Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 376
Zhao Xin smiled lightly and said, "Don't you guys like black tea the most? Do you still want green tea?"

Basning asked: "So, how much can you offer, Your Excellency?"

"You five families, together with other small merchants in the city, count as one family, five thousand poods each."

Hey~~ The pie is smashing in the sky!
As soon as Zhao Xin said this, the eyes of the five major families were straightened, and each of them opened their mouths wide, almost crying.

In the era of Tsarist Russia, one pood was 16.38 kilograms, and five thousand poods was almost 8 kilograms.However, the weights and measures in the Qing Dynasty were different from those of later generations. A pute and a Chinese scale weighed 28 catties, so a catty in commodity transactions in the Qing Dynasty was now 0.855 catties.

Take a chestnut.In the past, when Russians bought tea from Kyakhta, it cost 11 rubles per pood.The currency of this year is not paper money, it is all real money. If 11 rubles are converted into silver, it is 8.2 taels of silver. If calculated according to the clearing scale, a catty of tea leaves is 0.293 taels of silver, and a load of one hundred catties is 29.3 taels of silver.

To put it simply, if Shanxi merchants directly buy green tea or pekoe from Fujian tea-producing areas, one hundred catties is a load. There are shipping costs thousands of miles away, part ticket fees for tea sales, taxes, bribes, etc., but even so, the profits are several times.

Generally speaking, the tea trade in the Qing Dynasty was a very complicated business. There were so many details in it. From tea planting, production, agency, underwriting, and government, it was impossible to explain clearly in a few words.It is impossible for outsiders to gain a foothold here without spending a lot of money to dredge the joints.

The problem is that Zhao Xin doesn't use it!Beihai Town can send a ship to buy directly from Jiangnan, and 49 kilograms is only 490 tons.

Shen Jingdan mentioned to Zhao Xin before that the interruption of the Chakhtu trade has led to a large backlog of tea in Fujian.Relying on Guangzhou alone, Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands simply cannot digest so much tea.

As mentioned before, one of the characteristics of the thirteen trades is that the payment for the goods must be paid in advance by the merchants, and the foreign merchants can only settle the bill when they return to Guangzhou the next year.With the current strength of the seven or eight merchants in Guangzhou, it is impossible to eat a large amount of tea anyway.

Zhao Xin's plan has actually been considered for a long time.Force is one aspect, and economic interests are the core of whether Beihai Town can firmly rule East Siberia.

The specific operation is to transform Irkutsk into a distribution center and transfer station for land trade between the East and the West, and Beihai Town will set up a trade fair here.Whether it is cotton fabrics, silk, sugar or tea, or Russian leather products and wool fabrics, as long as the Kyakta is blocked, nothing can go in or out, and all the sources of goods can be controlled at that time inside.

Don't Shanxi merchants like to hoard land?Sooner or later let them spit out the ground!
When Beihai Town has beaten Shanxi merchants to a slump, they can seize the tea territory of Shanxi merchants, and then use the profits from Sino-Russian trade to subsidize southern tea farmers, establish agricultural cooperatives, and improve the quality and output of tea. The dominance of Chinese tea will be No one can shake it.

As for the British wanting to build tea gardens in Sri Lanka, it is simple and simple.Now that the British can encourage the Nepalese to engage in Tibet, Beihai Town can encourage the Pearl River pirates to go to Sri Lanka to engage the British.

Isn't it just agitation? Compared with the British who are agitating all over the world, Zhao Xin asked himself that his ability to do three things and four things is unmatched in time and space.

The five major families headed by Sibilyakov have not imported tea from Kyakhta for several years.Although there was smuggling during the period, the scale was not large, and they themselves were not enough.Since the Manchu Qing Dynasty stopped the Kyakta trade, the ban on smuggling was very strict, and Qianlong had punished several groups of officials for this.

We must know that since the late [-]th century, tea has become a necessity for every family in Siberia, so that every time the Manchu Qing Dynasty closed the Kyakhta trade, many families would be impoverished due to the interruption of the tea trade, and even reduced to begging for a living. .

In this era, tea is not only used for drinking in the West, but also a symbol of wealth.Many dignitaries and wealthy businessmen flaunt tea as a luxury. They will bring out various teas one after another that the guests have never seen before and invite everyone to drink.It feels like some people show off how many LV bags they have in modern times, putting them all out and taking pictures to show off.

In fact, the economic role of East Siberia's tea trade far exceeds the entire Siberia region, and it also has a great impact on Europe and Russia.From 1780 to 1785, the Sino-Russian tea trade volume increased fivefold.

Since the closure of the Kyakhta trade, the five families can only buy tea from British, Dutch or Danish merchants. The purchase cost is three or four times higher, and the cost is as high as 52 rubles per pood.

At this time, Chen Jishan, Zhao Xin's chief guard, entered the room with a tray on which was a pot of freshly brewed black tea and a small dish of tea samples.

Among the five businessmen, Basning, who was the most knowledgeable about tea, saw the tea, took it up and smelled it, and immediately asked with surprise: "This is Wuyi BOHEA?"

Zhao Xin nodded and said, "That's right, the real Tongmuguan Xiaozhong."

