Of course Queenie had to follow Jaap Six closely, and it was not like he didn't know that Jag Four was emptying the toilet in Changping.
Only those who are stupid would want to burn the fourth devil's cold stove.
In order to show that her loyalty to actively follow His Majesty the Emperor will never waver, Queenie volunteered to accompany His Majesty the Emperor to Tianjin to pick up trade delegations from various countries.
But this job was snatched away by Lao A.
Queenie couldn't get away either, because he, as the Prime Minister and Deputy Minister in charge of the Ministry of Rites and the Council of Domains, had to hold a series of talks with various vassal states in Beijing and central China.
The first is to formally issue to all countries the report that denies the legitimacy of the four dynasties since Shunzhi issued by the Xiangyang Hundred Officials and Clan Conference, and listen to the opinions of various countries on this report;
The second is to determine whether each country recognizes the Reform Emperor as the only legitimate emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
This series of work is not only tiring, but the problems are also complex.
At present, the Qing Dynasty has nineteen vassal states including Korea, Annam, Siam, Bhutan, Ryukyu, Sulu, Kokand, Sikkim, Luang Prabang, Boral State, and Andijan.
Basically they are all left over from the previous Ming Dynasty.
Most of the vassal states have personnel stationed in the capital, and they are under the jurisdiction of the vassal palace and internal affairs.
In fact, it means the diplomatic agency of later generations.
Whether the Reform Court could become the only legitimate court of the Qing Dynasty required the recognition of these vassal states in addition to the support of domestic provinces and border regions.
Otherwise, if the vassal states rebelled collectively and refused to recognize the Six Emperors of the Reform Movement, although it would not be able to touch a hair of the Six Emperors, it would certainly not look good on their face.
Queenie couldn't leave, but in fact, trade had nothing to do with Lao A, the Prime Minister and Deputy Minister in charge of the Ministry of War and the Department of General Affairs. He should be in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Hanlin Academy, Taichang Temple, and Taipu Temple.
The president of the organization is Li Qucai.
It was Lao Li who refused to go because he couldn't bear to humiliate himself by accompanying the Sixth Emperor.
In any dynasty or generation, there is no reason for an emperor to pick up foreign merchants!
This is good, Lao A once again seized the opportunity and relied on the candidate for the next emperor.
As the only Prime Minister and Deputy Minister of the Cabinet who accompanied His Majesty the Emperor to Tianjin, after His Majesty the Emperor finished his speech, Lao A immediately added an explanation: "Your Majesty means that you can work freely, as long as you can make money, you can make money for the national treasury and the people."
When the bag is bulging, you will be well-off as an official and popular among the people, so you don't have to worry about what the outside world thinks, let alone worry about someone in the court writing a letter to impeach you."
After finishing it, I thought about it and used the words "policy to ensure the bottom line" to describe the great importance His Majesty the Emperor attaches to maritime trade.
On the basis of equal trade, the customs officials in Tianjin, where the customs is located, must open their minds and hands, and spare no effort to support the trade between their own merchants and Western countries, so that Tianjin, currently the only treaty port in the north, can quickly grow into Asia.
The new commercial center also continued to absorb the wealth gained from their foreign colonization through trade with Western countries, providing strong financial support for the industrial development of the Qing Dynasty.
"That's what it means."
Jia Liu nodded with satisfaction. The more than twenty officials he met in person were all carefully selected. They were responsible not only for his Majesty the Emperor's expectations, but also for the future destiny of the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, it is necessary to personally steer the ship, give personal guidance, and provide support and support.
"In the past, when businessmen from various Western countries came to our Qing Dynasty to do business, they either went through our own merchants in the Qing Dynasty as agents, or they formed a community of interests with some local officials... This time for Tianjin's trade, I hope that the Tianjin Governor's Yamen, the Tianjin Magistrate's Yamen, and the Tianjin
The customs office can be a good agent and deal directly with foreign merchants."
Jia Liu emphasized this point because he did not want Beiyang to follow the old Nanyang path again.
That is to say, tens of millions of taels of sea trade profits every year go to comprador groups like the Thirteenth Bank and local bureaucratic groups in Guangdong. The Ministry of Revenue can only get more than 1.4 million taels of customs clearance money from Guangdong Customs every year.
This number is increasing every year.
On the one hand, there is an annual profit of tens of millions of taels, and on the other hand, there is more than one million taels of treasury revenue. This is no longer a direct and inverse ratio, but a complete disaster!
Therefore, Tianjin must adopt a government-run monopoly to carry out import and export trade, and cannot have a "special market" by the Thirteenth Bank like Guangdong.
