After Ilya and Joseph returned, they immediately summoned a meeting of the Jewish elders in Yeniseisk. In fact, there was no need for them to convene. All the Jews were waiting for the news.
The meeting took place in a Jewish tavern, and all the prominent figures in the local Jewish community were present. Because military control is currently implemented in the city, military police wearing red armbands can be seen everywhere on the streets.
I usually go out to buy daily necessities and usually stay at home, so no one comes to drink these days.
In addition to the tavern owner who is a winemaker, most of the Jews attending the meeting were engaged in tinsmiths, watchmakers, glassmakers, tanners, grain trade, timber trade, and even two small landowners who made a living by farming.
Agricultural labor does not play an important role in Jewish life. The long-term guest life has to some extent led to the Jews' alienation from the land. This is a common phenomenon in various guest countries in Europe.
In general, the Tsarist Russian government prohibited Jews from engaging in agriculture. The several insignificant agricultural immigration settlements established were not so much to attract Jews to engage in agricultural labor, but to develop Siberia and resettle Jews who had migrated from rural areas in Europe.
After everyone listened to Ilya and Joseph's account of their meeting with Zhao Xin, a wine merchant suggested: "Well, since the new Chinese won't let us engage in the loan sharking business anymore, I think it's better to leave here.
wonderful."
"Leave? It's freezing outside now. Where can we go? Kolivan is thousands of miles away from here!"
"Wait a minute, Lieberman. The gentleman also said that he allows us to farm here, and each family can have a share of one hundred acres of land."
"Hell, I don't want to be a farmer!"
"Yes, they only give us use rights but not property rights. If one day the Chinese become unhappy and take away the land, what will happen then? Will the Queen still take us in?"
"What's wrong with farmers? I think it's good to be a farmer. Without farmers farming, where will the food for wine come from?"
"I said, you have never thought that although the Chinese have occupied this place, they are challenging the entire Tsarist Russian Empire. It is hard to say whether they can stand their ground."
"I think the Chinese are not bad. Although I don't know them at all, they did not confiscate my property and drive me out of my house. You know, the Russians did this in Lithuania."
"Stop dreaming. How many days have the Chinese been here? You won't even have time to cry when they take action!"
...
Everyone debated for a long time with no result. Most people, led by Rabbi Elijah, decided to wait and see. After all, the Chinese ruler was only talking about whether there would be a new decree.
The regulations will be announced in due course before making a decision.
In these years, most Jews had not yet risen to the "Zionist movement". Even if many people were persecuted, they would not think of returning to Palestine. In these years, there were only "Hasidic" and "Beru" living in southern Russia.
Only some members of the Shimite sect returned to Palestine to settle.
You must know that in another time and space, those Hasidic sects with long sideburns and black hats were rejected by Orthodox Judaism in this era, and they were even expelled from the church 18 years ago.
But what is interesting is that the Hasidim are the center of the movement that hopes to turn Palestine into Zion, while the Belushim are the center of the anti-Hasidic movement that wants to be established in Palestine.
After the tavern owner Martov saw off the attendees, he immediately put up a sign that the tavern was open. However, until dark, except for the North Navy who served as military police and were still standing guard on the muddy streets, there was almost no sight.
To the shadow of a local.
Martov stood at the doorway and looked around for a long time, and finally sighed helplessly. He turned off the oil lamp in the tavern, then walked out of the doorway, preparing to lock the door and go home. At this moment, he heard someone behind him say:
"What kind of wine do you have here?"
Martov turned around and used the light of the pine oil torch stuck on the wall beside him to see clearly that the man standing in front of him was a tall man. Because he had no beard, he looked quite young. However, this man was dressed differently from other northerners.
He wears a navy-like dark green uniform and a fur hat without military insignia. From this outfit, people who don't know him would have no idea whether he is a soldier or an officer.
"Chinese?" Martov was very surprised. He had never received any Chinese since the Northern Navy entered the city.
"The beer's gone, there's vodka, sir."
"I'm not a master," the man opposite smiled and said in fluent Russian, "How do you sell wine?"
"3 per barrel..." Martov hesitated for a moment, then insisted: "I have really good wine here, priced at 5.5 rubles per barrel."
"Then you need good wine. Just give me two glasses. I can't drink a barrel." These days, a barrel of wine must be more than 12 liters.
The man walked into the doorway, and Martov hurriedly opened the closed door and asked him to wait. He waited until he entered the room and lit a few oil lamps before inviting him in. Then he took a wooden cup from behind the counter.
, opened another bottle of vodka still stained with barley skins, and put them on the table together.
The man first poured himself half a glass of wine, took a sip, then nodded noncommittally, and then took out a North Sea silver coin from his pocket and placed it on the table. Martov curiously picked up the shiny silver coin.
