【2nd Update】

Lord Milner, who was fighting in the colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, took full advantage of the grievances of the Transvaal British aliens, and in April 1899, 21,000 British aliens in the Transvaal, under the planning of colonial officials, wrote a tearful petition to Queen Victoria, giving a full complaint about the inhuman treatment of the British expatriates in the Transvaal.

In fact, this was not the first time that the British had protested against the Transvaal's expatriate policy, and the Boers in the Transvaal were even more unaccustomed to the British companies that occupied the gold and diamond veins of the Land, and the contradictions between the two sides were not eased in the slightest because of the huge taxes imposed by the mining companies, but intensified.

The Boers have been thinking about how to get the equity back from the British, which even the modest Premier Qin can't see, but we are pinching the rights and interests of the major shareholders, these Dutch-African whitemen who have no business mind, in addition to the mining tax from 5% to 30% in the past ten years, do not forget that Jì has also doubled the export tax, even so, now De Beers Mining shares also inject nearly 5 million pounds of huge profits into the Global Sources consortium every year.

The Transvaal government's annual tax revenue from De Beers Mining is no less than that of Qin Kai, but these guys are still thinking about putting all the profits into their pockets all day long, for this kind of stingy, mean and brainless government, in fact, Premier Qin wants to replace it very much, but that is too far away, and our occupation of Maputo is enough for the blue water navy to crisscross the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and go deep into the drudgery of the interior. It is naturally best to hand it over to the British.

The redress of the Transvaal diaspora immediately sparked a full-fledged anti-Boer wave. British Colonial Secretary Neville Chamberlain wrote an article in the London Press on April 6. He violently attacked the shameless state politics of the Transvaal Republic, and at the same time once again took out the English version of the treaty signed by the two sides of the First Boer War, and made a big fuss about the loopholes in the sovereignty of the Transvaal, and strongly demanded that the Queen of England veto the independent sovereignty of the Transvaal Republic in accordance with the terms of the treaty.

Chamberlain's hard-line attitude towards the Transvaal naturally immediately made the whole of Europe, as well as the Boers of Africa, aware of the British intentions. On 15 April, the Prime Minister of the Transvaal Republic, Kruger, sent a note to Milner, the Governor of the South African colony, requesting a new round of consultations on the issue of aliens in order to resolve the estrangement between the two sides, which had been irreversible.

News from various countries converged to Beijing, and seeing that the British had completely let go of the demeanor of a great power, Qin Kai naturally realized that war was inevitable, and soon, there were a large number of short sell orders for British bonds in London and New York, while stocks such as ships, machinery, and railways involving armaments were bullish. At the same time, European countries have expressed support for the Transvaal. In particular, France, which is currently in a dispute with the United Kingdom, is the most active.

And Germany's attitude is very ambiguous? On April 17, German Foreign Minister Schleier issued a statement by the German government in support of the independence and sovereign integrity of the Transvaal Republic, but at the same time, Germany also expressed its concern about the war settlement of the Transvaal dispute and hoped that Britain would sit down with the Transvaal Republic for negotiations......

Austria-Hungary, Italy and the like naturally have an attitude of not caring about themselves, and they are waving their flags and shouting together with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is now a little crazy, anyway, the Dutch win or lose, and it has nothing to do with them.

Thousands of miles away in Beijing, except for the Ministry of Military Affairs to increase the daily movement of the Maputo garrison, there is no impact at all, and Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Jitong only briefly sent a note to British Minister Power on April 15, saying that in the event of war, China will maintain a neutral attitude, but asking the British to ensure China's interests in Maputo, after all, the sphere of influence of the newly established Federal Republic of Maputo has extended westward to the Transvaal near the Qudil Mountains.

In this regard, the British Minister to China, Bauer, naturally agreed, saying that he would immediately convey the Chinese government's request to Milner, the Governor of South Africa, while at the same time, Qin Kai seemed to have completely given up his interest in the Boer War, and met with more than a dozen MPs at the Prime Minister's Office, and Qin Kai was most interested in one of the twenty-seven or eighteen-year-old young men.

Song Hanzhang, deputy manager of the Shanghai branch of the China Construction Bank and a member of the Shanghai branch of the Fuxing Association, seconded the financial proposal and drafted a detailed plan for the private Industrial and Commercial Bank of China...... Although Qin Kai was basically sure that this young man should be the one who was once known as a financial wizard once in a hundred years in history, it was somewhat magical that this young man actually appeared in the ranks of the Baath Party.

