When the development of East Africa was in full swing, the rest of the world was not calm, and it can be said that the stable development of East Africa benefited from the fact that the Far Eastern Empire shared most of the pressure, and Britain, Russia, and Japan invaded the Far Eastern Empire from the southwest, northwest, and western Pacific as agreed.

The size of East Africa is not small in the world, but Europe does not know much about East Africa, and the Far East belongs to the kind that cannot be hidden.

France did not join this time because France was digesting the results of the Second Vietnamese-French War (1873-1874), and on March 15, 1874, France signed the Second Treaty of Saigon with Cochin, stipulating that the French army would maintain law and order in the area ruled by the Nguyen Dynasty; Vietnam recognized France's indisputable control over Cochin; The French were allowed to use the Red River as a conduit for trade with the southwest of the Far Eastern Empire.

Africa, the last part of the European invasion, can lie down for a little longer, and it is clear that the Far East as a whole is more attractive to the Great Powers than the rest of the world and even Africa (excluding North Africa).

Japan's attempts at Eggbay had been thwarted last year, but the crisis in the northwest and southwest was not something Ernst could intervene in, both of which were deep in the hinterland of the Far East.

To the southwest, the British have not yet made an operation, and if nothing happens, a crisis will break out in the next month.

The north-western direction was actually an old problem, which had already erupted in 1864, but there was a debate within the Far Eastern government about coastal defense and blockade defense, and this debate lasted for ten years, and it was really efficient.

This year, the Far Eastern government finally made up its mind to solve the problem in the northwest and recover the lost territory in the northwest, but it was decided, that is, no one was willing to pay for it.

The empire's finances can be said to be riddled with holes, the national army owes more than 30 million taels, and the financial and tax areas are controlled by local forces such as Xianghuai (army), which makes it difficult for Zuo Jigao, who is actively fighting the main battle and defending the country.

May 1875.

Heixingen Bank (Kaifeng).

As the capital of a province, Kaifeng is still relatively prosperous in this era, and it is the easternmost point of the Huaihai Economic Zone, the key area of the inland business of the Heixinggen Bank, and the place where the Jin merchants, Hui merchants and the Heixingen consortium negotiated.

Today, the representatives of the two rare merchant gangs came to Kaifeng to discuss with Mayweather, the head of the Central Plains region of the Heixingen Bank, but they also brought one person with them.

"Mr. Mayweather, this is an important member of our Far Eastern government, Lord Zuo Jigao, and I actually have something to ask for when I came to visit today!"

Mayweather, who thought he was here to talk about business, smiled: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say, as long as it's not too difficult, I'm willing to serve." ”

Qiao Zhiyong: "I'll tell you the truth, we are here to raise military expenses this time, and I think your bank should have heard of it." ”

Mayweather's eyes lit up: "Hades showed tea to these distinguished guests!" ”

Not only have you heard of it, but in fact, the big banks that do business in the Far East know it, but why Zuo Jigao found Hexingen Bank is still thanks to two business allies of Hexingen Bank.

Zuo Jigao has a good relationship with Hu Xueyan, and he is in the northwest, so it is indispensable to deal with Qiao Zhiyong, so they came to Kaifeng together under the recommendation of the two.

Zuo Jigao: "Mr. Mayweather, this time we borrowed money to deal with the separatist forces in the northwest, the road is long, and the environment is harsh, I am afraid this battle will not be easy to fight......

Mayweather interrupted: "Your Excellency Zuo, you can just say how much you want to borrow!" ”

So simply? So Zuo Jigao stretched out five fingers to see what strength this Heixingen Bank had, Zuo Jigao had also been to HSBC before, after all, HSBC had a greater reputation and had been operating in the Far East for a longer time.

"Five million taels of silver?"

"It doesn't matter if your bank can't come up with so much money in a short period of time, we can also contact other people."

"Hehe, it's a joke, five million taels is not much for us, I just wonder if this money is too little for you? You must know that behind the north-western separatist forces stand the Russians. ”

"Can you borrow more money?" I asked HSBC before, and they said that it would take a lot of work to come up with such a lot of money, which is not a small amount. ”

"Hehe, don't say five million taels, even 20 million taels we can also lend, but 20 million taels are not necessarily all silver."

"If it's a pound, it's acceptable."

"No, it's the East African Rhine Shield, which is also a national currency."

