Bay of Bengal, only 20 miles from Calcutta, the military and political center of British India, is a small northern port of Kindernagar.

This small port, which is smaller than Macau, is the only place where the French can settle in the Bay of Bengal.

When the North American War broke out, the town was taken by the British without blood. But after the war, the town returned to French hands. Moreover, the French also relied on the superiority of their allies in the Mysore army, forcing the British to increase the size of the small town of Kindernagar. It has expanded by about 40%, but it is still smaller than Macau.

I have to say, this is a very sad thing.

On the seventh day of June in 1789 in the Western calendar, that is, the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifteenth year of Chengtian, it was sunny.

This season has entered the summer of the port of Kindernagar, the temperature is hot and humid, and there are often thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds, which hit the city intermittently, and I don't know if it is because of the proximity to the sea, but it is very helpful to relieve the humid heat.

I don't know if China's 50 million Chinese dollars of real money and silver reached Paris at this time, but a certain number of Chinese merchants had poured into the north and south of the Indian continent in a real sense through these five unarmed colonies of the French.

Of course, they used to trade with India, and the amount was quite significant, but now this is undoubtedly a step further.

The port of Kindnagar has been quite busy lately, as the Indian maharajas in the vicinity have flocked to it because of the arrival of Chinese merchants, and these indigenous maharajas, who had been drained of oil and water by Warren Hastings, may not have real money in their hands, but there are many other things.

The most common is sandalwood, and the old sandalwood in India is the best of sandalwood. It is characterized by its white and yellowish color, large oily quality, and long-lasting fragrance. In the history of India, it has long been a favorite of Indian maharajas. And now these sandalwood are definitely a good deal for Chinese who also like sandalwood.

Although in recent years, the high-end wooden furniture and wood market in Chinese mainland has been filled with sandalwood from Honolulu, but the old sandalwood here in India is also very marketable.

Then there are the Buddhist relics here in India.

In today's China, millions of ordinary people already know the fact that Tianzhu Buddhism has long since perished. But Buddhism has been glorious in India after all, and Buddhism has left many relics in India for thousands of years. For example, the Buddhist caves in India.

In the past, these things were of little value to Brahmanical Indians. But now, these things have become treasures again, because the Chinese want them.

Since the first business was completed five years ago, the Buddhist caves of Bacha, Karli, Nashik, Ajanta, etc., which are mainly distributed in the Vindhya Mountains and the Deccan Plateau, have become treasures for the personal interests of Indian princes and nobles.

Many Indians have also 'found' the Buddha's bone relics, and the first domestic Buddhist community heard the news, and they were all excited. But they were so happy that when they arrived in Jinghai in a group, what appeared in front of them was not a Buddha bone relic, but more than n Buddha bone relics, not only finger bones, teeth, but also pure relics. At this time, if the people in the Middle-earth Buddhist community still believe that these things are real Buddha bone relics, then they will all be evil.

Now that the Chinese have begun to enter India through the channels of the French, the Indians are more cheerful, and they can trade at their doorstep. In addition to the indigenous princes from all over the northeast, there were also representatives of merchants and nobles from Bhutan, Gurkha, Sikkim and other countries gathered in Jindenagar.

It's not that these small countries in the Himalayas are completely incapable of trading with China, but in fact, the prices of Chinese merchants who have gone through the whole of Tibet and the Himalayas to deliver goods to their countries are too high. The price of Chinese goods in Kindernager is correspondingly much lower.

The transportation on the sea is much more convenient than that of the Tibetan plateau.

They used to gather in Calcutta, but now they are coming to Kindernagar.

William Edmond once again landed on French soil, a plantation owner, although his plantation was not a popular commodity like cotton, but jute. But jute is not difficult to sell, especially during the war in the past few years, jute was once more sought-after than cotton in the Western world.

Of course, this phenomenon is only happening in Europe, not in China.

In the Chinese market, cotton is much higher than jute. This is especially true after the large-scale cultivation of jute has also begun in Myanmar.

Edmund never had the luxury of shipping his jute to China, but now that the Chinese have come to his doorstep, it would be too rigid to hold on to the original way and not deal with the Chinese.

