But Yang Shuoming knows that the arrival of the "Great Depression" has given China a great opportunity to regain its financial autonomy!

In the midst of this crisis of the credit system that has spread throughout the capitalist world, Western countries have abandoned the gold standard one after another and implemented a policy of currency depreciation to enhance the competitiveness of their own products in the international market, so as to achieve the goal of dumping domestic surplus products and passing on the crisis. And for China at that time, through such a game of paper money against silver since the First Sino-Japanese War, the West had already made great profits in China, and because the degree of monetization of China's assets was relatively low, and the use of real silver in transactions was the weakness of Western financial currency plunder, until the First World War, China no longer had much interest that could be extracted through financial currency, and at the same time, China's huge population and market were a good place for Western countries to dump excess capacity, and this situation changed fundamentally. Now, how to increase China's purchasing power and get the West's dumped products out of the crisis is the focus of the Western powers' considerations. After the failure of the two invasions of China, Britain and the United States and other countries have always supported China's reform of the currency system and demanded that China issue paper money at the same time as the unified "national currency" silver dollar. After the war, he had been infiltrating China with a large amount of capital, and preventing him from controlling China was also one of the strategic priorities of the Western powers. The demands of the Western powers on China's economy and finance have changed, so that China's monetary reform can be truly implemented.

Since China is also a market for Western countries to dump products, in order to strengthen its market competitiveness in China, the introduction of the "advanced central bank system" of Western countries to China to reform China's monetary and financial system has become the need for China to be consistent with that of Western powers, and it has also become a historical opportunity for China to enter the era of central banks and establish its own monetary and financial system!

"I see what Hanzhi means." Liang Shiyi, who was sweating profusely, looked up at Yang Shuoming and asked in a dumb voice, "Did you have a plan for a long time?" ”

"Yes." Yang Shuoming nodded, "But this plan requires you to help me." ”

"Tell me what you want me to do." Liang Shiyi said with a bitter face, "As long as I can pass this ghost gate, I can do whatever you tell me to do." ”

"It's not easy to pass this hurdle, it's easy to shout slogans, it's hard to do practical things, and sometimes you may even have to bear the infamy of a traitor." Yang Shuoming looked at the large dark clouds slowly drifting in the sky outside the window, and said, "What is playing here is the thousand-year-old national fortune, not the firewood, rice, oil and salt of the common people for a while, and the people may not be able to understand it immediately." But they will understand in the future. ”

Listening to Yang Shuoming's words, Liang Shiyi felt a little relieved, Yang Shuoming saw that he was too frightened, and realized that his goal had been achieved, so he comforted him and said: "Liang Gong, don't worry, this time, we will definitely succeed." You just wait to be a veritable God of Wealth. ”

Yang Shuoming said, took out another letter, and handed it to him.

"I've been preparing for this day for years." Yang Shuoming said.

"If that's the case, there's nothing to worry about." After reading the letter, Liang Shiyi finally calmed down completely, and he looked at Yang Shuoming with some annoyance, "You scared me to death just now." ”

"You just know, don't tell anyone." Yang Shuoming looked at him, his gaze suddenly became as sharp as a blade, "Otherwise, Liang Gong should know what the consequences are......

"Of course, of course." Liang Shiyi shivered and said with a smile, although there were still beads of sweat on his forehead at this time, it was not so bad.

November 12, 1934, Tokyo, Imperial Palace, Imperial Study.

Although the winter of 1934 had always made Hirohito, who had become the "Emperor of Showa", feel extremely cold, but at this time, sitting in the imperial study, looking at the reports in his hand, his body was sweating because of an inexplicable excitement and excitement.

“…… It is said that after the establishment of a central bank through monetary reform, the large amount of silver recovered and controlled was re-lented and invested in China in the form of capital, and the huge economic benefits obtained were far greater than the gains from conquering China by force. Although the United States is trying to control China economically, China still uses silver as the main currency, and a large number of loans, investments, and trade are calculated in silver, and a large number of loans are also guaranteed by the silver income of China, so in China, the Yuan and the Pound Sterling have the same important status......"

"Last year, the United States announced that it would break away from the gold standard, which made the exchange rate rise in China more severe, and after the political axe of the United States gave up the gold standard, the monetary reserves were changed to the proportion of 'gold three silver one', in order to achieve this ratio, the United States began to purchase silver in the international market, which made the price of silver rise sharply, so that the silver began to lose, silver from net imports to net exports, and China's foreign trade became a surplus (trade deficit), and eventually caused a catastrophe in China's economy."

