Just when the German government was having a headache because of the lack of gold reserves and the inability to issue additional currency, a good Samaritan came into the picture. That's our great lighthouse country -- Look, ah, no, it's the United States of America.

In 1774, Britain abandoned the minting of silver coins when re-minting currency, and in 1816, they bought silk, tea, and porcelain as part of a commodity trade with the Qing Dynasty. Naturally, such large transactions are also paid for in hard currency. As a result, British silver flowed to the Qing Dynasty, and reserves were sharply reduced. In this context, the United Kingdom enacted the Gold Standard Act, declaring the gold content of the pound sterling, pegging the pound to gold. Silver, on the other hand, went from being a currency to a commodity.

Since then, European countries have slowly entered the era of the gold standard. However, some of the largest silver-producing countries still have a significant amount of silver reserves, so they still use silver as currency, including the United States. However, the United States is not a simple silver standard, and the United States, which also has considerable gold reserves, implements a gold and silver double standard.

Most of the big capitalists and investors in the east used gold as a trading currency under the influence of Europe, while silver circulated in large quantities in the west, and farmers and small shopkeepers preferred to use silver to issue low-interest credit and promote economic growth.

However, the end of the 19th century was an era of rapid increase in silver production, when global silver production exceeded 120 million tons, while gold production had not increased significantly, and the economic crisis in Europe was largely affected by the sluggish production of gold. In this case, the ratio of silver and gold to huàn changed, with gold becoming more valuable and silver depreciating. In such a situation, the miners who mine silver and the western investors who use silver for credit will face huge economic losses.

In this situation, stakeholders who want to protect their own profits have banded together and started to put pressure on the government. The U.S. government was forced to back down, and in July 1890, John Sherman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Republican presidential candidate for the 1888 Republican presidency, introduced the Sherman Acquisition of Silver Act. The Act required the U.S. Treasury to purchase silver every month at $50 million, or about 1,490 tons, in a year, up from $25 million in 1878.

At this time, the United States had about 160 tons of gold reserves, or about $110 million. The purchase of silver in large quantities will inevitably lead to a reduction in gold reserves. Moreover, the Treasury was to pay for the silver purchased in a new banknote, the 1890 U.S. Treasury. This kind of paper money is completely a currency that is guaranteed by law, and according to the order of the US Secretary of the Treasury, it can be repaid in gold, which lays a huge bane, and the holder of the banknote issued by silver as the standard can claim gold for payment.

In the face of such generous Americans, how could the Germans, who were worried about the lack of gold, let go of such an opportunity.

"Your Highness, how did you know that there was an opportunity to buy gold in the United States?" Caprivi wondered. As early as three months ago, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked Germany to look for opportunities to buy gold abroad, and also highlighted the United States.

"I just think that Qing and the United States are the two countries with the greatest opportunity to acquire gold." Jochen said with a smile.

At this time, Caprivi and Jochen sat face to face in the crown prince of Berlin. On the sofa in the palace study, the plan to make a fortune from the United States is discussed.

Of course, this is not the Imperial Prime Minister and the Imperial Crown Prince who have thrown the Emperor aside and plotted anything. Since the measures of the imperial government were aimed at promoting the confidence of the people, Frederick III began to visit factory workshops, construction sites, and countryside to learn about the implementation of the policy, and to encourage the masses to work hard to produce, believing that the empire's economy would improve, that the difficulties would soon pass, and that a better life would be in sight. So when he got the news, Frederick III was still inspecting Baden-Württemberg, so he replied to the telegram that you could just do this kind of thing.

So there is the current talk, which is more appropriate to describe as a talks.

"The Qing state has always adhered to the silver standard, and although gold is of high value to them, it is only a general commodity. In 1888, about 7.5 tons of gold were mined in the Heilongjiang area of the Qing Dynasty, and the new gold mine opened in the Mohe area in 1889 is said to be a high-reserve gold sand mine. Therefore, I think that the gold reserves of the Qing Kingdom at this time were still relatively rich. It shouldn't be a big problem to buy gold. Jochen replied half-truthfully, Caprivi.

"As for the United States, silver production has increased so much in the last few years, and I just think that if their government doesn't do something, those silver miners will be unhappy. And if you buy silver, then there is always a little less amount of gold. And now we continue to issue gold to increase the currency, so we can buy a little bit of it. It's just that I didn't expect the Americans to be so cooperative. ”

"So our main acquisition plan is still for the United States?"

