Chapter 13                                                             �

After Zhou Mengchen arrived in Jiangnan, he vigorously rectified the army. It can be said that the appearance of the Jiangnan army was completely renewed. A large number of old officers were laid off and even caused some troubles. For example, these military officers in the garrison caused trouble. However, Zhou Mengchen did not mind using thunder means in such matters.

But even the Japanese pirates from these garrison troops cannot defeat them, so what is the effect of causing trouble?

Under Zhou Mengchen's strong control, the number of soldiers in the four prefectures in Jiangnan, Zhejiang and Fujian was determined. The four prefectures in Jiangnan had 20,000 soldiers, Zhejiang had 50,000 soldiers, and Fujian had 40,000 soldiers. A total of 110,000 combat soldiers were used.

A small number of these are elite soldiers who have fought against the Japanese pirates. Most of them are actually new recruits.

There may be room for improvement in combat effectiveness, but discipline is in place in one step. Nothing happened. Even some generals who made many contributions to fighting the Japanese pirates were repelled due to military discipline.

The prince of Ryukyu also saw this king's army and dared to ask the Ming Dynasty to garrison Ryukyu.

What? You said that the Ryukyu prince was not worried about the Ming Dynasty's interference in the internal affairs of Ryukyu. Compared to Americans, the Ming Dynasty's father was a real good father to the vassal state. He especially said to Ryukyu. If the Ming Dynasty used a title, whether it was a marquis or a count, or a throne, the prince would agree immediately, and even the dead father of the Ryukyu prince would agree immediately.

For them, those who do not agree are fools.

The Prince of Ryukyu sighed and said, "Wait a minute. I heard that there will be a banquet when the meeting in a few days is over, and there will be a banquet to invite merchants from both inside and outside. I heard that Lord Zhou will also attend. Let's see if we can meet Lord Zhou at the banquet."

Zhou Mengchen didn't know that so many people wanted to see him.

His mind is money.

Zhou Mengchen lost too much money, and Jiangnan Bank almost became an empty scepter. It was entirely up to customs taxes to fill the hole. He did not expect to fill the hole this time, but he expected that this time would give him some bottom line. How long could it take to fill the hole?

"Sir," Lu Yi reported to him: "The ship auction is 700,000 taels, which is enough to offset most of the funding for the navy."

Zhou Mengchen nodded and said, "This is already good. It seems that this big end depends on the customs taxes. By the way, how about the insurance premium?"

Insurance business is the killer weapon used by Zhou Mengchen to ensure that Jiangnan Bank can operate. After all, Zhou Mengchen drew funds from Jiangnan Bank, and the transfer was too great. Even banks could not withstand it.

Therefore, Zhou Mengchen saved a way to transfusion blood for Jiangnan Bank.

Of course, the Yellow River Bank has always wanted to go south to Jiangnan. As long as Zhou Mengchen nodded, he could let the Yellow River Bank cross the river and was willing to bear part of the funds for Zhou Mengchen.

But Zhou Mengchen knew all the filth between Hui merchants, Jiangnan merchants and Shanxi merchants. Although Zhou Mengchen was strong in Jiangnan, he still had to give local tyrants some face and could not offend the people in Jiangnan too cruelly. Otherwise, these people would slap villains behind their backs and scold Zhou Mengchen, and often things would not be enough to make trouble. Zhou Mengchen would be in trouble.

Therefore, until the last moment, Zhou Mengchen didn't want to do this.

Insurance business, especially navigation insurance business, has become a new growth point that Zhou Mengchen has come up with for Jiangnan Bank. It is also a supporting project to open the sea, inspiring people to go overseas.

After all, for many people, the sea is still relatively dangerous.

Lu Yi said: "Based on the size of the ship, each ship has an average of about 300 taels, and now there is a total of about one million taels of insurance. With this living money in the bank, it is almost enough to turn over. In addition, this is the insurance fee for one year. They will have to renew the fee next year."

Zhou Mengchen said: "This means that you can have a net income of one million taels per year?"

Lu Yi calculated it and said, "I have to pay more than 100,000 taels of silver every year. If there is no special situation, one million taels per year can be guaranteed. And sir, this is just a port in Shanghai."

