Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1303 The Leisurely War Years ([-])

"The collection of temporary taxes is imperative." In a certain teahouse in Luocha Town, Mr. Zhu Heng held a copy of the newly published "Kommersant" and took off a pair of expensive crystal glasses from his ears. , said with a sigh.

The few dishes of dim sum in front of him were mostly made by artisans who immigrated here from the Ming Dynasty. They were delicious in color, fragrance, and good in appearance. What's more rare was that the price was not very expensive, and they were relatively close to the people, so they were loved by everyone. , this teahouse specializing in dim sum has gradually become one of the main recreational places for people with money and leisure in Luocha County.

For example, at this time, Mr. Zhu invited a young man opposite to taste the dim sum. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called "buttered abalone". The main ingredients were butter, cheese, sucrose, honey, etc. It was not cheap in the Ming Dynasty. Only then can I afford it.However, in the East Coast Republic, where productivity is developed, overseas colonies are rich in products, and the maritime industry is also quite powerful, things like cheese and cane sugar are really not very valuable. The snacks made with them can be tasted even by fishery workers on the docks every now and then. one time.This kind of strong contrast makes some Ming immigrants who have been to the east bank for a long time often use it to boast in front of the new immigrants, in order to show the wealth of the east bank and their own living standards.

Another example is jujube cake, which uses the famous Chubut River candied dates - where there is sufficient sunlight, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the soil is suitable for the growth of fruit trees such as jujube trees and cherries - South African sesame, super flour produced by Rabbit Hole Flour Factory, new Huaxia sugar and other materials are refined. It was first made by a chef in the Ming Dynasty. Later, the method spread and quickly became popular all over the country. Various styles of jujube cakes appeared in various places, competing for novelty.

In addition, there are "steamed crispy fruit pies" and "pretzel gold cakes with fruit fillings". In the Ming Dynasty, they were mostly enjoyed by dignitaries or wealthy businessmen and wealthy families, but on the east bank, although it cannot be said that they have completely entered the common people. But it’s not a big deal for everyone to spend two dollars (not expensive) to buy a roll and a half from a tea house or dim sum shop, and take it home for the children and mothers-in-law to eat.In the final analysis, this is the dividend brought about by the prosperity of business or the development of productivity. From another perspective, it is also the people on the east coast who squeeze outsiders to please their own citizens. This is the case with sucking blood from the colonies.

Otherwise, there are no blacks or Malays who would rather die in a humid, hot and disease-ridden plantation. Do you think Zhu Heng and others can sit in a teahouse with peace of mind and enjoy cheap tea and snacks leisurely?What a dream!A considerable part of the happy life of the people on the east coast is based on the suffering of others. Cheap sugar, honey, dried fruit, spices, sesame, peanuts, sorghum, seafood, etc., are not the so-called "people's fat" of foreign nationals ?

Master Zhu Heng Zhu, who experienced great changes in his youth and rose again on the east coast after middle age, couldn't understand this truth very well.This country has profoundly brought benefits to every citizen—maybe some people get more benefits, some people get less benefits, but they really all get benefits—this is no longer a country of one family, but country for all.I heard that in the Southern Railway and Patagonia areas, the local township governments hold public discussions in the courtyard, and citizens can listen in and speak; although this is not the case in Luocha County, the county often convenes people to formulate policies Discussions—called "political consultative conferences"—Master Zhu himself has participated in more than a dozen such meetings, and made several suggestions, some of which were adopted, which made him quite satisfied.

Therefore, this time, in order to make up for the lack of various expenses during the war, the government decided to impose temporary taxes nationwide (except for newly established settlements within three years), such as the "malt tax" on alcohol and the "malt tax" on tobacco. Tobacco tax", in addition to fish tax, salt tax, leather tax, sugar tax, tea tax, etc., of course, the additional additional duties imposed on foreign goods - this move has ushered in a cold wave for some companies engaged in import and export trade ——It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned commodities were already included in the original consumption tax. This time, the provisional tax on these kinds of bulk consumer goods is levied again, which is tantamount to raising the tax rate in disguise.However, the government's reason is also high-sounding. It needs both war and construction. The country is also burdened with a huge debt of more than 500 million yuan, and it is still negotiating with the Spaniards to buy land. It is obviously impossible not to impose new taxes.

