Chapter 220 A Horrible China

With the rapid expansion of Sino-British cooperation, especially the further acceleration of economic and military cooperation between the two sides, the significance and value of the Sino-British Trade and Reciprocal Trade Treaty have become more urgent. Both sides want to sign it as soon as possible. The problem is that the premise of this treaty is that China has expanded enough special zone industrial circles. Xu Yingfang's capital entered the investment.

Foreign investment is the main economic growth index of the UK, and the UK also attaches great importance to it.

In September 1898, Hu Chuyuan officially signed a new Prime Minister's Order to set up 12 special zones in Shanghai, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Qingdao, Dalian, Guangzhou, Taipei, Wuhan and Jinzhou, allowing British capital to intervene in investment and the establishment of commercial banks in these special zones.

In October, Qingzheng Axe signed similar trade treaties with the three traditional trading countries of the United States, Germany and France.

From November to December, the Qing Zheng Axe and Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and other countries successively signed trade treaties, stipulating that the two sides have mutual investment authority and some financial open markets.

Because the Sino-British treaty relationship is the first authority, in most trade treaties, the pound is stipulated as the third option except for the two currencies, further maintaining the world currency status of the pound. At the same time, the Qingzheng axe began to reserve the pound on a larger scale.

As a major concession, Qingzheng Axe allows the working capital of various countries to enter the stock market and the Shanghai precious metals trading market, but there are also restrictions on other terms to prevent capital speculation and substantial withdrawal.

Stimulated by this series of terms, the demand and speculation of silver in the international market suddenly increased, and the price of silver continued to soar, quickly approaching a record high of 15.3 grams to 1 gram of gold.

In order to stabilize domestic prices, curb inflation, and prevent domestic industry from being hit, Hu Chuyuan immediately sold silver reserves through Daqing Bank, CITIC Bank, Nanyang Bank and Beiyang Bank, bought gold and pounds, curbed the rise in silver prices, and kept the 15:1 mark.

The uncontrollable surname of international capital is very obvious. In just a few months, the gold reserves of Daqing Bank and the four major domestic banks increased to 3,150 tons. In addition, it held more than 140 million pounds of foreign exchange, mainly in pounds and US dollars, while silver was sold in large quantities.

At the same time, Hu Chuyuan also struggled to keep the 15:1 mark, keeping the inflation coefficient of the domestic economy at a more appropriate level.

Appropriate inflation is acceptable, especially in the period of large-scale internal investment.

In this tide, Hu Chuyuan further increased his domestic investment. At the same time, he also reduced private investment in foreign countries and further withdrew capital back to Asia.

As of January 1899, Hu Chuyuan's total capital in foreign countries was reduced to 1.12 billion pounds, and the total domestic capital increased to 1.93 billion pounds.

Most of the enterprises under his name are not directly listed, but purely rely on Kang Caien's model to operate, obtain start-up capital from investment banks, obtain loans from commercial savings banks, and then make large-scale industrial investments.

Similarly, he also has enough profits to support him to do what he wants to do. He even increased his education donation to 140 million yuan per year, and built more technical schools, technical secondary school engineering schools and higher vocational and technical colleges.

In this big wave, he put forward the slogan of comprehensive study of Germany, sending a large number of officials, businessmen, squises and celebrities to Germany to study a detailed German communique, and studying Germany's economy, policy, military, politics and culture, from education, military, economy, All aspects of science and technology are copying German policies.

However, the fact is that China and Germany have drifted away.

The changes in the international situation are unclear, and no one knows. Maybe one day, China and Germany will form an alliance again... China's future is still vague, and even Hu Chuyuan can't make it clear.

Time passed quickly, and 1899 seemed to pass in a flash.

At the beginning of 1900, Qing Zhengxu successively signed reciprocal trade agreements with more than 30 countries and regions. Along with this process, China Tongshang Bank and CITIC Bank have also increased the pace of establishing branches around the world. With the implementation of the Regulations on the Central Monetary Administration and the new Law on the Administration of Precious Metals, domestic Monetary policy has gradually begun to be centralized, and the national reserves of gold, British pounds and other major foreign exchange are increasing.

China still controls 25% of the world's silver reserves and has the greatest influence on the world's silver prices. It has also gradually stabilized the silver price at 15.7-15.8 grams: 1 gram of gold, maintaining the export index of domestic commodities.

To some extent, Hu Chuyuan also followed some of the policies of the Japanese version and successively promulgated the "Requisition of Land Compensation Regulations", "Land Transaction Tax Regulations" and "National Compulsory Conscription Act".

Taking advantage of this series of provisions, the central fiscal revenue of the political axe has increased on a large scale. At the same time, it has stabilized the gold reserves and suppressed the possible outflow of domestic gold. For domestic agricultural operations, the Qingzheng axe also mainly promotes the CITIC communication model.

In fact, all post-developing countries have a unified feature, that is, the early economies and foreign trade rely entirely on agriculture. Similar to countries such as the United States and China, which have a vast territory and abundant labor force, agricultural development is the most critical foundation.

In 1873, the gross national product of the United States exceeded that of the United Kingdom (only the British mainland). By 1884, the industrial output value exceeded that of agriculture accounted for 53.4% of the total economic ratio, but until 1890, the main body of U.S. economic exports was still agriculture.

