The Ming Dynasty had no other means of collecting commercial taxes on a large scale, let alone collecting taxes from maritime merchants, except for setting up banknotes along the canals, because the Ming Dynasty forbade the sea. Therefore, the Qiongzhou battalion bypassed the control of the imperial court and set up customs on the two largest islands, which was a breakthrough in the system and an unprecedented initiative.www.biquge.info

Although from the perspective of the object of collection, there are similarities between Qiongzhou's revenue tax and Zheng Zhilong's protection fee, but the realm is far from the same. Selling orders and collecting protection fees are still at the level of the underworld, and collecting taxes according to the value of commodities and profits has been a common practice in modern countries. Moreover, after the maritime commercial tax system matures, it can be promoted to all industries in the future as the Qiongzhou camp enters the inland. In Xia Nan's view, the ratio of commercial tax and agricultural tax in the Ming Dynasty was seriously imbalanced, and the state's financial revenue should not be pinned on the peasants who had no place to stand.

It may seem like a difficult task to concentrate the free and comfortable maritime merchants in the designated port to pay taxes, but in reality it is not as difficult as imagined. Before Zheng Zhilong was destroyed, he had already laid a good foundation for the Qiongzhou battalion: three thousand taels of silver for a flag, as long as you run and trade at sea, if you don't plant a flag, you will die. Intimidated by Zheng Zhilong's obscenity, the maritime merchants obediently accepted this rule. Now the overlord of the sea has been replaced, although the rules are a little more verbose than the Zheng family, but the maritime merchants have no choice, anyway, they still spend money to buy peace, but they pay taxes according to the classification of goods, and the silver is just spent more. However, in the eyes of wealthy maritime merchants, there is no qualitative difference between 3,000 taels and 5,000 taels and 6,000 taels.

This area of Liangguang is the base camp of the Qiongzhou battalion, the Qiongzhou battalion is notorious, no one dares to touch the tiger's whiskers, plus the secret support of the governor, there is no need to spend a lot of time, the merchant ships of Liangguang obediently carry the goods to Bofu to inspect the goods and pay taxes. The port of Bosuke, which is a little deserted on weekdays, suddenly became very lively, and all kinds of maritime merchants from the South Seas, going to the South Seas, and preparing to go to Japan, all gathered together, and merchant ships of all sizes lined up to the open sea, all waiting for the newly established "Bofu Tax Customs" to count the goods, collect taxes and fees, and give them a flag and a booklet that recorded the variety of goods carried on the voyage and the amount of tax paid, as well as the name of the customs officer, the date of tax payment, and the signature and seal of the taxpayer. When the ship returns from the South Seas or Japan, the new cargo will have to be re-counted, and the corresponding content will be filled in the same way as before, and the booklet can be used repeatedly.

Shen Xiaoyang, a printer he dug up from Guangzhou, designed anti-counterfeiting technology for the tax booklet, using red, blue, black and other colors to set the printing pattern on the inner page of the booklet, plus the seal with extremely precise engraving, so that ordinary people can not imitate it at all, so as to prevent someone from forging the booklet to evade taxes.

In addition to using multi-color overprinting technology to prevent counterfeiting, Xia Nan is also preparing to plug possible loopholes in the system and make the tax handling personnel of Tainan and Bofu customs rotate regularly. In this way, even if someone is lucky enough to copy the tax booklet, the place of tax payment and the signature of the tax collector do not match, and they are blind.

A few days before the opening of the tax customs, Zhang Mingli personally led people to board the ship to count and register the goods, especially the merchant ships loaded with porcelain and tea to the South Seas were particularly carefully inspected, and the bulk of the revenue from the Bofu customs would fall on these goods.

The voices of the inspectors on each ship came and went: "Three hundred blue and white porcelain vases in Jingdezhen!" ”

"Two hundred quintals of Fujian Wuyi tea!"

"One hundred quintals of local dry hair tea in Guangzhou!"

……

After the inspector counts and inspects the number of goods, the statistician writes down the type and quantity of the goods, and hands it over to the tax collector on the shore, who calculates the tax amount with an abacus according to the tax form of the goods classified in advance, and then the shipowner pays the tax and receives the booklet to prove that the tax is paid. Ship owners refer to this process as "customs clearance".

After the opening of the Bofu Tax Customs, the income in the first month was 200,000 taels of silver, which was almost the annual sales of the cotton cloth business. From the second month onwards, the density of merchant ships that "passed" decreased, and the income decreased, but the average monthly income of 120,000 taels of silver was maintained. Considering that some maritime merchants are still in the wait-and-see stage, and European merchant ships in Batavia and other places have not yet waited to return to the best wind direction in Europe, this figure still has room to rise.

The Tainan tax customs was also put into operation at the same time, but the tax situation was not as optimistic as Bofu's side. In the first month, the tax was only 100,000 taels, and in the second month, it dropped to 80,000. According to Zheng Hongkui's estimates, at least four to fifty percent of the maritime merchants did not come to Tainan because of their luck, but went straight to Japan, especially the maritime merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is precisely these maritime merchants who control most of the raw silk and silk exports in Jiangnan and are the main source of income for Tainan's tax customs. Comparing the trade profits of Japan and Nanyang, the income of Tainan Tax Customs should be twice that of Bofu Tax Customs to be considered normal.

As the commander of the Tainan detachment, Lin Chuanzong has already begun patrolling the Fujian Strait and the East China Sea, but due to the limited number of patrol ships and the fact that the newly built shipyard in Tainan has not yet been put into use, the number of troops is stretched, and the cruising effect is not obvious.

At this time, Liu Quan, who was in Nagasaki, returned, and he brought several news, both good and bad.

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Liu Quan reported to Xia Nan: "First of all, I have to report to the general, the Nagasaki Merchant House was established, and the Hizen Domain gave us the most prosperous location, and it was close to the port. After the news of the general's victory over Zheng Zhilong came, the people of the Hizen Domain served extremely thoughtfully. The building of the merchant hall has been built, and the manpower has been recruited, but the candidate for the steward has not yet been decided, and the subordinates have come back this time and want to send a clever person over. ”

Xia Nan nodded with satisfaction: "You have worked hard, and the person in charge is up to you." Even if we can't monopolize the raw silk market in Suzhou and Hangzhou, we must try to suppress the profit margins of local maritime merchants, so as not to let these people make money and evade our taxes, and we will earn them back if we can't collect their taxes! ”

Liu Quan has been in Japan for a few months, and he doesn't know much about tax customs, so he was surprised when he heard this: "What's the deal with tax evasion?" ”

Xia Nan briefly explained the serious loss of tax revenue from Tainan's customs customs.

Liu Quan patted his head after listening: "This is easy to do!" Most of the raw silk in Jiangnan is sold to Japan, and only the finished silk products are shipped to Nanyang. The Japanese shogunate issued a decree to lock the country, and the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty could trade in Nagasaki, so as long as we blocked the port of Nagasaki and checked the merchant ships of the dynasty one by one, who paid taxes and who evaded taxes would not be clear? ”