Wen Han suddenly felt like he was shooting himself in the foot, but since he had come to this point, he could not turn back and could only grit his teeth and argue with Xiao Yungui. Soon, people from China and Britain joined the quarrel, and the scene became lively again. The opium trade was actually the most profitable, and the rest of the countries were just some scattered merchants engaged in opium trade. Moreover, these scattered merchants had a hard time in the UK's monopoly on opium trade, so the ministers of the United States, France and other countries chose to remain silent.

After repeated disputes, neither side was able to convince each other. Finally, the Queen Mother of the West in the hall stood up and said, "Lord Wenhan, since your country insists, we will abolish the legalization of the opium trade!"

Wenhan, Bill and others had some dilemma. They dreamed of legalizing the opium trade, but they were unwilling to accept that the opium tax rate was too high. They still insisted on legalizing the opium trade, but the tax rate on opium must be lowered.

Hong Yuner smiled faintly and said, "It is okay to lower the opium tax rate. In exchange, we need to increase the tax rate of foreign cloth, wool fabrics, coarse serge, printed cloth, serge satin, twill, feather cloth, cotton cloth, cotton yarn and other commodities. What do you think?"

At this moment, the ministers of various countries could not sit still and stood up to protest. Hong Yuner smiled and did not argue, and sat down and tasted tea. Speaking of the goods imported from Europe and the United States to China, the list mentioned opium. Someone immediately remembered the Opium War and the textbooks that the opium was a dirty transaction used by the British to earn Chinese silver when they were not making enough money to trade with China. However, what position does opium occupy in trade with China?

Hong Yuner has studied this history very thoroughly. Before 1830, when China often surpassed its foreign trade. Silver was constantly spreading from India, Britain and the United States. After the mid-18th century, the silver imported into China was generally 450,000 taels each year, reaching a maximum of 1.5 million taels. Opium trade began to appear. However, after the end of the 18th century, due to the British industrial revolution, the productivity of the British textile industry increased unprecedentedly, and the production of cotton and cotton yarn suddenly increased, so Britain "did not directly export gold and silver to China", and the import of cotton and cotton yarn to China suddenly increased. By the eve of the Opium War, the commodity cotton imported from Western European countries to China ranked first.

.The average cotton input is 500,000 dan, worth 5 million yuan; cotton cloth accounts for the second place, importing 530,000 pieces per year, worth 1.38 million yuan; wool velvet accounts for the third place, importing 1.03 million yuan per year; cotton yarn and cotton thread account for the fourth place. The annual import value is 625,000 yuan. Regarding the peak of opium in China's foreign trade, the peak period was not during the Daoguang period around 1840. But the Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties. After entering the 19th century, with the influx of cotton and cotton cloth, the status of opium in Sino-British trade declined year by year until it finally faded out of Sino-British trade. When more and more cheaper mechanical large-scale products appeared in the hands of British merchants, this trend was inevitable.

The small peasant society formed in China from ancient times to the present originally had an unparalleled foundation for self-sufficiency, and the opium trade has indeed brought great harm to China. However, what really broke China's self-sufficiency small peasant economy was a large number of industrial-era products represented by cotton. Britain, which completed the industrial revolution, increased industrial production capacity by dozens of times, and subsequently came a large number of cheap products. The dumping of these products led to the collapse of China's small peasant economy.

Hong Yuner knew that raising the tariffs on foreign cloth would definitely be completely opposed by the great powers, so she proposed this article to play with the British. After all, opium is not the main dumping product. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wants to complete its own industrial and commercial construction and development, it is necessary to break the economic structure of small peasants. However, commodity dumping will also have an impact on its own industry and commerce. Regulating the tax rates of various products at any time will become a double-edged sword. If it is used well, it will be beneficial to itself, but if the timing is not well controlled, it will hurt itself. But at present, raising the tariffs on foreign cloth is temporarily unfavorable to Shanghai's development and can only be used as a bargaining chip for negotiation.

Sure enough, the ministers and merchants of various countries reacted very fiercely. Xiao Yungui knew that there was nothing to talk about under this situation, and the effect today was achieved. He stood up and stopped the foreigners' clamor and said loudly: "The King of Japan invited you to discuss things today, not to listen to your noisyness. If you continue to make noise like this, there is nothing to talk about. Let Li Taiguo finish speaking first. Merchants from various countries with different opinions will select representatives and continue to negotiate tomorrow!"

The King of Westerners said that merchants from various countries slowly became quiet. They also needed time to discuss countermeasures and continued to listen. The tariff rules of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the subsequent tariff charter are very comprehensive. There are institutional guarantees in all aspects such as taxation, declaration, inspection, tax assessment, review, tax collection, payment, and even release inspection. But what makes merchants from various countries unacceptable is that the tariff rules of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom inherited many bad rules of the Qing Dynasty. In addition to the regular tax, there are also Zikou tax, reimport tax, etc.

After Li Taiguo finished speaking, Wen Han felt that in addition to institutional regulations, the tax rates of various goods were almost different from the news brought back by Li Taiguo. It can be seen that the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom re-set the tax rates themselves. They just borrowed from the Western customs management methods and various systems introduced by Li Taiguo. The purpose of manipulating tariff rates that countries wanted before was not achieved at all.