Hu Xueyan explained: "The Rhine shield is a kind of paper money issued by the East African kingdom, and one tael of silver is equal to five Rhine guilders. ”

"Is this currency reliable?"

"You can exchange gold directly at the Hexingen Bank."

“！”

Mayweather: "Your Excellency Zuo, rest assured, the East African Rhine Shield is only one of the few in circulation in the world, but it is indeed a genuine currency issued by the Kingdom of East Africa, backed by gold, and the value of the currency is very stable. ”

"Then isn't it very troublesome to buy supplies with this currency?"

"Don't worry, what do you say? This can be provided by our Heixingen Bank, military rations, military uniforms, or ordnance, even European military instructors. ”

"This ......" seems to be lacking.

Let's not care about anything else, let's see what conditions Heixinggen Bank can give, Zuo Jigao put aside the thoughts in his mind and said: "If, I mean, if our government borrows 10 million taels from your bank, what conditions can you give?" ”

Mayweather didn't answer: "Then it depends on what price your country can give?" ”

Zuo Jigao said tentatively: "My expectation is no more than five!" ”

"Deal!" Mayweather said directly.

"......" yourself is high?

"Of course ......"

Sure enough, there are still conditions, Zuo Jigao guessed that Westerners would not agree to themselves so easily, according to the current market price of international loans, the interest rate is about 4 percent, and he only raised it a little, I am afraid that no one will agree to it casually.

I only heard Mayweather continue: "We can borrow from your country, but the corresponding military food procurement should be handed over to our bank, and we will also eat some of the ordnance." Mayweather, president of the Kaifeng branch of Hexingen Bank, said.

Zuo Jigao: "Your bank is still running a grain business? ”

Hu Xueyan explained on the side: "Zuo Gong, Heixingen Bank seems to be a money bank, but it is actually a top chaebol in the West, which operates a lot, and is a well-known big bank in Germany. ”

Zuo Jigao: "But this war is far away in the northwest, do you have the ability to send food to the front line?" ”

Mayweather: "This is easy to do, we have a mature commercial route, we can go directly from East Africa to Jiaozhou, and finally reach Kaifeng by land, and the rest is what you need to think about." ”

Qiao Zhiyong on the side said: "We can do it for us in this regard, and there is absolutely no problem from Henan to the northwest." ”

The business alliance is not talking, in fact, without this war, the Jin merchants still poured grain from the Huaihai Economic Zone to the northwest.

Zuo Jigao: "Let's not talk about the food problem, I'm afraid of arms!" ”

Mayweather: "Hehe, Your Excellency Zuo, don't worry, we are also quite good at the arms business, whether it is German or Austrian weapons, as long as we have money, we can get them, and there are cheap ones, just like the backward rifles of the Dreiser, we still have a lot of inventory, if it is a more advanced rifle, we can also supply the most advanced Mauser rifle in Prussia." ”

Boy! A while ago, Li Hongzhang also poured a batch of ninety percent of the new Dreiser rifle production line from the Germans, and it became a backward rifle in a blink of an eye?

Feeling that this was not enough, Mayweather added a fire and said: "As we all know, your country's equipment is mainly British, although Britain is strong, but it is more reflected in the navy, in terms of the army, our German talent is the first in the world, and even the French army, which used to be known as the world's first, is also the defeated general of our Germans." ”

The fact that France lost to Germany is likely to be on the lips of the Germans for decades to come.

"These are all easy to solve, but what conditions does your bank have?"

"In addition to these, we have to see sincerity on the collateral, after all, this is a high-risk investment, feelings are expensive, business belongs to business, and without collateral, we dare not take out a loan indiscriminately."

"There really are no additional requirements for anything else?"

Mayweather shook his head and said, "No." ”

It's not that Mayweather doesn't want to, but there is an order from above that the interest rate on the Far Eastern Empire should not be too high this time, although there are other banks to reduce prices, according to Mayweather's psychological expectations, the interest rate should be at least around seven.

Five is not bad, there is still some earning, the interest of the fourth in the market is already a lot, the average person will not borrow if he is not in a hurry, the business of Heixingen Bank in the entire Far East is similar to that of HSBC, so usury is also operated, such as Japan and North Korea, borrowing can be, and if you can't afford to pay it back, you can also use population and resources to pay off the debt.

It's impossible to repay the debt, there are three countries behind the Hexingen Bank, and the average country does not have the courage to do so, and East Africa is also capable of armed debt collection, and it can't deal with Europe, and it can't deal with you?

(End of chapter)