Shu Jinxi knew that what Wang Wenwu said was also the truth. The Beiyang government is not only politically out of order, but also financially and economically disordered. Due to the lack of real political unification and the fact that the localities are doing their own thing, the central government's decrees often do not go beyond the scope of the capital, and most of the local fiscal revenues are withheld by the local powerful factions and are not handed over to the central government, resulting in a sharp drop in state tax revenue. In addition, military operations are frequent, military expenditures are huge, and the country's finances are in extreme difficulty.

And China has a large number of tariffs, except for two layers that are kept by customs for their own use. Most of it is used to repay internal and external debts, especially external debts. A lot of the borrowing is secured by tariffs.

Shu Jinxi said, "Master, you say that this Republic of China is a new era? Why admit previous borrowings? We ordinary people pay attention to personal debt repayment. The Qing Dynasty has been dead for so many years, and all the money was owed by the Qing Dynasty when they signed unequal treaties. Why should we pay it back?"

Speaking of this, Wang Wenwu couldn't help it, after all, successive governments gave priority to repaying foreign debts. If a foreign debt is about to mature, it will be repaid first, that is, the various departments will not be paid back the wages owed in advance.

In this regard, Wang Wenwu really couldn't bear it. Wang Wenwu himself is fine, and the whole family does not rely on this to eat. However, there are many low-level officials who borrow money from all over the place. With a good reputation and low interest, Wang Wenwu made a lot of interest money with tears.

Not to mention that this money is not much money, but it is still a lot. Although many people are in the Qingshui Yamen, which has no oil and water. But no matter how you say it, you are also an official in BJ City, and you can't see anyone when you look up. Even if he is often in arrears, Wang Wenwu is not easy to collect.

Not only that, but I am also afraid that someone will abandon the official and run away. That's just the loss of all the principal and interest. One of them can't be beaten, scolded, or urged.

It just so happened that at this time, people still believed in it. Although it is because Yuefeng is often in arrears, as long as you have more money, you will always pay back the money as soon as possible.

Wang Wenwu said angrily, "What else can it be? It's not to win the trust of those first-class foreign countries and capital groups, otherwise how could it be so easy to lay down Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai? If you don't take on all the foreign debts left by the Beiyang government, you don't even think about this kind of thing."

Shu Jinxi also sighed heavily, "At that time, in the slogan of the Northern Expedition, it was necessary to defeat the great powers. How now? Not only will we not defeat the great powers, but we will also recognize all foreign debts. Otherwise, wouldn't it be possible to unify China?"

Seeing this, Wang Wenwu said as if comforting: "The Nanjing government is much better off now than the BJ government at the beginning, after all, after the European war, China's debt pressure has been reduced.

Because the pioneer China entered the war at the request of the Entente countries, it received the Gengzi indemnity and postponed it for five years, and then renewed it after November of the 11th year of the Republic of China.

After the war, due to the accession to the Entente, China formed belligerent relations with Germany and Austria, and after the defeat of the two countries, China's outstanding reparations were naturally cancelled. In addition, Russia voluntarily renounced the outstanding Gengzi indemnity after the October Revolution. These three indemnities account for nearly half of the total amount of Geng's payment."

Shu Jinxi asked curiously, "Master, how much money did the BJ government borrow?"

Wang Wenwu thought for a moment and said, "I remember that in the 14th year of the Republic of China, the annual revenue of the government budget was only more than 400 million yuan, and the annual expenditure was as high as 600 million yuan, and the difference between income and expenditure was as high as more than 100 million yuan. At that time, in order to make up for the budget shortfall, the BJ government borrowed heavily from the budget.

It borrows in a variety of ways, including public bonds officially issued by the government, short-term treasury securities, and short-term loans from banks and banks.

However, due to the lack of financial resources and the lack of sufficient credibility of the government, the BJ government had to use the suspension and deferred payment of reimbursements that could have been used for various government expenditures as a guarantee fund when issuing public bonds in the country."

Shu Jinxi also asked casually, but he didn't expect Wang Wenwu to be so clear. It seems that the BJ government owes money, which is really too much, otherwise with Wang Wenwu's character, how could he know so much!

Shu Jinxi said, "Have you received all the monthly gifts when you were in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce?"

Wang Wenwu was immediately upset, and said it well when he left. But in the end, two months of monthly service were reissued, and there was still half a year left behind.

"There's still half a year left for the moon, if it weren't for me, I'm still in BJ. per month

Go for them all, or you won't reissue them at all. I posted it for more than a month before I came!"

The more foreign debts, the more serious the loss of China's tariffs, and the more difficult it is to recover; In addition, domestic debts are guaranteed by customs surpluses and deferred payments, which is also easy to facilitate foreigners' intervention in China's economy, forming a vicious circle in which foreigners continue to strengthen their control over China's finances through tariffs.

In fact, the more serious problem lies in the fact that most of the domestic and foreign debts borrowed cannot be used for economic construction, but are used for military spending. In terms of the use of foreign debts borrowed, military and administrative expenses account for 60 percent, railway expenses account for three and a half layers, and the rest is used for industry. At that time, public opinion criticized the government for "living on debt", but in fact, it had nothing to rely on.

In the 16th year of the Republic of China, the BJ government planned to issue 20 million yuan of "8% public bonds" to solve the urgent need, but when it was carried out, it repeatedly touched various reefs due to problems such as guarantees, interest, and discounts, and was opposed by both inside and outside. In the end, by forcibly amortizing the $15 million in public bonds reluctantly issued by the banks, the government had only $6.2 million available for government expenditure, and this amount was not enough to pay off the government's old and new debts.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance was so poor that it could not even pay $100.

In order to minimize the obstruction of foreign forces during the Northern Expedition, the Nanjing government had to collect all the domestic and foreign debts borrowed by the BJ government since Yuan Dashuai.

Wang Wenwu's friends in finance said that he had made statistics in private. In the 15 years since Yuan Dashuai, the BJ government has issued a total of 27 kinds of domestic bonds, with an estimated total amount of nearly 900 million yuan.

The government's foreign debt has reached 2.2 billion yuan, most of which is borrowed from Japan, followed by Britain, and then from the United States, some of which are guaranteed and some of which are not.

But don't think that you can pay off without guarantees, Russia owes a lot of money during the European war. If it hadn't been for the nascent government's announcement that it was not going to pay it back, there would have been no subsequent multinational intervention.

Russia can overthrow the multinational coalition forces, and it is good that China's commanders can not lag behind. So it becomes the priority of debt repayment is. First return the foreign ones, and then the domestic ones. The last remaining money is used for payroll.