Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 166 Tariffs
As for "Quanxianwangcheng"?
Then you need to pay attention to punctuation.

The term "Quanxianwangcheng" should be understood as "the city where Quanxianwang lived," not "the capital of the Quanxian clan." The two are fundamentally different!
The latter is a power center and political center equivalent to a nation, while the former... is merely a "residence".

After all, the king of the Quanxian clan would not interfere in the private affairs of any clan. The Quanxian king had only one task—to suppress the passage leading to the Guixu Sea in the center of the array until he died of exhaustion. Then the Quanxian clan would spontaneously "give birth" to the next "king".

Such a group could not participate in politics, so the Quanxian tribe did not actually form a "state" and remained at the stage of tribes and clans.

At this juncture, defining the clan as a "sovereign city-state" is of great significance!

Elder Lu Ying, representing the Taiyin Sect, proposed a resource trade request, including the supply of minerals and fish, and offered a 0% tariff rate. At the same time, the Xiling Clan's exports of luxury goods such as silk and sea spirit pearls would only be subject to a 10% tariff.

"tariff……"

Hearing many completely unfamiliar terms, the Xiling clan chief didn't try to hide anything and asked directly, "What does 'tariff' mean?"

Elder Lu Ying explained, "It is one of the taxes levied by the Taiyin Sect, similar to the poll tax and agricultural tax levied on ordinary people by other sects. However, our Taiyin Sect does not have poll tax or agricultural tax, nor do we need to regularly hand over any spiritual herbs or plants. The tax shortfall is mostly made up by commercial taxes, and customs duties are a type of commercial tax."

The concept of "tax" exists, but "customs duty" doesn't actually exist in the Guixu Realm. The only similar concept is called "market tax," which refers to market taxes and is mostly found in the interactions between various human merchant guilds, merchant alliances, and sects.

This is actually quite easy to understand. The reason why China had the concept of "customs duties" in ancient times is because people needed to conduct commercial exchanges and trade goods. They would enter and exit through various customs and checkpoints, and during these customs and checkpoints, a portion of their goods would be exploited by the local ruling forces. This was the earliest form of "customs duties".

Later, with the development and improvement of human social and political systems, "tariffs" were used between countries. In addition to supplementing the "national treasury," this taxation of commercial goods also served to protect domestic products and maintain their market competitiveness.

Fang Xianyu added, "It's the city tax."

The patriarch of the Xiling clan nodded hesitantly.

It wasn't that she couldn't understand the concept, but rather that she found it somewhat difficult to understand why the Taiyin Sect had specifically brought this up.

It's important to understand that in the Guixu Realm, where civilization is still in its primitive, unregulated stage, "customs duties" and city taxes are mostly "random" and "custom-defined." Just like in movies and TV shows where border guards secretly embezzle a portion of the goods entering the city to line their own pockets, in the Guixu Realm, this embezzlement of goods entering the market and city is a widely accepted unspoken rule, and it's indeed always done by low-level market players—of course, these embezzled goods must be passed down through layers of bribes. This market operation and logic exists on Earth, and naturally, it's no exception in the Guixu Realm. Even in modern times, many places haven't improved, only making this embezzlement "legal and compliant." The neighboring country of America can spend millions of dollars just to build a public toilet. And the Great Ying is even more outrageous, spending nearly 20 billion pounds to build a subway line of about 100 kilometers. Note that in both examples, all expenditures are "legal and compliant."

Therefore, in the Guixu Realm, don't assume that markets that collect market taxes won't be exploited. All crows under heaven are black! After all, it's easier to see the King of Hell than to deal with his underlings. If you don't give the person in charge enough benefits, small forces and sects won't even have the qualifications to squeeze into the major merchant guilds and merchant ships!
"Fellow Daoist, rest assured, the atmosphere of our Taiyin Sect is absolutely upright. Customs duties are the only tax levied on imported goods and commodities. There is no possibility of any other form of detention or seizure of goods and commodities. If there is any private extortion or bribery, you can ask any Taiyin Sect disciple for help. Just say that you have entrusted them with a task and ask them to report it. They will definitely resolve such matters immediately! However, I am more inclined to believe that such a thing would not happen in the Taiyin Sect!"

Fang Xianyu was the first to notice the Xiling clan leader's hesitation, and she explained in an extremely confident tone.

How could she not be confident! Even if the person in charge of closing the city was a native of the Guixu Realm and was corrupt, there are still so many players from the Shuanglanxing Realm watching over her. There would be no way to cover it up at every level. Any player could directly report it to her. It's impossible to hide it from her!

Besides, Fang Xianyu planned to secretly allocate a few more slots to the China project team, letting capable people do these things—why not use the talents cultivated under the modern education system, who are vetted by the state and would never betray them, instead of using the unpredictable natives of the Guixu Realm? She's not out of her mind!
The Xiling clan patriarch remained expressionless: "The Taiyin Sect is indeed different from other human sects!"

Because the Quanxian clan is too scattered, apart from the Quanxian royal city and the main cities of various clans, there is basically no such thing as a "market". In many cases, trade can be carried out by barter. When it comes to external trade, each person acts independently and does not conduct business in the form of merchant alliances or guilds like human cultivators' sects and forces.

In fact, human cultivators often bartered in private. For example, back when the Taiyin Sect was still called the Taiyin Clan, Du Zhong of the Guangcheng Sect saw the Bone-Breaking and Muscle-Regenerating Powder in the hands of players and was eager to acquire it, exchanging it for two True Fire Thunder Talismans and Wind-Fixing Talismans. This kind of trading was very common among wild cultivators and lower-level cultivators, and spirit stones were relatively more precious.

However, even if you haven't eaten pork, you've seen pigs run. Although the Xiling clan chief wasn't familiar with market transactions, he knew some of the business practices of human cultivators. Hearing Fang Xianyu's confidence, he was somewhat skeptical, but since Fang Xianyu had already said it, he just casually offered a compliment—if it could be considered a compliment.

"Fellow Daoist, you flatter me,"

Elder Lu Ying quickly grasped the Quanxian Clan's speaking style and way of expressing emotions, and immediately followed up by saying, "Similarly, based on the principle of fairness and mutual benefit, we hope that goods such as food resources from the Taiyin Sect can enjoy a lower tax rate, while daily necessities and handicrafts such as knives and jewelry can also be maintained at around 10%."

"Actually..." The Xiling clan chief's expression remained calm, but her tone betrayed a hint of hesitation. She said, "Actually, our Xiling clan doesn't collect customs duties or market taxes..."

Fang Xianyu immediately said decisively, "That won't do, fellow Daoist, you must accept this! And it's best to set rules as soon as possible, what type, how to accept, and how much to accept!"

A rare hint of doubt appeared on the usually calm face of the Xiling clan chief: "?"

(End of this chapter)