'China's economy looks at Shanghai, and Shanghai's economy looks at Jiangxi (road). This was still the mantra of the people in Shanghai a few years ago, when the roads in Jiangxi were full of banks and banks, and the people who came and went were some rich people who were hundreds of thousands of dollars a clock; But now, after the tunnel under the Huangpu River was dug through, all the big and small banks moved to Lujiazui on the other side of the river, where the tallest building in China, the 14-storey State Bank Building stands on the right side of the Huangpu River, and more than 100 banks and insurance companies form a unique financial street, constituting the most luxurious scenery on the bank of the Huangpu River.

In Yang Rui's view, Lujiazui Financial Street is just restoring the old view, but in the eyes of the Chinese people, the God of Wealth has all run to the other side of the river, only sighing that they are becoming more and more considerable and unreachable. At this time, on the top floor of the National Bank Building, where the heavy snow had stopped, Zhang Shi, who was sitting with his back to his desk, watched the car in which the Japanese representative was riding with complicated eyes into view, and then slowly walked towards the river crossing tunnel.

-- The month-long negotiations on the Customs Union, the Bank of Asia, and the Asian dollar all ended today, and China and Japan gained nothing. In an optimistic way, China has nothing to lose, and if Japan does not agree to the Bank of Asia and the Asian dollar, then don't think about lending and the customs union, but the news is becoming more and more certain that there are other financiers to help Japan through this economic crisis, which is very bad.

Although Zhang Kun is only a banker, finance is a high-risk industry, and he is extremely sensitive to possible wars. Judging from the current situation in China, once the Chinese Navy, which does not have a single battleship, starts a war, it will be completely trapped in the military port by the British and American navies; The only thing that can move is submarines, but China is not in Europe or the Americas, and it is impossible for submarines to cross the Pacific Ocean to blockade California, and it is even more impossible to go to the Atlantic Ocean to break the diplomatic station.

It can be said that the Japanese Navy is the pillar of China's coastal defense, and once there is no support from the Japanese Navy. The coastal provinces of war will only leave the enemy as if no one is there. Zhang Kun has always thought that Mr.'s decision-making is far-sighted, but he thinks that Mr. should have made a mistake in the decision to completely abandon the battleship.

Zhang Kun followed the Japanese representative team. Gotaro Ogawa, the representative in charge of the negotiation in the convoy, also looked unnaturally at the top floor of the National Bank building as the car turned. He seemed to feel Zhang Kun's gaze glancing down with slight but deep anger and ridicule.

This is simply a betrayal! During the negotiations, a Chinese representative said privately to his colleagues. Xiao Chuanxiang, who knows Chinese, heard that although his face was silent, fine sweat broke out on his back. He fully understands that this time he is playing a troublesome role, and at the same time, he is also convinced that there is a sincere friendship between China and Japan, and if there is cooperation, there will be a better future, but ....... If in the Warring States Period, such a shameful performance was enough for him to take the initiative to break his belly, but now. It's all about Greater Japan.

"Your Excellency, the Chinese can't do anything about us." Looking back at Kotaro Ogawa uneasily, Fukumi Masaken, the participating official of the Ministry of Finance, who was sitting in the same car, had to say comfort, "No matter what conditions are given to Japan, after joining the Bank of Asia, Japan will only be a vassal of China." His Excellency Kato once said that Japan should actually be the England of Asia, and that it would be better for it to maintain a glorious policy of isolation, as England did. Too much involvement in the mainland would not do Japan any good. On the contrary, moving between the mainland and Britain and Mitsu will make Japan ......"

"Fu Zhengjun, this is a villain's behavior!" Kotaro Ogawa interrupted Fuku's speech. "The ancient Chinese once said: Vote for me with papaya, and repay it with Qiongju. Now, instead of reciprocating, Japan is making tricks and betraying the alliance to make profits, shouldn't we really be ashamed? ”

Even if he deeply believed in Kato's wise statement of 'Japan, Asia, England', Fu Zhengxian had to bow his head in the face of Kogawa Gotaro's somewhat hoarse moral questioning. There is an alliance between China and Japan. Although there is no stipulation that Japan is not allowed to borrow money from third countries, anyone can imagine that there will be a political price to borrow money from the economic crisis, and that fulfilling such political recognition would be a betrayal of the alliance.

"I have already decided, and I will submit my resignation to His Excellency Inoue when I return to Japan." Before rushing into the Huangpu River Tunnel. In the silence of Fu Zhengxian, Kogawa Gotaro sighed heavily and decided.

"Ahh Your Excellency...... "Fukumasa Ken looked up at Kotaro Ogawa fiercely, a little confused by his decision, although he understood.

"Even if I resigned, it would not be able to wash away the shame in my heart." Kotaro Ogawa closed his eyes and said, then said no more.

A few days later, the Ministry of Finance, Tokyo, Japan.

"Fukai-kun, Ogawa-kun has resigned, and he left a detailed report to report on the status of this negotiation. The Zhang family of the National Bank of China has already given us the best conditions, and they ...... "The Minister of Finance, Junnosuke Inoue, looked at Eigo Fukai in front of him, and babbled on about the negotiations in Shanghai. As a member of Hamaguchi's cabinet, he felt extremely unnatural to act in this way, and perhaps it would not be long before there would be a drastic change in Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, and whether such a drastic change would be good or bad for Japan was another matter, but as the initiator, he was extremely worried.

"Your Excellency, although it is a pity that Ogawa Xiangjun resigned, I think this may ease the dissatisfaction of the Chinese." Unlike Junnosuke Inoue, who is extremely apprehensive, Eigo Fukai's heart is full of joy. He felt that Japan was withdrawing from the abyss of Chinese mainland and then remaining honorably isolated, like Britain. This is the most valuable positioning for Japan, especially when China's rise is unstoppable, and Ommi will rely more and more on Japan.

"Then ......" Inoue Junnosuke Kiyu looked at Fukai with general eyes, he knew that Fukai was Takahashi Kiyoshi's confidant, and Takahashi Kiyoshi took him to London to raise money during the Nichiro War. But borrowing is so important for the current cabinet, so he finally asked, "...... When will the Rothschild Bank loan be remitted to Yokohama Shojin Bank? ”

"Your Excellency, borrowing always comes at a price, and our friends in England want us to return to the gold standard. If the cabinet makes a commitment to this, the first loan will be immediately remitted to the Yokohama Shojin Bank. Fukai Eigo nodded.

"Nani! Return to the gold standard?! Junnosuke Inoue's mouth was wide enough to swallow the inkwell on the table, "This ......, this ......" After 'this' twice, Inoue said, "Now this time to return to the gold standard?!" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Fukai Eigo also knew that it was not a good time to return to the gold standard, but only Japan, the five major powers in the world, did not return to the gold standard after the war. At this time, Japan deliberately distorted the foreign exchange rate. As a result of the depreciation of the yen, which lowered the price of exported goods, the result was a flood of low-priced Japanese goods throughout Asia. "Britain does not want the yen to appreciate, it just does not want the yen to depreciate again, and the restoration of the gold standard is only a means to ensure the exchange rate, not to be hostile to Japan. Only the yen will stabilize and negotiations will be held on tariff concessions. Britain and Mi can convince the country to reduce tariffs ......"

With Fukai Eigo's explanation, Junnosuke Inoue gradually put his mind at ease. The return to the gold standard does not mean that the yen will appreciate, it will only stabilize the value of the yen. Like a thief, now Yingmi said that what he stole before will be counted, and he will not be allowed to steal again in the future.

Inexplicably comparing Japan to a thief in his heart, Junnosuke Inoue's old face was hot, and he then abandoned this idea and asked again: "Now one hundred yen is forty-five dollars or ninety Chinese dollars." Is our pair set at this level? ”

"Yes, the bottom line is that it can't be less than forty-five dollars." Eigo Fukai nodded. When Junnosuke Inoue was a little reassured, he added, "But please be sure to consider the psychology of the people and the dignity of Greater Japan. In the past, it was 100 yen to 49.85 US dollars or 99.7 Chinese dollars, but now the gold standard has been restored, and if the previous exchange rate cannot be restored, especially if it cannot be parity with the Chinese dollar, the people may be dissatisfied, and there will be ......"

Then there is the reputation of the current cabinet and the vital interests of those who hold yen and want to exchange it for foreign currency. These were significant factors that contributed to the return of the yen to the gold standard when it returned to the gold standard. In particular, the exchange rate with the Chinese dollar, 100 yen can only be exchanged for 90 Chinese yuan, which really hurts the self-esteem of the Japanese people. You must know that it used to be almost 100 to 100, and the loss of 0.3 yuan was negligible.

However, if the previous exchange rate is restored and the yen is forcibly appreciated to the level of 49.85 US dollars or 99.7 Chinese dollars per 100 yen, it will be a disaster for Japanese exports, especially those under the current circumstances. Of course, deliberately distorting exchange rates to promote commodity exports is also detrimental to the national economy. After all, this is a loss-making business. For example, now, 100 yen to 45 dollars instead of 49.85 on the gold standard does give an additional 10 percent discount on Japanese exports, but conversely, 59.85 dollars have to be converted into yen. That's one hundred and ten .77 yen.

Originally, it was a flat entry and a flat exit, but now the exchange rate is distorted, and for every 49.85 US dollars of foreign exchange remitted to Japan, the Yokohama Zhengjin Bank, which is in charge of exchanging foreign currency, has to pay 10.77 yen upside down to the trade exporters. 3 billion yen of goods are exported every year, and more than 320 million yen is required to do so. Of course, it is impossible for the Yokohama Shojin Bank to reverse the money, and the real solution is to start the printing press.

When the domestic yen could not be exchanged, the printing press issued an additional 320 million yen banknotes every year, which was equivalent to a tax of 320 million yen per year on the entire Japanese property, because their assets were diluted because of the printing of money. The diluted part is subsidized to Japanese exporters, which makes exporters richer and poorer. In addition, the nearly 3 billion yen of hot money issued over the past few years is also a big problem.

As an economy with a GDP of only 18 billion yen, nearly 3 billion yuan of hot money has caused domestic prices to skyrocket, and although the government intends to channel this hot money into the property market and stock market to ease the trend of rising prices of daily consumer goods, domestic prices are still rising in a mess. In order to ensure the food and clothing of the urban wage earners, the government had to import China's low-priced grain and cotton on a large scale, but the consequence of China's influx of low-priced grain made the life of the Japanese peasants more and more difficult -- in a country where money was worthless and the price of goods and goods had risen, the cost of grain production was incomparably high, and at the same time, fatally, Japan did not carry out land reform like China and North Korea, and the result could only be that the peasants became more and more miserable and the number of tenants increased.

Of course, the government cannot be blamed for the current situation, because it is really that all walks of life made money too quickly during the European war, so that as soon as the European war ended, Japan, the United States, and China were faced with a sharp decline in demand and a hard landing of the economy. The Americans' approach is to raise tariffs to encourage people to spend in advance at home, and to lend money to foreign governments to encourage them to buy American goods. As for China, tariffs have been reduced from 7.5 percent to 20 percent, which is enough for the survival of the country's weak and small light industries, and most of the profiteering industries such as iron and steel, shipbuilding, munitions, and chemical industries have turned to the construction of national infrastructure projects, and a small part, such as the chemical industry, has relied on new technologies and new products, and its scale has risen instead of falling. Japan is the only country that focuses on light industry but has inferior products. In order to protect the interests of the chaebol, it can only distort the exchange rate.

Fukai Eigo, who had finished prompting everything, was waiting for a reply while drinking tea, while Junnosuke Inoue, who was constantly walking in the room, thought clearly about the causes and consequences of why Japan came to this point after the European War. He even remembered that when Yang Rui visited Japan, he wholeheartedly advised Japan not to distort the exchange rate, because this was robbing the poor to help the rich, and it was the government helping the rich to 'beg' from the poor. Pretending to be forced to be struck by lightning. However, as in the Sino-Japanese alliance negotiations, the Sino-Japanese alliance was put on the back burner until the Washington naval treaty was negotiated, when China refused to provoke the British and the Russian, and voluntarily abandoned the battleships at the request of Japan.

With the Ominian powers on one side and the China-North Korea alliance on the other, is it really Japan's best choice to have a policy of volatility and left and right? Junnosuke Inoue thought about this issue that shouldn't be considered by him for a while, and then finally stopped: "Fukai-kun, there are not too many problems in restoring the gold standard. But the trade-off between the pair is a difficult one, and although we should indeed return to the original pair, the resistance is very large. If China reacts to this, foreign trade is likely to suffer a heavy blow! ”

"If China reacts to this, then we will withdraw from the Sino-Japanese alliance!" Eigo Fukai said in a low voice. "Britain has promised that once Japan withdraws from the Sino-Japanese alliance, the markets of the two countries will be open to Greater Japan."

"But ......" Although Eigo Fukai showed his hole cards to himself, Junnosuke Inoue was still not at ease. The current opening of the rice market is equivalent to not opening. Britain is better, but Britain is no longer an empire on which the sun never sets. Even if the British Cabinet agrees to open its market to Japan, will the Dominions of the Howard States (Australia) really agree?

"Fukai-kun, I'm all clear." Junnosuke Inoue turned to look back at Eigo Fukai, "I will report this matter to His Excellency the Prime Minister as soon as possible, and wait for him to approve the restoration of the gold standard." Please let Europe send the money to Yokohama Shojin Bank as soon as possible. As for the pair, the Cabinet of Ministers will meet to discuss it, and it will certainly not fall below $45. ”

"That's great, please, Your Excellency." When Junnosuke Inoue bowed to himself, Eigo Fukai also bowed deeply to him with joy. So far. The long-planned plan to withdraw from the alliance has finally taken a firm step.

News of Tokyo soon reached London, but it was not Charles Rothschild, the man who spoke of the Rothschild family in London, but Mordimer Schiff, one of the architects of the conspiracy. He was the son of the Jewish banker Jacob Schiff, the American Jewish banker who was the first to lend a helping hand to the poor Japanese in those years (Russo-Japanese War). &Co。 ) is second only to J on Wall Street. Investment Banking at P Morgan.

"Cheers to His Majesty the King, to the free world, to the ultimate victory!" At the brightly lit dinner, a cheerful Modimer Schiff greeted everyone with champagne, his eyes fixed on Lord Charles Rothschild.

Charles Rothschild took over the N.M. Rothschild & Sons after the death of his father, Lord Nati Rothschild, in 1915. With the death of his father and the impact of the war, the influence of the Rothschild family in Britain has declined sharply, and among the six major British banks, Miranda Bank, Clivot Bank, and Baring Bank have surpassed N.M. Rothschild & Sons in capital.

Not only Britain, with the defeat of the German-Austrian Alliance, the recession of the whole of Europe, and the incomparably headache and entanglement of war debts and reparations, Morgan and other American financial capital on the other side of the ocean have strongly infiltrated Europe, and Rothschild's position in the German financial community has gradually been replaced by the Americans and the French, plus the increasingly weak Rothschild Bank of Vienna and the Rothschild Bank of Paris, the entire Rothschild family is falling rapidly on the downhill road.

However, for the emerging Wall Street financial capital, the Rothschilds' legacy of huge business institutions and rich connections and experience in European political and business circles are lacking in newcomers, for example, Wall Street had to turn to the Rothschilds for help in helping Japan issue 100 million pounds of bonds in London and Paris.

Motimer Schiff with a goblet stared at the thoughtful Lord Charles Rothschild like a wolf, and the disapproving Lord raised the glass very gentlemanly and tasted it, he was in his fifties and had incurable encephalitis a few years ago, and it was the miraculous Chinese Buddhist medicine that revived him. With a smile on his face, Charles Rothschild said: "This is a really big thing that changed history, but I still have a lot of caution about it, I think Rothschild should only be a bond underwriter and nothing else......"

"No, Your Excellency. You are really too cautious, which is a virtue, but being too cautious at this time will cost us Japan. The loss of Japan would deprive us of our most reliable reliance on the whole of East Asia, and it would not be long before we would have to act in a Chinese manner in the colonies of East Asia, which no civilized country could tolerate. Modimer Schiff argued.

"I fully agree with Mr. Schiff." Philip Kerr, secretary to British wartime Prime Minister Lloyd George, chimed in. "Although China is far away from us, China's rise will inevitably compete with us for the colonies of the Far East and India, and let's not forget that Indochina and the Kingdom of Burma were formerly vassal states of the Qing Empire.

A powerful Chinese empire stands tall in the East, even if she promises to abide by all international treaties, except for the affairs of the diaspora and does not intervene in the colonies of various countries, but the Chinese government's non-intervention does not mean that China's private forces do not intervene, and now the Chinese family power is getting deeper and deeper into the colonies of the Far East, and some people even pessimistically predict that in thirty years, all the colonies will be controlled by the Chinese family, and Britain will only have nominal ownership and jurisdiction left. ”

“Chinese。 Kin？ Charles Rothschild did not understand the difference between the Chinese family and the European family, and asked very strangely.

"Yes, the Chinese family. A kind of savage, backward, decaying Asiatic family. From the East India Company, they were the most disgusting resistance we encountered in East Asia, and it was because of them that the savage Chinese did not become the lambs of the Lord.

It is said that more than a decade ago, the Chinese government wanted to destroy it because of the wealth and land it had accumulated over generations, and it was also the biggest obstacle to government control of the countryside, but instead of doing so, they kept it. Priests and pastors in various countries optimistically estimated that by destroying these backward primitive Chinese families, the Lord's people could exceed 100 million within fifty years. ”

Philip Kerr, a believer who deeply regrets that the Chinese government did not destroy the Chinese family, continued: "Today, the government supports these families, encourages them to control the countryside, and gives them tax incentives. It is said that families with more than 100 couples can get a 10% reduction in family income tax, more than 1,000 couples can get a 30% reduction, and more than 10,000 couples can get a 45% reduction. In short, the Chinese government is trying to get people together so that they can raise much more money than a single family can invest in industry and fight competitors. They were also encouraged to buy guns and were responsible for training the men of the family in how to fight.

With this encouragement, many of these families became armed pioneers, who traveled to China's border provinces to drive out the indigenous people for land and minerals, or to kill them quietly. The Chinese families who rushed to the colonies in the Far East, although they did not have weapons due to legal restrictions, still had wooden spears and short knives, plus old rifles smuggled in, which was enough for them to deal with the aborigines. Now, the Chinese family is making a mess of the colonies, but because of the previous treaties, we can't expel them......"

As secretary to the wartime prime minister, Philip Kerr clearly knew a lot of secrets, and it was his anxiety about China's rise that led him to endorse a strategy of containing China in the Royal Society of International Affairs. Finding a way to break up the Sino-Japanese alliance is one of them, but the problem is that everyone agrees with the strategy, but who pays for it?

A bond with an interest rate of four percent is obviously unprofitable at the moment, and 100 million pounds is not a small amount. Then there is the opening of the markets of Britain and the United States to Japan, how and to what extent? The National Assembly, the Parliament, and the Autonomous Associations, will not approve it? Especially in Britain, where the Labour Party now has a huge influence in Parliament, the opening of the market, even partial opening, is tantamount to ceding employment opportunities for British workers to Japanese workers, which the Labour Party absolutely cannot agree to.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to win over Japan, as long as she didn't stand on China's side, China's upward momentum would be curbed within ten years, and there would be a feast similar to 1901 in Beijing at that time. (To be continued.) )