After listening to the conversation between the two, Lin Meilian interrupted: "The boss, my subordinates remember that when reporting on Russia's serfdom reform was given a high evaluation..." As she said that, she pursed her lips and smiled: "It's the boss' tone that he set."

There were reports on the reform of serfdom in Russia in several major newspapers of Yuanqi that in order to echo the reform of the court, the reform of the new policy was highly praised for the reform of the serfdom in Russia. This was indeed a tone set by Yishisu.

"Russia's serfdom reform is of great significance and far-reaching influence, and has laid a solid foundation for the development of capitalism in Russia. This is beyond doubt." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "This point must still be affirmed and praised, but the Tsarist court used the reality of looting in the name of reform, and it is also necessary to criticize it. Everything has its pros and cons, and reporting truthfully is also conducive to developing people's wisdom.

Furthermore, the guidance of public opinion must also pay attention to strategies and follow some principles, such as the American Civil War, Russian serfdom reform, and the reactions and attitudes of European powers to the American Civil War, which must be reported in detail.

In recent years, a large number of international students have returned to China. Their vision, knowledge and thoughts have to be avant-garde. They should be encouraged to write articles for newspapers and magazines. In addition, they will issue a document to newspapers in various provinces. As a tool of public opinion, newspapers should take the lead in actively advocating freedom of speech and allowing different opinions to be expressed, but they cannot go beyond the bottom line."

After a pause, he continued: "From the current international situation, our Qing Dynasty may maintain good relations with Russia for a long time in the future. If we want to go further in Central Asia or the Persian Gulf, we may form an alliance with Russia. Therefore, criticizing articles can only represent individuals, not Yuanqi, or the imperial court. This must be paid attention to."

"I understand." Zhao Liewen nodded, and said, he presented the telegram at hand and said, "From Prussia, John Philip Reis showed a device that can transmit music in Frankfurt, but its sound transmission effect was not satisfactory."

After a pause, he continued: "The telegram also mentioned that Italian Antonio Meuci showed the public a similar invention last year - called it a 'talking telegraph machine'. However, due to economic difficulties, no formal concession was obtained."

An instrument that can transmit music? A telegraph machine that can talk? Easy to be content, react immediately. The phone! It is definitely a phone! At this time, the phone has already been invented?

After reading the telegram, he was very excited. Of course, he knew the meaning and value of the phone. After pondering for a moment, he said: "Italia has just completed unification, and Italian Antonio Meuci is financially struggling, which is reasonable.

He called back and tried his best to lobby for Meuqi and his assistant friends to come to Shanghai. Yuanqi can provide them with generous treatment and the best experimental conditions. The invention patent belongs to them personally. Yuanqi has only one condition and has the priority to purchase their invention patent."

Isn’t this a sucker? Zhao Liewen laughed in his heart, but said, “The shopkeeper is very interested in this telegraph machine that can be talked about?”

"Of course." Yi Zhizu smiled and said, "Think about it, what would it be if this instrument has practical value? What would it be if it can talk directly with people thousands of miles away? This is not only an invention that benefits mankind, but also has extremely commercial value. We naturally have to spare no effort to support it. Besides, we can also cultivate our own talents, so why not do it?"

After hearing this, Zhao Liewen secretly sighed that this master is indeed unique. He not only has extraordinary eyesight, but also has extraordinary imagination. When he saw this invention, he was just a novelty, but this master could see the huge business opportunities contained in this invention. This is the gap.

"The shopkeeper is born with a pair of wise eyes, and I am really impressed by waiting." Zhao Liewen smiled and said, "I'll let them call back now."

Born with a pair of wise eyes? Yi Shizu smiled, "Wait, you go to the Ministry of Resources to tell them to strengthen the exploration and mining of copper mines. Yunnan was a major copper-producing province in ancient times, and Jiangxi also had a rich mineral deposit. They focused on these two provinces.

In addition, if you contact the court, they will gradually reduce or abolish casting copper coins. With the development of the industry, the demand for copper materials will become greater and greater. Military industry is a large copper user, and the demand for copper from cables and wires is also great, and it will even surpass that of military industry in the future.

