With the rapid expansion of Sino-British cooperation, especially after the further acceleration of economic and military cooperation between the two sides, the significance and value of the Sino-British Trade and Reciprocal Trade Treaty have become more urgent, and both sides want to sign it as soon as possible.

Foreign investment is the main economic growth index of the UK, and the UK attaches great importance to it.

In September 1898, Hu Chuyuan formally signed a new Prime Minister's Decree to set up 12 special zones in Shanghai, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Qingdao, Dalian, Guangzhou, Taipei, Wuhan and Jinzhou, allowing British capital to invest and to set up commercial banks in these special zones.

In October, Qing Zhengaxe signed similar trade treaties with the three traditional trading countries of the United States, Germany, and France.

From November to December, Qing Zhengaxe signed trade treaties with Tsarist Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and other countries, stipulating that the two sides had mutual investment authority and part of the financial market was opened.

Since the Sino-British treaty relationship was the first authority, most trade treaties stipulated that the pound was the third option in addition to the currencies of the two countries, further maintaining the pound's status as a world currency, and at the same time, the Qing government began to reserve the pound sterling on a larger scale.

As a major concession, the Qing government allowed the flow of capital from various countries to enter the stock market and the Shanghai precious metals trading market, but there were also other restrictions to prevent speculation and a large withdrawal of funds.

Stimulated by this series of provisions, the demand and speculation for silver in the international market increased sharply, and the price of silver continued to rise wildly, soon approaching an all-time high of 15.3 grams to 1 gram of gold.

In order to stabilize domestic prices, curb inflation, and prevent domestic industry from being hit, Hu Chuyuan immediately sold silver reserves through Daqing Bank, China CITIC Bank, Nanyang Bank, and Beiyang Bank, bought gold and pounds, and curbed the rise in silver prices and kept the 15:1 mark.

The uncontrollable nature of international capital is evident, with the Daqing Bank and the Big Four domestic banks having grown their gold reserves to 3,150 tonnes in just a few months, with an additional holdings of more than £140 million worth of foreign exchange, mainly in pounds and dollars, and a massive sell-off in silver.

At the same time, Hu Chuyuan also struggled to hold the 15:1 mark, so that the inflation coefficient of the domestic economy was maintained at a more appropriate level.

Appropriate inflation is acceptable, especially during periods when inward investment is large.

In this tide, Hu Chuyuan further increased his domestic investment, and at the same time, he also reduced his private investment in foreign countries and further withdrew capital back to Asia.

By January 1899, Hu Chuyuan's total capital abroad had shrunk to £1.12 billion, while his total capital at home had increased to £1.93 billion.

Most of his businesses are not directly listed, but operate purely on the Kangzen model, obtaining start-up capital from investment banks, loans from commercial savings banks, and then making large-scale industrial investments.

Similarly, he also has enough profits to support him to do what he wants, and he has even increased his education donation to 140 million yuan a year, and built more technical schools, technical secondary engineering schools and higher vocational and technical colleges.

In this great wave, he put forward the slogan of comprehensively studying Germany, sent a large number of officials, businessmen, squires, and celebrities to Germany to investigate, formulated a detailed German communiqué, studied German economy, policy, military, politics, and culture, and copied German policy from all aspects of education, military, economy, and science and technology.

However, the fact is that China and Germany have drifted apart.

The changes in the international situation are indescribable, no one knows, and perhaps one day, China and Germany will form an alliance again...... China's future remains murky, and even Hu Chuyuan cannot say clearly.

Time flies, and 1899 seems to have flown by.

At the beginning of 1900, the Qing Dynasty signed reciprocal trade agreements with more than 30 countries and regions, along with this process, the China International Commercial Bank and the China CITIC Bank also increased the pace of establishing branches around the world, with the implementation of the "Central Monetary Management Regulations" and the new "Precious Metals Management Law", the domestic monetary policy gradually began to be centralized, and the reserves of gold, pounds and other major foreign currencies in the country were increasing.

China still controls 25% of the world's silver reserves and has the greatest influence on the world silver price, gradually stabilizing the silver price at 15.7-15.8 grams:1 gram of gold, maintaining the export index of domestic goods.

To a certain extent, Hu Chuyuan also imitated some of the policies of the previous book, and successively promulgated the "Regulations on Compensation for Land Expropriation", "Regulations on Taxation of Land Transactions", and "National Compulsory Conscription Act".

Using this series of provisions, the central fiscal revenue of the political axe increased on a large scale, and at the same time stabilized the gold reserves, curbing the possibility of domestic gold outflow.

In fact, all the countries that developed later have a unified characteristic, that is, the early economy and foreign trade completely relied on agriculture, similar to the United States, China and other countries with vast territory and abundant labor population, agricultural development is the most critical foundation.

In 1873, the United States surpassed the United Kingdom in terms of gross domestic product (only the United Kingdom itself is counted), and by 1884, the value of industrial output exceeded that of agriculture as a proportion of the total economy, but until 1890, the main export of the American economy was still agriculture.