, went to the oil lamp and looked at it carefully.
Different from the silver rubles issued by the Tsarist Russian government with the image of the empress in shawl and curly hair printed on it, the image lines on the silver coins in Beihai Town were more concise and clear, and the Xuanyuan Huangdi statue in Wuliang Temple looked chubby. Martov turned to the back and found
It was a ring of wheat ears and an Arabic "1". He immediately understood that this should be the basic currency unit of the Chinese.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Although the silver content of one yuan Beihai silver coin is 6.9 grams, using 925 silver, and the silver content of one ruble is 7.38 grams, but because of the
There was not much difference in weight between them, and the brightness of the North Sea silver coins was higher than that of rubles, so Martov did not question its value.
The man took a sip of vodka and suddenly said, "What's the drink?"
"There are sausages and pickles."
"Okay, give me a little of everything, not too much."
When the food and wine were served, Martov felt a little funny when he saw that the other party was drinking as if he were tasting medicinal soup.
"It seems that this person rarely drinks." He thought to himself, and then bowed to the other person and said: "Sir, this is the best vodka in the local area. How does it taste?"
"Not bad." The man put down his cup and said with a smile, "How about we chat for a while? Why don't you pour me a cup as well, and I'll treat you to it."
After so many years of running a tavern, this was the first time someone invited him to drink. Although Martov was a little uneasy, he was under Chinese rule now, so he took the empty cup and poured himself a full cup to the edge of the cup.
.
Martov raised his glass and said, "Do you want to say something?"
The young man thought for a moment and said: "The wine in the morning is stone, the wine at noon is copper, the wine in the evening is silver, and the wine you drink once in three days is gold. Then drink to silver."
Martov was stunned when he heard this and blurted out: "Have you read the Talmud?"
The young man clinked glasses with Martov, took a sip, and then explained: "Oh, I heard it said before."
After downing a glass of vodka, Martov started talking more. He smiled and said: "How can you live without drinking in Siberia? Young man, you speak Russian very well. Where did you learn it?"
"Uh, Irkutsk."
"I know that place. I have a relative. In the first few years..."
As he drank glass after glass of high-quality vodka, Martov's chatterbox gradually opened up. The young man first talked about the business of the tavern, and then turned the topic to the tax farming system.
It is said that the tax farming system was a very common form of taxation in Europe from the 17th to the 18th century. The French tax farmers in the 18th century can be said to be the most familiar group of merchants.
For the Tsarist Empire, the origin of the tax farming system was closely related to the rule of the Mongols. The rise of the Muscovite Principality in the fourteenth century was, to some extent, due to its role as the most powerful tax merchant in the Golden Horde.
.After getting rid of the Mongolian rule, this tradition of tax farming was inherited.
There are many tax objects under the tax package system, including customs duties, salt tax, and wine tax. The wine tax was the bulk of the treasury revenue during the Ekaterina era, exceeding 10 million rubles, accounting for one-third of the total revenue. Tsarist Russia
The government's tax farming law strictly stipulates the sales price of alcohol for tax farming companies. Its purpose is to reduce the profits of tax farming companies while increasing the government's revenue. However, it backfires. Such regulations not only fail to increase government revenue, but also reduce the government's alcohol tax revenue.
Declining year by year.
Martov, who had already drank seven or eight glasses of vodka, blushed and complained to the young man: "Those gentlemen and officials have no idea about the total sales volume of vodka in this area...Young man, how much have you sold?"
Only we ourselves know how much.”
The young man nodded and said: "In other words, the amount of alcohol tax revenue depends entirely on you tax collectors."
"You're absolutely right! Young man, have a drink!"
Since the mid-eighteenth century, Yeniseisk, like other Tsarist Russian regions, has basically been tax-packaged for the retail sale of alcoholic beverages. Each region holds a bid every four years. In addition to paying taxes, the winning bidder will also own a certain
Regional liquor retail monopoly.
The tax-packaged model of alcohol retailing has prompted tax-packers to expand the sales volume of vodka by any means necessary in order to obtain more profits, while on the other hand, they have explicitly or covertly increased the price of vodka. For the government,
Although this model has greatly reduced the administrative costs required for alcohol tax collection, as vodka sales continue to increase, the government has also lost control of the profits from alcohol sales and its social impact.
In other words, the Tsarist Russian government was short of money, which promoted the development of the alcohol tax package system; and the lack of control over alcohol sales caused ordinary Russians to gradually become greedy.
So having said that, Russians are not actually born with a love for drinking vodka. It does not mean that people who live in alpine areas must like wine. Obtaining enough food is the first priority. In an era when there is not even enough food to eat, brewing it with food
Wine can only be a luxury product. Even if the early Russians drank alcohol, they only drank beer and mead.
