Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1306 Death and Revenge ([-])
"The government has to repay the national debt. In the face of huge debts, we must remain sober and understand which taxes can be collected and which taxes cannot be collected."

"Which taxes are cheap to collect and which taxes are very expensive to collect."

"And, my lord, 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 have to take into account what kind of demands the Chinese may make on trade, and that may cause us to be unable to collect those taxes, so that we can make a reasonable, roughly feasible plan to repay the huge national debt."

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

"I tend to believe that low interest rates are the reason for economic development, so the credit of national debt must be guaranteed. Britain is not France. It does not have such fertile land, such a large population, and so much arable land. Britain's prosperity is based on trade. Interest and national debt reputation, hurt us more than France."

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

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

When George III heard the word "Republic", he shrank his head involuntarily, feeling the hairs on his neck stand up spontaneously.

Hearing Lord Bute talk about various difficulties in the taxation issue, and Lord Bute's explanation of monopoly taxes and tariffs, George III asked: "So, what do you mean, if the Chinese put forward harsh demands on trade issues? Request, it will lead to a lot of taxes that can be collected, but cannot be collected. Is it?"

Lord Bute coughed lightly and said, "I'm just asking about the fact that the land tax cannot be increased. As for the specific trade and tax issues, I think the Earl of Halifax can answer for His Majesty. Chairman of the Park Committee, you must know better than me on the issue of foreign trade."

George III's father, before his death, left George III with an almost usable political team.

Of course, at the beginning, Pete and the Patriot Party surrounded George III's father.But later, because of Walpole's resignation and Jenkins' ear war, the Patriot Party no longer needed to rely on the influence of the prince, so it withdrew.

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

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

Lord North, who later served as Prime Minister and was Prime Minister during the American War of Independence, was George III's... half-brother, actually.His father was the one who took over, so it could be considered his duty, after all, he was the prince's "gentleman in the bedroom", that is, dressing the prince, guarding the bedroom, guarding the wind, etc. Usually, the eunuchs in Dashun did this work.

At this time, the Earl of Halifax, the Governor of Ireland, the Second Minister of the Admiralty, and the Chairman of the Trade Committee, was North's uncle, theoretically the brother-in-law of the dead prince.

According to the similar official positions on Dashun's side, he used to be "Prince Washing Horses", and on the British side he was called "Head of the Royal Deerhound", an official of the Eastern Palace.

The Earl of Halifax still knows a lot about economy and trade, especially foreign trade issues.After all, this is his job, the chairman of the trade committee, who is in charge of foreign trade and colonial management.

Although they are all small circles of marriages between close relatives, the level is average, but as the saying goes, he has read [-] Tang poems, can sing poems without writing poems, and the Earl of Halifax basically understands what trade and tariffs are. of.

However, before explaining the issues of trade and tariffs to George III, the Earl of Halifax believed that the most urgent thing is to let the young king understand one thing: policy, release and implementation are not the same thing.

Especially when it comes to taxation.

It does not mean that once the decree is issued, the tax can be raised.

It's not like signing an order with a slap on the head, a masterpiece of genius, and the money will be in place in a flash.

Not to mention that where I want to develop or immigrate, in a word, people will be filled up in a blink of an eye.

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 such complicated things as trade and economy first.

It is more important to understand reality and ideals, decrees and execution, court and administration first, than to understand those more complicated things.

The Earl of Halifax supported Lord Bute's proposal to use import duties on Chinese goods to fill fiscal holes and national debts.

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

Therefore, he first told the little king a very simple matter that subverted the little king's cognition and distorted his understanding of reality based on his profession as the head of the trade committee.

The Molasses Act of 1733.

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

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

Historically, before the opening of Guangdong's opening of trade, customs in various places competed to offer more favorable tariff prices in order to pursue foreign merchant ships trading in this customs.

In later generations, when attracting investment, local policies compete to kneel and lick investors, and the conditions given are more favorable than the other, which is also the same reason.

Issues such as the French tariff protection and the protection of the French brandy industry involved in the Honey Law are not mentioned.

Just talk about the tax issue.

After the tax law came out, all customs offices, starting from Massachusetts, and the rest of New England did something similar.

