When Chu Bai entered the Royal Palace of Madrid again, the tone of King Carlos III of Spain had changed. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"It is a conscious thing to establish friendship and trade with a great country like the Tang Dynasty, and I also agree with the reciprocal trade that the envoy said, but the Spanish government and opposition believe that this trade must be controllable and limited, in case there are some negative effects. Gombos, please explain our conditions to the envoys of the Tang Dynasty. Carlos III began.

Chu Bai was also shocked when he heard that the Spaniards were relieved, and he concentrated on listening to what kind of conditions the Spaniards would propose.

"In order to make the trade between the two countries as balanced as possible, Spain hopes that the trade between the Tang and Western countries will be carried out according to the following conditions: first, the number and tonnage of ships sent by the Tang Republic to the Spanish territories each year must be limited, and we believe that it should be within 10 ships per year and the total deadweight should be less than 10,000 tons; Second, Datang merchant ships are not allowed to sail directly to the mainland of Spain in Europe, and can only trade in the ports specified by Spain, and Spain plans to open three ports: the port of Alpulco in Mexico, the port of Callao in Peru, and the port of Valparaiso in Chile, to allow Datang merchant ships to dock for trade; Third, the Spanish colonial government has the right to impose flexible tariff rate fluctuations on Datang's goods......"

After hearing this, Chu Bai frowned and said: "Your Majesty, none of the above terms can be accepted by the Tang government, ten merchant ships per year and a cargo limit of 10,000 tons, which cannot meet our trade needs at all, and the port limit is barely acceptable to us, but Spain unilaterally adjusts tariffs." It will seriously damage the establishment of reciprocal tariffs determined by us, and it will also seriously damage Datang's commercial interests. ”

Chu Bai's eyes were sharp, looking at the Spanish monarch in the palace. He said: "Moreover, your country only stipulates restrictions on us, so that Spanish goods entering Datang do not need to be restricted by the number of merchant ships, deadweight tonnage and high tariffs?" What kind of most-favored-nation trade treatment is this, this is clearly an unequal agreement! ”

Chu Bai's words made the Spaniards somewhat embarrassed, but if they were too embarrassed and disciplined diplomatically, they would not be able to do anything. Gombos said with a natural expression: "The trade between Tang and West has just begun, so there is no need to be too aggressive, everyone can observe slowly." After that, if there are any problems, make changes. Moreover, the Tang Dynasty has some indisputable advantages in trade, if it is not restricted, then it will be unfair to Spain, after all, the place where you want to do business is our colony. And not the colony of the Tang Dynasty. How to decide on the trade model is up to Spain, not Datang. ”

Chu Bai smiled angrily and said: "Well, since Spain has so many restrictions, then Datang also wants to restrict Spain's trade, and the merchant ships of Spain and its dependencies can only sail ten ships in Long Beach Port every year, with a total load of no more than 10,000 tons." In addition, Datang will restrict the export of all products with industrial technology to protect China's intellectual property rights. Including munitions, machinery and other products. ”

When Carlos III heard this, he panicked a little and said, "You can't be so restrictive!" ”

Chu Bai didn't care at all that he was talking to the king of a huge kingdom, he said, "Can't you? But Spain is so restricted, and this is our Datang's trade, and how to decide the trade model and what to export is up to our Datang, not Spain. ”

Seeing that the negotiations were about to collapse, Alfonso hurriedly came out to play a round and said: "Your Excellency, please dissipate your anger, aren't we discussing specific trade details here, it is natural for the two sides to have differences, but everyone can make certain compromises and concessions in a friendly spirit." ”

Carlos III was also busy: "That's right, if the envoys of the Tang Dynasty have any ideas, they can just put them forward." ”

Chu Bai said: "The restriction of trade volume is absolutely not beneficial to the trade and economic development of the two countries, so it should not exist at all, and we can barely agree to the conditions for trade between the three ports, but there must be a fully agreed tariff scope on the tariff, and it must not be modified at will." ”

"The setting of tariffs is the sovereignty of a country, and your envoy should be aware of this. ”

Chu Bai said: "Your Excellency is not wrong, but we are talking about the most favored nation treatment in trade, and if you want one side to give preferential tariffs, you must make concessions on your own tariffs." I have here a specific tariff schedule for Spanish goods drawn up by Datang, you can take a look, Datang does not require Spain's tariffs to be completely consistent with Datang, after all, the national conditions of each country are different, but Spain's tariffs on Datang goods must be more concessional than those of other trading countries, and it is relatively reasonable. Of course, in order to protect our national interests, we can each set tariff rates in excess of the tariff agreement in some categories, but this category is limited. ”

Carlos III roughly browsed Datang's tariffs, and then exclaimed: "Impossible, Spain can't give the same import and export tariffs as Datang!" Because the tax rate you set is lower than the tax rate we set for our own businessmen. ”

As soon as these words came out, Carlos III and other ministers realized a problem, that is, the tariff rate of the Tang Republic was extremely low among the powerful countries of the same era, which meant that trade was profitable. Datang likes to buy very much.

