After listening to Wang Chengen's report, Zhu Youzhen also learned by the way that the tariff revenue of Gansu and Shaanxi in northwest China reached 1.77 million yuan, which was five times that of previous years. The reason for the increase in taxes is the abolition of restrictions on the use of tea and horses, and the relaxation of trade restrictions on daily necessities.

As normal trade routes were liberalized, there were naturally fewer smugglers crossing the border. Although the border army generals of Gansu and Shaanxi were also involved in the border smuggling trade, the border situation in Gansu and Shaanxi was far more severe than that in Shanxi, and vendettas between the two sides were more frequent, so the degree of involvement in the smuggling trade was relatively light.

In particular, Gansu is barren and poor, and because it is located on the main communication route between Mongolia and Qinghai-Tibet, the smaller smugglers do not need to collude with the border army to enter and exit the border wall. In addition, because Gansu was attacked on both sides, after the decline of the Ming Dynasty's national strength, the border situation was bad, and the border generals often regarded border trade as a means to appease these border ethnic minorities and adopted a tacit attitude.

Therefore, the smuggling trade in Gansu and Shaanxi has become a model of barbaric growth, in sharp contrast to the smuggling syndicate in Shanxi where political and business collude. However, this kind of smuggling, with small smugglers as the main body, at best, maintains the most basic exchange of materials in the border areas, and they are powerless to carry out in-depth trade with Qinghai and Outer Mongolia.

The first is that these small smugglers do not have enough capital to organize large-scale caravans, and are easily robbed by horse bandits. After all, there are more than 20 ethnic groups in the Qinghai region, and after moving from Mongolia to Qinghai, they have fallen into a melee, and the smaller caravans cannot protect themselves at all. And the road to Outer Mongolia is too far away, the cost is high and scary, and they will not be able to turn over if they lose money on a trip.

Second, the leather goods in the two places cannot be digested by Gansu alone, but the big merchants in Shanxi have long controlled Shaanxi and the trade routes leading to the Central Plains by collecting the leather goods collected by the big merchants of Shanxi from the right-wing Mongolian departments, and the smuggling merchants in Gansu have no way to compete with them, so naturally they cannot expand the scale.

When the imperial court ordered the official opening of the market, these small smuggling merchants naturally gathered under the name of the large caravan that went out of the customs, so that the taxes that were originally difficult to collect became easier.

As for the horses needed by the imperial court, the quantity and quality of horses increased after the abolition of the compulsory tea and horse trade. After all, the Ming Kingdom was the strong party in the tea and horse trade, so in the process of determining the price of horses with tea, it was often not the market economy but the political situation that was often considered.

Therefore, the amount of tea in Yima is erratic, and the export quantity of tea is often controlled by raising the price of tea and lowering the price of horses, which not only damages the enthusiasm of the grassland people for trade with the Ming Dynasty, but promotes the prosperity of the smuggling trade. On the other hand, it was not the tea merchants who benefited from the increase in the price of tea, but the officials and smugglers who filled their own pockets.

Therefore, the tea and horse market soon became the chicken ribs of the Ming Dynasty, and it was a pity to abandon it because it was tasteless. This year, after switching to a new trade method, both the quantity and quality of horses have greatly improved. 5,140 horses of medium or higher were purchased at market prices, with an average of 115 taels per horse, costing more than 82,700 yuan. Although the price was twice as high as in previous years, the horses were purchased to be really medium or higher.

Zhu Youzhen thought quietly for a while, and then instructed Wang Chengen: "The price of the horse silver will be taken out of the inner treasury, and the price will be increased by 20% to the Gansu and Shaanxi Tea and Horse Divisions, and before the Tea and Horse Divisions are not restructured, they will act according to this rule in the future."

In addition to the purchased horses allocated to the officials and soldiers of Gansu and Shaanxi, some good horses were also selected and sent to the capital as stallions. In addition, under your consultation with the Ministry of Households, the tariffs of Gansu and Shaanxi are limited to five years, and they will not be sent to the capital for five years. One-third was allocated to the local garrison, one-third to the local government, and one-third to build sites, roads and hospitals in the city.

In addition, the Suzhou garrison held on to the country, but the local food was not self-sufficient, resulting in the hardship of the military and people in Suzhou. And Gansu is barren, and it can't take care of Suzhou for a while. Therefore, in my name, 50,000 yuan is allocated from the inner treasury every year to ensure the food and daily supply of the military and civilians in Suzhou, and no one is allowed to embezzle this transfer. ”

Although Chongzhen pushed off the tariffs of Gansu and Shaanxi, this should have been the money shared between the internal government and the household department, and the horse price and the subsidies of the Suzhou army were discounted. But seeing that the inner government had obtained a high income of more than 760,000 yuan this time, Wang Chengen forgot that he should persuade Chongzhen to save some funds from the inner treasury.

After making a conclusion about the Northwest Border Trade, Zhu Youzhen then asked: "So how much is the tea tax collected by Daming this year?" ”

Wang Chengen hesitated for a moment before saying: "After the abolition of the tea introduction system, the tea tax in various places still has not improved, and according to the domestic tax worth 3.5 per hundred, the total amount has dropped from 200,000 taels in previous years to less than 130,000 taels.

