The Lushan Conference in 1928 was about a week longer than usual, and it was not until the end of August that Song Biao sent off the last group of middle- and lower-ranking officer representatives of the Northern Military Region, and then rested in Lushan for another week before returning to the Central Palace in Kyoto Prefecture with the imperial family.

It has been half a year since he left the Central Palace, and then he came back to continue to preside over the overall situation of the empire, Song Biao also had a lot of feelings in the face of all this, he felt that during the time he was not in Yanjing, the central cabinet was still running very well, and the things he ordered before leaving, the cabinet was also done one by one.

Therefore, Song Biao unexpectedly did not convene the Central Training and Political Conference immediately after returning to the Central Palace, but continued to stay in the Central Palace, idle outside the cabinet and the Central Military Department, quietly thinking about some long-term questions and answers.

People always envy "have" when they "don't", and sigh "no" when they "have", and Song Biao at this time sighs about his life.

He used to envy Shu Gaoli's big family of three wives and twelve sons, but now that he has a real big family, what he feels is a different taste.

Some people say that women will only love one man, and men will love many women.

This may or may not be true.

After the Lushan meeting, Song Biao really made time to spend time with his family and taste the value of life with them.

That night, Song Biao accompanied the family of more than a dozen people to finish dinner, holding his little daughter and Shu Xuan and Concubine Ning for a walk in the imperial garden outside.

Although they are the emperor and queen of a country, the gossip between the two is generally similar to that of other couples, the old age of the husband and wife begins with the growth of their children, and in the days when the children grow up, they are also a little bit away from their youth, and the words are generally talking about children.

After talking for a while, Shu Xuan talked to Song Biao about another thing and asked, "Where does the emperor want to rest at night?" Concubine Shu always told me that the emperor hadn't been to her for the past half a year, so she was worried and missed. ”

Song Biao still knows Shu Xuan very well, and generally won't be so kind to persuade him to favor other women, or he doesn't care about this kind of thing, it's just to give Concubine Shu a favor, and take the opportunity to sarcastically say that Concubine Shu is now chattering like a resentful woman.

Women.

Song Biao understood their mood, and thought for a moment before saying: "Let's go tomorrow, there are a lot of accumulated official documents to read tonight, if you are too busy, stay in the imperial study to rest, and you want to be quiet and tidy up your thoughts." ”

Shu Xuan persuaded him: "The emperor must take care of the dragon's body." ”

Song Biao hummed and didn't answer.

He knew that he hadn't been to Concubine Shu and the queen much in the past six months, most of them were in Concubine Ning and Concubine Rong, and the sisters always had a special taste, and these two were also very quiet and pious young and beautiful women, with less gossip, and no politics.

When a man reaches this age, his pursuit of women is generally like this, young and beautiful, quiet and not much to say.

Since he explained to the queen, Song Biao didn't plan to go to Xining Palace again at night, so the surname Suo stayed in the imperial study to pursue his own tranquility, and when it was getting late, he got up and went to the imperial study, and continued to read the official documents recently submitted by various cabinet departments.

In the middle of the night, a light rain suddenly fell in the night, and the sound of the rain rustled against the banana leaves outside the window.

Song Biao was alone in the study to read the official documents, and he gave priority to reading the important official documents of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Land and Resources, as well as the summary communiqué of the first half of the year.

One of the greatest advantages of the imperial constitutional monarchy is that the operation of the cabinet is to a large extent subject to the constraints of the emperor and operates outside the imperial power, even if Song Biao does not preside over the Central Discipline and Political Council, the cabinet can maintain normal operation, and each cabinet prime minister will have his own thinking and characteristics.

According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, the agricultural population of the empire is currently maintained at the level of 43.71 million households, and the total area of cultivated land in the country has increased to 2.48 billion mu in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and there are still about 550 million mu of cultivated land available for development, and the average cultivated land per household has increased to 56.74 mu.

Under the promotion of the "Land Restriction Act", the cultivated land of the whole country has been greatly equalized in the past seven years, and the number of peasant households with more than 30 mu of cultivated land has reached 33.28 million in October 1927, and the average grain output per mu has increased to 433 kilograms.