In 1899, China's total exports to 478 million US dollars, with textiles and raw materials firmly occupy the first place. Other commodities are coal mines, tea, aluminum and aluminum alloys, sugar, silk and hemp raw materials, porcelain, machinery, ships, Chinese medicinal materials and products, tobacco and cigarette products, machinery, porcelain, Ships, steel, metal products and other industrial products are mainly sold to Asia, South America and Africa.

After reaching a cooperation agreement with Britain, Britain's huge colonial market suddenly opened up to China, and Chinese industrial products began to acquire a mutually beneficial tariff policy almost equivalent to that of the United Kingdom, and its market share in Africa, West Asia and Australia expanded rapidly.

John Stuart Mueller, the most famous British economist, once said that in the 1950s, Spain's lead soldier toys were all made in the UK, and in the 1970s, British lead soldier toys were all made in Germany.

From 1870 to 1880, Made in Germany still belonged to a low-value-added and simple range ridiculed by the British. By the mid-to-late 1980s, Made-Germany had already posed a threat to the British local market.

From 1885, China's low value-added and simple industrial products entered the world market. By 1899, even in the most distant Chile, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Chinese-made horse lanterns, farm tools, knives, lighters, matches, kerosene lamps, Coal stoves, toys, musical instruments, industrial packaging paper and printing paper all occupy a large market share.

Similarly, American machinery products have also begun to have an impact on Germany and the United Kingdom, accounting for 40% of the world's export share of agricultural machinery, while the agricultural mechanization in the United States is also rapidly improving.

Unlike Germany in the 1980s and the United States in the 1990s, China was also an exporter of luxury goods. It sold a large number of silk, silk fabrics, worsted fabrics, fine linen fabrics, porcelain, tinware, silverware, white copper products, wood carvings, lacquerware, enamel, Cloisonne, Tang Sancai, bonsai stone carvings, jade jewelry, treasures. Pearls, fox fur, mink and other handicrafts and luxury goods.

In order to stabilize these export shares, China has also carried out large-scale rectification of the handicraft market and formulated a large number of market guidelines.

China is also the world's largest exporter of traditional Chinese medicine, peanut oil, honey, furniture, sesame oil, sunflower oil, camphor pills, yellow wine and medicinal wine.

The fertilizer industry was born in the United Kingdom and developed in Germany. It is the Americans who really make this industry bigger.

China's fertilizer industry is also rising rapidly. In 1898, China's total fertilizer consumption reached 24.9 million tons, an increase of 26 times compared with 1890, with a self-production rate of 63%, making it the world's third largest fertilizer producer and the second largest consumer.

In 1899, with the further expansion of China's internal railway and shipping markets, China's total pig iron production reached 34.5 million tons, accounting for 30% of the world's total production, surpassing the United States and Germany and becoming the world's largest pig iron manufacturer.

China's steel production has increased to 9.47 million tons, second only to the United States and Germany, and more than Britain and France. China's ship manufacturing tonnage exceeds that of the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States in one fell swoop. Export tonnage also accounts for 14% of the world's total exports, second only to the United Kingdom and Germany.

With the further expansion of the textile industry and the improvement of China's chemical industry, in the dye market, although the proportion of Chinese dyes in the world's total exports is less than 14%, it surpasses the United Kingdom, the United States and France in total production capacity, second only to Germany.

China has the largest domestic market in the world. Although the production capacity of mainstream markets such as machinery, ships, textiles, fertilizers and dyes is constantly expanding, it still cannot meet the demand for domestic goods, and the exports of Germany and the United States to China have increased accordingly.

As the UK's surplus capital begins to enter China's coastal cities for large-scale investment, even if China's domestic market demand will maintain an annual growth rate of 11%, it is expected that in 1910, the main domestic industrial production capacity will basically meet the domestic market demand and begin to shift from a domestic demand-oriented economy to an export-oriented economy.

The market proves everything.

The space for Sino-British cooperation is indeed the largest and easiest to fit.

One is the world's largest capital exporter, and the other is the world's largest capital absorbing country.

However, the prosperity of the market economy does not represent peace.

With the continuous growth of China's economic and military strength, both countries have accelerated their preparations. The total number of Russian army increased from 1.12 million to 1.37 million, and from 470,000 to 530,000.

In the Far East, France and Russia have invested a huge amount of money to repair the Far East Railway. The front end has reached Kamensk (full name is Krasnokamensk), which is only a few dozen kilometers away from Manchuria.

In the northwest, the uprisings in Xinjiang provinces have been constantly erupting and destroying. Through the Central Asian corridors, France and Russia are instigating the northwest region to read in Chinese territory, creating greater trouble for China, and sending them to the Far East to get opportunities.

In April 1899, just as Hu Chuyuan started the "kaihua movement" and stepped up efforts to implement the three new cultural policies of smoking ban, liberalization and new writing, a large-scale separatist riot broke out in Yili, Xinjiang Province.

In January 1900, the scale of the riot army in the Yili area of Xinjiang Province has exceeded 70,000. The Yeerqiang Khanate was re-established in the Yili area. Dong Fuxiang's Gan army was originally the first army in the northwest. It has been stationed in the northwest for more than ten years. It is well-equipped and has sufficient cavalry, but it has been defeated in a row, and even operated for many years. The fortress of Usu has been lost.

All this made Hu Chuyuan realize that behind the turmoil in Xinjiang, it was not just the support of Russia.

He couldn't stand it anymore and personally led Li Kaiye, the most elite member of the Huguang Corps, to Xinjiang Province.

(to be continued)