As an important financial proposal motioned by the Congress, Qin Kai naturally attaches great importance to it, and what these parliamentarians have been summoned to discuss today is really about the preparation for the establishment of a private industrial and commercial bank.

The question he raised is naturally very acute, the survival of private banks is difficult, on the contrary, foreign banks have obtained a lot of living space, even the four major banks are also mainly engaged in foreign exchange payment, and the credit among the Chinese people is very high, however, for overseas businessmen, foreign banks have a lot of business space, therefore, open up the business scope of private banks, and support private banks, is the focus of this motion.

In order to operate this private bank, a group of parliamentarians, officials of the Ministry of Finance, and managers of the Bank of China have expressed their opinions and debated, and the atmosphere at the scene can be described as hot, and the parliamentarians, in the spirit of the Constitution, demand equal treatment of state-owned assets and private capital, while the officials of the Ministry of Finance and the managers of state-owned assets banks naturally reject the opening of the financing environment.

At this moment, Shi Jinyong, director of the Bank of China and a graduate of Princeton University, is refuting Yu Qiaqing's proposal, "Parliamentarian Yu, state-owned banks are the foundation of the country, last year state-owned assets banks to Shanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Sichuan, Xinjiang infrastructure loans of more than 70 million yuan, local financial interest return cycle of about 30 years, the annual interest rate is only 3%, if it is a private bank, how can you be willing to make a small profit for this, give up such a big capital!" ”

"Not necessarily!" Chen Xingpu, another member of the Ba'ath Party on the side, has spoken, "If a private bank can raise more than 800 million yuan in principal like China Construction Bank, it can naturally lend to local governments to support infrastructure construction, but the problem is that the cabinet has limited the scale of private banks, and even if there are private banks that can raise funds, it is difficult to obtain the status of a large national bank!" ”

"Private capital is only responsible to shareholders, why should there be a state-owned bank treatment that is responsible for the whole people...... This is originally cranky, and doing a good job in this business is the foundation of a private bank! Immediately, another official of the Ministry of Finance expressed his opposition and immediately asked: "According to our investigation of more than a dozen private banks in Shanghai, their customers are foreign businessmen in addition to the rich. ”

Most of the private banks were transferred from the old ticket number system, and most of them were set up by the foreign compradors who absorbed the old ticket numbers and the special of the Western banks, and their service objects were undoubtedly the so-called rich route, and ordinary people could not enter these merchants who managed money, let alone those small people in the market and friends in short shirts.

At this time, the previous morale of the parliamentarians on the opposite side was a little stunned, and it was understandable that the people were pursuing profits, but as a national councilor who made suggestions for the development of the country, it would be a bit embarrassing if they put forward a bill according to this logic...... The fierce atmosphere at the venue also surprised Qin Kai, but the development of the country requires strong national execution, and also needs feedback from different strata.

He patted the table lightly, and then pointed to Song Hanzhang, who was sitting at the end of the seat, "Councilor Song, it seems that you have never expressed your opinion, and I see that the private Industrial and Commercial Bank of China you wrote is quite specific, I don't know...... What are your thoughts on the question raised by the Ministry of Human Resources? ”

Song Hanzhang obviously didn't expect Qin Kai to directly call his name, and at this moment when the debate between the two sides was the most intense, but he obviously had his own ideas, and after a little consideration, he immediately got up and replied: "Prime Minister, I think that state-owned assets and private capital are important resources for today's domestic booming economy, and if the financial sector is underdeveloped, it will be difficult for the industry to prosper. And this will undoubtedly not be a bad thing for the country and the people! ”

This eloquent talk, but immediately won a round of applause, even Qin Kai had to secretly praise, this young man who had studied a new school and later stood out from the first class of Haichuan University, he did have extraordinary financial intuition, which made him wonder what this Haichuan University in Cai Shaoji had learned!

On the same day, Qin Kai agreed to take the lead in preparing for the establishment of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, in order to ensure that the first shot was fired, and finally decided to take 30% of the state's shares, 70% of the plan to the society was put into practice, and within half a month, Qin Kai was also surprised by the news that the first state-owned but not operating private bank - the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China raised 50 million yuan in just ten days, and opened its doors in Shanghai before the end of the month. (To be continued......)