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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 308: American Businessman

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    After making military arrangements, Xiao Yungui asked the generals to rush back immediately to make preparations. He called for Yao Yuan and told him to stay in the church to discuss medical issues with missionaries such as Luo Weilin and discuss opening a pharmaceutical factory with them.  Yao Yuan immediately accepted the order. Recently, he had a lot of medical exchanges with missionaries in the church, and this kid was very fascinated.  As Yao Yuan got more in touch with the missionaries in the church who knew medical skills, he found that these Western doctors were doing things with a heart of treating diseases and saving people. However, their treatment methods were very different from traditional Chinese medicine, so many Chinese people could not accept them.  At present, the Chinese people are still very ignorant and superstitious. Many people are sick and would rather believe that a glass of talisman water can save their lives than those red-haired and green-eyed foreigners who can cure their illnesses.  After Yao Yuan arrived, he worked with them to treat many soldiers and civilians. Both Chinese and Western medicine have their own strengths and weaknesses, but Yao Yuan still appreciates the efficacy of Western medicine and is quite happy to let him stay in Shanghai.

    After arranging the war with the generals, Xiao Yungui asked Hong Yun'er to talk to Zhou Xiuying alone. Half of the women's battalion wanted to go back to Suzhou with Hong Yun'er, and the other half stayed in Shanghai with Li Xuanji. Xiao Yungui thought that Zhou Xiuying was a local  I hope she stays to help Li Xuanji.  The subsequent battle in Shanghai will be very difficult. Xiao Yungui hopes that the female battalion can be led by female generals. Although Li Xuanji is good at civil affairs, she is always insufficient in battle formation. It is better for Zhou Xiuying to stay.  

    As soon as Hong Yun'er talked to Zhou Xiuying, the girl agreed immediately. She also knew that the war ahead would be very tight, and she also wanted to stay and take care of her father and other brothers in Qingpu.

    After a busy night, in the latter half of the night, Barritt and Wilbur arrived with a merchant ship, and Xiao Yungui took people to greet them at the temporary dock in Caohejing.  As expected, Wilbur got six cannons, a lot of shells and propellant charges, and more than 500 muzzle-loading flintlock guns. Most of these guns were British goods.  Xiao Yungui naturally bought all the standard equipment of the British army more than ten years ago, as well as 30,000 kilograms of gunpowder and lead.

    Xiao Yungui quickly completed the transaction, and Wilbur was accompanied by two Americans. After the transaction was completed, Wilbur stepped forward and introduced: "Your Excellency, King Xi, these two American friends would like to meet you."

    Xiao Yungui also noticed it and immediately smiled: "Americans? There are quite a few Americans doing business with us in the past few days."

    Wilbur smiled and said: "These two Americans are here under the entrustment of the American Minister Marsali. Mr. Marsali hopes to make an appointment to meet with His Excellency the King of the West at a time and place to discuss the possibility of future trade between the two parties."  .¡±

    Xiao Yungui touched his chin and laughed.  It seemed that the Americans could no longer sit still. The smuggling of private businessmen was ahead of them. The Americans would not sit back and watch their huge interests fall by the wayside. At that moment, Xiao Yungui took Wilbur and the two Americans to the grass beside the dock.  Sitting down in the shed, Hong Yun'er naturally translated at the side.  The two Americans began to introduce themselves.

    The first American was Jin Nengheng, the U.S. consular representative in Shanghai.  Foreign businessmen all call him the U.S. Vice Consul in Shanghai.  Hong Yun'er vaguely remembered that this person had a great background.  Jin Nengheng's English name is Edward Cunningham. He is a member of Qichang Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. in the United States.

    Speaking of the deeds of Americans in Shanghai, we have to mention Qichang Yangxing. Qichang Yangxing was the most famous American company in the Far East in the 19th century. It was founded in Guangzhou in 1818 by Samuel Russell, an American businessman who was born in Connecticut.  Engaged in cross-border trade between Guangzhou and Boston.  In the early days, the main business items were tea, raw silk and opium, and the main trading partner was Wu Bingjian, a wealthy businessman from the Thirteenth Bank of Guangzhou.  Warren Delano Jr.  He is the maternal grandfather of President Franklin Roosevelt and a senior partner of Qichang Yangxing.  In 1846, Qichang moved its headquarters to Shanghai.

    Jin Nengheng is a famous manager of Qichang Foreign Company. He founded Qichang Steamship Company, China's first shipping company.  The construction of Shiliupu "Jinliyuan Wharf" accounted for 80% of the Yangtze River shipping share, ushering in the glorious era of Qichang Foreign Trade, also known as the Qichang era in the mid-19th century.  In the mid-19th century, Qichang merchants occupied the consular positions of the United States' major trading ports in China and almost took charge of the United States' diplomatic affairs in China.  Among them, Jin Nengheng, the consul in Shanghai, also initiated the merger of the British and American concessions in 1862 and became the first director of the Shanghai Public Settlement.

    The American Minister Marsali sent Jin Nengheng to be the first to contact the rebel leader. This shows that the Americans began to change their view of the Taiping Army. Marsali began to plan to have more in-depth contact with the Taiping Army, so he chose Jin Nengheng.  Come and meet.