The only area where tea trading rose was the tea market established in Hankou, where the number of tea traded in Huguang each year was 5,000 quintals of bud tea and 14,000 quintals of leaf tea.

However, this year, the number of tea sold in Hankou alone exceeded 150,000 quintals, and nearly 20,000 taels of taxes were paid. Its transaction volume is second only to the 220,000 quintals of Fujian tea, making it the second largest tea producing province.

However, according to records, the situation of tea export tariffs is better than in previous years, from less than 20,000 taels to more than 30,000 taels. Therefore, the sum of the two is more than 160,000 taels of tea tax. ”

Regarding the data reported by Wang Chengen, Zhu Youzhen was a little unconvinced. The price of tea going out to the northwest is about 16 taels per quintal, but the price of tea going out to sea is between 30-40 taels per quintal.

The reason for this situation is that the cabin is small, and the cargo is piled up together and it is easy to accumulate heat, thus destroying the quality of tea; The second is that the current packaging technology is unqualified, and a ship is full of various goods, and there will be a phenomenon of cross-smell after long-term voyages.

Therefore, the low cost of shipping tea by sea is higher than that of expensive land transportation. After the abolition of the tea introduction system, although the domestic tax on tea was reduced, the tariff on tea was fixed at a high tax of one tael per quintal. More than 30,000 taels have only exported more than 30,000 quintals of tea this year, which is obviously a bit low.

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and then said to Wang Chengen: "The foreign trade professional markets in Shanghai, Zhoushan, Xiamen, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong have been built for almost a year, can they be launched next year and include all foreign trade in the market?" ”

Wang Chengen immediately replied: "Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou have almost repaired their markets and warehouses, and only Zhoushan and Hong Kong are still a little behind. However, it should be completed by June next year. ”

Zhu Youzhen asked again: "So has the central bank's outlets in the above areas also been completed?" The customs officers have also been adjusted? ”

"The outlets of the central bank have already started operations in the above areas, and as for the customs officers, about 300 people have been trained, and one-third of them are personnel retained by the municipal shipping department, so it should not delay His Majesty's plan to change the municipal shipping department into the customs." Wang Chengen replied cautiously.

Zhu Youzhen nodded with some satisfaction and said: "Then let the celebrant make an edict, except for Zhoushan and Hong Kong, which will be postponed to August, and the other ports will follow the example of Tianjin Port to establish customs to manage import and export trade, and the original city shipping department will be dissolved."

The customs has two chiefs, the north customs in Tianjin and the south in Shanghai. The two sides take the Yangtze River as the boundary and are in charge of the north and south ports, and the ports of the Yangtze River are under the management of the South Customs.

In addition, after the establishment of the customs, the market transactions of all ports must be subject to the public system weights and measures issued by the imperial court, and the customary weights and measures of both foreign and domestic merchants must be converted according to the public system weights and measures. In the future, all disputes concerning trade weights and measures, all deeds that do not indicate the trading unit will be based on the public system weights and measures as the default unit.

In addition, all incoming and out* trade is not allowed to use gold and silver bullion as a means of monetary payment, nor is it allowed to use foreign coins as a means of payment. The legal tender for entry and exit is two types of paper money and silver coins issued by the Ming Dynasty. Precious metals or foreign gold and silver coins carried by foreign merchants must be exchanged into Ming banknotes at the central bank before they can be traded in the market.

The customs duties collected by the customs, the berthing and warehouse rental fees charged by the port authority, and the banknotes and silver coins issued by the Ming Dynasty must also be collected, and other forms of currency must not be collected without authorization. ”

After a pause, Zhu Youzhen continued: "Next year, let the tea company open a tea market in Shanghai and Fuzhou, and purchase a small fast boat specifically for transporting tea. I hope that within three years, tea companies will be able to monopolize the overseas trade market for tea and cut off the trade routes for smuggling tea..."

Zhu Youzhen was instructing, but saw Lu Qi quietly walking in from outside, as if he wanted to report something to him. He couldn't help but stop and motioned for Lu Qi to come forward and report.

Lu Qi stepped forward and walked a few steps, stood in front of Chongzhen's table and said, "Liu Jingting has arrived, does Your Majesty want to see him now?" In addition, Gwanghae-kun of the Joseon Kingdom, accompanied by Lee Yong-gil, wanted to see His Majesty. ”

Hearing the latter news, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but subconsciously ask, "Is there any problem in the Guanghai Monarch's Mansion recently?" Is there a shortage of money for him? ”

Lu Qi hurriedly denied it: "According to His Majesty's order, the minister has been paying attention to the use of the Guanghai Monarch's Mansion, and there is no shortage. However, Lee Yong-gil said that Gwanghae-jun asked him to find a healthy baby boy, as if he wanted to replace the child in Ren Aiying's womb. It seems that Gwanghae-kun is still obsessed with the idea of recovering the country. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought about it, and then said: "Then let Guanghaijun come in first, I will chat with him for a few words, and you will arrange for Liu Jingting to drink hot tea on the side..."