"Since the third year of Showa (1929), the real estate market in Shanghai's former public concession has grown at an astonishing rate. At the time, it was not an exaggeration to call such a situation 'fanatical'. From the 13th year of Taisho (1924) to the third year of the Showa era, the total value of real estate in Shanghai increased by about 4 billion silver dollars, half of which came from the previous year and the year before. The value of real estate transactions is at least 2 million silver dollars per month, and sometimes as much as 20 million silver dollars. There is no doubt that speculation has led to a real estate boom, because once speculators buy land for construction, they use it as collateral to buy additional real estate assets. While housing prices and land prices are rising, the transaction volume of real estate in Shanghai is also rising. In the fourth year of Showa (1930), the total amount of real estate transactions was about 114.42 million yuan, and in the fifth year of Showa (1931), the total amount of real estate transactions rose to 243.22 million yuan. However, since the second half of this year, Shanghai's land prices have plummeted, real estate sales have plummeted, and they have entered a frozen period, and the wait-and-see atmosphere is strong, and even if there are a small number of transactions, their prices are only two-thirds of the five-year Showa period, and the stock prices of foreign real estate companies have plummeted to about one-tenth of the par price. The land price of the former public concession in Shanghai fell by about 700 million yuan, and for the whole of Shanghai, its land price may fall above 2 billion yuan. A large number of real estate developers, including some well-known foreign real estate companies, have declared bankruptcy, and it is not uncommon to hear that the real estate crisis has led to the bankruptcy of individuals......"

"The real estate crisis in China has been exacerbated by the rise in silver prices. Due to the tightening of the monetary system in the financial sector and the stagnation of mortgage activities, a number of real estate companies have collapsed, and the vacancy rate of houses has reached 10.9%, causing land prices to plummet and real estate transactions to be bleak. Real estate developers are unable to repay the interest and cannot recover the money they have lent out, and they are all in debt. In order to maintain Shanghai's image as an international city, certain measures have been taken in response to this, and Shanghai has begun to build affordable housing and low-rent housing to solve the housing difficulties of ordinary people. These civilian residences house ceremonial halls, people's schools, consumer cooperatives, stadiums, and people's credit centers; There are water and electricity facilities, and there are dormitories for unmarried people to live in. Each house has a kitchen, living room and bedroom. In the second year of the Showa Era (1928), the Shanghai Public Works Bureau set up a committee for the construction of civilian housing to carry out the resettlement project of poor housing, including the construction of 'civilian housing', 'civilian villages', 'model villages', etc. The first batch of 800 such dwellings had already been built, and the population began moving in in May of that year. In the third year of the Showa period, the Shanghai Municipal Government Axe built civilian houses in Zhabei in three batches, and the first batch had 1,000 civilian houses. The second batch of 2,450 units was completed in the fourth year of Showa (1930), and the third batch of 2,290 units was completed the year before. In 1931, the construction of the fourth batch of houses began, which was much larger than the previous three. Last year's typhoon and fires in Shanghai made the problem of slums in Shanghai more prominent, and the Shanghai Municipal Government invested 10 million yuan to build a model village, and set up a 'Civilian Welfare Committee' by the Chinese and foreigners (a total of 29 people) to accept the commission to implement the project. Eight of the 10 model villages in the program are currently under construction. Each village has 200 to 300 houses and is designed to live in nearly 10,000 people. This is the case in Shanghai, as well as in many of the large cities in China, and the mitigation measures taken by the government of China have now begun to bear fruit......"

"The Silver Acquisition Act, passed in June this year, was a bill by the Silver Group to lobby President Roosevelt to condone the activities of the Silver Group in order to raise prices. The main content of the Silver Acquisition Act is to authorize the Treasury to purchase silver in the domestic and foreign markets until the price of silver reaches 1.29 meters per ounce or the value of silver in the Treasury reserves reaches one-third of the gold reserves, and the Treasury has broad discretion in the process of acquisition. It stands to reason that this is a matter of the distribution of the country's own interests, and it has nothing to do with China, but in fact, the rise in the price of silver has had a huge impact on China. Because China is the only country in the world that still uses the silver standard, silver is equivalent to money. ”

"In the third year of the Showa era (1929), the 1 yuan silver coin of China was equivalent to 36 cents in the foreign exchange market, and in the following two years, the international silver price in terms of gold value fell by 40%, and the 1 yuan silver coin of China was only 21 meters, while the wholesale price index of the country fell by only 26% during the same period, and the result was that the exports of China fell at that time, but the decline was smaller than the decline in imports, and also less than the decline in total world exports. Therefore, during the economic crisis of the fifth year of Showa (1931), Shina was not greatly affected. At a time when the rest of the world is experiencing severe deflation, China is experiencing moderate inflation. In the fifth year of Showa (1931), Britain, Honhon, India and other countries successively abandoned the gold standard, although the currency of China was still depreciating relative to the rice dollar, but it was appreciating relative to the pound, the yuan and the rupee, so the recession of the world economy began to affect the economy of China, and the balance of payments of China deteriorated sharply, and in the sixth year of Showa (1932), it was forced to export a net of 5.22 million taels of silver to make up for its trade deficit, and the domestic price index also began to decline. Had it not been for the continued decline in the international price of silver and the relatively low monetization of the Chinese economy, the impact on the Chinese economy would have been even greater. ”

