Yuzhu looked carefully at the account book. The East India Company purchased the most products from the Qing Dynasty, the first one was tea.
The second is porcelain, and the third is silk products.
Moreover, Yuzhu also knew that most half a century later, the British tea committee would definitely find ways to obtain tea trees from unscrupulous merchants.
The three reasons are actually very simple. After the British developed the habit of drinking afternoon tea, the tea trade between China and the UK was monopolized by the East India Company...
Monopoly is stronger than tigers!
When Macalny visited China, he took away the tea trees from Jiangxi from the Qing Dynasty and handed them over to a botanist named Joseph Banks.
Joseph Banks, very capable, was really successful in transplanting in Kolkata, India.
However, the East India Company took into account the huge profits of monopolizing Qing tea, and did not use Kolkata's tea.
At the earliest, the East India Company's sales of Chinese tea were only about 10,000 pounds. Now, it has soared to as many as 5 million pounds per year, and the British are unable to live without tea from China.
The East India Company needs tea, and all tea is in the hands of Thirteen Lines, that is, it is in the hands of Yuzhu.
We are all businessmen and have needs for each other, which makes it easy to cooperate!
Yuzhu held a wine glass in his hand and got together with Churchill. Through Alice's so-called translation,
The conversation was very pleasant.
Unlike ordinary merchants, East India Company is a company worthy of respect.
This kind of respect is not emotional respect, but emphasis on strength.
It can be despised strategically, but tactics must pay attention to it.
The world is about strength!
This time, Churchill rushed over from Macau. In addition to attending the Yuzhu party, he also wanted to buy a land and build a formal store in the Thirteen Yiguan District.
According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, foreigners must obtain the consent of Yuzhu when building foreign shopping malls.
After hearing Churchill’s thoughts, Yuzhu nodded and agreed without saying a word.
It was obvious that Churchill was just a temptation. Yuzhu nodded at the first time, and immediately made him realize that there was an essential difference between the young supervisor and the old bureaucrat Wen Ershan.
It was a while before lunch, Yuzhu invited everyone to the lawn in the back garden and then high-five twice.
At this time, the melodious tune of "Pafan Dance" suddenly sounded over the back garden.
Alice immediately stared at Yuzhu's face without blinking. What kind of devil man is this?
What Alice and all the foreign merchants present never dreamed that in the back garden supervised by the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, the extremely popular Pafan dance music appeared in various European courts.
The Par Sail Dance, also known as the Peacock Dance, is a slow double court dance move that was popular in Europe in the 16th century (Renaventure) and consists of many pairs of dancers in a queue. The 2/2 beats are slow and solemn.
Usually, Parfan dance and Gerille dance are performed in pairs.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the dance music has started, dance to your heart's content!" Yuzhu blinked at Alice and asked her to translate his words to everyone.
Alice restrained her inner shock and announced the good news of dancing casually in public.
As a result, foreign merchants from all over the country cheered and applauded for the imperial envoys of the Qing Dynasty.
For a time, foreign merchants took their dance partners and danced together one after another.
Yuzhu actually wouldn't dance such heavy and slow court dance, but Alice insisted on teaching him to dance.
"Sweetheart baby, I don't want to make a fool of myself in public. Why not, let's change the place, come and teach me?" Yuzhu's request was reasonable, so Alice agreed.
As a result, in Yuzhu's inner study, Yuzhu pulled Alice and danced a veneer dance.
Alice's face turned red with a tide by the jade pillar, and she was shy and she couldn't bear it.
After enough trouble, Yuzhu cooperated very well with Alice and learned Parfan dance and Gerill dance.
When Yuzhu and Alice appeared in the dance hall together, the foreign merchants were immediately excited and whistled.
Screams were flying all over the sky.
After the dance, during the lunch buffet, Yuzhu raised his wine glass high and said his toast.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I want to announce good news to you. From now on, the amount of banknotes for each ship will be reduced to 50 taels of silver." The news announced by Yuzhu in public is indeed a great benefit.
information.
After the foreign ships of this era arrived at the port of Guangzhou, in addition to the normal cargo tax, they also needed to collect "ship banknotes" silver according to the size of the ship.
The silver ship banknotes are divided into three levels according to the size of the merchant ship, including six hundred taels, one thousand one hundred taels and one hundred taels.
According to William, if there is no such an outrageously expensive ship banknote, the foreign merchants who come to Guangzhou to do business will at least have an additional 90%.
Of course, Yuzhu can understand that William’s statement makes sense!
The so-called ship banknotes and silver were the same as the nature of the city taxes that required entering the door whenever the Qing Dynasty, and they greatly hindered the circulation of commercial goods.
Today, Yuzhu paid for a treat, with the purpose of spreading this amazing good news widely through the mouths of various foreign merchants.
To put it bluntly, the more foreign merchants come, the happier Yuzhu will be.
After private bargaining, the old emperor gave Yuzhu a half-year buffer period. After that, he had to hand over the tariff silver of one million taels of silver to the Ministry of Internal Affairs every year.
