Before World War I, the British and French governments held little gold reserves, and the main gold reserves were commercial banking institutions in both countries. Until today, the US gold reserves were mainly held by the Federal Reserve.

With the outbreak of World War I, the classical gold coin standard could no longer be maintained. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other countries have passed legislation to transfer gold reserves to their central banks and implemented a policy of restricting gold exchanges. The British and French governments have successively adopted the gold nugget standard.

, strictly restrict the exchange of gold and currency, and then continue to implement the gold exchange standard system, transferring the gold reserves of colonial countries to their own countries.

In 1920, with the turmoil of the international economic crisis, Britain, France, Italy and Germany passed temporary protection bills to suspend gold exchange. In order to prevent the loss of gold reserves, China, the United States and Japan, which had relatively abundant gold reserves, also launched the same financial protection bill.

The international financial austerity crisis is unstoppable.

In 1921, the total gold reserves of the Chinese Empire were 3572 tons, worth 4.8 billion yuan, while the total issuance of broad money in the Empire was 32 billion yuan, and the total circulation was about 13.5 billion yuan. Considering that the Empire held foreign debts and compensations at the same time.

The total amount is still more than 3.9 billion pounds, and the imperial financial situation is definitely the best among the six countries of Britain, the United States, France, China, Italy and Japan.

France's overall financial situation is also good in theory, but whether France can recover those compensations from Germany is really a question.

At this time, the empire was like Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The total amount of foreign debts and compensation was equivalent to 5.2 times the empire's national fiscal revenue in 1921. The entire empire felt very rich, as if there was endless money.

Moreover, the empire's gold reserves also jumped to second place in the world, second only to the United States.

Interestingly, the United States has become the world's largest capital exporter at this time, and the empire is still one of the world's largest capital importers.

Unlike Japan, on the basis that the total military expenditure remains among the top five in the world, about 28% of the empire's national fiscal expenditure in 1921 was spent on the introduction of education, scientific research and technology, accounting for the first place in the country's fiscal expenditure.

.17.3% is used for immigration, reclamation, water and soil protection, sand and flood control, agricultural support and water conservancy canal construction, 3% is used for special allocations to introduce foreign talents, and 7.5% is used for farmland repurchase and farmers' land increase in land holdings under the field limit bill

Special loan.

In 1921, the Empire actually recovered 103 million pounds of foreign debt and compensation, of which 1/3 was used to increase its holdings of gold, and 1/3 was used to fund foreign study abroad. The remaining 1/3 continued to be injected into China International Trust and Investment Company for the central government

Government invests overseas.

Because the empire mainly relies on low-cost army to maintain the seats of the great powers, compared with the five countries of Britain, the United States, France, Japan and Italy, the empire's expenses and money-burning efforts in the navy were obviously insufficient, but the central government's life was very prosperous and its fiscal surplus was surplus.

The extent of the country deeply stimulated foreign powers who were in a debt crisis. The empire was still mining oil in Baku like groundwater, which made it even more envious of the powers of all countries.

The good fiscal surplus allowed the Empire to launch an ambitious plan to double the total agricultural output value in the third phase of the national plan, and through the special credit support bill, it provided preferential support loan policies for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries across the country.

Encourage farmers to purchase more advanced agricultural and animal husbandry machinery and equipment, invest in fruit forest economy and purchase large-tonnage fishing boats. It is expected that 2.5 billion yuan will be invested in national water conservancy construction within five years, and will be used for the construction of the country's water conservancy industry, the Far East and the Western Xinjiang.

The province's industrial and agricultural support and development and large immigration plans are also urgent tasks of the new cabinet.

Ouyang Geng's cabinet adopted an economic policy that was completely different from that of Tang Shaoyi's cabinet, shifting the support direction of the central government and local governments to agriculture, and trying to expand the domestic demand market through the development of agriculture, thereby driving the growth of industry and commerce.

Song Biao was still very satisfied with such a policy. With his understanding of Wang Yongjiang, the Minister of Agriculture, he also believed that this big plan would not have any problems.

Therefore, although the scale of investment in the navy is a little lower, Song Biao has no worries. The empire's status, strength and Sino-French alliance can basically ensure the security of the empire. As long as we speed up the time after the war, we can accelerate development

A beautiful tomorrow is always waiting for the empire, and he was ready to accept the invitation of the newly appointed US President Warren Ganmeral Harding to go to the United States to attend the Washington Conference in person.

In late October 1921, Song Biao, escorted by a battleship and four cruisers from the Northern Fleet of the Empire, rode the Sinian battleship to the United States with Queen Shu Xuan.

Unlike previous visits to the United States, Song Biao was not only the emperor of the Chinese Empire, but also one of the most important leaders of the Allied Powers. The strategic mutually beneficial cooperative relationship between China and the United States is also at the best stage in history.

Queen Xuan received a college education at Connecticut Women's College in the United States. His visit and Shu Xuan were warmly welcomed by American society.

