Master Yuan, start!

Although the official salary expenditure was less than 100 million taels, the maintenance silver was as high as more than 300 million taels.

Add to that the annual military pay of more than 1000 million taels for the new army and the Eight Banners stationed in various places.

In the Qing Dynasty, the management of the country's rivers was divided into three parts: North, East and South. The annual cost of repairing the Beihe and Donghe rivers was one million taels of silver.

There are also expenses for sacrifices, ceremonies, rewards, pensions, the imperial mausoleum, and disaster relief. Even if there were no natural disasters, the annual expenditure would still be over a million taels."

After discussing these financial expenditure items, Xu Shichang spread his hands again and said, "It seems that the annual income is not small, but in reality, it would be good if we can have a surplus of 500 million taels.

The compensation and rewards for our Hunan expedition have not yet been fully distributed, and the cost of the war against Russia is an astronomical figure.

I calculated that if all this money was distributed, there would only be a little over 100 million taels left in the Qing treasury.

It is not as much as the 200 million silver surplus that the Red Confucian Society has in Korea and Northeast China every year.

Moreover, the Northeast Border Industry Bank has over 500 million taels of silver deposited in its account every month."

Xu Shichang looked worried.

In his opinion, after deducting the expenses of the Qing royal family, a lot of money could be left every year.

But at the same time, the expenses faced by the Republican government are far beyond the reach of the Qing Dynasty.

The one-time investments in expanding the National Revolutionary Army, purchasing naval vessels, and adding coastal artillery batteries were fine.

After obtaining the support of the central government, some of the smaller expenses became more serious.

The immigrants from Guandong could no longer be confined to the Bohai Sea coast and had to expand inland.

The responsibility for flood and drought relief in North China must also be shouldered;

The construction of a railway across the three provinces of Zhili, Shandong and Henan should also be put on the agenda.

In order to encourage business and factory establishment nationwide, the central government should also provide some money as rewards.

These projects, which require investment every year, are undoubtedly a bottomless pit for the current Republican government.

It took nearly 10 years for North Korea and part of the Northeast region to start to develop.

How long will it take to cover such a vast area in northern China?

Xu Shichang felt a lot of pressure when he thought about the difficulties he was about to face.

However, unlike Xu Shichang who looked a little worried, Yuan Xiangcheng's focus was on another matter.

"Brother Juren, isn't there any money to pay back the indemnity among these silvers?"

"indemnity?"

Xu Shichang frowned when he heard this, stared at the account book and flipped through dozens of pages, pointing to an account and said:

"The last payment was 1879 million taels of silver paid to the Russians for the Ili Border Treaty in 500, in the early years of the Guangxu period. It was fully repaid within two years.

All in all, the Qing Dynasty hasn't paid compensation to foreigners for over ten years."

"No compensation?"

Yuan Xiangcheng stood up with some excitement. This was really beyond his expectations.

He knew that the financial revenue of the Qing Dynasty was increasing in the last years, but he did not know that there was no compensation.

The normal impression people have of the late Qing Dynasty is nothing more than ceding territory and paying indemnities, amounting to tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

But in fact, the Qing Dynasty that Yuan Xiangcheng took over in this time and space was not really a mess except that taxes in the south could not be collected.

During the Opium War, China paid 2000 million taels of silver to Britain.

During the Second Opium War, China paid 1000 million and 1800 million taels of silver to Britain and France respectively in the Treaty of Tianjin and the Treaty of Beijing.

Second, the revised Sino-Russian treaty ceded part of the northwestern territory and required the Russians to pay 500 million taels of silver as compensation.

That is to say, before the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Qing Dynasty only paid a total of more than 4000 million taels of silver in compensation.

Moreover, the total amount of these compensations is relatively small and is usually paid off shortly after the treaty is signed.

The vast majority of the compensation was paid in 1860 or earlier.

If it weren't for the 2 million taels of silver indemnity and 3000 million taels of silver for the Liao Dynasty's ransom in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Qing Dynasty would actually have a fiscal surplus of 200 to 1000 million taels each year.

However, the Qing Dynasty encountered the unreasonable Japanese, who demanded that they pay a compensation of 6 million taels within six years.

5. Therefore, in order to repay the indemnity to Japan, the Qing Dynasty took the

Borrow money from England!

Borrow money from France!

China borrows money from Russia!

D borrows money from the United States!

QBorrow money from Germany!

U's road of no return.

Because of the defeat in the war, the Qing Dynasty borrowed money from loan sharks at high interest rates.

: And they had to mortgage tariffs, mortgage railways, mortgage mines, mortgage salt taxes, and almost everything in the world that flies in the sky and swims in the water in China.

In fact, when Yuan Xiangcheng thought this through, his ideas immediately became bolder.

If you don't have to bear the cost of compensation and interest, making money would be so easy.

"Brother Juren, don't worry!"

