Shortly after President Grant had lunch with business leaders at the White House, the president, who had always been financially ignorant, made the announcement that he had recommended his current Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Botwell, to the post of Supreme Court Justice, and that his current position would be filled by the famous billionaire Mr. JP Morgan.

Mr. Botwell was an upright man, and when he rectified the previous gold fraud case, he was still able to deal with it with iron and selflessness even when the culprits involved the president's family, thus stabilizing the order of the gold market. Therefore, it is also highly praised. However, in the face of this economic crisis, the minister could not come up with any good solutions. Later, it was rumored that President Grant, after secret talks with Mr. Morgan, decided to adopt a relatively risky and active fiscal policy to stimulate the economy, the core of which was to increase government spending and stimulate the economy by deficit finance.

Mr. Botwell was a staunch opponent of this bizarre economic policy, and he pointed out to President Grant that if this continued, it would certainly bring the United States into the empire. Country. Host. Go into the abyss of the righteous war. He was categorically opposed to such an approach. He was then nominated to the Supreme Court as a judge.

To be honest, the position of Supreme Court judge is definitely a good position. In the national apparatus of the United States, there are only a few positions that almost no one can manage, and the term is for life. The Supreme Court has seven large. Judges, they are nominated by the president, the two chambers pass guò, and then the president approves them. Once in office, he will serve for life unless he is found guilty of dereliction of duty by a two-thirds vote in both chambers. And with a two-thirds vote in both chambers, it is almost impossible to impeach a judge. What's more, serve as a large. Judge is a supreme honor. Because once in this position, one can be seen as the guardian of the U.S. Constitution.

Because big. Judges are appointed for life. So a lot of times, a president simply doesn't have the opportunity to nominate anyone for the big . Judges because of several large Supreme Court members. The judges are all alive and well, and their places are not vacant. Not long ago, however, there was a large . The judge died of illness, and President Grant had in his hands an indicator that would be the envy of all the cabinet members. Under the temptation of this position, Mr. Botwell backed down, and he expressed his willingness to abdicate and go to the Supreme Court to become a great man. Judge.

Botwell went to the Supreme Court for another purpose, and that was to change the size of the Supreme Court. Composition of judges. Before the Civil War, Democrats spent a little more time in the White House than Republicans and their predecessors, the Whigs. In addition, several judges died when the Democratic Party was president, and the new judges are nominated by the president, and the president of the Democratic Party, of course, only nominates people from the Democratic Party. Today, both in the executive branch of the White House and in the legislative branch of Congress, the Republicans have a clear advantage, but in the judicial branch, the Supreme Court, the Democrats have an overwhelming advantage. Sending a Republican with a good reputation and strong ability into it is also of great significance to the Republican Party.

Now that Botwell went to the Supreme Court. The position he vacated could naturally be given to those who approved of Grant's new initiative. It's just that this kind of "active fiscal policy" has not been seen much before. In order not to deviate, JP Morgan simply jumped out of this position on his own, starting the legend of his life as the temporary secretary of the treasury to fight the economy many times.

Immediately afterward, the Grant administration submitted a package of applications to Congress for so-called "special spending funds." The National Assembly is required to approve the government's borrowing of large amounts of money from the private sector to be used for domestic stability maintenance expenses and additional naval construction costs.

"When the navy manufactures warships, it has to buy a large number of various things, such as steel, machinery, fuel oil, munitions, and so on, so that it can stimulate the development of other enterprises, so as to take them as the leader and stimulate the recovery of the entire economy." Faced with questions from both houses, Grant replied like this.

Senator Mays from the Democratic Party accused Grant of violating the principles of the free market and being unfair to other businesses. At the same time, he also asked sharply: "When the national debt matures, what does Mr. President plan to use to repay such a debt?" Isn't using government tax revenue to subsidize the so-called related enterprises with all taxpayers' money? ”

To Senator Mace's accusations, President Grant's new Secretary of the Treasury, JP Morgan, replied in a very scathing, even impudent, manner:

"It is the duty of the government to serve the whole people, and does anyone think that we should remain indifferent and stand idly by in the face of the plight of countless people who have fallen into poverty? All government expenditures, all procurement, are carried out in a free market in accordance with the principle of fairness and openness. Therefore, it does not constitute a violation of the principle of free market. The current situation in the country requires the government to have a stronger ability to maintain stability and be able to protect the interests of our citizens around the world more effectively. Isn't it in the service of the whole people? Isn't the so-called related company a company of American nationals? Could it be that it is only the so-called companies that profit in a more stable social environment and in a more stable overseas market? Look at your narrow understanding of the free market, you're a Democrat, aren't you? As a legislator elected by the people, don't you feel ashamed that you can't even figure this out? Shame on you, shame on you! ”

As a government official, it is absolutely undignified to answer a Legislator's question in this way. In particular, questions such as "Are you a Democrat?" should have aroused the anger of all Democrats, and at least Democratic lawmakers will unite against this plan in the next vote, right?