Inviting guests to have a meal and dancing a few court dances, the good news of investment promotion spreads to foreign merchants. How amazing is this?
While drinking, Yuzhu took advantage of the situation to introduce Zhen from the Universe Business Number to foreign merchants in public.
Only by controlling finance can you make the biggest and most profits!
In addition, Yuzhu ordered people to distribute the customs declaration form printed in advance to foreign merchants.
From then on, when the tax soldiers inspected, they checked one by one according to the obviousness of the customs declaration form. If there was any concealment or the contraband was entrained, they would be fined one thousand yuan.
Alice, the more she looked at Yuzhu, the more confused she felt. Is this still an incompetent Qing bureaucrat?
The day after the meeting, Yuzhu took people to Hong Kong Island.
Yuzhu's entourage include Lin Yan'er's brother Lin Zhangwu, as well as Xingrui, Xingjiao and Alice.
As for Baixing and Niu Tai, as well as the fifty-odd officer seeds, they all followed.
In this era, there was only one small fishing village.
The land on the island cannot be farmed at all.
In a small peasant society, no matter how much land cannot grow food, it is not worth much.
Yuzhu stayed on Hong Kong Island for two days and ordered Lin Zhangwu to buy as much wasteland as possible, especially the wasteland by the sea.
After leaving Hong Kong Island, Yuzhu turned around and went to Macau Island.
Macau Island in this era is very different from Hong Kong Island.
The Portuguese came to Macau Island very early and obtained permission from the Ming and Qing dynasties to settle on the island.
After so many years of development, Macau Island has become very prosperous.
Guangdong Customs is under the jurisdiction of seven general checkpoints: Daguan, Macau General Entrance, Wuba General Entrance, Anbu General Entrance, Meijia General Entrance, Hai'an General Entrance, and Haikou General Entrance. There are several small passes below each general checkpoint.
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Among them, the provincial capital Daguan and Macau general entrance are the most important, which is the location of the central gate.
The provincial capital Daguan is located in the former Salt Court Office (now between Qiyi Road and Subo Lane) inside the Wuxianmen Gate in Guangzhou, and the most strategically located Humenkou and Huangpukou are both affiliated to the provincial capital Daguan.
Yuzhu came to the Macau General Office for inspection, which was natural and justified.
According to William, the yard of a certain Macao business is actually the main den for smuggling guns and cannons.
When Yuzhu heard about this, he immediately became excited.
The free flintlock guns and artillery are definitely a waste of resources if you don’t take them!
Go to Hong Kong Island first, that is because Yuzhu doesn’t want to alarm the snake.
After Yuzhu arrived at Macau Island, he invited foreign merchants every day or to go to foreign merchants' banquets.
Niu Tai, who was carrying the carving, became the main force in the reconnaissance business.
Yuzhu is a very cautious person. He either doesn’t act, and he must be a hit if he does.
In fact, William's news was just heard of, and he was not an insider in the gun smuggling industry.
According to Jade Pillar's estimate, the probability of flintlock guns and cannons hiding in that yard is actually very small.
A greater possibility is that flintlock rifles and artillery are hidden on merchant ships on the sea.
Because after Kangxi laid off the Guangdong Navy, the Qing Dynasty's control over the offshores such as Macau was simply unspeakable.
Fortunately, Niu Tai raised the golden eagle.
Although the golden eagle can't speak, under Niu Tai's training, he can target the smuggling leader from the air and then find the smuggling ship.
To be honest, there are dozens of ships of all sizes and sizes docked in Macau Port.
If you cannot accurately aim at the smuggled ship, the officers and soldiers will be discovered as long as they pass by the shore.
By that time, the firearms will definitely be thrown into the sea and can only catch a lonely life.
After leaving Niu Tai on Macau Island, Yuzhu and his men went to the Humen Nashi Camp on Shanghengbian Island.
There is no way, the flintlock rifle obtained from William's house needs a special training ground.
In the supervision yamen, it is definitely suitable for Yuzhu to fire guns every day. There is only the armed force of the Humen Naval Camp. Moreover, the Shanghengbian Island is a military restricted area, and there are no idle people.
Neither the Guangzhou General, the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, nor the Guangdong Admiral were involved.
Yuzhu was not familiar with flintlock rifles, but William, who had been an officer of the Royal Navy, naturally became an instructor.
Objectively speaking, Yuzhu has always been a talent-only pursuing people, and does not care about so-called loyalty.
The old saying goes well, the wind knows the strong grass, and the slander knows loyal ministers during normal times, everyone will be very loyal. In fact, at the critical moment, how many people are there who are truly loyal subordinates?
The so-called loyalty is really too expensive. It is better to just take the talent with clear rewards and punishments!
William has a very poor character, but this former Royal Navy officer is indeed not a waste of time. He has some personal experience in increasing the shooting speed of the flintlock rifle.
The officers' seeds, when they first went to the island, the speed of the volleyball gun shooting was only one and a half minutes.
Half a month later, the shooting speed increased to two shots in one minute.
To put it bluntly, with the officer seeds with organizational and disciplined foundations, they will be twice the result with half the effort to train the shooting speed.