Master Yuan, start!

His left thumb unconsciously rubbed the jade ring. After his eyes wandered for a moment among the heads of the people in the room, he bowed to Yuan Xiangcheng and said:

"May I ask the President, will the gold standard you're going to implement in the future be a strong gold standard, recognizing only gold, or a weak gold standard, with both gold and silver?"

Yuan Xiangcheng raised his eyebrows, and amidst the crisp clink of the tea lid against the rim of the bowl, he asked, "Strong gold standard, or weak gold standard?"

"right!"

Zhang Bishi nodded, pulled out a Mexican Eagle Dollar from his sleeve and placed it on the table. A ding sound broke the silence in the room.

"The so-called strong gold standard means that all currencies are convertible into gold. It's simple and easy to understand."

At this point, he picked up another gold leaf with his fingertips and pressed it on the silver dollar. The two pieces of metal overlapped and emitted a cold light: "And the weak gold standard..."

He suddenly fell silent and pulled out from his sleeve a sheet of paper with a copy of the London gold and silver exchange rate. The corner of the paper was still stained with ink. "To be precise, it's actually a bimetallic standard."

When Zhang Bishi said "the gold and silver bimetallic standard", the clerk at the edge of the meeting hall paused with his pen and wrote down these five big words on the paper, which had a profound impact on later generations.

Zhang Bishi himself was completely oblivious to this. Before he knew it, he had walked to the clock with his hands behind his back, and in the dappled light, he held up three fingers: "Three advantages."

"First, a plan to alleviate the silver shortage!"

Zhang Bishi drew the shape of a silver ingot in the air with his bony index finger, and as he turned, his boots rustled against the ground. "Running the gold and silver markets in parallel will alleviate some of the concerns about silver outflows. By adjusting the exchange rate to stabilize the government, the foundation of the monetary system can be strengthened."

"Second, follow the old system and keep the people safe!"

Zhang Bishi then raised his index finger, untied a string of copper coins from his waist and threw them onto the blue brick floor. The clinking sound startled the sparrows outside the window and made them fly up. "Preserving silver will reassure the people, and copper coins and fine silver will be circulated in the market. This will reduce the obstacles to reform and prevent the occurrence of sudden changes in the currency system."

"Third, leave room for maneuver!"

Zhang Bishi's ring finger suddenly flicked the glass cover of the clock, causing the pendulum to sway slightly. Then, he grabbed the copper globe next to the clock and spun it. The territories of Western countries shone brightly in the candlelight.

"If the gold and silver standard is restored, the demand for gold can be reduced by another 30% compared to the pure gold standard. We should observe the trend of the value of gold and silver in the world and change it accordingly. If the silver price in the world is low, such as the avalanche of silver prices in the West last year..." Having said this, Zhang Bishi's dry but huge palm suddenly covered the European territory and said forcefully:

"This will allow us to suppress silver and promote gold to meet the current situation. This strategy allows for flexible advancement and retreat, and is truly a way to survive!"

When Zhang Bishi said this, some officials in the room who were not good at finance began to look dazed and confused.

Some sipped their tea gently, frowning slightly, seemingly drinking tea to quench their thirst, but in fact they were taking the opportunity to cover up their embarrassment of not being able to keep up with the rhythm;

Some had dull eyes, just mechanically repeating the action of drinking tea, their minds had long since drifted away;

What's worse, some people simply put down the pen in their hands, leaned back in their chairs, and had a helpless smile on their faces, as if silently expressing their powerlessness.

Apparently, their brains couldn't keep up with the depth of the current discussion.

However, Yuan Xiangcheng, who had received education in later generations and had some knowledge of finance, gradually figured out the situation.

Zhang Bishi's opinion was very clear. The gold standard was acceptable, but it could not be the only gold standard. A bimetallic standard was needed. In order to illustrate the advantages of a bimetallic standard, he listed three benefits.

4The first benefit is that it can cope with the large outflow of silver and maintain the money supply by adjusting the domestic gold-silver price ratio.

The second advantage of the discount is that it can be compatible with the economic inertia of the past thousands of years, continue the consumption habits of silver and copper coins in parallel, and avoid causing social unrest.

The third advantage is that the bimetallic standard requires less gold, and the policy can be adjusted dynamically according to the fluctuations in international gold and silver prices. For example, when silver depreciates, the weight of gold in the monetary system can be increased.

In fact, the bimetallic standard proposed by Zhang Bishi was a good strategy for developing countries to carry out gold standard reform in the 19th century.

