The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 373 Changning
The largest city in Qianzhou is not Huining (now Cape Town), which was designated as a free port, nor is it Zhangde City (now Johannesburg), which has attracted a large number of people because of its gold mines. It is Changning (now Durban), which was established in the 1657th year of Qianwu (). As of last year, the city had more than residents, making it the number one city in Qianzhou and the political, economic and cultural center of the entire region.

It is reported that considering that Changning Governorate has been established for more than 70 years, it seems to have met the requirements for establishing a province in terms of population size, economic development maturity, and local governance model. Moreover, there are constant news from the local area that the cabinet intends to abolish the establishment of the Governorate and bring it under local management.

However, considering that there are not only tens of thousands of slave laborers in the Changning Governorate, but also more than 100,000 Bantu people distributed in desolate plateau areas and broken river valley and mountainous areas, if local management is implemented, the identity of these people will be an extremely sensitive and troublesome issue.

At the request of the chief administrator of the Cabinet's Ministry of Civil Affairs in Changning Governor's District, the local government simply adopted a once-and-for-all approach, which was to drive them away in order to completely eliminate these "non-citizen" natives.

Starting two years ago, the Governor's District took advantage of the winter idle season to mobilize a large number of local armed militias to launch an expulsion operation against the Bantu tribes hiding in the plateaus and mountain valleys.

However, this move was strongly resisted by local people.

Of course, these local soldiers are not afraid of death and unwilling to assume local military obligations, nor do they sympathize with the poor black natives. It is because these thankless military operations will greatly delay their time to make money from side jobs.

Influenced by the gold rush in Xingshan and the diamond rush in Leling, hundreds of thousands of people, including those in the Changning Governor's District, were attracted by this huge wealth.

Indeed, whether it is the gold mine in Xingshan or the diamond mine in Leling, after the initial large-scale mining, the original ore exposed above the surface and in the shallow surface has almost been mined out. Without professional tools or equipment, it is extremely difficult and even hopeless to mine gold (diamonds) at will.

But this did not stop people's gold rush. Many farmers would still drive horse-drawn or ox-drawn carts in groups of three or five to the mining area during the winter idle season, and carefully search in the wilderness in the hope of finding a bargain and making a small fortune.

What made the people in Changning Governorate even more crazy was that three years ago, several hunters actually picked up a large number of diamonds in the Qingyunling area (now Lesotho), and then sold them to gem buyers in Changning for tens to hundreds of yuan.

My goodness! This news immediately drove countless people crazy. They all dropped their work, carried their muskets, grabbed their daggers, and then rushed to Qingyun Ridge with the digging tools they had purchased urgently.

Affected by the surging diamond mining boom in Qingyunling, the first to suffer unfortunate consequences were the Bantu tribes living in the area.

Faced with the vicious "diamond diggers", the Bantu people, who had been driven out of their homes by the Qi people and finally fled to the plateau to live, suffered another great catastrophe.

They were once again driven out of their homes, their simple thatched houses were occupied, and their food, livestock and other supplies were all robbed. The young warriors in the tribe who resisted were all shot to death on the spot, and countless women, children and the elderly were brutally tortured.

All the land that the Bantu people had worked so hard to reclaim was destroyed, and huge pits were dug everywhere.

When the government sent out garrison troops and military police to occupy the mining area, the suffering of the Bantu tribes reached its peak. One tribe after another was driven away as a whole, and each person was only allowed to carry a small amount of personal belongings. All livestock and any valuable materials were not allowed to be taken away. They were then escorted to the junction of Changning and Xingshan and handed over to the mining company there to become their "hired miners."

Although the diamond mines in the Qingyunling area have been occupied and banned by the local government, it is not necessarily possible to control such a large plateau. This leads to local people occasionally rushing into non-core mining areas to search for and mine possible diamonds.

However, many people may not be able to dig up a decent diamond during the entire winter season, thus wasting their time and energy.

However, everyone has a dream of getting rich, and they firmly believe that they will find a diamond worth a thousand gold through hard work. If they can't find it today, it may be bad luck. Tomorrow, they can go to a few more places and dig a few more holes, and maybe they will find a diamond.

But if he were to be conscripted by the government to participate in a military operation to wipe out the indigenous people in the mountains, wouldn't he miss the opportunity to make a fortune and lose a large sum of money for nothing?

