In November 1845, when the "Shanghai Land Charter" was just signed, the number of foreigners living in the magic capital reached 90, and even a few years later, in the 50s, on the eve of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the number of foreigners was less than 300, and the more than 800 acres of land must be enough.

However, in 1848, the consul Ali Guo, who succeeded Bafur, took advantage of the "Qingpu Teaching Case" to blackmail, and also drove the warship to Nanjing, which frightened the emperor into a haunt, and finally forcibly leased the British along the Wusong River and Pidgin, crossed the border road and continued to expand westward, until more than 2,000 acres of land were stopped.

Therefore, during the period from 1848 to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the actual area of the British Concession was only about 2,800 acres.

The French Concession of Shanghai was established in January 1849.

At that time, seeing that the British succeeded in blackmailing so easily, the French consul in the magic capital, Mintiny, was greatly encouraged, and also demanded a concession in line with French dignity.

(Knowledge: Wu Jianzhang was removed from his post for the first time as an official because he upheld China's sovereignty and collided with foreign consuls, can't you think of it?)

The next Shanghai Daotai was the personal guard of the imperial court minister Qi Shan, a Manchurian Lin Gui, after this lord took office, he carried forward the style of the original boss, accepted all the requirements of Min Ti Ni, demarcated a large section of land from pidgin to the north city wall of Shanghai to Min Ti Ni as a concession, and even wrote in the contract "If the land is not enough in the future, it can continue to expand" and many other redundant words.

Later, the French concession was repeatedly expanded, even wrapping the old Shanghai county, for many historical reasons, but this passage in the contract signed by Lin Gui is still the cause.

The treaty between Lin Gui and Min Tiny was signed around January 1849, and the French were grateful to Lin Gui, and later named one of the roads in the concession Lin Gui Road, I don't know if it is still called this name.

Theoretically, it can be assumed that the American Concession was established around 1849, shortly after the French Concession was formed, but this is a bit more complicated.

After seeing that Britain and France got the advantage, the United States also wanted to come over and take advantage, but at this time, the United States had no official officials in Mo, and Wu Liguo, who claimed to be the "US consul in Shanghai," was actually the head of Qichang & Co., and was not recognized by the US government, nor did he receive a salary from the US government, so he could not sign any formal agreement for the US government at all.

Therefore, Wu Liguo thought of a solution, which was to directly buy hundreds of acres of land in the Hongkou area north of the Wusong River and west of the Huangpu River, forming a de facto concession, but its legal status was not recognized by the US government or the Chinese government.

Until the 21st century, there were still people on the Internet who debated whether the magic capital had ever been an American concession, and this is the reason.

After his senior Wu Liguo went to Shanghai to take up his post, he wrote a letter to Gu Sheng, the US minister who had come to Qing to sign the "Wangxia Treaty" and returned soon after, hoping to become the US consul in Shanghai, believing that this would be of great significance to his business and the protection of US interests.

It's just that it is unknown whether Gu Sheng agreed or not, and it is usually believed that Wu Liguo obtained the position of consul in Shanghai, but I did not find any literature saying that Gu Sheng agreed to Wu Liguo's ridiculous request, and even the successive US governments did not recognize Wu Liguo as an official consul appointed by the US government, at most it was an acting consul.

(Note: It may be because Wu Liguo helped establish a de facto concession in Shanghai, which brought huge benefits to the United States, so there are more elements of pinching his nose to admit it)

Moreover, as far as we know, Wu Liguo has never received a salary from the US government in his life, which is completely different from the British consul and the French consul.

Qichang has always produced a number of consuls from European countries:

Henry G. Walcott, the first general manager of Qichang & Co., also served as the U.S. consul;

After his death from malaria in 1854, the second Grand Guard, Edw. Cunningham) served as consul to the United States, Sweden, and Norway, and withdrew from the company in 1858;

P.S. Forbes was later succeeded by P.S. Forbes, a staff member of the bank, who took over as consul in Sweden and Norway. J. S. Louroiro) also served as Consul of Spain.

