Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 499 The Field of Hope

Immediately after returning, Ilya and Joseph called a meeting of the Jewish elders in Yeniseysk.In fact, they didn't need to summon them. All the Jews stretched their ears and waited for the news.

The venue for the meeting was in a Jewish tavern, and all the prominent figures in the local Jewish community came.Because military control is currently implemented in the city, military police wearing red armbands can be seen everywhere on the streets. Residents of Yeniseysk usually stay at home except to bite the bullet and go out to buy daily necessities, so few people come to drink these days.

Except for the tavern owner who was a brewer, most of the Jews attending the meeting were engaged in tinsmiths, watchmakers, glassmakers, tanners, grain trade, timber trade, and even two small landowners who made a living by farming.

Agricultural labor does not play an important role in the life of the Jews. The long-term living as a guest has to some extent led to the alienation of the Jews from the land, which is a common phenomenon in various European countries of residence.

In general, the Tsarist Russian government prohibited Jews from engaging in agriculture, and the establishment of several insignificant agricultural settlements was not so much to attract Jews to engage in agricultural labor as to develop Siberia and resettle Jews who moved out of rural areas in Europe.

After everyone listened to the rabbi and Joseph's account of their meeting with Zhao Xin, a brewer suggested: "Well, since the new Chinese don't let us engage in usury business, I think it's better to leave here for wonderful."

"Leave? It's freezing outside now, where can we go? Kolyvan is a thousand versts from here!"

"Wait a minute, Lieberman. The adult also said that he allows us to farm here, and each family can have a share of one hundred acres of land."

"Damn it, I don't want to be a farmer!"

"Yes, they only give usufruct rights but not property rights. If the Chinese get upset and take the land away, what will happen then? Will the Queen take us in?"

"What's wrong with farmers? I think it's good to be a farmer. Without farmers farming the land, where does the food for wine come from?"

"I said, you never thought that although the Chinese occupied this place, they were challenging the entire Tsarist Russian Empire. If you ask me, it's hard to say whether they can stand still."

"I think the Chinese are not bad. Although I don't know them at all, they didn't confiscate my property and drive me out of the house. You know, the Russians did a lot of things in Lithuania back then."

"Stop dreaming, how long has the Chinese talent been here? You won't have time to cry until they do it!"

The crowd debated for a long time without any results. The majority of people headed by Rabbi Ilya decided to wait and see. After all, the Chinese ruler was only talking about whether there would be new laws or not. The regulations will be made public when the time comes.

Most of the Jews in this year have not yet raised the "Zionism Movement", and many people will not think about returning to Palestine even if they are persecuted.In recent years, only some people from the "Hasidic sect" and "Beluchim sect" living in South Russia have returned to Palestine to settle down.

You must know that in another time and space, those Hasidic sects with long sideburns and black top hats were rejected by Orthodox Judaism in this era, and they were even expelled from the church 18 years ago.

But what is interesting is that the Hasidic sect wants to turn Palestine into the center of the Zion movement, while the Beluchim sect wants to establish the center of the anti-Hasidic sect in Palestine.

After the tavern owner Martov saw off the participants, he immediately put up a sign that the tavern was open.However, until it got dark, except for the Beihai Navy, who served as the military police, on the muddy streets, they were still standing guard and patrolling, and there was hardly a local person in sight.

Martov, who stood at the doorway, looked around for a long time, and finally sighed helplessly.He put out the oil lamp in the tavern, and then walked out of the door, ready to lock the door and go home.At this moment, someone behind him said: "What kind of wine do you have here?"

Martov turned around and took advantage of the light from the pine oil torch on the wall beside him, and then he saw clearly that standing in front of him was a tall man, who looked quite young because he had no beard.However, this person was wearing the same dark green uniform as the other Northern Navy, and a suede hat without a military emblem.From this attire, people who don't know him don't know whether he is a soldier or an officer.

"Chinese?" Martov was very surprised. Since the Northern Navy entered the city, he had never received any Chinese.

"No beer, but vodka, sir."

"I'm not the master," the man across from him chuckled and said in fluent Russian, "How do you sell wine?"

"3 rubles per barrel." Martov hesitated, then insisted: "5.5 rubles per barrel of good wine."

"Just give me two glasses, I can't drink a barrel." These days, a barrel of wine must be more than 12 liters.

The man stepped into the doorway, and Martov hurriedly opened the closed door to ask him to wait a moment. After entering the room, he lit a few oil lamps before inviting him in.Then he took a wooden mug from behind the counter, opened a bottle of vodka still stained with barley husks, and put them on the table together.

