The financial industry is an industry that operates monetary and credit business, including banking, insurance, trust, securities and leasing. The financial industry has the characteristics of index, monopoly, high risk, benefit dependence and high debt operation.

In China, the index refers to the financial index data from all angles to reflect the overall and individual situation of the national economy, and the financial industry is a barometer of the development of the national economy. On the one hand, monopoly means that the financial industry is strictly controlled by the government, and no unit or individual is allowed to open financial institutions at will without the approval of the Imperial Central Bank; On the other hand, it refers to the relative monopoly of specific financial businesses, and the credit business is mainly concentrated in the four major commercial banks of the empire, namely the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of Communications, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of China. The main strength of the commercial banks is the banks of the major consortiums, including the Royal Bank of the Imperial Royal Consortium, the Bank of Shanghai of the Zhejiang Consortium, the Taiyuan Bank of the Jinshang Consortium, the Yangtze River Bank of the Huishang Consortium, the Southeast Asian Bank of the Nanyang Consortium and the Southwest Bank of the Southwest Consortium, the securities business is mainly concentrated in Cathay, Huaxia, Nanfang and other national securities companies, and the insurance business empire is still a sunrise industry, and only the Royal Consortium has opened an insurance industry.

High risk refers to the fact that the financial industry is the distribution center of huge funds, involving all sectors of the national economy. Any mistake in the business decision of the unit and individual can lead to a "domino effect". Benefit dependence refers to the fact that financial efficiency depends on the overall efficiency of the national economy and is greatly affected by policies. The high debt operation is that compared with the general industrial and commercial enterprises, its own capital ratio is low.

The development of the financial industry has a lot to do with the national character, the empire has only been established for less than half a century, and China's traditional culture has made many citizens choose to deposit their savings in the bank rather than invest in the stock market, and now Shanghai, the largest securities and financial center in Asia, is completely supported by major consortia, and the shareholders of the empire are still too few.

The financial industry and colonial activities are inextricably linked, and the funds needed for colonial activities in European countries are obtained from the financial industry. For example, the Cape Colonial Company in East Africa has grown in size since its listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the fifties, and has now become the largest commercial group in East Africa, mastering the most valuable spice trade and specialty products in East Africa*, myrrh. Now that the empire has more than three million square kilometers of colonies in Africa, Zeng hopes to obtain the funds needed to develop these areas from the financial markets.

On July 27, 1871, the list of cabinet members was approved by the emperor and the cabinet was officially formed.

In 1871, on July 29, the Japanese State sent a letter to Emperor Hayashi Hong, requesting the sacrifice of land to eliminate the domain, and the emperor agreed. The province of Ying to the east of Japan was added to the territory of the empire.

1871, August 1. The Cabinet convened the first Council of State.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, I won't talk nonsense today, the current problem is how to develop the newly acquired land from Central Africa and the construction of the 'WN' railway." In the conference room, Zeng Guofan looked at his team with some excitement, everyone was an acquaintance, and he didn't talk nonsense.

"Since it's about colonial affairs, I'll talk about it first!" As the colonial minister, Yang Litong stood up and bowed first and said. As a colonial minister specially recruited by the emperor from Dongying Province, Okubo Ritsu (later referred to as Yang Litong) did not want to lose the emperor's face because of his dereliction of duty, as the minister of colonial affairs, he deliberately browsed the colonial affairs reports of the empire for more than ten years and made special consultations with the geography professor of the imperial university.

"With regard to the few colonies that the empire had just acquired, the opinion of the colonial ministry was to combine the point-to-line approach to the area and the construction of the 'WN' railway. The few colonies we have just acquired are huge in size, and if we want to fully exploit them, the manpower required is huge and the time is too long, so the opinion of the colonial department is that we can build colonial bases and fortresses now, and we can go wherever the railway is built, or we can pass through wherever the railway is built, and after the railway is completed, these points will be connected into a line and expanded into an area. This is the plan of the Colonial Department, what do you think? Saying that, he asked his assistant to send a plan to the ministers, and now that Japanese has existed as a dialect, Yang Litong spoke fluent Chinese to state his own opinion.

As the Minister of Communications, Liu Kun was very interested in it after reading the Colonial Department's plan. But thinking of the report sent by the expedition, he shook his head with a wry smile and looked at everyone helplessly and said: "Minister Yang's plan is very good and attractive, and this colonial model has been done before. But first of all, the fact is that my geological exploration expedition told me that the construction of such a railway is too difficult, and that purely geographical factors can still be solved by technology, but the harsh environment of the colony, those snakes, insects, rats and ants will not only hinder the construction of the railway, but also have a huge impact on the maintenance and passage of the railway, especially in Zambia and Botswana. The construction cost of the railway was so high that, according to our calculations, the Ministry of Finance allocated enough to complete the first phase of our project, which was the section from New Shanghai (Mogadishu) to New Xi'an (Nairobi) and the section from New Nanjing (Walvis Bay) to Ochivelongo. According to the Ministry of Communications' budget, the construction of the railway would take about ten years, that is, it would not be opened until 1880. ”

Hearing such news, Zeng Guofan is also a big head! Although the land in exchange for the Congo River basin has cultivated East and Southwest Africa together, the difficulty of development is not comparable to that of the rich Congo River basin. You must know that there is already a feudal kingdom in the Congo River Basin, and the development has basically taken shape and has a certain commercial foundation, Xinjiang Lord Wang Liudong relied on a few ceramics to deceive the Congolese king to sign a commercial protection agreement and a suzerainty agreement is a great success, I can't imagine that I was sold to the French now, this transaction is really a big loss, no wonder the French were so enthusiastic at that time.

"Actually, you're all in a hurry, if the railway doesn't work, you can build the road first!" Li Hongzhang, who is worthy of being the governor of East Africa, knows this colony best, "At the beginning of the meeting in East Africa, the railways were given priority to domestic construction, and at that time, the road was our only choice, and fortunately, East Africa lacked everything and there was no shortage of camels, so I think the construction of our new colony is mainly based on local conditions, even if the railway is indeed the best choice." As for what to do, it depends on the arrangement of the colonial department, and I can only give some experience. ”

"Yes, according to local conditions, the colonial ministry should build the charter as soon as possible, but it is the key to build a railway, after all, we have been publicizing it for so long, in the end, it is not only the face of the cabinet that cannot be built, but the emperor will also be ugly, as for the funds, we can raise funds from the people or form a company to go public as soon as possible, which we can still learn from the construction model of the domestic railway. You must know that Zambia is very rich in minerals, and the gold and silver of Central Africa are very attractive to businessmen. Zeng Guofan summed it up.

"One more thing, after the Cairo Conference, the entire Red Sea coast is now the sphere of influence of the Empire, and we need to use this as soon as possible to protect our merchants and provide them with convenience, and we also need your opinion. At present, the empire's control of the Egyptian Red Sea coast is limited to the two public cities of Suez and Port Said (the so-called public cities are the canal zone powers, mainly the cities where China, France and Britain jointly garrison and administer them), and we still lack influence in some important coastal cities of Gulghagai and Port Alem, I personally think so, whether we should form an Egyptian company similar to the East India Company or put the Red Sea coast under the supervision of the colonial governor of East Africa to strengthen our control over this area. If you have any other ideas, let's learn from each other's strengths. ”