"The world is very big, and we are not alone in the Qing Dynasty. I personally selected you to be placed here in Tianjin, so I hope you can live up to my expectations..."
As Jia Liuzheng was talking, Zhu Dawen, who was to be appointed deputy supervisor of Tianjin Customs, suddenly plucked up the courage to raise his hand and report.
"Da Wen has something to say?"
With a smile on his face, Jia Liu told the man who had gone to Macau to attract investment to speak out boldly.
He had earlier promulgated the decree to completely lift the speech ban in Xiangyang, hoping that the subjects in the country could speak out enthusiastically and everyone would take control of the government.
"Your Majesty, I am going to Macau this time not only to actively attract business and investment according to Your Majesty's wishes, but also to hire Western experts and purchase new Western books. I also specially investigated the situation of Guangdong Customs..."
While he was talking, Zhu Dawen stood up and presented the "Guangdong International Trade Survey Report" which he had spent more than half a year writing.
"oh?"
Jia Liu quickly took the report and opened it. He felt very excited just by looking at the table of contents, because Zhu Dawen's opening sentence was very spiritual - "Learning skills from the barbarians can help them conquer the barbarians. Only those who are good at teaching the barbarians can conquer the barbarians."
Those who are not good at teaching foreigners should be controlled by foreigners."
With this particularly spirited opening sentence, Jia Liu felt elated even without even reading the rest.
"Okay, okay, very good! Dawen put his heart into this report. If all the officials in our dynasty are as pragmatic as Dawen, why worry about our Qing Dynasty not being destroyed...why worry about our Qing Dynasty not being prosperous!"
Overjoyed, Jia Liu handed the report to Shuan Zhu and ordered him to give it to the Attendant's Office to print 10,000 copies. Officials of the eighth rank and above must have one copy, and officials of the fourth rank and above must submit an article of no less than 10,000 copies to the cabinet.
A review of 5,000 words. Submit it to your superiors if you are in the fourth grade or below.
In order to make officials of all sizes aware of the importance of this report and the signal it conveys, Jia Liu even requested that the feelings after reading it be used as an indicator in the year-end assessment of officials.
"Da Wen, I am truly the best person in the Qing Dynasty who has opened his eyes to see the world. I am not as good as you, I am not as good as you."
His Majesty the Emperor's compliment made Zhu Dawen faint with happiness, and also made Tianjin Governor Xu Ji, who was sitting on the small stool in front of him, envious.
However, Mr. Xu doesn't care about progress. He is retiring anyway, and after retirement, he can still receive a special preferential treatment of 300,000 taels per year.
I don't even get such flattering treatment at the end of the day.
"Only when I went to Macau this time did I realize how big the world is and how wonderful all things are in the world..."
Zhu Dawen told a few things about what he saw and heard in Macau, which shocked the officials present. Especially when Zhu Dawen said that the Westerners had built some kind of loom, and that once it started production in one day, it could hold up to
The output of dozens of weavers in one day was not only terrifying, but also caused the price of cloth to drop rapidly.
If the Qing Dynasty did not keep up, it would not be long before Western cloth would dominate the domestic market, because our Qing weavers simply did not have the output.
"It's Jenny of the Loom."
Jia Liu looked solemn. He stood up and slowly walked to the window sill. He gently opened the window and took a deep breath of fresh air outside. He took out his pocket watch with a golden slip and opened it and said to the Tianjin officials present:
"In the past, our scholar-bureaucrats always thought that things from foreigners were not good. For example, the pocket watch in my hand was regarded as a strange skill. But with this pocket watch, I can know the time accurately at any time. This is extraordinary.
No.
In war, time is life; in business, time is money..."
Jia Liu's tone was very passionate, meaning to emphasize again and again.
“So, I hope that you will not have the old ideas of the past, don’t be arrogant and arrogant, but put down your stature and face new things seriously, accept new things, and work hard to apply new things to the national economy and people’s livelihood of the Qing Dynasty.
...I can conclude here that the world in the future will definitely be a world of miraculous skills and ingenuity, not a world of ordinary people.
The old routine no longer works, it needs to be changed, it needs to be completely changed!
Whoever doesn’t change his mind, I will change his life!”
With a "click" sound, Jia Liu closed his pocket watch that did not move and looked at everyone expectantly: "I believe that as long as you can fully understand and implement the spirit of what I said, in less than ten years, our Qing Dynasty will definitely have a great atmosphere.
Open, the sunrise of wisdom...
When I celebrate my thirtieth birthday in a few years, you should try to get the envoys from various Western countries to come and celebrate my birthday, and I will personally sing Three Tribunals of Galileo for them to hear."