Tang Tingshu can do things for Li Hongzhang, but there is no reason why he is unwilling to do things for Daming, because he is a native of Guangdong, a native of Xiangshan, Guangdong. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Tang Tingshu showed himself as a comprador, but in fact, he was no longer a comprador, and after Li Hongzhang wooed him, he immediately resigned from the post of chief comprador of Jardine Matheson and went to Tianjin to do things for Li Hongzhang.

Obviously, if it is for money, he can't leave the foreign bank, and the Xi Zhengfu family has never left the comprador industry from beginning to end, and it is extremely low-key, which is the real purpose of making a fortune in silence.

Tang Tingshu left Jardine Matheson, and the greater loss was actually Jardine Matheson.

After becoming a comprador of a foreign firm in 1863, Tang Tingshu not only managed the treasury for Jardine Matheson, purchased silk tea, carried out shipping, and expanded the business of foreign banks in treaty ports outside Shanghai, but also invested in pawnshops, operated real estate, transported and sold rice, salt, and even dabbled in mineral mining in the hinterland.

Without his promotion, it can be said that the performance of Jardine Matheson would have lost a lot.

But Tang Tingshu never only did things for Jardine Matheson, he also did things for himself, and partnered with Jardine's former comprador Lin Qin to open a tea house. In response to the needs of foreign banks to purchase tea, he successively invested in three money houses in Shanghai to turn over his business funds. In order to meet the needs of comprador business and self-operated business, he set up his own office in a foreign firm.

Obviously, this is no longer a small comprador who purely works for Jardine Matheson to make a living, to be more precise, he is more like a partner of Jardine Matheson, and the reason why he wants to hang the title of comprador is probably more because it is more convenient to deal with the Manchu government.

Helping foreigners develop business, and also using the power of foreigners to make profits for themselves, this is a common practice of the comprador class in this era, and Tang Tingshu is no exception, but he is just one of the best.

can be called by Li Hongzhang to immediately put aside everything to help Li Hongzhang do things, it is by no means that he and Li Hongzhang are relatives, it can only be said that Li Hongzhang has some things he wants, this thing is not money, but some things that money can't buy, such as power, such as ideas.

Tang Tingshu obviously has his own ideas, and his set of ideas cannot be realized in the Ming Dynasty, but it is possible to make a career through Li Hongzhang.

His philosophy is exactly the concept of the Westerners, to learn from the long skills to self-improvement! Sometimes I imagine that the Western-style officials are actually really remarkable, and it is really not easy for them to be born with the idea of learning Western skills under the education and culture they have received.

In contrast, Tang Tingshu's ideological baggage is much smaller, because he has never received orthodox Confucian education, he was educated in the Morrison Church School in Hong Kong since he was a child, can speak fluent English, after six years of study, entered the Hong Kong colonial government as a translator, in 1858, when he was 26 years old, he had already opened two pawnshops in Hong Kong, and then opened a cotton shop to operate cotton export trade, and gradually became an agency for foreign foreign companies to buy Chinese cotton, and had a business relationship with Jardine Matheson, Five years later, he became the comprador of Jardine Matheson.

Such a person has received a Western education, but it is only a primary education, and he has not received a Chinese education, but he has grown up in China's humane society, so he must have a taste of the combination of Chinese and Western, and his thinking will inevitably be influenced by both China and the West.

In the case of China's decline and the strength of foreigners, it is inevitable to think about a question, where is China worse than the West?

Whether you want to figure it out or not, this kind of person will definitely not stubbornly think that Western learning is inferior to middle school, and the most conservative will also think that each has its own strengths.

Tang Tingshu is such a person, he neither rejects the West, nor despises the East, he just wants to see if he can make some changes through his own practice, so he went to help Li Hongzhang, he did a good job, Kaiping Mining Bureau is in his hands, and he doesn't know how much stronger than the steamship China Merchants Bureau in Sheng Xuanhuai's hands.

But Tang Tingshu is a Cantonese after all, he doesn't want to do something for his hometown, but Daming follows another way, and they don't need these compradors to do foreign affairs, Daming's recruitment of compradors has been limited to the Department of Foreign Affairs before, and the first batch of diplomats are mainly from the comprador class, but Tang Tingshu also missed it, because of his educational background in Hong Kong, he is not trusted by the Ming government, and people only need those who are innocent, such as Jaishankar of the Su family.

So Tang Tingshu never thought that one day, he could still serve for the Ming government, compared to the Manchu court, the Ming government is obviously more open-minded, in the past few years foreigners have always called the Ming Dynasty as the benchmark of civilization in the Far East, in recent years, this title foreigners have been given to Japan, they think that the Ming Westernization is not complete, far less open than Japan's attitude.

Tang Tingshu is not interested in Japan, but compared with the Manchu Dynasty, he feels that the Ming Dynasty is more promising, and it is his hometown, although the era in which he lives, it is difficult for him to regard the Ming Dynasty as the only motherland, because after he becomes an adult, the country of the Ming Dynasty has not yet been born, and he has grown from a young man to an adult, but he has always had the identity of a subject of the Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty is difficult for him to turn his mind around at once.