In general, copper is a strategic substance and cannot rely entirely on imports. It must expand its own copper mining and smelting scale. We are currently mainly importing copper from Chile and Peru, and we are shipping by sea, but the navy is our shortcomings, so this must be considered."

"It's still the long-term consideration for the shopkeeper." Zhao Liewen smiled.

"This is a war for resources." Yi Zhizu did not explain much. In recent years, Yuanqi has invested heavily in mining copper and saltpeter in Chile and Peru. The British have also taken a fancy to the minerals in South America. The investment is not small, and the competition is quite fierce. In this American civil war, Yuanqi sold arms to the northern Federation with great fanfare. He was worried that the British would tamper with this raw material in South America.

Three days later, Putiyatin visited again. After a few simple greetings, he said straight: "His Majesty the Emperor of my country agreed to the offer price, but the payment for the goods that had been owed to Yuanqi before must be written off."

In the northwest arms trade, the total amount of goods owed by the Russians was as high as more than 12 million taels of silver. This was purely a disguised bargaining. The waived payment was equivalent to spending 40 to 50 million silver to purchase a place east of the Altai Mountains.

Yi Zhizu pondered for a while and said, "Yes, but this silver must be paid in two years." At present, Yuan Qi is drawing funds everywhere for the cotton dominance in Europe. At this time, he really can't afford 30 million silver dollars. By the time next year, the price of cotton will rise, and 30 million silver dollars is really nothing.

Two years later, Putiyatin was stunned and hurriedly said: "Two years are too long, and I can't guarantee that there will be any unexpected changes."

"It doesn't matter if there is any change." Yi Zhizu said distractedly: "Thirty million silver dollars are not a small amount. Even if you have to raise such a large amount of money in normal times, it is not easy. Yuanqi has had some difficulties in capital turnover in the past two years..."

"What's next year, next autumn?" Putiyatin's tone was a little quick, looking anxious to wait for rice to be put into the pot. The large-scale riots caused by the serfdom reform led to large-scale riots, which was a high deficit, was just a little worse for the Russian finance, which was originally a high deficit. This was one of the reasons why Alexander II agreed to sell the territory.

Yi Zhizu is bound to win this territory transaction. After a moment of contemplation, he said: "The earliest one will be next winter. Of course, if I can raise it in advance, I will pay in advance, and there is no need to hurry the contract, and it will not be too late to sign it again."

Speaking of this, Putiyatin didn't know how to say anything more, and immediately said, "Okay, I'm waiting for your good news in Shanghai."

England, City of London.

Europe has four major financial centers - London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. As the country's national strength grows, London has replaced Paris as the largest financial center in Europe.

The City of London is London's financial center. The city is not large in size, with dense buildings and narrow streets, but it gathers hundreds of financial institutions - banks, stock exchanges, gold exchanges, futures exchanges, insurance companies... Financial institutions of all sizes are pushing this place less than two miles apart.

There were people coming and going on the narrow streets, and everyone was dressed in a hurry, as if it was influenced by the surrounding environment and atmosphere. Hu Xueyan, who was walking on Old Broad Street, also rushed much more slowly. Following him were two shopkeepers from Yuanqi London Branch who were familiar with the Financial City.

Yi Zhizu called back, so he didn't hesitate or doubt, and he insisted on eating all things and securities. But he was very uneasy. So far, the money flowing out through his hands has been equivalent to 20 million taels of silver, but there is still a steady stream of large amounts of funds sent to London.

This made him feel shocked. He was shocked by the strength of Yuanqi's funds and was amazed at the great deal of Yi Zhizu. He didn't know how much money Yuanqi could raise. He knew very well that the amount of funds occupied by domestic cotton hoarding was also extremely amazing. He was a little unimaginable. Once the cotton dominance failed, how much would Yuanqi lose?

As the futures exchange approached, Fan Chengwei, who was accompanying Fan, rushed to two steps and parallel to Hu Xueyan, and said softly: "Shopkeeper Hu, many cotton speculators are gradually withdrawing. The problem is not too big to buy physical cotton or cotton-related bonds, but cotton futures are somewhat risky..."

