Zhao Xin smiled faintly and said, "Don't you like black tea the most? Do you still want green tea?"

Basning asked, "So, how much can you provide?"

"You five families, plus other small merchants in the city, count as one, each of them is five thousand pouts."

Wow~~ The pie is smashed in the sky!

As soon as Zhao Xin said this, the five major families' eyes were straightened, and they all opened their mouths wide, and they almost drooled.

In the Tsarist Russian era, one pute was 16.38 kilograms, and five thousand putes were about 82,000 kilograms. However, the weights and measures of the Qing Dynasty were different from those of later generations. The pute was 28 kilograms, so one kilogram in commodity trading in the Qing Dynasty was the current 0.855 kilograms.

Let me give you a chestnut. In the past, if the Russians bought tea from Chaktu, the price of one pout was 11 rubles. The currency of this year was not paper money, but was all real silver. If 11 rubles were converted into silver, it was 8.2 taels of silver. According to the clear scale, each pound of tea was 0.293 taels of silver, and a load of 100 kilograms, that is, 29.3 taels of silver.

Simply put, if a Shanxi merchant directly purchases green tea or white hair from a tea producing area in Fujian, one hundred kilograms is a duct. According to the tea grade, the purchase price per duct ranges from 500 to 7 or 8 taels, and there are also shipping fees that cost thousands of miles away, tea sales ticket fees, taxes and bribery, etc., but even so, the profits are several times.

In general, the tea trade in the Qing Dynasty was a very complicated business, with many details in it. From the many aspects of tea planting, production, agency, underwriting, and government, it is impossible to explain it in just a few words. If outsiders want to intervene here, it is impossible to clear the joints without spending a lot of money.

The problem is that Zhao Xin doesn’t need it! Beihai Town can send a boat to buy it directly from Jiangnan, and the 490,000 kilograms are only 490 tons.

Shen Jingdan had mentioned to Zhao Xin before that the interruption of the Chaktu trade led to a large backlog of tea in Fujian. Only Guangzhou, Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands could not digest so much tea.

As mentioned before, a major feature of the Thirteen Trade Company is that the payment must be paid by the merchants in advance, and the foreign merchants can only settle the bill when they return to Guangzhou the next year. With the strength of the seven or eight merchants in Guangzhou now, they cannot eat a large amount of tea no matter what.

Zhao Xin's plan has actually been considered for a long time. Force is one aspect, and economic interests are the core of whether Beihai Town can firmly rule East and West Siberia.

The specific operation is to transform Irkutsk into a distribution center and transit station for East-West land trade. Beihai Town set up a trading expo here. Whether it is cotton fabrics, silk, sugar, tea, or Russian leather products and wool fabrics, as long as they block Caktu, they will not be able to go out and come in. At that time, all the supply of goods can be controlled in their hands.

Don’t Shanxi merchants like to hoard land? Let them spit out all the land sooner or later!

When Beihai Town defeats Shanxi merchants in a slump, they can seize the tea territory of Shanxi merchants, and then use the profits of Sino-Russia trade to subsidize southern tea farmers, establish agricultural cooperatives, and improve the quality and output of tea. No one can shake China's dominant position in tea.

As for the British's desire to build tea gardens in Sri Lanka, it is simple and simple. Since the British can now encourage Nepali people to build a treasury, Beihai Town can incite Pearl River pirates to go to Sri Lanka to build a British.

Isn't it just a mess? Compared to the British who are in trouble all over the world, Zhao Xin asked himself that his skills are in the middle of the game and space are beyond the reach of time and space.

The five major families led by Siberyakov have not imported tea from Chaktu for several years. Although there was smuggling during this period, the scale was not large and they were not enough for themselves. Since the Qing Dynasty stopped the Chaktu trade, the ban on smuggling was very strict, and Qianlong had severely punished several groups of officials for this.

You should know that since the late 18th century, tea has become a necessity for every family in Siberia. Every time the Qing Dynasty closed the Chaktu trade, many families were impoverished due to the interruption of tea trade, and even fell into begging for a living.

In this era, tea is not only used to drink in the West, but also a symbol of wealth. Many powerful and wealthy businessmen show off tea as luxury goods. They will take out all kinds of tea that customers have never seen before to drink. It feels like some modern people show off how many LV bags they have, and then put them out and take photos to show off.

In fact, the economic effect of tea trade in East and West Siberia far exceeds the entire Siberian region and has a great influence on Europe and Russia. From 1780 to 1785, the tea trade volume between China and Russia increased by five times.

Since the closure of the Chaktu trade, the five people can only buy tea from merchants in the UK, the Netherlands or the Danish countries. The purchase cost is three or four times higher, and the cost is as high as 52 rubles per pout.

At this time, Zhao Xin's guard chief Chen Jishan came into the house with a tray, which was filled with a pot of freshly brewed black tea and a small saucer of tea samples.

Among the five businessmen, Basin, who knows the best about tea, picked it up and smelled it, and said with surprise: "Is this Wuyi BOHEA?"

