The great appetite of the Genoese was immediately transmitted back to the Executive Committee.

Although the members of the Executive Committee were very dissatisfied with the Genoese attempt to control the Banco de la Plata, which could be established, they did not say anything considering that this was a non-negotiable clause that the Genoese had emphatically proposed, and could be regarded as acquiescing in the Genoese to obtain control of the bank, which provided financial services for foreign trade on the east coast. But in response, the East Coasters also offered a number of other conditions.

For example, the East Coast has the right to send representatives to supervise and review the operations and accounts of banks; For example, the bank can set up a large number of branches in Europe, but the headquarters must be set up in Qingdao Port; For example, in January of each year, the bank carries out a centralized deduction calculation of the various bills generated in the previous year in the current account opened by the East Coast Trade Department, and if there is a trade balance, the East Coasters should be allowed to withdraw cash, which can be made in Europe or in the port of Qingdao, so the Genoese need to keep a certain amount of cash in the headquarters of the Qingdao port of Banco de la Plata. In the event of a shortfall in the current account opened by the Department of East Coast Trade, a temporary overdraft of a certain amount shall be permitted, which shall not be subject to interest.

These conditions really cost the Genoese a lot of brains. They refuted the total of eight clauses one by one, and gave reasons one by one, saying that this was unreasonable and there was no precedent, in short, "persuading" the East Coasters to give up their rights. In the face of the iron rooster character of the Genoese people, Qiang Quansheng simply announced the temporary termination of the talks, and let out the wind "Jianyì" The trade between the two sides still adopts primitive cash transactions, and the people on the east coast are not afraid of trouble or danger, and would rather send warships to escort them than give up some rights and interests in this bank.

After the Genoese were left in the air for three days, Mario finally took the opportunity of the signing ceremony of the grain cooperation agreement between the two sides on August 21. He tactfully expressed to the East Coasters the hope that the negotiations on financial cooperation would continue. And hinted that they would make some concessions.

Since the Genoese sent a signal of goodwill. Then there is no need for the people on the east coast to continue to collapse, after all, this is not what negotiations are all about. Therefore, on August 22, negotiations between the two sides in the port of Qingdao continued.

This time, the Genoese were much more pragmatic, first estimating the overall demand in Europe for several major commodities (textiles, leather goods, hardware, metal farm tools, soda ash, grain and oil, etc.) on the east coast, and then estimated the amount that could be sold in the first year, as well as the demand for various imported goods on the east coast, and finally came up with the amount of reserves required. For East Coasters to withdraw at any time. The funds were placed in the treasury of the head office, and the head office was finally set up in Qingdao Port, the Republic of China on the east coast of China.

They also endorsed the right of oversight proposed by the East Coasters. They were tentatively preparing to set up a total of eight branches in Genoa, Florence, Palermo, Innsbruck, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Amsterdam and Lisbon, each of which could send one or two people to the bank and exercise reasonable supervision.

"Regarding the sale of your goods in Europe, I think that the powerful St. George's comptoir should be authorized as the general agent, is there any doubt about this?" The negotiations have almost entered a critical period, and the Doria family, as one of the top families in Genoa, represents the interests of the entire Genoese business community at this time, so he very much hopes to get the monopoly of goods on the east coast, but of course he also knows that it is unlikely.

"In view of the latest cooperation agreement signed by our government with the Dutch West India Company in July this year. The Dutch were granted a ten-year monopoly on 13 East Coast commodities, including grain, leather, metal products, steel, textiles, shipgear, and soda ash, in Dutch Brazil, the West Indies, New Spain, North America, West Africa, and the Netherlands itself. My country does not want to undermine the validity of this agreement, so it has been carefully considered. We can only grant exclusive monopolies to the firm of St. Georges in your country in Peru (except La Plata), all of Italy (except Florence), Austria (including the neighbouring South German Confederation), Spain (including the Spanish Netherlands), Portugal, France (except Bordeaux) and Morocco. Of course, your monopoly period can be more favorable than that of the Dutch, let's set it at twenty years. Xu Xin, a foreign affairs commissioner who came to participate in the negotiations because of today's topic, said at this time.

