Chapter 170: The English Envoy (I)
In August of the 38th year of Kangxi, the last batch of seagoing ships were put into use, and so far, a total of more than 600 large seagoing ships have traveled to and from the five major wharves, completely replacing inland river transportation. The two governors' yamen of the river and Caoyun were merged into one to form the Inland Water Conservancy Division, which was directly managed by the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry, and the officials in charge of the Department were given the title of squire of the Ministry of Industry, which was higher than other departments of the Ministry of Industry, in order to show the importance of the Inland Water Conservancy Division. More than 30,000 Caoding and 100,000 family members were diverted to sea transportation, more than 15,000 people were put into reclamation, and the remaining 5,000 were transferred to the water conservancy department. So far, Yinzuo's initial maritime fold has been basically completed, only some finishing work remains, this project alone has saved more than one million taels of silver for the imperial court every year, the old man Kangxi issued an edict to reward Yinzuo, appreciate the jade screen, several pieces of jade Ruyi, a number of gold and silver.
In October of the 38th year of Kangxi, the new commercial law was produced under the cooperation of the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Rites. The birth of the new commercial law marks the establishment of the legitimacy of overseas trade, but the closure still exists, without the imperial court concession, private individuals still cannot engage in overseas trade, the only thing that makes Yinzuo a little dissatisfied is that the tariffs on overseas trade are a little ridiculously high, compared with the eleventh tax of domestic trade, which is a lot higher, reaching the level of two out of ten. Although the profits of overseas trade are extremely high, but considering the risk of shipping, this tax system is inevitably a little too high, which is not conducive to the long-term development of overseas trade - at present, there are not many people engaged in overseas trade, and things are scarce and expensive, with the expansion of scale, the reduction of profits is inevitable, and the high tax is really not conducive to the expansion of the scale of shipping.
Yinzuo knew in his heart that this tax system was not reasonable, and he also knew that this was the ghost of Miao Tong and Miao, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the old man Miao, whose intention was just to suppress overseas trade with high taxes, but Yinzuo did not immediately jump out to oppose it, after all, the time has not yet come, and if it is forced to oppose it, it may not be able to get the consent of the old man, but as long as the scale of shipping goes up and there is enough economic scale, the old man Kangxi will naturally see the strange things.
In November of the 38th year of Kangxi, more than 100 large sea ships under Yinzuo set sail from Qingdao, Shanghai and Guangzhou in three ways, the goal is no different from the last time, the only thing worth mentioning is that the three ships of the old three Yinzhi took the North Korean route, starting from Qingdao, the eight ships under the old eight are to follow the large fleet of Yinzuo to go to the South Seas, the three fleets have a total of 122 large sea ships, and the rest of the private boats that sail with the large fleet are more than 60 ships.
At the end of April of the 39th year of Kangxi, the three-way fleet returned one after another, not counting private boats, just the fleet under the names of the three elder brothers, with a cumulative profit of nearly 250,000 taels of silver, and nearly 10 million taels of tariffs, although the profit margin was lower than the first time due to the large number of goods, but it was still high and scary, deducting the three big ships that sank due to the storm, the taxes paid and the dividends distributed to others, Yinzuo alone made a profit of nearly 4 million taels, which can be described as a windfall. The third elder brother Yinzhi earned 200,000 taels of silver, and the eighth elder brother Yinzhi and his gang also earned more than 800,000 taels, all of them were so happy that they couldn't keep their mouths together.
The tariff of overseas trade is close to the salt tax, and seeing that there is money in the treasury, the old man Kangxi is also very happy, allocating three million taels of silver, and ordering a major repair of the Chengde Palace. Chengde Palace was originally a royal summer resort, in the early years, the old man went to Chengde to avoid the office, but since the fight against the Geldan rebellion, the treasury has become increasingly empty, and the arrears have not been effective, there is no money to renovate the Chengde Palace, resulting in disrepair, has long been a little dilapidated, the old man has not been there for several years to escape the summer, this time with money in his hands is naturally a luxury. For those flagmen and dignitaries who asked to join the overseas trade, the old man waved his pen and agreed, and if they wanted a ship, they all asked them to find Yinzuo to go.
The old man is refreshing, Yinzuo is not ambiguous, and those who come to ask for a ship agree to let them go to Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard to line up to pay the money, and they will not owe it on credit, that is, to give face to a few old princes, send a few boats, and others can use money to buy a boat, and they want to spend money to build a ship? There are no doors.
