The simultaneous existence of the Soviet camp, the fascist camp, the British and American camps made the world more chaotic in the 1930s, and the entanglements between each other made all parties in a terrible balance.

Germany's biggest goal is to persuade China and the Asian League to abandon its ally with France and form an alliance with Nazi Germany to attack the Soviet Union. If this goal cannot be achieved, Germany will settle for the second best.

We also hope to continue to maintain the special relationship between China and Germany, and hope that the Chinese Empire will continue to adopt a clearer support policy for the Nazi Third Reich and support Nazi Germany to expand eastward by attacking the Soviet Union.

During the German special envoy's visit to China, President Franklin Roosevelt announced two letters between him and Emperor Song through fireside conversations, officially starting a war against domestic conservatism, and advocated the establishment of a new Sino-US Pan-Pacific Ocean

Partnership.

At this time, the ** wave was very serious in the United States, but the pro-China forces were also very strong. The two sides had been in fierce struggle between conservatism and liberalism. After President Franklin Roosevelt made a clear statement against the American conservative thoughts

Only then did liberalism once again establish its dominance over the United States.

This does not mean that the United States, Britain, France and other countries will completely ignore the various problems between China and Europe and the United States. The root of all problems is still in trade. In the past decade, China has been the largest trade surplus in the world.

Even during the Great Depression, China's foreign trade surplus did not shrink significantly.

China is willing to solve this problem.

Different cabinet prime ministers always have different ideas. After replacing Ouyang Geng as interim prime minister, Gu Weijun, who was a foreign minister, considered directly resolving the international trade dispute between China and Europe and the United States by raising the exchange rate, thereby promoting world free trade.

Complete recovery.

On the afternoon of the afternoon of the visiting delegation of the German Head of State's Special Envoy to Baoding as an observer to visit the military exercises of Baoding, the Imperial Interim Cabinet Prime Minister Gu Weijun went to the Central Palace to meet the Emperor Song.

Song Biao did not arrange formal work that afternoon, but instead fished on the shore of the Central Lake.

The scenery by the lake is beautiful and the green willows are shaded.

In the lakeside pavilion in Linchi Pavilion, Song Biao prepared all the tools, and sat by the pavilion wearing a cool hat to fish. Life is about combining work and rest. Song Biao likes to do some simple entertainment activities in this leisure time, stay away from military affairs.

Those troubles of big things.

Central Lake belongs to the royal garden, but there are always many people fishing here, most of which come from the military headquarters or officials of the central cabinet. Vegetable farmers nearby sometimes take the time before dawn to scatter in Central Lake.

Get some benefits in one network.

The fish here are mainly carp and grass carp, and there are other fish. Occasionally, they can catch an eel or a sea snake. The inner court is responsible for maintaining order here and maintaining the stability of the fish population. What the imperial court needs every day

The fish supply is generally also from here.

Beijing has started to get cooler in October, and the cool breeze blew by the lake.

After Song Biao caught two carp, Gu Weijun hurried to the bank of Linchi Pavilion and came to pay homage to Song Biao.

After becoming the interim prime minister of the central cabinet of the Empire, Gu Weijun had no time to be so leisurely. He walked into Linchi Pavilion accompanied by the eunuch. He bowed respectfully to Emperor Song and reported: "I will meet the emperor."

When Song Biao heard it was his voice, he did not look back. He continued to sit on the stone bench and fished. He asked Gu Weijun: "There are more interesting days in the United States. I heard that you want to take this opportunity to hold an international free trade conference in Shanghai.

To negotiate to restore the world free trade situation before the Great Depression, the idea is very good. Are you sure it is big?"

Gu Weijun replied: "Reporting to the emperor, my subordinates think that whether the world can resume free trade depends on our country. All countries are trapped in conservatism and seclusion policies. The huge trade surplus in our country is a comparative factor. The old saying goes, "It's not a big deal."

Spring, if our country wants to truly become the new world hegemon, it should still establish special interests around the world. The most convenient way to achieve this goal is free trade. For this reason, if our country can make adjustments to the exchange rate.

, to support European and American countries in agreeing to our proposal to restore the free trade policy before the Great Depression and establish new free trade institutions, although there will certainly have a certain impact on our country in the short term, but it will definitely be beneficial to the long-term development of the country in the long term."

Then Song Biao temporarily placed the fishing rod next to him, stood up and signaled the eunuch beside him to prepare tea for Gu Weijun, and he also invited Gu Weijun to come and sit down together.

There are stone tables and round stools next to Linchi Pavilion, which is a good place for fishing and cultivation.

When geothermal heat returns to dryness, it is best to drink white tea.

The royal family has always used Fuding white tea as a tribute. Song Biao rarely invites Gu Weijun, the interim prime minister, to drink white tea today. There is a plate of Xinjiang pistachio next to the tea cup. He peels a few pies and thinks about his words while eating.

After waiting for a while, he reminded Gu Weijun: "Your idea is very good, but I still recommend that you wait until the end of the parliamentary election and officially serve as prime minister before considering this matter, so as not to be in case."

There are always problems that many people cannot control in history. For example, the next prime minister that Song Biao has always wanted to support is Chen Qimei, or the Chief of General Staff Jiang Fangzhen and one of the Ministers of Defense Chen Qicai served as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet for easier changes.

Good response to the arrival of the war era.

As a result, Gu Weijun became the Prime Minister of the Empire in such an unexpected way.

The empire has always had a kind of inertia in politics. As long as every prime minister is a qualified choice, he can basically complete two or even three. Gu Weijun is definitely one of the best candidates. Once he takes the lead, he will become the first.

As long as the interim prime minister does not make mistakes, it basically means that he can complete two terms.

After all, Gu Weijun was the first imperial cabinet prime minister who was born in the inner court. He had a special status and had a special relationship with the emperor.

How could the emperor not support him?

Gu Weijun pondered for a long time and replied: "Your Majesty, my subordinates think that everything should be done according to the opportunity. Since the United States and other countries imitated our internal affairs and expanded government spending to recover the economy, the world economic situation has improved significantly compared with previous years, and all countries have intended to re-promote. The biggest obstacle to free trade is the trade and trade treaties signed by our country with other countries after World War I. Most of these treaties have a validity period of five to ten years. If countries ban various emergency tariff protection policies established during the Great Depression, Recovering back to the situation before the Great Depression, countries will inevitably find it difficult to withstand the pressure of my country's industrial exports. For my country, once exports grow on a large scale, it will indeed be beneficial to the country's economy and people's livelihood in the short term, but in the long run, our growth will be Other countries are a kind of industrial weakening. In the long run, it will continue to cause economic declines in various countries and the world will fall into a new economic crisis again. Balance is a basic rule for the operation of the world. Only balance can make the world move forward more smoothly. The situation this year is relatively good. Countries are eager to promote the recovery of free trade. The situation is beneficial to our country and it is easy for our country to fight for greater rights and interests. If it is postponed until next year or the year after, it will be with the Washington Naval Treaty. The contract renewal negotiations are in conflict with each other. Even if we no longer sign this agreement, the situation around the world will be more responsible. Therefore, from the perspective of long-term interests, it is the best time to negotiate the free trade recovery at the end of this year and early next year. .”

After a moment of pause, he added: "Although the increase in the exchange rate is not conducive to exports in the short term, it is beneficial to my country's import of materials, expanding foreign investment and domestic demand, and these are the foundation of the empire. Combined with the pros and cons, the cabinet may do this. There are certain risks to take, but the subordinates have the responsibility to push this matter."

Since he had made up his mind, Song Biao stopped persuading him.

As long as the general direction is correct, Song Biao, as the constitutional monarchy emperor, was unwilling to interfere in the normal government affairs of the cabinet.

The stability of imperial politics is far better than that of Japan. Compared with the longevity of the imperial cabinet prime minister and the stability of the central policy, the Japanese cabinet prime minister is basically short-lived, and the central policy also fluctuates frequently.

An important difference here is that when the emperor also has the highest authority, Emperor Song has the effect of maintaining the stability of the cabinet. As long as the cabinet is generally perfect and correct, even if there are more opposition forces in the country, the emperor's support is

It can also allow the cabinet to implement the new policy stably.

Since Gu Weijun has made up his mind, all Song Biao can do is support.

Emperor, you must also have the awareness of being willing to make green leaves for flowers.

Just by the lakeside of Linchi Pavilion, Song Biao and Gu Weijun, the Prime Minister of the Imperial Interim Cabinet, discussed the matter of organizing the Shanghai meeting. Most of the time, Emperor Song just listened quietly and did not put forward too many ideas and initiatives.

Generally speaking, Gu Weijun's considerations are still very comprehensive.

After Gu Weijun explained his ideas, Song Biao did not rush to express his opinion, but asked him to return to the cabinet to convene a regular meeting of ministers to discuss the details. For specific matters, he, the emperor, did not want to say much.

Too much words will lead to mistakes.

...

After all, Gu Weijun is a foreign minister and can keenly grasp every subtle change in the international political environment. After the obvious changes in the international environment and the support of the emperor, he couldn't wait to try to organize the Shanghai Free Trade Conference.

All countries have also responded positively to this.

In December 1934, under the joint initiative of China, the United States, Britain and France, a total of 42 international and regions gathered in the Shanghai Huangpu International Special Zone to hold talks on the restoration of world free trade.

