At the same time that Lotte Bank began to make great efforts to bribe the officials of the capital, two princes in Prince Gong's palace, the Minister of Household Affairs, the academician Weng Tonghe, and the eunuch Li Lianying, a close confidant of the Empress Dowager Cixi, also got together.
There was a sumptuous table of food and wine, but few chopsticks were used. Several of the toughest opposition leaders in the court were all worried today.
It is also a joke. Prince Gong and Prince Chun are the brothers of Emperor Xianfeng and the children of Emperor Daoguang. Weng Tonghe is also the emperor's teacher. Both father and son are leaders of Qingliu. Lao Lin from the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the world's money and food, and of course he is also a member of the imperial court. direct lineage.
As for Li Lianying, not to mention, she is completely the representative of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who is the biological mother of the emperor. However, these few people have become the opposition today. Reasoning here and there, shouldn't they be the Zhengshuo of the imperial court?
The reason is very simple. It was precisely because Cixi stupidly launched the palace coup last year that the two queen mothers who were originally one were separated. In order to survive, the East Queen Mother resolutely formed an alliance with Xiao Letian and used the identity of the East Queen Mother to command. The governor of the world, Han Chen, returned to his heart.
With Xiao Letian as his ally overseas and the Hunan Army Group as his backer at home, plus Xiao Letian's attack on the Tianjin Guard, defeat of the Huai Army, and the invasion of the Forty-Nine City, Cixi's forces were severely hit. The majority of the church almost became an opposition party.
Now, a new test was placed in front of them. There was a missing corner on the side of the wine table. Instead of placing dishes, there was a thick stack of documents, which contained several regulations on the temporary tax reform of the Qing Dynasty. Big letters.
This is what came to Beijing with four million taels of cash. Emperor Tongzhi's reform plan, a twenty-year tax reform of the Qing Dynasty. In this document, Emperor Tongzhi planned to divide the country's taxation into two, and each province would The cash that can be deported to Beijing will still be delivered directly to the Account Department in the same way as before, while the Account Department will no longer accept the arrears.
These debts are packaged and sold together to Rakuten Bank for split sales, and a certain amount of interest is given to attract funds from the private sector.
This is basically a credit currency routine. Although it is very primitive, it is very consistent with the current national conditions of the Qing Dynasty. Anyway, the court cannot collect enough taxes, so it is better to sell the debt directly.
Maybe some people are worried about why ordinary people will buy these debts, who will want these IOUs, and what if the court can't afford to pay them back? Wouldn't it become the treasure banknotes of the Ming Dynasty, and their value will become increasingly depreciated.
But Lotte Bank has long given the answer to this question, which is a double credit guarantee. The first is that the court uses tax revenue as a credit guarantee, which means that the court recognizes these bonds when collecting taxes.
The second credit guarantee is the credit of Ryukyu Lotte Bank. Don't underestimate this bank. It is now the largest financial institution in Asia. Over the years, the wealth accumulated by privately minting silver coins has exceeded hundreds of millions of taels of silver.
Using bonds to trade with Rakuten Bank and banks can provide certain preferential treatment, which is also a good way to attract private funds.
During the Tongzhi period, the imperial court had just defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army. If nothing else happened, the turmoil in the Gansu and Shaanxi tribes and the Battle of Xinjiang would also be victorious. By then, it would truly be the Tongzhi ZTE.
Public confidence in the imperial court will rebound for the last time, so the national credit of these bonds will still rise in the next ten years, and will not even seriously collapse in the next twenty years.
The real pill for the Qing Dynasty had to wait until Cixi came to power and Guangxu came to power. It was during the Guangxu period that the fate of the Qing Dynasty fell off a cliff.
However, for Xiao Letian, more than ten years are enough for him to use bonds to absorb physical gold and silver from the public. By then, Lotte Bank will become the real central bank of China, and the army in his hands will be unimaginably powerful by then. , at least self-protection is no longer a problem.
But now he still needs to work hard, because he will continue to secretly siphon away China's private wealth. Without 200 million taels of silver to back him up, he can't even think about building a powerful navy. If he doesn't have more than 1 billion in silver reserves, then he can't even think about it. Competing with Britain and the United States in the Pacific.
Everything takes time. Xiao Letian is still young and he can afford to wait, so he has this twenty-year tax reform plan for the Qing Dynasty.
Li Lianying couldn't stand the dull atmosphere in the room anymore. He said in a sharp voice, "My lords, please say a few words. If this problem can be solved by just looking at it, then the Za family will pluck out their eyeballs and let them go." Let's watch it together from here."
Hube Lao Lin put down his pipe and pot and coughed twice, "Hey...I asked those people to hit a big bag on my head this morning. I still don't know yet. I'm thinking about it. You guys can tell me first..."
Everyone turned their attention to Weng Tonghe again. The scholar-official frowned and said, "I don't understand. I really don't understand. It is said that this bond is a bit like the way foreigners issue banknotes, but I have never heard of foreign banknotes." Use taxes as collateral, I’ve never heard of using IOUs as the subject matter.”
"I have asked the foreign missionaries in Dongjiaomin Alley before. They said that this is called credit currency. It is a very advanced financial concept in Europe, but no one dares to try it... Even the UK is now choosing it. The gold standard, the law stipulates that each ounce of gold is equal to 3 pounds, 17 shillings, 10 and one-half pence...I heard that this was the rule set by a British sage named Newton..."
Weng Tonghe deserves to be a scholar. When he encounters something he doesn't understand, he is at least better than other officials. He knows how to ask more questions to find out the reason.
"Precisely because the UK has locked the pound sterling with gold, people are willing to ask for the pound sterling whether it is cast in metal or printed on paper. This relies on the credibility of gold..."
"This document is now in the name of His Majesty, but we all know that this is Xiao Letian's plan... Ordinarily, a master of Western learning who can write a journey to the west would not understand this truth."
"The foreign pastors in Minxiang, Dongjiao are also puzzled. They came up with two possibilities. One is that Xiao Letian predicts that the Qing Dynasty will have good fortune for at least twenty years in the future, and the credibility of the court will not collapse..."
"The second possibility is even more bizarre, that is, Xiao Letian is a very loyal minister. He has tied his wealth and life to the court's chariot. He will try his best to improve the court's credibility... so Speaking of which, we all misjudged him before, he is really a loyal minister."
Everyone in the room was stunned. Everyone was dumbfounded and couldn't understand the dilemma before them.
Note: This is the second update today. It is estimated that there will only be two updates today.