The first time he came to Kindernagar, Edmund came with the intention of opening up trade routes, and then after he came, he could never forget Kindernagar.

Chinese goods are no less than those in Kolkata, and they are cheaper.

The axes, hammers, nails, sickles, shovels, and iron were all needed for the plantations, and the Chinese goods in Kindnagar were twenty percent cheaper than their counterparts in Calcutta.

In addition, the price of porcelain, tea, raw silk, etc., is also much cheaper than that of Kolkata.

Edmund returned with a full load, and soon he came with pounds.

Edmund had come to sweep the goods, and in the lobby of the hotel where he was staying, Edmund met with the Chinese businessman who had signed an agreement. Then he got two pieces of news, one good and one bad.

The bad news is that the price of Kindernagar's goods has risen, and some of the Chinese specialties are at least in line with the Chinese goods in Kolkata. Of course, ironware is still a lot cheaper here, but when it comes to tea, silk and porcelain, there is not much difference.

"It's a compromise. London unanimously disagrees with the Entente signed between China and France, and opposes our entry into the Indian continent. We need a mutual concession and compromise. ”

"That's really bad news." Edmund looked a little listless. He was less than half a month away. When he came to Kindnagar again with five hundred pounds, it was already two worlds.

Of course, the agreement he signed before could be based on the original price, after all, he had already paid in cash.

"But I also have good news for you. The exchange rate between the Chinese dollar and the British pound was completely determined. One pound can be exchanged for twenty-eight Chinese dollars, and the handling fee is only 1%. "The Chinese opened a bank branch in Kindnagar three days ago.

This exchange rate is profitable for many Britons.

In the banks run by the British in Kolkata, the actual exchange rate between the British pound and the Chinese dollar will not exceed 27, and the handling fee is not just one percentage point, and the price often falls to 26.5 when the whole is calculated.

So don't listen to folk rumors and nonsense, many people say that one pound should be exchanged for thirty Chinese dollars, but what you say can never be taken seriously.

And now the bank point of the Kindnagar Chinese has appeared, and the exchange rate of 1:28 beats the British bank in Calcutta. Therefore, after Edmund learned the news, his first reaction was that the British banks were really dark.

The exchange rate of 28 deducts a 1% handling fee, which is also 27.7. But the Bank of England gave 26.5, how much profit should they have.

"Damn the East India Company." Edmund remembered the original currency exchange, using European silver to cash out Japanese gold, and then buying Chinese goods.

"That's really good news." Edmund said happily.

He had 300 pounds left after paying the follow-up fees of the previous agreement, and three hundred pounds sterling could be exchanged for 8,300 Chinese dollars, and if it was exchanged at the exchange rate of the banks in Calcutta, there was no guarantee that even 8,000 Chinese dollars would be guaranteed.

The only difference between the Chinese and Kolkata here is that the settlement is in Chinese dollars, and the pounds must be exchanged for Chinese dollars before they can be spent.

300 hundred dollars doesn't seem to be worth much, about ten pounds, maybe Edmund invited people to eat and spent it, and holding a small drinking party is almost like this family [the pound in this era is really super top], but he spent it and was taken advantage of in vain, which feels like the difference between heaven and earth.

Calcutta, the base of the British East India Company, where they represented the British government. The presence is much more awesome than in the UK, where the 'lair' is located.

"One pound for twenty-eight Chinese dollars! The handling fee is one percent. John Deere's mouth spat out this figure made Hampton, the director of the major banks in Gal, a little dizzy, and it was not to blame him for his gaffe, but the price was much higher than the exchange rate of the banks of Calcutta.

"After deducting all the expenses, the actual amount we got was 27.7, and we only gave 26.5. Even at those peaks, it couldn't even hold the price of 26.5, and it had to fall to 26.2/26.3. ”

"Mr. Hampton, the Chinese bank point can issue invoices. In Kindernagar, invoices can be used as money. Whoever has the invoice can withdraw the corresponding amount from the scheduled China Foreign Trade Bank office at any time. The exchange money can be handed over to the bank branch in Kindnagar or to the business office of the Foreign Trade Bank. It is marked on the invoice. John Deere felt helpless. The Bank of Calcutta did not have so much money in China's foreign trade bank, and even the balance in the account of the East India Company did not exceed 1 million Chinese dollars.

