"Why bother talking to Liang Qichao!" Yang Du returned to the Longmen Inn and couldn't help but relay the conversation between him and Liang Qichao at dusk to Yang Rui. Yang Rui was impatient after listening to a few paragraphs, and he felt that it was redundant to find Liang Qichao to return to China and engage in politics.

"Although Liang Zhuoru's disciples rebelled with Sun Wen and others, he left immediately when he arrived in Kunming, whether he was knowledgeable or timid, at least he did not commit treason." Yang Du defended that the case of treason in Yunnan had already been tried in public, and Liang Qichao had taken a shit luck again, just to assist in the investigation, not to file a case and be wanted, although the reputation was stinky, but the crime was not understood by Zhang Shizhao of the Tingwei Mansion, so he wanted to bring this person back to China for use.

"There are people who are more treason than treason." Yang Rui said. "However......" Thinking of Liang Qichao's remarks, he had to nod and say: "This person is still talented." From the perspective of the whole nation, it would be better for him to stay in the rivers and lakes than in the temple. This person's brain is very unclear, as soon as he becomes an official, he is the official position, and only when he is white-clothed can he spit out some ivory. ”

Hearing Yang Rui's comment, Yang Du was surprised, "Does it mean that he is right?" ”

"Hmm. His real position is twofold, one is that although the West has declined, the East has long since died, so the future world must be the West ruling the East. He said this from a cultural point of view, which I agree with his inference, but I may not agree with this result, the East has a set of things in the East, and at the technical level, we may not lose to the West in the future, and the use of technology or technology determines military superiority, just like the culture of the Mongols is backward compared to the Song Dynasty, but it does not prevent them from destroying the Song Dynasty. The military superiority of barbarian peoples over civilized peoples has changed world history many times.

The other is his imperial theory. Well, before education was universal. The most appropriate way for us to govern is actually an empire, because once it really becomes a republic. As he said, it is the obedient people and the slaves who cannot establish a republic. The old history was silted up when it was not completely cleared. It can only be changed slowly, what we can do is to change the pillars through education, and now we see that most of the people are slaves and obedient people, which is left over from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and those born after the founding of the country, through educational, economic and political means, they will never become slaves and obedient people again. ”

Yang Rui talked eloquently, and the worries caused by Liang Qichao's remarks quickly disappeared in Yang Du's heart, but there was another question that Yang Du had no bottom in his heart. He said: "According to Liang Zhuoru, from a cultural point of view, it is difficult for this country to maintain its current territory except for autocracy. Does this mean that once the people are not obedient or slaves, and Kannai evolves into a real republic, then the country will be divided? In other words, is it impossible to maintain a great empire in the new world structure? ”

What Yang Huizi asked was exactly what Yang Rui avoided. Look at it in terms of empire. The present territory is to be preserved as a matter of course, and in the case of the republic, if this territory contains most dissidents, the political and social situation will inevitably become extremely unstable. Because of this, Americans will never annex Mexico or the Philippines, because these tens of millions of voters will completely change the political landscape of the United States; India is not going to keep Pakistan either. Because tens of millions of Muslims are definitely the death of Hinduism.

What is Republic? A republic is a state founded by the union of the same people, and the size of the territory depends on the land and the scope of life of the same people. And what is the same person? It depends on who the reference is. All yellow people are the same when compared to Caucasians; Compare the English ethnicity. All people who speak Chinese in Chinese are the same; Compared with the north bank of the Yangtze River, Jiangnan is full of southerners. Different references give different results, but as far as Greater China is concerned, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Hui are definitely aliens, and it is difficult for them to be included in the republican category.

Empire is an Eastern concept, whereas republic is a Western concept. It is not possible to claim a territory as large as an empire under a republican political system; Nor can it establish a national concept in a multi-ethnic imperial state, and then implement a constitutional monarchy or a republican constitution, because the empire has only subjects, no people, and no voters, otherwise such a two-sided flattering behavior will only make the whole country indecent and contradictory. She may have been imperial, and then practiced a false republic; It may be a republic, and then it will rule other foreign regions in the name of provinces and in fact colonial, but whether it is imperial or colonial, under the existing world pattern and ideological trends, Greater China cannot be maintained for a long time, and this is the death hole of Greater China -- it will eventually be divided by too many external forces and internal heterogeneity.

"What Liang Qichao said ......" Yang Rui thought about it in his heart, but he found that he couldn't do it, "How do you say it?" There is a certain truth in the words, and the key to this point is that the West will inevitably prevail over the East, and as long as the West wins, then no country that threatens them can exist, and there will only be one superpower in the whole world, and that is the United States. In fact, this is also the consciousness of capital, that is, the executive power of any country except the United States cannot be controlled by capital. Where there are resources, whether it is mineral resources or human resources, it goes. Do you know the wheat? The foreigners are reviving their Rome, the Rome of the world. ”

When Yang Huizi was about to say something, Wang Yongjiang, the representative of the household department, came in, obviously having something to report. Yang Du had to withdraw when he saw this, China is also like the United Kingdom, under the prime minister is the largest Hubu Shangshu, and this Wang Yongjiang is recognized as Yu Huizu's deputy, the next Hubu Shangshu, which is something that he, a strategist, must not offend. And Wang Yongjiang didn't know why he was favored by Yang Rui - he didn't know his place in another period of history at all, he only knew that it was a pie from the sky and hit his head with a pop.

"Prime Minister, the franc is depreciating!" Wang Yongjiang, who never told him to ask to see him, was this first thing after Yang Du left.

"Damn, they're trying to repay the debt!" Yang Rui likes Wang Yongjiang, and talks to him in a completely northeastern accent, "Lao Wang, you say, how much have they depreciated, and how much have we lost?" ”

"It has depreciated by more than three times, from one pound to twenty-six francs at this time last year, and now one pound to seventy-eight francs[note 116]. The most serious thing is that domestic prices have also risen by 50 percent. Wang Yongjiang said.

"And what about our losses?" Yang Rui asked urgently, he is not afraid of the depreciation of the exchange rate, because as long as he uses francs to buy things in France. Then it doesn't matter if the exchange rate fluctuates, but the rise in domestic prices is fatal. This directly leads to a decrease in the purchasing power of the franc in hand.

"We have more than 1,540 million francs, and this round will come down... Only. In exchange terms, it is equivalent to a loss of a billion francs; In terms of purchasing power, it is equivalent to a loss of 500 million. Wang Yongjiang said.

"Is there no way to circumvent it?" Yang Rui asked urgently, this is really a robbery. "Is this a government action?"

"It should not be a government action. The battlefield was in France, so it suffered the most damage. In order to rebuild these devastated areas, a large amount of goods are imported and few are exported, the balance of payments cannot be balanced, and the trade deficit is widening, which will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in exchange rates and a sharp rise in domestic prices. Even if someone is making trouble. That's just adding fuel to the fire. "Wang Yongjiang said." As for the evasion, there is really no good way to do it, but to rush to buy a batch of French supplies. Now that many factories in France are bankrupt and there are not enough workers, the factory owners will be happy to sell the machines they don't use. ”

"Then let the people from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce do it immediately!" Yang Ruifa said urgently.

"Prime Minister, we're already doing it." Wang Yongjiang wiped his sweat.

"That's good! I was also stupid at the beginning, and when I saw that the French had a lot of gold, I thought that his currency was strong, and it was really .......1.5 billion francs in his hands." It's gone in an instant, and it's really hell, "The pound won't depreciate like this, right?" ”

"Prime Minister, the pound has already depreciated. Now this price should be able to stabilize. Wang Yongjiang said.

"At what price now?" Yang Rui forgot the exchange rate for a while, and he asked again at the same time: "What about the dollar?" And how much money do we make after these depreciation factors? Why doesn't the household department have a quasi-score until now? ”

Yang Rui's questions are one after another. Wang Yongjiang could only answer one by one, and he said: "The current price of the pound is 3.66 against the dollar. It was only 4.86 percent before, which is equivalent to a 25 percent depreciation. We have 1.5 billion francs in our hands. According to the pre-war exchange rate, this was more than 600 million gold and Chinese dollars, and after the war, it was about 400 million. It's a good thing that a lot of the francs collected during the war were spent, otherwise......

The pound sterling had more than 1.6 billion yuan in its hands, and the exchange rate before the war was more than 1.55 billion yuan, but now the exchange rate has fallen to 6.72 Chinese dollars per pound sterling, and it is only more than 1.7 billion Chinese dollars. The U.S. dollar has not depreciated, and now it has more than $3.8 billion, or 7.7 billion gold and Chinese dollars, in hand......"

There are three types of foreign exchange: the US dollar, the British pound and the franc. Now that all of them add up, it is less than 10 billion, Yang Rui asked: "You have subtracted the military spending figure, right?" ”

"Yes, Prime Minister. This subtracts the military expenses of the expeditionary force and part of the military expenses of the Western Regions, and now the fighting has stopped, so the household department can get an accurate number. Wang Yongjiang said.

"Seventy-seven plus ten .seven, plus one point five, counting fractions, this is nine billion Chinese dollars." Yang Rui counted and said, "This is our wartime profit?" ”

"No, Prime Minister. Before the war, there were two billion taels of silver in the country, and during the war, it flowed into three billion. Now it is about 1.4 billion to be spent, and there are more than 1.5 billion left—silver is already depreciating, but not as much as the franc, so that as far as the hard currency of the whole country is concerned, we have 1.5 billion taels of silver; There are also about two thousand tons of gold; Finally, there is the foreign exchange worth 9 billion.

According to the current exchange rate, gold and silver comparison, in terms of gold and silver dollars, the money of the whole country is 13 billion gold and silver dollars. Subtracting the 2.7 billion Chinese dollars before the war, the entire country's profit should be around 10.3 billion. But this is the whole country earned, not the government earned, what is really in the hands of the government is actually only foreign exchange and 1.5 billion taels of silver, these silver is the biggest problem, it will soon depreciate, one is not good, and like foreign exchange, it will lose nearly one billion gold and Chinese yuan. ”

Wang Yongjiang was even more worried about the depreciation of silver, after all, the franc was less in his hands, and the depreciation of 600 million to more than 100 million was already the limit; The pound must be strong, and even if it falls, it will not fall anywhere. Only the silver market is the most troublesome, because of the ban on gold leaving the country during the war, the price of gold and silver has actually reached 1 to 15, but now, like a roller coaster, it has fallen 1 to 40, and it is still falling.

"Hey, just say, the insurance estimates, how much can this 13 billion really become Jinhuayuan?" Yang Rui asked.

"Probably, probably there will be a loss of about seven or eight billion, and the key is to see if we throw away all the silver. If you have to throw these 1.5 billion taels of silver, you will lose at least half of it. Wang Yongjiang said.

"Who bears this loss?" Yang Rui suddenly thought that the silver in the hands of the people had been exchanged for gold or Jinhuayuan. only to find out that I seemed to have been fooled and suffered a loss.

"Naturally, this is borne by the National Bank." Wang Yongjiang had a strange expression, which had been discussed before. If you want to switch from the silver standard to the gold standard immediately. The silver and silver dollars circulating in the market will be exchanged for gold and silver dollars, and the price of gold and silver in wartime will be one to fifteen. Fortunately, the exchange was only for residents with household registration books in China, and gold was prohibited from leaving the country like other countries during the war, and at the same time, the Japanese side also reached an understanding, so the fertilizer fell to the outsiders.

Even so, the people's wealth was doubled on the gold standard. Two thousand tons of gold is simply not enough, and the gold Huayuan is more than doubled, but in terms of the world. This kind of over-issuance is the minimal. In other countries, the government is looting the people, but China is doing the opposite, and it is the people who are looting the government; although this is the necessary price for exchanging the silver standard for the gold standard, it has also made Japan on the side stunned, and the Chinese theory of benevolent government has put great pressure on the Japanese cabinet.

"Hmm. I remember. Yang Rui beat his head, his thinking was still drilling in Liang Qichao's thoughts, and he was shocked by the depreciation of the franc, and he didn't remember what he remembered before for a while. That's actually what it means. Based on the gold and gold yuan held by the people, 2,000 tons of gold in the treasury is not enough, and we still have to fill in billions of dollars to balance the balance sheet? ”

"That's what it says on the books. One to fifteen to gold, the people made more than double the money, and three billion taels of silver were converted into gold according to this ratio, which was 200 million taels of gold. That's 7,500 tons, but we only have 2,000 tons of gold now. The shortfall can only be made up in foreign exchange, which would require $3.75 billion. That is, 7.5 billion gold and Huayuan are gone. So we have only 1.5 billion taels of silver left unspent, and more than 100 million dollars, more than 100 million pounds, and 1.5 billion francs. Wang Yongjiang said.

"But this is never the case, and no country can afford to accept the gold dollar bills it has issued. Before the war, Britain could only accept four percent of its issued pounds, the United States fifteen percent, and the franc twenty-five percent; And we are twenty-six percent, which is higher than the franc before the war, and that is enough. The money that the government can really mobilize is more than 3.85 billion US dollars, 160 million pounds sterling, 1.5 billion francs in foreign exchange, and 1.5 billion taels of silver. Based on the current exchange rate, the price of gold and silver, it is ...... More than 10.7 billion ......"

Wang Yongjiang was like an abacus, countless numbers came out of his mouth, Yang Rui was a little impatient when he listened, and asked, "How much money did we earn?" After asking, seeing that he was very confused, Yang Rui made another addition, "Take Jinhua Yuanji." ”

"Based on the exchange rate before the war, as of the end of last year, in terms of the balance of payments, a total of 16.3 billion Chinese dollars had been earned, while the country had already made 2.7 billion silver dollars, but the total loss of military spending and devaluation was more than 6 billion yuan, and now there are still 13 billion yuan left. As a result, judging from the government's balance sheet, the government only had more than 100 million US dollars, more than 100 million pounds, 1.5 billion francs, and 1.5 billion taels of silver, but according to the practice of various countries, the government could spend more than 3 billion US dollars, more than 100 million pounds, 1.5 billion francs, and 1.5 billion taels of silver. Wang Yongjiang said.

"So, you only count the gold Huayuan in domestic circulation as the price of two thousand tons of gold?" Yang Rui asked.

"Yes, Prime Minister. No matter how much gold is found, it can only be exchanged for 2,000 tons of gold, but 2,000 tons of gold is enough to stabilize its value. Except for import and export companies and travelers at home and abroad, no one needs gold and foreign exchange. Now the foreign exchange and silver in the treasury are fully usable. Wang Yongjiang said. He glanced at Yang Rui and reminded: "Francs, silver, and even pounds must be spent as soon as possible." ”

"Francs and silver ......, francs and silver ......" Yang Rui kept muttering: "Francs can only be used in France to buy money, machines, art, mines ......"

"Prime Minister, there are many soldiers who have married French women, and some have to stay here, can they not issue Chinese dollars and a sum of francs, these people always have to buy real estate here." Wang Yongjiang prompted.

"How many are there?" There are a lot of young men in France, and the ratio of men and women in China is unbalanced, so a lot of things happen naturally. Lin Wenqian had reported this before, but Yang Rui didn't care.

"There are thirty or forty thousand French women who have married. There are also many people who want to stay in France, and it is roughly estimated that there are more than 10,000 people. The salaries, subsidies, and incentives of these people for several years add up, and if you lend them a settling-in fee, you can probably use up more than 100 million francs. Wang Yongjiang said.

"This is a small head, 1.5 billion is a big head, and silver is a big head." Yang Rui suddenly thought of Russia and said, "How is it on the Russian side?" How much gold do you buy? And the silver, do they take it? ”

Wang Yongjiang shook his head, "They only need weapons and food, and they are like this on both sides." More than 100 tons of gold were robbed by the Japanese, and the rest that flowed out was basically in our hands. More than 300 tons have not yet been put into storage; However, Kolchak still had a lot of gold in his hands, and now all the countries were surrounding him, especially the French, and if he handed over the gold to the Entente, things would not be easy. ”

"Only got more than 300 tons?" Yang Rui was very dissatisfied, and his face was extremely grim. "The gold in the Russian treasury, the gold of the tsar, is now all in Kolchak's hands." Speaking of this, he was very displeased, gritted his teeth and said: "If it weren't for the fear of interference and accusations from various countries, I would have sent troops to rush over and rob it a long time ago." ”

"Europe is expected to receive more than 500 tons of gold from selling grain. There may be more, too. Wang Yongjiang said, "No one knows how much gold Kolchak has in his hands, and we have not yet put it in the treasury to calculate, and there are almost 3,000 tons of gold in the treasury." ”

"And how many Americans are there?" Yang Rui asked. His ultimate goal was to have more gold than the United States.

"There are five thousand tons in the US treasury. As for the private sector, it is estimated to be more than 3,000 tons. "Wang Yongjiang said." It is difficult to estimate the number of people in our country, but at least 1,000 tons is widely recognized. ”

"That's not ...... More than 4,000 tons. Half the difference. Yang Rui was a little annoyed. Further down, the countries are the gold bullion standard, and the diaspora cannot exchange gold. The government can only use foreign exchange to exchange gold in other countries, with the amount of foreign exchange in its own hands. If you really want to redeem it, it is simply subverting the economy of other countries. In this way, if you want to increase the stock of gold, you can only accumulate it over time, little by little.

Yang Rui thought about financial matters, and called Xu Huafeng over again. He had been to Germany once a year ago, and was warmly welcomed by the business community, and the Sino-German industrial cooperation plan was negotiated almost without resistance, but the plan was drawn up, and the real key was the Paris Peace Treaty, if the peace treaty was extremely harsh on Germany, then many intentional contracts would be more or less affected.

The German side had just finished talking, and the French side had come up again. Although the Grand Agreement could not be negotiated - France paid the price of the Indochina colonies in exchange for a military alliance between China and France to confront Germany and ensure peace in Europe - the small industrial part was also negotiated, and the French economy needed to be revitalized after the war, so orders were urgently needed. Because of the lack of labor in France, the export of high-end industrial technical services and high-end industrial machine tools is the most suitable trade, but the price of this trade is that when China's industry takes shape, France will forever lose the Chinese industrial market.

If before the war, this kind of trading French company that lost long-term interests would never do it, but now he will do it if he doesn't do it, Germany will do it, and in order to make China closer to him, he will send troops in the next war; In order to revitalize the domestic economy and seize the opportunity to restore production capacity, the French can only let go.

"Lao Wang said that the franc is depreciating, and now it is all one Chinese dollar to ten francs, and last year it was only one to three .five." Yang Rui complained as soon as he saw Xu Huafeng. "On your side, as well as the Ministry of Commerce, whoever will immediately organize the procurement of the National People's Congress! As long as they charge francs, they can buy anything, don't look at the price. ”

"The Ministry of Industry has a clear plan." Xu Huafeng didn't want Yang Rui to call him over in a hurry. "And most of the projects have already been determined, if you want to buy again, you have to add new projects, and you have to add new projects to ......"

"Is there a contract for the project on the French side?" Yang Rui asked urgently, pointing at him with one hand. "Is the payment a franc or what?"

"All of them have been signed, and some have already paid a deposit; It's basically francs, only the Northeast car project involves too much money, and the French Citroen company requires half of the payment to be paid in pounds or dollars on the grounds that many equipment needs to be purchased from abroad. Xu Hua sealed.

"What is the total project funding?" Yang Rui asked again.

"Automobile, aluminum, coal mines, power plants, ......" Xu Huafeng himself couldn't tell what the total amount of all the contracts was, he thought for a while before saying: "I really can't think of the specific number, but it should be vaguely seven or eight billion francs." ”

"Seven or eight hundred million is still too little. Now that we have 1.5 billion francs in hand, you can organize people to set up some more projects for me to spend. When Yang Rui heard so little, he was immediately dissatisfied.

"This ......" Xu Huafeng couldn't cry or laugh, forcing him to spend money is of course a good thing, but any industrial project must go through strict demonstration, when the expeditionary force is fighting, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Land, and the Ministry of Education are also fighting in the country, and the demonstration and planning of the national economic zone, the construction plan of the logistics network and communication network, the planning of various industrial circles, and the planning of specific projects will take a lot of effort and time to demonstrate. At that time, considering that there was no pressure on the funds, the plan had been made very big, and now it was really difficult to spend more money, but now that people's money is depreciating, Xu Huafeng had to say: "I'll go back and think about it right away, and try to spend all this money." (To be continued......)

PS: Note 116: General History of France, p284. Because of the heavier losses of France, the depreciation is even worse (original history: 1 pound: 26 depreciated to more than 1:60)