Chapter 11 Taxation

  Tax calculation

  Yao Fan continued: "That soap has 204 large boxes, each with eight small boxes inside, 72 pieces per box, a total of over 1.1 million pieces."

  Wei Guofu exclaimed: "This soap is actually so much!"

  Yao Fandao said: "According to one block being worth half a tael of silver, it's probably around 5,000 taels."

  Wei Guofu said, "This is foreign soap, not local soap, right? Foreign soap is expensive. I heard that in Shanghai and Beijing, foreigners sell fine soap, also known as foreign soap, one or two silver coins can only buy ten pieces."

  Yao Fenger said, "This is because it's scarce in the market, I've transported a lot here, so naturally the price will come down, can't calculate it as that expensive one."

  Yao Fangan realized that his scented soap was bought at 85 cents per piece, and if he sold it for one silver coin per piece, it would be more than 50 times the profit. However, he had no idea how many people in the Qing dynasty were willing to spend money on soap for bathing, so he wasn't confident about sales.

  Wei Guofu asked: "What is that bicycle thing?"

  "That's an iron vehicle for the rich to ride on, to build up their bodies and kill time. I heard that the British sold a few cars in Beijing at a high price, so naturally there are fewer people playing with them. I've imported 330 vehicles here and plan to sell them cheaply, one hundred taels per car."

  Wei Guofu happily said: "That's worth 33,000 taels."

  Yao Fan thought that if these 300-yuan bicycles could really be sold for 100 yuan each, his profit would be nearly doubled. However, he was still constrained by the confusion in his heart - sales volume...

  "Also, there are Western mechanical watches, a total of 4,000 pieces. Currently, the market price for a Western pocket watch is about 30 taels of silver each. These watches are worth around 700,000 to 800,000 taels."

  Wei Guofu lowered his head and roughly calculated, then raised his head with satisfaction: "So, Brother Yao's goods that were transported in this time are worth about 120,000 to 130,000 taels of silver. About 30,000 taels of silver will need to be paid as tax."

  Yao Fandao: "Wei brother, I'll be bold and ask, these 3000 taels of silver, do you know how many people it can be divided among?"

  Wei Guofu said, "Since we're all familiar with each other, I won't hide it from you. The customs is the biggest head, taking up 60%, and Judge Zhou and I each take 20%. Brother Yao, how many times can this ship come to Jiaozhou in a month?"

  Yao Fan knew that Wei Guofu was busy calculating his monthly income, and smiled: "Now this business route has just been opened, next we need to get rid of the goods, recover the cost, calculate it, in a month there can be two trips."

  Wei Guofu said that this was good enough, and he could earn more than 1,000 taels of silver per month for nothing, which would be more than 10,000 taels in a year! Compared to the official salary, vegetable and charcoal allowance, lamp oil and paper money allowance from the imperial court, which added up to only about 100 taels per year, this was more than a hundred times stronger!

  The number of soldiers in Qingdao is only 1,400, which is pitifully small. Although he eats the empty salary of 1,000 people, he also has to take out half of the corrupt money to pay respects to the superiors in the general's yamen. Even if he eats the empty salary, he can't get more than 10,000 taels a year!

  Before, he and Sun Maowen Liu Ziming colluded with those smuggling sea merchants. Every time they came to the ship, it was always a small amount of goods, competing with the surrounding ports that offered lower prices, and the annual revenue was only around 10,000 taels. Now, with Yao Fan's rough route, he is willing to take the Jiaozhou route for smuggling, which delights him.

  "Brother Yao, just let go! Make a big deal out of this! In Jiaozhou Port, there are three older brothers who will definitely not let any trouble arise."

  Yao Feng smiled and said, "Then I'll thank Wei brother first. From now on, we're business partners who share good fortune and bad luck together. When there's money to be made, everyone will make it, and the days of making a lot of money together are still ahead."

  Wei Guofu heard this and burst out laughing, his whiskers shaking with joy.

  "Yao brothers is a straightforward person! This younger brother of yours, I've made up my mind."

  After a day of hustle and bustle, He Wan-nian's carriages and porters finally moved all 1011 boxes of goods into the small town of Qingdao Port. The watches and soap were placed in Yao Fang's rented siheyuan on Taiping Street, while the cloth and bicycles were piled up in a temporarily rented warehouse at the port.

  Yao Fan then went with Liu Ziming, the customs inspector who had rushed over to inspect the goods with Qianzi, and carefully counted and checked the quantity and variety of the goods.

  Liu Ziming stared at Qianzi's hands as he checked the boxes, and said discontentedly: "Yao younger brother, you are really worrying about nothing. In Changguan, your elder brother Liu has always been in charge, no one dares to fart even if there were ten times more goods than these 1011 boxes."

  Your being overly cautious has led people to misunderstand that you are hiding something, thinking that I am colluding with you to embezzle a large sum of silver. Although I take 60% of the silver, half of it is spent on greasing palms at the customs. If you don't go through the smooth customs, wouldn't all the hard work and money spent transporting it from the rocky beach be in vain?

  Liu Ziming shouted at the thousand sons he brought from the customs: "All of you, open your dog eyes wide and take a good look at the number. Whoever goes back to exaggerate, I will not forgive him."

  After shouting, Liu Ziming said to Yao Fang who was constantly apologizing beside him: "You took the initiative to unload the cargo without going through the proper procedures, and now some people in the customs are trying to make trouble for me. Brother, from now on, remember that no matter how many boxes of goods there are, just boldly bring them into the port, don't add any more chaos."

