Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 156 Peace Talks, There Was Absolutely No

Alexandrovich felt that the other party was indirectly insulting him, but he had no proof.

"Alright, let's leave this small talk here. The Empire wishes to negotiate peace with your country; what are your conditions?"

Finally, he arrived. Pezeshkian remained calm and recited the instructions the Shah had given him.

"It's very simple to negotiate peace. First, abolish the Treaty of Gulestan and the Treaty of Turkmenchai, and return all the land ceded under those treaties. Second, your country cede Sukhumi and Batumi. Third, recognize the independence of the Circassians and the Caucasians."

"If your country agrees to these three conditions, then Iran can immediately achieve peace with your country."

Alexandrovich slammed his fist on the table in anger, “This is extortion! His Majesty will never agree to this!”

If this were agreed to, it would be a terrible situation, essentially handing back decades of Russian achievements. It would also signify the failure of Russia's expansion in the Caucasus region; if this were in St. Petersburg's hands, he would at least face execution by hanging.

"These are our country's conditions. You should know that it was your country that negotiated peace with our country, not our country that took the initiative to seek peace."

Yes, now it's Russia looking for Iran, not Iran looking for Russia. But for Russia, which values ​​its land more than its own life, ceding territory is more painful than death, so Alexandrovich has started using intimidation.

“Fine, I can sign these, but the Russian people will definitely not agree. They would rather die than give in. At that time, I think your country will regret today.”

Pezeshkian suddenly burst into laughter, looking at the other person as if he were a clown.

"I think you have forgotten that if our country were truly afraid of you, this war would not have happened. We have made it very clear that the treaty must be dissolved, the land returned, and the troops withdrawn; none of these three can be omitted."

This is blatantly an unfair contract term; the Tsar would never accept it. But Iran isn't backing down, which doesn't matter. They're just stalling for time; once reinforcements arrive, everything will be reversed.

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Crédit Agricole has arrived in Shanghai and officially opened for business. As its first president, Abdullah naturally had to personally handle business and formulate expansion plans.

At present, the only foreign banks here are the British Liru and Youli, and the competition is not yet very fierce. This is an important window for the bank's development. The first customer after opening was the local Sepa Trading Company, which deposited 30 taels of silver here, part of which was profit and part of which was a trade deposit.

The deposits of other Iranian merchants and compradors in the Shanghai, Saigon, and Hong Kong branches made the banks more financially secure, allowing them to pursue other plans.

At this time, the area not far from Shanghai had been occupied by the insurgents, and people from the surrounding area flocked to Shanghai for refuge, causing local land prices to skyrocket. The Sepa Trading Company had already purchased 3865 acres of land; if sold at the current price, they could make £20. However, this clearly did not meet the Shah's expectations, so he temporarily refrained from selling it, planning to sell some of it in the future and use the rest to build houses for rent.

Businesses with government support naturally develop rapidly. Established businesses like Jardine Matheson also have substantial assets and rely on their rich trade to expand their empire.

After surveying the internal situation of the Qing Dynasty, Abdullah decided to use Shanghai and Hong Kong as two centers to gradually expand outwards. In order to control the finance in these areas, it was necessary to control the local power structures—the banks and money shops.

Wherever there is commercial trade, there will be financial services industries to serve it. Local financial institutions were money shops and draft banks. Money shops provided the lending and credit services of banks, while draft banks provided the remittance services. For a long time, money shops and draft banks operated in parallel within the financial system without much overlap.

Because the draft banks had established a network advantage first, and because of their high profits, they became complacent and unwilling to allow money shops to join their system, thus limiting the growth of the money shops. Furthermore, the money shops' inability to participate in the draft bank's business meant they lacked the foundation to grow into large financial institutions. Therefore, money shops in the Jiangnan region of modern China were generally small in scale, with fewer branches and less capital. This presented them with an opportunity, and Zhejiang became their first stop.

After Ningbo in Zhejiang opened up to the outside world, its trade developed rapidly, quickly giving rise to a group of merchants known as the Ningbo Merchants. Iranian merchants bought raw silk and tea locally, and they gradually became acquainted.

While countries like Britain and France were still considering what political benefits they might gain, Iran went straight to the point and asked if it could make money.

This certainly saved a lot of trouble, and some local businessmen began trading with Iran. At the same time, banks also began trying to control local money houses.

Starting from the Daoguang era, the Qing Dynasty began to see the emergence of silver-based paper money, namely the silver notes issued by the draft banks. These notes, as financial derivatives of the draft banks' actual silver reserves, began to circulate in society.

However, these banks maintained close ties with the government and officials, relying on government support and funding. They also absorbed substantial sums of money from corrupt officials, making independent development difficult during turbulent times. After 1840, foreign banks began to erode the local financial system, with the Banque de l'Indochine culminating in this expansion.

After its establishment, the bank promoted its confidentiality, meaning it would not disclose deposit account information. This gave corrupt officials, landlords, and gentry the peace of mind to deposit their money there.

Furthermore, due to mutual distrust, a barrier existed between foreign trading companies and local merchants when doing business: payment and receipt of goods. Both sides worried about not receiving payment after selling goods, and vice versa. At this point, money shops, as financial institutions trusted by both parties, acted as intermediaries in transaction settlement.

The specific operation was as follows: the money shop acted as a guarantor for the merchants, and after the transaction, the money shop served as the settlement intermediary. If a British merchant sold goods to a Qing merchant but didn't receive payment, the money shop would advance the payment and then seek reimbursement from the Qing merchant. The reverse was also true. This model gradually evolved into a type of money shop business similar to bank drafts.

The Banque de l'Indochine shrewdly seized this opportunity, providing discounting services for bank drafts to various money shops located in Shanghai and Ningbo. This greatly accelerated the speed of money circulation. As a result, the money shops could use their drafts as collateral, allowing them to receive their principal back before maturity. This further sped up the money shops' capital turnover, naturally increasing their profits.

While this expanded the financial industry, it also put the lifeline of money shops in the hands of banks. Moreover, there was little awareness of protection at the time, and the capital of local money shops in Shanghai was generally within 100,000 taels of silver, which was within the banks' capacity to absorb. As a result, many money shops began to borrow from the Banque de l'Indochine to expand their businesses.

(End of this chapter)