Tea is the most expensive of the goods sold in China, and the tax on this kind of goods fluctuates a bit, and the impact is extremely significant, and Bafur will never make concessions in this regard, and must come out to withstand the pressure of Gong Mujiu.

"I see. Gong Mujiu sighed, knowing that he really couldn't find fault with this matter, even if he succeeded in finding fault and made people pay more taxes, Qiying would feel offended afterwards.

"It's just that your clocks and perfumes are too cheap, right?" Gong Mujiu changed his words and found trouble with imported goods again.

Commodities such as watches, telescopes, and perfumes were inherently priced, fluctuating sharply, and there was no suitable reference price beforehand, and the price of such goods was already so inflated that it was difficult to deduce the actual wholesale price from the retail price.

However, what really matters is that Zhao Dagui bought these imported goods from the captain and then sold them to those warehouses, so Zhao Dagui had to pay for taxes, just like the tea houses had to help the tea merchants pay taxes.

In this way, everyone can understand that the prices of these imported goods reported by Zhao Dagui must be as low as they can be.

"Damn, I still have to tell the captains in the future, I can help them with the tax payment procedures, but the tax money itself is still less and they have to pay it themselves. Zhao Dagui thought to himself, but he also knew that it was unlikely that he could do this, and even if he succeeded, it would only reduce customer loyalty.

Gong Mujiu sneered in his heart, although he didn't know much about business, but if he thought about it on his knees, he could understand that there were many inaccuracies in this customs declaration.

He then found faults, picking thorns one commodity at a time, and finally got Bafur and Zhao Dagui to agree to pay an additional import tax of more than 200 yuan.

In the final accounting, the captain came to buy tea worth 120,000 yuan and other goods worth 10,000 yuan, but the actual report was 2,600 quintals of tea and native products, according to Zhao Dagui's carefully built customs declaration, it was necessary to pay about 6,900 Guan Ping silver, of course, this had to be paid by the tea house;

The price of the goods transported by the captain to Zhao Dagui was 80,000 yuan, deducting ten boxes of opium, the total price was about 74,000 yuan, of course, according to Zhao Dagui's Spring and Autumn penmanship, the customs declaration was sold for 60,000 yuan, and the silver dollar should be paid about 3,800 yuan according to the tax rate of imported goods, and the tax rate calculated by Guan Pingyin was more than 2,300 taels of tax silver, but in the end, because Gong Mujiu found fault, a total of 2,500 taels of tariffs were paid, and this money was naturally borne by Zhao Dagui.

It can also be seen from this that the Qing Dynasty at this time the tariff was unreasonable, the export tariff rate was high and the import tariff rate was low, but any modern country that knew the matter would not do this; on the other hand, it can also prove that the British really made great efforts in the process of signing the Treaty of Nanjing.

When everyone came, they were ready, and at this time, they took out the silver tickets one after another, and paid the customs duties on the spot.

After receiving the tariff of 9,400 taels, Gong Mujiu's face immediately looked much better, after all, this was an extra tax out of thin air, and it was also his political achievement to say it, so he couldn't help but be unhappy.

Gong Mujiu is a scholar, attaches great importance to etiquette, and will not do things like driving people out as soon as he gets the money, so he pulls Consul Bafur and others to sit and chatte about the customs and characters of China and Britain.

The consul and the Taoist sat in the hall, Mai Huatuo was the translator, and on one side of the hall were the officials of the Taoist Yamen, and on the other side were the captain, Zhao Dagui, the shopkeeper and other taxpayers, and the atmosphere was a little strange and harmonious.

Of course, only Bafur and Gong Mujiu were chatting, and these people in the hall could only listen and not interrupt a word.

Zhao Dagui had nothing to do in the hall, but he didn't know that Gong Mujiu had been paying attention to Zhao Dagui's actions in the hall.

In fact, Gong Mujiu has been very interested in Zhao Dagui from the beginning, although since the opening of the British Consulate in the Yao family compound, the Daotai Yamen to the Zhixian Yamen seem to be indifferent, but every move of the British can never be hidden from the people in the official government.

Gong Mujiu knew that Zhao Dagui claimed to be a native of Qinzhou, Guangdong, and it was said that he was extremely fluent in English, and was very respected by the British consul, and as soon as he arrived at the consulate, he was given the post of "comprador", which was appropriate to let Zhao Dagui do the posture of all the Chinese leaders recruited in the future.

The comprador was actually the position of the Qing court, there was no such position in Britain, and Bafur was only named according to Chinese customs and the requirements of Zhao Dagui, whose official position was actually the legendary "temporary worker", the kind that received a salary to work, but could be dismissed at any time.

However, Gong Mujiu did not know this, only knew that the comprador was the highest position in the official position of dealing with foreigners, in fact, this is not wrong, Zhao Dagui is indeed the highest Chinese (or the only) under Bafur now, that is, it may be the highest and most important for a long time to come.

Gong Mujiu always wanted to know what this "traitor businessman" who suddenly appeared was like, so he secretly paid close attention to Zhao Dagui's actions at the beginning.

After the first meeting, Zhao Dagui gave him the feeling that it was not much different from what he expected, first he was self-respecting by foreigners, and refused to kowtow and salute because he was taken care of by foreigners, which is a great crime in this era;

However, when it comes to the latter point, Zhao Dagui has been wronged a little, he just reasonably protects his rights and interests according to the habits of modern people (although it is not necessarily legal), but in the eyes of Qing court officials, this is a great rebellion.

The government set the tax rate, and the businessman only knelt down and kowtowed, and accepted the tax rate in full, how could there be any reason to argue with the big man on the spot, if it weren't for Bafur in the hall, someone would have proposed to drag Zhao Dagui out with fifty sticks to let him have more knowledge.

To be honest, Zhao Dagui concedes that he is a modern person, and his vision and knowledge are much higher than those of this era, but his actual speech and demeanor are incompatible with this era.

At this time, Gong Mujiu looked at Zhao Dagui from the corner of his eyes, and was a little uncertain, according to the origin and identity of this person, he should be a fat-headed, big-eared person who does not learn and has no skills, but he speaks very methodically, especially showing a vitality that he has never seen before.

It is said that this Zhao Dagui was deprived of his identity as a child because he collided with the magistrate in the lobby, and he was dismissed, Gong Mujiu felt that he understood the practice of the demon capital magistrate, if this Zhao Dagui was also this virtue today when he was promoted to the magistrate, it would be difficult not to be punished.

It's just that this bastard is now taking refuge in foreigners and helping foreigners do things, which has a lot of obstacles.

Gong Mu thought about it for a long time and felt that there were some things that still needed to be asked.

"Soon after Ba Da arrived in the magic capital, he did things well, and he deserved to be the best among foreigners.

It's just that I see that Master Ba recruited Zhao comprador as a staff member, do you want to recruit some Chinese to do things in the future?" asked Gong Mujiu.

"My surname is Ba, my surname is Bafur. I do have the intention of recruiting capable people like Zhao Comprador to jointly promote Sino-British friendship. Bafur nodded.

Actually, the government used to strictly prohibit foreigners from hiring their own people, but, okay, this war has been defeated, and your business has been done in the magic capital, I still don't mention this, Gong Mujiu thought to himself.

"I see, I don't know what the origin of this comprador Zhao is?" asked Gong Mujiu.

"On this point, comprador Zhao happens to be here, why don't you ask him face to face. Bafur smiled and said.