Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 381 The Situation of the Parties
However, the foreign firms that buy and sell raw silk in China, Britain, France, the United States and other countries in Jiangning are extremely unwilling to compromise so easily and let these silk merchants in Jiangnan be at the mercy of them.They also asked people to inquire secretly. This time, a young man named Lin Qizhao took the lead in the middle. Most of the raw silk in the Jiangnan market was controlled by this person.What puzzled the foreign merchants was that although the Lin family was born in a bank and had relatively abundant funds in their hands, it was fundamentally impossible to mobilize so much funds to invest in the acquisition of raw silk in a short period of time. less than.Where did Lin Qizhao's money come from?

Not only that, the foreign merchants also contacted Lin Qizhao through an intermediary, expressing their willingness to follow the market and increase the price appropriately to purchase the raw silk in Lin Qizhao's hands.However, the price offered by Lin Qizhao surprised the foreign businessmen. It was higher than the futures price on the London Stock Exchange in the same period.

For a while, the situation was deadlocked.But secretly, as time went by, the battle of raw silk has become increasingly fierce.

"Have you found out where Lin Qizhao's money came from?" French Dulan sat in his foreign firm in the Shanghai Concession, looking gloomy at the thin Li Xiaoyun opposite.

In the past few years, Li Xiaoyun has been following Du Lan in the raw silk business. Although Lin Qizhao has promised Lin Qizhao that he will never do raw silk business with foreigners alone, after all, Du Lan is a big buyer of raw silk in the south of the Yangtze River, so he can't afford to offend him easily. Duran gave him great benefits in private, so he still kept in touch with Duran secretly.

"I found some connections and checked it secretly. It seems that the money was borrowed from the bank and the bank, but this information is not accurate, because the Lin family itself started from the bank, and they are very well-versed in this line of work. Outsiders can't easily get it. Definite letter." Li Xiaoyun hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Tickets and banks?" Duran said to himself, with a strange expression on his face.

Du Lan had personally experienced the raw silk war with Hu Xueyan seven years ago.It was also after that time that he and the foreign businessmen in Shanghai had identified one of the dead spots of Chinese businessmen, that is, lack of strength and poor capital turnover, and they were determined not to have the strength to fight against foreign businessmen.

"Do you have any way to make Lin Qizhao's bank's capital turnover difficult?" Dulan asked after pondering for a while.

Li Xiaoyun smiled wryly and shook his head.He is not familiar with the bank and his party, and if the bank's capital turnover is not effective, unless there is a way to create a run, it will kill people, and Shanghai is the best example.Li Xiaoyun couldn't think of such an idea, and he didn't dare to think about it.

At this moment, seeing Du Lan frowning in disappointment, Li Xiaoyun suddenly thought of something, walked up to Du Lan and said softly, "I have an idea, but it's not from the bank. I think the reason why Lin Qizhao is confident is that It's nothing more than the imperial court's strategy of abolishing mulberry and promoting agriculture, which has caused the price of raw silk to soar. If there is no such thing, I'm afraid he won't be able to persist for long."

Du Lan had already thought of this meaning a long time ago, but at this moment when Li Xiaoyun suddenly mentioned it again, he raised his head unconsciously and looked at Li Xiaoyun with some puzzlement.

"The imperial court will still listen to your foreigners' suggestions," Li Xiaoyun said with a smile on his face.

Chinese court?Du Lan carefully pondered this sentence, and then saw Wang Zhaolin's strange smile, and suddenly understood.He frowned, smiled and clapped his hands and said, "I understand what you mean. I will contact the British and Americans later, and use our ministers to put pressure on China to force you to withdraw the policy of abolishing mulberry and promoting agriculture. In the Chinese language, this is called “drawing wages from the bottom of the pot”, without this, the price of raw silk will inevitably fall, and if the consumption continues, this Lin Qizhao will be Hu Xueyan back then!”

When the Raw Silk War intensified, Guan Xuqing in the provincial yamen remained indifferent all day long. Every day he either summoned officials from all over the southern province to understand the local political situation, or tested the experience of these important officials as officials. Take a tour of the painted boats in the south of the Yangtze River and take a look at the scenery of the fish town.On the surface, she seemed very busy, but she never asked a question about Raw Silk.People began to speculate that the emperor had just recovered from a serious injury, so he came to Nan Province to relax?

But Guan Xuqing had another plan in his heart. Jiangnan's network had been fully deployed, and all he could do was to solve some troubles for Lin Qizhao.Which step he can really achieve depends on Lin Qizhao's ability and courage.

When he was free, Guan Xuqing changed his previous behavior of alienating those Qingliu, and had summoned some Confucian scholars from the south of the Yangtze River to the palace twice in a row, not talking about government affairs, but only about learning.In the words, it seems that the Wen Ting style, which was sent home a few months ago, also has the meaning of reactivating it.

Since the imperial court implemented the New Deal, these people have seldom received holy family members. They have always been unable to turn this corner in their hearts, and they have always been quite critical of the New Deal.Now that the emperor has brought the big guys closer again, apart from being flattered in their hearts, these people are even more careful to observe the holy will.

