In fact, there are some things that Yi Shui doesn't have to worry about at all - such as the silver that Li Hongzhang paid him. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info On the second arrival of the "Eureka" in Tokyo, this trouble was well solved: in a short time, all the silver was exchanged for gold. Although the Japanese took 5,000 pounds away because of the fineness of the silver, gold was always more acceptable than the depreciating silver.

Add to that the sale of methamphetamine HSBC bills equivalent to £24,000 – and the Japanese government did not pay directly in cash in pounds sterling – Yi Shui felt that this was enough to buy the Chilean cruiser, and now there was only one question left: to return to San Diego as soon as possible.

According to his order, the cargo hold of the "Eureka" was also loaded with high-quality coal, and then began to rush wildly along the extreme northern route towards California.

At the same time, in South Africa, Qin Lang was busy giving John . Pierponte. Morgan writes.

He had already made contact with the Boers, but both the process and the result made him very unpleasant. The descendants of the Dutch colonists were completely dismissive of his sales pitch and were only willing to buy German Mauser rifles. It's not just a matter of habit, it's more important that these guys stupidly and ridiculously believe that the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had a brain in his head, would definitely support their war against the British.

So the Boers thought that sticking with Mauser rifles had at least one advantage: when they received German military aid, the weapons they had spent money could continue to work.

Of course, Qin Lang knew very well that this idea of theirs could be called extremely stupid. Although in 1896 he had sent a letter to President Paul of the Transvaal, who had successfully suppressed the Janssen expedition. Kruger sent a famous congratulatory telegram, but after the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War, Wilhelm II did not provide any substantial assistance to the Boers.

Although His Majesty the Emperor, who is fond of nonsense like the "Great Commander of the Little Bush", has always offended other nations with inappropriate words or actions, he is not so stupid as to offer military aid to a group of wretched wretches who are doomed to failure. It's a pity that the Boers don't see this yet.

Qin Lang wasn't prepared to point this out to them—of course, even if he did, the Boer fools wouldn't believe it. Although he was happy to teach the Boers some modern fighting techniques, since they were unwilling to buy his weapons, the matter ended there.

Instead of wasting time with these guys, it's better to work with Morgan on how to make money.

After exhausting all the knowledge related to the Sino-Japanese War and the post-war reparations in his memory, and thoroughly analyzing all kinds of information obtained in reality, he now has a more detailed and larger plan, and this plan is very different from the previous plan.

Now, Morgan has been purged from his list of war loans to the Qing government -- there is only one bank in the world that has access to the opportunity to lend money to the Qing government: HSBC. Because it has a very close relationship with Li Hongzhang, and it also has the support of the British government. Even if Morgan is determined to intervene, he is not capable of replacing it.

All the opportunities of the Wall Street emperor were after the war, but even then he could not have fully intervened in the matter of borrowing. HSBC was still in front of him, and Qin Lang also had the impression that among the banks that borrowed from the Qing government, there seemed to be Swiss banks, which were also the objects that Morgan could not defeat.

Moreover, after researching his memory, he also found that the total amount of money borrowed by the Qing government was too large, and it was impossible for him to intervene just by relying on Morgan's own ability.

And then he himself was taken aback by the huge amount of borrowing.

According to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Qing government was required to pay an indemnity of 200 million taels of silver to Japan, followed by a ransom and a three-year military budget for the Japanese army stationed in Weihaiwei, but in addition, the Qing government paid an additional 30 million taels of silver due to the Japanese accusations of the Qing government's accusation that the Kuping silver provided by the Qing government was not in good condition and that the loss caused by the fall in the exchange rate of the silver with the British pound[Note 1], so the total amount of the indemnity was about 260 million.

But this is not the total amount of post-war borrowing. An obvious problem was that not only was the Qing government unable to pay war reparations to Japan on its own, but it also had no ability to repay the military loans provided by HSBC during the war - and therefore had to borrow from the banks to repay the arrears.

Qin Lang didn't remember very clearly how much this cost was, and he couldn't get accurate information before the end of the war, but he personally guessed that the war cost invested by the Qing government in the entire First Sino-Japanese War would probably not be less than 60 million taels of silver, and maybe even more.

In other words, in the first year after the end of the war, the total amount of borrowings required by the Qing government would certainly exceed 320 million[Note 2]......

"So far, I can't imagine exactly what 320 million taels of silver is." However, Qin Lang did not write this sentence into the letter. In fact, he did not write an accurate loan figure in the letter, otherwise Morgan would probably have informed the Vatican to arrest him...... Oh, there is no independent Vatican Papal State anymore, and it will not be until 1929 that it will become an independent sovereign state again.

