Beiyang reactionaries

Both Wang Chonghui and Duan Xun believed that negotiations with Germany should be resumed as soon as possible.Duan Xun also said to Yan Huiqing: "Mr. Yan, the negotiations with Germany can be arranged as soon as possible. Germany is a defeated country. At present, the economy, politics, and military are being suppressed. At this time, we can properly show our goodwill. If Germany needs our country to provide them with some industrial raw materials, some daily necessities such as flour and peanuts. If they have no money to buy, let them transfer some machinery and equipment to us, and transfer some technical things. Anyway, there is a way.”

"Yes."

Yan Huiqing's two proposals were accepted in succession, and his mood is getting better and better.But he didn't end, and continued: "There is one last issue. That is the Shandong issue that the whole country is concerned about."

Yan Huiqing's mention of the Shandong issue is very sensitive.

Duan Qirui's government was criticized by thousands of people precisely because of the Shandong issue.Everyone immediately looked at Duan Xun, who didn't know that Duan Xun was a pro-Japanese warlord.The Shandong issue involved Japan again.

Duan Xun thought for a while and said: "Talk. First contact Japan, find out their intentions, and then come up with a charter."

"Yes."

306 Reorganize finance

It's so confusing.

If you are not in charge, you don't know that there are so many things to solve.Starting from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, every department has issues, and they are not all nonsense, on the contrary, they are all issues that need to be resolved.Over the past year, the Beijing government has been too chaotic, and many problems have accumulated and have not been able to solve them.And because Duan Xun has just entered Beijing, all departments have introduced Duan Xun's current work situation and problems that need to be solved.What they mean is very simple. The previous government did not solve it. Now that you have come to Beijing, it is time for you to solve it.

As soon as the cabinet meeting started, it lasted for three days.

Duan Xun who drove was dizzy.

I also began to understand that the things you need to think about when you enter Beijing are very different from what you thought about when you were a warlord, and many of them are even in conflict.Just like Duan Xun's goal in Beijing was to eliminate local warlords, but when he was in the local area, what he worried most about was the Beijing government's interference in his own affairs.As the saying goes, the ass determines the head, Duan Xun also needs to complete the role change as soon as possible.

However, although things are complicated, just like Yang Wei's idea to Duan Xun, the most important thing now is to stabilize his position in the Beijing government.In order to stabilize the position of the Beijing government, apart from the support of public opinion, it is more important to have strength.There are two things that are most important.

One is money and the other is the army.

The army cannot be rushed, and the reorganization of the army also needs to be done step by step.Because the cabinet has passed the bandit suppression plan, Duan Xun is now left to make a bandit suppression plan.

Xiong Kewu has already begun to select bandit suppression troops.

Compared with the military, Duan Xun is currently most concerned about economic issues.Since the founding of the Republic of China, whether it was Yuan Shikai or Duan Qirui, including later Cao Kun, they had only one biggest problem, and that was lack of money.

poor.

At the poorest time, even the salaries of government agencies could not be paid.Yuan Shikai's aftermath loan, Duan Qirui's Xiyuan loan, and Liang Shiyi's desire to mortgage the Jiaoji Railway are all because they have no money.If you have money, who is willing to borrow money from foreigners.

The reason why the Beijing government is so poor is actually very simple.

One of the biggest reasons is that the Beijing government has never really controlled the whole of China, and government and military orders have never been unified, let alone finances.After the founding of the Republic of China, those local warlords entrenched the localities, withheld tax revenues, and did not take the Beijing government seriously.The result is that the Beijing government cannot collect taxes.Not to mention those troops in the south who do not obey the orders of the Beiyang government, they are the warlords of the Beiyang army themselves, and they also intercept taxes to increase their own troops.

So Beijing government income is very low.

The second reason is that since the Second Revolution, the Beiyang Army has expanded its army crazily.During the Revolution of 10, the Beiyang Army and some troops attached to the Beiyang Army added up to only about 60 people, but by the time of the War to Protect the Country, the Beiyang Army’s regular troops had [-] to [-] people, plus the messy warlord troops. Nearly a million troops.With the crazy expansion of the army, military expenditures have also skyrocketed.

to what extent.

Almost [-] to [-] percent of the Beijing government's money is spent on military expenditures.

The third reason is that the Chinese government owed too much money starting from the Manchu Qing Dynasty.It can only be to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall, and borrow money from foreigners again and again to fill the holes.But the interest rate on loans from foreign banks is ridiculously high.The result of tearing down the east wall to pay the west wall in this way is that the interest to be repaid every year is more and more, more and more.The Beijing government was overwhelmed.It can even be said that the great powers used this method to completely control the Beijing government.The Beijing government’s annual income is almost used to repay debts. In order for the Beijing government to continue to operate and support the army, it can only continue to borrow money from foreign powers.After repeated cycles, the finances of the Beijing government were completely controlled by the foreign powers.

Now Duan Xun will solve these problems.

The first point is that Duan Xun currently controls 90.00% of the provinces in the country, so he must achieve financial unification.It is absolutely impossible to allow local warlords to withhold tax revenues.Just by completing this point, the economic conditions of the Beijing government will be greatly improved, and the income will increase by countless times.

As for military expenditures, there is not much to do.After all, Duan Xun has to raise soldiers, and he has to raise many, many troops.According to Duan Xun's plan, within the next ten years, China must have one million army troops.