The introduction of these new taxes can probably bring an additional fiscal revenue of nearly 150 million yuan per year to the East Coast government—of course, if a higher tax rate is enacted, the revenue will be more, but it is not necessary—this can do a lot of things If we add in the tax arrears of more than 150 million yuan (mostly the long-overdue movable property tax and real estate tax, which has been transferred to the account of the Ministry of Finance for 50 yuan), the total amount is as high as 300 million yuan. .In this way, whether it is domestic expenditure or land purchase expenses, there will be a lot of leeway, and even the Ministry of Finance can slightly recover some expired bills issued over the years, reducing the amount of currency circulating in the domestic market, and making the East Bank This moderately large economy can operate in a healthy manner without causing too much impact on the lives of the people.

Of course, not everyone is as open-minded as Mr. Zhu. The businessmen in the county who were born in Italy and England have a natural rejection attitude towards taxation, and regard it as gouge out flesh from themselves. They are afraid of the "fucking iron fist" of the Mei agency, so they dare not shout loudly for the time being.But no matter what these "barbarians" and "hu merchants" think, the "Qingzhou Gang" merchant group headed by Zhu Heng, Li Qun and others has experienced the rich merchants and gentry of Daming who did not pay taxes, and then they all worked together It was a nightmare experience after playing, so the government sent more troops for the war, and their resistance was not so strong.Otherwise, is it like in the Ming Dynasty that all the tax burdens were passed on to the poor peasants, causing them to go bankrupt on a large scale, and then everyone died together? It is ridiculous that everyone refused to pay taxes and saved money in the end. It's really sad and deplorable, it can't be like this anymore, some money has to be paid, what's more, this government is still making decisions for everyone, not a **** country that waits for the disabled to succeed.

"Brother Xiao, why are you bothering? Isn't it good to stay in the county with peace of mind and do business? Building materials, seafood, leather, flour, soybean oil, what do you want to do, I am Zhu Even if I give up this old face, I can still ask you for it, so that I can fulfill the friendship and loyalty between your father and me back then. But why are you so interested in the ocean shipping business? There is an old saying in Shandong that 'the wind and waves are dangerous'. It’s not just talking, if you are not careful in this business, you will lose everything, and you may even lose your life, you must not make mistakes, Brother Xiao!” Master Zhu took a bite of steamed cakes, put down his chopsticks, and frowned. Frowning, he said to the handsome young man sitting opposite him.

"Leaving aside, there are quite a few people in this county and even this association engaged in ocean-going trade. One or two boats were hit by strong winds and waves, and sank! Those who didn't buy insurance in Qingdao County naturally lost a lot of money, and they are still buying insurance. Working in the sand field; even those who bought insurance are peeling off a layer of skin, not to mention there are people who died on the voyage themselves, leaving orphans and widows at home. Life is very sad. Brother Xiao, is it possible that you also Do you want to repeat their mistakes?" Master Zhu continued to persuade him earnestly.

The young man's name is Ximen Xiao, and his father is from Jinan Prefecture. He made friends with Zhu Heng and Mr. Zhu back then, and he even saved Zhu Heng's life because of his good medical skills, so the two have a close friendship.Later, when the Qing soldiers went south, Shandong became a mess. Ximen Xiao, whose family was destroyed, escaped from Jinan and was taken in by Marshal Mo's army and immigrated to the east bank.Later, he met Mr. Zhu Heng Zhu and settled down in Luoqia County. With Zhu Heng's support, he has established a business in this county and joined the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce. He has become a well-established businessman. Others watch and help each other, and the future development prospects are quite good.

It's a pity that he didn't know which muscle was wrong, and he insisted on starting this ocean trade.For this reason, he even bought a processing ship and two refitted fishing boats at the Hyundai Special Shipyard without telling Mr. Zhu (in order to make up enough money, he has sold two local quarries and a small earthen kiln), He intends to go to South Africa with others to purchase fish, sea animal skins, sea animal fat (refined high-grade lubricating oil) and other commodities, and then ship them back to China or even sell them abroad in order to reap high profits from ocean-going trade.