He smiled and returned to his thoughts.

At least 320 million taels of silver, HSBC and UBS will bear a part, and the rest, according to Qin Lang's uncertain memories and his inference, seems to be provided by Standard Chartered Bank.

If Morgan were to join forces with other American conglomerates and bankers, it would be easy to snatch the Qing government's loan from Standard Chartered...... He might have been able to do that himself, but on a more secure note, he should at least add the New York City National Bank.

And the amount of money he can get borrowed should be up to a quarter, and possibly even 100 million taels of silver.

It's a big deal indeed. Moreover, the Qing government will certainly borrow money from other countries again in the future -- according to the agreement signed at the time of the second loan, if the Qing government can repay the loan within three years, it will save about 23 million yuan in interest. However, even with customs duties and salt taxes as collateral, it would be an extremely difficult task for it to repay the second loan in full within three years.

Therefore, the Qing government could only borrow money for the third time to repay. And this loan, according to the historical knowledge that Qin Lang has learned, seems to be 300 million, and it is divided into three batches: Russian-French loans, Anglo-German loans and Anglo-German renewal loans.

Qin Lang predicts that if the American consortium can unite and get the support of the U.S. government, they should be able to get half of the loan.

It's easy to do the first thing. Financiers are sharks chasing profits, and there is no reason to choose to give up when they see fat. And the contradictions between French loan sharks and American financial conglomerates are no secret. Finally, in the New England states, the motto of the families was "Hate the British."

Let them unite to compete with the British and French loan sharks, and the American financiers would probably be happy to do such a thing - if only one could convince them that it would be successful.

However, in his first letter to Morgan, Qin Lang was not ready to write out all the details of the plan like pouring beans on a bamboo tube. It's extremely foolish to tell someone everything before you know what you can gain, especially if they are a smart financier.

So he put down his pen, put the letter in an envelope, and gave it to a guard to take it back to New York and give it to Morgan. Qin Lang didn't want the inefficient postal system to waste his precious time.

As soon as the guards left, Elizabeth walked into the room. "Are you done with your letter?"

"Yes. Now I can relax for a while. Qin Lang nodded, stood up and pulled out a chair for her.

"I'm more skeptical. What you're thinking about is clearly not a small plan. Elizabeth tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said, "Actually, there is one thing that puzzles me, why do you want Morgan to borrow from China so much?" You know, no matter which bank borrows it, China's economy is going to collapse -- Qin, don't say you don't care about it. ”

"I really don't really care. And given the current state of China's economy, not borrowing will lead to even more intense social unrest, and I doubt that my compatriots are ready to withstand it. "Even that Dr. Sun, he's not ready to start his career right now.

At the same time, Qin Lang believes that he is reducing China's losses, "In my personal opinion, letting Britain or France borrow from China will end up being much worse than letting the United States do it." ”

"Why?"

"The power of the United States is weak." He was referring to the fragility of the U.S. military, both navy and army—not only could the Chilean Navy threaten the U.S. Navy, but the Japanese could also rely on a single cruiser Naniwa to change the U.S. mind about the immediate annexation of Hawaii.[3] This dooms the United States to be unable to adopt an aggressive attitude and to put forward conditions that are not very harsh when competing for loans.

If the United States, as a latecomer and not yet powerful new power, wanted to compete with Britain, France, Russia, or Germany, it would have to reduce its demands to a point where it would be tempting to make the Qing government, which was fearful of all Western countries, willing to take the risk.

Moreover, compared with the vulture of the United States, Qin Lang is more worried about the polar bear in northern China.

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Note 1: Japan asked China to pay the reparations in pounds, so there is a problem of "pound loss".

Note 2: The total amount of the second loan is actually about 370 million

Note 3: In January 1893, with the participation of the U.S. Minister to Hawaii and the U.S. Marine Corps, local American immigrants overthrew the Queen of Hawaii and established a new government, requesting integration into the United States. In February, Japan immediately sent the "Naniwa" to Honolulu to rendezvous with the "Kongo" to express its dissatisfaction with the United States, and on 17 November, Japan sent the "Naniwa" to Hawaii to inform the Japanese consul general in Honolulu that "it does not recognize any possible government." This forced the United States to change its approach to the immediate annexation of Hawaii. Roosevelt was dissatisfied with this, saying, "If we don't occupy Hawaii, Japan, Germany, or Great Britain will." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the WWW.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )