New Shun 1730

The wind was favorable all the way. When we arrived at Songjiang, merchant ships from various European countries were anchored here, waiting for the monsoon in January next year.

Various flags were flying in the port, but there were not many of them. The most conspicuous ones were two Swedish merchant ships.

It may be that the ships of other countries mostly traded in Guangdong or Fujian, where Wuyi tea and Jiangxi porcelain were in short supply.

Those who came to Songjiang for trade mainly bought Songjiang cotton cloth.

Liu Yu guessed that the Swedish East India Company may have noticed the treacherous war clouds in Europe and was ready to take advantage of the war in Europe to smuggle on a large scale, so it increased the number of merchant ships?

European countries were basically mercantilism. The goods of the Swedish East India Company could not be sold locally, but only to smugglers from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

Songjiang cloth was not allowed by Britain at all, and tea had extremely heavy tariffs, which made smugglers rampant.

The Boston Tea Party, a landmark event of the American War of Independence, was because Britain abolished and lowered the tea tariff, making a group of smugglers unprofitable. Because the tea of ​​the East India Company is cheaper than the tea of ​​the smugglers after removing the tariff, it can be said that Wuyi tea is the fuse of the American independence. The Swedes were unlucky and had a bad fate. The Gothenburg sank, otherwise the tea dealers might not be free from responsibility.

After observing the two Swedish ships, before the tragic Gothenburg appeared, Swedish merchant ships were not very impressive. It was estimated that they were only about 700 to 800 tons. Compared with the large merchant ships of Britain and France that were more than 1,000 tons, they still showed the poverty of small countries.

After observing the tonnage, weapons and other conditions of the merchant ships here, Liu Yu spotted a Dutch ship. It should be that the East India Company did not upgrade the ship in order to save money. Its own fleet was enough to deal with such thin-skinned and large-filled armed merchant ships at sea.

This time, it happened to talk to the Swedes about the return of the captured Lenat and others to their country, and it happened to be done at the same time. At the same time, we had to test the bottom of the Dutch.

On the other side of the European merchant ships, there are a large number of local merchant ships from the north.

It is the autumn harvest season, and soybeans from Liaodong are in short supply in Jiangnan. In addition to the demand for soy products, the bean cakes left after oil extraction also become fertilizers for Jiangnan vegetable fields. It is said that the cabbages grown in this way are particularly plump.

It is called Songjiang Customs here, but it should be called Jiangsu Customs. It has jurisdiction over Shanghai, Liujiahe, Fushan Port, Renjia Port and nearly 30 sea or road checkpoints.

The navy is weak, officials are corrupt, and smuggling is distributed in more than 30 checkpoints, which can be imagined.

Soybeans from Liaodong, bean cakes and wheat used as fertilizers for Jiangnan vegetable fields need to be transported in Songjiang; sugarcane, mahogany, spices, etc. from Fujian, Guangdong and Nanyang are also subcontracted here; cotton cloth, medicinal materials, etc. needed by Western ships are loaded here.

Excluding the smuggling component, this customs in Songjiang is still the busiest place in the entire Jiangsu Customs.

I have heard about the prosperity of Jiangnan, and I have heard about the scene of thousands of boats racing in Songjiang and other places, but hearing and seeing are different after all.

Before the ship docked, someone on the dock had already rushed to report the news.

More than half a month ago, they knew that Liu Yu was coming to Songjiang. The major shareholder of this trading company had never shown his face. They had heard of him but never seen him. This time, the big businessmen in Songjiang and other places took it as a big deal.

Soon, a group of people came to the dock, and the scene was quite grand.

When they arrived at the shore, the leader in front was Tian Ping, who had become fatter. However, he did not wear official uniform today, but ordinary noble clothes.

Seeing Liu Yu, Tian Ping's face was also full of joy.

At the beginning, Liu Yu told him that he should prepare some capital to do big business. He also bought 10,000 taels of shares in the Japanese trade. The annual dividends are very high and very stable. Although it is slightly worse than usury, it is more stable.

Now he has been transferred to Songjiang Customs as a deputy, which is a good job.

Today, everyone from the trading company came to greet him. Tian Ping was an official, so he naturally stood in the front.

He walked over to Liu Yu, bowed and smiled, "I wonder if you should call me Brother Shouchang? Or Little Lord?"

"Get lost!"

After cursing, the two smiled at each other. Lin Yunwen and other merchants behind knew that they were not officials and had no such affection. They were about to bow, but Liu Yu said first, "Today I am just a shareholder of this trading company. We are talking about business, not official affairs."

Asking everyone not to bow to the official, the great favor, these merchants have added a little trust in their hearts. Of course, the basis of this trust is that the annual dividends are paid on time and the accounts are clear.

Lin Yunwen introduced all the merchants who were qualified to greet Liu Yu. Even though Liu Yu said that they were talking about business and not official affairs, these people still habitually hunched over and acted as inferiors.

On weekdays, they are all wealthy merchants who shake the area, but now they are like humble dogs. This mentality can not be reversed for a while.

"My Lord, we have called all shareholders who have invested more than 1,000 taels of silver according to the information you sent us last time. There are also some who have not invested but still have some money. We have asked people to prepare wine and food, please move over, my Lord."

Liu Yu bowed and said, "It's not that I am arrogant, but I need to take a look around Songjiang first. Let's arrange the welcoming banquet in the evening. I will take a look around here first, and you can do whatever you want."