Zhao Xin nodded and said, "That's right, the real Tongmuguan small seed."

The so-called "Tongmuguan Xiaopeng" is the Zhengshan Xiaopeng that was well-known in later generations. From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, the Zhengshan Xiaopeng was brought into Europe by Dutch merchants, and then became popular in the British royal family and even the entire Europe, and set off the "afternoon tea" trend that has been passed down to this day. This tea soup is bright red, has a rich aroma, and is sweet in the mouth. It is now called "WUYI BOHEA" by Europeans.

Zhao Xinduan Cup signaled: "This is the product in my hand. Please, gentlemen, try it and see how it tastes."

Siberyakov and the other five saw Zhao Xin taking a drink, and then tried to take a sip, savored for a moment, and soon showed a very satisfied expression.

Dudorowsky asked tentatively: "13 rubles-pout?"

"12 rubles."

However, when former mayor Siberiakov heard the price, his face suddenly became solemn. There has never been a waste of money in this world, and there are often traps behind honey.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Mr. Zhao, what are your plans? You are just a few people. Do you really want to go to war with the entire Russia?"

Zhao Xin stood up and walked to the window, looked at the city where snowflakes had begun to fall, and said without looking back: "Everyone, I hope you will recognize the reality. Beihai Town is far stronger than you think. Since your queen can make the decision to invade China, she will bear the consequences of failure.

Since we have occupied this city, no one can take it away. We welcome those who choose to stay; we will not stop those who are willing to return to the west of the Yenisei River."

"What?! Yenisei River?" Siberyakov and others could no longer sit still and all stood up.

"Next spring, we will send immigrants here, establish commodity trading centers, and expand the city." Zhao Xin turned around and looked at Siberiakov and continued: "I believe you don't know that the Central Plains dynasty in the south has a population of 200 million. For me, it's extremely easy to send 10,000 or 20,000 people over. Where to go, you can go back and think about it."

What? Two hundred million! The leaders of the five major families burst into cold sweats after hearing this. Not to mention Siberia, the entire Tsarist Russian Empire in history only had 35.5 million people in 1800.

Shortly after Zhao Xin finished his conversation with the five major families, news that the Chinese occupying forces could provide a large amount of tea quickly spread, causing a sensation throughout the city.

A pute is only 12 rubles, and the amount is large and the amount is full!

Those Russian merchants who originally wanted to leave by boat immediately gave up their plans to pack their luggage. It would be great to have tea, and everyone would make money together with the tea trade. Not to mention that everyone is trying to get rich from Europe, isn’t it just that they will become rich? As for the future, they will become Chinese territory, and at most they can make money and go back to Europe to have fun.

A day later, Zhao Xin asked Markovic to post the first notice of the North Navy in the local area. The core is two words: tax reduction! Abolish the counting tax and cancel all taxes that are not related to commodity transactions.

As soon as the news came out, both the civilians and the farmers outside the city looked ecstatic.

Tsarist Russia, like ancient China, had its main taxes from land. Whether it was state-owned serfs, church serfs or landlord serfs, they had to pay taxes. In addition, there were post station taxes, shooting taxes (supporting the army's shooting fees), horse yoke taxes, shoes and hat taxes, bathhouse taxes, mill taxes, ship offshore and docking taxes, etc.

The most famous of these is the beard tax, and it must be collected according to the level. Nobles and civil servants 60 rubles, wealthy businessmen 100 rubles, ordinary businessmen 60 rubles, slaves and church subordinates 30 rubles. Farmers don’t charge taxes when they have beards in the village, but they have to pay a kobbi to enter and leave the city.

Since the reign of Peter I, Russia's direct and other special taxes charged an average of 2.5 rubles per household, and the in-kind tax paid by farmers increased to 5.6 puts. After Catherine II came to power, although the salt tax was abolished and the capita tax and in-kind tax were reduced, the problem was that this woman was too wasteful of money. In 27 years, a total of 138 million rubles of paper money was issued; this was almost the same as the treasure banknotes of the Ming Dynasty, and the paper money was all over.

Why did Catherine II deprive the church of property? The core is agricultural taxes. Because the land rent paid by church serfs to the church is 2 to 3.8 times less than the taxes collected directly from these people by the state.

Although Catherine II advocated industry and commerce, many emerging industrial cities only exist on paper. This is the most magical part of the Tsarist Russian autocratic regime and absolute obedience system. The queen gave orders and no one complained, but I just didn't do it.

In this way, Zhao Xin used tea to solve the business class on one side, and stabilized the civilian and peasant class on the other side. A few days later, the agricultural product markets that had already become ruins gradually resumed transactions.

The original official class did not account for the majority in the local area. In fact, there were not so many officials in the government controlled by merchants. Zhao Xin adopted the approach of doubled his salary and he was unwilling to do it and got out of the boat.

At the same time, Chuckto, which is hundreds of kilometers away, is a different scene.