At this time, Alfonso came to Carlos III's side and whispered: "Your Majesty, I think we can appropriately reduce some tariffs to get this tariff concession from the Tang people, as far as I can see with my own eyes, the demand for many tropical crops and ores in the Tang Republic is huge, and our homeland can't use so much, basically doing transshipment." Obviously, there will be better profits by selling to the Tang people, and our merchants can get some very good selling and profitable goods in Datang, as long as we get stuck in the transatlantic trade must be done by our Spanish merchants, we can sell the goods of the Tang people to the whole of Europe and make greater profits. Now we are the only ones who have established trade relations with the Tang people, which is a huge advantage, so that we can become a middleman and get great benefits! ”

Carlos III pondered for a while, and felt that what Alfonso said was still very reasonable, and he said: "Then do we really want to relax the trade restrictions on the Tang Republic?" In this way, the goods of the Tang people will flood the markets of our colonies, which will have a great impact on us. ”

Alfonso said: "Actually, we thought about this from the beginning, didn't we? The point is that the level of development of our colonies is actually very low, and Mexico was developed much earlier than New England, but New England is growing fast, and Mexico is still poor. It was also difficult for Spanish goods to fully meet the needs of the colonies, which led to a lot of complaints from the colonies. In fact, there are many other ways to protect trade, such as encouraging the locals to buy our products first, and if we get the secret of the Tang Dynasty's manufacturing industry, we can quickly develop our own industrial products and compete with the Tang people in our colonies. ”

Gombos also whispered to Carlos III at this time: "Your Majesty, I think this Tang envoy has a very tough position, and we should not get an agreement with a particularly big concession, but we should still do it for the restrictions on the passage of Tang ships, even if we can let Tang goods enter our colony, but the transshipment profits in the middle should also be taken by us Spaniards." ”

Carlos III made some trade-offs with these courtiers, and once again came up with conditions: "Spain can make concessions in terms of tariffs, and it can be superior to other trading countries, and the number of Tang ships sailing to the Spanish colonies should not exceed 30, and the deadweight tonnage should not exceed 30,000 tons." ”

Chu Bai was still not satisfied, and continued to bargain, of course he knew that Spanish merchants could also transport goods to various places, but Datang was bound to give up a large part of the profits, he said: "One hundred merchant ships per year, there is no limit to the load." ”

Gombos shook his head and said: "This is impossible, the number of merchant ships going to and from Spain in many countries is not more than fifty or sixty a year, and even if trade is opened, I don't think Datang has the ability to send 100 merchant ships to us every year to do business, I'm afraid forty or fifty is your limit, so why fight for something that can't be realized?" ”

Gombos said that in fact, it can't be wrong, after all, Datang is a small country, although there are a large number of ships, but the scale that can be fully mobilized is not very large, even if bilateral trade is opened, Datang estimates that the number of merchant ships sent to the Spanish colonies every year is unlikely to exceed 30, although Datang has a huge demand for industrial raw materials, but consumption power is limited after all.

Chu Bai thought about this problem clearly, so he said: "50 merchant ships, deadweight tonnage is unlimited, and the trade agreement can be revised regularly according to the needs of both sides, the first phase of the trade agreement is valid for five years, and we will revise the contract after five years." ”

Alfonso said to Carlos III at this time: "The tonnage of merchant ships of the Tang people is generally relatively large, and merchant ships of three or five thousand tons are the most common, and even giant ships of 10,000 tons are available, so according to the load of one thousand tons per merchant ship, the Tang people will exhaust the deadweight tonnage limit when they cannot reach the limit of the number of merchant ships at all." However, there are not many giant ships of the Tang people, just like His Excellency Gombos said, even if we do not set restrictions on the load and ships, the number of merchant ships that the Tang people will sail will never be large. ”

Carlos III trusted Alfonso so much, so he made a decision: "Then, let's go according to the standard of 50 ships with an indefinite load limit." There is no limit to the number of merchant ships from Spain to Datang, and there is no limit to the load, do you have any opinions? ”

Chu Bai also didn't realize that this restriction was opened, Spanish merchant ships could crowd the Datang port, and there were many ways to restrict it, so Chu Bai nodded happily. (To be continued.) )