"There are a lot of Daqing ticket number money banks, but they are scattered, one has limited funds, and the other has great industry geographical restrictions, which cannot withstand the impact or twists and turns." Yi Zhizu said with a solemn expression: "The younger generation predicts that in a few years, the Western Bank may come to the east in a big way, and with the ticket number of the Qing Dynasty, the bank will not be able to withstand the impact of the well-funded Western Bank ...... at all."

Once the Bank of the West controls the Qing Dynasty's monetary system, the commodity pricing power of the Qing Dynasty's foreign trade will inevitably be subject to others, and Pinghu Gongdang knows how important the commodity pricing power is for a country's foreign trade. ”

The importance of commodity pricing power Wu Bingjian didn't know that the thirteen banks monopolized the foreign trade of the Qing Dynasty and fought with the British East India Company for decades.

After a while, he said in a deep voice: "On what basis did you predict that the Western Bank would come east?" Is it because the British East India Company is about to withdraw completely? ”

"Yes, it is only a matter of time before the East India Company's correspondent bank withdraws, and at that time, if there are still no strong banks in the Qing Dynasty, the Western Bank will come in a big way to fill this gap." Yi Zhizhi said: "There is a more important reason, war!" Once the Qing and Britain go to war, the Qing Dynasty will be defeated, and the status and treatment of foreigners in the Qing Dynasty will be completely reversed, and the foreigners will come eastward in a big way, flooding the various treaty ports along the coast of the Qing Dynasty. ”

It's war again, and today's topic of contentment seems to revolve around war, and it's getting more and more serious every time, Wu Bingjian glanced at him and said, "Are you so sure that war will break out between the Qing Dynasty and Britain?" ”

Yi Zhishu nodded and said solemnly: "In the eyes of the younger generation, it is inevitable that a war will inevitably break out between the Qing Dynasty and Britain in the near future. ”

After a pause, he continued: "Pinghu Gong should know that Britain is on the gold standard. ”

Of course, Wu Bingjian knew about this situation, and immediately said: "The time for Britain to officially use the gold standard is not long, but it has been more than ten years, but to the old man, Britain seems to have been using the gold standard all along, and the East India Company has been exchanging silver for gold or buying goods in Guangzhou for decades. ”

"Britain is on the gold standard, silver is not circulating in Britain at all, ** after the expansion of trade, the Qing Dynasty's silver continued to flow out, and at least five or six million taels a year!" Yi Zhizhi arched his hand as he spoke, and said, "Junior, may I ask, where did the hundreds of millions of taels of silver flow out of the Great Qing Dynasty?" ”

Where does the silver go? Wu Bingjian was obviously stunned for a moment, only people have always paid attention to the outflow of silver, but no one has ever asked where the silver has gone? No one has ever linked the British gold standard with the outflow of silver from the Qing Dynasty, so what is the purpose of Yi Zhi's contented question? He couldn't help frowning.

Wu Changqing said directly: "The trade with the Thirteen Lines is mainly in Britain and the United States, and the smugglers are crows. The outflow of silver naturally went to Britain and the United States. ”

"Which country did it go to?"

"Of course it's the UK, do you need to ask? Britain accounted for seventy percent of the thirteen trades. ”

Yi Zhifen smiled and said: "Silver is not the currency of the United Kingdom, and it is not in circulation in the United Kingdom, and what the British promote in trade with other countries is not silver or gold, but the pound sterling, which is directly linked to gold, what do the British want so much silver for?" ”

Although Wu Bingjian was a lot older, his reaction was faster than Wu Changqing, and he blurted out: "You mean, the British are constantly expanding crows. What is the ulterior motive behind the piece trade and the exacerbation of the loss of silver in the Qing Dynasty? ”

"Exactly." Yi Zhizu nodded and said: "The Qing Dynasty is the most important trading country in Britain's foreign trade, and the silver shortage and economic depression in the Qing Dynasty will inevitably greatly affect Britain's foreign trade.

But now even Qing officials who did not understand finance and economics have noticed that the continuous outflow of silver will lead to serious consequences. ”

Wu Bingjian nodded solemnly, very much agree with this statement, far from it, just say that twenty years ago the Napoleonic War broke out in Europe, the foreign trade of the Thirteen Lines was also greatly affected, the trade volume plummeted, and the Thirteen Merchants were difficult to survive.

Yi Zhishu was able to consider and analyze the impact of the loss of silver in the Qing Dynasty on the two countries from the trade relations between the Qing and the British, which he really didn't expect, Wu Bingjian sighed to himself at the same time, he was also very pleased, he really didn't look away, the Yi family is indeed a unique vision, thoughtful.

After a pause, Yi Zhicontent continued: "There is only one possibility, the British did it deliberately, the purpose was to destroy the silver system of the Qing Dynasty, destroy the economy of the Qing Dynasty, and force the Qing Dynasty to accept the British pound, so as to promote the hegemony of the British pound in the world."

The Qing Dynasty was not willing to sit idly by and watch the continuous outflow of silver, so it had to strictly ban smoking, and in order to implement the hegemony of the British pound and the gold standard, Britain absolutely could not tolerate the continued financial prosperity of the Qing Dynasty, the world's largest silver standard country, which had the world's largest commercial and trade center, and was also the most important country in Britain's foreign trade, because this would directly threaten the hegemony of the British pound.

Therefore, a war will inevitably break out between the Qing Dynasty and Britain, which is a war between the gold standard and the silver standard, and it is also a war in which the pound conquers the world and erects hegemony, which is inevitable! ”

Wu Bingjian was a little distracted, Yi Zhizhi was content in today's conversation, and he has been constantly explicitly hinting that a war would break out between the Qing Dynasty and the British, from the smuggling of silver to the tea of Assam, from the opening of a bank to the hegemony of the pound, all revolving around the war between the Qing Dynasty and Britain, is the war really unavoidable, and so close?

"In the eyes of the younger generation, Britain had already waged war against the Qing Dynasty... Britain continues to expand crows. The cruelty of this currency war and the damage caused by this currency war will be far better than the war of siege and land, because its purpose is to destroy the monetary system and economic foundation of the Qing Dynasty! ”

The hall was quiet and could clearly hear the sound of the hands of the small alarm clock "clicking", Wu Bingjian was silent, Wu Changqing didn't dare to speak, the gold standard, the silver standard, financial economy, currency war, pound sterling hegemony, one new word after another swirled in his mind, and he was more curious, where did Yi Zhishu learn these things?