The fleet returning from Java not only brought back huge profits, but also brought two guests, namely Van Forster, the representative of the East India Company of England? Green, Captain Sean of the Far East Fleet in England? Brown, these two led a group of attachés to China on behalf of King William III of England to present their credentials, asking for an audience with the Qing Emperor and asking for friendly trade. After receiving the post, the host and guest of the Ministry of Rites did not dare to slack off, and forwarded this to the imperial review.
The old man Kangxi read through the history books, and also learned Western studies from Li Douma, Tang Ruowang, Nan Huairen and others, and also had a certain understanding of the history of Europe, and also knew that there was such a country as England, and he was also quite interested in the English envoy to submit his credentials, and agreed to wait for the English envoys in Shanghai to come to Beijing to meet him. The envoy came, and the credentials were delivered, but the audience ran into trouble - the English envoys did not agree to kneel and salute, saying that England did not have this kind of etiquette, and insisted on the bow of England to meet the king.
William III, the son of William II, the ruler of the Netherlands, and Princess Mary, daughter of King Charles I of England. In November 1688, the Glorious Revolution took place in England, and the Free Parliament invited William III to land in England. In January 1689, the British Parliament abdicated King James II, appointed James II's daughters and sons-in-law, Mary II and William III, as kings, and adopted the Declaration of Rights. In April, William III was crowned King of England along with Mary II. In October, Parliament passed the Bill of Rights, and Britain gradually established the political principle of a constitutional monarchy and the supremacy of parliament over royal power. From then on, the King of England was only a nominal monarch and no longer had actual power, and all the power of England was in the hands of Parliament.
The result of the neglect of the British mission Yinzuo had long predicted, this was not only a matter of cultural differences between the two countries, but also a matter of differences in the political systems of the two countries, England was already a democratic country at this time, although the monarchy had not been completely lost, but the influence among the British people was already insignificant. There are only two possibilities for a British citizen to kneel: you are God, and he has to kneel, or you conquer all of England and kill all the people who don't kneel, otherwise it is basically impossible for a citizen who thinks he is a great country to kneel to the emperor of another country.
The intention of the English envoys was also very clear - the Dutch East India Company made the first transaction with Yinzuo in the 37th year of Kangxi, and in the middle of the 38th year of Kangxi, the Dutch fleet was full of Chinese specialties: silk, tea, ceramics and other goods returned to Europe, which caused a huge sensation. Although there were some goods from China every year, but there was never as much quantity as this time, the quality was so good, for a time Europe set off a Chinese style, everyone has been able to buy things from China for fashion, especially the perfume produced in the Yinzuo factory is coaxed to a terrible high price, the aristocratic ladies do not dare to show up in the upper class social circle if they do not have a bottle of mysterious perfume from China in their hands. The Dutch East India Company thus made a windfall, and European countries suddenly set off a wave of intending to go to China to pan for gold, but at this time the European powers could only have such strength in a limited number of countries such as Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, etc., England was the fastest, and took the lead in sending envoys, as for the envoys of other countries are still drifting on the way to China.
Envoys from various countries came to China to ask for trade, which is both a good thing and a bad thing in Yinzuo's view - the good thing is that the country has finally opened, and China's first step to the world is to go out, and it is not in vain that Yinzuo has spent so much effort and put so much effort; The bad thing is that the country is open, and there are many things that follow, and there are a lot of "dangerous" things in it, and this "danger" is naturally those ideas of equality and freedom, if Yinzuo is the emperor by himself, he has a way to deal with these thoughts, but the problem is that the old man Kangxi is in power at this time, if the old man is aware of the ideas that are not conducive to the ruling class, and a stick will be beaten down, all Yinzuo's efforts will be in vain, and the possibility of ascending to the throne in the future will be pitifully low.
In the two or three months from the arrival of the English mission in Beijing to being left out in the cold, Yinzuo has always watched coldly, not interfering in this matter on the surface, but he is constantly thinking about how to deal with it - doing business with England was originally a part of Yinzuo's plan to dominate Asia, business is to be done, the key is how to do it, it will never be the kind of practice proposed by England to set up a stronghold in China, let alone the way of concession in later generations, which is not in line with Yinzuo's idea of cultivating the maritime consciousness of the whole nation, nor is it in line with the current situation. If you want to make money, you have to make a lot of money, and you have to make a lot of money, and it hurts the British, only when the British are distressed, Yinzuo will have the opportunity to take the momentum, and this time will definitely not be too long, that is, two or three years.
The English mission was left out in the cold for a month or two, and I couldn't help but feel a little anxious, for fear that the envoys of other countries would also come, in that case, the competition would be great, and it would be difficult to seek a first-mover status......
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