Although grain prices at home and abroad were nearly 30 percent cheaper than in the early period of World War I, the substantial increase in actual per capita arable land and yield per mu also caused the average income of the agricultural population to increase by more than 40 percent compared with 1920.

During the same period, the average income of the industrial population has increased by more than 55% over the past seven years.

These basic figures submitted by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture are enough to show that the growth level of national real income is very good, and the common people have generally become richer; although there is still a large gap between the per capita prosperity level and that of Britain and the United States, as an internal market, China's total domestic demand market is already the second largest in the world, second only to the United States.

China is now a gold standard monetary policy, the gold standard and the later credit standard system has a completely different situation, in this gold standard era, every round of currency is linked to gold, the people's income growth is absolutely no water, the fall in prices is not absolutely tightened.

One of the advantages of the decline in grain prices is that the prices of other resources and commodities have been greatly reduced, the quantity of commercial grain and industrial grain has increased rapidly, and the scale of the domestic food industry has also risen, and the common people are no longer satisfied with only being fed, but must further pursue good food, clothing, and housing, and the strong domestic demand has promoted the development of other industries, especially the textile industry, real estate industry, animal husbandry, and fruit forest industry.

Compared with the international situation after the First World War, China's overall tax rate is relatively low, and the market economy is also very prosperous.

The economic situation is still very simple, it is to use the advantages of high tariffs, high taxes, low income, and zero welfare to maintain the competitiveness of the state finance, which can compete with the European and American powers and China, but in the long run, this kind of policy will inevitably lead to the rise and hegemony of militarism.

In the past seven years, the gap between the level of agriculture and animal husbandry in the empire and Europe and the United States has shrunk from a long seventy years to ten years, and the industrial level has basically kept pace with Europe and the United States, especially in emerging industries such as the electrical industry, and the empire has been in some special fields such as electric motors, electrified railways, high-voltage power grids, welding technology, stamping technology, special machine tools, electronic industry, metallurgical industry, The aircraft manufacturing industry is already at a partial leading level.

Even in the field of education, the gap between the empire and Europe and the United States is rapidly narrowing.

Song Biao spent the whole night flipping through the cabinet of the first half of the political axe report, feeling tired and tired, his heart was also quite gratified, and it is even more fortunate that the central treasury of the empire has been prepared to deal with the economic crisis, after the gradual adjustment in the first half of the year, the Central Reserve Bureau has greatly reduced its holdings of securities assets in the US capital market, some of the assets are stored in the San Francisco branch of the China Commercial Bank in the form of US dollars, some are transferred to the European market to hold francs and French debts, and the rest are cashed into gold. It is used to increase the gold reserves of the country's central bank.

Ouyang Xi's financial report has an overly rigorous professional tendency, and the specific role of many words and professional terms is still a little unfamiliar to Song Biao.

Over the years, Ouyang Xi has long been the most powerful cabinet minister in the empire, controlling the economic lifeline of the empire, although the finance department he leads has no hematopoietic function, but it is like a heart to ensure the normal operation of the empire.

In a wicked capitalist society, money is not only a universal necessity, but also the most important necessity, just like human blood.

Compared with previous years, Ouyang Xi, who is middle-aged, has obviously been much blessed, after the tempering of his career, he is more stable and sophisticated than in the past, and he has the opportunity to meet the emperor again after half a year, he is particularly cautious, wearing a navy blue suit, wearing a golden diagonal tie, and bowing respectfully to the emperor in the office.

Because he got up late, Song Biao had just finished breakfast, and was using a pen in black ink to tick out the words and sentences that were not very clear on the report of the Ministry of Finance, and when he saw that Ouyang Xi had arrived in the office, he glanced up, and then motioned for Ouyang Xi to sit opposite him and talk, and asked him to change a pot of hot tea.

