New Shun 1730

The officers of the Customs Corps received the order and immediately led people to the Danish trading house.

This is a newly formed force, mainly dealing with foreign affairs and trade issues. There are not many people, but in Dashun, this kind of force does not need many people.

A hundred people walked towards the Danish trading house. After the British and Portuguese trading houses were investigated last time, people near the trading house area were already used to it.

Seeing the soldiers of the Customs Corps coming with guns, those who were quick to watch the excitement had already made a bet, guessing which trading house would be investigated this time.

The customs, which was rectified by Liu Yu, is now also fast and efficient. Professional accountants and review clerks followed the Customs Corps and entered the Danish trading house.

The person in charge of the Danish trading house was confused. Seeing the soldiers of the era of armed guns surrounding the trading house, he was stunned.

Denmark is a neutral country and has no conflict with Dashun.

The nearest colony is in Tranquilla, India, which is far away. Dashun’s going to Southeast Asia has nothing to do with Denmark. When Dashun attacked the Dutch East India Company's colonial cities in India, the Danish Asiatic Company also issued a statement that the company strictly adhered to neutrality and refused to allow the warring parties to dock and resupply in its colonies.

What they feared was that the Dutch would go there and cause trouble for Dashun. The Danes heard that Dashun's style of doing things was a bit overbearing, as if some pagan leaders from the Western Regions had fled to Central Asia, and Dashun had directly sent people to force the other side to hand over people, and they wanted to see the people alive or the bodies dead.

They were afraid that Dashun would find an excuse to deal with Tranqueba, which was really watertight.

In the War of the Austrian Succession, Denmark directly chose to remain neutral, and had no intersection with Dashun's enemy, the Netherlands, or its ally, France.

Dashun sided with Russia on the issue of the heir to the Swedish throne, and Denmark also retreated, giving Liu Yu enough face.

In terms of trade volume, the Danish Asiatic Company, or the East India Company, is also a high-quality customer of Dashun among all the East India Companies.

At least in terms of tea imports, it is more than the British East India Company. The Danish company was named the East India Company, but in fact, the trade volume with India only accounted for 30%, and the remaining 70% was trade with Dashun.

According to the "mercantilism" view prevailing in the West at that time, the Danes felt that they were simply the best partners of Dashun.

Denmark didn't have much to ship to China. At the beginning, it could sell some clocks and music boxes, but before British merchants summed up a law called "sending any replicable crafts to China means that domestic craftsmen will lose their jobs", Dashun's watch industry had already developed.

Historically, this business law was summarized in the mid-to-late 18th century because "London and Birmingham clockwork manufacturers suffered heavy losses", and before that, the music boxes and other things made by these clockwork manufacturers could be directly used as trading futures bills.

In the context of Dashun's active absorption of external technology, this law appeared 20 years earlier than in history.

In addition to the old things such as silk, tea, and porcelain, Dashun actually monopolized a high-tech flagship product of the "metallurgical industry".

Westerners call it "tutenage", which is actually zinc alloy, which is also something that European countries cannot produce at this time. The director of the chemical laboratory of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, Margraf, had just refined it in the laboratory two years ago. But laboratory refining and large-scale production are not the same thing.

Denmark is one of the earliest European countries to do zinc business, and Copenhagen has always been an important zinc alloy trading center in Europe. Because the Danes signed orders with zinc merchants at the earliest and controlled a large part of the supply.

Except for silver, Denmark basically has nothing to ship to China.

And Denmark feels that its position in Dashun is very stable.

The Danes feel that they carry the identity of a "distributor": zinc alloy and tea are the main products of Danish companies, and these two products are not sold in Denmark, but for the entire European and American markets.

From this point of view, Dashun has no reason to find trouble with itself.

In short, no matter how you look at it, the Danish Asia Company is a big customer who seems to be very obedient and very cooperative.

This is rare among several East India companies.

Excluding France, which was an ally, Britain and Portugal had opium problems, Prussia had too little trade, Spain had religious problems, and the Austrian company was dissolved as a condition for the princess's succession...

Under these conditions, when the soldiers of the Dashun Customs Corps entered the Danish trading house with guns and live ammunition, the person in charge of the Danish trading house was stunned and collapsed.

The interpreter hurriedly greeted him and asked after saluting, "Sir, what's going on?"

The officer of the Customs Corps waved his hand to signal the soldiers to seal the warehouse first, and said, "The Duke ordered it for a reason. The details will be conveyed by the Danish envoy, and I am just following orders. You tell the head of the trading house that starting this year, all Danish goods, whether imported or exported, will have a 25% increase in tariffs."

"Increase taxes?"

The interpreter was shocked. Now even Prussia has come to do business, and all countries are engaged in direct trade and trying to break the monopoly of several companies. Increase taxes at this time?