In 1899, China's total exports increased to 478 million US dollars, textiles and raw materials firmly occupied the first place, and other commodities were coal mines, tea, aluminum and aluminum alloys, sugar, silk and linen raw materials, porcelain, machinery, ships, Chinese medicinal materials and products, tobacco and cigarette products, machinery, porcelain, ships, steel, metal products and other industrial products were mainly sold to Asia, South America and Africa.

After reaching a cooperation agreement with Britain, Britain's huge colonial market was suddenly opened to China, and Chinese industrial products began to obtain a reciprocal tariff policy almost equal to that of Britain, and its market share in Africa, West Asia, and Australia expanded rapidly.

John Stuart Muller, the most famous British economist, once said that in the 50s, Spain's lead soldier toys were all made in Britain, and in the 70s, Britain's lead soldier toys were made in Germany.

In 1870-1880, German manufacturing was still a low value-added and simplistic range that was ridiculed by the British, and by the mid-to-late 80s, German manufacturing was already a threat to the British domestic market.

Beginning in 1885, China's low value-added and simple industrial products entered the world market, and by 1899, even in Chile, South Africa, Egypt, and Ghana, Chinese-made horse lanterns, farm tools, knives, lighters, matches, kerosene lamps, coal stoves, toys, musical instruments, industrial packaging paper, and printing paper occupied a large market share.

Similarly, the machinery products of the United States have also begun to have an impact on Germany and the United Kingdom, accounting for 40% of the world's export share of agricultural machinery, and the agricultural mechanization of the United States is also increasing rapidly.

Unlike Germany in the 80s and the United States in the 90s, China is also a luxury exporter, selling a large number of silk, silk fabrics, worsted, fine linen fabrics, porcelain, tinware, silverware, white copper products, wood carving, lacquerware, enamel, cloisonné, Tang Sancai, bonsai stone carving, jade jewelry, pearls, fox fur, mink and other handicrafts and luxury goods.

In order to stabilize these export shares, China has also carried out a large-scale reorganization of the handicraft market and formulated a large number of market guidelines.

China is also the world's largest exporter of Chinese herbal medicines, peanut oil, honey, furniture, sesame oil, sunflower oil, mothballs, rice wine, and medicinal liquor.

The fertilizer industry was born in Britain and developed in Germany, and it was the Americans who really made this industry bigger.

In 1898, China's total fertilizer consumption reached 24.9 million tons, an increase of 26 times compared with 1890, and the self-production rate was 63%, making it the world's third largest fertilizer producer and second largest consumer.

In 1899, with the further expansion of China's domestic railway and shipping markets, China's total pig iron output reached 34.5 million tons, accounting for 30% of the world's total production, surpassing the United States and Germany in one fell swoop, becoming the world's largest pig iron manufacturer.

China's steel output has increased to 9.47 million tons, second only to the United States and Germany, surpassing Britain and France, China's shipbuilding tonnage has surpassed Britain, Germany and the United States in one fell swoop, and the export tonnage also accounts for 14% of the world's total exports, second only to Britain and Germany.

With the further expansion of the textile industry and the upgrading of China's chemical industry, in the dye market, although China's dyes account for less than 14% of the world's total exports, they have surpassed the United Kingdom, the United States and France in terms of total production capacity, second only to Germany.

China has the largest domestic market in the world, and although the production capacity of mainstream markets such as machinery, ships, textiles, fertilizers, and dyes is expanding, it still cannot meet the demand for domestic goods, and German and American exports to China have increased accordingly.

As Britain's surplus capital began to invest heavily in China's coastal cities, even if China's domestic market demand would still maintain an annual growth rate of 11%, it was expected that in 1910, the main domestic industrial production capacity would basically meet the domestic market demand, and began to shift from a domestic demand economy to an export-oriented economy.

The market speaks for itself.

The space for cooperation between China and the UK is indeed the largest, and it is also the easiest to fit.

One is the world's largest exporter of capital, and the other is the world's largest absorber of capital.

However, the prosperity of the market economy does not represent peace.

With the continuous growth of China's economic and military strength, both Russia and Russia have quickened the pace of war preparations, and the total number of Russian land forces has increased from 1.12 million to 1.37 million, and the number of troops has also increased from 470,000 to 530,000.

In the Far East, France and Russia have invested huge sums of money in the repair of the Far Eastern Railway, and the front end has reached Kamensk (Krasnokamensk), which is only a few dozen kilometers away from Manchuria.

In the northwest, the uprising in Xinjiang Province has been constantly breaking out and falling, and through the Central Asian Corridor, France and Russia are saying that they are instigating the northwest region to study in Chinese territory, create greater trouble for China, and obtain opportunities for them to send troops to the Far East.

In April 1899, at the same time that Hu Chuyuan started the "Enlightenment Movement" and intensified the implementation of the three new cultural policies of banning smoking, liberalizing the feet, and Xinwen, a large-scale separatist riot broke out in Yili, Xinjiang Province.

In January 1900, the scale of the rebellion in the Ili area of Xinjiang Province has exceeded 70,000 people, and the Yarkand Khanate was re-established in the Ili area.

All this made Hu Chuyuan realize that behind the turmoil in Xinjiang Province was not just Russia's support.

He could no longer bear it, and personally led Li Kaiye, the most elite unit of the Huguang Corps, to Xinjiang Province.

(To be continued)