According to this rule, there is no charge for ships to enter the port, but half of the port entry tax must be paid for the goods carried ashore.
After landing, they can enter the city or other settlements to live, but trading activities must be carried out in areas designated by the government, and then 10% of the turnover will be handed over to the government, called profits and taxes.
In other words, no matter what rules there were in the past, they were all invalidated. These businessmen no longer had to pay any personal favors to the officials. What they needed to do now was to pay two taxes openly.
When goods enter the borders of the Han Empire, they pay half a percent of the port entry tax, and after the goods are sold, they pay a 10 percent profit tax.
Apart from these two taxes, their treatment and other tax requirements are the same as those of the local people. They may need to pay a head tax for daily life, but there is nothing else.
Officials are strictly prohibited from soliciting bribes from these foreign merchants. Fa Zheng, as the prefect, and Ma Chao, as the commander-in-chief of the army and the country, have the responsibility of guiding and supervising these matters.
They need to strictly implement the payment of taxes and fees and the elimination of private bribery, and strive to build Nichinan County into the largest commercial and trade county in the South China Sea, welcoming visitors from all over the world to do business.
It will take a lot of time to use agriculture to revitalize the local area. However, if you choose commercial blessing and have the help of business, the process of revitalizing the local area will be accelerated.
Using Rinan County as a springboard, Liu Bei could relatively easily complete many tasks that would have taken a lot of effort to complete, so foreign businessmen who had not come to Rinan County for the first time were a little surprised.
Compared with before, Nichinan County seems a little different.
Once upon a time, Nichinan County was also their paradise. As long as they gave the officials a little money, they could exchange for the right to do business. They could sell some goods here and then buy some goods back and sell them to their hometown. This time, they could Earn very generous profit margins.
But starting from three or four years ago, the officials here have become more and more greedy, and the commission on goods has reached an outrageous level. Not to mention the rebellion in Xianglin County more than two years ago, which broke through the safety bottom line of many businessmen. Forcing them to bypass Ninan County and go to Hepu County and Nanhai County to seek safer landing sites and more favorable landing policies.
Unfortunately, corrupt officials are everywhere, the extra water road is not peaceful, and the extra navigation costs are indeed quite uncomfortable.
But some time ago, some wise merchants heard that the Big Empire was at war, and they seemed to have launched a severe attack on the rebels in Ninan County. The rebels in Ninan County were retreating steadily. This made the merchants very happy and immediately sent People come to inquire about information.
After this inquiry, they knew that Ninan County had indeed won a military victory, and the rebels who launched the rebellion were eliminated by the official army.
It's safe.
The maritime merchants were very happy and immediately organized a trade team with the target of Ninan County.
Although corrupt officials are fierce, they are not a specialty of Nichinan County. They can be found everywhere in the world, including the hometowns of these merchants.
Of course, they also hope that through this war and the decline of Ninan County, those corrupt officials will reflect a little and collect less money.
Then they learned that their dream seemed to come true.
Nichinan County has issued a new policy that strictly prohibits officials from soliciting bribes from maritime merchants. At the same time, Nichinan County has also formulated the types of taxes that maritime merchants need to pay to carry out normal trade operations.
Entry tax, profit tax, and poll tax.
In addition to these three taxes, they do not need to pay more taxes to the government, and the government will not ask them for extra money. They only need to ensure that they do not violate the law and do not deceive the Han people with inferior goods. If they violate the law, If the law is enforced, they will definitely be punished.
You really don’t need any more money?
Maritime merchants who are used to seeing corrupt officials asking for bribes have never seen such big scenes, but they have never seen this kind of people who clearly stated that they will not accept illegal money.
It is an interesting move to put unspoken rules on the table. Although you still have to collect money, at least the collection is limited and there are rules. There will be no random collection or extortion, and there is a certain guarantee. This makes many businessmen I'm willing to pay money in exchange for peace.
After these foreign merchants entered Nichinan County, they sold goods in designated areas. Fuzheng arranged for some staff to stay in the places where they traded, and he himself would go there from time to time.
Unlike the relatively powerful productivity of the Han Empire, most of the foreign goods he saw here were actually primitive agricultural products, or primary processed products after simple processing.
For example, pearls, spices, ivory, rhinoceros horn, coral, tortoise shell, etc., as well as some animals, some parrots, peacocks, etc. with very gorgeous coats, as well as jade, glass and other handicrafts are also numerous.