Zhou Mengchen thought to himself: "It seems that this insurance license is also subject to taxation. How much is it?" However, seeing the Jiangnan Bank asking Zhou Mengchen for many things, Zhou Mengchen decided to let it go first and then introduce this policy in the future.

Zhou Mengchen said: "In other words, there are more than 3,000 ships going to sea or preparing to go to sea this time?"

Lu Yi coughed and said, "That's it."

Zhou Mengchen sneered in his heart and said to himself: "The Jiangnan world is indeed profound."

How many ships are there in the Ming Dynasty? Zhou Mengchen didn’t know that when the Japanese pirates were raging before, Zhou Mengchen thought that it would be good if there were a thousand ships in the Ming Dynasty. But he still underestimated the background of the gentry in Jiangnan.

Zhou Mengchen didn't know that these ships were just ships that they had retreated, or new ships that were built in an accelerated manner during this period. But one thing is certain, even with so many ships, the Ming maritime transportation market was far from saturated.

After all, Wang Zhi and others could gather more than a thousand merchant ships on the sea. Zhou Mengchen was legitimate to rely on the Ming Dynasty. If he could not achieve his performance several times that of Wang Zhi, Zhou Mengchen might as well find a rope to hang himself.

However, compared to the relatively uniform insurance premium, it is based on the ship's carrying capacity and cargo. Customs duties are much more complicated.

Xie Bin is responsible for this.

Xie Bin is now a customs roadmaster. This is a temporary application formulated by Zhou Mengchen. The administrative unit or level of road is not known to be immature or flexible. There are roadmasters, soldiers, salt roads, local roads, etc. It seems that within a certain range, officials who are specifically responsible for one thing and two things. If this range is greater than the palace and smaller than the province, it can generally be expressed by road.

Xie Bin is responsible for the customs. The authority of the customs must be higher than that of the local government. Only in this way can local interference be eliminated. Now, the governor cannot be bypassed, and it is more appropriate to place it as a road. However, Zhou Mengchen hopes to integrate all customs into one yamen in the future.

How to divide administratively then is another matter.

To be honest, Xie Bin worked very hard in this term, and he carefully developed the charter. It was roughly divided into two types. The first was collected by ship, and the second was collected by cargo. The former was more like berth fees, which only required the size of the ship to be placed, which was relatively simple. The latter was taxed according to different commodities, such as grain and grain exports increased by 100% tax. However, grain imports were not taxed.

Xie Bin levied different taxes based on different profits. For example, the taxes for salt and iron are relatively high, while the taxes for cotton are relatively low, etc.

In short, without insiders, it is difficult to ensure that the Ming Dynasty can collect taxes without hurting the enthusiasm of merchants.

Zhou Mengchen turned his head and looked at Xie Bin and said, "How much is the customs tax?"

Xie Bin said: "The customs registered 1,367 ships, a total of ------"

Zhou Mengchen said: "Say a total number."

"Yes." Xie Bin said: "There are 3,087,000 taels in total."

Zhou Mengchen felt relieved. It was estimated that this event would cost a small amount of 5 million taels, which finally made him feel relieved.

"Sir." Although Xie Bin couldn't bear it, he couldn't help but reminded him. "The reason why he had so much money this time was because maritime trade was interrupted, which had been a long time. So there were so many tariffs all at once. I guess it would be good if he could have one million taels in the next half year."

Zhou Mengchen waved his hand and said, "I know. However, this is just a port in Shanghai, Fujian and Guangdong, but the port will not be opened. In the next few months, you will trouble you. Cultivate your deputy, Fujian and Guangdong need to transfer personnel from Shanghai Customs to enrich other customs. I will not treat the meritorious ministers unfairly."

After hearing this, Xie Bin had a hint of excitement in his eyes and said, "Thank you, sir. The officials must have devoted themselves to the court until they die."

Zhou Mengchen said, "I'm working hard." He thought in his heart and thought to himself: "The customs taxes in the Ming Dynasty are about 15 million yuan in one or two years, and the holes I poked can be filled in one or two years. Maybe that time will be the time for me to return to Beijing."
Chapter completed!