1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 96 Everyone pools money to buy the title!
After coming out of Thompson's office, Li Qiwei still felt dizzy.

He has not yet recovered from the shock of being conferred the title of Lord.

If he can really get what he wants this time, he will probably be the first Chinese to be awarded a British title.

Coincidentally, a few decades ago, the Qing Dynasty also conferred a title on an Englishman named Gordon.

He was born into a British military officer family and participated in the Second Opium War between Britain and France against the Qing Dynasty.

He participated in the robbery of the Old Summer Palace and killed countless people.

However, the situation in the Qing Dynasty at that time was extremely strange and complicated.

In the end, Gordon joined Zeng Guofan's army and helped him suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

After the war, in order to "commend" his "merits", the Qing court awarded him the title of admiral (a first-rank military officer) and gave him a yellow jacket.

In the Qing Dynasty, only military officers who had made great military achievements could enjoy the honor of wearing a yellow jacket.

This shows how cruel and incompetent the Qing Dynasty was.

For a time, Gordon became a celebrity in Britain, and even the Queen knew his name.

Later, Gordon was sent to Sudan in Africa as governor. During an uprising, he was stabbed to death with a spear by the rebels.

The news of his death saddened the British authorities and people.

Queen Victoria of England, who was still in power at the time, even angrily accused then Prime Minister Gladstone of "inadequate assistance."

And eventually the other party was forced to step down.

Compared with Gordon, it seems too petty for Britain to confer a junior title of knight on Ridgway.

Because before he left, Lord Rayleigh told him that even if it was the lowest lower honor of knight, if Ridgway had not become a British citizen or the citizen of a Commonwealth member, he could not be called a knight in public.

As for privately, it doesn’t matter.

Li Qiwei was speechless. The British were very good at using the "carrot to attract the donkey" trick.

I'm afraid he wants to use this method to gather talents from all over the world and use them for his own benefit.

But Li Qiwei didn't care. It was the same for the Qing Dynasty anyway. It was an absolute life-saving talisman.

Britain even hoped that Ridgwell and the Qing Dynasty would have an irreconcilable conflict, and then he would intervene and extort benefits.

The complicated game process here is enough to protect the Li Qiwei family from worry as long as everyone does not tear each other apart.

Next, he has to consider the 1 pounds.

During this period, Li Qiwei also specifically studied the status and exchange rate of the pound sterling at that time.

I don't know, I was taken aback.

As the most mainstream currency in the world, the British pound is really valuable.

The British pound is directly pegged to gold:
1 pound = 7.3 grams of gold;
1 pound = 6.6 taels of silver (Qinghai customs taels);
1 GBP = 5 USD;

In this era, a skilled technical worker in the UK is roughly equivalent to an ordinary white-collar worker in later generations.

His annual income was about £100, which was enough to support a family of four.

Then ten thousand pounds is a skilled worker's income for a full hundred years, and he has to save it without eating or drinking.

You can imagine how huge a sum of money this is.

Moreover, the UK's fiscal revenue last year was 1.4 million pounds, and the net worth of the UK's richest man was only around 1500 million pounds.

Li Qiwei thought of the bold statement he had made during his graduation thesis defense, saying that his patent could earn one million pounds.

It suddenly accounted for almost 1% of the UK's GDP. This is not just horrifying, but a fantasy.

It was such an exaggeration, no wonder many people didn't believe it at the time. They probably just treated it as a joke.

Philips' tungsten filament bulbs have only been on sale for more than two months, although according to Gerard they are selling like hot cakes.

Li Qiwei conservatively estimated that if he could get a dividend of 5000 pounds by the end of the year, he would be thankful.

But Lord Rayleigh asked that the money be gathered within three days, and then he would hand it over to someone else to operate.

Therefore, he could not count on the patent dividends. The agreement he signed with Gerard stipulated that the dividends would be paid once a year, and settled in full in January of the following year.

So Li Qiwei could only go back and check the past, and then get together with everyone else.

After returning home from the experiment in the afternoon, he first called Xiang Lan and asked her to bring the account book with her.

"Xiang Lan, how much money do you have left from home?"

Although Xiang Lan was usually in charge of accounting and was familiar with the income and expenditure, she still checked it carefully and replied, "There are currently 8000 pounds left, all of which are deposited in Standard Chartered Bank."

"Master, here are the details of the bill, take a look." As he said that, he handed over the account book.

Li Qiwei took it and opened it to look through it. This was his first time to check the account book.

The above information is classified by date and written in great detail, which shows that Xianglan is loyal and works hard.

No wonder the predecessor trusted her so much, letting her take care of the accounts while he himself acted as a hands-off manager.

When he first came to the UK from China to study, his father was worried, so he exchanged 10 taels of silver at Standard Chartered Bank in one go, which was exactly equivalent to about 1.5 pounds.

Standard Chartered Bank established a branch in Shanghai as early as 1858.

So keeping it there saves the need to carry huge amounts of silver with you, which is neither safe nor convenient.

After arriving in the UK, you can withdraw the money directly at the Standard Chartered Bank headquarters in London with the check.

Li Qiwei nodded repeatedly as he watched, our family is still rich.

10 taels of silver was not a small sum in the Qing Dynasty, and it was cash.

Now, the three of them, master and servant, have spent 7000 pounds in four years, which is considered quite luxurious.

Of course, most of it was spent on the Spark Project, which provided food, accommodation and tuition.

I have to leave another 1000 pounds for emergencies and living expenses, which leaves a gap of 3000 pounds. Now I can only ask the other few people for help.

So he asked Xianglan to find everyone else to discuss things.

When Wang Luyao, He Yujie and others arrived, Li Qiwei told them that he might be conferred a title, which immediately caused exclamations.

Wang Luyao's eyes sparkled, "Wow, Brother Qiwei, you are so awesome."

"The titles of nobility in the UK should be similar to those in the Qing Dynasty, right?"

Li Qiwei said: "Well, this is not a good comparison. At least with this identity, I won't be openly harassed when I return."

Then he said that he still needed 3000 pounds to manage relationships, which caused Wang Luyao to look down on him.

"It seems like it's the same all over the world. If you want to be an official, you have to pay first. Britain is not a good place either."

"Brother Qiwei, I can offer 2000 pounds."

Li Qiwei was shocked. The little witch was really rich! It seemed that she was also the apple of her father's eye.

Xia Yuanzhen and Xu Qitai each invested 500 pounds, and the gap of 3000 was immediately filled.

He did not ask He Yujie to give money because the other party's family was in decline and he could not afford much money at the moment.

After receiving the money, Li Qiwei waved his hand and started to make big promises again, saying proudly: "Don't worry, my patent dividends will be paid soon."

"Moreover, in the future I will open and invest in various factories and make a lot of money."

"When the time comes, I will pay you wages and ensure that you will have the best food and the best drinks with me!"

The three little Xinghuo kids shouted immediately. In fact, they didn’t care about money, they just wanted to do big things.

Like all aspiring young people in China of this era, he uses money as a tool to realize his dream of revitalizing the country.

The next day, Ridgway handed the collected 1 pounds to Lord Rayleigh and thanked him again.

Lord Rayleigh patted him on the shoulder and said, "Do your experiments well in Cavendish. I look forward to your more amazing academic discoveries."

Li Qiwei quickly agreed and personally sent the other party away.

For the currency situation of various countries in the world in 1900, you can read the explanation chapter in [Work Related]. The protagonist's business is very large in the later period, so it is necessary to make a general explanation of the prices and wealth at that time.

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(End of this chapter)