1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 354 I didn't dare spend a single penny!
"Mr. Remy, are you saying there's a problem with the delivery of the exported tea?"

Upon hearing this, Peng Yi frowned deeply, and his face instantly darkened.

Tea and silk products are currently the main export commodities of the Northern Kingdom, especially tea.

Peng Gang attached great importance to the export of tea silk, and even had Peng Yi work with the tea guild in Hankou to formulate grading standards for exported tea.

Although there is currently no agency like the Maritime Trade Office in Hankou to specifically manage import and export trade.

However, the Hankou Tax Bureau was responsible for temporarily handling import and export trade. Tea exported to foreign companies had to be inspected and certified by the Hankou Tax Bureau and uniformly packed in standard cedar or pine boxes provided by the North Palace.

According to established practice and for the convenience of statistics, the tea boxes provided by the North Palace are standardized packages for each tea box.

For high-value, top-quality tea, the inside of the wooden box is lined with multiple layers of material to prevent moisture and preserve the aroma.

The innermost layer is lead sheet, which can effectively block moisture and odors to ensure that the tea does not spoil during months of sea transport. The lead sheet is also lined with tin foil and thick paper as an additional protective layer. This type of box is often called a lead box.

Because Russell & Co. signed its order with North Hall earlier, Russell & Co.'s tea order has already been delivered.

Kim Neng-hyung and Smith praised the practice of having the North Palace officials take charge of monitoring the quality of exported tea and mandating the use of standardized packaging provided by the government. They believed that although Hankou had just opened as a treaty port, the government's attention to exports and its meticulous management were better than those of the old port of Guangzhou.

The standards and regulations for tea exports were formulated by Peng Yi and the tea merchants of the Hankou Tea Guild. Problems with the delivery of tea were undoubtedly a slap in the face for Peng Yi.

Furthermore, tea exports are currently one of the few major sources of income for the Holy Treasury, and Peng Yi, who is specifically in charge of managing the North Palace's purse, attaches no less importance to the tea and silk trade than Peng Gang.

"I will report this matter to His Highness the Northern King! I hope His Highness can give us a satisfactory answer," Remy said aggressively.

"We took a great risk to do business with you in Hankou. If your government officials and merchants don't even have basic credit, why don't our French trading companies conduct transactions directly in Shanghai?"

“Mr. Remy, the Northern King is very busy right now and probably doesn’t have time to see you. If you have any questions or requests, you can tell me directly, and I can help you resolve them,” Peng Yi said.

"Of course, I will report this matter to the Northern King in detail afterward."

The Northern Examination is the most important event in the Northern Palace recently. Peng Gang is currently hosting a banquet for the successful candidates and giving them a speech. Peng Yi does not want to disturb Peng Gang at this critical juncture.

Instead, they hoped that the matter would be resolved, or at least that the ins and outs of the matter would be clarified, and that Peng Gang would be informed of the matter after it was partially and properly resolved.

According to the original plan, Peng Yi originally intended to select some talented individuals from among the failed candidates to add some fresh blood to the Sacred Treasury system of the Northern Palace.

With this incident, his schedule had to be adjusted.

Peng Yi whispered a few words to his attendant beside him, instructing him to find Qiu Zhongliang, the battalion commander of the tax police battalion, and have Qiu Zhongliang select some decent talents from among the unsuccessful candidates.

To avoid arriving too late, and having all the decent candidates among the failed scholars already picked up by the schools in Wuchang, leaving the Imperial Treasury with only the leftovers.

Remy hesitated for a moment, thinking that Peng Yi's words were not entirely an excuse.

Rémy held an official position in the French Legation. His firm, Liming & Co., was responsible for the construction of the French Consulate in Wuchang. He was not an ordinary foreman of a trading company. He had the right to stay in Wuchang for an extended period of time, unlike other foremen of French trading companies whose activities were restricted to Hankou.

Remy was aware that Peng Gang had been busy with the imperial examinations recently, and he had even written a report on the matter.

Considering that Peng Yi is Peng Gang's younger brother, and that Peng Yi seems capable of resolving this matter.

Remy stopped insisting on seeing Peng Gang. What happened to the French trading company told Peng Yi: "Your tea merchants are mixing A-class tea or even B-class tea into S-class tea. There are similar cases with A-class and B-class tea. This is not just happening in a few boxes of tea."

Of the twenty-five boxes of tea we inspected, seven had this problem. I don't understand how this substandard tea passed your official inspection. I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation and a proper solution.

Peng Yi, together with the Hanyang Tea Association, formulated category standards for exported tea.

S-grade tea is the highest quality tea, A-grade tea is the best tea, and so on.

Of course, each major grade also has specific category classifications.