Waiting for Ouyang Xi to sit down, Song Biao took a sip of freshly brewed hot tea unhurriedly, and after a while, he said: "Regarding the controversy between you and Zhang Kangren over whether to increase your holdings of silver assets, I haven't asked about it for a while. My point of view is very simple, no matter which of you is right and who is wrong, since you are the Chancellor of the Exchequer, you are still responsible for this kind of thing, because you are also the one who is ultimately responsible. So here, I don't want to hear those explanations from you about academics and professions either, I just want to know if you strongly believe that the empire should not add to silver assets? ”

Ouyang Xi immediately replied categorically: "Back to Your Majesty, no matter what happens, it is impossible for silver assets to rise back. Since China gave up the silver standard, the world silver price has fallen from 1.71 yuan per ounce to 0.82 yuan, and the price of gold has also fallen from 22 grams to 1 gram to 43 grams to 1 gram. If the world economy continues to improve, the price of silver will decline steadily, and if the world economy deteriorates, the price of silver will fall further sharply. For the sake of insurance, gold reserves are China's constant financial policy. ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, but in fact, he was noncommittal in his heart.

He doesn't know whether the price of silver after the Great Depression is high or low, but Ouyang Xi has a point, in any case, increasing gold reserves is the royal road in the past 30 years, considering that the dollar is no longer possible to form a world hegemony under the premise that China's increase in the dollar is nonsense, only increasing gold is the only choice.

Song Biao thought about it for a while, and continued to pick up the financial report in his hand to check the data, and then asked Ouyang Xi again: "According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, if you account for special reserves, the empire's current gold reserves have exceeded 4,500 tons, about 6 billion yuan?" ”

Ouyang Xi cautiously replied: "Back to the emperor, it is true, in the past six months, the gold reserves of Britain and the United States have dropped significantly, while the gold reserves of France and China are on the rise, according to the total amount of real money issued by our country, our currency reserve rate is at the level of 10%, which is already the highest level in the world, but nominally, we cannot confirm this, nor have we announced the gold reserves prepared by our country, so as to avoid foreign investment institutions increasing their holdings of our currency, resulting in a financial tightening of our currency." The main reason for the large circulation of the British pound and the US dollar is that this is the world's circulation and trade currency, and the scale held by foreign institutions is large, and in order to avoid domestic deflation, the actual monetary reserve ratio of the British pound is seriously insufficient, roughly only 2% of the scale, while the US dollar is between 3.5% and 4%, and the franc remains at about 7%, but the franc has been clearly in a state of foreign holdings and domestic contraction recently, especially the Central Reserve Board of China has also increased its holdings by 1.2 billion francs. If the emperor approves it, I would like to arrange for CITIC to continue to cash out the franc, but from the perspective of the overall environment, the franc is still relatively a hard currency, and its ability to resist falling is second only to that of the Chinese Yuan. ”

Speaking of this, Ouyang Xi slightly lifted the glasses with a round rim of gold wire, and added: "Of course, the ability to resist falling is too strong, and it is not a good thing for the currency itself, the market has its objective laws, and the ups and downs themselves are normal and objective manifestations of the economy." For example, for the British pound, the British foreign trade deficit level for a long time, the outflow of the pound is serious, and the gradual shrinkage of its national wealth is an objective reality, relying only on the current interest rate hike policy can not change the fact that the pound is overvalued, if the pound devalues according to the market law, it is a good thing for the British economy. ”

Song Biao thought for a while and said, "But Britain won't do that." ”

Ouyang Xi said: "The price of Britain not doing this will be very heavy, violating the objective law will always not have a good end, we are also violating the objective law, for us, either take the currency issuance, or reduce the gold reserves, otherwise the same is facing greater economic risks." ”

Song Biao didn't speak, and thought silently for a moment.

He understands the inner meaning of Ouyang Xi's words, the empire is indeed in a stage of excessive retention of gold reserves, although the empire does not release this specific figure, but there is no absolute secret in the international financial market, most of the investment institutions and political axes know that China's gold reserves are already higher than those of the United Kingdom, but compared with the United States, it is difficult to say whether it is high or low.

Unlike the United Kingdom and the United States, the issuance scale of the Chinese Circle is much smaller, which means that there is absolutely no possibility of depreciation of the Chinese Circle.

In order to maintain the current financial austerity policy of the empire to suppress the bubble in the securities and real estate markets, the empire has been adopting a policy of raising interest rates in the past six months, and has successively introduced a number of sets of regulations and tax increase bills to curb the flood of speculation in the securities and real estate markets. The Empire's gold reserves have been increasing rapidly, in contrast to the decline in Anglo-American gold reserves.