Although the 25% tax is not as harsh as the tea tariff in London, it also directly destroys the profits of Danish companies.

"Yes, increase taxes. I don't know the reason, I'm just following orders." The officer didn't explain the reason, and he really didn't know the reason.

The head of the Danish trading house pleaded and asked a few more questions, but the answer he got was the same as before. The minister in Tianjin had conveyed the reason, and this side was just enforcing the law.

"Excuse me, is this only aimed at our Danish company?"

"It should be, right? I just received an order to seal up the Danish trading house first, and there was no order for me to investigate other people's trading houses."

As he spoke, the customs officers with notebooks crowded to the door of the Danish trading house warehouse and began to count the goods inside.

The director of the Danish trading house watched boxes of goods being asked to take out order forms, thinking about the high tax of 25%, and really felt like he was sitting at home and disaster came from the sky.

All countries are now competing to export, and I have only heard of export subsidies, but I have never heard of any country imposing any export taxes. The director of the Danish trading house only felt that he had learned a lot today, but after sighing, he had no other way in his heart.

The Danes' first expedition, after getting the goods back from Guangzhou, was the first time they ran away. They were unfamiliar with the road, did not understand the goods, were obstructed by the Dutch, suppressed by the British, and added with the death compensation, they still made a net profit of 11.7%.

Since the two wealth codes of "tea smuggling to the UK" and "guaranteeing the zinc alloy trading center" were found, the company's profit rate has soared to 26% of net profit.

This is already an extremely high profit rate in Europe.

The Danish royal family gave the company absolute monopoly rights.

Any Dane who is not a member of the company is not allowed to go to Asia for trade privately.

Any ship that is not a Danish company is not allowed to carry oriental goods and unload in Denmark.

In addition, the company can directly use tea futures to obtain low-interest loans from British smugglers to obtain capital turnover.

It can be said that trade with China is the foundation of the Danish Asia Company.

Now that such a heavy export tariff has been added, the company is afraid that it will be finished.

The people in the Danish trading house were anxious, but they dared not do anything, and could only obediently hand over the order account.

In the British trading house next door, Fazakle watched with gloating joy as the Danish company was sealed by the Dashun Customs.

He certainly had reasons to gloat.

The Danish company's tea was smuggled to Britain all day long, and the British East India Company was annoyed. However, it is easy to prevent external thieves, but difficult to prevent internal thieves.

Those who colluded with the Danish company to smuggle were of course British.

And many of them were former employees of the East India Company, and most of them had their first pot of gold in India. Some bought gems in India, and some participated in the East India Company's trade with China.

It is not easy to catch them in the UK.

They were originally from the company, made money in the company, and then engaged in smuggling that was detrimental to the company.

They were extremely knowledgeable and knew everything, and many of them were even company predecessors. How could they be caught?

For example, Ihuli Yale, who donated to the university and named the university after him, was Fazakle's predecessor, the former head of the company's Indian office, and got his first pot of gold from the tea trade. After getting his first pot of gold, he switched to slave and smuggling trade.

Although the British trading house has not been unsealed, it received an ambiguous answer today instead of the clear negative answer before. Based on Fazakle's understanding of China, he felt that this ambiguous answer actually meant that trade could be carried out normally this year.

He did not have the mood of "the death of the rabbit makes the fox sad, and the sympathy of the same kind". He felt that Dashun could find a reason to seal up the Danish trading house today, and tomorrow it might seal up the British trading house or something.

From the fact that Dashun sealed up the Danish trading house, Fazakle felt that he had seen through it. He thought that Liu Yu's words were like farts, saying that national wealth was the total goods produced and that too much silver was useless, which was pure nonsense.

It was obvious that Dashun found a reason to check Britain and Portugal, and then turned around to check Denmark.

Reason?

Thinking of the word reason, Fazakle spat with disdain.

Thinking, reason? The reason is nothing more than that Dashun wants to make money from the transfer. Now that there are Swedes and Russians cooperating with them, Dashun no longer needs a second Baltic "distributor".

The Danes should have seen this clearly long ago, and actively cooperated with Dashun, and offered a portion of their shares to Dashun, and perhaps there was still a way out.

But I don't understand, it was sealed today, that's too normal! Anyone who tries to reason and find reasons is like the Dutch using their theory of freedom of navigation in the ocean, which they think is reasonable, to ask Britain to give up the Navigation Regulations.

Naive.

Based on his experience of dealing with Liu Yu over the years, Fazaklai summed up a very effective conjecture logic.

Then he cast his eyes on the Swedish trading house next to him, thinking that the Chinese are shaping a consciousness that they can make money by cooperating with China, and they will make more and more money. As such a typical example, it will be supported by policies, and in Dashun, policies determine everything. The Swedes are lucky, and the Dutch lost Southeast Asia, maybe it is also a kind of good luck?