and these individual merchants were having a very hard time in the British monopoly on the opium trade, so the ministers of the United States, France and other countries chose to remain silent.

After repeated disputes, neither side could convince the other, and Hong Yun'er, the western princess in the Zuihou Hall, stood up and said, "Lord Wenhan, since your country insists, then we will cancel the legalization of the opium trade!" ”

Wen Han and Bill and others were in a dilemma, the legalization of the opium trade was their dream, but the high opium tax rate was something they did not want to accept, and they still insisted on the legalization of the opium trade, but the opium tax rate must be reduced.

Hong Yun'er smiled faintly and said: "It's okay to reduce the opium tax rate, in exchange, we want to increase the tax rate on foreign cloth, woolen fabrics, coarse serpents, calico, serge satin, dodo, feather cloth, cotton cloth, cotton yarn, etc., we have to add five percent tariffs, what do you say?" ”

At this time, the ministers of various countries couldn't sit still, and they got up to protest, Hong Yun'er smiled and didn't argue, and sat down to drink tea. When it comes to the goods imported by Europe and the United States to China, opium is mentioned in the list, and some people will immediately think of the Opium War, remembering that it is written in the textbook that opium is a dirty transaction used by the British to earn silver from the Chinese when the trade with China cannot make ends meet, but what is the position of opium in the trade with China?

Hong Yun'er has studied this history in great detail, and before 1830, when China was often superior in foreign trade. Silver is constantly flowing from India, Britain and the United States to China. After the mid-18th century, the annual silver import into China was generally 450,000 taels, with a maximum of 1.5 million taels, and the opium trade began at this time. However, since the end of the 18th century, due to the results of the British Industrial Revolution, the productivity of the British textile industry has increased unprecedentedly, and the production of cotton cloth and cotton yarn has increased suddenly. On the eve of the Opium War, commercial cotton imported from Western European countries to China accounted for the first place. The average annual import of cotton reaches 500,000 quintals, worth 5 million yuan; cotton cloth occupies the second place, with an annual import of 530,000 horses worth 1.38 million yuan; Woolen woolen occupies the third place, with an annual input value of 1.03 million yuan; Cotton yarn and cotton thread occupy the fourth place. The annual import value is 625,000 yuan. As for the status of opium in China's foreign trade, the peak era was not the Daoguang period around 1840. Rather, it was the Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties. After entering the 19th century, with the influx of cotton and cotton cloth, the status of opium in the Sino-British trade declined year by year, until Zuihou gradually faded out of the Sino-British trade. This trend was inevitable when more and cheaper machinery appeared in the hands of British merchants.

China's small-scale peasant society, which has been formed since ancient times, has an unparalleled foundation of self-sufficiency, and the opium trade has indeed brought great harm to China. But what really broke China's self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy was a large number of industrial-age products, represented by cotton cloth. Britain, which completed the Industrial Revolution, increased its industrial capacity by a factor of ten, and with it a large number of cheap products, the dumping of which led to the collapse of China's small-scale peasant economy.

Hong Yun'er knew that raising tariffs on foreign cloth would definitely meet with the all-round opposition of the foreign powers, so she proposed this article to play with the British. After all, opium is not a major dumping product. In order for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to complete the construction and development of its own industry and commerce, it was necessary to break the economic structure of small peasants, but commodity dumping would also have an impact on its own industry and commerce, and regulating the tax rate of various products at any time became a double-edged sword. However, at present, it seems that raising the tariff on foreign cloth is not conducive to Shanghai's development for the time being, and can only be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations.

Sure enough, the reactions of ministers and businessmen from various countries were very fierce, Xiao Yungui knew that there was nothing to talk about in this situation, and today's effect was also achieved, so he stood up and stopped the noise of the foreigners and said loudly: "Today, this king invited you to discuss things, not to listen to your noise, so if you continue to make noise, you can't talk about anything at all, so let's let Li Tai finish speaking first, and businessmen from various countries with different opinions will elect representatives and continue to negotiate tomorrow!" ”

The king of the west spoke, and the merchants of various countries slowly quieted down, and they also needed time to discuss countermeasures, so they continued to listen at the moment. The tariff rules of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the tariff regulations that follow are very comprehensive, and there are institutional guarantees for all aspects of taxation, declaration, inspection, assessment, examination, taxation, payment, and inspection. However, to the unacceptability of merchants from all over the world, the tariff rules of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom inherited many bad rules of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and in addition to the regular tax, there were also sub-export taxes, re-import taxes, and so on.

After Li Taitai finished speaking, Wen Han felt that in addition to the institutional regulations, the tax rates of various goods were almost different from the news brought back by Li Taitai, and it could be seen that the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had re-set the tax rates themselves, and they only borrowed from the Western customs management methods and various systems introduced by Li Tai, and the purpose of manipulating tariff rates that the previous countries wanted to do was not achieved at all.

