Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 183 General Administration of Customs
"Control all the Ming Dynasty's maritime territories!"

Hearing these nine words, Yu Zigao's blood boiled and his eyes even turned red.

He expected that he would be reused by the emperor after entering Beijing, but he did not expect that he would be reused to this extent.

This is obviously to hand over the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory to him. From now on, he will be the number one person representing the imperial court on the Ming Dynasty's ocean.

The glory and benefits contained in this cannot help but make Yu Zigao excited——

The fame and fortune given by the emperor were simply too great.

Regardless of the expressions of Yuan Keli and others, Yu Zigao immediately thanked the emperor and said categorically:

"I will do my best to collect taxes at sea."

"Your Majesty, please give me three years. I will definitely support all the officers and soldiers at the coastal guards."

Zhu Youjian laughed loudly and seemed to admire Yu Zigao very much, but he was extremely wary of his confidence in raising all the officers and soldiers of the Coastal Guard Station in three years:
If the navy can raise all these people, can it create an independent kingdom?
Zhu Youjian would never allow this kind of thing to happen in a state within a state.

So he immediately said:

"The Customs General Shipping Department, referred to as the General Administration of Customs, was established in the Naval Yamen, responsible for collecting customs duties at various ports, and the Municipal Shipping Lifting Department was included."

"The former supervisory eunuch of the Municipal Shipping Department was transferred to the supervisory eunuch of the General Administration of Customs."

"The Imperial Household Supervision established the Sihai Bank to be responsible for customs deposits and navy withdrawals."

"The navy has the right to arrest any ship that has not paid customs duties and order them to pay back the customs duties."

This power made Yu Zigao overjoyed, and Yuan Keli and other civil servants had nothing to say.

Because after the two municipal shipping departments in Guangdong and Fujian were reestablished during the Wanli period, they were always managed by the eunuchs of the inner court. For this matter, the civil servants and the emperor had a lot of arguments.

Now that the emperor has placed the two municipal shipping departments under the General Administration of Customs, the original supervising eunuchs only have supervisory responsibilities.

This made them feel that the current emperor was wary of eunuchs running rampant and was trying to reduce the power of eunuchs.

It was too late for them to welcome such a good thing, so how could they oppose it.

It would be very bad if the emperor changed his mind and established a general office with a eunuch as the leader.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian gave up the inner court's control over customs taxation in exchange for the establishment of the General Administration of Customs.

This was a heavy loss for Zhu Youjian, but it was also something he couldn't do anything about. Because the Shipping Department was under the control of the inner court, it could not collect much tax revenue at all. Under the resistance of civil servants and maritime merchants, it was difficult for the inner court to share the benefits of maritime trade.

Moreover, the eunuchs and eunuchs of Shibo Admiral also did many wanton things to gain benefits for themselves. The money they made was directly divided up by the three local bureaus after their death and never reached the inner court.

So Zhu Youjian simply gave up this area and authorized the navy to collect customs duties to increase revenue for the court.

This approach, which was entirely for the sake of the imperial government's finances, won unanimous praise from civilian officials and led to the smooth establishment of the General Administration of Customs.

As for Sihai Bank, which Zhu Youjian quietly ambushed, they were ignored.

After the General Administration of Customs is established, it is natural to determine how many customs offices to establish. Zhu Youjian said:
"The General Administration of Customs is temporarily under the personal control of the Navy Guards, and branch offices can be established in coastal provinces to be managed by the Guards."

"Establish customs offices at the ports of Tianjin, Dengzhou, Susong, Ningbo, Quanzhou and Guangzhou to clarify the goods allowed to be exported in each place and the tariff rates." "All ships must be registered according to their displacement and pay according to the weight and value of the goods. tax."

"Ships without tax payment certificates will be treated as smuggling, and the navy has the right to arrest them."

"If you are found to be selling prohibited items or evading taxes at the port, the navy can fine you."

This power means that the navy can do whatever it wants at sea. Of course Yu Zigao was overjoyed.

However, he was still a little surprised that there was no customs in Yuegang and reminded the emperor:
"Zhangzhou Yuegang has always been an important place for maritime trade, so a customs should be established."

A customs is a port, and Zhu Youjian basically sets it up one by one for each province. Hearing that Yuegang's current status was so important, he thought about it and said:
"Then add Zhangzhou in Fujian, Chaozhou in Guangdong, Haizhou in South Zhili, and Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong."

“These are the ten ports for the time being, and we will increase or decrease them as needed in the future.”

These places are all famous ports in later generations. Zhu Youjian believes that it is enough for the time being. Any more may cause chaos.

Even these ten ports have many problems, and Zhu Youjian feels that they may not all open smoothly.

For example, Susong Port refers to Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture. Now that the Huangpu River's outlet is owned by Suzhou, the two places will definitely argue over where to open the port.

Jiaozhou Bay was an important city and naval base in later generations, and was also important when the Jiaolai Canal was open. But now that the Jiaolai Canal is in ruins, this place is not very important.

If Zhu Youjian had not wanted to encourage immigrants from Shandong and reduce the population pressure in the north, he would not have set up customs and opened external ports there.

Zhu Youjian's plan is to set up these ten customs first. Capable talents will naturally emerge from within. When the time comes, let them improve the customs system and rectify the poorly managed customs.

This will take a long time and cannot be interrupted. Talents also need to be professionalized, and you cannot just assign officials to take care of them. So Zhu Youjian said:
"Things on the ocean are different from those on land. Things in the navy are very professional."

"In the future, officials in the naval yamen will be mainly selected from those with maritime experience."

"We must pay attention to this when making selections for the Ministry of War. The incident on Juehua Island cannot happen again. The Navy was defeated by landlubbers at sea."

Sun Chengzong was implicitly accused again, and Yuan Keli could only agree to this matter, lest the emperor would cling to this matter and regard the battle of Juehua Island as an example of the navy's need for specialized personnel.

After successfully making the personnel power of the Navy Yamen relatively independent, Zhu Youjian temporarily ended the establishment of the customs and felt that he was one step closer to establishing the Navy Department.

An independent navy needs to have personnel, logistics, combat and other powers. However, the navy currently does not have enough professional talents and its finances are not sufficient. Zhu Youjian has no idea of ​​​​setting up logistics, equipment, staff and other institutions for the navy for the time being. It was decided to wait until the Tianjin Naval Academy has trained enough talents before establishing these institutions.

As for now, let Yu Zigao lead the navy to collect taxes and support the coastal guard. After this burden is removed, the pressure on the court will be reduced and there will be more room for maneuver.

It would be better if the Navy would turn over its taxes. If the Navy Department is established in the future, more people will support it.

According to Zhu Youjian's estimation, after the Navy Yamen reveals its power and financial resources, it will definitely be targeted by civilian officials. Yu Zigao, a military commander, may not be able to manage the ocean for too long.

When the time comes, not only will the military envoys go to sea to fight for power, but the civilian officials may also ask for the establishment of a naval governor, with the title of Nanjing Minister of War or even Nanjing Minister of War to manage it.

But as long as he doesn't let go, he will be certain of the establishment of the Admiralty. The civil servants wanted the ministers and ministers to take charge of the navy, so they could only agree to establish the navy department. At that time, the Ministry of War will actually become the Ministry of War, and a large part of its power will be reduced.

The situation where military power is completely controlled by civilian officials will also change. At worst, there will be two yamen to check and balance, and it will no longer be monolithic.

In order to achieve this, Zhu Youjian set up the navy to give them some land military power.

(End of this chapter)