Fa Zheng took a look at these foreign goods and found some merits.
Compared with these products that focus on luxury attributes, Fazheng felt that the products produced by the Han Empire itself were the most important.
For example, high-quality ironware and high-quality salt brought great help to the people of the Han Empire.
And really what luxury goods are there? Can any luxury goods in the world be more expensive than Shu brocade and Jiuquan wine?
That is an existence comparable to gold.
Fazheng was not a person who liked luxury goods. Those foreign merchants gave him many gifts, but he did not accept them all. He picked out a piece of jade and played with it as a decoration and toy. Occasionally, he looked at the emerald green stone. The color is quite pleasing to the eye.
He didn't collect the others. If he collected too much, he would worry about people gossiping.
Compared with these gifts, he was more interested in where these merchants came from. When he visited trading places, he often chatted with the strange-looking merchants about things in their home country.
Many of these businessmen can speak some simple Chinese, but they have strong accents and need the help of local translators. The local translators often interact with these businessmen and can speak Chinese and Fanbang dialects, and the translators can also translate them very closely.
Subsequently, Fazheng learned about a series of foreign countries.
For example, Du Yuan Kingdom, Lu Mo Kingdom, Fugandulu Kingdom, Huang Zhi Kingdom, Ji Cheng Bu Kingdom, etc. According to them, the location of these countries is either south of Rinan County or west of Rinan County. Coming by sea, there is no land access.
Fa Zheng curiously asked about the basic situation of their country. What these people said was similar.
The humid and sultry climate, relatively abundant products, relatively poor life, brutal and corrupt officials, frequent wars, things related to religious sacrifices, and some strange taboos all make the law difficult. I am feeling a little curious. I am curious that there are many other countries in the world, and people in the Han Empire live completely different lives.
Fazheng asked them how big their country was, how many troops it had, what battles they had won, and whether the emperor was wise and mighty, etc.
When discussing these issues, these businessmen were obviously more cautious, their answers were ambiguous, and they were obviously not willing to talk about the political issues of their own countries. This made Fa Zheng realize that the strength of rule in these countries did not seem to be weak, even those far away overseas. Businessmen are unwilling to discuss it in depth.
Let’s not talk about politics, let’s talk about economy. According to Fazheng’s preliminary understanding, these merchants came to trade with some rare items and rare animals. In addition to selling things to make money, they also needed to buy some things. Buy some things from the Han Empire. Only specialties will be provided.
For example, the southern pearls produced in this sea area were what these merchants liked. There were also some porcelain, lacquerware and simple silk fabrics that were specialties of the Han Empire. They were also favorite specialties.
The productivity of the Jiaozhou area is relatively low, and the lacquerware, porcelain, silk fabrics, etc. produced are relatively poor in Fazheng's view, and cannot be compared with similar products in the Central Plains area, nor can they be compared with those he brought from his own house. In comparison, even so, these things seem to be very popular with these businessmen.
Fazheng sensed business opportunities.
Rinan County, including the entire Jiaozhou, is relatively poor and short of money. If it wants to develop in the future, it will require a lot of capital investment. If we completely rely on the Luoyang court to make transfer payments in this regard, it will be somewhat embarrassing for the court, Emperor Liu Bei, and Fazheng. He didn't want to do this, he wanted to show his abilities to Liu Bei and lay the foundation for further promotion in the future.
However, self-hematopoiesis is a very difficult matter, and the necessary early investment is insurmountable.
Therefore, we need to find another way.
If these guys like lacquerware, porcelain, silk fabrics and other specialties of the Han Empire so much, then why not give them more of these products and let them buy more to earn a lot of money to subsidize government expenses?
Wouldn't this help the imperial court and Liu Bei share their worries?
On this trip south, Fazheng took the sea route instead of the land route. On the one hand, the land route was difficult and difficult, but on the other hand, the sea route was direct and smooth.
Fazheng did some calculations and found out that with the speed of the ship and the amount of supplies it could carry, how long would it take to arrive at Rinan County by sea from the land of Qingxu, and how long would it take to arrive at Rinan County by land from the land of Yuzhou? Not an order of magnitude at all.