"Yes, although the Qing State also has gold, there is no gold reserve in his treasury. Therefore, it is too difficult to acquire as a piecemeal commodity. And it would be much simpler to buy gold from the Americans' coffers. ”

"Running on the gold reserves of the U.S. treasury is indeed a clever move." Caprivi lamented: "And the Americans also allow the new currency to be paid in gold, so that we have more opportunities." ”

"And there's a lot more to it."

"Yes, Your Highness, it will be a huge amount of money to let the investors of the empire liquidate all the American securities in their hands, and then pay off all these principal profits in gold, and then ship them back! With the use of this gold for additional issuance, the financial problems that plague the government will not be worried for at least 5 years. And after 5 years, I believe that the empire's finances will return to normal. Caprevi was right, and indeed by 1896 the German economy had fully recovered and began to grow rapidly.

"And it's not just about securities clearing, the U.S. government announced that it will purchase more than 1,400 tons of silver per year, and this purchase will take time, what if we exchange silver for U.S. currency, and then use the currency to run on gold?"

"But we don't have silver reserves." Caprivi said with some regret.

"If there is no silver reserve, then as far as the government is concerned, I think there should still be a lot of silver coins in the entire empire. It had not been more than ten years since these two silver coins were withdrawn from the circulation of the empire, and those old Junkers must have some scattered in their hands, and they must have collected them in the name of the government, and then gave them public debts, and told them that they would repay them in marks later, and they could not be unwilling. Jochen immediately came up with a move.

"Thaler and Goulden were not completely out of circulation in Austria-Hungary, so there should be no obstacle to putting them in exchange for U.S. government currency. And the Junkers, who have also been hit hard by this economic crisis, can also turn these silver coins into real marks, killing two birds with one stone. Caprivi nodded in agreement.

"We can even go to the extreme, the government collects all kinds of silverware, ornaments, cutlery, handicrafts, and then re-smelts it into silver and puts it in the United States." This tactic is even more insidious, as there are many historical examples of the use of silver to smelt money to meet the needs of purchases, such as Louis XIV in 1689 to pay for the war effort, and the Chinese Red Army in the revolutionary base areas to obtain the oceans where supplies could be purchased. However, when he went to another country to exchange huàn gold, Jochen had the impression that only the Netherlands had ever done it to Japan.

"This is not feasible, Your Highness, silverware is different from silver, and its own value is added to the cost of processing it, and the ornaments and crafts also have artistic value. This is not cost-effective, and the international price of silver against huàn is controlled by the British, and if we do this, as long as the British reduce the ratio to huàn a little, we will lose money. Caprivi objected.

Caprivi was right to have such concerns, the value of silver is higher than silver, and this is actually a loss of value, when Louis XIV emptied the entire Versailles Palace of silver, but only got more than 70 tons of silver, but the value of those silvers was much higher than this figure, so that Louis XIV, who had consumed a lot of money in the war, could no longer afford to fill the Palace of Versailles with silver.

"Some silverware with high collectible value is forgotten, after all, they still have historical value, but we can afford the little artistic value of ordinary silverware. While it is true that we are being charged by the British for silver, I think we should do it even if we lose money. Because with the rise of silver production, it is inevitable that the price of silver will fall sharply in the future, if you really want silver utensils, you can buy it back after the price of silver falls. And now all we have to do is get as much gold as possible, no matter what the cost. ”

Caprivi's concerns are correct, but given the movement of silver prices over the next five years, he knows that this is the best option. First, India, a country on the silver standard, said that it would no longer accept foreign silver, then the United States suffered huge losses and had to abolish the gold and silver standard and change to the gold standard, and then after the Sino-Japanese War, Japan received a large amount of silver indemnities in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and then this silver flowed to the world market. In the end, the depreciation of silver was nearly doubled, from the original 1 pound that could be exchanged for huàn4 taels of flat silver to 1 pound which could be exchanged for huàn7 taels of flat silver. So it's totally worth losing a little bit now.

However, Jochen could not tell Caprivi how much silver would depreciate in the next five years, and in the end Caprivi only agreed to concentrate the Empire's silver coins and put them in the United States first. The silver smelting is put away first and see how it goes. Jochen can only accept this. It is unlikely that one person will take all the good things, after all, Germany is not the only one on the battlefield of harvesting American gold. All Germany can do is cut as big a slice of the pie as possible before anyone else reacts.

Soon, the whole of Europe began to fall into the trap of the United States. In the first six months of 1891, U.S. gold exports exceeded the total U.S. gold exports in the previous 25 years. The future "savior" of the human race who will fight aliens at every turn has really become a "savior", but it's a pity that they saved the city of Europe.

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