【2nd Update】

Wang Chenhao tricked Guangxu and put the five million pounds in his pocket, which made Guangxu very depressed.

After thinking calmly, Guangxu knew that he did not have the evidence and strength to Wang Chenhao's death, so he did not dare to startle the snake, and he could only suffer by himself.

With the end of the Qing War, Guangxu's main energy turned back to national reform.

Guangxu recently felt that there was no one around him to use, so he vigorously promoted Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Tan Si and other young reformers, and in contact with them, Guangxu was more and more about reforming. In Guangxu's view, perhaps only by reforming the state system could the rule of the Qing Dynasty be continued.

After Kang Youwei, Guangxu decided to carry out monetary reform first, unify the monetary system of the Qing Dynasty, and put an end to the situation of privately minting coins throughout the country and squeezing the wealth of the people.

At the same time, since the outbreak of the silver deficit crisis, the Qing Empire has abandoned the use of silver in favor of gold and copper coins for circulation. Copper coins were made by local governors, and the inflation caused by the shortage of catties was very serious, and gold coins and banknotes were also made in foreign currency, and domestic banknotes were like waste paper.

Long-term reliance on foreign currencies was detrimental to the country's economic development, and would also weaken the authority and influence of the Qing Empire, so Guangxu decided to carry out currency reform.

Prior to this, Guangxu ordered Sheng Xuanhuai to set up the Daqing Commercial Bank in Shanghai to attract investment and shares to raise the funds needed for monetary and financial reform.

Sheng Xuanhuai has fulfilled his mission and has raised funds. Guangxu already knew that the major shareholder of Commerce Bank had become Bank of America, that is, Wang Chenhao. But forced by the situation, Guangxu thought that after he vetoed the last time he refused to borrow money from Wang Chenhao from the Luhan Railway, Wang Chenhao took the lead in the nationwide movement to recover roads and mines, which was not light. Guangxu was also frightened, so he had some scruples about this matter and turned a blind eye.

Guangxu ordered Sheng Xuanhuai, together with Weng Tongyong, the secretary of the household department, and the assistants Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to prepare for the establishment of the household bank and prepare for the currency financial reform.

The establishment of the Hubu Bank by the Qing court to carry out monetary and financial reform immediately attracted the attention of the great powers of the world, and all countries participated in it, because in the reform there would inevitably be a "currency difference" profit, and the reform of a small country would not arouse the interest of the great powers, because the currency difference was very small, the amount was small, and there was no profit to be made. But the Qing Empire is different, with a huge population, a huge market, and a 2,000-year-old empire that occupies the second largest GDP in the world.

Bank syndicates from more than a dozen developed countries in Europe and the United States, such as Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands, aimed at the currency market of the Qing Empire, waiting for the Qing Empire to issue new coins, and then they began to hoard and buy and sell to make huge profits. This is very dangerous, because if the Qing Empire does not have enough funds as reserves, once it is frantically hoarded by the foreign powers, it will inevitably cause a deflation in the amount of money, cause deflation, and the market will not have enough money to circulate, affecting the economy. And the great powers, after hoarding a large amount of money, suddenly released the currency in their hands, if the Qing Empire did not have enough strength to digest this batch of currency in time, then it would cause inflation.

This one tightens and the other expands, and the profits during the period are huge, and if the Qing Empire is not done well, it will suffer heavy losses. However, the Qing Empire did not understand this aspect at all, and to be exact, there were no specialized personnel.

However, the Qing Empire was fortunate because Guangxu's idea of currency reform immediately encountered great resistance, and this resistance came from a large number of interest groups within the Qing Empire.

On July 20, when Guangxu was studying the monetary reform with Weng Tongyi, Kang Youwei and others with great interest, he received opposition from Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, Shengyun, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Liu Bingzhang, the governor of Sichuan, and Yu Zhenduo, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou.

The opposition of Zhang Zhidong and other local governors was mainly because the imperial court's monetary reform would affect their income and affect their way of accumulating wealth.

The provincial mints, led by the Wuchang Mint in Zhangzhidong, issued a large number of ten copper yuan, and could obtain at least 21 million taels of minting difference in one year. The fundamental reason for Zhang's opposition to reform was to protect the "vested interests" of the local government, that is, the benefits derived from the separate operation of the mint.

The Qing government's unified currency reform was immediately met with a red light, which made Guangxu very annoyed, but Cixi refused to express her position on this, just to see Guangxu's jokes.