A big problem with the alcohol tax package system is the serious corruption associated with it. For example, the Russian government stipulates that tax packagers must sell vodka with a standard strength of 40 degrees, and the price of each barrel is required to be three rubles.
Martov, a former tax collector, told the young man that the cost price of a barrel of vodka must be at least 4.4 rubles, plus his own operating costs, so that he would not lose money if each barrel of vodka sold for at least 5 to 6 rubles.
.
Under this situation, the tax collectors under Tsarist Russia either adulterated the wine and watered it down, raised the selling price, or bribed government officials. Therefore, the tax collector system in Tsarist Russia has become an "institutional"
"Corruption", for tax collectors, the overall environment is like this, no one will abide by the regulations. Everyone only thinks about one thing, how to take advantage of the legal loopholes to earn the maximum benefit.
After drinking this meal for almost an hour, Zhao Xin, who was traveling in disguise, also roughly understood that the tax farming system must be abolished under the rule of Beihai Town, and at the same time, the grain trade and the production of breweries must be controlled from the source.
At the same time, he also became more aware of what losing the entire Siberia meant to the Russian government. A huge amount of treasury revenue was lost!
When Zhao Xin felt that it was about the same, he was about to get up and leave when he heard someone shouting from the doorway again: "Is there any beer?"
Before he finished speaking, two local Cossacks walked in.
Martov was already a little drunk at this moment. He stood up holding the table and said: "There is no beer."
"Don't worry, Jew, we'll pay you."
Martov now saw clearly that he knew the two guests, so he shouted loudly: "Oh God, can I still lie to you? Mr. Kryuchkov, please believe in honest Jews, there is no beer!"
Another Cossack shouted: "Nonsense, you Jew!"
"Really, Mr. Kryuchkov! I told you so."
"You're still..." The two Cossacks were furious and were about to rush over and grab each other's collars when they saw the Chinese man looking at them expressionlessly. The two endured it and then put their hands into their trouser pockets.
Give out a few copper coins.
"Bring us drinks!"
Martov pressed the copper coins on the palm of his hand with his little finger, put down his rolled eyelids, and staggered to the back of the counter, muttering: "What's the air? It's just a defeat at the hands of the Chinese."
When he came back from drinking, he found that the young Chinese man had left.
Two days later, several notices signed by the Northern Navy Military Control Council appeared on notice boards throughout the city. The content above shocked the Jewish brewers and tax merchants in Yeniseisk:
First, cancel the tax package model of all monopoly commodities during the rule of Tsarist Russia. The tax arrears of the previous tax package merchants must be paid within one month; second, the grain used for brewing every year must not exceed one-tenth of the local agricultural grain production;
Third, it is strictly prohibited to smuggle grain for use in wine making; fourth, all pubs or hotels that serve alcohol must apply for a "liquor monopoly license" from the Military Control Commission.
A group of tax collectors headed by Martov were immediately confused after seeing the notice. They knew exactly what this notice meant to them, and the basis for their survival for centuries had been deprived.
However, before they woke up, only one day later, the second notice came out.
The content is that the Beihai Town Military Control Committee will provide state-owned land to Jews who are willing to stay and work as farmers, with each household having one hundred municipal acres, equivalent to approximately 6.11 dessiatines. However, the location is not local, but in Nizhniyutinsk, hundreds of kilometers away.
and Tulum area. At the same time, the Military Control Commission will also provide loans for agricultural production. In addition, Beihai Town will also open a Chinese-teaching Jewish school, and all school-age children must enroll.
This policy of giving a slap in the face immediately aroused controversy within the local Jewish community, which also divided the originally tight-knit Jewish community into Orthodox and Reform sects.
The issuance of the previous decree eventually led to the bankruptcy of the brewers in Yeniseisk and Krasnoyarsk, and their original loan sharking businesses could no longer be maintained. Some of the bankrupt Jews left Beihai Town.
Next, they returned to the territory of Tsarist Russia and continued to engage in commercial activities or turned into handicraftsmen, which intensified competition in the local industry.
The promulgation of the last decree excited the originally poor Jews. Starting from the spring of 1791, more than 6,000 Jews from more than a thousand families left the town and headed to the above two places with their families.
Compared with settled Russian farmers who often hired Buryats or prisoners to help them farm, Jewish farmers rarely used hired labor. They all worked together as a family and worked by themselves. Although these people were not very good at farming, they
Because Beihai Town was tax-free for the first five years, it still inspired their enthusiasm for land.
At the Siberian Regional Agricultural Exposition held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 1792, Jewish livestock breeding, forestry cultivation, grains, tobacco, silkworms, etc. were highly praised.
The bumper harvest in agriculture and the encouraging policies of Beihai Town allowed these people to see a way out of poverty, and they began to closely tie their hopes for life to this land.