100 million pounds is worth 732.24 tonnes of gold, 100 million US dollars is worth 150.46 tonnes of gold, and 100 million medium yuan is worth 75.35 tonnes of gold.

The total market capitalization of the US stock market is approaching $100 billion, and the total market capitalization of the London stock market is approaching 13 billion pounds.

What a terrifying number in the age of the gold standard.

The China Stock Exchange's Consolidated Index has been on a downward trend, with the central bank raising interest rates three times in a row and two large declines in May, with the total market value falling from 58 billion yuan to 41 billion yuan.

By the end of this year, it is expected that there will be an international surplus of $4.2 billion, which is the overseas management reserve entrusted by the Central Reserve Bureau to CITIC Corporation, and a surplus of 1.1 billion yuan from the Ministry of Finance.

In fact, the fiscal surplus of the central government is expanding every year, and the most important reason for this is the income from foreign debt and domestic investment, because the proportion of military spending is not high, and there is no special burden such as social insurance, so the tax revenue of the central government can itself maintain domestic fiscal expenditure, and the excess income keeps turning into a surplus.

This does not mean that if there is a fiscal surplus, it must be invested in a large area of the country, and under the hard indicator of the gold standard, and the principle of maintaining the structure of a free capitalist economy, it is certainly not a good thing for the state to invest too much.

It could even be said that the empire may now need an international financial crisis to release its fiscal surplus.

The United States is now in a very false Coolidge boom, which is itself the result of a large fiscal surplus in the United States, which, like China's, is due to long-term post-World War I Treasury revenues, resulting in excessively loose monetary policy and large-scale industrial and commercial investment, as well as excessive financial speculation.

The nature of the world financial crisis in 2008 was also related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the United States.

Song Biao picked up the report of the Ministry of Finance and read it again, and was generally very satisfied; judging from the magnitude of the decline in Shanghai's stock market and real estate prices, the squeeze of the economic bubble in the first half of the year was very successful, which gave the market enough time to digest the bubble.

Compared with the British pound and the US dollar, the Chinese yuan is also in a tight situation with a high reserve rate, and its resistance to shocks will be stronger.

Judging from the trends and data of domestic economic development, as long as the empire increases the scope of domestic investment, eases credit, and increases central and local fiscal expenditures, there will be enough room to further expand the domestic demand market and resist the decline of the external market.

The main export markets for China's industrial products are Southeast Asia, West Asia, Central and South America, and Africa, and if there is a global financial crisis, these regions will be relatively less affected, which is also good news for China.

Anyway, this situation is still very good, and Song Biao is also very satisfied.

Now there is no more to ask Ouyang Xi, so Song Biao returned the annotated report of the Ministry of Finance to Ouyang Xi, and said: "Okay, you just continue to do this, in the second half of the year, we will maintain the existing major policies unchanged, and pay attention to observing the changes in the international market." ”

Ouyang Xi got up, bowed again, and said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty is going to leave." If the emperor has anything else to ask, his subordinates can listen to it at any time. ”

Song Biao bowed slightly, waved his hand, and motioned for Ouyang Xi to leave like this, and he made another phone call to the inner court, asking Rong Xingqiao, Zheng Guiting, and Chen Guangfu, who were waiting at the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Kyoto, to come over.

Chen Guangfu, chairman of the Far Eastern Bank, and Zhang Naiqi, general manager of the Far Eastern Commercial Bank, are the most prominent executives in the past ten years, and are currently presiding over most of the work of the Far Eastern consortium.

Objectively speaking, most of Rong Xingqiao's group have retired, and he is one of the very few people who continue to stay in office, also because his position is too important, but after this year's annual meeting, Rong Xingqiao will retire, and Zheng Guiting, who is a few years younger, can work for another two years, and he belongs to the last old antique.

They came down to Chen Guangfu.

Song Biao has also had more contact with Chen Guangfu in the past few years, and even once considered letting Chen Guangfu be the governor of the central bank, but he felt that the development momentum of the Far East consortium in recent years was not as outstanding as in the past, and he still needed a really suitable person to maintain the operation of the consortium for a long time, so he continued to stay in Ye Jingkui.

The Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Kyoto is very close to the Central State Guest House and the military headquarters, and it takes more than ten minutes to get to the Central Palace by car, and these three people came very quickly, because they were talking about private matters, Song Biao went to the Zixuan Pavilion in the Imperial Garden to meet them.

The years make people old.

Since the establishment of the Far Eastern Commercial Bank, it has been twenty-three years of spring and autumn, Rong Xingqiao and Zheng Guiting in the year of establishment are very old, white hair vicissitudes, Rong Xingqiao has been overworked all year round, and his health has been even worse over the years, Zheng Guiting is a little better, his face is ruddy, and his body is also tough, and he is probably a rudder who can indeed hold the helm for a few more years.

Song Biao and them don't have to see each other too much, the cabinet side is the courtiers, the inner court and the army are deployed, and the few people here are the retainers, and the relationship is close and alienated at a glance.

When the three of them entered Zixuan Pavilion, Song Biao gave them a seat to sit down, and then asked Rong Xingqiao: "How are you doing, or do you cough badly in the morning and evening?" ”

Rong Xingqiao immediately bowed his hand and said, "Back to the emperor, I don't cough now, but my body is weak and weak, after all, I am still old." ”

Song Biao sighed, personally poured a cup of tea for Rong Xingqiao, and said: "You are too tired, it is not easy to work hard all your life, I have talked to Queen Shu, I don't know where you plan to retire to retire, the palaces in Guangzhou and Shanghai are basically not needed, if you go back to Guangzhou and Shanghai, I will give you the palace, so that you can spend your old age in peace, which is also a little bit of my heart." ”

Rong Xingqiao was overjoyed and hurriedly said: "How dare the people, please ask the emperor to take back his fate!" ”

Song Biao disagreed, and said: "Didn't Zhang Kangren occupy half of my palace, if you continue to stay in Shanghai, my western half of the Yu Garden will be given to you." You don't have to be polite, the people who should be rewarded are not rewarded, how can I use people in the future, and how can I recruit talents? ”

Only then did Rong Xingqiao reply: "Thank you, Emperor Longen!" ”

Song Biao hummed slightly, and continued to say to Zheng Guiting: "After Dong Rong retires, you will be responsible for the affairs of the Far Eastern Consortium, and in your tenure, the restructuring of the Far Eastern Consortium will be accelerated, the Far Eastern Bank will still develop, and China Commerce Bank and Crédit Agricole CIB will also develop, and there is no problem in walking on several legs at the same time." The key lies in key industries, and this year, we will further accelerate the pace of our withdrawal from the United States, concentrating the retained capital in the Bank of Commerce and the Bank of America. Domestic industries are still concentrated in the chemical and heavy industry fields, especially in the high-tech fields of electrical, household electrical appliances, automobiles, aircraft, ships, metallurgy, machine tools, and computers, and the petroleum and mineral fields are the foundation and cannot be relaxed. If you can't do it for long, then try to leave a good foundation for the next one. Now that you are actively recommending Chen Guangfu to take over, then you must have a good cooperation with Chen Guangfu and work together in the past two years. ”

Zheng Guiting replied: "Please also rest assured that the people will do their best to live up to the emperor's high expectations." ”

Chen Guangfu also replied.

Song Biao looked at Chen Guangfu, he had a good impression of this person, in terms of the development of the financial industry, this person is a very good candidate, but the scale of the Far East consortium is not as simple as one or a few banks after all.

The Far East consortium is the largest consortium in Asia, and probably the largest consortium in the whole world, and maintains a high share of leading positions in more than 20 industrial fields in China.

The scale of Crédit Agricole CIB is not small, it was originally the Far East consortium to acquire the Russian-German shares of Sino-Russian, Deutsch-Hua Bank and Crédit Agricole CIB held by the central government, after the merger of the three banks, the Far East consortium won an absolute controlling stake, and gradually transformed into the internal bank of the Far East consortium, second only to the Far Eastern Bank and Commerce Bank in China, and also has a huge branch network in Africa, West Asia and Southeast Asia.