Three days later, Emperor Guangxu issued another edict, except for Hubei and Guangdong, the rest of the provinces stopped minting silver. The edict specifically stated that the silver dollar was converted into two cents of seven coins from Kuping, and 30% of the annual income of various public incomes led by the Beijing salary could be handled with silver dollars. But it didn't take long for Jiangnan, Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, etc. to still get permission to continue minting silver. In addition, the Qing government ordered the provincial silver dollar bureaus to submit reports on the minting of silver dollars, but except for Guangdong and Yunnan provinces, the household department did not receive reports from other provinces. In this way, Qing Zhengaxe's plan to try to unify the silver dollar fell through again.

Guangxu saw that he could not stop the momentum of indiscriminate distribution of coins in the local area, so he decided to set up a silver coin factory in Beijing. The silver coins used in the provinces are required to be of different styles and colors, which is the most burdensome for the merchants. Since it should be clearly determined to be a uniform silver type, a silver coin factory was set up in Beijing. After the issuance of the new type of silver coin, all the public funds donated to the grain and customs duties were earmarked for this silver money, so that the disadvantages such as compensation and salary were completely eliminated.

In order to directly grasp the right to mint money, Emperor Guangxu set up a silver coin factory, showing his intention to unify the country's silver dollars with the silver dollars of the silver coin factory. In contrast to the rate of use of the silver dollar in 1898, it was stipulated that "all public funds paid in the payment of grain duties shall be earmarked for this silver dollar".

The currency reform was quite happy, but there was no movement for a long time. The provincial governors of Fuyang violated the yin, and still minted their own coins, ignoring the matter of coinage in the imperial court.

In this way, on the one hand, Guangxu wanted to carry out reforms, but on the other hand, he could not carry out them, and he suddenly could not step down.

Guangxu was incapable of carrying out monetary and financial reforms, and encountered strong resistance, but this brought opportunities to Wang Chenhao.

At this time, the currency circulation on the territory of Zhili was also very chaotic, and Wang Chenhao actually took care of the affairs of Zhili and knew a little about it. The chaotic currency causes the economy to be unsmooth, buyers and sellers agree on different coins, and many times buyers can't buy things, and sellers can't sell goods.

In response to this situation, Wang Chenhao had long been ready to carry out the monetary reform on the territory of Zhili, but he hoped that the central government would introduce a reform plan, and then Wang Chenhao would find a way to control the central government's issuance of currency. But now Wang Chenhao Guan Guangxu is unable to implement monetary reform, so he does not count on Guangxu, so he has to stabilize the currency circulation in the Zhili area first.

To this end, Wang Chenhao consulted with Wang Shizhen, Ruan Zhongshu and others, and decided to issue a new currency based on the gold reserves of the Bank of America. To this end, Wang Chenhao invited a group of domestic monetary experts to discuss, including Zhang Jiaxuan, Song Hanzhang, Ye Jinghua, Chen Jintao, Wang Kemin and other domestic banking and financial industry experts, as well as Jing Qi, an international financial consultant invited by Ge Denger of the Bank of America, to Wang Chenhao to study the new version of the currency together.

"Let's not talk about how messy the currencies of the other provinces of the country are! There are more than a dozen coins issued by banks and foreign banks in Zhili alone, and there are as many as seventy or eighty kinds of currency in circulation in the market! Moreover, the exchange between currencies changes all the time, not only the common people can't bear it, but even the businessmen are constantly worried about it, for fear of losing it! Their money bank and bank have made enough, but for the political axe, it is a big dumb loss! ”

Wang Chenhao put forward his original intention of reform, and Zhang Jiajiao, Song Hanzhang, and others, who were familiar with financial issues, expressed their approval.

Ruan Zhongshu said indignantly: "Not bad! I'm tired of seeing these governors fill their pockets! They are all bloodsuckers of the common people, but in the past, we were humble and humble, and what we said couldn't catch up with a fart to be influential! Now that Lord Wang is in charge, we can't just watch it anymore! ”

Everyone has great respect for Wang Chenhao, because they know that many times, Wang Chenhao always stands on the national righteousness of the country, they know how much effort Wang Chenhao has paid for the country, and no one can pay as much as Wang Chenhao, which is also one of the reasons why they respect Wang Chenhao.