The man first poured himself half a glass of wine, took a sip, then nodded noncommittally, then took out a Beihai silver coin from his pocket and put it on the table.Curiously, Martov picked up the shiny silver coin and looked it over carefully in front of the oil lamp.

Unlike the silver rubles issued by the Tsarist Russian government with the empress's shawl and curly hair, the lines of the image on the silver coins in Beihai Town are more concise and clear, and the statue of Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor in Wuliang Temple looks chubby.Martov turned the back and found a circle of wheat ears and an Arabic "1". He immediately understood that this should be the basic currency unit of the Chinese.

Although the silver content of the one yuan Beihai silver coin is 6.9 grams, 925 silver is used, and the silver content of one ruble is 7.38 grams, but because the two are not much different in weight, and the brightness of the Beihai silver coin is higher than that of the ruble. , so Martov did not question its value.

The man took a sip of vodka and suddenly asked, "What appetizers do you have?"

"There's sausage and pickles."

"Okay, give me a little of everything, not too much."

When the wine and food were served, Martov felt a little amused when he saw that the other party was drinking as if he was tasting medicinal soup.

"It seems that this person rarely drinks alcohol." He thought to himself, then bowed to the other side and said, "Master, this is the best vodka in the area. How does it taste?"

"Not bad." The man put down his glass and said with a smile, "How about we chatting for a while? Why don't you pour a glass too and count it as my treat."

After opening a tavern for so many years, this was the first time someone invited him to drink.Although Martov was a little apprehensive, he was under the rule of the Chinese now, so he took an empty glass and poured himself a full one, which overflowed to the edge of the glass.

Martov raised his glass: "Would you like to say something?"

The young man thought for a while and said, "The morning wine is stone, the noon wine is copper, the evening wine is silver, and the three-day wine is gold. Let's drink silver."

Martov was taken aback when he heard this, and blurted out, "Have you read the Talmud?"

The young man clinked glasses with Martov, took a sip, and then explained: "Oh, I heard it before."

After drinking a glass of vodka, Martov talked more. He said with a smile, "How can you stop drinking in Siberia? Young man, you speak Russian really well. Where did you learn it?"

"Uh, Irkutsk."

"I know that place, I have a relative, the first few years."

As glass after glass of premium vodka was poured down, Martov gradually began to talk.The young man first chatted about the business of the tavern, and then turned the topic to the tax system.

It is said that the tax system was a very common form of taxation in Europe in the [-]th and [-]th centuries. The French tax contractors in the [-]th century can be said to be the most familiar group of merchants.

For the Tsarist Russian Empire, the origin of the tax system is closely related to the rule of the Mongols.The rise of the Principality of Moscow in the [-]th century, to some extent, benefited from its role as the most powerful tax contractor of the Golden Horde.And when it got rid of the rule of the Mongols, the tradition of this tax package system was followed.

There are many tax targets in the tax package system, including tariffs, salt tax, and wine tax; wine tax was the largest revenue of the treasury in the Ekaterina era, exceeding 1000 million rubles, accounting for one-third of the total revenue.The Tsarist Russian government’s tax law strictly regulated the sales price of alcoholic beverages for tax contractors, with the aim of increasing government revenue while reducing the profits of tax contractors.But contrary to expectations, such regulations not only did not increase government revenue, but instead made the government's liquor tax revenue decline year by year.

Martov, who had already drank two bottles of vodka, blushed and complained to the young man: "Those lords, officials and lords don't even know the total sales of vodka in this area. Only we know how much we have sold. "

The young man nodded and said, "In other words, the amount of liquor tax revenue depends entirely on you tax contractors."

"That's right! Young man, have a toast!"

Since the mid-eighteenth century, Yeniseysk, like other Tsarist Russian regions, basically relied on alcohol retail package taxes.Each region conducts a bidding process every four years, so tax contractors have a monopoly on alcohol retailing in a certain region.

The tax package model of alcohol retailing has prompted tax packagers to increase the sales volume of vodka by all means on the one hand, and to increase the price of vodka either explicitly or implicitly, in order to obtain more profits.For the government, this model has greatly reduced the administrative cost of liquor tax collection, but with the continuous increase of vodka sales, the government has lost control over the profits of alcohol sales and its social impact.

In other words, due to the lack of money of the Tsarist Russian government, the development of the alcohol tax package was promoted; and the lack of control over the sales of alcohol caused ordinary Russians to gradually become greedy.

So having said that, Russians are not born to drink vodka.It doesn't mean that people who live in the alpine region must like wine. Getting enough food is the first priority.In an era when there is not enough food to eat, wine made from food can only be a luxury.Even if the early Russians drank beer and mead.

