Chongzhen chat group

Chapter 827 Absentmindedness
After getting the sketch portrait sent by Ma San's photo, Emperor Chongzhen looked at it for a long time. If the sketch is accurate, the origin of this person with ulterior motives, one can even say that he wants to sow discord, may not be simple.Judging from the appearance, it's not like a pirate, but more like a treasurer or a master of Shaoxing.

Emperor Chongzhen was a little puzzled, who ordered such a person to do this?Who is unwilling to ease the relationship between the Netherlands and Daming, so that the Netherlands can conduct normal transactions with Daming?To be able to take such a big risk, there must be a lot of benefits, or a lot of hatred, right?
Thinking about the land route, those Dutch envoys returned halfway. Although it seems that the Dutch envoys themselves were suspicious in hindsight, there may not be any unknown factors in it.If the land and sea were not a coincidence, then the people behind this had a lot of energy, and it definitely wouldn't be a personal enmity or something.

Emperor Chongzhen thought of this, and recalled the Xu Xiang incident. Judging from the situation reported by Sun Chuanting, someone was behind the scenes.Thinking in this way, he concluded that the resistance Kaihai encountered began to appear.

The matter of opening the sea was never thought to be easy from the very beginning.Otherwise, why did the emperors and ministers of all dynasties turn a blind eye to Kaihai's huge profits? Could it be that they really treat money like dung?This is obviously impossible, it can only be that the difficulty is too great, so that they have more than enough heart but not enough energy!

Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help further deepening his understanding of the difficulties of successfully opening the sea.For him, if he wants to truly rejuvenate Daming, catch up in this era of great navigation in the world, and stand on the highest point in the world again, he must succeed in opening the sea.

Thinking of this, he sent an order to the Supervisor of Rituals to move all the archived memorials related to the opening of the sea, including the approval and retention, and planned to go through it again.

The opening of the sea this time was proposed by He Qiaoyuan, presided over by Wen Tiren, and implemented by Sun Chuanting.Logically speaking, these are capable ministers and should be able to do things well.However, judging from the current actual situation, Emperor Chongzhen felt that he still overestimated their abilities, because he ignored a common shortcoming among them, that is, the limitation of the times and the limitation of vision.

For example, this time, when Liu Guoneng was treating the Dutch, even though he was a bandit before, he still had the mentality of being superior to the Hongyi, and he was not polite to them in words or actions.

It's not that you can't do this, when the Dutch invaded Ming Dynasty, you can do this, you don't need to be polite; but when the Dutch are here to do business, it's not good to be so defiant.After all, doing business is a matter of mutual benefit. If a business fails, Daming will also suffer.To have the ability, at this time, in the transaction with the Dutchman, within the scope of the rules of the game, it is the most correct to strive for the interests of Daming as much as possible.

This sense of superiority over Xiyi is not only shared by Liu Guoneng, but also by Sun Chuanting, and even ordinary people in Ming Dynasty. This is the limitation of the times and the limitation of vision.

Emperor Chongzhen continued to read the memorial while thinking about things.No, he was holding a memorial to open the sea to collect taxes in his hand.The content written in this memorial is actually based on the past example of the short opening of the sea during the Longqing period.

The Governor's Office, which is the customs of later generations, collects customs duties on imports and exports, including three parts, namely, tax introductions, water rates, and land rates.

The so-called tax introduction is actually a boat introduction.Ocean-going ships, regardless of whether they are east or west, have to collect six taels of taxation. For offshore ships, such as going to Taiwan for chicken coops, freshwater ships collect two taels of silver per bow.

The so-called water rate is a commercial tax levied on exported goods, which is paid by ship merchants.Western ships are more than one foot six feet wide, and each bow ship is charged five taels of silver, and for each additional foot in width, five silver coins are added.The ships going to the East are relatively small, and only seven-tenths of the Western ships are charged. The freshwater ships are even smaller, and the water rate is five qian based on the width of the ship.

Land rate is a commercial tax levied on Jinkou goods, which is paid by merchants.Taxes are mainly based on the quantity and value of goods.For example, pepper, sumac and other goods are worth one or two silver cents, and the land rate is levied two cents of silver.

There is also a special kind, that is, most of the ships going to Luzon return empty, with no cargo, only silver.In this case, it is not easy to collect according to the land rate.Therefore, there is an additional one called increasing the rate, and each ship pays 120 taels of silver.

This method of collection can only collect about 2 taels of silver a year, just as He Qiaoyuan said in the memorial, which is far from the goal expected by Emperor Chongzhen.Of course, most of the reasons here are due to tax evasion by officials and gentry. Let Sun Chuanting be there. Judging from his current performance, he should be able to solve this matter.

However, to be honest, Emperor Chongzhen was dissatisfied with this taxation method during the Longqing period.But everything is difficult at the beginning, and it is just to let Fujian start to do it in this way first. Where Emperor Chongzhen intervened, the food shipped by special decree was not taxed.In addition, a state-owned trading company will be established to carry out docking trade, but this matter has not yet been conceived.

According to a common understanding of later generations, taxation must affect the entry and exit of commodity types.If the country needs it, imports are encouraged; if the country does not need it, exports are encouraged, and so on.There are also various commodities, which need to be levied different taxes according to different values.And these, in fact, do not sit in the Forbidden City and listen to what is said below to get an ideal result.

Thinking of this, a thought suddenly popped up in Emperor Chongzhen's mind.And after this came out, it was like the temptation of the devil, and I couldn't give up this idea anymore.

At night, even when he was interacting with Concubine Tian, ​​Emperor Chongzhen was a little absent-minded.Concubine Tian Gui is so smart, yet sensitive at this moment, she felt it immediately.When she curled up on Emperor Chongzhen's chest, she touched Emperor Chongzhen's chest, feeling a little wronged, her chest was soaked with tears.

Emperor Chongzhen soon felt it, looked down, couldn't help being surprised, quickly wiped away her tears, and asked in surprise: "What's wrong, who bullied you? As far as I know, it seems that the empress has no more embarrassments you?"

"Your Majesty, Sister Zhou treats me well!" Concubine Tian Gui raised her head and looked at Emperor Chongzhen, crying tears in her big beautiful eyes, and said in a low voice, "Has Your Majesty taken a fancy to another sister? It is rare to wait for His Majesty once, but His Majesty is so absent-minded!"

"..." Emperor Chongzhen was stunned for a while when he heard this, and when he came back to his senses, he understood what was going on. He couldn't help reaching out and lifting Concubine Tian Gui's chin, and said with a smile, "Do you want to know, Concubine Ai?"

　Thanks for the reward for the little daughter-in-law!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)