The meaning of Guangzhou Thirteen Banks is not only thirteen commercial banks, but an industry.

In nature, the thirteen lines are tooth shops, that is, the so-called middlemen, the special thing is that they are the middlemen who trade with foreigners stipulated by the government, because of the identity stipulated by the government, they have the corresponding monopoly power, and other merchants must trade with foreigners through them, and over time this middleman has developed into a supplier monopolized by foreign merchants.

Geographically speaking, the Thirteen Lines also refers to the merchant hall area outside the city of Guangzhou, where there are not only the merchant houses of the Thirteen Lines such as Tongwen and Jardine Bank, but also the merchant houses of Britain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and other countries are also located here. Most of the merchant houses were also monopolistic traders whose governments had granted concessions, such as the East India Company of various countries.

So in Guangzhou, if you ask someone where the Thirteen Lines are, they will be directed to the Thirteen Lines Merchant Hall District on the sand outside the city of Guangzhou.

How did the name Thirteen Lines come about, why is it not called the Shangguan District, nor is it called Yaxing, but Thirteen Lines.

Some experts have verified that there were thirteen merchants who were approved by the Qing government to trade with foreigners at the earliest, so the name of Thirteen Lines has been handed down, and some say that it is because thirteen countries have set up merchant halls in the merchant hall area, so the thirteen lines are derived from the Thirteen Yi Pavilion.

In fact, this name can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty at the earliest, when Qu Dajun, a literati in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, wrote a book called "Guangdong Xinyu", which was recorded, "The goods of Eastern Guangdong, those who come from the nine counties are called Guangzhou goods; Those who come out of Qiongzhou are called Qiong goods, and they are also called thirteen licensed goods......"

The thirteenth of the so-called thirteen licensed goods actually came from the local system in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, there were ten prefectures (counties) in Guangdong, and there were nine counties on the mainland, and the tenth county referred to the Qiongzhou Mansion of Hainan that belonged to Guangdong. Among them, the goods of the nine counties on land have become Guangzhou goods, and the goods from Qiongzhou Prefecture on Hainan Island are called thirteen licensed goods, because Qiongzhou Prefecture has jurisdiction over thirteen prefectures and counties, and each prefecture and county has set up a warehouse in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, to promote the goods of the county. Therefore, the thirteen of the thirteen lines actually came from the number of Hainan Island counties in the Ming Dynasty.

Gradually, the name came to refer to the business of doing business with foreign countries, and there were thirteen lines that specialized in trading with Western merchants.

Therefore, the thirteen of the thirteen lines is not a real number, but an industry term, and the number of thirteen merchants in Guangzhou is not only thirteen, but there are dozens of them, and the largest is often only four or five, and then the government gives them the identity of a general merchant, so that they can manage other merchants and guarantee their trade, so as not to always have debt disputes because of capital turnover problems.

If this kind of guarantee is not used well, it is a great loss, and if it is used well, it is a huge benefit. It is said that the Pan family has compensated other small merchants for their business debts many times because they guarantee them; Wu Bingjian, on the other hand, used the guarantee to control more than a dozen merchants.

Now what Wei Lianli asked Cai Shiwen was to join the thirteen lines and become such a privileged businessman.

Although the scale of the merchants is very large, the Qing government's management is actually no different from the management of ordinary tooth shops.

The "Laws of the Qing Dynasty" stipulates that dental merchants must be solid and good citizens, have joint insurance and ganjie, and only one person is allowed to operate a dental shop. The official office will issue a document book to the dental store to register the name of the merchant's residence, and send it to the official office every month. There are specific provisions on price assessment, receipt and payment of money, receipt and payment of commodities and other businesses.

Therefore, Yaxing is actually a broker, commonly known as Yazi in China, and those with identity are also called brokers. Generally private, it is also divided into official and private teeth, and the official teeth are legal brokers recognized by the government to issue dental licenses, and private teeth are those black brokers who are spontaneous and sometimes do illegal business, such as human traffickers, it is impossible to get a government license, and they are the targets of the crackdown.

Although the Thirteen Lines are tooth shops in nature, because of the special industry attributes, they are brokers who specialize in doing business with foreign merchants, and the government is very reluctant to deal with foreigners, firstly, it is difficult for foreigners to entangle, and secondly, they have long looked down on these barbarians, especially the civil officials regard dealing with the Yi people as a very lowly thing, and they are unwilling to dirty their hands. But not only do they not have to look at the faces of buyers and sellers, but they have become monopolies, and they are the objects of both buyers and sellers.

Moreover, because of the government's dereliction of duty, they gradually had to rely on these merchants, and the merchants began to underwrite and pay foreign shipping taxes and salaries, regulate etiquette, convey government decrees, deliver official documents of foreign merchants, and manage foreign merchant ships. Since then, he has not only been an intermediary between Chinese and foreign merchants, but also an intermediary between the Qing government and foreign governments.

In other words, the merchants of the Thirteen Lines took care of the customs affairs and foreign affairs of the Manchu government, which is very rare in modern politics.

Now because of the threat of Magalny this time, Wei Lianli seized the opportunity to seek such an identity for Zhou Lang, a pirate in the eyes of the Manchu government, which is really rare among the rare.

At this time, Zhou Lang, who was far away in Taiwan, did not know the progress of the situation, but the power he gave Wei Lianli was improvised, but he could only think that Wei Lianli could use this matter to allow him to obtain the right to trade with the merchants of the Thirteen Lines in Guangzhou, so as to get enough supplies, who would have thought that Zhou Lang, who was operated by Wei Lianli, would also have the identity of a supplier in the future.

But this is not the point, Zhou Lang's letter clearly asked Wei Lianli to refuse Magalny's request for help, and to refuse decisively and simply, without giving Magalny any illusions. Therefore, when Cai Shiwen wanted to guarantee, Wei Lianli took Cai Shiwen directly to Magalny and refused Magalny in front of him.

After Zhou Lang let Magalny cut off his illusions about himself, Magalny had only two choices, either he was completely selfish, gave up negotiations with the Guangzhou government, and returned to England in disgrace; Either they are unwilling to take the draft contract as a voucher and must give an explanation from the local government, then the conflict will happen again.

Zhou Lang is very sure that with Magalny's character and identity, it is impossible to give up. Westerners have a different attitude towards diplomatic treaties, and when they hold a draft treaty, they think that they are absolutely right, and they will definitely ask for an explanation. It is impossible for the Guangzhou government to agree, Magarni will definitely take action, and in the absence of help from Zhou Lang, Magarni can only get assistance from India.