At this time, Prince Yikuang of Qing, as the Prime Minister of the Prime Minister's Office for International Affairs, was receiving Connor, the U.S. Minister to the Qing Dynasty, and Lowens, the senior executive of Citibank.
Connor and Lowens came to Yikuang this time to set up a branch of the Bank of America in the Qing Dynasty. Now that the share of the Gengzi reparations has been finalized long ago, various countries have set up banks in China to collect the reparations as agents.
However, the United States has always had Minister Connor handle the collection, which has aroused dissatisfaction from other countries, and they all rebuked the United States for this unconventional diplomatic approach. Citibank saw the opportunity and immediately applied to the U.S. Congress to establish a branch in the Qing Dynasty.
At this time, Citibank was still called City Bank of New York. It could not handle cross-state business in the United States, but it first opened cross-border branches.
Fortunately, Citibank had the foresight to apply for a multinational business license in advance. US President Roosevelt also wanted to make things more formal to avoid ridicule from other countries, so he agreed to Citibank's application.
This is a huge gap, and even commercial banks today are desperately trying to attract deposits, let alone Citibank, which was just starting out at that time.
Therefore, Lowens attached great importance to his errand. He had studied and formulated a planning document with Connor, the Minister to China, and listed in detail the various terms and conditions for the establishment of the bank.
They arrived at the Prime Minister's International Affairs Office early in the morning and waited for a long time to finally see Yi Kuang.
Yikuang didn't delay on purpose. He was really busy right now. Several ministers or counselors came to him in turn every day to talk about either setting up a concession or applying for military garrison.
How could Yikuang make the decision immediately on these matters, and he had to run to see the Empress Dowager Cixi again. Fortunately, Cixi treated him well, and he could directly enter the palace in a sedan chair. But many things cannot be decided in just one meeting, and we often have to go back and forth several times.
Yikuang's old bones are almost falling apart during this time.
At this time, Yi Kuang was looking at the planning document in front of him with his forehead wrinkled. The planning document was written in English, but his English level is probably not as good as that of a primary school student who has just learned English for one year.
He looked at it decently for a long time, then handed it to the translator Rui Zheng next to him, "Please help me take a look."
Rui Zheng is a graduate of Tongwen School, but his level is not that good. However, he is a distant relative of Yi Kuang. Yi Kuang is nepotistic and gets paid to do things easily, so he actually keeps Rui Zheng as a translator.
Rui Zheng took the planning book. Looking at the thirty or so densely packed English pages gave him a headache. He quickly sat on the table next to him and flipped through the small dictionary while slowly translating word for word, and then wrote the translation next to him. on paper.
Connor saw that his movements were too slow, so he said to Yikuang: "Dear Prime Minister, I have just explained to you that the Citibank in our country is exactly the same as the HSBC Bank in the UK, and there is no other redundancy. business."
Yikuang touched the handle of the chair at hand and said calmly: "Mr. Minister, of course I understand what you said, but for such a big matter, I still have to follow the rules no matter what."
Citibank senior official Lawrence Lowes was the most anxious. He immediately said: "I hope the Prime Minister will move forward quickly. Our bank's business capabilities will not be worse than HSBC's, and it has advantages in interest rate payment, exchange business, safety insurance, service quality, etc." .”
Lawrence didn't speak Chinese, and he spoke very quickly. Yikuang didn't understand and looked at the translator Rui Zheng next to him.
Ruizheng was concentrating on translating, but he didn't understand it, so he said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't hear it clearly."
Connor felt that it was too slow to ask him to translate again, so he immediately repeated it in Chinese to improve efficiency.
When Yikuang heard this, he took issue with HSBC again. If they said it was simpler than HSBC, it would be even more troublesome to deal with it if it was really like HSBC. Their business extends to all aspects, including mining and road construction.
Seeing that Yi Kuang was still unhurried, Lawrence knew that he had to use his trump card and said: "Prime Minister, in addition to the official document, we have also added a document that can reduce and refund part of the interest as appropriate. In addition, if the Prime Minister You can deposit money in our bank, and we can pay more interest."
Of course, this sentence was translated by Connor.
Yikuang is a smart man. When he heard the word "gao" in his words, he immediately became interested. He ignored the bank's affairs and asked: "What does this refund of interest... mean?"
The Gengzi compensation signed in the "Xinchou Treaty" was not simply 450 million taels of silver. The Qing Dynasty could not afford so much money at once, so it could only pay in installments, with an annual interest of 4%, that is, 4% interest, principal and interest and After all, the total compensation is close to 1 billion taels!
Lowens said: “According to the terms, the interest of 4% can be reduced to 3%, 7% and 5%. Of course, the official document says 3% and 8%, and the other half of the interest is for the Prime Minister. And If your country makes a deposit with our bank, you can also earn interest, and you can naturally continue to receive interest exemptions accordingly."
At first glance, these words were prompted by someone, and they pointed directly at the key points of Yikuang and the Qing court. Lawrence rolled his eyes a few times and looked at Yikuang confidently.
There was a small abacus on the table next to Yikuang. He dialed it a few times quickly. According to the ratio, the US compensation was as high as 160,000 taels per month. Although the interest refund of 2.5 cents didn't sound like much, in total it was There are more than five thousand taels.
And one thousand taels of it was for himself, which would be more than 10,000 taels in a year. Lowens was really generous.
Lowens also knew that Yi Kuang was a corrupt official and would not be able to defeat him without a strong hand. Moreover, the interest loss of only 0.0025% was only a drop in the bucket for them.
This trump card is definitely attractive to Yi Kuang. Not only can he get 10,000 taels of benefits himself, but the imperial court can also reduce the burden of 60,000 taels every year. More importantly, this can be regarded as a diplomatic "victory", which can definitely be bragging in front of the Empress Dowager Cixi.
A few years ago, Li Hongzhang was shot in the cheek by an angry youth in Japan. Under pressure from public opinion, Japan reduced the compensation of 50 million taels under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Although he didn't talk much this time, he calculated that he earned 60,000 taels per year, which was more than 2 million taels in 1938. He was not shot by anyone, it was just meat that was delivered to his mouth.
Yikuang thought about it for a while, and immediately had a plan in mind. He said to Connor and Lawrence: "This proposal is very good. I will report it to the Queen Mother in detail without any changes. Don't worry."
Connor knew that as long as Yikuang collected money, he could definitely get things done. He stood up and shook hands with Yikuang vigorously: "We believe that your prestige, Prime Minister, can definitely facilitate this matter."
Yikuang smiled: "This is a great testimony of the friendly relations between our two countries!"
Yi Kuang said this without changing his face or heartbeat. He felt like a weasel came to the house and stole 100 chickens. When he accidentally discovered that someone left an egg for you, he immediately danced with joy!