: Before Britain took control of South Africa, Germany, France and the United States all carried out gold standard reforms, whether by decree or by actual change.

By the time the world's largest gold mine was occupied by the British, it was already the end of the 19th century.

At this time, the connections between the capitalist global market were extremely close. If the gold standard reform was hastily carried out at this time without the guarantee of a major power, it would undoubtedly be like delivering food to the British.

Although Japan's gold standard reform in the original time and space was also carried out at this time, their reform was very cautious.

Even after receiving compensation from the Qing Dynasty, they did not rashly implement a full gold standard.

1. On the one hand, the Japanese stipulated that 0.75 yen was equivalent to grams of gold, but on the other hand, they allowed the public to continue using silver and even allowed silver to be exchanged for gold, which was a disguised bimetallic standard.

Just as Zhang Bishi was about to finish his words advocating the restoration of the gold and silver standard, the sound of rustling fabrics could be heard in the hall.

The two young officers with Jiangsu and Zhejiang accents ignored the decorum and put their hands on their mouths as they spoke to each other.

Although Yuan Xiangcheng still maintained a dignified appearance, he could not hide the joy in his heart, and the strength of his five fingers on the armrests of the armchair loosened a little.

When he heard that "the amount of gold required is 30% less than the pure gold standard", the knife-like wrinkles between his eyebrows suddenly stretched out, and the corners of his mouth lifted up slightly, with a smile on his face.

"What a way to live!"

Yuan Xiangcheng suddenly rapped his fingers on the desk, rippling the water in the teapot. "As expected of the General Manager of the Northeast Border Industry Bank, you've moved the abacus beads to the English Channel!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Baosan nodded slightly, his agreement evident in his words.

Seeing this, everyone in the room finally came to their senses. Amidst the coughs, someone said something.

"After all, Mr. Zhang is well versed in Chinese and foreign currency systems."

As soon as the words fell, the atmosphere in the room seemed to become much more relaxed, and even the air was filled with a bit of joy.

Since ancient times, when doing things, it is important to have the right time, place and people to ensure success.

When the gold standard reform was implemented, there were originally only three gold mines available: Mohe in Heilongjiang, Jiapigou in Jilin, and Zhaoyuan in Shandong.

Both the right time and the right people are lacking.

Coincidentally, the British suffered a setback in South Africa. This was a blessing from heaven and a good time for me.

No matter how you look at it, now, there is only one person left to make peace.

So, how can we win the hearts and minds of the people all over the world and get them to support the gold standard reform?

With this thought in mind, Yuan Xiangcheng began to look inquiringly at everyone in the conference hall.

"Mr. President, everything is ready for currency reform, but, in my opinion, we still need a little push!"

Suddenly, such a sentence was heard in the meeting hall.

When everyone looked over, they realized it was Zhang Jian.

Seeing the looks around him, Zhang Jian, who had been silent since Zhang and Zhu started arguing, cleared his throat and took out a blue cloth package from his arms.

With a clang, five silver coins of various shapes rolled onto the table.

Lingnan silver dollars, Hubei silver dollars, Sichuan Han plates... The most eye-catching one is a French trade silver coin, and the relief of the goddess Mariana is shining coldly under the light.

"Over the years outside the Great Wall, a total of seventeen kinds of silver coins have been collected."

Zhang Jian picked up a Lingnan silver dollar stamped with Li Hongzhang's private seal and ran his thumb over the jagged file marks on the coin's edge. "The coins are of varying quality. Common people have to carry scales and weights to carefully count them when they go to market. The National Revolutionary Army can suppress the warlords, but it's hard to eliminate all these wicked coins mixed with lead and tin!"

After saying this, he flipped open a yellowed account book, and the densely packed ink characters were like ants crawling across it: "Last year, the Republican government successively entered the counties of Jiangnan to collect grain taxes. However, in the end, the silver coins handed over by the counties were of varying quality, and after being melted down, there was a 3% loss!

The people in the southwest were even worse off. When the Republican government came to collect taxes, they paid with Tujia silver cakes, and the government melted down half of them into sand and soil.

Some local officials who were left over from the Qing dynasty didn't understand the new government's situation and were afraid of not collecting enough taxes. They were so worried about being caught that they forced farmers to sell their children to make up for the shortfall.

At this point, Zhang Jian's beard blew, and he slammed his hands on the table, making the teacups clink: "Reforming the gold standard is indeed a major national initiative.