Yuan Xiangcheng waved his hand and said confidently: "Let the Northeast Border Industry Bank issue another bond and name it Construction National Bond.

In addition, the coastal areas north of the Yangtze River will be fully opened, and each province will select at least two ports to establish bonded areas.

Let foreigners come in and build factories, and let the local tycoons in the countryside come out and do business!"

At the end of the 19th century, it was an era of making money everywhere, and the influence of the Second Industrial Revolution was spreading.

Yuan Xiangcheng vaguely remembered that in history, from 1894, the day of the Sino-Japanese War, to 1905, the total annual revenue of the Qing Dynasty doubled.

After 1895, the world emerged from the economic downturn that had lasted for more than a decade and began a new prosperous capitalist economic cycle.

By taking advantage of this favorable situation and developing some short-term, fast-return light industrial projects, you can sit back and count the money.

"Oh, by the way, have Brother Ji Zhi and Zhang Jian contact the general managers of HSBC and Citibank."

Yuan Xiangcheng said with a smile: "Just say we want to borrow money!"

At this time, China was covered in the tiger skin of defeating the Russians, and it did not need to pay collateral, but could get loans based solely on credit.

Moreover, around 1900, the currencies of various countries began to experience inflationary devaluation, which was less than four years ago.

If you don’t borrow it now, when will you wait?

Chapter 355: Concerned about Immigrants

In the twelfth lunar month of winter, heavy snow falls.

The sky in the distance was a light blue-gray, and the outlines of the nearby buildings were faintly visible in the mist.

As the sun sets, the sky gradually becomes darker, and snowflakes fall on the ancient city walls, adding a few patterns to the glass windows.

Yuan Xiangcheng stood at the window, looking carefully at the high-transmittance glass window in front of him.

This is glass produced by the Yantai Glass Factory. It is of extremely high quality and its products are sold throughout the south of the Yangtze River and even in Southeast Asia.

Looking at the snow scene outside through the glass window, Yuan Xiangcheng felt a little emotional.

Another New Year is coming, but this time it is the first time that there is no emperor in China.

The Republic's republican calendar uses the Western calendar.

今天是西历1897年2月14日，也是共和二年2月14日，同样也是农历丙申年的倒数第二天。

Or, to use a more familiar name, today is the 28th day of the lunar year.

In two days, we will usher in the first day of the Dingyou Year, which is New Year's Day.

Yuan Xiangcheng remembered that the first day of the Lunar New Year in ancient China was not called the Spring Festival, but was always called New Year's Day.

Historically, it was after the Xinhai Revolution that Sun Yat-sen sent a telegram to the whole country announcing that the Republic of China would adopt the Gregorian calendar, and only then was January 1 of the Gregorian calendar designated as New Year's Day.

But in this way, the Lunar New Year has become nameless and faceless.

Although the Beiyang government later designated the first day of the Lunar New Year as the Spring Festival, it had actually been promoting the Gregorian calendar and at one point even required the public not to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

It was not until the founding of New China in 49 that the New Year on the first day of the first lunar month was officially recognized and became a national statutory holiday.

Yuan Shikai knew that China in the late 19th century should embrace Western technology and ideas, but he also knew that no matter what ideas they were, they must be rooted in the land of China.

In the original time and space, China has taken too many detours since the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Whether it is holding on to the arrogant idea of ​​being the Celestial Empire or learning from the West in all aspects to the point of Latinizing the writing system, both are wrong.

The fundamental thing is to learn from Western experience and tell China's story well.

Therefore, after the republican government gradually got back on track, the Ministry of the Interior proposed the requirement to formulate a "national statutory holiday."

Finally, after some discussion, they decided to temporarily set the four major festivals of spring, summer, autumn and winter as legal holidays in the country.

The festival dates are all based on the lunar calendar, with New Year's Day being the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival being the Summer Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival being the Autumn Festival, and Winter Solstice being the Winter Festival.

In Yuan Xiangcheng's view, the distribution of holidays must be reasonable and dispersed, otherwise, people will have no hope in daily work and lose energy.

For example, in later generations, the Mid-Autumn Festival often coincides with National Day, with a total of 7 days of holidays.

However, after October of the Gregorian calendar, there is no long holiday for 2-3 months until the Chinese New Year.

"I don't know if people in the future will blame me for missing the May Day and National Day Golden Weeks."

Yuan Xiangcheng was thinking about this and that, when suddenly a cold wind blew into the house, blowing his thoughts back.

He quickly closed the window, rubbed his stiff cheeks, and said to Ming Ye, who was sorting documents beside him, with emotion:

"New Year's Eve is coming, Mingye, have you ever thought about your hometown folks?"

Ming Ye put the document on the table, rubbed his cold hands, and said with a smile:

"Hehe, Chief Instructor, you know me well. I lost both my parents when I was young and was bullied everywhere.

If I hadn't met the chief instructor 14 years ago, I would have died on the streets of Seoul.

My fellow countrymen?