Looking at everyone's expectant expressions, Wang Chenhao smiled and said: "There is no problem with the reform of the gold standard, we have gold reserves!" However, in terms of currency reform, how do we deal with the existing 'bad rules' and other forces in Zhili? ”

Wang Chenhao believes that the biggest problem is not whether there is money or not, nor whether anyone will reform, but that the reform will inevitably touch the interests of some people, just as Guangxu's currency reform faces opposition from the governors of various provinces. Wang Chenhao had to think about this problem.

Since Xianfeng, the Qing government has wanted to restore the traditional money-making system that was facing collapse (especially in the Jingshi area). In 1887, the Qing Dynasty took measures to allow the provinces of Linjiang and Linhai to use new machinery to mint high-quality coins, and at the same time used the money to collect a part of the gold and salt taxes, which were transported to Beijing by sea. However, the large-scale policy of money issuance, which was basically unbalanced, failed and thus failed to achieve the expected policy objectives. Still, this move became a new "turning point" in the operation of China's currency system, triggering the provinces to start minting Chinese silver dollars separately, bringing about the phenomenon of "localization of currency issuance".

Specifically, in February 1887, the Governor of Liangguang, Chang Zhidong, pointed out that foreign silver dollars were in circulation not only in Guangdong but also throughout the country, and in the name of expelling foreign silver dollars and making up for the losses caused by the minting of coins, he called for the use of new machinery to mint silver dollars themselves. With the consent of the Qing government, Guangdong issued a silver dollar in 1890. In 1893, Zhang Zhidong, who was later transferred to the governor of Huguang, obtained permission to mint silver dollars in Hubei, and began issuing silver dollars in Hubei in 1895.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, in the increasingly active discussion of the currency system, some people put forward a proposal to expand the minting of silver dollars, and at the same time, because of the huge benefits of silver dollar minting, all provinces began to mint silver dollars, and by 1897, Fengtian, Jilin, Zhili, Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhui, Xinjiang Province, Hunan, Zhejiang, and other countries also minted silver dollars. There were many problems with the minting of silver dollars in the provinces. The plain color (weight and purity) of the silver dollars minted from province to province varied. In 1897, the large silver dollar (face value 1 yuan) minted in Jilin weighed only 0.6988 taels (Kuping); In 1898, the large silver dollar minted by the Beiyang Machinery Bureau of Zhili was 0.7289 taels, and in 1897, the purity of the large silver dollar issued by Fengtian was 0.845, while that of Hubei was 0.904.

Due to the different colors of the silver dollars in each province, these silver dollars depreciate significantly when they leave the province where they are minted for circulation, and even if they are circulated within the province, they are cheaper than foreign silver dollars such as Mexican silver dollars.

To make matters worse, the expansion of minting interests led to the issuance of small silver dollars in large quantities. The minting rate of large silver dollars is only about 2%, but the minting interest rate of small silver dollars with a purity of 0.82 is about 10%, so the small silver dollars with a denomination of two jiao account for the vast majority of the silver dollars minted in the provinces.

In this way, the legal parity between the big and small silver dollars collapsed, and the actual circulating price of the small silver dollar was cheaper than the denomination. In addition, the interests of casting also caused contradictions between the provinces. For example, in order to ensure the sales of the silver dollars minted by the Hubei Silver Dollar Bureau, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, opposed Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, to open the Jiangnan Silver Dollar Bureau, but Liu Kunyi ignored it and forcibly minted the silver dollar.

All of the above reasons show that the minting of silver dollars in various provinces had serious side effects on the monetary system of the late Qing Dynasty. The indiscriminate issuance of silver dollars for the sake of minting profits, together with the sluggishness of money minting, has accelerated the phenomenon of "cheap silver and expensive money". In order to solve the phenomenon of "expensive money", some people have put forward the suggestion of minting ten copper dollars several times, but in view of the failure of issuing ten copper dollars during the Xianfeng period, the Qing government axe hesitated to issue ten copper dollars.

The plan to unify the silver dollar was actually a failure because of the opposition of the powerful governors.