  Yao Feng repeatedly said: "Brother Liu is right!"

  Next, Qianzi's hands were about to open the box and inspect the goods. Obviously, they were used to wooden boxes and were not adapted to paper boxes. They were also surprised by the yellow adhesive tape and didn't know how to open it. Yao Feng had to take out the key from his pocket and personally go forward to tear it open.

  When he opened a watch box, Liu Ziming's eyes widened slightly, clearly shocked.

  Yao Feng saw Liu Ziming's reaction to the watch and was not surprised, as if he had expected it. He secretly pulled on Liu Ziming's sleeve and winked at him vigorously.

  Liu Ziming nodded in agreement, coughed and said: "These Western watches are so small, too unimpressive, compared to the 30-tael walnut on the market, this short strap is really inconvenient to hang on the waist, why not have a longer watch chain? What's the value of this thing? However, since it's considered a watch, it still needs to be taxed according to the walnut tax, so let's record it as 20 taels of silver per piece."

  After checking clearly, Liu Ziming then calculated the value of the goods with Yao Fan. Finally, they agreed that the total tax on various goods was 3,583 taels of white silver. Yao Fan and Liu Ziming agreed that Yao Fan would deliver the silver bill to the customs tomorrow.

  Yao Fenglin grasped Liu Ziming's hand tightly as he was about to leave, and Liu Ziming naturally understood. He turned around, put his hands behind his back, and walked out the door, getting into a small sedan chair. He thought to himself that even if he could run away, he couldn't escape this extra show of respect, which was absolutely necessary.

  Yao Feng sent off Liu Ziming and saw He Wannian still standing on one side.

  Yao Feng walked up with a smile and said: "He brother helped me deal with it for a whole day, must be exhausted. Let's go, I'll invite you and the brothers to have dinner at the restaurant."

  He Wan Nian saw Yao Fan for a few days and then transported so many goods to Jiaozhou. He knew his energy was formidable, and smiled: "So many goods, no one is watching, I think this way, let's get someone to send wine and dishes from the restaurant, and eat in the store, how about that?"

  Yao Weng nodded in agreement, and so He Wan Nian ordered his servant to go and order food and wine.

  Yao Fan felt it was time to pull in a business helper.

  Yao Fan took He Wan Nian's hand with one hand and held a long-mouthed copper oil lamp with the other, and the two of them turned to the back house in the yard where goods were piled up.

  Yao Fengguan came to the door, turned around and said to He Wannian: "Brother He, to be honest with you, I forgot to bring silver bills this time, and I need your help again."

  He Wan Nian smiled and said, "To be honest, since you have so many boxes of goods here, anyone would be willing to help you with this deal. You're willing to give me this business, I should thank Brother Yao instead."

  Yao Fan's eyes lit up when he heard the words, and with a smile, he turned around and took out a watch box from an already opened carton to hand over to He Wannian.

  He Wan Nian opened it and exclaimed, "This Western watch is getting more and more exquisite! But... why doesn't this watch have a chain? Do I need to get one myself? What's the use of just this short strap?"

  Yao Fan didn't say a word, and with a swift motion, he fastened the watch strap onto He Wan's wrist. Only then did He Wan realize what was happening, his mouth agape in amazement, repeatedly exclaiming: "Incredible! Incredible! How clever! Truly ingenious! Brother Yao, how do you think these foreigners' brains are wired? To actually come up with something like this, turning a large iron walnut into something so small and lightweight! And to think it's meant to be worn on the wrist, I must say, it doesn't feel heavy at all!"

  Yao Fang stared at He Wan Nian's eyes and asked: "Brother He thinks this watch is worth a lot of silver?"

  He Wan Nian tilted his head, held up his wrist, and examined the watch in the light of the oil lamp from various angles for a long time. With an extremely confident tone, he said: "The iron shells imported from England, France, and other countries on the market are all thick and heavy, palm-sized stupid objects that can't be compared to this small and exquisite product. If Brother Yao gives it to me to sell, selling three hundred taels each is no problem! If Brother Yao gives it to the foreign goods stores in various prefectural cities, slowly selling at a high price, even if the marked price is five hundred taels, they can still be sold. Although the profit is high, it's just that the sales will be too slow."

  Yao Fansheng smiled and thought to himself, "This He Wannian has a poisonous gaze." He remembered that the first wristwatch sold in China was a Rolex, which was sold to Emperor Guangxu's teacher for 500 taels of silver. It seemed that He Wannian had a knack for pricing, and his guess was surprisingly accurate.

  "If I give it to you, how much will you pay?"

  He Wan laughed and said: "Three for five, one for ten, this is the rule of our line, only 100 taels for one, if it's a dead pawn, take half the price."

  Yao Fan nodded and gently patted He Wan Nian's shoulder, saying: "Brother He, my Yao family has been drifting overseas for a long time. It's not easy to return to the Qing Empire today. And it's even harder for me to take root in my hometown again. To be honest with you, brother, from the moment I met you, I felt that we two are compatible."

  Yao Feng saw He Wan's bright eyes and continued to release his kindness, pulling him in: "To be honest, after I returned to Shandong, I didn't know many friends, and even fewer were kindred spirits. So, I truly wish to make friends with you, Brother He. But does Brother He want to be close friends with me?"