Although it is said that the Jiangnan Military Region is currently working on a military water network plan, when this plan is successful, it is estimated that Guan Yu will also be able to use the water network to connect Jingzhou, Yangzhou and Jiaozhou, and it may be easier to move by then.
But in any case, it is not as convenient as the mature sea route that is now available.
Fa Zheng started to think about it.
If I could ship and transport the higher-quality lacquerware, porcelain and silk products sold in the Central Plains from Qingxu Land to Ninan County to sell to these foreign merchants, would it be possible to encourage them to spend more money and buy more? How about using more items so that the government can earn more operating funds?
If we go one step further, can we sell top luxury goods such as Shu Brocade to them at a higher price, so that they can earn more gold coins?
With this idea in mind, Fazheng asked some senior local officials about the status of trade.
According to his story, some people used to go to great lengths to transport some luxury goods from Central Plains and sell them to these foreign merchants. This kind of thing also happened in Hepu County and Nanhai County, and more in Rinan County before. But as time goes by, Since the large-scale war broke out in the Central Plains more than ten years ago, they have become very rare.
The war in the Central Plains, stagnant production, severe shortage of materials, and interruption of roads gave Jiaozhou locals the space to sell low-quality handicrafts with insufficient technology, which was an unexpected blessing for them.
However, if there are good ones, they are definitely willing to buy them. These foreign merchants are definitely not ignorant of the goods, but they just have no purchasing channels. If there are purchasing channels, they will definitely be willing to spend money to buy them. No one will doubt this.
Fa Zheng then had an idea.
Not only buying from Central Plains, if possible, he hopes to transfer the production lines of these handicrafts to Nichinan County, produce them locally, and sell them locally. If it succeeds, they can definitely be given to Nichinan County. Open a large sales window and earn more development funds. When the time comes, Liu Bei will definitely commend himself.
With such ambition, Fazheng decided to take action and sent people by boat to return to the land of Qingxu to ask his friends for help.
At this time, the importance of official connections is actually reflected.
And Fazheng just had the official connections needed to accomplish this.
Fazheng was a well-known genius in Liangzhou Prefecture School, and he was also an important disciple who was highly regarded by Liu Bei, so there were quite a few people who were willing to make friends with him at that time. Everyone was optimistic about his future and were willing to make friends with him.
And he also thought about having three gangs of heroes, multiple friends and multiple paths, so he gave many people useful help in exams and homework, and helped many people improve their study level, so his relationships with many people were good. Getting along well.
We are classmates and friends. We used to just brag and fart together, drink and eat meat, and live life as we please. But now, everyone has entered the officialdom. Compared with those strangers, classmates and friends are definitely more worthy of trust and help.
Everyone has more or less power. If we encounter some difficulties, it is reasonable to help each other within the scope of help. It is not surprising at all.
There were quite a lot of students in Liangzhou Prefecture School during Fazheng's class. There were at least 70 or 80 people who had a good relationship with him, and more than 200 people could be called by his name. After graduation, most of them They all started as representatives of collective farms and took the most common path of promotion at the grassroots level.
Fa Zheng is the one who has made the fastest progress. Even though the county guard is the county guard of Ninan County, he is still a county guard and the kind that most people are not afraid of.
As for his classmates, except for a few who are really not very capable and are still serving as collective farm representatives, most of them have become county officials, and some outstanding ones have also reached the position of county magistrate. Some people have even served as county magistrates twice and are accumulating seniority.
According to Fazheng's understanding, in the land of Qingxu, eight of his classmates are working as county magistrates and county magistrates, and more than twenty classmates are working as officials in various county governments, each with their own development.
More importantly, his old friend Meng Da, who had always had a very good relationship with him, was the county magistrate of Langya County in Langya County. Before he went south to Rinan County, he met Meng Da in Langya County and exchanged heart-to-hearts.
Now if he feels that he has this need, he can contact his old classmates and friends to discuss cooperation with them, engage in commercial trade, etc., and take money from the pockets of these foreign businessmen to subsidize the place. development of.
If you can't find these good things in the county where they work, then go to other places to ask and inquire to see whose friends have resources in this area, contact them, help each other, share the benefits together, and receive the credit together .
In this way, it doesn't live up to everyone's expectations of working hard and studying for so long, doesn't it?
After all, we are all classmates. We should support each other when encountering difficulties. Don’t forget the friendship in the past. In this way, the progress may be faster?
(End of chapter)