It is said that the Americans selected President Warren Harding as one of the three most mediocre presidents in American history. Such a review may be a bit too much. First, President Warren Harding ended the wartime state of the United States.

The prosperity of the United States was restored through a series of means such as raising tariffs and promoting free investment; second, he reached the Washington agreement, ending the increasingly fierce naval race in the past decade.

One thing is undeniable, that is, the deep collusion between President Warren Harding and the American consortium is unprecedented among the US presidents. The Chief of the Army and the Secretary of the Interior are both candidates for the Morgan consortium, Treasury Secretary Andrew.

Mellon is the most famous financial oligarch. The attorney general is the agent of Mobil Oil, and the secretary of state is Conns Vanderbilt, chairman of Bank of America.

The Secretary of State Conns Vanderbilt, who was personally responsible for the empire at the San Francisco port, was the Secretary of State Conns Vanderbilt. They were obviously real old friends, and their investments in China and the United States were generally linked to each other.

Because we haven't met for several years, Song Biao seemed very happy when he met Conns. After the two got into the black General Motors Cadillac, they couldn't wait to discuss the situation in the world.

Compared to being a banker, Conns Vanderbilt, he seemed more devoted to the position of US Secretary of State, and talked endlessly about the international situation after the end of World War I, as well as the situation in Britain, France, America and Germany.

Song Biao really never expected that the cooperation that year gave birth to a very good US Secretary of State. At least in this position, Conns Vanderbilt is the most familiar with Wall Street and the international financial operation mechanism among all previous US Secretary of State.

The one.

The Cadillac sedan will carry Song Biao to the Vanderbilt family's new manor in San Francisco, a luxury estate in Pidelmont Forest in Oakland. It covers an area of ​​nearly 100 acres and fully demonstrates the Vanderbilt family's new manor.

A special status since the Western Revival.

On the way to the Vanderbilt Manor in Pidelmont Forest, Song Biao listened to Conns' various ideas on the German issue.

The Allied Insurance Treaty planned by Song Biao largely limited the United States' war prosperity and restricted the inflow of gold into the United States, but the overall effect was not particularly obvious. The United States still has the strength to challenge Britain's financial hegemony.

Moreover, Americans are indeed doing this.

During the Paris peace talks, in order to maintain its own financial hegemony, Britain hoped that China and the United States would ban Britain's debts, while Britain would ban other countries' debts. In this plan, France could not ask Germany for huge amounts of war mine distribution.

Britain was no longer the British Empire in the past. Under the strong opposition of the joint opposition of China, the United States and France, this proposal, which was only beneficial to the British Empire, did not get any opportunity to discuss it at all.

Now, the debt interest paid to China and the United States alone is as high as 70 million pounds per year. Regardless of whether Germany can repay its debts to Britain and France, China, the United States, Japan and other countries will continue to repay debts from Britain, France and other Allied countries.

In order to kill Britain's world financial hegemony, the United States has not been idle for the past two years, and China is the most important assistant to the United States. The interests between China and the United States are definitely not only to deal with the British Empire, but also to deal with Japan together.

Navy challenge.

Although the size of the US Navy is huge, its focus is in the Atlantic Ocean. There are not as many fleets in the Pacific Ocean as Japan. This requires the Chinese and US navies to maintain a high degree of cooperation and jointly restrain the Japanese navies on both the east and west sides.

So for the past decade, the United States has maintained a large number of naval consultants in China and has provided all possible help to China's warship manufacturing industry.

The navy is weak and has its benefits. China's navy has no clear threat to any powerful, so that China can not only maintain close naval cooperation with the United States and France, but also invite a large number of naval generals and technical engineers from Germany to work in China.

, and even continue to maintain necessary cooperation with the United Kingdom, which is an important factor in the rapid development of the Chinese Navy in recent years.

At the Virginia Naval Academy, almost one-quarter of the students are from Chinese students, and there are Chinese students in the engineering colleges of all famous universities in the United States. In the Naval Officer School and Naval Academy in China, American teachers and instructors

The number is also the largest, and the proportion is even greater than the number of faculty and staff in the country.

During the process of the Empire's construction of four Sonian battleships, except for the early assistance of British Vickers, the rest of the foreign consulting teams were from the United States. When the Empire tried to completely localize the Qingzhou-class super fearless battleships,

In addition to technical engineers from Krupp Shipyard and Vulgan Window Factory in Germany, there are also strong assistance from American consultants, especially in the field of domestic steam turbines, which has received unreserved technology transfer and support from the United States.

In the era of empire, China and France were natural allies, and so were China and the United States. Now, China and the United States need closer cooperation to jointly fight against the British-Japanese alliance’s countermeasures against the two countries around the world to protect the common interests of both sides.

The US navy is an unsolvable nightmare for Britain. Similarly, the Imperial Army is also a nightmare that Britain cannot face. The strategic mutual cooperation between China and the United States also has positive economic significance. The United States is China's largest exporter.

