"May I ask Minister Hong, do you know how the British persuaded Lin Zexu back then?" British tobacco merchant Stephen Hendry? Melton asked Hong a very threatening question.

Hong Renji felt a sense of happiness in his heart that there happened to be this part of the content in the basic information provided by the Governor's Mansion. Whether or not you are well prepared will come into play at such times. People are always a little jealous of the unknown. People are still able to treat what they know with a relatively rational attitude.

Hong Renji smiled and said, "As far as I know, it seems that a guy named Yilu said to Lin Zexu that seizing the big smoke of merchants will lead to war." But is there any comparison between what happened then and now? Do you want to sue me for who seized your big cigarettes? ”

"The British Empire has an obligation to protect the free trade of the people of the British Empire!" Hendry? Melton said in a threatening tone.

Hong Renji turned to businessmen from other countries and said loudly: "There are French businessmen here, and there are American businessmen here. As far as I am concerned, Britain did not export such a large amount of tobacco to France and the United States. And France and the United States do not have big smoke houses everywhere like Guangdong. I guess there's nothing wrong with this information, right? ”

This sudden alliance made the British merchants change their faces a little, and many of the French and American merchants could not help but laugh out loud. Of course, this is not a laugh of approval of Hong Renji, but a common mockery of China and Britain.

"You will be punished for blocking free trade." British businessman Stephen Hendry? Melton didn't want to maintain the minimum of decency, he yelled viciously.

"I'll correct you again," Hong Renji pointed at the British merchant with his finger, "We have repeatedly said that we want to establish a system of free trade, and we are willing to do business with merchants from all over the world. The purpose of this invitation is to inform you of our plan to expand the quota for importing goods from foreign countries. And we are willing to cooperate with countries around the world. I don't have to hide anything here, we have been in contact with the British side to hire some British professionals to join us in the establishment of customs, banking and judicial systems. These tasks are done with the help of foreign experience. Of course, I would like to stress once again that what we have done is first and foremost based on the inviolability of China's sovereignty. We Chinese are the masters of China, and we will use the fair and just justice we have formulated to protect legitimate business practices, and we will also establish our Chinese customs to protect the legitimate business practices of legitimate businessmen around the world. But whoever wants to force us to agree to any conditions, even if we actually make the same laws after the war, we will not accept such threats! Whoever wants to infringe on China's sovereignty must first step over the corpse of our Liberation Governor's Mansion and the Liberation Army! ”

Although Hong Renji did not want war, the policy of recovering the Governorate clearly stated that there was no reason to be afraid of war to defend the country, so he was certainly not a war-loving hawk, and in the face of the threat expressed by British businessmen, Hong Renji had to make a clear statement that he was not afraid of war.

When the American businessmen heard this, they began to applaud with a clear provocative attitude. Where the French merchants gathered, there was a burst of ill-intentioned laughter. At a time when Britain is dominating the world, although it does not dare to face Britain head-on, such a small resistance seems to be the attitude of the United States.

"Then I have a feeling now, and the representative of our Ministry of Commerce would like to share with you our views on expanding the quota of imported goods." Hong Renji gave up the rostrum to the representative of the Ministry of Commerce.

Steam engines, railways, ironmaking, steelmaking, cloth, raw materials, the number of products needed for the restoration of the Governor's Government was quite large, and many of them were "high-precision and cutting-edge technologies" of this era. "The amount of these goods, the Guangfu Governor's plan to build a railway in the coastal area of Guangdong, and to introduce transport steamships on the Pearl River. They are all products with a large amount.

The representative of the Ministry of Commerce also clearly put forward a plan to establish a settlement bank on the basis of customs. "Trading with gold and silver is a hassle. Everyone knows the benefits of settlement banks, and the new settlement banks rely on customs, and the benefits do not need to be described by me. And we can even start more business in the future, including guarantees. As our bank continues to expand, this bank will even be able to offer ticket services in the future. I think that's going to be a big boost for free trade......"

Listening to the Chinese side's description of the future, the American side is of course overjoyed, and the French side is also quite interested. Although most of the British were engaged in the tobacco business, there were also a small number of British merchants who were engaged in other trades, and for these merchants, the advice put forward by the Governor's Office was very attractive. The British East India Company had a huge amount of goods, such as cotton and gauze, and the Governorate said that it would increase imports of these goods in the future. Although they still look down on China, they think it is a good thing.

Of course, they did not look so kindly at the Americans, who were an important producer of cotton, which supplied large quantities to British factories, while the American South bought from Britain industrial products of far better quality than the American North. Now that the Chinese market seems to be opening its door, the United States is afraid that it will not let it go lightly. Although the industrial technology of the United States is inferior to that of Britain, the import conditions proposed by China obviously favor cheap goods, which gives the United States a great opportunity.

So in the end, the meeting still worked, and the British big tobacco merchants did not misbehave, nor did they use the anger to leave the table as a protest and threat. And the Chinese side has also come up with some medical morphine as their new product recently. It is very dangerous to make a living at sea, and there is a high demand for medical morphine among the crew. And the medical morphine offered by the Chinese side is cheap, at least in the Far East, which is still quite attractive.

Some of the big tobacco merchants knew a little bit of medical knowledge, and they knew that medical morphine was a product of the French extracted from the big smoke. Of course, they didn't know that the Chinese side was providing morphine hydrochloride. The hydrochloride of morphine is more soluble and more easily absorbed by the patient. Although the Liberation Army has accumulated a lot of experience in dissection using corpses in the war, it even has a lot of experience in surgery. Anesthetics have always been a big problem. It wasn't until Weizer began to make mercury thunderate that nitric acid was prepared with sulfuric acid at the same time, and hydrochloric acid was also prepared, and morphine hydrochloride finally appeared.

Although the British merchants did not know this, if China wanted to make a large amount of morphine, it would naturally need a lot of tobacco. There are outlets for other products, and the British businessmen who don't do much in the big tobacco business are even thinking about whether to provide other products that the Governor's Mansion seems to care about very much, and let the Governor's Mansion buy the big tobacco in their hands.

After the meeting, the British officials in Hong Kong did not continue to make very confrontational moves for the time being, and the Ministry of Commerce had a large number of foreign businessmen coming and going throughout the day. Even many British, who had already begun to supply textiles to the Governor's Office, began to be very eager to make deals with the Governor's Office.

Seeing such a situation, Hong Renji felt a lot more at ease in his heart. The British were so enthusiastic about profit, and the merchants were so enthusiastic that the war would be farther and farther away. But when he began to report the matter, Wei Ze listened to Hong Renji's beautiful prediction for the future, and laughed mercilessly.

"Why is the Governor laughing?" Hong Renji's attitude towards Wei Ze is not quite understandable.

Wei Ze smiled: "The British businessmen are so urgent, precisely because war is almost inevitable, and they want to take advantage of this last window to make a good profit. ”

"What?" Hong Renji was stunned.

Wei Ze put away his smile, "Minister Hong, I don't know if you have noticed, although American businessmen and France are also enthusiastic, but they are asking a lot at this time, but they basically do not do business. Only the British merchants, at this time, even if the price was lowered, had to do their best to make a deal. And their furthest delivery event was only 7 months. It will take about nine months for the British side to move troops from Britain to China. You can go to the Ministry of Commerce to learn more about how many businessmen have agreements that last for 9 months. ”

Listening to Wei Ze's clear statement, Hong Renji was stunned.

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