After talking for most of the day, everyone was hungry. After Li Taiguo finished talking about the lengthy constitution and rules, Xiao Yungui invited Chinese and foreign businessmen who were sitting again to the banquet and announced that they would only invite foreign business representatives to continue discussing tomorrow, while Chinese businessmen went to Wang Kaiyun's Investment Administration to discuss other matters tomorrow. Xiao Yungui temptedly talked about many investment projects, ranging from building a naval shipyard in Shanghai to opening a pharmaceutical factory, which made foreign businessmen very jealous. However, when the ministers from various countries expressed their interest in these projects, Xiao Yungui replied lightly: "The food must be eaten at a bite. Let's talk about something else when we finish the tariffs."

Xiao Yungui's reply made the ministers of various countries itchy. When he left the customs office, the US minister Masali and British minister Wenhan broke out in a very serious verbal conflict. Masali believed that Wenhan treated the Western King as a cowardly and corrupt Qing official, and expressed dissatisfaction with the rights and interests of the occupiers to collect tariffs by the normal operation of the Taiping Army. He also believed that it was impossible for Wenhan to use this method to influence the Taiping Army's tax policy. Perhaps after arduous negotiations, Britain could gain some benefits in the opium trade, but what is opium? Compared with what Xiao Yungui said about railways, telegraphs, and mineral mining rights, the interests of opium are not worth mentioning! Masali accused the British of selfishly kidnapping the interests of the United States and giving up greater interests for small profits.

Wen Han had a dark face. He knew that the Americans were greedy for Xiao Yungui's tempting investment projects, but why were the British themselves not moved? He was in a bad mood. After hearing Mashali's words, he immediately ridiculed Mashali, saying that Americans were all exiled people who were jealous of money. Many Americans were prisoners exiled to the New World in the United States. Of course, Mashali could not tolerate the insult and immediately quarreled with Wen Han. Fortunately, French minister Blombl mediated in time.

"Gentlemen, what we need is unity, and unnecessary disputes are unnecessary." Blombul said: "Overall, the tariff rules and regulations of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are more complete than the Qing Dynasty's tariff agreement. Their tariff policies have begun to show restrictions or encouragement for import and export goods, and they have strong characteristics of protecting their own industry and commerce. For example, when prices are adjusted, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Shanghai Military and Political Department has the right to re-customize the tariff rate according to the price level. This seems fair, but it leaves room for them to manipulate the tax rate. In terms of export tax, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has the right to re-customize the tariff rate according to the price level. This one seems fair, but it leaves room for them to manipulate the tax rate. In terms of export tax, Taiping

The Kingdom of Heaven has canceled many checkpoint taxes that are not conducive to the merchants of its own country. After the messy and harsh taxes, the export of Chinese merchants' goods is more attractive, which also gives Chinese merchants the maximum protection. I don't believe that our previous plan to interfere with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's tariffs can be successful. After all, it is difficult to get what we want through diplomatic efforts alone. Gentlemen, we should be more pragmatic in weighing the pros and cons. Perhaps choosing temporary concessions can maximize our current interests. I believe that without the guarantee of using force, we will not be able to let a strong person with more than 100,000 soldiers submit."

Bloompur's words calmed down Mashalli and Wenhan. Mashalli nodded and said, "Yes, on this point, I agree with His Excellency Bloompur. Being able to participate in the manipulation of tariff rates seems very attractive, but without any guarantee of resorting to force, we cannot achieve our goal. Before that, I agree with pragmatic negotiations and give up some interests in exchange for greater benefits. Think about it, gentlemen, how interesting the construction of railways in China is a business, and there are mining rights in some places. I think the members of the parliament on the other side of the ocean will not be satisfied with the little tax rate we have won. They will only be crazy for the railway rights and mining rights. And as long as our cooperation with the Taiping Army deepens, I believe that Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Wuhu may be open to us in the future."

Wen Han was very dissatisfied. The French and Americans stood together. They did not intend to stand together with the British for the interests of the opium trade monopoly of Britain. They considered more of their own interests! Damn Russians, why did they launch a damn war during their term of office? Yesterday he received a domestic official document. The British Foreign Minister asked Wen Han to continue to remain neutral in China's civil war and to start trade cooperation with the Qing Dynasty and Taiping Army at the same time. Then Colonel He Bo from the British Far East Fleet also received an order to organize all the military forces of the Far East Britain, and be ready to raid Russia's Petropavlov military port on the Far East Kamchatka Peninsula at any time, in addition to protecting the interests of the trade port of Britain, he was ready to raid Russia's Petropavlov military port on the Far East Kamchatka Peninsula at any time. Therefore, at this time, Wen Han had no confidence to compete with the Western King. Perhaps Blombl was right. Only temporary concessions could ensure the maximum current interests.

After getting on the carriage, Wenhan looked at the Wangjiang Customs Office through the glass window, and saw that the plaque on it had been replaced. Midile said that there were big words "Shanghai Customs Department of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" written on it. Wenhan secretly clenched his fists and said in his heart: "When the war with Russia is over in the future, the British Empire will definitely get its own things!" (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, the novel is better and faster!
Chapter completed!