After Lin Zhe and Wu Jianzhang sent the British, French and American consuls away, the two returned to the city with the support of a group of subordinates. ”

Lin Zhe's face was still calm, and he said in a flat tone: "Negotiations, they always ask for money to pay back, they say theirs, we say ours!" ”

In fact, the preliminary negotiations that ended just now did not last long, not even half an hour before and after, and no agreement was reached, but the two sides revealed some preliminary demands for negotiations.

In this brief initial negotiation, Britain, the United States and France put forward many demands on Lin Zhe and Wu Jianzhang, some of which were expected by Lin Zhe, for example, Britain, France and the United States did not agree to Lin Zhe directly setting up checkpoints on the river to collect taxes.

The original intention of this negotiation was to talk about customs, and the appearance of these customs affairs was naturally expected by Lin Zhe, but later he found that this time the consuls of Britain, France and the United States took advantage of the opportunity of this negotiation to put forward many demands that he did not expect.

Most of these demands were made by the United States and France, such as the United States and France, which demanded that the British monopoly of the place of residence be abolished and that they be allowed to fly their respective flags in the place of residence.

As soon as this move was exported, it was strongly opposed by the British, and then France took the lead in proposing whether France could choose another place to live and do business since it was impossible to live together in the place of residence, and then the Americans also said the same demand.

Lin Zhe did not know at this time that he was now involved in the negotiation of the 'Anglo-French-American Land Lease Charter in Shanghai' signed in 1854. In the original time and space, Wu Jianzhang did not hesitate to agree to many conditions that undermined sovereignty in order to seek help from Britain, the United States and France to counterattack Shanghai, and the consequence of these conditions was the signing of the 'Shanghai Anglo-French-American Land Lease Charter'.

In this treaty, China completely lost the administrative right of the place of residence, and the foreigners were given the right to set up the administrative body of the place of residence and to collect taxes from foreign merchants and Chinese. At the same time, it also opened up the French Concession and the American Concession, and began the precedent of the Chinese Concession becoming a country within a country!

Although it is now very different from the original time and space, for example, the knife will be destroyed too quickly, Wu Jianzhang does not need to ask the foreigners to recover Shanghai at all.

However, the foreigners still put forward conditions similar to those of the original time and space to Lin Zhe and Wu Jianzhang!

In the final analysis, the reason why they put forward these conditions is because of objective needs, such as the power in the existing residence is controlled by the British, and businessmen from other countries who live and do business in the residence need to report to the British consul and obtain approval, and at the same time, only the British flag is allowed to fly in the residence.

Naturally, the French and Americans were quite upset, and protested to the British several times, but the British did not like them, so they hit China with the idea and tried to get a new place of residence.

In addition to these political factors, there are also some economic factors, since the opening of Shanghai in the forties and the establishment of a place of residence, Shanghai has gradually replaced Guangzhou as the preferred city for merchants from all over the world to trade in China, which has brought great economic vitality to Shanghai, but also made the original residence unusable.

You think, now all the merchants from all the countries who come to Shanghai to trade are crowded into this settlement, not only is the settlement crowded, but the port and wharf are gradually insufficient, in other words, the area of the existing settlement is no longer enough to accommodate the activities of merchants from all over the world.

The political and economic double impression is the direct reason why the consuls of Britain, France and the United States proposed to expand the residence ground, the main demand of which is the United States and France, while the British think that if the United States and the French have their own exclusive residence, then the existing residence will become the exclusive property of the British, so they support their request.

Since common law requires the expansion of residency, customs matters, which were in fact the main negotiating matter, become less important.

In fact, in the first negotiations, although Britain, the United States and France were dissatisfied with China's direct re-establishment of the border on the river, they did not directly reject China's proposal to take back the north pass of the river and sea.

However, they also expressed the hope that the Chinese side would be able to manage the Jiangxi customs more efficiently, and that there would be more qualified personnel who were familiar with customs affairs to levy taxes on foreign businessmen, instead of being as chaotic as they are now, and even pointed out that at present, some customs officials are forcibly demanding bribes from foreign businessmen, and if they do not give bribes, they will make things difficult in many ways, and at the same time, the language barrier between the two sides has also caused great trouble.

They also expressed their willingness to provide necessary assistance to China to solve these matters, such as sending people from various countries who are proficient in customs affairs to join China Customs to assist China in handling customs affairs.

At present, China's customs, like all Chinese government yamen, are full of all kinds of bad habits, and if they want to greatly increase the tax revenue of Jianghai North Customs, they must rectify the customs, and how to rectify and how to prepare a more efficient, and at the same time put an end to large-scale corruption and bad rules, is the problem that Lin Zhe needs to face.

He himself is naturally not proficient in these, if he can get some assistance from foreigners, then it will be much easier to rectify customs affairs in the future, of course, he doesn't know yet.

If Lin Zhe did this, future generations would have to scold him for letting foreigners get involved in customs affairs.

In the face of these preliminary demands put forward by the consuls of Britain, France and the United States, Lin Zhe did not make a decision immediately, but continued to negotiate with Britain, France and the United States.

The next day, the two sides sat down again.

On this day, Lin Zhe proposed the concept of "Shanghai Business Zone" in response to the request of the Anglo-American consul to expand his residence.

Lin Zhe said that in consideration of the actual needs of businessmen from various countries, he recognized the right of foreigners to legally live and do business within the designated area, recognized that foreigners have the right to legally employ Chinese within the designated area, and considering the insufficient area of the existing residence area, he expressed his agreement in principle to expand the scope of residence and business of businessmen from various countries.