Anyway, with the increasing domestic population on the east coast, the annual consumption of seafood by the people on the east coast who like to eat sea fish has also begun to rise sharply. The supply of fishery resources in Patagonia alone may already be somewhat After struggling, it became natural to seek "help" from the fishery resources in neighboring Chile, Peru, and South Africa.What's more, people on the east coast have long been tired of eating soft fish, squid and hake flooding the market. They have a huge demand for seafood from other fishing grounds. This comes from some salted fish transported back from Xinhua Island. It can be seen that it can be sold at a high price. People on the east coast still need a wide variety of seafood supplies.

Master Zhu Heng talked for a long time, but seeing no effect, he couldn't help being a little discouraged, and said: "Now that there is a war, the fish will also be levied a temporary special tax. In the future, the fish market will not be in a downturn, so you still insist on going. South Africa?"

Ximen Xiao was silent when he heard the words, but his attitude was already obvious.Of course, he has no way out now. After all, all the properties in the county have been given to others, and they can't be chased back. Both he and Master Zhu know this very well. Basically, there is no way to recover this matter.

Seeing that his words had no effect, Master Zhu stopped talking with a cold face, but after finishing the refreshments, he would settle and leave.And the young man named Ximen Xiao also sighed softly, picked up the "Kommersant" on the table, looked at the various new taxes that the government will levy next month (September), and said nothing .He vaguely felt that the government was only collecting a few types of taxes, and it was able to fight the war while doing a lot of construction, which seemed to show that apart from the shortage of people, the east coast country really didn't have much shortage of money and goods.

At this time, he thought that in order to fight the wars in the Old Continent countries such as England, the Netherlands, and France, even exotic taxes such as window tax, stove tax, marriage tax, birth and funeral tax, and rental carriage tax appeared in the country, not to mention the nobles. , "voluntary donations" from merchants and money from selling officials and nobles.Compared with them, the East Coast is much more civilized and merciful in terms of taxation. This may be the reason why many people do not hold much hostility towards the introduction of a temporary war tax. After all, everything is afraid of comparison. You will find that the East Coast government is still far behind in collecting money.

After quickly eating the rest—he doesn’t like to waste—Ximen Xiao also quickly left the teahouse and headed for the pier, where his three ships are undergoing final maintenance, and the personnel are already in place. out to sea.

On August 1661, 8, Ximen Xiao, who had registered the "Ximen Fishery Company" with the Luocha County Ocean Bureau, climbed on a fishery processing ship after bidding farewell to his wife, and set sail with two other fishing boats , went south towards Yancheng Port, and arrived here on September 30.

As an important fishing port, Yancheng Port has all kinds of fishing gear, wooden barrels, and salt. Therefore, after purchasing all the necessities here, the three ships crossed the rough seas of the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at Dayuan Harbor in South Africa on October 1661, 10. .Ximen Xiao was seasick for the first time on an ocean voyage, and spent most of the voyage lying in a hammock in the bilge, quite weak—but it is consoling that Ximen Xiao met his good friend here, " Zhu Chengdong, one of the shareholders of Integrity Fishing Company, has moved to the middle of the river with Zamparini to avoid the increasingly fierce fishing competition along the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean.After all, there are too many fishing boats gathered there to "make a fortune", which undoubtedly greatly reduces the profits of each fishing boat, and Chengxin Fishery Company also moved to South Africa and its adjacent waters to fish under this background.

"Our fishing place is even further north, along the coast of the Namib Desert, where the fishery resources are also quite rich. Moreover, there are also a huge number of sea animal resources, such as sea lions and seals, which is also a fortune. Huge wealth. In addition, in foreign sea areas, there is no government supervision, and many people can kill as many people as they want. After killing, the skin can be sold to domestic and foreign businessmen, the animal fat can be exported to the local area for refining and processing, and the meat can also be sold. It can be sold cheaply to South Africa or even New Courland, anyway, it’s not worth much, and you can sell as many as you can.” Zhu Chengdong, who was also very surprised to see Ximen Xiao, said, “I suggest you go to the coast of the Namib Desert with us. It is now a big gold mine, and sooner or later it will be targeted by others or even the government, and we can still make money day by day until there is no profit."

(End of this chapter)