After talking for most of the day, everyone was hungry, and after Li Taitai finished talking about the lengthy articles and by-laws, Xiao Yungui invited the Chinese and foreign businessmen who sat down to the banquet together, and announced that only representatives of foreign businessmen would be invited to continue the discussion tomorrow, and the Chinese businessmen would go to Wang Minyun's China Merchants Bureau tomorrow to discuss other matters. Xiao Yungui seductively said a lot of investment projects, ranging from the construction of a shipyard in Shanghai to the opening of a pharmaceutical factory, which made foreign businessmen hot, but when the ministers of various countries expressed great interest in these projects, Xiao Yungui replied lightly: "The rice should be eaten one bite at a time, and when we finish talking about tariffs, let's talk about anything else." ”

Xiao Yungui's reply made the envoys of various countries itch their hearts, and when they left the customs yamen, a very serious verbal conflict broke out between the American minister Marshali and the British minister Wen Han. Marshali believed that Wen Han treated the king of the West as a cowardly and corrupt Manchu official, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the Taiping army's normal operation of the occupier's rights and interests to collect customs duties, and thought that it was simply impossible for Wen Han to use this means to influence the Taiping army's tax policy, and perhaps after hard negotiations, Britain could get some benefits from the opium trade, but what was opium? Compared with the railway, telegraph, and mineral mining rights mentioned by Xiao Yungui, the benefits of opium are not worth mentioning! Marshali accused the British of selfishly kidnapping American interests and giving up greater interests for the sake of petty gains.

Wen Han blushed, he knew that the Americans were greedy for Xiao Yungui's tempting investment projects, but why didn't the British themselves be impressed? He was already in a bad mood, and after listening to Marshali's words, he immediately ridiculed Mashali, saying that Americans are exiles who see money. Many people in the United States were prisoners exiled to the New World by the British, and Marshali, of course, could not bear the insult and immediately quarreled with Wen Han, but fortunately, the French minister Blomble mediated in time.

"Gentlemen, what we need is unity, and pointless disputes are unnecessary." "Generally speaking, the tariff rules and regulations of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were more complete than those of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and their tariff policy began to show restrictions or incentives for the import and export of goods, and they also had a strong feature of protecting the country's industry and commerce, such as the article that in the event of price adjustments, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's naval military administration had the right to redefine the tariff rate according to the price level," Blomble said. This may seem fair, but it leaves room for them to manipulate the tax rate. In terms of export taxes, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom abolished many checkpoint taxes and messy taxes that were unfavorable to its own merchants, the export of goods by Chinese merchants became more attractive, which also gave them maximum protection. I don't believe that Jihua, who we had intended to interfere with the tariffs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, will succeed, after all, it is difficult to get what we want through diplomatic efforts alone. Gentlemen, we should be pragmatic in weighing the pros and cons, perhaps choosing temporary concessions can better maximize our current interests, and I believe that without the guarantee of the use of force, it is impossible for us to let a strong man with more than 100,000 soldiers in his hands fall into line. ”

Blombull's words calmed down Marshali and Wen Han, and Marshali nodded and said: "Yes, on this point, I agree with His Excellency Blomble, it seems very tempting to be able to participate in the manipulation of tariff rates, but without any guarantee of resorting to force, it is impossible for us to achieve our goal. Think about it, gentlemen, what an interesting business it is to build railways in China, and there are some mining rights in some places, and I don't think the legislators on the other side of the ocean will be satisfied with the little tax we have earned, they will only be crazy for the railway rights, the mining rights. And as long as our cooperation with the Taiping Army deepens, I believe that Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Wuhu may be open to us in the future. ”

Wen Han was very dissatisfied, the French and Americans were together, they did not intend to stand with the British for the interests of the opium trade monopolized by the British, they thought more about their own interests! Damn the Russians, weishenme is going to start a damn war during his tenure? Yesterday he received an official letter from China, in which the British Foreign Secretary demanded that Wen Hon remain neutral in China's civil war and that he could trade with the Manchus and the Taiping at the same time. Subsequently, Colonel Hob of the British Far East Fleet also received an order to organize all British military liliang in the Far East, and in addition to protecting the interests of Britain in the treaty port, he was ready to raid the Russian military port of Petropavlov on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East. Therefore, at this time, Wen Han does not have any confidence to wrestle with the king of the west, perhaps Blombble is right, temporary concessions can ensure the maximum benefits at present.

After getting into the carriage, Wen Han looked at the Yamen of Wangjiang Customs through the glass window, only to see that the plaque on it had been replaced, Midile said that it was written "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Shanghai Customs Division" a few big words, Wen Han secretly clenched his fists and said in his heart: "When the war with Russia is over in the future, the British Empire will definitely get back what belongs to itself!" (To be continued......)