The so-called "Tongmuguan Souchong" is the Lapsang Souchong known to later generations. From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, Lapsang Souchong was brought into Europe by Dutch merchants, and then became popular among the British royal family and even the whole of Europe, and set off the "afternoon tea" fashion that has been passed down to this day.This kind of tea soup is bright red in color, rich in aroma and sweet in the mouth. It is called "WUYI BOHEA" by Europeans nowadays.

Zhao Xin held the cup and said: "This is what I have. Please, gentlemen, try it and see how it tastes."

Seeing that Zhao Xin drank it, Sibilyakov and the other five tried to take a sip, pondered for a while, and soon showed a very satisfied expression.

Dudorovsky asked tentatively: "Thirteen rubles a pood?"

"Twelve rubles."

However, when the former mayor Sibilyakov heard the price, his face suddenly became serious.There is never any benefit in this world for nothing, and there are often traps behind honey.

"Mr. Zhao, what are your plans? With so few of you, do you really want to go to war with the whole of Russia?"

Zhao Xin got up and went to the window, looking at the city where snowflakes had started to fall, he said without turning his head: "Everyone, I hope you realize the reality, Beihai Town is far stronger than you imagined. Since your queen can do If she decides to invade China, she will bear the consequences of failure.

Now that we have taken this city, no one can take it away.We welcome those who choose to stay; we will not stop those who are willing to return to the west of the Yenisei River. "

"What?! Yenisei River?" Sibilyakov and others couldn't sit still any longer, and they all stood up.

"Next spring, we will send immigrants here to build a commodity trading center and expand the city." Zhao Xin turned around and looked at Sibilyakov and continued: "You probably don't know that the Central Plains Dynasty in the south There are 2 million people. For me, sending [-] people here is extremely easy. Where to go, you go back and think about it."

What?Two hundred million!The leaders of the five major families broke out in cold sweat on the back of their necks.Not to mention Siberia, the entire Tsarist Russian Empire in history had only 1800 million people in 3550.

Not long after Zhao Xin finished talking with the five major families, the news that the Chinese occupation army could provide a large amount of tea spread quickly, causing a sensation in the city.

A pood is only 12 rubles, a large amount is enough!
Those Russian businessmen who originally wanted to leave by boat immediately gave up their plans to pack their luggage.It is good to have tea. With the tea trade, everyone can make money.Not to mention that everyone came here from Europe to plan something, isn't it just to make a fortune.As for the fact that this place will become Chinese territory in the future, it’s a big deal to make money and go back to Europe happily.

A day later, Zhao Xin asked Malkovich to post the first notice of the Beihai Navy in the local area.The core is two words, tax cuts!Abolish the poll tax and all taxes not related to commodity transactions.

As soon as the news came out, both the civilians in the city and the farmers outside the city were all ecstatic.

It is said that Tsarist Russia was the same as ancient China, and the main taxes still came from land.Regardless of whether they are state-owned serfs, church serfs or landlord serfs, they must pay taxes.In addition, there are post station tax, shooting tax (supplying the army's shooting expenses), horse yoke tax, shoe and hat tax, bathhouse tax, mill tax, ship offshore and shore tax, etc.

The most famous of these is the beard tax, and it is collected according to grades.60 rubles for nobles and civil servants, 100 rubles for wealthy businessmen, 60 rubles for ordinary businessmen, and 30 rubles for servants and lower-level church personnel.Peasants who grew beards in the village were not taxed, but they had to pay a kopek to enter and leave the town.

From the time of Peter I, direct taxes and other special taxes in Russia have been charged an average of 2.5 rubles per household, and the tax in kind paid by farmers has increased to 5.6 poods.After Ekaterina II came to power, although the salt tax was abolished and the poll tax and real tax were reduced, the problem was that this woman was too good at wasting money. In 27 years, a total of 1.38 million ruble banknotes were issued; this is It is almost the same as the treasure banknotes of the Ming Dynasty, and the banknotes are all hairless.

Why did Catherine II deprive the church of property?The core is agricultural taxation.Because the land rent paid by church serfs to the church was 2 to 3.8 times less than the tax collected directly by the state from these people.

Regardless of Catherine II's advocacy of business and industry, many emerging industrial cities only exist on paper.This is the most amazing thing about the tsarist Russian autocratic regime and the system of absolute obedience. The empress gave orders, but no one complained, but I just didn't do it.

In this way, Zhao Xin used tea to get rid of the merchant class on the one hand, and stabilized the civilian and peasant class with tax cuts on the other.A few days later, the agricultural product markets that had been in ruins gradually resumed trading.

The original bureaucrat class does not account for the majority in the local area, and in fact there are not so many bureaucrats in the government controlled by the businessmen. Zhao Xin's approach is to double his salary, and those who don't want to do it will leave by boat.

At the same time, Kyakta, which is hundreds of kilometers away, is another scene.

In the Qing Dynasty, China and Russia built two cities in Kyakhta, bounded by the Kyakhta River.

