The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 628: Well, I don’t know anything about getting something for nothing, I just want to serve the people!
The "Financial Work Conference" on the third floor of HSBC Bank was still going on. Luo Yaoguo took the "Osmanthus Cake" brought by Maria, took a bite, and the crumbs fell on the court dress embroidered with golden dragons: "This deposit certificate that can be used to draw lots to buy stocks. If the people deposit it for ten years, how much interest should the bank give?"

"Your Highness!" The Minister of Finance Wu Ruxiao replied, "Currently none of the four major banks have ten-year time deposits. At most, they only have five-year time deposits, and the annual interest rate is five percent, or 5 percent."

Luo Yaoguo took out a handkerchief and wiped off the frosting on his fingertips, then tilted his head and looked at Rong Hong: "General Manager Rong, you have studied abroad in the United States and are well-informed. Tell me, how much interest should be given for this kind of deposit certificate that can be used to draw lots to buy stocks?"

"The New York Bank's five-year deposit also has an annual interest rate of 5%," Yung Wing took out a fountain pen and calculated on rice paper, "but our deposit certificate actually comes with a warrant, so it should be..."

"Warrant?" Luo Yaoguo blinked blankly, "What certificate?"

Everyone in the meeting room felt that this boss really didn't understand stocks.
Tang Tingshu was the first to answer, "This warrant is like a salt permit! Deposit 100 taels of silver to get a certificate, and if you win the lottery, you can buy new shares. If the certificate itself can also be bought and sold..."

Luo Yaoguo suddenly realized: "Does that mean that we can use 'stock certificates' to replace interest? This kind of deposit certificate doesn't have to pay interest?"

Wu Ruxiao almost dropped his jade cigarette holder: "Your Highness, are you saying that there is no interest on the deposit certificate?"

"What interest rate do you want?" Luo Yaoguo counted on his fingers. "People can make a lot of money by investing in new shares, but banks cannot use this interest-free money to make high-interest loans. Instead, they have to use it to buy low-interest long-term bonds from the four major railway companies to support their projects."

Wu Chongyao suddenly coughed violently. The boss of Jardine Matheson Bank was obviously choked by his tea - Luo Yaoguo, this layman, was so wild that he could actually use such a big trick with "stock subscription"!

The four major railway companies are very popular. If they can raise 20 million silver dollars, it should not be a problem to attract 100 million silver dollars. If the 100 million silver dollars are lent to the four major railway companies to build roads, based on an investment of 20,000 yuan per kilometer, 100 million loans plus 20 million shares would mean 6,000 kilometers of railways!
You can imagine how much this 6,000-kilometer railway promoted the economic development of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with your heels! What's more amazing is that the 120 million yuan construction fee seemed to appear out of thin air. This ability of making something for nothing is unparalleled!
Are there really no stocks in heaven?

Yung Wing's pen nib punctured the paper of his notebook. After a while, he looked up and said, "If that's the case, we should stipulate that the deposit certificates cannot be withdrawn in advance but can be transferred. This will not only lock in the money supply, but also allow those who are in urgent need of money to cash out by transferring the deposit certificates."

"Transfer." Luo Yaoguo took a sip of coffee. "Then you have to register the transfer at the office of one of the four major banks. Each transaction will be charged a handling fee of one thousandth, and half of it will be considered as deed tax and must be paid to the Ministry of Revenue!"

Well, another income!
The people present at the meeting were completely convinced. This angel must have been in charge of the Heavenly Stock Exchange when he was in heaven!
Luo Yaoguo suddenly asked stupidly, "Well, is this how Westerners issue stocks?"

"Of course not!" Yung Wing adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, "The New York Stock Exchange is."

"Who cares about the stock exchange!" Luo Yaoguo picked up the coffee and drank it all. "Our Kingdom of Heaven is people-oriented. It's the right way for the people to save money and buy stocks! This is just a trial. If the effect is good, it will become a routine in the future. We will do this for all future stock issuances!" Luo Yaoguo slammed the table and said, "Today's meeting ends here. Yuegui, you stay for a while. Everyone else can go."

Luo Yaoguo is a major shareholder of HSBC and has an office on the top floor of the HSBC building. When Xu Yuegui pushed the door and walked into the office, Luo Yaoguo was looking at the scenery on the Huangpu River with his arms folded.

"Your Highness, do you have any instructions for me?" Xu Yuegui asked with a smile.

"Come here. Accompany me to see the scenery of the Huangpu River!" Luo Yaoguo waved at her. "When you started the uprising in Daozhou, you never thought it would be as grand as it is today, right?"

Xu Yuegui nodded: "Yuegui can be where she is today, all thanks to His Highness!"

Luo Yaoguo smiled and said, "You are absolutely right. Without me, you will be miserable!"

"That's right." Xu Yuegui agreed with a smile - she didn't know how miserable she would be without Luo Yaoguo? However, since the Daozhou uprising, she has always been Luo Yaoguo's iron confidant and is quite reliable.

"How much money is there in the account of Sanxin Company?" Luo Yaoguo put away his smile and asked seriously.

"Four or five million!" Xu Yuegui said, "Your Highness, do you need silver?"

Luo Yaoguo shook his head: "I need Sanxin Company to help with the money!"

"Use silver?" Xu Yuegui was stunned. "Your Highness, how do you use this silver?"