(Note: The above information comes from "Shanghai Local Chronicles";

After 1854, the U.S. government sent official diplomats to China, so the U.S. consuls were no longer the gentlemen of Qichang & Co. ）

Considering that Wu Jianzhang, who later succeeded Lin Gui as Shanghai Daotai (that's right, Wu Jianzhang stepped down and went up again, and the politician is Nengqu Nengshen) is also one of the shareholders of Qichang Foreign Bank, this Qichang Foreign Company is really talented and talented.

Zhao Dagui, as a modern person, knows more or less about these situations, every time he meets that young Wu Liguo, he wants to complain, a small foreign bank actually has consuls from four countries, you are so powerful, does your mother know?

Could it be that the governments of these four countries are all run by your family?

Other foreign firms also have similar problems, that is, the senior class of foreign firms often toughens the consular positions of a European country, and some of the appointments still have a certain basis, it may be that a certain country issued a letter of appointment for a consul in China decades ago, and after it was circulated in China, it has been circulating in the hands of foreign businessmen, buying and selling appointment letters with a very serious attitude, even the famous Jardine Matheson has not been a little involved in this matter.

It's just that these circulating consular posts have some credentials (although the countries that issued the letters of appointment may have forgotten about it, and even the government has gone bankrupt), and Wu Liguo of Qichang & Co. has no written basis, and it is still a bit too bad to boast that he has been appointed as a consul by the US Minister Gu Sheng.

To sum up, the north of the county seat of Modu to Pidgin was the French concession that was determined around January 1849; the north of Pidgin to the south of the Wusong River was the British concession that was determined by two successive contracts in 1845 and 1848, with an area of more than 2,000 mu; and the hundreds of acres of land north of the Wusong River and west of the Huangpu River were the Hongkou area that Qichang Foreign Company later purchased and made into a de facto concession.

The land that Zhao Dagui wants to buy is the vast concession area north of Modu County, which includes all the core areas of the Three Kingdoms Concession.

"If we want to buy land here, here, and here, we will buy 3,000 to 5,000 acres, and we must hold all the land along the rivers, especially in the land surrounded by the three rivers.

Don't be afraid to spend money, our firm is so poor that we only have money left, and it is easy to buy thousands of acres of land with 50,000 or 60,000 yuan. Zhao Dagui took the map and said excitedly.

Could this be the legendary map cannon, it's really cool.

"Most of these lands are barren beaches and worthless farmland, the high one is fifteen yuan per mu, the low one can be two or three yuan, and the average price is only seven or eight yuan, which should not be difficult.

Is it for the proprietor to buy so much land for the construction of the railway?" asked a shopkeeper looking at the map, frowning.

"What kind of railway, well, it's okay to understand it that way.

Regardless of where these lands will be used in the future, it is only right to find a way to get them in your hands first. Zhao Dagui almost forgot all the stalks he made for selling foreign cloth.

It was only the beginning of September 1844, and foreigners were still mainly concentrated in the county town of Modu, and even the negotiations between Bafur and Gong Mujiu were still in their infancy, and there was no substantial progress.

Although there are also a few far-sighted commercial houses that lease land in the predetermined British concession area, the number is not large, even with the strength of Jardine Matheson, they have leased about 10 acres of wasteland, and all the land in the foreign concession area together is not 100 acres.

Moreover, these powerful compradors did not attach much importance to land, and the local farmers did not realize the value of the land in their hands, so it was a good time to buy land at a low price.

The shopkeepers of Dagui Commercial Bank felt that it was very unreliable to buy so much wasteland, but under Zhao Dagui's strong suppression, and considering that the commercial bank was really rich in cash now, they made suggestions one by one and determined the method and process of buying land.

It turned out that although there was land trading in this era, the procedures were extremely cumbersome, and outsiders like Zhao Dagui couldn't understand it at all, but fortunately, the shopkeepers he recruited were experienced and well-connected, and it was much more reliable to do this than he went out in person, and he himself only needed to control the general direction.