It is also the largest importer.

In order to encourage China to import petroleum, machinery, electrical equipment, ships and chemical products from the United States, the United States has always adopted special preferential policies for China's advantageous agricultural products such as raw silk, tea, and hemp, and at the same time, it will crack down on the Japanese economy to curb Japan's madness in the naval field

Invest.

Listening to Conns' free-spirited talk about the importance of the two countries joining forces to suppress the British-Japanese alliance and the Washington Conference, the sympathy for Germany and France, and the necessity of the US dollar replacing the pound. Song Biao's mood is complicated at the moment. On the one hand,

It is the general trend that China-US joint fight against the British-Japanese alliance. On the other hand, he actually does not want to see the United States become the real new world hegemon.

So along the way, Song Biao had almost no reaction or statements about Conns Vanderbilt's fierce conversation, and he was still hesitating. Although he knew that this was the only reasonable choice.

It was not until the moment when I took a bus to enter Vanderbilt Manor and visited the beautiful manor under an oak tree and sat down with the couple to enjoy a quiet afternoon tea time. Song Biaocai

Suddenly, Conns said in a warm remark: "I never believed that Germany would have the opportunity to repay all debts. This is just a 20-year war break, so investing in Germany will be a matter of

It's a stupid thing, but I don't know what the United States will do. In short, our country will not further expand its investment in the United States. In fact, the whole of Europe is still very dangerous. Whether it is the Soviet Union or Germany, this is a potential danger.

Investment between China and the United States is still the best choice.”

Conns was silent for a moment and replied to Song Biao: "I think so too, but the interests of the United States require that we must give Germany some reasonable help, but personally, the investment in China and the United States is still

The most important thing. Also, the investment in the electrolytic aluminum industry is so wonderful.”

Song Biao laughed and agreed with satisfaction: "Yes, this is simply the most wonderful business in recent years. Who said that's not the case?"

The electrolytic aluminum in the United States was held by the Mellon consortium from the beginning. However, in terms of patent technology, France's Elle also has the same status, but the electrolytic aluminum industry in France has always been not strong, so they bought it.

A patent, and a larger investment in research at the Northeast Electric Power Industry Research Institute. Patent application was filed in the United States with new and improved technologies, and this patent was jointly owned by Bethlehem and Far East.

Soon, they quickly used the Mellon consortium's oil crisis in Mexico to buy Aluminum Corporation and hold both patents in their hands, which left the Far East consortium and the Vanderbilt consortium in the aluminum industry worldwide.

and has been continuously investing in researching more powerful and more efficient electrolytic aluminum industry technologies, tirelessly maintaining the American Aluminum Company, and merged it with Far East Aluminum Company into Pacific Aluminum Company.

The reason why this company is very profitable is because of the great development of the power industry and its position as the best alternative to copper conductors.

Overall, in the past fifteen years, the Far East Consortium and the Vanderbilt Consortium have established close cooperative relations on both sides of the Pacific, which is even enough to affect the changes in the entire Sino-US relations. The two consortiums and the California Consortium jointly hold shares.

The Bank of America is now one of the largest banks in the Americas.

Money is a crazy thing.

With the initial profits taken from Petroleum Corporation, the total assets of the Far East Consortium in the United States have exceeded US$4 billion, which has increased thirty times in the past decade, including finance, metallurgy, electrical, machine tools, automobiles,

Aluminum, ships, aircraft and oil all have very special commercial status. Among the industries invested by the Far East Consortium, the general situation is that the Vanderbilt consortium holds the position of major shareholders, and the Far East ranks first.

Two seats.

Taking advantage of the wave of the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States to make profits, and constantly transfer technology and talents to support the development of the Far East Consortium in China, this is the most core business principle of the Far East Consortium.

It was under the promotion of the Far East Consortium and the Vanderbilt Consortium that the Republican Party’s introduction of a new immigration bill has eased the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act to a certain extent, and over the past decade, a total of 137,000 Chinese in the United States and

Their families gave special approval, making these people American nationals, and most of them lived in the San Francisco Bay area.

Because life in this area is more secure, most Chinese people in the United States have moved here one after another. With the help of the Vanderbilt consortium and local overseas Chinese leaders, the San Francisco Bay Company is located in the south of San Francisco, San Francisco County, Telegraph Hill, and the east side of the San Francisco Bay with the help of the Vanderberg Consortium and local overseas Chinese leaders.

Richmond, California, has successively purchased more than 120,000 acres of land to build multiple new urban areas, resettled Chinese people from all over the United States, founded schools and law firms locally, invested in textiles, shipbuilding and chemical factories, and resettled workers.

In Richmond, Chinese funded the establishment of a Chinese California College, which is mainly aimed at Chinese. The Empire established the Spring and Autumn Academy in Richmond through cooperation with the US government. The Vanderbilt family also paid attention to the University of San Francisco, Stanford University and

Caltech has provided huge funding to fund the two universities to recruit more Chinese students.
To be continued...