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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 253: Weighing the Pros and Cons

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    Wenhan suddenly felt like he was shooting himself in the foot, but now that he had reached this point, he could not turn back and could only bite the bullet and continue arguing with Xiao Yungui.  Soon people from both the Chinese and British sides joined in the quarrel, and the scene became lively again.  In fact, the opium trade was in the greatest interests of the United Kingdom. In other countries, only some retail merchants were engaged in the opium trade. Moreover, these retail merchants had a difficult time under the British monopoly on the opium trade. Therefore, the ministers of the United States, France and other countries chose to remain silent.

    After repeated arguments, neither side could convince the other. Finally, the Queen of the West, Hong Yun'er, stood up and said: "Lord Wenhan, since your country insists, then we will cancel the legalization of the opium trade!"

    Wenhan, Bill and others are in a dilemma. Legalizing the opium trade is what they dream of, but the opium tax rate is too high and they are unwilling to accept it. They still insist on legalizing the opium trade, but the opium tax rate must be lowered.

    Hong Yun'er smiled faintly and said: "It is okay to reduce the tax rate on opium. In exchange, we must increase the tax rate on foreign cloth. We must increase the tax rate on woolen fabrics, coarse serge, printed cloth, serge satin, denim, feather cloth, cotton cloth, cotton yarn, etc."  What do you think about an additional five percent tariff?¡±

    At this time, the ministers from various countries could not sit still and stood up to protest. Hong Yun'er smiled and did not argue, and sat down to sip tea.  Speaking of the commodities imported from Europe and the United States to China, opium is mentioned in the list. Some people will immediately think of the Opium War and think of textbooks saying that opium was a dirty drug used by the British to earn Chinese silver when the British were unable to make ends meet in trade with China.  trade, but what role does opium play in the trade with China?

    Hong Yuner has studied this period of history in great detail. Before 1830, when China was often ahead in foreign trade.  Silver was constantly flowing into China from India, Britain and the United States.  After the mid-18th century, the annual silver import into China was generally 450,000 taels, with a maximum of 1.5 million taels. At this time, the opium trade began.  However, since the end of the 18th century, as a result 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 dramatically. As a result, the United Kingdom "has no longer directly exported gold and silver to China." However, the import of cotton cloth and cotton yarn to China has increased suddenly.  By the eve of the Opium War, cotton was the top commodity imported from Western European countries to China.  The average annual import of cotton reaches 500,000 tons, worth 5 million yuan; cotton cloth occupies the second place, with 530,000 pieces imported every year, worth 1.38 million yuan; woolen occupies the third place, with an annual import value of 1.03 million yuan; cotton yarn and cotton thread occupy the fourth place  .  The annual import value is 625,000 yuan.  Regarding the status of opium in China¡¯s foreign trade, the peak period was not the Daoguang period around 1840.  But the Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties.  After entering the 19th century, with the massive influx of cotton and cotton cloth, opium's status in Sino-British trade declined year by year, until it gradually faded out of Sino-British trade.  This trend became inevitable when more and cheaper mechanical mass-produced products appeared in the hands of British businessmen.

    The small-scale peasant society formed in China from ancient times to the present originally had an unparalleled foundation of self-sufficiency. The opium trade has indeed brought great harm to China.  But what really broke China's self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy was the large number of industrial-era products represented by cotton cloth.  Britain, which completed the Industrial Revolution, increased its industrial production capacity dozens of times, followed by a large number of cheap products. The dumping of these products 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 full opposition from the great powers, so she proposed this article to compete with the British.  After all, opium is not a major dumped product.  In order for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to complete the construction and development of its own industry and commerce, it is necessary to break the small-scale peasant economic structure. However, commodity dumping will also have an impact on its own industry and commerce. Regulating the tax rates of various products at any time becomes a double-edged sword. If it is used well, it will be harmful to itself.  It's beneficial, but if you don't grasp the timing well, you will hurt yourself.  But at present, it seems that increasing tariffs on foreign cloth is temporarily detrimental to the development of Shanghai and can only be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations.

    Sure enough, the reaction of the ministers and businessmen from various countries was very fierce. Xiao Yungui knew that there was nothing to talk about in this situation, and the effect was achieved today. He stood up and stopped the noise of the foreigners and said loudly: "Today the king invites you to  We are here to discuss things, not to listen to your noises. If we continue to make noise like this, there will be nothing to talk about. Let's let Li Taitai finish speaking first, and businessmen from various countries with different opinions will elect representatives and continue the negotiation tomorrow!"

    When the King of the West spoke, the merchants from various countries slowly became quiet. They also needed time to discuss countermeasures, so they continued to listen.  The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's tariff details and subsequent tariff regulations are very comprehensive. All aspects of tax collection, declaration, inspection, tax assessment, review, tax collection, payment, and inspection and release are all guaranteed by the system.  But what merchants from all over the world cannot accept is that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's tariff rules inherited many of the Manchu's bad rules. In addition to the regular taxes, there are sub-export taxes, double import taxes, etc.