A big problem with the liquor tax package tax system is the serious corruption associated with it.For example, the Tsarist Russian government stipulated that tax contractors must sell vodka with a standard strength of [-] degrees, and at the same time required that the price per barrel be three rubles.

And Martov, a former tax contractor, told young people that the cost price of a barrel of vodka must be at least 4.4 rubles, plus his own operating costs, and he would not lose money by selling at least 5-6 rubles per barrel of vodka. .

Under such circumstances, the tax contractors under Tsarist Russia either adulterated the wine with water, or raised the price, or bribed government officials.Therefore, the tax subsidy system of Tsarist Russia has become "institutional corruption". For tax subcontractors, the overall environment is like this, and no one will abide by the laws and regulations.Everyone only thinks about one thing, how to take advantage of legal loopholes to maximize their profits.

The drink lasted for more than an hour, and Zhao Xin, who was traveling in disguise, also understood that the tax package system must be abolished under the rule of Beihai Town, and at the same time, the grain trade and the production of the brewery must be controlled from the source.

At the same time, he also became more aware of what the loss of the entire Siberia meant to the Tsarist Russian government, and a huge amount of treasury revenue was gone!
When Zhao Xin felt that it was about the same, he was about to get up and leave, when he heard someone in the doorway shout again: "Is there any beer?"

Before the words were finished, two local Cossacks walked in.

Martov was already a little bit drunk at the moment, he stood up while leaning on the table and said, "No beer."

"Don't worry, Jew, we'll pay."

Martov had now seen that he knew the two guests, and exclaimed: "My God, can I still deceive you? Master Kryuchkov, please believe the honest Jews, there is no beer!"

Another Cossack shouted: "Nonsense, you Jew!"

"Really, Master Kryuchkov! I have already said it."

"You still..." The two Cossacks were furious. They were about to rush over and grab each other by the collar when they saw the Chinese man looking at them with a blank face. Get some copper coins.

"Bring us wine!"

Martov pressed the copper coin on the palm of his hand with his little finger, lowered his rolled eyelids, and staggered to the back of the counter, muttering, "What a show, I'm just defeated by the Chinese."

Two days later, a notice signed by the Northern Navy Military Control Committee was posted on bulletin boards in various places in the city. The content immediately surprised the Jewish brewers and tax collectors in Yeniseysk:
[-]. Cancel the tax package model for all monopoly commodities during the Tsarist Russian rule, and the tax arrears of the previous tax package merchants must be paid within one month; [-]. The grain used for wine making each year shall not exceed one-tenth of the local agricultural grain output; [-]. It is strictly forbidden to smuggle food for wine making; [-]. All pubs or hotels that provide alcohol must apply to the Military Control Commission for a "Liquor Monopoly License".

A group of tax contractors headed by Martov were stunned when they saw the notice. They knew very well what this notice meant to them, and the foundation of survival for centuries was deprived.

However, before they woke up, the second notice came out only one day later.

The content is that the Beihai Town Military Control Committee will provide state-owned land for Jews who are willing to stay and work in agriculture, with each household having 6.11 mu, or about [-] desia mus.However, the location is not in the local area, but in the Nizhny Uginsk and Tulum areas hundreds of kilometers away.At the same time, the Military Control Commission will also provide loans for agricultural production.In addition, Beihai Town will open a Chinese-taught Jewish school, and all school-age children must enroll.

This kind of policy of slapping a sweet date immediately caused controversy in the local Jewish community, which also divided the originally tight Jewish community into orthodox faction and reformist faction.

The promulgation of the previous regulation eventually led to the bankruptcy of the brewers in Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk, and their original usury business could no longer be maintained.Some of the bankrupt Jews left Beihai Town and returned to the territory of Tsarist Russia. They continued to engage in commercial activities or turned into handicraftsmen, which intensified the competition in the local industry.

The promulgation of the latter order made the poor Jews extremely excited.From the spring of 1791, more than 1000 families and more than 6000 Jews left the town and went to the above two places with their families.

Compared with those settled Russian farmers who often hired Buryats or prisoners to help them cultivate the land, Jewish farmers rarely used hired labor. They were all family members and did it by themselves.Although these people are not very good at farming, because Beihai Town was exempted from taxes for the first five years, their enthusiasm for the land was still aroused.

At the Siberia Regional Agricultural Exposition held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 1792, Jewish animal husbandry, tree cultivation, grains, tobacco, and silkworms were all highly praised.

The bumper harvest in agriculture and the policies of Beihai Town let these people see a way out of poverty, and closely linked their hope for life with this land.

(End of this chapter)