Therefore, in order to avoid military conscription by local governments, a large number of conscripts chose to let the elderly or teenagers in their families replace themselves, while they continued to carry mining tools and go to Qingyunling in groups of three or five to look for the wealth they dreamed of.

In fact, many colonial officials in the Changning Governorate were not very keen on being included in the cabinet's civil affairs management system and becoming one of the local provinces.

As an overseas colonial territory, although the institutional system and legal norms are all derived from the local area, many affairs will be "adapted to the circumstances" and follow the local "customs and practices". Local officials have considerable freedom of decision in the process of governance, which makes it convenient for them to manipulate the situation and reap sufficient economic benefits.

More importantly, overseas colonial territories had no supervisory bodies such as the Censorate, and many matters such as local governance and people's livelihood management were decided solely by officials.

In the eyes of many people, the entire Qianzhou area, including the Changning Governor's District, has financial power (gold and diamonds), political power (local colonial government), and military power (the ability to conscript local militia). It controls the purse, the handle, and the gun, making it a veritable local power.

So, can the Qianzhou colonial territory now dominate the world?
It’s still not cooked enough!

During the Qi-England War, Qi took advantage of the situation to capture Portuguese Mozambique and Portuguese Angola, instantly doubling the size of the entire Qianzhou colonial territory; coupled with the continued hot gold and diamond rushes, the Qi people's colonial power continued to extend inland, almost controlling the entire southern Africa region.

The central border of Qianzhou reached the Chan River (the Limpopo River, the boundary river between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana today), and the east and west sides reached the Guangji River (the Congo River today) and the Xinglong River (the Zambezi River in Mozambique today), respectively, controlling an area of ​​more than four million square kilometers.

In this vast colonial territory, the Qi people set up five independent governorates at once, making them check and restrict each other, making it impossible for them to unite to fight against the mainland.

Needless to say, the Department of Overseas Colonial Affairs also established the Grand Administrator of the Qianzhou Administrative Office above the five governor-general's districts, who would come from the mainland to inspect the jurisdiction from time to time and verify the governance of each governor-general's district.

In addition, the six regiments of the Qianzhou garrison army, with more than 14,000 officers and soldiers, were also directly under the jurisdiction of the local military council, and any misconduct would be ruthlessly suppressed.

Qianzhou is such a precious land that provides hundreds of tons of gold, as well as a large amount of diamonds and ivory to the local area every year. It can be said to be one of the most important sources of income for the royal family and the cabinet government, and it must be firmly controlled in hands at all costs.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the Qianzhou colonial territory simply monopolized the mining of local gold mines, and then refined the mined ore into raw gold. This was only the first step in completing the entire industrial chain.

The raw gold would then be transported to Hanzhou, where it would be refined into gold bars or gold bricks of higher purity by local gold mine refineries. Generally speaking, the raw gold shipped from Qianzhou would be refined into standard gold bars, each weighing 10 taels, containing 480 grams of pure gold and an additional 20 grams of brass. These bars were called Qianzhou gold bars, and were marked with "Qian" to distinguish them from local gold bars and Yinzhou gold bars.

These Qianzhou gold bars will be traded in the gold markets of Jianye and Daxing. The Imperial Bank will also purchase Qianzhou gold bars in the two major gold markets and then send them to the mint to be minted into gold coins or used as reserves for currency issuance. Only at this step will the industrial chain be completed.

The mining giants in Qianzhou have already reached the limit of their power by monopolizing the gold mining industry in Xingshan. In other links of this industrial chain, Qianzhou mining still needs to face the oppression and exploitation of the government and monopoly consortiums in other industries.

The transportation line from Qianzhou to Hanzhou was monopolized by the West India Shipping Company. The shipping consortium obtained exclusive transportation rights from the government and charged the Qianzhou Mining Consortium 10% to 15% of the value of the transported goods, which was a huge profit.

However, the West India Shipping Company may have felt that the greed was too ugly, so it reached a new agreement with the Qianzhou mining giants five years ago. As long as the mining consortium does not look for other shipping companies other than the West India Shipping Company to transport gold and other high value-added commodities, it will return one-fifth of the total freight to the Qianzhou mining giants after a shipping cycle.

But even so, such high freight costs are a huge burden for mining companies.

In addition, shipping by sea does not mean just paying the freight. You also have to buy marine insurance. At that time, several local marine insurance companies would charge the local rich people in Qianzhou a marine insurance premium of 2.5% to 3.5% of the total value of the goods.