The reason for labeling tea with letters is to allow foreign merchants and major distributors in Western countries to easily identify the grade of tea by looking at the tea packaging.

During the period of exclusive trade, the merchants of the Thirteen Factories of Guangzhou had long-term cooperation with major foreign firms, and both sides knew each other well.

Although the tea sold at the Thirteen Factories of Guangzhou was expensive, it was rare for inferior goods or quality problems to occur during the transaction process.

After the five ports were opened to foreign trade, they came into contact with Chinese merchants from other treaty ports.

Perhaps the Chinese merchants in other open ports felt that doing business with their Western trading companies was not a long-term solution, and that the opening of the five ports was merely a temporary measure, and that they would eventually have to close them.

Many Chinese merchants in other ports treated their transactions with Westerners as one-off deals.

Remy encountered all sorts of monsters and demons at other open ports, especially Shanghai.

Remy's impression of the Chinese merchants at the Shanghai port was that, apart from having a significant price advantage over the Guangzhou merchants, they were disadvantages in every other aspect.

Logically speaking, if only seven out of twenty-five boxes of tea were found to be problematic, this would be considered an extremely conscientious Chinese businessman in Shanghai.

However, without comparison, there is no harm. After receiving the tea, Jardine Matheson & Co. also conducted a key inspection of the tea, especially the S-class and A-class tea.

After all, these two types of tea have a higher unit value and were the hardest hit areas for problems in the past when tea trade was conducted in Shanghai.

The initial random inspection by Jardine Matheson & Co. showed that not a single box of tea had any problems.

Therefore, Remy felt extremely resentful, believing that the merchants of the French trading company were being treated differently.

Upon learning the whole story, Peng Yi comforted Remy while taking him on a ferry to Hankou, just across the river, and went straight to the Hankou Tax Bureau to confront them.

Upon suddenly seeing Peng Yi with an angry expression, Chen Xingwang, the director of the Hankou Tax Bureau, was quite surprised and did not know why Peng Yi was so angry.

When Chen Xingwang first joined Peng Gang's company, he worked at Shengku. For a long time, Peng Yi was Chen Xingwang's superior.

When Chen Xingwang’s deputy, Liu Chengying, saw that Peng Yi had come with Remy, his eyes darted away and his face showed fear.

From their reactions, Peng Yi had roughly deduced that Chen Xingwang was mostly unaware of the matter, and that Chen Xingwang's deputy, Liu Chengying, had serious problems.

"Director Chen, what a mess you've made! Your tax bureau has some nerve!" Even though he already knew the gist of it, Peng Yi still didn't bypass Chen Xingwang and went straight to Liu Chengying to hold him accountable. Instead, he directly questioned Chen Xingwang.

Although Peng Yi is young, he has developed his own set of management experience over the past three years of managing Shengku.

As the saying goes, county officials are not as good as current officials.

When Peng Yi was managing the Northern Palace Sacred Treasury, he personally handled everything, even going so far as to hold the lowest-ranking people accountable across several levels.

However, Peng Yi soon realized that this approach was not effective.

Although he was the person in charge of the Northern Palace Sacred Treasury, and also had the added advantage of being the younger brother of the Northern King, he was almost a demigod in the Sacred Treasury system.

However, compared to him, a demigod, the lower-level clerks of the Holy Treasury were more afraid of the officials in charge of the various branch treasuries.

After all, although he and this distant demigod, the younger brother of the Northern King, held high positions, in the eyes of the minor officials, he represented the highest power that was distant and somewhat abstract.

After all, Peng Yi couldn't possibly have daily contact with the low-level officials at the front line of the Holy Treasury, participate in their daily work, or assign them tasks directly.

The clerk above the minor officials of the Imperial Treasury was the authority figure before them, the person they had to face every day.

The orders and moods of the officials directly determine whether their work is easy or arduous. This immediate, visible, and unavoidable power is what those below fear most.

Therefore, after only a few months in charge of the Imperial Treasury, Peng Yi rarely approached the lower-level officials directly when he encountered problems. Instead, he would go directly to the Clerk, who would then hold the lower-level officials accountable and exert pressure to resolve the issues.

As a result, Peng Yi found that not only was it easier, but his work efficiency had also increased significantly.

"Your Majesty, how could I dare! If I have done anything wrong, I hope Your Majesty will enlighten me," Chen Xingwang said nervously.

Chen Xingwang believed that he had done a good job as the director of the Hankou Tax Bureau over the past year without any major mishaps, and he did not understand why Peng Yi was so angry and acted as if he were there to interrogate him.

"The tea leaves handed over to the Western trading company were handled by your Hankou Tax Bureau, weren't they?" Peng Yi said with a stern face.

"His Highness entrusted such an important task to your Hankou Tax Bureau, which shows his trust in you. Is this how you repay His Highness? You even went so far as to mix inferior tea with good tea. I'll give you two hours to investigate this matter."

