The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 608 Moore, let's happily reap the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom together! (Please vote, please subscribe)

The carriage wheels rolled over the thick wooden boards on the newly built Waibaidu Bridge, making the Daily Shipping News in Bonham's hand rustle. This was an English newspaper sponsored by British merchants and published only last year. It was a daily newspaper published by the North China News Agency, which opened in 1850, and was also one of the few foreign-controlled newspapers allowed to be published in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Luo Yaoguo strictly controlled foreign newspapers, and the reason why he did not ban them all was mainly because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's industry and commerce, especially the merchants engaged in import and export trade, needed some channels to understand the international market. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's own newspapers could not bear such a responsibility at the moment, so they could only grant permission to foreigners to publish newspapers.

In addition to the bad news about the collapse of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in the United States and the financial panic it triggered, what attracted Wenxian's attention the most was that the French "psychic" Pasteur discovered "silkworm disease bacteria" in the laboratory of Jiangnan Pharmaceutical Bureau in Shanghai and proposed an effective method for detecting "silkworm disease bacteria" - by killing the female moths after laying eggs, grinding the dead moths into a paste, and observing under a microscope to find the diseased silkworm eggs. Although this detection method may cause disgust among some silkworm breeders who believe in Buddhism and are unwilling to kill.

However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Ministry of Revenue and the Nanzhili Farmers' Association jointly announced the establishment of the Suhu Silkworm Disease Control Center.

What made the foreign reporters of Daily Shipping News a little nervous was that the Acting Patriarch of the True Yue Sect, Wei Changhui, the 60th generation Tianshi Zhang of Longhu Mountain, Zhang Jue, and the President of the Nanzhili Buddhist Association, Master Kongkong, also issued a joint statement, announcing that the silkworm disease bacteria were demons, and that they must be completely eliminated in accordance with the highest instructions of God, the Jade Emperor, and the Buddha! Anyone who protects the silkworm disease demon will go to the eighteenth level of the Avici Hell after death. Alas, this hell is a combination of the three religions.

After reading the newspaper, Wenxian opened the brocade curtains and looked at the scenery on the north bank of Suzhou River outside the car window: "Now all these are silk reeling factories. When I was the minister in Shanghai, there, there, and there were all rice fields. Now they have all become silk reeling factories. Shanghai's raw silk exports must have increased a lot!"

Friedrich was recording the number of silk reeling factories in Shanghai in his notebook. When he heard Wenxian's words, he wrote in his notebook: "The increase in silk reeling factories means that a large number of farmers in Jiangnan have abandoned rice and planted mulberry trees. The income per mu can certainly increase greatly, but the grain self-sufficiency rate will increase."

"This is a chronic disease of capitalism!" Moore commented, knocking on the window frame a few times with his pipe. "When the silk reeling factory is profitable, capitalists will rush in, and overproduction will cause the price of raw silk to plummet. These factory owners will abandon their workers like discarding torn socks. Those farmers who abandon rice and grow mulberry trees will face the crisis of bankruptcy, and their mulberry gardens will not be able to turn back into rice fields immediately. At that time, the unemployed workers and bankrupt farmers will have to face high food prices!"

"That's right!" Wen Xian seemed to have heard some good news, "This is the Achilles' heel of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

Moore shook his head slightly. He felt that this crisis was not enough to defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The carriage suddenly braked, and the driver cursed to avoid the mule cart full of steel ingots. Wen Xian took the opportunity to point outside the carriage: "But their industrial machines can no longer be stopped - these iron ingots shipped from Xuzhou should all be sent to the Jiangnan-Stephenson Steam Engine Manufacturing Company, which is a joint venture between the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and Stephenson Company. The production target of the first phase of the project is to produce 250 steam engines per year."

When the carriage stopped outside the newly built British Consulate on the north bank of Suzhou River, Bai Siwen interjected sinisterly: "You British Empire wanted to give the Qing Dynasty a horse, but now the Qing Dynasty can't even build a steam engine!"

As the cast iron gate of the British Consulate slowly opened, six wheelbarrows loaded with raw silk were passing by. Wen Xian, who had just gotten off the carriage, looked at the six carts of raw silk and tilted his head to Moore behind him and said, "Moore, how long will it take for China's raw silk production to become seriously oversupplied?"

"Sir, are you asking about raw silk?" British Consul Charles Winchester came forward enthusiastically. "Last year, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom exported more than 4,000 tons of raw silk. It is the absolute leader in the international raw silk market. This year, it is expected to exceed 5,000 tons!"

Wen Xian knocked his cane heavily on the granite steps. "How can there be such a large market? Will it increase?"

"Yes!" Moore replied, "It will increase. There should be a lot of room for growth!"

"Really? Why do you think so?" The British Consul looked at Mr. Moore and asked humbly - "Moore" is a Jewish name! He is the most astute businessman!