He is not too arrogant, at least it seems so in the eyes of businessmen, but thinking that this is the youngest earl of Dashun who has fought on the battlefield and killed people, everyone is a little afraid.

Looking at Lin Yunwen, Lin Yunwen knew Liu Yu's temper and said: "In that case, sir, let's go and get ready first. The silver on the ship must be loaded and unloaded quickly, so let's do it at night."

After being polite, the merchants all left, leaving only Tian Ping's people.

After walking around on the dock for a while, Tian Ping pointed at the hired workers who were carrying Songjiang cloth to the merchant ship, and spoke some Western words to Liu Yuxiu.

"This Songjiang cloth is called 'nankeen' by Westerners, which means Nanjing cloth."

Liu Yu also smiled and said: "It can be seen that compared with Jinling, Shanghai is still far behind. There is no 'Nanjing' in our country. Even if there is, it should be Xiangyang. If you count this, these Westerners are all A remnant of the previous dynasty, you have been shrewd for hundreds of years."

Tian Ping also laughed, and then said: "Whatever they call them, just buy the cloth here. I heard that although the Westerners also have cotton cloth, the quality is too poor. Guangdong homespun cloth is easy to fade, but this Songjiang cloth is not easy to fade , some are as thick as the canvas of a Western ship, but they become soft and close-fitting after a few washes. Although I don’t wear cotton, I have learned a lot of patterns in the past few years.”

"Hmm...Matsujiangbu, it's really good."

Liu Yu was quite confident about Songjiang's textile industry, and it took a hundred years for him to be completely defeated. At this time, the only thing restricting the development of Songjiang's textile industry was the no-import policies and cotton production of European countries. Dashun should set up the banner of free trade as soon as possible.

"By the way, I heard a while ago that all the weavers here called for a break and asked the owner to increase their wages? What's going on?"

"It's okay. I got some extra wages and stopped making trouble. Why are these people making trouble? Westerners' ships have to catch the sea breeze. If the Westerners' cargo is missed, it will be difficult for me to do it."

The butt determines the head, so Tian Ping naturally expressed his objection to Qi Xing calling for rest.

Liu Yu asked again about the details of this strike and nodded secretly. It was obvious that these people already had certain organizational skills.

Tian Ping briefly talked about the customs affairs, and then talked about the customs reform that Liu Yu had told him before, and couldn't help but complain.

"This customs reform is really difficult. You said that some taxes should be added, saying that the tariffs of this dynasty and even the tariffs of the previous dynasty are too low. However, this matter is not my final say. I have increased taxes here. , Fujian and Guangdong don’t raise taxes, so why don’t they all go there?”

Liu Yu said with a smile: "Brother Tian, ​​give me a solid foundation. The tax is small, but there are a lot of bribes and benefits, right? If it's a little stuck, won't the Westerners obediently pay tribute?"

Tian Ping was not embarrassed at all. Everyone in the customs was like this. Otherwise, how could he say that this was a big fat vacancy?

"Hey, there are a lot of things like paying tribute and bribery everywhere. It has become a routine. I thought Westerners didn't know what 'meaning' means, but I never thought they were well-connected. Brother Shouchang, I'm not trying to persuade you. There are too many people to be offended by the reform of the customs. In fact, it’s not like His Majesty doesn’t know about it. He just turns a blind eye and it’s impossible to deal with it.”

Liu Yu said with teeth: "If it has nothing to do with me, of course I don't want to care about it. If the damn customs tax cannot be raised, the national treasury will have no money. If the national treasury has no money, how can we build a navy?"

Tian Ping waved his hand and said: "It's difficult, difficult, difficult! Even if you charge heavy tariffs, what can you do? There are dense ports and many rivers. Can you manage smuggling? Just one Jiangsu Customs has 18 sea gates, like It’s like a sieve. How can you come here on inspection? It’s better to make small profits but quick turnover.”

Liu Yu was startled and asked curiously: "How can you make small profits but quick sales?"

"Hey, look at what I say. That is to say, if Westerners come to buy more merchant ships, even if the tariff is not increased, doesn't that mean an increase in income?"

Liu Yu shook his head, not very optimistic about this idea.

"Forget it, in the short term, it is impossible for Westerners to bring more ships. However, Europe is in chaos. I am afraid that a war is coming. In a few years, not only will there not be more, but there will be less."

"It's hard to say much about this, but you're right. If the customs is to be reformed, several major customs must be reformed together. And the navy must be built to be able to detect smuggling and patrol."

After carefully asking Tian Ping about the customs, Liu Yu also had a general understanding of the issues at Dashun Customs.

Indeed, it is almost unsolvable.

Without clippers or steamships, it would be sheer nonsense to patrol such a long coastline.

If you want to solve it, it seems that you still have to go to Nanyang. As long as we take down a few key points of the Dutch and block the Malacca and Sunda Straits, we can use existing ship technology to strictly investigate the tariff issue of export goods heading to Europe.

Otherwise, just raising taxes on goods going to Europe is simply not possible. Just like in Songjiang, the ship owner bought a ship of silk and cotton and said he was going to Shandong. He couldn't add taxes on these goods. However, there is no way to control the situation when it changes hands and goes overseas to trade with Europeans to evade tariffs. Businessmen seek profit, and as long as there is an opportunity, they will be as sensitive as sharks that smell blood.

Either use clippers and steamships to patrol the coast, or occupy the control thoroughfares of Malacca and the Sunda Strait to inspect taxes.

Thinking realistically, the latter is obviously simpler.