In the Qing Dynasty, China and Russia built two cities in Chaktu, with the Chaktu River as the boundary.

On the north side of Hebei is the Russian City, which has a square market with a side length of 200 meters. A city tower is built at each of the four corners of the market. In addition to stalls and shops, there are also warehouses, merchants' residences, military camps, hotels and churches in the city.

On the south of Henan is a trading city, about 130 meters south of the city of Oshi. The city is rectangular, more than 360 meters wide and more than 600 meters long. It has a gate around it, and is guarded by troops. The city is full of various stores and warehouses. The Qing court appointed a lieutenant of the Lifan Academy to manage trade, and it is appointed once every three years.

After lunch yesterday, the merchants and soldiers stationed in the Eight Banners in the city heard several explosions on the territory of the Russians opposite. Many people thought it was Rakshasa's gunpowder depot that exploded. But with the fierce gunfire and shouts of killing, everyone realized that something must have happened to the other side.

The officer of the Lifan Academy, who was in charge of the trading city, came to the city gate after hearing the news. Through the crack of the door, he saw the Russians on the opposite side of the city filled the smoke of gunfire. The explosion of fire ignited into the sky, and the dense gunshots made people tremble. He hurriedly mobilized the soldiers in the city to wait for peace, and sent a fast horse to report to the Minister of Service of Kulun.

It was almost four o'clock in the afternoon, which was Shenzheng, and the gunshots in the city of Chaktu gradually subsided. More than a dozen Russian troops who escaped from the city were already stunned. They ran towards the Made and Shop City regardless of their butts, shouting for help.

Unexpectedly, as soon as these guys ran to the river bank, they were knocked over to the ground by a dense rain of bullets behind them, and then rolled down into the Chaktu River. The movement scared the Qing army in the city of business and trembled behind the wooden wall. They had never seen this before!

However, a few interested people noticed that after lying on the crack of the city gate, the Qing army leader who was sitting in the north gate, his face suddenly turned pale, his forehead was sweating like a slurry, and he felt like he had dysentery and was squirting.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! They don’t know that at this moment, Lord Xieling was in a state of uproar, and his mind was full of words: “God! Why are these guys hitting here?”

It turns out that this person is also a passerby in Beihai Town. After being released, he went to the business city to garrison. I thought I was far away from the group of thieves this time, and there were thousands of miles between them. As a result, I didn't expect it, and I became a neighbor in a blink of an eye!

At dusk, the blazing fire in the city of Chiktu gradually extinguished, and the double-headed eagle flag on the city tower in the southeast corner was thrown down from the tower. Not long after, a white five-pointed star flag with a red base and a white gear in the middle appeared on the tower. Immediately afterwards, a huge "Liu" flag was also hung out on the city tower in the southwest corner. This scene made the Qing soldiers and civilians on the city wall stunned.

Is Rakshasa finished? But who are the soldiers on the other side? How could they take the banner of Han people?

In fact, although Qianlong locked up the Chaktu trade and Tsarist Russia invaded Heilongjiang, the Sino-Russian relations here have always been very "harmonious".

The Qing government regarded itself as the superior country of the Celestial Empire and regarded all foreign vassals as barbarians. Whether it was the Minister of Kulun's Service or the Local Office of the Regular and Political Department, they would not stand up for the sake of merchants. All they care about was how much tax could be collected.

So in order to reduce the trouble, the Qing court made a strange rule, which was to require no Chinese to have any quarrels with Russian merchants, and even if he was proven to be correct afterwards, he would be kept in jail for ten days. If there were various types of claims, he should make a friendly statement to the Russian chief in a calm and regular manner, so as to avoid small grudges between merchants and major disputes between countries.

In addition, in order to prevent Tsarist Russia from understanding the internal situation in China, the Qing court required that the Chinese people in the trade city to speak only Russian and would never give Russians the opportunity to learn Chinese. So until now, almost all the Chinese people in the trade city to speak Russian, while none of the Russian merchants in Chaktu could speak Chinese.

Just under such a trading rule, do you want to be in harmony?

The next morning, the officer of the Lifan Academy, who was already scared, did not dare to come forward at all, so he sent the shopkeeper Tian, ​​who was "The Record of Meiyu Gong" in the city, to cross the river to find out the truth.

Meiyu Gongji is an industry that Shanxi people often have. They have several shops in the trading city. Among the many Shanxi businesses engaged in trade with Russia in Chaktu in history, the longest business history and the largest scale is the Changjia, Chewang Town, Yuci. The silver winter melon that Shanxi merchants like to make the most also started from the Changjia.

Manager Tian took his nephew Tian Sanhuai to cross the wooden bridge tremblingly. Under the gaze of several North Navy soldiers, he walked outside the wooden city gate, and bowed to the North Navy soldiers at the door: "In Tongzhou, Yuci Tian, ​​Xishan, I am here to pay my respects on the order of Lord Wu of Lifanyuan."
Chapter completed!