New Shun 1730

"The government has to repay the national debt. Faced with the huge debt, we must stay awake and understand which taxes can be collected and which taxes cannot be collected."

“Which taxes are cheap to collect and which taxes are extremely expensive to collect.”

"And, my Majesty, we must consider that the French may not make too many demands on us on trade issues, but the Chinese will undoubtedly make many demands on trade issues."

"We must consider what demands the Chinese may make on trade, which may prevent us from collecting those taxes, in order to make a reasonable and generally feasible plan to repay the huge national debt."

"It's like the debate many years ago: Are low interest rates the result of economic development? Or the cause of economic development?"

"I tend to think that low interest rates are the reason for economic development, so the credibility of national debt must be guaranteed. Britain is not France. It does not have such fertile land, so many people, and so much arable land. Britain's prosperity is based on trade. Interest and national debt The damage to our credibility is much more serious than that of France.”

"And... Your Majesty, if we do not repay this huge national debt, it is likely to lead to a rebellion... or even a republic."

For the British aristocracy, the fear of the Republic is still fresh in their memory. After all, it was also the place where the king's head was chopped off.

When George III heard the word republic, he involuntarily shrank his head and felt the hairs on his neck stand up spontaneously.

After hearing Lord Bute talk about the various difficulties in taxation issues, and Lord Bute's explanation of monopoly taxes and tax farming issues, George III asked: "So, what do you mean, if the Chinese put forward harsh measures on trade issues?" If you ask for it, a lot of taxes that could have been collected will be unable to be collected, right?”

Lord Bute coughed slightly and said: "I just raised the question about the land tax not being increased. As for the specific trade and tax issues, I think the Earl of Halifax can answer it for His Majesty. He serves as the Trade Commission and Plantation Chairman of the Park Committee, he must know more about foreign trade issues than I do.”

George III's father, before his death, left George III with a political team that was almost functional.

Of course, in the beginning, Pete and other Patriots were around George III's father. But later, due to Walpole's resignation and the War of Jenkins' Ear, the Patriot Party no longer needed to rely on the influence of the Crown Prince and withdrew.

The remaining group of people still followed George III as the political team he would inherit in the future.

According to Dashun's analogy, Lord Bute was regarded as the prince's master, the tutor of George III and his mother's confidant.

Lord North, who later served as Prime Minister and served as Prime Minister of the Cabinet during the North American War of Independence, was George III's...actually half-brother. His father was the one who took over, so it was his duty. After all, he was the prince's "gentleman in the bedroom", which meant dressing the prince, guarding the bedroom, keeping watch, etc. Generally, it was the eunuchs who did this job in Dashun.

The Earl of Halifax, who at this time served as the Governor-General of Ireland, Second Lord of the Admiralty, and Chairman of the Board of Trade, was North's uncle, and theoretically the brother-in-law of the deceased prince.

According to similar official positions here in Dashun, he was previously the "Prince Washing Horses", and in the UK he was called "Head of Royal Deerhounds" and the Eastern Palace Official.

The Earl of Halifax is very knowledgeable about economics and trade, especially foreign trade issues. After all, this is his job. The chairman of the Trade Committee is responsible for issues such as foreign trade and colonial management.

Although they are all a small circle of close relatives who are married, and their level is average, as they say, they are familiar with 300 Tang poems and can recite poems even if they can’t compose them. The Earl of Halifax basically understands what trade and tariffs are. of.

However, before explaining trade and tariff issues to George III, the Earl of Halifax believed that the most urgent task was to let the young king understand one thing: policy, issuance and execution are not the same thing.

Especially things like tax collection.

It does not mean that taxes can be raised just by issuing a decree.

It’s not like you slap your head and sign an order, it’s a work of genius, and the money is in place in a flash.

Not to mention where I want to develop or where I want to immigrate, with just one sentence, people will fill it up in a flash.

Understanding this issue is much more important than understanding what trade and taxation are.

In other words, for the little king, there is no need to understand complicated things like trade and economy first.

It is more important to understand reality and ideals, laws and enforcement, court and administration first than to understand more complicated things.

The Earl of Halifax supported Lord Bute's proposal to use import tariffs on Chinese goods to finance the fiscal hole and national debt.

Then he must first tell the king how big the gap between policy and execution is.

So, he first used his expertise as the head of the Trade Commission to tell the little king a very simple story that subverted the little king's cognition and distorted his understanding of reality.

The Molasses Act of 1733.

Of course, the Earl of Halifax was not talking about the various games involved in this law, but about the issue of "laws and actual implementation."

This kind of thing is really the same thing between the East and the West.

Historically, before Guangdong was opened to trade, customs in various places competed to offer more favorable tariff prices in order to pursue foreign merchant ships' trade in their customs.

In later generations, when attracting investment, local policies competed to kneel down and lick investors, and the conditions offered were more generous than one another, which was similar.

The Honey Law involved issues such as French tariff protection and protection of the French local brandy industry.

Let's just talk about the tax collection issue.

After the tax law was issued, all customs from Massachusetts to the rest of New England were doing similar things.