    After Li Taitai finished speaking, Wenhan felt that in addition to the institutional regulations, the above content contained variousThe tax rates for goods are almost all different from the news brought back by Li Taiping. It can be seen that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom finally reset the tax rate themselves. They just learned from the Western customs management methods and various systems introduced by Li Taitai. Previously, various countries wanted to  The purpose of manipulating tariff rates has not been achieved at all.

    After talking for a long time, everyone was hungry. After Li Taitai finished the lengthy charter and detailed rules, Xiao Yungui invited the Chinese and foreign businessmen who were sitting again to join the banquet, and announced that only representatives of foreign businessmen would be invited to continue discussions tomorrow, while the Chinese businessmen would  Go to Wang Kaiyun's General Investment Promotion Bureau to discuss other matters.  Xiao Yungui seductively talked about many investment projects, ranging from building a naval shipyard in Shanghai to opening a pharmaceutical factory, which made foreign businessmen excited. However, when ministers from various countries expressed great interest in these projects, Xiao Yungui was indifferent.  He replied: "You have to eat your food one bite at a time. Let's wait until we finish talking about tariffs before we talk about anything else."

    Xiao Yungui¡¯s reply made the ministers from various countries feel itchy. When they left the customs office, a very serious verbal conflict broke out between the American Minister Marsali and the British Minister Wenhan.  Marsali believed that Wenhan treated the Western King as a cowardly and corrupt Manchu official, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the Taiping Army's efforts to set up obstacles to the occupiers' rights to collect customs duties. He also believed that Wenhan wanted to use this method to influence the Taiping Army's tax policy.  It is simply not feasible. Perhaps after arduous negotiations, Britain can get some benefits from the opium trade, but what is opium?  Compared with the railways, telegraphs, and mineral mining rights that Xiao Yungui mentioned, the benefits of opium are not worth mentioning!  Marsali accused the British of selfishly kidnapping American interests and giving up greater interests for petty gains.

    Wen Han¡¯s face was livid. He knew that Americans were greedy for Xiao Yungui¡¯s attractive investment projects, but how could the British themselves not be tempted?  He was already in a bad mood. After hearing Marsali's words, he immediately ridiculed Marsali, saying that Americans are all money-minded exiles.  Many people in the United States were descendants of British prisoners who were exiled to the New World. Of course, Marsali could not bear the insult and immediately started a quarrel with Wenhan. Fortunately, the French Minister Blomble intervened in time.

    "Gentlemen, what we need is unity, and meaningless disputes are unnecessary." Brombull said: "Generally speaking, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's tariff details and regulations are more complete than the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's tariff agreement, and their tariff policy has begun to show  It has a restrictive or encouraging effect on the import and export of goods, and also has a strong characteristic of protecting the country's industry and commerce. For example, when encountering price adjustments, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Shanghai Administrative Department has the right to reset the tariff rate based on price levels. This article  It seems fair, but it leaves room for them to manipulate tax rates. As for export taxes, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom abolished many customs taxes and messy exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that were not conducive to domestic businessmen, the exports of Chinese businessmen's goods became more attractive. This is also  It gave Chinese businessmen the maximum protection. I do not believe that our previous plan to interfere with the Taiping Rebellion tariffs could succeed. After all, it is difficult to get what we want through diplomatic efforts alone. Gentlemen, we should be more pragmatic when weighing the pros and cons, and perhaps choose to temporarily  A concession can maximize our current interests. I believe that without the guarantee of using force, it is impossible for us to make a powerful man with more than 100,000 soldiers surrender."

    Blumble's words calmed down Marsali and Wenhan. Marsali nodded and said: "Yes, on this point, Mr. Blumble and I agree. Being able to participate in manipulating tariff rates seems very tempting, but there is no  We cannot achieve our goal without resorting to force. Before that, I agree with pragmatic negotiations and giving up some interests in exchange for greater interests. Think about it, gentlemen, how exciting it is to build railways in China.  Interested businesses, as well as mining rights in some places. I think the legislators on the other side of the ocean will not be satisfied with the little tax rate we have won. They will only go crazy for railway rights and mining rights. And as long as we  As our cooperation with the Taiping Army deepens, we believe that places like Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Wuhu may be open to us in the future."

    Wenhan was very dissatisfied. The French and Americans stood together. They had no intention of standing with the British for the interests of the British monopoly of the opium trade. They considered more of their own interests!  Damn the Russians, why did they start a damn war during their term?  Yesterday, he received an official document from China. The British Foreign Minister asked Wenhan to continue to remain neutral in China's civil war and to conduct trade cooperation with the Manchu and Taiping troops at the same time.  Subsequently, Captain Hooper of the British Far East Fleet also received an order to organize all British military forces in the Far East. In addition to protecting British interests in the treaty ports, he was ready to raid the Russian Petropavlov military port on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East at any time.  .  Therefore, at this time, Wenhan did not have any confidence to fight with the King of the West. Perhaps Blomble was right, only a temporary concession could maximize the current interests.

    After getting on the carriage, Wenhan looked at the Jianghai Customs Yamen through the glass window and saw that the plaque above had been replaced. Midile said that it said "?With the words "Pingtian Kingdom Shanghai Customs Department", Wen Han secretly clenched his fists and said in his heart: "When the war with Russia ends in the future, the British Empire will definitely get back what belongs to it!"  "(To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!
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