On May 1, 1863, after a year of construction, a three-storey Western-style building covering an area of 10 acres was opened for business, and Hong Kong's leading and foreign businessmen, representatives of major foreign banks and banks all attended, because this building was a service institution named the Guangdong Commodity Power Exchange. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Hurd personally participated in the ribbon-cutting on behalf of the customs, which he strongly advocated for the establishment of the exchange, for which he had no less than five arguments with Zhu Jinglun.

Hurd insisted that Kowloon, facing the ocean, was more suitable for development as an international trading port than the port of Chiwan in Xin'an, and that the port of Chiwan and the nearby port of Shekou should be the most suitable for the development direction as a port of import and export in Guangdong, as well as a sub-port of the port of Kowloon.

Therefore, he strongly advocated moving the exchange in Chiwan here, so that whether it was a merchant from Fujian going south or a merchant ship from the west, they would have to make a detour of hundreds of kilometers here, and if they did not move, it would be difficult for Chiwan to compete with Hong Kong.

However, this exchange is not just a copy of the Chiwan Exchange, but has added a lot of new content.

After several years of development, businessmen have played a lot of new tricks in the exchange, such as bonds.

At the beginning of the design of the Chiwan Exchange, it was only a commodity exchange, but soon the businessmen proposed that they could not only do trading in the tea season, they hoped that the exchange could give them pre-sale, and the pre-sale actually had the nature of futures.

HD has been keeping a close eye on the situation and constantly revising the system in order to improve the quality of service, so the exchange has become an exchange with futures trading with the joint efforts of businessmen and HD.

But Hurd also found that many businessmen traded bonds over-the-counter, and the bonds they printed on their own were the bonds of Thomas Gray's tea plantation at the earliest, and later HSBC also issued bonds, and HSBC had already provided a loan of 2 million taels to the Guangdong government, but they could not use free funds, so they issued bonds, which were printed with the words "Guangdong government mortgage bonds", which was equivalent to using bonds to share the risk.

In order to restrain over-the-counter trading and formalize trading, HD proposed to build a professional exchange.

However, this commodity stock exchange is not an official institution, but a service structure, adopting a membership system, only businessmen who have purchased membership seats can trade in it, and the current tentative membership seats are only 500 seats, and the original bid for each seat is only 500 taels of silver, but the merchants and foreign banks who are optimistic about the prospects of the exchange have speculated the seats to 3,000 taels.

Among the three floors, the first floor is the commodity futures exchange, the second floor is the stock exchange, and the third floor is the office space, including the staff of the exchange are working on the third floor, providing settlement, clearing and other services for the exchange, and their dormitories are also located on this floor.

Businessmen are looking forward to the opening of this huge exchange, because the previous exchange is simply in the Mazu Temple, once people come and go to the temple market, seriously affecting their business, in addition, many foreigners live in Hong Kong, they have to go back and forth between Xin'an and Hong Kong, very troublesome, now well, the exchange is built on the other side, it does not take much time to go back and forth, saving them a lot of time costs.

After cutting the ribbon, Hurd began to speak, looking forward to the future of the exchange, wishing all members a fortune, and finally said that for the purpose of supporting the exchange, the Guangdong government will issue 5 million taels of government bonds, which will be jointly underwritten by Guangfu Bank and HSBC, and the bonds will be listed on the exchange for the first time, and everyone is welcome to invest and subscribe.

Well, it's a good time to take this opportunity to launch Canton Bank.

Zhu Jinglun's banknotes have begun to be printed, and there are currently a total of 5 taels, 10 taels, 20 taels and 100 taels of denominations, and the banknotes have begun to be printed, but the bank has not yet opened, so many people still don't know what kind of bank this bank is.

It is said that it was jointly invested and founded by Zhu Jinglun of Guangdong Province and the Wu family, the Pan family, the Lu family and the Ye family, and the five major families, and has obtained the legal tender printing license of the Guangdong government.

As soon as the background of this bank came out, many people's attraction immediately shifted from the exchange to the bank, and they began to ask about the bank's business scope, what services it can provide, and whether it will accept a stake in Yunyun.