Guan Xuqing seemed to have a normal expression, and his words were gentle. He devoted himself to studying knowledge with everyone, and asked about the differences and similarities between Chinese and Western knowledge.When talking about the politics, military affairs and culture of Western countries, Guan Xuqing suddenly changed the subject and talked about the recent protests by the ministers of various countries to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, accusing the imperial court of abolishing the strategy of abolishing mulberry and promoting agriculture, and destroying the normal economy of Western countries and China. Regarding the relationship, there was a lot of resentment and dissatisfaction with the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty who did not stand up and speak out.

In fact, before the tour, Guan Xuqing asked the courtiers to discuss the matter of abolishing mulberry and promoting agriculture. Most of the courtiers did not take it seriously. Everyone couldn't figure out what the emperor was thinking, so this note was written in a vague way, unlike the fierce rhetoric when the Imperial Savings Bank was established and issued banknotes.But now that the foreigner is involved, the situation is quite different.

Regardless of whether the reform of Sang Xingnong is good or bad, it can be said that it is a matter of ten thousand. After all, this is the court's own business, and it is not the turn of foreigners to point fingers and make irresponsible remarks.These Qingliu scholar-bureaucrats are also very angry at the tyrannical and unreasonable foreigners. They have never been far behind in discussing the government and criticizing current affairs. Now they have the same attitude when they see the emperor, and they are even more excited.

All of a sudden, not only in Beijing and Jiangning, but also in the whole country, there was a lot of public opinion.The Qingliu and others jointly submitted a letter to the imperial court, requesting that the imperial court must not compromise or give in, so as to boost the aspirations of the foreigners and lose the majesty of the heavenly kingdom.

Even the children of the Bannermen went to the common people in the market to talk about it, and the caliber was surprisingly consistent.Since the beginning of the Opium War, the imperial court has made concessions everywhere, ceding land and paying compensation. This foreigner wants the former Qing Dynasty to open the treaty ports, and wants money from the former Qing Dynasty.But now that the Chinese Empire is becoming more and more prosperous, and the army has gone to the hinterland of Europe, it is too unreasonable for foreigners to have a foot in the internal affairs of the empire.Both the ruling and opposition parties condemned, declaring that the imperial court must never back down.

However, several cabinet ministers in the imperial court discussed it for several days, but there was no clear charter.Sheng Xuanhuai, minister of the Ministry of Commerce, thought about it, and it was not an option to continue like this, so he took the risk of being scolded, and called the emperor to see what the emperor meant.Guan Xuqing didn't say too much, but said that the court must not back down on this matter, otherwise, what would the court's face be.But the emotions of foreigners must also be appeased, and the matter should not be made a big deal.

After some calculations, he asked Foreign Minister Wu Tingfang to talk to the ministers of various countries in private, saying that the imperial court would seriously consider the opinions of the ministers of various countries, but now the public opinion in the court and the opposition is raging, if the ministers of various countries exert pressure, this can be done or not In the end, it became something that had to be done.Going deeper, if this arouses public anger and something happens in China-foreign negotiations, it will not be easy to deal with the aftermath.

At this point in the matter, the ministers of various countries have no good solution. They did not care about this matter. Fundamentally speaking, it is not a foreign affairs between countries or a power struggle. If China really promotes abolition As a farmer, the annual income of nearly [-] million yuan from raw silk is in vain, and it is the Chinese themselves who suffer.

More importantly, it was mainly the ministers of Britain, France and the United States who came forward this time. The trade between Germany and China is mainly industrial products, and there are very few transactions on raw silk, so they did not come forward at all.Seeing that things are getting worse now, the German envoy put on a stance of mediating in the middle, but secretly fanned the flames on both sides, hoping that the things would get bigger and better.

The attitude of the Germans made Britain, France and the United States, especially the British, sharply alert. China and Germany are already very close, not to mention that Germany is the leader of the Allies and the opponent with the greatest interests in the Far East.Originally, in the World War, China finally stood on the side of the Germans. If China was angered again because of the raw silk trade, and a special trade agreement was reached with the Germans in private, it would be of great significance to Britain’s foreign affairs in the Far East. It was a very embarrassing and complete failure.

Therefore, after consultations with the ministers of the three countries, they decided to take a step back for the time being and wait and see the changes in the situation.

The anger in the capital, and the attitude of the ministers from various countries spread to Shanghai Shiliyichang. This time, the foreign businessmen were really anxious.The silk merchants in Jiangnan cannot afford to lose this raw silk war, and neither can foreign merchants.

The production of raw silk in France and Italy is not optimistic this year, and the futures price of raw silk in the world is constantly rising.The major silk reeling factories are also in a hurry. There is not much raw silk collected in summer, and they will really close their doors and stop production if they can't get enough air.However, those Jiangnan silk merchants headed by Lin Qizhao refused to let go of the price of raw silk.

(End of this chapter)