"That's obvious," Moore explained as he took his suitcase off the carriage and handed it to an Indian servant who came out of the consulate. "Now there are 110,000 to 120,000 people going to the United States every year, and even more people going to Southeast Asia. A considerable number of these people will earn a hundred times more wealth in foreign countries than in China. They are all consumers of Chinese silk, Chinese porcelain, Chinese tea, and various other Chinese-made products. So you can't just consider the consumption of white people, you also have to consider the consumption of Chinese immigrants."

"That makes sense. The analysis makes a lot of sense!" A middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a sophisticated tuxedo, walked out of the consulate. Moore found that the emblem of the Rothschild family was embroidered on his tuxedo.

"Nathaniel Rothschild," the middle-aged man introduced himself, "from Britain."

Moore pointed to himself: "Moore, editor of the Mercury."

Nathaniel Rothschild was stunned: "The Mercury? That's..."

"Workers' newspapers!" laughed More. "But I am a friend of Prince Albert."

"Oh," Nathaniel Rothschild looked suddenly enlightened.

In the corridor of the consulate, Bai Siwen suddenly stopped in front of the map of Jiangnan: "Suhu is prosperous, and the world is full. Now we need to fill our stomachs with Siamese rice, right?" Consul Winchester glanced at Bai Siwen. He knew Bai Siwen when he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Whitehall Street, and he also knew that he had a good relationship with Prince Albert. He nodded and said: "According to the information obtained by the consulate, Shanghai imports more Siamese rice and Vietnamese rice every year."

Moore exhaled a puff of smoke: "I seem to have heard that northern Vietnam has been occupied by the remnants of the Qing Dynasty!"

Winchester snorted: "Those remnants of the Qing Dynasty exported 50 tons of rice to Shanghai this year, while famine occurred in Tonkin, Vietnam under their rule!"

"Why do the remnants of the Qing Dynasty want to export rice to Shanghai?" Friedrich felt a little strange.

"In exchange for the rifled rifles and percussion cap bullets produced by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the 6-jin smoothbore cannon!" Winchester sneered, "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom doesn't have permanent enemies!"

Bai Siwen said calmly: "This shows that they are very short of food, very short of it."

British Consulate in Shanghai, Banquet Hall.

Nathaniel Rothschild cut open the brandy-drenched foie gras and dipped the tip of his silver fork into the sauce to draw a curve on the plate: "The exchange rate of the Taiping silver dollar against the pound remained basically stable last year, and their gold reserves have also increased to a certain extent."

"That's because the amount of gold mining on the West Coast has increased," Moore suddenly interrupted, "It seems that a gold chart appeared in California two years ago! King Luo Wu may want to use this method to support the price of silver."

Nathaniel clapped his hands in appreciation. "Good analysis! Do you think he can support the silver price?"

Moore shook his head: "It's difficult." He glanced at Nathaniel, "Because of your existence, why do you do this?"

Wen Xiandao: "Of course it is to combat the industrialization of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

Nathaniel was stunned for a moment, then said awkwardly, "Eight companies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, including HSBC, Xuzhou Steel, Shanghai Pharmaceutical, Kaiping Coal Mine, Jiangnan Manufacturing, Pacific Trade, China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, and Xuzhou Chemical Industry, are preparing to issue stocks for financing. In addition, the Shanghai Stock Exchange recently listed a 10-year Taiping Heavenly Kingdom bond with a coupon rate of only 4.5%. Recently, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Ministry of Revenue is also planning to issue a new bond."

"I understand!" Moore's eyes lit up. "You want to force Taiping Bank, HSBC Bank and Zhenyue Bank to raise interest rates to stabilize the silver price by significantly lowering the silver price."

"That's right!" Nathaniel laughed, "When gold and interest rates rise, bonds and stocks will fall."

"But what if they don't raise rates?" Moore asked. "What are you going to do?"

"Food!" Friedrich suddenly replied, "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom needs to import a large amount of food to maintain basic livelihood. This is their biggest weakness, and there is no solution!"

Nathaniel laughed: "So as long as the price of grain in India rises and the exchange rate of the Taiping silver dollar falls, the grain merchants in Southeast Asia will give priority to shipping Siamese rice and Javanese rice to Calcutta."

Moore frowned slightly: "Then the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will have to offer a high rate to withdraw the silver dollars on the market to increase the exchange rate, and you will suppress the stock market and bond market to create panic so that you can buy at a low price?"

Nathaniel suddenly stood up and bowed to Moore. "Master Karl, are you interested in doing this with us? If you don't have cash on hand, I can ask Rothschild Bank and Vienna Bank to lend you some."

It turns out that this Rothschild had already found out who Moore was, "Master Karl", and he was waiting in the British consulate today just to pull him in to join in the financial harvesting of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom - Master Karl was John the Baptist in disguise, and was strong enough to fight against the prophetic angel Luo Yaoguo!
Before Moore could answer, Bai Siwen on the side interrupted and said, "Lend me some too!"

"You" Nathaniel looked at Bai Siwen, not knowing how to refuse for a moment.

Bai Siwen said leisurely, "I know there's going to be trouble in the northwest, a big trouble. Is this news important enough?"

(End of this chapter)