After speaking, Peng Yi walked straight to the main chair, sat down, took out his gold pocket watch, glanced at the time on it, and said nothing more.

Chen Xingwang had served as a salt official under Peng Yi, and Peng Yi knew Chen Xingwang quite well.

Chen Xingwang is a smart man. Peng Yi has already made his point clear, so Chen Xingwang must understand what he means.

Chen Xingwang quickly realized that just because he was clean-cut and had a clear conscience did not mean that all his subordinates were clean-cut.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Chen Xingwang replied cautiously, then turned around and changed his expression as quickly as turning the pages of a book, immediately addressing his subordinates at the Hankou Tax Bureau.

"Within half an hour, everyone who has handled tea, whether they are inspecting the tea, packing it, or issuing receipts, all of you, get here to see me!"

As soon as Chen Xingwang gave the order, the entire Hankou Tax Bureau sprang into action, like a spinning top being whipped into motion.

The minute hand of Peng Yi's gold pocket watch had only moved four Roman numerals when seventy or eighty people gathered in the main hall of the Hankou Tax Bureau.

Peng Yi was still having tea with Remy in the main seat of the lobby, waiting for the results.

Chen Xingwang dared not delay for a moment and began to investigate the matter at the fastest speed he had ever done.

Within an hour, Chen Xingwang had uncovered the truth. It turned out that Liu Chengying, who was in charge of inspecting the tea, had accepted seven thousand taels of silver from tea merchants in Hankou and tried to pass off inferior tea as superior tea in an attempt to deceive them.

"Brother! I didn't want to do this either! The foreign firm wanted a lot of tea and was pressing me hard. I was just trying to finish the job as soon as possible." After admitting that he had explained the whole story, Liu Chengying kowtowed repeatedly to Chen Xingwang.

“Brother, I was just confused for a moment. For the sake of our years of friendship, please ask the Emperor for a marriage proposal. I only took five thousand taels of the seven thousand taels of silver. This five thousand taels of silver is too hot to handle. I didn’t dare to spend a single tael.”

Upon learning from Liu Chengying that he had embezzled five thousand taels of silver, the tax officials involved were immediately thrown into a panic.

"What a bastard!"

"Liu Chengying, you're being unfair! Didn't you say they only gave you four thousand taels of silver?!"

"So you swallowed five thousand taels yourself!"

"Enough! Aren't you embarrassed enough already?" Chen Xingwang's lips twitched with anger.

The five people involved were all his old comrades from his time in the Green Standard Army in Xunzhou Prefecture.

Especially Liu Chengying, who was Chen Xingwang's cavalryman when Chen Xingwang was the garrison commander of Bitan. Liu Chengying was his right-hand man.

Feeling humiliated and exasperated, Chen Xingwang walked up to Liu Chengying and kicked him hard, yelling, "You know this money's hot as hell! You good-for-nothing, don't call me brother, I don't have a brother like you! You've completely disgraced the Bi Tan Xun brothers!"

Immediately afterwards, Peng Yi asked Chen Xingwang to inquire why the batch of tea delivered to the Jardine Matheson & Co. had no problems, but was replaced with inferior tea when it came to delivering it to the French company.

Liu Chengying and others gave a very simple answer, saying that the Northern King had already invested in the Russell & Co., and since the Russell & Co. had shares in the Northern King, they dared not tamper with the goods given to the Russell & Co., and could only rely on the French company for support.

Remy's words were true; the Liming Trading Company had indeed been treated unfairly.

Remy, both angry and amused, said, "His Highness the Northern King has also invested in our Liming Trading Company. Soon, he will hold 40% of the company's shares, becoming its largest shareholder."

Peng Gang has a good relationship with the United States and has already invested in Russell & Co., a fact that has spread widely and is known to many people.

As for Peng Gang's investment in Liming Foreign Firm, not many people knew about it because Peng Gang's relationship with the French delegation was not harmonious in the early days.

Upon hearing that Bei Wang, the founder of Liming Foreign Firm, also held shares, Liu Chengying and the others felt as if the sky were falling, their faces turning ashen.

Seeing that the matter had been investigated, Peng Yi put down his teacup, stood up and said, "The matter has been investigated. For now, let's imprison them in Hanyang County Prison and hand them over to Magistrate Wang to handle the case."

Peng Yi put the pocket watch back into the hidden pocket inside his collar, patted Chen Xingwang on the shoulder and said, "Director Chen, I will report this matter to His Highness truthfully. I hope you can learn from this. Although you are no longer affiliated with the Holy Treasury, you are still from the Holy Treasury after all. If something happens to you, it will tarnish the Holy Treasury's reputation, and I will also lose face."

(End of this chapter)