Chapter 1149: Plan
When Andre and Antonio heard the servant’s message, they knew that Qi Haoran didn’t value them. Although they were a little depressed, they couldn’t do anything about it because the Han people indeed didn’t value Westerners like them.
This made the two of them pay more attention to the two children in front of them.
Left with no other choice, Andre started the discussion with the two of them. In fact, their goal was very simple. Like before, they hoped that Great Qi could exempt taxes on goods imported from their country and provide a place for their ships’ crew to resupply and rest.
Qi Wenmi had come to observe the Westerners up close out of curiosity. When he saw his big brother and cousin talking about serious matters, he could only sit on the chair and look back and forth at them with widened eyes.
Little Treasure and Little Bear exchanged a glance before telling Andre, with a troubled expression, that the ministers in the imperial court looked down on merchants. They didn’t approve of open sea trading to begin with, so it was impossible for them to propose tax exemptions now.
Their second condition involved territorial integrity. Now, a large portion of Great Qi was still occupied by West Xia, so the ministers were very sensitive to this and could not possibly agree.
Unless the other party could offer the same conditions in exchange.
This was obviously impossible. Ever since Great Qi lifted the maritime ban, a large number of Great Qi fleets had surged into the west, bringing precious silk, porcelain, and tea leaves. If they exempted taxes on the Great Qi fleets, their country wouldn’t be able to collect any tariffs.
In the end, it was still because of the trade imbalance. For every ten ships of goods sent from Great Qi, Great Qi would only return to their country with two ships of Western goods, while filling the other ships with massive amounts of gold and silver.
Andre was highly eager to change the situation.