What, no insurance? Anyway, the navy provides armed escort throughout the journey, so there is absolutely no chance of pirates daring to rob us.

But the problem is that the risks at sea are not just pirates, there are also storms, huge waves, and even human operational errors, all of which can cause the ship to be destroyed and people to die.

Although the shipbuilding technology of our Qi State is already at the leading level in the world and has greatly reduced the rate of ship accidents, there is still a probability of shipwreck. If we are not careful and lose a treasure ship, the owner will definitely suffer terribly.

The ship was loaded with gold, diamonds, ivory, and a large number of precious handicrafts looted from Europe and Africa, with a value of tens or even hundreds of millions. If it sank into the sea, who could afford to compensate?
Moreover, the purchase of marine insurance for the treasure ships was enforced by the government through administrative orders, in order to ensure that the gold from Qianzhou could be "safely" returned to the mainland without suffering any major losses.

It was not enough for Qianzhou to safely transport the raw gold to the local port of Hanzhou. The raw gold had to be purified in a designated gold refinery. Only after it was purified into standardized gold bars could it be traded in the domestic gold market and become the gold reserve of the Imperial Bank.

At this time, the gold mining and smelting factories in Qi were mainly controlled by the government, but they still had to charge smelting fees for the gold smelted in accordance with market principles.

Well, not much, maybe 10% of the value of the raw gold.

After the raw gold is smelted into standardized gold bars, it must go through financial intermediaries in Jianye and Daxing before it can finally enter the local gold market for trading.

Of course, you have to pay an agency promotion fee.

Finally, the Qianzhou mining giants will transfer 20% to 25% of the total income from the gold they have worked so hard to dig and refine to the monopoly consortiums in the transportation, refining, insurance, brokerage and other industries. The exploitation is so severe that it is difficult to describe in a few words.

So can the gold mine owners in Qianzhou make up for their losses by raising market prices?
Sorry, although Qi State vigorously promoted free trade and asked countries around the world not to interfere in the market, the price of gold, which is the basis of the empire's monetary credit, was not determined by free market transactions, but was based on the official price set by the Qi government.

According to the Monetary and Credit Act promulgated by the Qi Cabinet in the third year of Shaoning, in addition to issuing a fixed number of gold yuan based on government bonds, all other issuances of gold yuan must be based on gold reserves.

To this end, the Great Qi Empire Bank must use economic means to purchase a sufficient amount of gold in the local gold market. So what is the purchase price?

The purchase price per gram of gold should be at least not less than 7.5 cents, that is, each gold yuan roll is approximately equal to grams of pure gold.

Therefore, the right to set gold prices was in the hands of the Qi Cabinet and the Imperial Bank. No matter where you got the gold from, if you wanted to exchange it for Qi gold yuan coupons, you had to pay the corresponding price and deliver the corresponding amount of gold.

Qi was also the first country in the world to anchor its currency to gold through legislation and formally implement the gold standard.

In theory, the gold yuan paper currency issued by Qi was equivalent to gold, that is, the holder could exchange it for gold of equal value at any bank in Qi at any time, and the Qi government had no restrictions on melting gold coins into gold bars. This made the gold yuan paper currency stable in society with its extremely high credibility.

As the central bank of Da Qi, the Imperial Bank must store gold in an amount equal to the paper money it issues to ensure that the paper money can be exchanged for gold at any time.

In this way, the material of currency was changed from gold and silver to more convenient paper money. The State of Qi cleverly used the gold yuan banknotes with extremely high credit and was taking the lifeline of the world economy into their hands.

However, the gold standard monetary system implemented by the State of Qi had a fatal flaw, which was that there must be sufficient gold reserves to provide value guarantees for the gold yuan banknotes.

During this period, no one knew the total amount of gold in the world, so as long as the State of Qi wanted to expand the scale of gold yuan issuance, it could only pretend or claim to have sufficient reserves.

Fortunately, gold rushes broke out in Hanzhou, Xuanzhou (California), Pengzhou (Vancouver), and Qianzhou one after another. For Qi State, this was a great opportunity given by God.

The Great Qi Empire Bank took advantage of this series of gold rushes to give birth to the golden dream, making everyone in the world believe that Qi possessed a huge amount of gold, and the gold yuan coupons circulating in the market were equal to the amount of gold.

Perhaps, as time goes by, it will be proven that the gold yuan can always maintain a stable and strong value, then it will become the world currency, and the goal of helping Qi State control the world economy will eventually become a reality.

(End of this chapter)