Chapter 2: The stormy waves are heading towards conflict

Liu Jizheng and Princess Dewen were enjoying flowers in spring, and Lei Lutai's request for advice interrupted the two. Because Lei Lutai was already sixty-six years old, Princess Dewen did not avoid it. Liu Ji just ordered people to add a table and chair in the apricot forest, add a set of tea sets, and add some snacks.

Lei Lutai is now white. Although the elderly are still strong, they walk with their chests and heads up, and every move is like a young man. After seeing each other, Lei Lutai expressed his intention: "Emperor, foreign merchants come to China to trade with their own currency. Chinese merchants also recognize these foreign currencies and can spend them in overseas trade. In this way, foreign currencies are popular at coastal trading ports. I am thinking about whether this will infringe on the interests of their own currency, and whether foreigners should be prohibited from bringing their own currency to trade. "

"This is a big trend for Mr. Lei. As long as he trades with foreigners, this phenomenon will definitely occur. Now, the dragon round of my Qing Dynasty is also used in North Korea, Vietnam, Siam and other countries. However, Mr. Lei, you must grasp the exchange rate between the currencies of these countries."

"What does the exchange rate mean by the emperor?"

"To put it simply, how much is a dragon circle equal to the currency of another country? For example, how much does a dragon circle exchange for pounds? That's it."

Lei Lutai nodded and said, "This minister understands, just let Long Yuan exchange more pounds."

“This is not necessarily the case.”

Lei Lutai was a little confused, and he asked in confusion: "The emperor made me confused. Can you buy more British things by changing more pounds in Longyuan?"

"Then I ask you, if other people's land is too expensive, will you buy it?"

"This....    " After all, Lei Lutai has been in financial business for a lifetime. He has already realized something, but he can't say what happened.

"Let me say that, now Shanghai's cotton cloth has been sold to Japan, North Korea, Ryukyu, the Philippines and other countries. Among these countries, except for Japan and the Philippines, all the Qing Dynasty dragon circles are used, these countries that use the Qing Dynasty dragon circles naturally cannot reflect the importance of the exchange rate. But in Japan, the Philippines is different. Let's use Japan as an assumption. Suppose that the Japanese can buy two pieces of cloth with 1 tael of silver, and producing two pieces of cloth in China includes

The freight costs one yuan for a dragon round. At this time, the exchange rate is 1 to 1, which means that a dragon round is equal to one tael of silver. In this way, the merchants in our country will definitely not make money by selling Japanese cloth. If it sells high and no one buys it, and if it sells low and loses money, who is willing to do it? If the exchange rate changes, it becomes 2 to 1. That is, 2 yuan for a dragon round is equal to 1 tael of silver. At this time, Chinese merchants will definitely make money by selling Japanese cloth.

Lei Lutai suddenly realized and laughed: "The emperor, the Chinese businessman used two pieces of cloth to Japan to sell one tael of silver, and then exchanged one tael of silver into two dragon rounds. Wouldn't he make twice the money? Gao Ming, Gao Ming."

"Of course, the lower the exchange rate, the better, especially the frequent changes in exchange rates will affect people's sense of credibility for the country's currency. People are usually unwilling to hold such currencies."

Lei Lutai listened carefully and nodded, "I will turn around and ask the young men who have returned from studying abroad to form an exchange rate control department."

"I won't interfere with the specific way of controlling the exchange rate. I believe Mr. Lei has a better understanding of buying and selling than me. However, I suggest that we can collect more information and analyze more. Foreigners are better than us in data analysis. We should give young people who study abroad economy a stage."

Lei Lutai recorded the words just now with a quill pen, and Liu Ji reminded again: "In fact, let Chinese merchants sell things. The most important reason is to establish strong productivity. With strong productivity, not only cloth, machinery, steel, cement, weapons, cannons, and warships can be produced continuously. This is the foundation of a country's strength. You don't need to remember these words, just talk to me at will."

"The emperor thinks, my Qing Dynasty is not strong enough?"

Even Princess Devin next to her was curious about this question. She quietly stared at the emperor with her watery eyes. In the minds of the Koreans, China is an extremely huge country. Is such a country not powerful enough?

Liu Ji smiled and said, "My Qing Dynasty is still far from being powerful. Although our country's territory is large enough," Liu Ji didn't say anything. In Liu Ji's mind, let China get rid of the monarchy and become an industrial country. Only then did China become truly powerful.

*********************************

In the summer of 1836, opium smuggling became more and more rampant. The censor Wang Kangyue asked to lift the ban on opium. Soon, Xu Naiji, the young minister of Taichang Temple, proposed to allow opium to be paid taxes based on medicinal materials. The import of opium was only allowed to be "bartered with goods", and at the same time, it was advocated for the cultivation of opium in the mainland. The idea of ​​making money from the opium trade by itself gradually formed in the minds of some ministers.

Liu Zhi was hit by this idea. In January of that year, Lin Zexu, a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Xu Qiu, the head of the Military Affairs Department, requested the ban on opium and refuted the ban. Liu Ji organized three consecutive discussions to refute the ban on refuting the ban on refuting the ban on refuting the ban, and then issued an order to refute the ban on refuting the ban on refuting the ban.

In 1837, Queen Victoria ascended the throne, and the ban on opium in various parts of China was in full swing. However, things went against their wishes, and the more opium was banned. The huge profits of the opium trade drove foreign merchants to continue to smuggle opium into China by using all means. Many compradors of foreign companies became accomplices under the temptation of huge interests.

This year, the trade conflict between China and the UK has risen from opium to other fields. The cotton market in Southeast Asia has been completely occupied by Chinese merchants with high-quality and cheap cloth. British cotton has withdrawn from the Southeast Asian market due to its lack of competitiveness.

The newly appointed Queen Victoria responded to the dispute with China with a tough attitude. The British suspended their exports of machinery to China and returned all original orders. And the British used their powerful navy to block the Strait of Malacca and prohibited China from purchasing machinery from other Western countries.

This incident caused the confrontation between the two countries to escalate. Prime Minister Du Shoutian, who was in charge of the negotiations, and the newly promoted British consul Elliot quarreled fiercely during the negotiations. The two countries began to evacuate each other's consulates, and a conflict related to China's strong decline continued in an irreversible trend.
Chapter completed!