According to the domestic meaning, the agency of goods on the east coast should be divided by region, and it should not be handed over to the same power to operate. For example, the Caribbean, North America, West Africa, and the Netherlands were entrusted to the Dutch West India Company, which had a large network of contacts and a certain number of strongholds in these regions; The Viceroyalty of Peru in the Western Mediterranean and Spain, as it was the traditional sphere of influence of the Genoese, was entrusted to the Genoese to operate; As for the British Isles, North Germany, the Baltic states, and Moscow, which had not yet been finalized, the Ministry of Trade preferred to hand it over to Hanseatic merchants, but considering that their influence in these regions was rapidly declining, the question of whether to consider bringing in Dutch wholesalers was also one of the points of discussion.

In Bordeaux, Riga, and Florence, as well as in the vast Ottoman Empire, the people of the East Coast had already set up trading posts in the area and had accumulated a certain number of connections, so they left it to themselves to operate exclusively. After all, you can't leave all the market to someone else, because it will be passive.

There is no doubt about the currency of settlement between the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of the East Bank and the comptoir of San Giorgio in Genoa, which is used in the Western Mediterranean and in the southern German region, the recognized unit of account for international trade - the mark (there is also a gold écu - a non-French éco-ecu of Savoy origin, a mark is divided into 64 or 66 kilocus, as the case may be). In the agreement of the local merchants, the value of one mark was fixed at 28 ounces of gold, so the mark was also called the gold mark. At the fairs in these regions, merchants from various countries gather to clear the bills before the start of the transaction, and then determine the price of their currencies against the gold mark, and finally start the official transaction.

Whether it is to clean up the bills or determine the price, these operations are all represented by bankers from Italy, such as the São Georges comptoir, the São Paulo bank, the Venetian bank, the Medici family bank, etc., these banks have set up a large number of bank outlets in Geneva, Piacenza, Lyon, Catalonia, Burgundy's hereditary territories (including the Spanish Netherlands), the Rhine and South Germany, among which Geneva is the clearing center of international trade in these regions, and the gold mark is its only settlement currency.

Mario was somewhat unhappy that the East Coasters had excluded them from trade in New Spain and the West Indies, though he was not in a position to say anything more, given that their competitor was the Dutch West India Company. Of course, the Genoese also have connections in these areas, and you Netherlands are still de jure enemies of the Kingdom of Spain, so I don't believe we can compete with you there, so we'll see. I'll sell the East Coast goods secretly to New Spain, and see what you can do with me!

After negotiating these questions of principle (the details of which would be discussed in detail in the next few days by the assistants of both sides), the Genoese made a request for the production capacity of goods in the East Coast Republic. For example, they asked for an accurate understanding of the current maximum production capacity of cotton textiles on the East Coast, the proportion of various textile products (towels, socks, capes, etc.), and the production configuration of various cotton fabrics (including dyed fabrics, printed fabrics) at the high, medium and low ends.

They must have their own understanding of the needs of the market - and this understanding is often more accurate than the information that the East Coasters have, so they need the East Coasters to cooperate with their sales to produce. Tao Chenxi, director of the General Administration of Textile Industry of the East Coast, who also came to participate in the negotiations, understood this, and told Mario that the current limit of the cotton production capacity of the East Coast Ping An Ji weaving factory is one million horses per year - of course, there may be a shortage of work at the moment - if the Genoese are willing, they can of course add machines and recruit new workers to expand the production capacity, and they are also willing to accept the opinions of the Genoese to adjust the production tasks and enrich the product line, which is no problem.

This is true for textiles, and the same is true for other goods. For example, in the case of grain, the East Coasters promised to increase the amount of grain exported to Genoa by 10 per cent each year for the first five years, and that the price of grain would be negotiated on a year-to-one basis. All commodities, including grain, were partly transported by the South China Sea Transportation Company of the Republic of East Coast of China, and partly by Genoese merchant ships hired in Europe. In addition, if necessary, the Genoese could request the Eastern Republic to send competent naval ships to escort the convoy, the costs incurred by both sides to bear the costs of which were to be borne by both sides.

Overall, the negotiations have had some minor twists and turns, but they have moved very quickly, thanks to the positive and candid attitude adopted by both sides. After the discussion of the issues of principle, the following is the consultation on some details, which will be carried out by the assistants and attachés of the negotiators on both sides. Once the details have been negotiated, an agreement will be initialed, and Mario will return to Genoa with a copy of the agreement to await the final review by the speaker. If approved, the two sides will sign a formal cooperation agreement, which will be accompanied by a greater number of Genoese professionals in various industries, as well as a ten-year war bond issued by the government of the East Bank Republic of China on the Genoese financial market in the total amount of 10 million bank lira. (To be continued......)