What the Chinese can use, the Bank of Kolkata can't.

Moreover, the creditworthiness of the Bank of Kolkata is far from comparable to that of China's Foreign Trade Bank. The latter is unusually famous in Europe.

This move by the Chinese is destined to hit the Bank of Calcutta hard.

You must know that the exchange rate of the pound sterling at the Foreign Trade Bank in China was initially 29, but now it has fallen to around 27, hovering between 1:27 and 1:27.5. This depends on the fineness and wear of gold and silver coins, the Chinese do not accept paper money, and another way of saying the pound is gold, as early as the beginning of this century, the pound has been linked to gold.

This has led to the fact that the exchange takes a long time, there are many formalities, sometimes there are arguments between the two sides, and there are also fees to be paid, which in all are not much more favorable than the Bank of Kolkata. The perennial currency exchange rate of the East India Company and the China Foreign Trade Bank, the exchange rate of the British pound [equivalent to gold] has always been maintained at 27.5 - before the deduction of the handling fee, this is the prerogative of the British East India Company. Therefore, it is very profitable to exchange Chinese dollars in the banks of Kolkata, and it has become a new profit growth point for foreign trade banks over the years.

But now, one of the financial routes of the Bank of Kolkata has been cut off.

What is the current annual trade volume between China and the UK?

Tea, porcelain, silk, cotton, medicines, equipment, wood, etc., except for some barter, the actual cash transaction was one or two million pounds.

If the bilateral trade volume is calculated by using traditional Chinese silver, then the annual bilateral trade volume between China and Britain has long exceeded 10 million taels of silver.

And even if there were a million pounds to be exchanged at the Bank of Calcutta, the British pound exchange alone would be at least a million Chinese dollars. The banking business in Kolkata was not just for the British. And the financial influence that this could induce for the East India Company and the Bank of Calcutta could not be expressed by one or two million Chinese dollars.

The impact on the East India Company as a whole was significant, and the impact on the Bank of Calcutta was severe.

"Ever since China started entering the Indian market, our interests have been constantly touched, and now it's just the Bank of Kolkata." The Chinese backed down as a price for their entry into India, and they did not want to stiffen relations with the East India Company. Hampton, on the other hand, was harshly opposed, and even advocated taking Kindernagar. The rest of the French were in southern India, and the British couldn't reach them, but Kindernagar was on their lips, and it wasn't like they could be crushed to death with their hands.

Unfortunately, he was only a director of the Bank of Calcutta, and had little weight on the committee of the East India Company, and although he had some 'like-minded' comrades, he was unable to prevent the Sino-British Indian agreement from being reached.

"But in the future it will have to be the entire East India Company." Hampton believed in his judgment that the Chinese were greedy, and that once they gained a foothold in India, they would inevitably open their mouths to the British. Just like they did in the Americas!

The only hope for containing China lies in the Russians.

The large Russians had long been noticed by the British, and the unarmed neutral alliance created by Catherine II was like a slap in the face to London. But for now, if you want to contain the Chinese, you really have to rely on Russia.

It's just that Russia's first target has always been Ottoman Turkey, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, not Siberia.

The Russian-Turkish war has been going on for more than a year, and the second Sino-Russian war has also been going on for more than a year, and the Russians have already begun to issue a second wave of government bonds. There seemed to be a different mood surging throughout Europe, and the words 'Yellow Peril' were shouted by King Wilhelm II of Prussia. With the support of this different sentiment, the Russians are obviously in a bad situation and still have advantages over Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, but they are in a mess on the Eastern Front, and it stands to reason that the Russian national debt will be given a cold reception in the European financial markets, and its value will fall considerably. However, this is not the case, and with the support of Prussia, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and other countries, Russia's government bonds have been bought quite well.

Yes, everyone read that right, and the UK is one of them.

I just don't know if Russia will be able to take the lead on the Eastern Front in the future. Narumantsev is also a famous European land general, why can't he shake off the majesty of the Rhine again.

Newspapers in Kolkata only occasionally reported news about the Sino-Russian war, which was too far away. Hampton had no idea of the exact changes, although there was always gossip from British merchants and representatives of the nobles from the Himalayas that could not be ascertained.