On May 1, the Chinese Empire suddenly announced a currency reform, before July 1, the people of the empire need to exchange all the precious metals in their hands into Chinese currency, after July 1, the empire will not be allowed to use precious metals as a transaction currency. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On 3 May, the high-level leaders of the Western countries learned of the Chinese Empire's currency reform and held their own high-level meetings to discuss the matter.

On 5 May, a "Silver Conference" was held in London, England, attended by the British Prime Minister and the ambassadors of other Western countries to the United Kingdom to discuss how to deal with the currency reform of the Chinese Empire.

On May 6, a silver merchant in France sold the silver he had hoarded at a reduced price, and then more silver merchants sold the silver they had hoarded, and the silver selling storm blew from France and quickly blew to the surrounding countries, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and even the United States across the ocean, and silver merchants from Western countries were selling silver.

The news of the Chinese Empire's currency reform had spread throughout the West, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that the price of silver was going to fall sharply, and no one would buy the silver that had been sold.

Although Western countries have abandoned the silver standard and used the gold standard, the silver industry still has a certain status in Western countries, and the sudden collapse of the silver industry has also affected many of its related industries: finance, industry, shipping and a series of other industries.

This is not a problem in one country, but a problem in Western countries as a whole, and the silver selling storm has spread from Western countries to other countries in the world.

In the end, the only country that may not have problems is probably the Chinese Empire, which is the root cause of this incident, and the Chinese Empire can still exchange silver for the same amount.

As soon as the silver sell-off storm began, Western governments took notice, and they understood that this matter could not be allowed to continue to develop, and if it continued in this way, Western countries had not yet negotiated with the Chinese Empire, and I am afraid that a financial crisis that would affect the whole world would have erupted.

Western governments immediately sent people to publicize that the government was already negotiating with the Chinese Empire to stop the currency reform and continue to use the silver standard, so that the price of silver would be stable and everyone would not need to sell silver.

However, the propaganda of Western governments has no effect, and silver merchants are still selling silver, unless the government can now produce proof that the Chinese Empire will stop the currency reform and continue to use the silver standard.

Western governments had no choice but to quickly send their ambassadors to the Chinese Empire to negotiate with the Chinese Empire, no matter what the cost, to get the Chinese Empire to stop the currency reform, and then to use all kinds of means to get the domestic silver merchants to stop selling silver.

On 11 May, Yan Xuecai, the premier of the Chinese Empire, met with the ambassadors of various countries to the Chinese Empire, and the ambassadors of various countries strongly demanded that the Chinese Empire stop the currency reform, but Yan Xuecai directly refused.

The price of silver in Western countries continues to fall, but no one cares, and it will not be long before the silver industry is about to collapse.

Under these circumstances, governments demanded that their ambassadors to the Chinese Empire must complete negotiations to stop the currency reform.

On 13 May, the second meeting began, and at this meeting, the ambassadors of various countries had a much better attitude, not only did they not demand that the Chinese Empire unconditionally stop the currency reform, but gave compensation, and as long as the Chinese Empire stopped the currency reform, the Western countries would compensate for the losses of the Chinese Empire.

However, Yan Xuecai still directly refused, no matter what conditions were offered by Western countries, the Chinese Empire would not stop the currency reform.

At the first meeting and the second meeting, Yan Xuecai refused, but the third meeting was none, because Yan Xuecai refused to discuss with the ambassadors of various countries, and made a clear statement: The Chinese Empire will not stop the currency reform!

In the face of this situation, the top leaders of various Western countries were completely speechless.

Whoever said that if there are enough interests, it will be able to make the Chinese Empire stop the currency reform, this is pure fart, and the Chinese Empire has the word "refusal" from beginning to end, without the slightest hesitation.

Seeing that the silver industry was on the verge of collapse, the top leaders of Western countries regretted it in their hearts.

If during the Manchu Dynasty, the Manchu Dynasty wanted to carry out currency reform, and Western countries had nothing to say, and directly beat the Manchu Dynasty to its knees, let it stop the currency reform, and compensate the losses of various countries.

But unlike the Chinese Empire, this country has a strong military force, and war is of no use to it.

Moreover, the Chinese Empire does not play its cards according to common sense, such a powerful country, naturally it will no longer allow countries to plunder wealth from it, and it is a matter of time before the Chinese Empire wants to carry out currency reform, but the Western countries are blinded by wealth, and they do not think of these at all, but there are serious consequences.

If the Chinese Empire does not stop the currency reform, a financial crisis that will affect the whole world will erupt.

The top leaders remember the economic crisis that broke out in the United States in 1857, which spread to the whole world, especially the United States and Great Britain.

In 1857 alone, nearly 5,000 enterprises went bankrupt, and the overproduction of grain in the United States, the decline in grain prices and grain exports, coupled with the fierce competition of British industrial products, contributed to the deepening of the economic crisis in the United States, and in turn, Britain's economic development was also hit by the American crisis, and the American banks, railroads, and commercial companies that were financed by Britain went bankrupt one after another, which also caused the sharp depreciation of the securities held by British investors.

In the fall of 1857, there was also a currency crisis in the United States, which paralyzed the entire banking system, and the currency crisis in the United States reached its peak in mid-October, when 62 of the 63 banks in New York stopped making payments, the discount rate was over 60%, the stock market was down 20-50%, and the shares of many railroad companies were down more than 80%. The economic crisis in the United States quickly spread to Britain and continental Europe, triggering wave after wave of bankruptcies.

Therefore, at this time, many experts and scholars in Western countries stood up and said that once the silver crisis cannot be handled well, a financial crisis with huge impact on the whole world will break out, and no one in Western countries will be spared.

At the same time, experts and scholars also said that in addition to stopping the currency reform of the Chinese empire, there is another way to resolve the crisis, which is to let Western governments buy silver and raise the price of silver, so that the crisis can be resolved.

When the high-level leaders of Western countries heard this answer again, they almost broke out and scolded them, which is simply impossible to do.

At present, the world's silver reserves are as high as 1.5 billion tons, and all Western countries may control more than 80,000 tons of silver, and the total value of these silver is more than 600 million pounds.