But for the third one, Duan Xun needs to find a way.

drag.

Duan Xun was prepared to delay the indemnities and loans that began in the late Qing Dynasty.The indemnity is about to end, and Duan Xun will definitely not continue to pay back the indemnity of the year.Even if the loan cannot be broken, the interest will have to be renegotiated.Therefore, Duan Xun has been talking about financial issues with Dai Kan, Wang Yongjiang, and Zhang Shouyong.

"Prime Minister, rectify the finances, and I want to start with the banks."

Wang Yongjiang, as chief financial officer, reported to Duan Xun and Dai Kan.During this period of time, he was almost non-stop, looking at the information of the Ministry of Finance to understand the financial problems of the Beijing government.And meet with the old man of the Ministry of Finance and other financial talents to discuss the current finance of the Beijing government.

Already have preliminary ideas.

"At present, the banks that the Beijing government relies on are Bank of China and China Bank of Communications. Both of these banks have the right to issue banknotes, and they are both semi-official banks. The official shares in Bank of China account for 50.00%, and the official shares in China Bank of Communications Occupies 40.00%. Because of this, every time the government was short of money, it would borrow money from the two banks and let the two banks print money. So the two banks faced several runs, causing the shareholders of the two banks to Very dissatisfied. In the past two years, the shareholders of the two banks have been vigorously resisting the government's control."

bank.

Regardless of whether it is the central government or local governments, the reason why they set up banks is simple.Because banks can quickly raise a large sum of money, and then the government can use it.

As for whether it will have some impact?

Who cares about that.

When Yuan Shikai was there, he regarded Bank of China and China Bank of Communications as cash machines.Especially during the War to Protect the Country, let the two banks print money.To what extent, in 1915, the Bank of China printed 3844 million yuan, and the Bank of Communications of China printed 3729 million yuan.

Neither bank had such a large deposit at the time.

Moreover, the Beijing government spent too much money to fight the war at that time, and there were huge financial loopholes.Yuan Shikai directly took 1000 million from the Bank of China and 4000 million from the Bank of Communications of China.In Yuan Shikai's mind, this is the role of banks.

This is true of Yuan Shikai, and so is Duan Qirui later.The two of them don't understand the modern financial system at all, and they don't know much about the operation of banks.Although they strongly supported the development of banks in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, they did not know the knowledge of modern banks.All they know is that banks can print money, so they keep taking money from two banks.Moreover, they embezzled funds and never thought about repaying the money.The shareholders of these two banks are becoming more and more dissatisfied, especially those businessmen who own shares.These people began to rebel against the Beiyang government's control over the two banks.The two sides played very lively.

"Although the boards of directors of these two banks have great internal conflicts, and they are fiercely resisting the government's control. However, these two banks are currently the most famous banks in the country. The control still needs to be controlled, but it must not be the same as the previous government. , treat the bank like an ATM.”

"What does President Wang mean?"

Dai Kan asked Wang Yongjiang.

Wang Yongjiang immediately said: "First of all, the issue of currency by national banks is too chaotic at present. Except for these two banks, those foreign banks have the right to issue their own banknotes, and even some domestic banks will issue their own currency on a small scale. The whole country There are too many types of currency, and there is no supervision, which leads to the flood of banknotes printed by some banks, which affects the country's financial security. Therefore, I think it is necessary to rectify the right to issue currency."

"It's not easy to deal with foreigners."

Duan Xun frowned.

Currency chaos affects finance, Duan Xun certainly understands.Especially those foreign banks can issue currency at will.Relying on the fact that they are foreign banks, some banks issue currency indiscriminately, search for Chinese property, and leave a lot of chicken feathers for China.Some of those foreign banks owed hundreds of millions of dollars when they were finally liquidated due to excessive currency issuance.But what can the government do?

That's a bank for foreigners, and it's impossible to catch them.When they run away, the victimized people take their anger out on the government.Even so, the government did not dare to revoke the power of foreign banks to issue their own banknotes.

Those foreign banks have strength behind them, even now Duan Xun doesn't want to offend them.

"Prime Minister, we can take a detour without directly banning their banknotes. As long as we have the necessities of life such as food and salt, we must order the transactions of these products to use the currency set by the government. Then even if we do not ban those foreign banks from issuing banknotes, those banknotes It will also slowly disappear. Because the market will only recognize our banknotes."

"It's a way."

Duan Xun nodded.

Wang Yongjiang's method is good.It is possible to gradually unify the currency without forcibly canceling the power of those foreign banks to print money.Wang Yongjiang continued: "And the government should not allow the Bank of China and the China Bank of Communications to have the right to issue currency. In fact, the government only needs a bank that can issue currency."

"Then which bank do you think is suitable?"

"Bank of China. Bank of China is a change from the former Bank of Great Qing. When it was established, it was originally the central bank of the government. No matter in terms of strength or reputation, Bank of China is the largest, most complete and best bank in China. .And compared with China Bank of Communications, Bank of China has a higher proportion of official shares and is more suitable to be the central bank. Therefore, I propose to merge Bank of China and Southwest Bank to form a new Bank of China. With the addition of Southwest Bank, it can greatly Dilute the proportion of commercial shares and become a bank directly controlled by the government."