Chapter 31, Batam Free City, King Ming’s money bag!
Matsudaira Kaori looked at the sign in his hand.
On it are the Chinese characters "Medium-sized ship, tax 100".
"Sir, don't you check the cargo inside the ship?"
Matsudaira Kari asked a little strangely.
Shen Ping was obviously used to this for a long time, and he explained naturally: "According to the regulations of the Taxation Department of the Ming Dynasty, tax payment only depends on the load capacity of the ship, not the value of the goods."
Matsudaira Kari knew the benefits of collecting taxes like this after just a moment's thought.
That means eliminating most of the operating space.
What cargo a ship carries needs to be inspected, and there is room for bureaucratic maneuvering.
And if you don't look at the goods, you only look at the size of the ship for taxation.
How big a ship is and how much cargo it can carry are basically visible to the naked eye.
The operation is more convenient and some private operations can be eliminated.
And it’s more efficient.
"I see..." Iori Matsudaira bowed with his hands raised, "Thank you, Sir, for clearing up the confusion."
Shen Ping also returned the gift with a cupped hand: "Your envoy can go to the Foreign Affairs Department of Prince Ming's Palace after landing. There are too many envoys from various countries these days, and the Foreign Affairs Department can no longer spare the manpower to greet them at the port. Please forgive me."
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter..."
Tokugawa Jiguo, who was standing behind Matsudaira Iori, stuck his head out, raised his head and looked at the tax light who was even bigger than the giant warrior Matsudaira Iori and said, with a bit of surprise in his eyes.
Just put this body type in Japan.
How could he be the feudal lord's bodyguard?
If you catch up with the love of the masses...
Just this image, I don’t know how many young samurai boys in Japan can arouse the admiration.
Shen Ping didn't know what the child in front of him was thinking (Tokugawa Jiguo was already seventeen years old). Seeing that he was dressed gorgeously and although he was a bit childish, he also had an unconcealed nobility, so he immediately handed him over politely.
He saw a girl next to him staring at the top of his head with squinting eyes.
Shen Ping was not annoyed either.
Simply take off the square turban hat on your head.
Revealing her hair, which could barely be rolled up.
"Chinese clothes!"
Tokugawa Miki blurted out.
Shen Ping put on his hat: "Yes, King Ming wants to help China, expel the Tartars, rebuild the Celestial Dynasty, and expel the Western Barbarians."
Matsudaira Iori was in awe: "Westerners are evil and ambitious. Many countries in Southeast Asia have fallen into the hands of Westerners. We are lucky to have a bright king from heaven!"
After several people said goodbye to each other.
The ship of the Tokugawa family also docked at the port.
According to Shen Ping's instructions.
If the ship wants to leave the port.
Then you have to pay taxes with the ship license issued by the Taxation Department in exchange for a port departure license.
There is no need to rush to pay taxes just yet.
However, the three of them immediately went to the bank at the port to exchange a few hundred silver dollars and a thousand copper dollars.
Nowadays, Ming Yuan on Batam Island is divided into two types: silver coins and copper coins.
The silver-copper standard is still implemented.
There is nothing we can do about this.
Because the purchasing power of silver dollars is very high, one silver dollar is equivalent to about one or two and a half pieces of silver.
One Ming silver dollar can buy hundreds of kilograms of rice on Batam Island.
The basic monthly pay for an ordinary Ming army soldier was three Ming silver dollars.
Therefore, copper coins must be available as a supplement for small consumption.
When exchanging copper coins, the staff of Daohua Bank also suggested that several people directly exchange Ming silver dollar certificates and Ming copper dollar certificates.
Matsudaira Kari had no intention of exchanging his free money for a few pieces of paper.
But he couldn't stand Tokugawa's temperament in governing the country.
I went to redeem three Ming Yuan coupons.
One is a silver dollar coupon worth one Ming silver dollar, with the words "One Silver Dollar", "Equivalent to One Thousand Copper Dollars" and "Pay upon Seeing the Coupon" written on it.