The size of the Far Eastern consortium is basically half of China's, so it is also very difficult to manage the Far East well, in addition to the financial companies controlled by the four major banks, as well as industrial companies such as textiles, petroleum, railways, metallurgy, machinery, shipbuilding, and electrical.

Song Biao is not as familiar with Chen Guangfu as he is with Rong Xingqiao and Zheng Guiting, although it is recognized that this person's level is very high, but Song Biao is indeed not 100% sure.

Song Biao looked at Chen Guangfu for a while, in fact, this person is not young, he is 47 years old this year, he has worked in the Far East Consortium and the Far Eastern Bank Company for 20 years, and after Zhang Kangren left, he was responsible for presiding over the financial industry of the Far Eastern Consortium for a long time, and the merger of Crédit Agricole CIB and China Commerce Bank was a series of large-scale transactions made during his tenure.

His attainments and level in the financial industry are indeed very high, at least at the moment in China, there are very few people who can look up to him, claiming to be the head of the shadow central bank.

After a few more glances, Song Biaocai and Chen Guangfu asked, "Do you have any overall thoughts on the work of the consortium now?" ”

Chen Guangfu thought for a while and replied: "The subordinates and Zheng Dong have discussed this many times, at present, the main reason for the consortium is that the controlling stake is too complicated, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the consortium, and the subordinate idea is to follow the example of the four major state-owned companies, the establishment of the Far East Financial Holding Corporation and the Far East Industrial Holding Corporation, the subsidiaries between the two major companies cross-hold each other's shares, maintain the stability of the equity, the Far East Financial Holding Corporation holds the four major banks, and the four major banks each set up investment companies. Far East Industrial Holding Corporation concentrates on cross-holding Far Eastern Bank, and cooperates with Financial Holding Corporation to disperse and hold other three banks and insurance companies, so as to condense these financial pillars into stronger financial pillars under the Financial Holding Corporation. ”

Song Biao has always had very little control over this aspect, giving these directors freedom, and immediately agreed: "Yes, you can do it according to this idea, and you can do it yourself, but the recent withdrawal from the United States and the action to avoid risks should be intensified, the market value of the US stock market is too high, whether it is the Ministry of Commerce or the Central Bureau of Economic Research, they all feel that the risk is too high, be careful to sail the ship for ten thousand years, not to mention that the total income from our investment in the United States is already very high, there is no need to take too many risks." ”

Chen Guangfu said: "Far East's integration in the United States is too deep, and it is extremely difficult to withdraw capital, so we can only use the high price to sell some of our shares as much as possible, and concentrate capital in our banks to wait and see what happens." In addition, we have made some new transactions with a number of U.S. consortia to further narrow the scope of investment through equity exchanges, focusing on seven industries: automobile, electrical, machine tool, steel, communications, aircraft and oil. ”

Song Biao said: "The car should be further reduced, and there is no other big problem with the principle surname." ”

Chen Guangfu couldn't argue, and nodded silently yes.

Unlike the Central Reserve Board, the contraction of Far Eastern consortium investments in the United States has been going on for several years, especially in the American real estate industry, which has almost completely withdrawn, and has earned a high income of nearly $100 million from the sale of a large number of properties sold at low prices after the San Francisco earthquake.

At the same time as the Far Eastern consortium withdrew, the strength of the local American consortium was expanding, and it also continued to take over the equity of the Far Eastern consortium, so that the Far Eastern consortium held the controlling stakes of Westinghouse Electric Company and Bell Company, making it a subsidiary of the Far Eastern consortium in the United States.

After several years of adjustment, the main assets of the Far East Consortium are concentrated in the financial industry, and it is a state of extremely high self-owned capital rate, and the Far East Trust and Investment Company also holds a large amount of gold investment, but only retains the investment in gold assets in Europe and the United States.

From now on, even in the event of a Great Depression, the Far Eastern consortium will not only be able to withstand the impact of the Great Depression, but will also be able to use its abundant own capital to develop and expand against the trend.

Song Biao is naturally very satisfied with this, there will definitely be a large loss at that time, but after the disaster, the Far East will occupy more market share and technological advantages, which is the most important.

(To be continued)