"Amistantor Scott, I have to say that taxes are a big obstacle in England's current investment situation that you mentioned." Paul Doria, who was already gray in the alpine and flowing water teahouse in Yancheng Harbor, talked: "The taxes imposed during the war were not cancelled, and for investors, nothing is worse than this."

The government of the Kingdom of England is currently levied many types of taxes, and there are many types, such as wine tax, tobacco tax, malt tax, double tonnage tax, leather tax, paper tax, salt tax, window tax, glassware tax, etc. In 1697, the cap tax was nearly 1.54 million pounds, the malt tax was about 650,000 pounds (the tax cost is 50,000 pounds). After deducting the cost, the double tonnage tax was about 370,000 pounds, and the salt tax (each one

Bushels are levied at 20p) and 175,000 pounds, 140,000 pounds in windows (90,000 pounds in taxes), 153,800 pounds in beverages, 100,000 pounds in leather, 60,000 pounds in paper (it is better not to charge if you are levied at 50,000 pounds in taxes...), 54,310 pounds in marriage, birth and funeral taxes, and 44,800 pounds in stamp duty. I won't talk about other taxes such as carriage taxes, and the taxes are still very heavy.

Of course, these are all temporary taxes brought about by the war, many of which will expire in the next few years, such as the taxes expired in 1696 totaled 394,907 pounds. In fact, in theory, King William III had the right to terminate some taxes in advance. After all, the war has ended now, and there is no need to wait until 1700 to terminate naturally. But the king was unwilling and unwilling to disclose to Congress that the tariff accounts he held in his hands not only included import and export customs clearance.

Taxes, including special tariffs, such as import tariffs specially levied on Portuguese red wine, are all royal income, and it is not easy for the MPs who do not belong to the state finance to govern the parliament to break up with the king in this matter. After all, the king's reasons are very sufficient. Now the government owes 1.7 million pounds of the Navy and Army and Ordnance departments, 1.3 million pounds of annuity, 540,000 pounds of royal expenses and princess living allowances, and 150,000 pounds of secret expenses (intelligence expenses).

In addition, the government owed a lot of debts during the war. For example, loans guaranteed by inheritance tax, temporary consumption tax and postal tax were 700,000 pounds, debts 1.27 million pounds due to the issuance of malt notes, loans guaranteed by lottery income, and loans of 1.2 million pounds from unsecured banks, which are all in all. Currently, the British government's debt is about 7 million pounds, which is almost equivalent to two years of fiscal revenue.

The government will definitely not be able to pay such a huge debt, at least in the short term. The solution is that the rich people in Congress reduce part of their debts, and the other is the old method to provide aid funds. In fact, it is the same as the first one, and it is just a matter of left-handedness for lawmakers.

Of course, it is definitely not enough to digest debt internally. Especially the current situation in the continental region is very delicate, and war will break out in the future. Both the royal family and the parliament must be actively prepared for fiscal reasons. Therefore, finding solutions to foreign countries has become the top priority. Therefore, in 1695, the British imposed surcharges on foreign investors, 9p taxes per pound of investment, with a total income of 436,000 pounds. The extension laws and common shares brought 395,000 pounds of income, which was quite ruthless.

Italians have invested a lot in England in recent years, with a total amount of more than 18 million bank liras. Although these amounts are far from comparable to their investments on the East Coast, to be honest, in Europe, there is really the most happening, because they have only invested less than 8 million bank liras in Amsterdam. England has become the most in fact the safe haven investment place in the continent, no one.

After investing so much money, they were naturally charged a lot of taxes, which made the Italians very unhappy. St. George's Trading Company once ridiculed the British for thinking about money and levying taxes for foreign investment. This has not been heard of in many years. If the East Coast was not too far away and the culture was much different from Italy, they would not even want to smash a lira in England. But there was no way, investment should be spread out and eggs should not be placed in a basket. Italians have been doing business for more than a thousand years, so they naturally knew this. Although England is a Protestant country, the culture is similar. Italians could still find a lot of sense of belonging in the past, and many people also prefer to invest in England rather than the East Coast. Maybe the English dared to tax them very much after taking this right. Alas, it was really a headache.