Song Hanzhang said: "The reason why the local government circumvented the central government's currency reform is that there are so-called 'bad rules' in the internal structure of local administration and finance. The income of the officials was very low, and the income of the magistrates could not cover the needs, let alone the officials and officials who did not have the income. Therefore, the officials and officials below the county level levied 'bad rules' to maintain their livelihood and the public expenditure of the government. The most prevalent and largest proportion of the 'bad rules' is fire consumption. The fire consumption is 10%-50% of the original tax amount, and the reason for the fire consumption is that the flat color of the silver in circulation on the market is different. In addition, a small amount of taxpayers use money to convert money into grain, and in fact, the discount of silver money used in the collection of taxes is higher than the current price, and the most important reason for the consumption of fire and the discount of silver money is because there is no unified national currency system. ”

Zhang Jiaxuan said: "In fact, with the current strength of Lord Wang, you might as well carry out monetary reform in Zhili first, once you get the recognition of the people in the Zhili area, with credit, then the neighboring provinces will also use the currency of Zhili, so that if the currency of Zhili is strong, it will not take a few years for the whole country to use the currency of Zhili." ”

Ruan Zhongshu said: "However, the governors of the provinces are afraid that they will stop it!" ”

Song Hanzhang said with a smile: "With the power and status of Lord Wang today, I'm afraid any governor will have to give face, right?" This is not a problem, the question is whether Lord Wang has the courage to do so? ”

What kind of courage?

This is already very obvious, after controlling the circulation and issuance of currency in the Qing Empire, it is equivalent to controlling the economic lifeline of the Qing Empire.

At this time, courage is equivalent to euphemistically asking Wang Chenhao how big his ambition is, as long as Wang Chenhao's ambition is big enough, then Song Hanzhang, Zhang Jiaxuan and other people dare to do how big.

In response to that sentence, how bold man is, how productive the land is.

Wang Chenhao smiled and said, "Then what are you waiting for?" Just let it go! I'd like to see how capable you are! ”

Wang Shizhen, Ruan Zhongshu, Song Hanzhang, Zhang Jiaxuan, Ye Jinghua, Chen Jintao, Wang Kemin and others immediately got up and gave up their orders.

"Obey your orders!"

Just do what you do, it's not just empty words. In the following days, Song Hanzhang, Zhang Jiaxuan, Ye Jinghua, Chen Jintao and Wang Kemin began to prepare for currency reform, and of course, American consultant Jingqi also participated, explaining the printing of US dollar and pound sterling and other techniques to the public, imitating a set of banknote styles unique to Chinese.

The printing of banknotes can generally be divided into four processes: research, plate making, printing and sorting.

As a research process, the main focus is on the anti-counterfeiting surname of banknotes and their artistic surnames. Zhang Jiaxuan and others synthesized the requirements of the banknote issuing agencies of the world's eleven economic powers, such as Britain, France, the United States, and Germany, and then compared the banknotes issued by the Bank of Communications after they circulated in the market, and designed the Chinese's own new version of the banknote artwork by imitating and improving their anti-counterfeiting marks.

Wang Chenhao requires that the patterns, patterns, ornaments, lines and words of banknotes should be designed to be complex, but they should be able to be understood and remembered by ordinary people, so that they can identify genuine and counterfeit banknotes at the first time and prevent counterfeit banknotes from interfering in the national economy.

This may seem like a simple requirement, but it's actually quite high.

However, this does not stump Zhang Jiazhang and their top domestic financiers, Song Hanzhang and Ye Jingkui have rich experience in this, and proposed to use the mythical beasts, rui beasts, and benevolent beasts in Chinese mythology as the front patterns of banknotes of different denominations, because these patterns are very complex to make, difficult to imitate, and at the same time widely familiar to the Chinese people, in line with Wang Chenhao's requirements.

The back imitates the banknotes of various countries to take the portrait of the person, because in the view of the anti-counterfeiting technology of the great powers, the vivid portrait of the person is the most difficult to imitate.

In terms of the selection of portraits, Zhang Jiajiao, Song Hanzhang and others hope to use Wang Chenhao's portrait as the new coin design, given that other countries choose the emperor, king, queen or president of the country as the design.

But Wang Chenhao said that he is now just a minister of the navy and army, and he does not have that kind of influence, if his portrait is printed, even ordinary and ignorant people will spit on him, and it will give people the feeling that he has ambitions to be the emperor, which will destroy Wang Chenhao's good image at this time.

Wang Chenhao vetoed, Zhang Jiaxuan and others were helpless, but they couldn't hang the portrait of the emperor of the Qing Empire, so they prepared to use Yao Shunyu Tang, a character who was affirmed by the whole country, as the avatar.

At this time, when the Wuchang Conference confirmed Wang Chenhao as the provisional president of the Republic of China's joint political axe, the internal news first reached Guangzhou, and Zhang Jiajiao and others thought that this was the Providence Tunnel once again asked Wang Chenhao to agree to their previous proposal.

(To be continued)