    The second American was Cyrus Westfield, who was also an American industrialist. Hong Yuner remembered him mainly because of the telegram.  Field was born in Massachusetts on November 30, 1819. Field's brother was a well-known lawyer and the founder of international law.  Field started out as a errand, and although he never became a true scientist, he had the remarkable vision and audacity to put a nineteenth-century scientific achievement into a compelling technological application.  Even now, this technology can only be completed with funding from the government, andI personally don't dare to ask.  In order to achieve the stated goal of laying an Atlantic undersea telegraph cable, Field spent all the money he earned from the paper business for thirteen years and endured one catastrophic blow after another.  In this project, Field provided funds and equipment, while Maury and Kelvin provided technical guidance in oceanography and electrical science respectively.  Field's wish finally came true in 1866, when telegraph signals connected the United States to the European continent.  Field's reward for this was a gold medal and a vote of thanks from the U.S. Congress.  Later, Field set out to build an elevated railroad in New York City.  The railway was expensive to build, and some financial capitalists made huge profits from it. Field went bankrupt again, and he finally died in poverty.

    The invention of the telegraph can also be said to be very exciting, but in Hong Yun'er's view, no matter how good the invention is, it must be implemented by businessmen who dare to invest, so that each great invention can be carried forward. Field's courage is worthy of praise.  But how did Field come to China?  It seems that there is no record of him visiting China in history.

    Out of curiosity, Hong Yun'er couldn't help but ask Field about the purpose of coming to China. It turned out that Field had already started preparing funds to lay the Atlantic telegraph cable at the beginning of this year, but in terms of financial preparation, he still needed stronger investment.  He learned through Qichang Yangxing that Wu Haoguan, a wealthy man in Guangzhou, China, was very wealthy and often invested in foreign trade, so he went to China in person to lobby the Wu family for investment.

    The Wu family is the Wu Bingjian family, a famous representative of the Thirteenth Industry in Guangzhou. The Wu family has been engaged in foreign trade in Guangzhou since the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign, selling raw silk and tea to British businessmen, and also selling foreign goods.  In the forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign, his father Wu Guoying was appointed by the Guangdong Customs Supervision to act as a merchant and establish Yihe Matheson.  And he gave himself a business name "Haoguan".  The business name has been used by its descendants and became a resounding name in the international business community in the early 19th century.  In 1801, 32-year-old Wu Bingjian took over the business of Yihe Bank, and the Wu family's business began to rise rapidly.  Some Western scholars call him "the richest man in the world."  In the sixth year of Jiaqing, Wu Bingjun succeeded his brother Wu Bingjun as a merchant, and two years later he became the general merchant.  In the 12th year of Jiaqing, it became the second largest merchant in Guangzhou. In the 18th year, it was listed as the leader of the general merchants and ascended to the position of the chief merchant.  For decades after that, he remained a leading merchant.  In the sixth year of Daoguang's reign, he handed over the administrative affairs of Yihe Bank to his fourth son Wu Yuanhua. He retreated behind the scenes, but still held the real power of Yihe Bank and Gonghang.

    The Wu family has maintained good relations with British and American businessmen all year round. According to American newspaper reports in 134, Wu Bingjian's wealth was 26 million Mexican silver dollars.  Approximately equivalent to 5 billion yuan today.  A story circulating in Boston says: There was an American businessman who owed him 72,000 taels of silver notes and was stranded in Guangzhou, unable to return to his country.  When he heard about it, he tore up the IOU in front of him and said that the account had been settled and you could leave whenever you pleased.

    Wu Bingjian not only owns real estate, real estate, tea gardens, shops, etc. in China, but also boldly conducts railway investments, securities trading, and gets involved in insurance business in the United States on the other side of the ocean, making the Wu family's Jardine House a veritable multinational consortium.  That's why Field came up with the idea of ??lobbying the Wu family to invest in the laying of the Atlantic cable.

    But the trip to Guangzhou disappointed Field. Wu Bingjun, the current official of the Wu family, rejected the investment because the Wu family had begun to decline and did not have the courage to make such a large investment.  As a wealthy businessman during the decline of the feudal dynasty, Wu Bingjian's accumulated wealth was destined not to last long.  Just when his multinational consortium was reaching its peak, an undercurrent was quietly surging.  In June 1840, the Opium War broke out. Although Wu Bingjian donated a huge sum of money to the court in exchange for a third-grade crown, this could not save his career at all.  Due to his inextricable connections with British opium merchants, he was reprimanded and punished by Lin Zexu many times, and had to donate huge amounts of wealth to the Qing government again and again in order to obtain short-term peace.  After the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, the Qing government ordered merchants to repay foreign debts of 3 million silver dollars in 1843, and Wu Bingjian alone shouldered 1 million silver dollars.  It was in this year that Wu Bingjian died of illness in Guangzhou.

    After Wu Bingjian¡¯s death, the once-rich Thirteenth Bank of Guangdong began to gradually decline.  Many merchants went bankrupt under the squeeze of the Qing government.  What's even more fatal is that with the implementation of the five-port trade, Guangdong lost its advantage in foreign trade, and the privileges enjoyed by the Thirteenth Bank of Guangdong also ended.

    In recent years, there has been a turmoil in the south of the Yangtze River. In order to cope with the huge tax imposed by Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Wu family, which was once prosperous in the past, has been struggling. Recently, the Wu family donated a huge sum of money to recruit red single ships for the Guangdong Navy and form a navy.  With the fleet heading north, the Wu family was already overwhelmed, and it was impossible to invest in any Atlantic telegraph cable.  Field, who found nothing, had to follow Minister Marsali to Shanghai to try his luck and see if he could find a new partner.

    After listening to Field¡¯s introduction, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun¡¯er discussed quietly for a few more words. Finally, Xiao Yungui chuckled and asked: ¡°Mr. Field, your telegraph cableHow much more money is needed for investment?  "(To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!</dd>
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