Hu Xueyan stopped and said in a deep voice: "Do you think the price of cotton will fall?"

"The current situation is hard to say." Fan Chengwei hesitated: "After all, most people are not optimistic about cotton now. Now the war in the south is easy, and the price of cotton continues to decline. Many people have no hope of speculation and have evacuated one after another. At this time, the risk is really great. I hope Manager Hu will think twice."

Hu Xueyan pondered for a moment and walked into the exchange gate without saying a word. In less than half a month, the price of cotton had dropped from ten cents per pound to eight cents. In his judgment, as long as there is no major change, the price has basically bottomed out.

Walking into the hall and taking a look at the latest cotton price, Hu Xueyan ordered in a deep voice: "Buy it up, buy a total of 300,000 pounds!"

Amid the bearish sound, the 300,000 pounds increase attracted the attention of the entire exchange and also attracted a lot of discussion, "Which oriental people bought it? They all say that the East is rich, and it seems that the rumors are true."

"It's true that you have money, but this is not where they should be."

"Don't underestimate them. They are from Yuanqi Bank. They have stocked up a lot of cotton during this period and have also earned a lot of related securities."

"Yuanqi Bank? It shouldn't be a small bank, right? Why haven't you heard of it?"

"No one who has been to the Far East knows Yuanqi. In the Far East, no matter what you do, you must deal with Yuanqi. It can be said that it is a company that is several times larger than the East India Company."

"Will there be anything we don't know about Yuanqi's support for the Northern Federation?"

This has attracted the attention of many people. Yuan Qi is so abnormal that he is very likely to have obtained some information. However, someone soon said disdainfully: "Can you hide anything from the war in North America? They have no movement."

"It's not that there's no movement, they're selling their chips."

Hu Xueyan could understand English, but he learned London-aton English. He could understand some of the discussions in the hall. These British people in London were very arrogant and had a strong sense of superiority. They looked exactly like the gentry and merchants of the Qing Dynasty. They thought that Westerners were barbarians, and these London people thought they were countrymen. However, there were many people who knew Yuanqi. After all, Yuanqi had monopolized the Qing Dynasty's foreign trade for so many years and had long been famous.

He thought of a question from the discussions of the crowd. Yuan Qi was so against the trend and his work was quite good, which would inevitably arouse the interest of countless people and be closely watched. Before, everyone thought that speculative cotton was profitable, and he was cautious in his behavior and did not attract much attention, but the situation was different now.

What he was even more worried about was that Yuanqi's relationship with the Northern Federation of the United States was well known. Will Yuanqi's such a big fantasy against the trend trigger follow-up? Will it stimulate everyone's confidence in speculative cotton?

Fan Chengwei also heard some discussions and left the exchange, and he said excitedly: "Let's go against the trend. If it can trigger a follow-up trend, the risk will undoubtedly be greatly reduced. Should we make some noise?"

"There is no need. Actual actions are more convincing than any storm." Hu Xueyan said slowly: "Go back first, come tomorrow."

Hu Xueyan not only made great efforts to buy and rise on the Financial City Futures Exchange for several consecutive days, but also sent people to Liverpool Port, the most important port for importing cotton in England, to purchase a large amount of unlimited cotton.

However, in a few days, both in the City of London and Liverpool cotton markets, Yuanqi's large-scale acquisition of cotton was spreading, and the incident of cotton was bullish. This naturally aroused great attention and discussion.

However, it is just limited to attention and discussion. There are not many people following the trend, but not many of them, and the price of cotton has not caused any fluctuations. Compared with the huge cotton market in England, Hu Xueyan's actions can only be regarded as a small wave at most.

In Shanghai, Jie Xiuyuan walked into the room quickly, handed over the gift and reported: "The big shopkeeper, Xue Yan's telegram, England's financial market and cotton market are too large, and our funds are limited, so we cannot cause much fluctuation."

After receiving the telegram and scanning it a few times, Yi Zhizu said: "It is the Southern Alliance that can affect the price of cotton, not us. Remember that as for the funds, he doesn't have to worry about it, and there will be a large amount of funds to be transferred there."

:.:
Chapter completed!