Luo Yaoguo did not give a direct answer, but asked again: "Is Sanxin Company now the official merchant of many feudal domains in Japan?"

"Yes!" Xu Yuegui nodded. "Currently, there are a total of 43 vassal states that have signed contracts with Sanxin Company. Your Highness, what goods do you want to import from Japan?"

Luo Yaoguo waved his hand and lowered his voice, saying: "First, you should place orders for dried sweet potatoes and yams in the name of these Japanese feudal lords with local farmers' associations! It must be fast, in large quantities, and with a sufficient deposit. In addition, if you do not have enough money to buy all the rice that the forty-three feudal lords want to sell this year, you can borrow from HSBC and Zhenyue Bank. Remember, the matter of buying the rice of the forty-three feudal lords must be kept secret!" "Yes!"

Xu Yuegui didn't understand why Luo Yaoguo did this, but she had always been loyal and reliable. Since Luo Yaoguo gave the order, she just had to do it.

At the Shanghai Stock Exchange building, it was another "up, up, up" trading day.

After the market closed, Nathaniel Rothschild, in a good mood, used a silver letter opener to remove the sealing wax, and a light blue Dutch Navy letterhead appeared on his desk: "Mr. Van der Weer, it seems that your father's activities in The Hague have paid off."

Sir Sassoon took the letter and read it carefully: "Eight thousand land forces, fifty transport ships, and eighteen steam warships. Are the Dutch going to repeat the Red River Massacre?"

"It's just right for our harvesting plan!" Chatton put out his cigar in the blue and white porcelain ashtray. "When the Dutch fleet appears in Batavia, grain prices on the Shanghai Stock Exchange will skyrocket, silver prices will plummet, and stocks and bonds will all collapse!"

Suddenly there was a commotion outside the window, and everyone opened the velvet curtains. They saw a large crowd of people gathered in front of the HSBC building next door. Dock coolies in shorts and silk merchants were rubbing shoulders with each other. The "Four Major Railways Stock Offering Notice" on the glass door had been posted in the most eye-catching position.

"These fools." Xiao Dian of the British company sneered, "They don't know that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom didn't even establish the gold standard."

Nathaniel smiled and said, "Notify Singapore to order another 10,000 tons of rice!"

Japan, Osaka.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's steamship "Jili" spewed out billowing black smoke at the mouth of the Yodogawa River. Moore leaned on the rusty railing and looked out. Among the densely packed masts in Osaka Bay, there were ships from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Korean Heavenly Kingdom, Britain, the United States, the Netherlands, and France, but there were only a few large ships from Japan.

"Look at that building!" Friedrich suddenly pointed behind the dock.

The golden dome of the Shin-Yue sect's cathedral shone brightly in the sunset, and the Chinese-style double-eaved hip roof supported by twelve dragon-shaped stone pillars was almost as beautiful as the Osaka Castle of the Tokugawa family. A group of beggars wrapped in rags huddled under the steps of the church, waiting for the Shin-Yue sect's "Japanese shrine maidens" to give them leftovers.

Sir Bonham's white gloves rested on the gilded telescope: "I thought such a scene should appear in Shanghai, but I didn't expect it."

"Woo."

The sound of the horn interrupted Wen Xian's words. The people on the deck of the Ji Li looked in the direction of the sound and saw a female warrior riding a white horse and carrying two swords appearing on the dock. She whipped the air with a whip and said, "Where are the samurai from the Satsuma Shimazu family, the Choshu Mori family, and the Tosa Yamauchi family!"

Then, hundreds of feudal lord soldiers carrying samurai swords and flintlock rifles appeared on the dock in Osaka with flags printed with the family crests of the three daimyo families.

Behind these soldiers, a sedan chair carried by sixteen people slowly approached. When the curtain of the sedan chair was lifted, Moore saw that the golden nanmu sedan chair was covered with Persian carpets and the brass incense burner was emitting green smoke. Eight True Covenant priestesses walked on both sides of the sedan chair, scattering cherry blossom petals.

On the sedan chair, sat a man with a yellow crown, yellow robe, thick beard and a burly figure. He was none other than Hong Daquan, the Archbishop of the True Covenant Archdiocese of Japan.

"Oh my God," Natalia, who was also on the "Geely," wrapped her mink cape tightly around her shoulders. "Is this Christianity or Japanese Shintoism?"

"This is the product of the reconciliation between Shintoism's Amaterasu and the Shintoism's God." Friedrich raised his telescope and took in the scene on the Osaka dock. "It's obvious that the Tokugawa shogunate has lost control of Japan's largest industrial and commercial city!"

He deliberately made comments loudly in Chinese, which both Sakuma Shozan and Yoshida Shoin could understand.

Moore nodded and said, "This is natural. When the rulers of Japan are unable to protect their wealthy merchants, these commercial capitals will look for new owners - and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Korean Heavenly Kingdom are obviously their new owners. As a commercial city with huge merchant power, Osaka will definitely be controlled by the True Covenant Sect first. I am sure that the True Covenant Archbishop Hong Daquan is already the real master of Osaka. If the bottom of Japan cannot rise up, the whole of Japan will be like Osaka in the future, directly or indirectly controlled by foreign colonists, becoming a country without sovereignty, or even a province of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

"No!" Sakuma Shozan shook his head heavily.

Yoshida Shoin gritted his teeth and said, "Japan will not perish!"

(End of this chapter)