But he does not reject the Ming Dynasty, and will not twist like those old bureaucratic doctors' families, since the Ming Dynasty was established, the Ming Dynasty is his current home country, which is indisputable, but he will not be like the younger generation, only the Ming Dynasty in his heart, and there is no concept of the Manchu Qing Dynasty at all, and he also thinks that he has something to do with the Qing Dynasty.

This is also the psychology of most people whose age spans two eras in this era when the change of dynasty has not been completely changed.

So he can help Li Hongzhang do things for the Qing Dynasty, but Daming has no hesitation when he summons him.

"Mr. Tang, the personnel list of the railway company is here, the general person in charge is called Hu Dajian, a native of Shunde, and the assistant is called Chen Rail, a native of Xin'an."

After getting the call of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Tingshu quickly said goodbye to Li Hongzhang and went south by boat, he didn't know why the Ming Dynasty suddenly invited him to be the prime minister of the railway company, but he was happy to accept such a challenge, he was no stranger to the railway, when he was studying, the foreign teachers taught them, and he knew that this was a great new thing since he was a child.

Now in the whole of China, from the grasslands in the north to Yunnan and Guizhou in the southwest, foreigners are vying to build railways, and now the adults of the Qing Dynasty have woken up, thinking that the foreigners are going to use the railways to encroach on the Qing Dynasty. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, although there was no vigorous innovation, but the water flowed, and many new affairs were gradually built, and the country took on a new look, not only retaining the right of way, but also building the railway by themselves, but in this case, why should they invite themselves, if it was in the Manchu Dynasty, he could still pretend to be an expert, but in the Ming Dynasty, he would definitely not know more than those experts.

"Then invite these two adults to me quickly!"

Tang Tingshu said very politely to a young scribe, this is the household department responsible for receiving him, such a low grade, obviously his arrival, is not welcome.

"And what about the books?"

The scribe is polite, no matter who he is, they are all adults, and they all have a higher status than him.

Tang Tingshu said: "Just let me here, and then discuss it when I see it." ”

The scribe put down the books and left.

Tang Tingshu slowly opened it, he didn't know if he didn't look at it, he was really shocked when he saw it, the investment in the railway was too big.

The average cost of the two railways in the north is 20,000 taels per kilometer, which is still the result of low manpower during the famine, otherwise it may reach 30,000 or 40,000 taels. Now the two northern railways have been opened to traffic, but they are heavily in debt, and the debt is as high as more than 60 million taels, and now the Ming two also have more than 40 million taels. Manchuria's Eastern Qing Railway was less, but it also had a debt of 20 million Ming taels.

In addition to the Guangjiang Railway, the total responsibility is as high as 80 million taels, or the Ming Liang linked to gold, which is converted into Kuping silver, which is more than 100 million.

With so many debts, Tang Tingshu was also a little unconfident, he was full of confidence before he came, thinking that he could use the power of the Ming government to show his skills and do a good job, but he didn't want to be such a deep puddle of water.

I couldn't help but feel a heavy burden in my heart, but after thinking about it, the railway is a good thing after all, if it is not good, the foreigners will not be guilty of fighting for the land of the Qing Dynasty, and he has asked all the foreigner friends he knows, and they all said that in China, which is basically a region with only dirt roads, the railway business is a million profits, and the Jin merchants can make a lot of money in a hurry, and there is no reason why the railway cannot make money.

Tang Tingshu continued to look at the account books, and found that it was not all right, the current profitable railway, except for the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway, that is, Guangjiang had a profit of hundreds of thousands last year, and the Dongqing Railway had a balance of books, and the profit was only tens of thousands of taels, while the railways from Qingdao to Xi'an and Qinhuangdao to Shanxi lost 1 million and 700,000 respectively, and the Qingdao Railway lost less because it contracted a large number of military transportation last year, and Zuo Zongtang suppressed the rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu, and the transportation of troops, grain and grass were quite stable businesses.

The Dongqing Railway is constantly transporting grain, but what is there in Shanxi, except for coal, there is nothing else, but is there really so much coal there, Tang Tingshu has a question mark in his heart.

Soon Hu Dajian and Chen Liang came.

Tang Tingshu is exquisite, whether it is a foreigner, a businessman, or a Manchu official, he can deal with it easily, two simple-minded technicians, he can also deal with it, a cup of tea, he has established a relatively harmonious relationship, and also learned a lot of things that cannot be seen on the books from the two people.

I didn't expect that in the case of such a high debt, the railway company also plans to expand the new road, will the past host be able to operate?

Tang Tingshu couldn't help but think so.

This is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that the arsenal that presided over the construction and operation of the railway in the past is about to cut off the foundation of the railway company, and the technicians of the railway company in the past were all trained by the arsenal, and now the arsenal is recalling these people on a large scale, without these people, let him Tang Tingshu do what to build the railway!

He felt more and more that the pool was muddy.