To this end, he said that Shanghai will expand the area according to the existing residential area, and finally plan a business zone with an area of up to 2,000 acres.

In the trade zone, the people of Britain, the United States and France can legally reside, do business, rent land, houses, hire Chinese, establish churches of their respective denominations, set up their own embassies, and have the right to fly their respective national flags in their respective embassies.

Britain, the United States and France all expressed great interest in the Shanghai trade zone proposed by Lin Zhe, because a series of increased powers were all they had fought for before.

In these years, China was extremely repulsive to foreigners, and the British did not hesitate to wage two wars in order to fight for the right to live and do business, and even so, these foreigners actually had many restrictions in China, such as hiring Chinese must first obtain the consent of the Chinese government.

Lin Zhe took the initiative to throw out so many conditions, and he also had what he wanted, that is, the government of the business district has the power to apportionment and levy taxes on the residents in the business zone, and both Chinese and foreigners have the obligation to pay taxes.

For Lin Zhe's proposal, the three kingdoms are also a little worried, the heart is certain, expanding the residence is their main motive, Lin Zhe is willing to expand the residence, regardless of whether it is called a business zone or a residence or a lease, this is of little significance to them, the important thing is that now their activity area has expanded a lot.

The fear is that if the zone were to be placed directly under the control of Chinese officials, it would hurt their interests.

In this regard, the Anglo-American Law expressed its acceptance in principle and support for Lin Zhe's proposal for a business zone, but also said that if a business district government is to be established, then their wishes must be fully considered.

After a few more days of arguing, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement on this negotiation!

The agreement is divided into two parts, first of all, the first part is customs affairs, more than 10 articles, most of them are some details, little impact, and the main one, that is, in view of the current backward way of China's customs management, China needs to reform the system of Shanghai River Customs and other rectifications of customs, and Britain, France and the United States promise to provide the necessary personnel to provide reasonable construction for the Chinese side.

On the one hand, Lin Zhe needs the help of these foreigners, but he also does not want these foreigners to directly enter the customs, forming a situation where the tail is too big to fall, so the entry of these foreigners stipulated in the article is not in the name of employees, but in the way of 'supervising the private advisers of the Jianghai Customs Road'.

Wu Jianzhang, the superintendent of the Jiangxi Customs Department, came forward to hire a number of foreign consultants of various numbers to assist in handling customs affairs.

In other words, these foreigners are not employees or consultants of the official agency of Jianghaiguan, but personal advisers belonging to Wu Jianzhang.

The first batch of more than 10 customs consultants will guide the Chinese side to form a brand-new, efficient and clean new 'Jianghai Beiguan'.

In addition to customs matters, the biggest issue is, of course, the issue of residency.

China, the United Kingdom, the United States and France have signed a new 'Shanghai Business Zone Charter', the first paragraph of which is the charter to completely replace the 'Shanghai Land Lease Charter' and some subsequent supplementary provisions, the revocation of the residence can only fly the British flag and many provisions that foreign businessmen need to report to the British consul.

The new 'Shanghai Business Zone Charter', which replaces many previous agreements and treaties, has dozens of paragraphs.

For those foreigners, the core clause is naturally to expand the area of legal residence activities, and the scope of the business zone is from Suzhou Creek in the north, Huangpu River in the east, moat in the south, and Zhujiaqiao in the west, with a total area of about 2,200 acres.

At the same time, businessmen from Britain, the United States and France have the right to legally reside, lease land, rent and do business in the trade zone, and the three countries can legally set up their own consulates in the place and have the right to fly their respective national flags in their respective embassies.

For China, the most important thing is the administrative power of the trade zone, so as to completely revoke the small amount of autonomy granted by foreigners in the 'Shanghai Land Lease Charter'.

Blocking the possibility of the trade zone becoming a state within a state.

Of course, according to the Treaty of Nanjing signed by the Qing court and other countries, foreigners still have the right of judicial autonomy, and if foreigners commit crimes, they can only be tried by a court composed of foreigners in the trade area, which Lin Zhe has no right to change.

After the signing of this charter, Xu Naizhao, the governor of Jiangsu, appointed Lin Zhe, who was in charge of the negotiations, as the 'supervisor of the trade zone', with full responsibility for managing the military and political affairs of the trade zone.

looked at Xu Naizhao's appointment. Lin Zhe finally smiled!

Although the jurisdiction of this business zone is only more than 2,000 acres, and its scope is not even as good as a small county, but its political significance is very large, which allows him to really get involved in the Shanghai area and the name.

You must know that when he first created this business zone, he didn't think about giving up the title of superintendent to others, so when he was negotiating, he had already sent a letter to Xu Naizhao and obtained his support.

Of course, in order to gain Xu Naizhao's support, Lin Zhe generously said that Yu Shengjun's military construction expenses for assisting in the defense of Shanghai could be reduced from 50,000 taels to 30,000 taels.

directly threw out 20,000 taels of silver for the name of this superintendent.

For Lin Zhe, the title of the superintendent of this business district is more important than Su Songtai's military preparation.

After the appointment was obtained, and the treaty had been signed, Lin Zhe left the county seat of Shanghai and officially entered the newly demarcated business zone to take office.

PS: The recommendation list is very dangerous, it will fall at any time at the end of the list, and I implore the students who have a ticket in their hands to help cast a vote on a rainy day, so that Xiaoxiong can stay on the list and let more people see this book!

;