"When the rice country gave up the gold standard last year, the currency of China against the rice dollar also began to appreciate, from the six years of Showa (1932) 1 yuan of the Shina silver dollar to 19 cents rose to 33 cents, China's foreign trade further deteriorated, last year's exports of Shina were only 58% of the four years of the Showa year, and the trade deficit of the Shina political axe continued to rely on the net export of precious metals such as gold and silver to make up, when the world economy and trade began to recover, the economy of Shina entered a recession, this year the United States passed the "Silver Acquisition Act", As a result, the price of silver rose rapidly, and China's economy and trade were even worse and overwhelmed. In June of this year, under the instigation of the silver production interest group, but also in order to pull China into the Mi Yuan group, and to crack down on the national industry of China, India and other countries, the rice country political axe implemented the "White Purchase Cashier Act" to raise the price of silver, completely reversed the direction of the international flow of silver capital, and the pressure of large-scale arbitrage capital flow pushed the monetary policy of Yanjing political axe to the dilemma that currency stability and curbing capital flight could not be both, and it was difficult to balance both internal and external balance. ”

Seeing this, Hirohito seemed to feel a little tired, he put down the report in his hand, lay on his back in the chair, and closed his eyes.

At this time, Hirohito's eyes left the report that excited him, but his mind was full of the contents of the report.

After a short rest, Hirohito straightened up again, looked at the papers on the table, picked up the report, and resumed reading it again.

Although the report just now was written in an easy-to-understand manner, for him, a former marine biologist, the relationship between the rise in silver prices and China's economic crisis was still not easy to understand, and it required careful thinking with his incomparably noble brain to digest it.

“…… Raising the price of silver will increase China's foreign purchasing power, open up a vast market for rice goods, and sell the country's surplus cars and wheat, which will help rice get out of the current economic crisis. Moreover, raising the price of silver can be used to hit the industry of China and weaken the competition between the goods of China and the goods of China, because the low price of silver leads to the low purchasing power of China, and the people of China can only buy their own bargains, which promotes the development of China's industry and reduces the sales of China's goods in China, thus making China the most destructive competitor in the world market. If the price of silver is raised, the currency of China will appreciate, the cost of China's industrial products will be increased, and the competitiveness of China's products will be weakened, which will benefit the country's entrepreneurs and farmers. After June this year, due to the high price of silver in the international market, it was profitable to export silver from China, so the outflow of silver from China accelerated and the quantity increased. According to the statistics of the banking department of China, from January to August this year, the country's excess silver reached 73.5 million yuan, of which 58.8 million yuan was in Shanghai, accounting for 80% of the total. ”

"By the end of this year, China's inland finance has been exhausted, and the Chinese Commercial Bank in Shanghai has no new incremental funds to replenish, and the amount of silver in Shanghai on October 29 this year has decreased by 53.5 million taels of silver and 2.72 million yuan of silver dollars compared with October 30 of last year. The silver stock in Shanghai this month was about 412 million yuan, a decrease of 232 million yuan compared with 644 million yuan at the end of June this year. ”

"Silver is the currency of China, and there is so much currency in the market at once, and there is a lack of circulation, and the currency is seriously deflationary. Because silver is not only the currency of China, but also the preparation for the issuance of banks in China, in this silver wave, the outflow of silver is mainly bank inventory. As a result, the deflation is even more severe. The bank deposits in China were said to be empty, and the people of China were shaken in their credit with the banks, and the financial panic ensued. In fact, as early as the fifth year of the Showa era (1931), the Bank of Shina had already given an early warning of the depreciation of real estate, and a large number of Shina money banks involved in real estate mortgages were facing a serious business crisis. This is because the depreciation of real estate will lead to the repayment of loans, which in turn will exacerbate the loss of property value, and once this cycle begins, it will be impossible to pay off real estate-based assets. In view of the extent to which Shanghai's financial institutions are involved in real estate, the corresponding loss of assets will bring immeasurable losses to the economy of China, according to a staff member of the British HSBC bank: the government axe and commercial banks in China have been trapped in real estate. ”

"Today, as the financial center of China, Shanghai, the degree of financial panic is particularly serious, mainly in the following aspects: First, the monetary system is extremely tight, and the settlement of this year is only half of the usual, because the monetary system is extremely tight, making it almost impossible for the Bank of China to lend. Despite the great difficulties faced by the banking sector of China, it had to allow the rollover of corporate borrowings. Because the bank is afraid that if the pressure is too much, it will lead to more business failures. At this time, a more widespread collapse could occur. Second, the banking industry has closed down in large numbers. Since the second half of this year, a total of 15 banks and money banks have failed in Shanghai, including 8 banks. Third, the interbank interest rate soared, this year in August Shanghai interbank interest rate suddenly soared, in September was 0.14 yuan, in October rose to 0.30 yuan, in November as high as 0.40 yuan, the head was raised to 0.46 yuan, the black market exceeded 0.50 yuan, which is rare in the history of Shanghai, it can be seen that its money is extremely tight to an unprecedented extent. Finally: the value of real estate, stocks and other credit securities fell sharply, the decline was more than 30%, and the financial assets shrank seriously, of which the earliest and most fell was real estate stocks, because the main palletist of Shanghai real estate is foreign capital, and the large loss of foreign capital bank inventory must lead to a decline in real estate prices. ”

(To be continued)