Hurd replied that the bank is headquartered in Xiguan, Guangzhou, and does not accept investment at present, and its business mainly includes deposit and loan business, bond issuance business, etc., but for special customers, it can provide acceptance and underwriting services, of course, this special customer must be VIP customers with huge deposits in the bank.

Promoting the bank is just a small task for Hurd, and it is just an opportunity, and the real purpose is to issue bonds.

Because funds are still tight.

To be honest, Guangdong's finances have improved a lot now, and Hurd's subordinates have completed the financial reform of Guangzhao Luo Dao, Gao Lei Yang Dao and Hui Chao Jia Dao, and put the tax and expenditure accounting in the tax department presided over by Hurd for the time being, but in addition to Guangzhao Luo Dao, the other two provinces do not provide any help, Gao Lei Yang Dao is even directly upside down, not only not enough taxes, but also have to subsidize the local government's expenses, otherwise let the officials return to the past kind of blackmail businessmen, which is not what Zhu Jinglun wants to see. Huichao Jiadao is only breaking even, and there is no surplus.

However, after the commercial tax of Guangzhao Luodao began to be collected, the tax revenue has been rising, and the tariff has been increased last year, from 2.1 million taels the year before to 2.3 million taels, and the commercial tax has changed from a mess of gold collected by the government in the past to a formal commercial tax, only 1 million taels were collected in each county in the first half of last year, and after entering the right track this year, HD is expected to reach at least 2 million taels.

In the past, the government could not even pay 500,000 yuan, and it completely lost the meaning of taxation, but the cost paid by the businessman was not less at all, or even more.

As for the reason, it is still a bad rule, everyone knows, no one cares, anyway, the money is not enough, and they are still looking for businessmen to apportion.

Just like the customs in the past, management has been lax and lax, bribery and indulgence in personal gain have become commonplace, smuggling and tax evasion have always been very serious, and the tax revenue due to the government has been embezzled at various levels. In 1852, Liang Shaonan, the superintendent of Jiangnan Province, once said that the area under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Customs alone imported no less than 5 or 60 million catties of white sugar rock sugar every year, but in the records of the Guangdong Customs at that time, only 15 million catties were obtained, which shows that the amount disclosed is more than three times the normal payable, and the same is true for the shop tax, which could not collect 350,000 yuan in the hands of the government in the past, but more than 2 million yuan in the hands of Hurd.

But even if the tax revenue is so abundant, it is still not enough to spend, just to transfer funds to the local government, it will take up 2 million, it is not as good as the money that can be used when it is not included in so much territory, the reason is very simple, Zhu Jinglun has greatly increased the salary of management at all levels, so that even the small officials in the county can live a decent life, and at least 5 taels of silver can be guaranteed every month.

Of course, after their salaries are allocated, they are distributed by the households of each county, and this kind of financial department, of course, has been incorporated by Zhu Jinglun, and now the households from top to bottom have been directly under the HD Tax Department, and when the system matures in the future, Zhu Jinglun will still have to divide it, and Hurd's power is too great.

After allocating the salaries of officials in various places, Zhu Jinglun only had more than 1 million yuan left in the available funds, which was not enough at all, and the salaries of tens of thousands of troops under his command were exhausted, but their arms materials, military rations, and training funds still needed at least 1 million yuan, the daily operation of the arsenal was 500,000 yuan, and 30 warships were purchased, and the smallest gunboat also had to be 50,000 taels, a total of 500,000 taels, and the largest 5,000-ton giant ship cost as much as 500,000 taels, plus 1,000-ton and 3,000-ton ships, a total of 1.5 million taels of expenditure, so these taxes are simply not possible.

But if these taxes are used as collateral, the Guangdong government can issue larger-scale bonds and raise funds from the market, 5 million is not a big number, the only thing to worry about is how to ensure the credibility of the government, so that everyone believes that the government will repay, mainly to make Chinese businessmen believe.

Zhu Jinglun invited 120 businessmen to Guangzhou, and told these businessmen that it was time for him to repay the money, and at the end of the year before last, he had borrowed money from these businessmen, and it was a few months late, so Zhu Jinglun was very apologetic, and vowed not to delay in the future, and to make a contract with them to testify. (To be continued.) )