Regarding the issue of the China Round exchange rate, Gu Weijun proposed two plans. One is that the China Round exchange rate will be directly increased by about 15 in 1935, and the other is that the China Round exchange rate will be increased by about 4 years each year in the next five years. However, in order to achieve these two plans,

In any case, China must increase its gold reserves and foreign exchange to maintain its currency reserves, while Britain, the United States and France must ensure the exchange rate is stable.

With China's competitiveness in industrial exports too strong, there are only two ways to restore world free trade. One is to completely reject the trade agreement signed with other countries after World War I, and renegotiate new agreements. The other is to improve China's

exchange rate.

When the agreement was signed with various countries, China was the support party, and the treaty was beneficial to China as a whole. If we wanted to renegotiate the new contract with various countries, one was that the cycle was too long, and the other was that we might not be able to win the past terms. Therefore,

China would rather increase the gold content of the Chinese dollar appropriately and directly solve the trade surplus between China and Europe and the United States by increasing the exchange rate.

The United Kingdom and the United States basically agree on this, and hope to increase it directly at one time and immediately solve the current trade imbalance problem. However, the United Kingdom and the United States believe that the China-round exchange rate should be increased by at least 40, and they wish that the China-round exchange rate would be increased by 70.

The problem is that there is a big problem here, that is, once the gold content of the Chinese Yuan increases by 40, the gap in economic aggregate between China and the United States will widen to a difficult level to catch up, and the Chinese Yuan exchange rate will increase to this level,

The power of China's export to the outside world will be stronger, and Britain and France will not be able to stand it.

The discussions between the countries from December 1934 until mid-January, and finally made a move. China promised to increase the nominal value by 23.25, which is a huge increase. However, Britain, the United States and France have transferred some gold reserves to China.

It promises that the State Bank of China will have higher priority in gold reserves in the next five years, and the three countries will also increase their holdings of China's China's share of China's foreign exchange reserves by more than 2 billion yuan and reduce the proportion of China's external net current capital.

This is different from the square agreement. China is not an opponent that Britain, France and the United States can suppress, especially in military and political terms, and the three countries cannot unite to deal with China. If China wants to agree to bring the value of the Chinese circle from every round

The United Kingdom and the United States must pay the same huge price for the increase of 0.7505 grams of gold to 0.925 grams of gold.

If Britain and the United States are unwilling to give in, China would rather maintain the current situation, because the current situation is more beneficial to China as a whole. After all, China has two fixed markets, the Asian Alliance and the Sino-French Alliance, and the demand from the domestic market is also one of the largest in the world.

.

Therefore, if China wants to increase its exchange rate, countries must sign a package of agreements with China at the Shanghai Free Trade Conference to ensure China's priority in the absorption of gold reserves and ensure that China can effectively maintain the new exchange rate and currency reserves of China in the Chinese New World

, European, American and other markets shall not take any form of restrictive and xenophobic measures against China, and China still must enjoy universal most-favored-nation trade treatment.

In fact, after the China-round exchange rate increased by 23.25, China's industrial products still have a certain degree of cost advantage. Through reasonable tax reduction policies within the government, the losses in cost advantage can be further compensated. The key is to expand the entire market.

After the problem of China-round exchange rate was resolved, it was easier for countries to sign a pan-world free trade convention at the Shanghai meeting. As the main convening and presidency of the meeting, China also gave priority to a set of proposals.

After the UK and the United States voted and revised the plan, the Sino-US joint plan was finally adopted.

According to this plan, the World Free Trade Convention divides countries into four levels, namely, one, two, three, and four levels, corresponding to developed countries, middle-developed countries, developing countries, and low-developed countries. The main evaluation criteria are the per capita income level of each country.

If you want to join the World Free Trade Association, you must first sign the World Free Trade Convention. The country must pass a series of labor protection bills to limit the minimum wage. According to this principle, the fourth-class countries are designated and the labor costs of each country are determined.

Each member of the association must give corresponding treatment to other member states in the formulation of tariffs.

Overall, countries with higher per capita costs will enjoy higher tariff preferential treatment in other WTO member states. On the contrary, countries with lower per capita costs will enjoy less tariff preferential treatment. Overall, the Tripole tariff preferential treatment standards will be maintained and developed.

The state and low-development countries hold common third-pole tariff preferential rights to support low-development countries.

On the basis of the WTO Convention, countries have the right to formulate their own tariffs, but they must not be higher than the three-pole upper limit stipulated in the WTO Convention. The lower the development level, the higher the tariff limit that can be formulated. On the contrary, the more developed the country,

The lower the tariff limit.

At the same time, countries can also formulate other rules different from those of the World Trade Convention in bilateral international trade and regional international trade.

After a game between countries, the Shanghai World Trade Convention finally passed the vote of various countries in March 1935, because this convention is basically the same as Japan's requirements. Japan withdrew from the negotiations of the convention at the last moment and refused to join the World Free Trade Association.

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To be continued...