Hey, you come to me, and when you record your 100 barrels of sugar, I will count it as 50 barrels for you; another customs officer saw it and said, "Okay, he counted it as 50 barrels? I counted it as 45 barrels, so you come to me."

Massachusetts was the worst place here, and the customs were involved in each other, and this broken tax law "did not even achieve the strength to provoke resistance from the North American colonies."

Because the locals regarded smuggling as a legitimate profession.

Just like some places, people are civilians on weekdays and bandits in their spare time, local people generally believe that being a bandit to rob and kill is a job; or in the Dashun Salt District, being a private salt dealer is also considered a legitimate job.

Whatever you do, you do it. After farming, you kill a few people and steal some money. Isn't that normal? Or when doing business at sea, you find a merchant ship and go up to rob it, throw the people into the sea and take the goods. Isn't that normal? Morally, it is a very normal thing.

In addition, the means of anti-smuggling are almost zero, and you have to participate in the war against France and Spain and treat North America well for fear that North America will be dissatisfied. The tax is increased, but the tax is almost invisible.

The Earl of Halifax told the king this reason, hoping that the king would understand one thing:

You think that the Molasses Act is a good decree. Once the decree is issued, the sugar from Spain and France can no longer be dumped at a low price, which can not only guarantee the interests of the plantation owners in the country, but also increase tax revenue for the treasury.

It not only boosts the development of the country's sugarcane industry, but also can use these taxes to reduce the country's land tax.

How good, kill two birds with one stone.

But, the reality is that this decree was useless. Instead, it brought about a wave of great development in the French sugar industry. The smuggling of "Nordic" industrial products became a wildfire, because it opened the way for British West Indian merchants to sell sugar directly to the European continent.

Halifax explained to the king again why many industries should collect taxes at the production end, rather than at the sales end.

And using the Honey Act as an example, he explained the purpose of "taxation".

Did the people of the West Indian Chamber of Commerce lobby for an increase in honey taxes in order to increase treasury revenue?

Earl Halifax must make the little king understand that merchants will not be idle and take the initiative to increase taxes for the purpose of increasing treasury revenue.

The reason for the tax increase in the Honey Act this time is that French sugar is too cheap. If the tax is not increased, all British plantations will be finished.

The reason why French sugar is so cheap is that France is a big agricultural country. Its wine and brandy industries are too developed. Once it is allowed to use sugar to make wine, it will really be a huge unemployment of millions.

Why didn't France refuse to sell rum in its own country, but encouraged the production of rum and sold it abroad, squeezing out the brewing industry in New England?

Because the French navy was too weak to defeat the cooperation between the British navy and North American brewers on its own.

And why can French honey be sold to New England? Because as long as France does not brew its own wine, North American brewers will have a cooperative relationship with France. The French will send as much cattle, horses, grain, etc. as they want; only when France brews its own sugarcane wine, North American brewers will show their patriotic sentiment and take the initiative to inspect smuggling in various ports, and French wine will not be sold in.

On the other hand, if Britain wins an unprecedented victory this time and occupies all the sugar-producing islands in France.

The West India Chamber of Commerce, which was lobbying for an increase in honey tax yesterday, will immediately lobby Congress to abolish the honey tax. And if it is not abolished, it will immediately be labeled a tyrant, and it is even possible to fund the Jacobite uprising in the country to chop off the king's dog head.

These cruel realities stunned the young king. He never expected that governing a country would be so troublesome.

He also never expected that a simple issue of honey tariffs, which he thought was really a two-birds-with-one-stone deal, would be so complicated.

In addition, the issue of decree enforcement mentioned by the Earl of Halifax seriously impacted George III's worldview: It turns out that policies, from the introduction to the implementation, are so troublesome? It is not possible to become king and then make a policy to lead the country to prosperity?

In the extreme shock of the young king, the Earl of Halifax had to tell the king another cruel reality:

Because of the Navigation Act policy, the industries that have been developed in the North American colonies are all industries that Chinese people cannot sell goods in. For example, wine and sugar, the Chinese will never sell wine and sugar from Java to North America, nor will they foolishly transport a bunch of pig iron bars from China to North America to sell.

Because of the Navigation Act policy, the industries that have not been developed in the North American colonies are all industries that Chinese people are suitable to sell goods in. For example, tea, silk, cloth, porcelain, processed metals, and utensils.

"In fact, my majesty, assuming that the Chinese have no intention of instigating the thirteen states of North America to secede from the motherland - although this possibility is very small, they and the French will not give up such an opportunity to weaken us - then, assuming that they are gracious and give us favorable terms of defeat."

"One thing we must strive for is that the Chinese put their trade transit point in London. Without considering instigating North America to secede, from my perspective as the chairman of the Trade Committee, the second biggest disaster is that the Chinese choose to continue to put their trade center in the Netherlands."

"That would mean that we would not even have the possibility of collecting tariffs. The massive smuggling would be like a burning wildfire on the British territory that has lost the protection of the Navigation Act."

"I can only pessimistically believe that if we negotiate with the Chinese, the biggest victory would be to get them to choose London as their trade center."