Hey, you come to me, you have 100 barrels of sugar, when you keep accounts, I will count 50 barrels for you; another customs will look at it, okay, he will count 50 barrels?I count 45 barrels, you come to me.

This is especially the case in Massachusetts, where the customs are involved with each other, so that the tax law "hasn't even reached the strength to arouse the resistance of the North American colonies."

Because the locals regard smuggling as a legitimate profession.

Just like in some places, working for the people on weekdays and being a bandit in leisure time, the local people generally believe that being a bandit to rob and murder is a job; or in the Dashun Salt District, being a private salt dealer is also considered a legitimate job.

Why not do it.After planting the land, it is not normal to kill a few people to grab some money to spend; or to do business at sea, find a merchant ship, go up and grab a wave, throw people into the sea and take the goods, is this not normal work?It's pretty normal morally.

In addition, the means of anti-smuggling is almost zero, and to participate in the war against France and Spain, North America must be treated well for fear of North America's dissatisfaction. This tax has been increased, and the tax has hardly been seen.

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

You think the molasses law is a good law.As soon as the decree came out, sugar from Spain and France could not be dumped at a low price. This would not only ensure the interests of planters in the country, but also increase tax revenue for the treasury.

It not only boosted the development of the country's sugar industry, but also used these taxes to reduce the country's land tax.

How nice, kill two birds with one stone.

However, the reality is that whether this decree was suspended or not, on the contrary, the French sugar industry ushered in a wave of great development, and the smuggling of "Nordic" industrial products became a wildfire, because it let go of the British West Indian merchants. An outlet that can directly sell sugar to the European continent.

Halifax explained to the king again why many industries have to collect taxes on the production side instead of increasing taxes on the sales side.

And take the honey law as an example to explain the purpose of "taxation".

Are the people of the West India Chamber of Commerce lobbying for an increase in the honey tax in order to increase the revenue of the treasury?

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

The reason for the tax increase in the honey law this time is that sugar in France is too cheap. If there is no tax increase, the British plantations will be wiped out.

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

Then why doesn't France refuse to sell rum in the country, but encourages the manufacture of rum and sells it out, crowding out the New England winemaking industry?
Because the French navy is too hip to rely on its own strength to defeat the cooperation between the British navy and North American brewers.

And why can French honey be sold in New England?Because as long as France does not make its own wine, North American winemakers will cooperate with France. The French want cattle, horses, grain, etc., and give them as much as they want; only when France makes sugarcane wine by itself, North American winemakers will play To show their patriotism, they will take the initiative to check and smuggle in various ports, and it is impossible to sell French wine.

Conversely, if Britain achieves an unprecedented victory this time, it will occupy all of France's sugar-producing islands.

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

These cruel realities stunned the little king. He never expected that running the country would be so troublesome.

He didn't even expect that a simple honey tariff issue, which in his opinion really kills two birds with one stone, would be so complicated.

Also, the issue of law enforcement mentioned by the Earl of Halifax has seriously impacted George III's worldview: it turns out that there are so many troublesome things from the introduction and implementation of policies?Doesn't it mean that after becoming a king, you can flex your muscles and come up with a policy that can lead the country to prosper?
In the extreme shock of the little king, the Earl of Halifax had to tell the king another cruel reality:

Because of the long-standing navigation law policy, the industries that allowed the North American colonies to develop were all industries that the Chinese could not sell.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 sell in North America.

Because of the long-standing navigation law policy, the industries that have not been developed in the North American colonies are industries that are suitable for Chinese people to sell goods.Such as tea, silk, cloth, porcelain, processed metal, utensils.

"Actually, my lord, assuming that the Chinese have no intention of instigating the thirteen North American states to secede from their home country—although this possibility is very small, they and the French will not give up such an opportunity to weaken us—then, in Assuming they graciously give us generous terms of defeat."

"We have to fight for one thing, that is, the Chinese put the trade transfer station in London. Regardless of the situation of instigating North America to secede, from the perspective of the chairman of the trade committee, the second biggest disaster is that the Chinese choose Continue to put the center of trade in the Netherlands."

"That would mean that we would not even be able to collect tariffs. The massive smuggling would be like wildfire burning in the British territory that has lost the protection of the navigation law."

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

(End of this chapter)