On the north side of the river is the Russian City, which has a square market with a side length of 200 meters, and a tower is built at each of the four corners of the market.In addition to stalls and shops, there are warehouses, merchants' houses, military camps, hotels and churches in the city.

On the south side of the river is Maimaicheng, about 130 meters south of Ercheng. The city is rectangular in shape, more than 360 meters wide and more than 600 meters long. There are gates on each side, guarded by soldiers.There are various shops and warehouses in the city, and the Qing government appointed a Lifanyuan official to take charge of the trade, with a term of three years.

After lunch at noon yesterday, the merchants in the trading city and the Eight Banners soldiers stationed there heard several explosions on the opposite side of the Russian territory. Many people thought it was Rakshasa's gunpowder depot that exploded.But with the sound of fierce gunshots and shouts of killing, everyone realized that something must have happened on the other side.

After hearing the news, the official of Lifan Academy who was in charge of the trading city came to the city gate. Through the crack of the door, he could see gunpowder smoke in the opposite Russian city, and the flames of the explosion ignited into the sky.He hastily mobilized the soldiers and horses in the city to wait for them, and at the same time sent a fast horse to report to the minister in charge of Kulun.

It was almost four o'clock in the afternoon, which is Shenzheng time, and the gunfire in the city of Kyakhta gradually subsided.A dozen or so Russian soldiers who escaped from the city by chance were stunned at the moment, and they ran towards the trading city without thinking about their heads, shouting for help.

Unexpectedly, as soon as these guys ran to the river bank, they were knocked to the ground by a dense rain of bullets behind them, and then rolled into the Qiaktu River.This movement frightened the Qing army in the trading city to shiver behind the wooden wall. They have never seen this before!
However, a few interested people noticed that after lying on the crack of the city gate for a while, the leader of the Qing military coordinator who was sitting at the north gate suddenly turned pale, and his forehead was sweating profusely, as if he was suffering from dysentery.

They didn't know that at this moment, Master Xie Ling's heart was overwhelmed, and there was only one sentence in his mind: "My God! Why did these guys come here!"

I dare to say that this person was also a guest in Beihai Town. After being released back then, after some operations, he was stationed in Maimai City.I thought to myself that I was far away from the group of rebels this time, thousands of miles away.In the end, I didn't realize it, and I became neighbors in a blink of an eye!

At dusk, the raging fire in the city of Kyakhta was gradually extinguished, and the double-headed eagle flag on the tower at the southeast corner was thrown down from the tower.Not long after, a white five-pointed star flag with a red background and a white gear in the middle appeared on the tower.Immediately afterwards, on the tower in the southwest corner, a huge banner with the word "Liu" was also hung out.This scene stunned all the soldiers and civilians who led the Qing Dynasty on the city wall.

Rakshasa is this over?But who are these soldiers on the opposite side?How could they play the banner of the Han people?

In fact, regardless of Qianlong's closure of the Kyakhtu trade and Tsarist Russia's invasion of Heilongjiang, the Sino-Russian relationship here in Maimaicheng has always been very "harmonious".

The Manchu Qing government regarded itself as a heavenly kingdom, and regarded all foreign vassals as barbarians.Neither Cullen's minister of affairs nor the local officials of the Lifan Academy will stand up for businessmen. All they care about is how much tax they can collect.

So in order to reduce troubles, the Qing court set a very strange rule, which is to require any Chinese not to have any quarrels with Russian businessmen. Even if it turns out that he is not wrong, he must be locked up for ten days.If there are various types of claims, they should be calmly and politely stated to the Russian officials in a friendly manner, so as to avoid sometimes small grievances between businessmen leading to major disputes between countries.

In addition, in order to prevent Tsarist Russia from knowing the inside information of China, the Qing court required the Chinese in the trading city to only speak Russian, and resolutely refused to give the Russians the opportunity to learn Chinese.So until this time, almost all the Chinese in the trading city can speak Russian, and none of the Russian businessmen in Kyakhta can speak Chinese.

Under such a trading rule, do you want to be harmonious?
In the morning of the next day, the frightened Lifan Academy chief did not dare to show up at all, so he sent the shopkeeper Tian of the "Meiyu Gongji" in the city across the river to find out the truth.

Meiyu Gongji is the property of Chang Huaiyu, a Shanxi native. They have several shops in Maimai City.Among the many Shanxi firms engaged in trade with Russia in Kyakta in history, the one with the longest operating history and the largest scale is Changjia in Chewang Town, Yuci.The silver winter melon that Shanxi businessmen like most is also from the Chang family.

Shopkeeper Tian took his nephew Tian Sanhuai tremblingly across the wooden bridge, and walked to the gate of the wooden city under the watchful eyes of several Beihai soldiers. Tian Tongzhou, on the orders of Master Wu of the Li Fan Academy, came to pay a visit."

Shopkeeper Tian spoke Yuci with a heavy accent, and the Beihai soldier at the door blinked, and then said in Henan dialect: "I'm a good boy, what are you talking about?"

　说一下卢布的币值吧，这样也对茶叶贸易有个理解。1卢布含28克白银，10卢布就是280克。清代一两白银是37.5克的95银，10卢布就是7.5两白银。

　　
　
(End of this chapter)