However, the result of the subsequent vote was unexpected. Those damn Republicans voted yes, and quite a few Democrats voted yes too.

"Damn, most of these guys took Morgan's money! It must be so! Mace thought.

This was the end of the new appropriation plan, under which the U.S. Navy would receive ten new large warships and more auxiliary vessels. In order not to overly irritate the British, the navy will also retire some related warships at the same time as these warships are served, and the size of the entire navy will not expand too much.

The Admiralty then tendered for the warships, and the shipyard in the hands of Scrooge and Morgan relied on its experience and technical superiority to unsurprisingly obtain the contract for the manufacture of the ten warships.

The Morgan-MacDonald Shipyard proposal was really just an enlarged version of the Cleveland Cruiser. The tonnage was enlarged to the level of 5,000 tons of standard displacement and 6,500 tons of full load displacement. Equipped with a larger steam turbine, its speed has not decreased, and in terms of firepower and protection, this ship is not even different from the Cleveland-class fast cruisers. Almost all of the increased displacement was used to increase range and self-sustaining.

There is only one reason for this design, and that is to serve as much as possible. According to the plan, these warships will become combat strength after the opening of the Panama Canal. And the Panama Canal Company is already preparing to start work.

By this time it was the end of 1871. In Scrooge's Duck Castle came a few more guests from the East. To say that these people are also old acquaintances of Scrooge. It was Yung Hong, the first Chinese graduate of Yale, who took the lead, along with three Manchu government officials.

Hearing that some men with pigtails had arrived, Dorothea was interested in the arrival and met with Scrooge. Compared with Rong Hong, the attitude of these Manchu officials was a little restrained. Most of them basically don't speak in line with the principle of talking more and making more mistakes, talking less and making fewer mistakes, and not talking well. But from this restraint, Scrooge could see that these officials, after traveling by train across the continent, were impressed by the vastness and power of the United States (only relative to the Manchus, of course).

These people came to the door for two things. The first thing to do is to arrange for the young Scrooge to be too young. The thing about the child studying abroad. After Li Hongzhang's efforts, this matter was finally approved by the Empress Dowager Cixi and began to be officially implemented. According to the plan, Rong Hong and the three Manchu officials came to Cleveland with thirty children who could speak English roughly. There, they were dispersed to thirty American families, most of whom were home to senior Scrooge employees, and attended elementary schools in the United States. That's because the vast majority of elementary schools in the U.S. are funded by property taxes and donations from their communities. Therefore, the school where the children of the rich go to school will naturally have better conditions than the school where the poor study. Living with these people guarantees them a relatively better education. In the future, they will go to high school here and eventually enter universities in the United States.

Scrooge knows that this group of international students will have a good development after returning to China in the future. And funding these people will definitely give Scrooge more advantages in the Chinese market in the future. This can be regarded as a long line to catch a big fish.

As for the second thing, I still ordered more machines from Scrooge, especially generators. Scrooge was interested in the deal, but he was more interested in technical standards. As long as China uses his technical standards, it means that all kinds of expansions and upgrades in the future will have his business. This kind of profit may last for hundreds of years. So Scrooge immediately became enthusiastic.

"Rong, you know, the electrical revolution started from us. Therefore, our power generation and transmission technology is the most authentic. If you come and buy these from us, you're really in the right place. Well, you're not going to buy a little bit of the United States and a little bit of the British and German, like the arms, right? If so, I would like to warn you that it is very uneconomical. Well, Yung, you haven't been in the U.S. for a while, have you? The transmission standards in the United States are different from those in the United Kingdom and Germany. So if you both buy it, that's going to be a conflict with each other. For example, we in the United States are basically using 220 volts of alternating current according to our standards, while in the United Kingdom, there are both alternating current and direct current, and they are messing with themselves. The Germans use the same standard as we do. It's just that their long-distance transmission uses our patented technology, so it will be extra expensive to use their stuff. Besides, if you inquire in Europe, you will know that the reputation of German goods is not very good, far inferior to British goods, and certainly not as good as ours. Well, if you choose us, I can even provide you with some newer military technology, well, for example, rapid-fire guns, which are the kind of artillery that the Germans used to defeat the French. ”