However, if we don’t regain the right to mint coins and reform the currency system, the prestige of the republican government will sooner or later be eroded by these infamous coins, even before the gold standard is implemented!

Zhang Jian's remarks did not seem to involve any comments on the reform of the gold standard, but they pointed out a very important point.

That is, although the central government’s policies are good, local governments must also implement supporting measures to assist in their implementation.

Otherwise, a situation will arise where “the original intention was good, but the execution was bad.”

If we want the gold standard to remain intact after the policy is introduced, the reform of the gold standard must be carried out together with the crackdown on the private minting of silver coins.

Grab it with both hands, both hands must be hard!

Chapter 504 Who is begging whom more?

After the resolution to reform the gold standard and crack down on the private minting of silver coins was made at the beginning of the year, a vigorous "bank cleanup" began in areas controlled by the Republican government across the country, and several months passed quickly.

Old man communication?l96679+1025]

However, 1899 was not a good year.

Since the peach blossom flood in May, the Yellow River has burst its dikes at the junction of Henan and Shandong. The breach has turned two prefectures in eastern Henan and three prefectures in western Shandong into swamps, and millions of victims are clinging to the broken dikes like ants.

Before they could catch their breath, severe drought hit the south of the Huai River and the north of the Yangtze River again.

The increase in precipitation and the rise in river water in the northern part of North China mean that the southern part of the Huaihe River is controlled by the Pacific subtropical high-pressure belt. As the subtropical high diverges, Anhui, southern Jiangsu and other areas will fall into a long period of drought.

There was a severe drought in Anhui Province south of the Huaihe River. Several tributaries of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River were almost dry, and even the water level of Chaohu Lake dropped by half a person's height.

In the original time and space, it was this great river dike bursting and drought that did not leave much of a mark on history that created millions of victims in the Huanghuai region. These victims fled to Zhili and Shandong provinces, and gave rise to the Boxer Rebellion during the Gengzi Year, which shocked the world.

Even after the founding of the Republic of China in this time and space, this natural disaster could not be avoided.

In the midsummer of 1899, Yuan Shikai stood on the city wall of Kaifeng, with the turbulent Yellow River at his feet.

"Mr. President, a call from London!"

Ming Ye hurried up the city wall, holding a telegram: "Minister of Commerce Zhang Jian and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tang Shaoyi have arrived in London and will soon meet with British Foreign Secretary Joseph Chamberlain."

Yuan Xiangcheng looked at the telegram and his brows gradually furrowed.

He had originally planned to visit Britain in June to discuss cooperation on the gold standard, but he did not expect the domestic disaster to be so serious. Now that he was delayed by the natural disaster, he had to postpone his visit to Britain and let Zhang Jian lead a domestic industrial and commercial delegation to visit Britain first.

The telegram said that the British welcomed the Chinese delegation, especially the nearly 5000 Chinese workers who arrived with them.

However, fierce conflict broke out between the two sides over how these laborers were used.

The British wanted to buy the ownership of the laborers at the traditional "piglet" price, just like buying and selling slaves. After the transaction was completed, the laborers would no longer be under the jurisdiction of the republican government.

This is equivalent to asking the government to give up the right to life of its citizens, which is absolutely intolerable for today's republican China.

Tang Shaoyi proposed that these Chinese laborers must act under the jurisdiction of the republican government, and the London government could participate in the jurisdiction of London.

The two sides argued endlessly over the dominance.

Seeing this, Yuan Xiangcheng put away the telegram and breathed a sigh of relief.

Let's stay in a stalemate for now. The Republican government needs help from Britain regarding the gold standard reform, but Britain also needs help from the Republican government.

Countries around the world are now calling for the British to be punished for their atrocities in South Africa, especially European and American countries such as France, Russia, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Both official and private sectors have shown an attitude of non-cooperation towards Britain.

It seems that the only ally of the British in the world is the Republic of China.

If we don’t count on the Chinese, who else can we count on?

Can we count on the Indians?

But the key point is that Indians are no longer honest.

Although Britain had suppressed the Indian national uprising that swept across the entire South Asian subcontinent with iron-blooded means more than 40 years ago, it later won over various princely states, shared colonial interests with them, and jointly oppressed ordinary Indian people in the area, in exchange for half a century of peace.

However, in the late 19th century, the Indian nationalist movement was gradually rising, and small-scale uprisings or protests against British colonial rule occurred from time to time in various places.