In addition to the one silver dollar denomination, there are also two denominations of "ten copper dollars" and "hundred copper dollars".
Except the numerical values are different.
The three Ming Yuan coupons are similar in appearance. They are all made of what looks like a special kind of paper. The color also adopts a very rare purple as the main color. On the other side is the emblem of the Ming Dynasty sun and moon.
In fact, in addition to these three face values.
There is also a face value of 100 silver dollars.
However, Ming Yuan coupons with such large denominations are not open to ordinary people for redemption.
Tokugawa Jiguo handed Tokugawa Mitsuki and Matsudaira Iori a Ming Yuan coupon each, and he took the remaining one and looked over it over and over.
"Jia Li, isn't Prince Ming's Mansion afraid of others forging Ming Yuan certificates?"
Tokugawa Zhiguo couldn't help but ask.
"I'm afraid it won't be easy." Matsudaira took the banknote and turned it over and over. When he raised the banknote, the sun was shining through, and he could actually see an obvious sun and moon emblem. After he put it down, it was blank again.
"It's really magical." Matsudaira Kari muttered, "And this paper should also be special paper."
Matsudaira Kaori said, took the kettle from his waist and sprinkled some water on it.
Surprisingly, it was not soaked through by water like ordinary paper.
Matsudaira Kaori, who did not believe in evil, simply stuffed the entire Ming Yuan coupon into the kettle and took it out after a while.
Matsudaira Iori breathed a sigh of relief.
Because this Ming Yuan coupon was finally soaked by water.
but...
The ink stains inside showed no signs of spreading.
Apparently even the printing ink is specially made.
Matsudaira Kari said: "Such banknotes should not be counterfeited... No wonder so many businessmen chose to exchange Ming Yuan coupons instead of Ming Yuan coins."
"Then Prince Ming is probably very rich..."
Tokugawa Miki said.
"That must be very rich."
Matsudaira Kari thought for a while and said: "A medium-sized ship enters the port and pays a tax of silver dollars. According to what we saw before entering the port, there are no less than a hundred sailing ships entering the port every day, which is more than ten thousand silver dollars a day... ..”
"Equivalent to almost twenty thousand taels of silver."
"Twenty thousand taels of silver..."
Tokugawa Jiguo took a deep breath.
The Tokugawa family's stone height is only three million koku.
This stone is definitely not worth a Ming silver dollar.
That is to say.
The shipping tax collected by Prince Ming's Palace alone was much higher than that of the Tokugawa family.
In fact, Tokugawa made a lot of mistakes in governing the country.
Because the Dutch had previously monopolized the Southeast Asian trade, merchant ships from many European countries could reach India.
After the news spreads that Batam can "free trade".
If this ship tax is not collected for a hundred thousand yuan a day, it will be a shame for Zhu Daohua to order people to work overtime and wish to expand the port in a 007 manner - in fact, Zhu Daohua runs the Malacca Straits Governor's Palace as a free commercial city.
In Zhu Daohua's plan.
Batam Free City.
It is run as a money bag for the future expedition to the north to conquer the Qing Dynasty and invest in mainland industry.
And if nothing unexpected happens.
Dowward Bank and Chris Bank can absorb large amounts of gold, silver, copper and other precious metals.
After having abundant reserves of gold, silver and precious metals, and controlling the key nodes of East-West trade.
By then, there would not be many obstacles to using Ming Yuan banknotes as the "international currency" for East-West trade.
The Tokugawa siblings haven't thought of this yet.
On the other hand, Matsudaira Iori vaguely saw something from the Ming Yuan coupon in his hand.
Right now.
There was a sound of neat footsteps.
Several people hurriedly stepped forward and looked forward.
I saw only a group of "giant warriors" carrying flintlock guns about nine feet long, and their gleaming bayonets undulated with the neat footsteps of the warriors.
Matsudaira's breath was suffocated.
Let’s not talk about the personal martial arts of these warriors.
Just the pressure brought by this neat pace.
Let the Songping family take a peek at the power of Prince Ming's palace.