"Mr. Doria, please understand that the Kingdom of England has invested huge amounts of money in the Navy and Army in order to protect the interests of investors. It is precisely because God saw this that he allowed us to tax investments. Now that the situation in the continental region is so tense, it is very likely that an extremely fierce war will break out, and we have to prepare for it. Otherwise, once the war is defeated, no one's investment can be guaranteed under the pursuit of the conquerors." Ambassador Paul Scott said slowly.

He was very confident. Even though he had seen Italians invest heavily in East Coast railways and highways, he still believed that England could obtain enough capital from Italy. Not everyone was willing to leave their hometowns and live in a strange culture. East Coast people are not kind men and women, and European faces don't necessarily have much to eat here. In comparison, England's environment is much better, after all, everyone is the people of the Lord. To put it bluntly, Ambassador Scott believes that the East Coast and England compete for foreign investment has nothing to do with it, but it is actually a competition of civilization. Although the little guy George Montgomery was pessimistic, he believed that England should not compete too much with the East Coast, and he should open up cooperation and maintain his leading position in the second group. But Ambassador Scott did not agree with this concept very much. He believed that England could still work hard, and the East Coast people were not strong enough to let them control the entire Europe.

With the vast Atlantic Ocean as a geographical barrier, how much power can the East Coast people exert in Europe? Now England has also made paddle steamers. Apart from the underwater sealing technology, propeller ships are not very reliable, there are no big problems. Are the warships of the East Coast people really much stronger than England? Although the people below have some reports on the powerful power of the iron-armed warships made on the East Coast, Ambassador Scott did not fully believe it. He would rather think that it was just a test piece with not fully mature technology. Whether it can really sail and fight across the ocean is still a little bit of a chance. England actually has!

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Just as Paul Doria was chatting with the Englishman, Claudio Doria, a high-end hotel in Yancheng Harbor, was also discussing some other things with her followers.

"The consuls' meeting has made a decision to use gold to exchange for the exchange coupons of the East Coast people for 5 million yuan. According to the East Coast people, it is foreign exchange reserves. This money will be included in the special account of Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank, used as future procurement of weapons, paying consultants fees, etc. Pisani has visited the East Coast Army Department. They asked us to give up the original plan and form an armed force of ten divisions, with each division full of 7,500 people, plus some independent troops, the total army's strength will exceed 80,000. Compared with the French's more than 300,000 troops, the size of the army is naturally incomparable, but the main force of the people will definitely not be in our direction, and they will be able to survive.

We will invest 40,000 to 50,000 people here. Our mission is to cooperate with the landing East Coast Army to block the possible offensives that the French may have, and then draw some troops to go south to attack other planned targets." Claudiodoria rubbed his hands and said, "The consuls' meeting believes that this is reasonable. Naples and Sicily are our first targets, followed by Sardinia, Parma and other places. Corsica also needs to send troops to shock them. So, for the next period of time, you need to stay here, negotiate with the East Coast people, purchase military supplies at the lowest discount price, and transport them back as soon as possible."

"What should the Navy do?" After a while of silence, someone asked. The meaning was obvious. The 80,000 army would occupy a lot of military expenditure, so few people would be used in the Navy. You must know that the Navy was led by the Navy, while the Army was led by the Venetians, and everyone's interests were different.

"There is no way. The consuls' meeting communicated with the East Coast people, but there was no result. The Venetians did not know what methods they used, and the East Coast people now tended to them." Claudiodoria said slightly bitterly: "Apart from the East Coast people, we can only choose to form an alliance with England. The Dutch are unreliable. They may be destructively hit by the French on land, and it is unrealistic to expect their navy to be relied on. It just so happens that the English now has the desire to enhance their presence in the Mediterranean. It is not a bad thing to have a close relationship with them. The water in the Mediterranean is always the better."

After Claudio said this, it was hard for everyone to say anything else. England is now showing more and more ambition. The navy has achieved brilliant achievements in previous wars and has fully proved its ability. Moreover, the industrial power is developed, the geographical location is superior, and most importantly, it is very close to Italy. So it seems to be a good choice to show good deeds to the English and let them defend the Italian coastline in a hurry while the Navy on the East Coast is in a hurry.

Eggs cannot be placed in one basket. In the future, even if Italy is unified with the help of the East Coast people, they are still destined to deal with the English, which is an unavoidable hurdle. Investing in England now and bringing the relationship between the two sides closer is not a bad thing in the long run.
Chapter completed!