the world is at stake

Sullivan was also very surprised.

At present, the pound is still on the gold standard, and each pound is equivalent to about 3000 grams of gold, which is about 6 yuan in future generations.A weekly salary of twenty pounds is [-] RMB.

This is a weekly salary!

The price of an ordinary detached house in London is only five hundred pounds.But it turned out that there were too few foreigners in the Bureau of Industry and Commerce.

When the British Hurd took control of China Customs, his nominal annual salary was 500 pounds.But in the correspondence between him and his wife, he clearly stated that the actual annual income was more than [-] pounds, which was almost [-] million yuan—who said the British were not corrupt?

Foreign employees previously employed by the Chinese government never lived on that normal salary.

"So you are not going to accept the humiliating wages of the Chinese." Sullivan asked Anthony.

Anthony was silent for a while, and said bitterly: "I just came from Huangpu Beach, and the entrance of the 'Zhongye Office' is very lively. The Chinese government is purchasing materials at several times the market price, and it is also openly recruiting civil servants.

Many Chinese employed by foreign firms are preparing to apply, including many students who have not yet graduated from public schools.They have to take a written test and an interview, and they will be able to work after passing the test. The internship period is three to six months.

There are many positions to be recruited, at least two thousand.There are municipal management and factory technology.I saw that many Westerners in Shanghai also tried to participate, but the city government did not restrict them. "

Sullivan immediately realized the benefits.

There are also many types of foreigners, and the British are also divided into high and low.Not all European and American people who come to Shanghai can mix well, otherwise there would not be a lot of down-and-out foreign devils joining the mercenary army.

The new Shanghai municipal government shattered the original concession management system, and incidentally also shattered the bureaucratic system of old Shanghai.After the arrest and execution of a group of corrupt officials with great public outrage, all intertwined interests were cleared.

But there are just over 2000 people in 'Holy Light', and there are only over 300 people sent to Shanghai, which is already extremely important.This number of people is simply not enough, and the civil service team must be re-established.

How to build it?Exam.

Don't ask about lineage, don't ask about origin, only talent.

The reason why the United States was able to develop rapidly in the early days was that it absorbed European talents in an eclectic manner.

Old Europe has an extremely stubborn lineage theory in its bones, and it is not easy for ordinary people to want to rise to the top.But China likes to emphasize that 'there is no such thing as a prime minister, and a man should be self-improvement. '

There is a lot of rubbish in the foreign devils who come to China, but they can always find some gold.The key is to do a good job of publicity, 'a thousand pieces of gold is a horse bone', and attract more foreign talents to join us.

It is said that China in later generations is introverted, and Europe and the United States are also introverted now.The Germans are "rolling" but Britain and France, so the whole country simply turned the table and started a war.

As a British nobleman, Anthony is the original vested interest group.He disdains a job that pays twenty pounds a week, but there are not a few people who covet this income.

As long as there is an excellent selection and elimination mechanism, the Industrial Bureau of the former Shanghai Concession and various foreign firms can provide the municipal government with two to three thousand talents with years of experience in urban management and international economics and trade.

Hearing this, the bartender wiped the glass slowly, and asked, "Dear Mr. Anthony, is the Chinese government really willing to provide civil servants to foreigners? There are no restrictions?"

Jobs in the system can guarantee income in drought and flood, and it is a noble profession to talk about face.This is true all over the world, without exception.

Anthony looked up at the bartender of the third brother from India, and heheed disdainfully, "You can try it, the Chinese are looking for translators. If you can speak, read, write, and read Chinese and English, you can apply for the job.

If you can speak an extra foreign language, there is an extra £[-] allowance per week.At least that's what the public notices say, but so far only a few Europeans have applied for the job, and not many have been successful. "

The third brother, the bartender, stopped wiping the glass and said hesitantly, "It's unlikely that the Chinese government will hire an Indian like me, right? But I can speak English and French proficiently. I can speak and hear Chinese, but I can't read and write."

Both Anthony and Sullivan were laughing, as if they had encountered something impossible, and they were watching some servant who had no self-knowledge make a fool of himself.

So the third brother, the bartender wiped the glass a little faster, and lowered his head shyly: "Sorry, I was just joking. How could the Chinese hire a bartender from Gujarat?"

The atmosphere in front of the bar is getting more cheerful.

The Chinese government is purchasing at high prices from foreign countries and is willing to hire Western personnel. This should be a release of some kind of goodwill, and it is also seen by the British in the Shanghai Association as a possibility of some kind of compromise.

The British in the bar were discussing how to make high profits with fast delivery, and they were eager for when the British Navy would come so as to squeeze out more power.

Sullivan and Anthony sat in the bar all day, talking idle and without any real action.After wasting most of the day, they discovered that the bartender at the bar had changed.

"Where's that guy from Gujarat?" Sullivan asked the changing bartender.All he remembered was that the previous bartender had talked about his parentage.

"You mean Girard? He took half a day off and asked me to cover his shift," said the new bartender, "but it's strange, he never used to take time off."

Sullivan and Anthony glanced at each other, seeming to realize that something terrible was happening.

And in the 'Communication Office' at No. [-] Huangpu Beach, the bartender named Gilad changed his clothes and stood in the middle of a long queue.There are white-skinned foreign devils in front of him and behind him, but he is dark-skinned, and he looks Indian.

The recruiters are the members of the 'Holy Light' team, who have enough experience and vision to discover real talents and eliminate parallel importers who come to cheat food and drink.

The first few foreign devils were rejected one after another, and they were not even qualified to fill out the application form, so they left angrily.

Gilad stood in the queue so nervous that he almost turned his head and left.When he rubbed his hot palms and felt that he was whimsical, the recruiter called him in English, "Sir, please step forward and go to room No. [-]."

In the room, Zhou Qingfeng was poking the registration form in front of him with a pencil.He has been talking to more than two dozen foreign devils in a row, all of which are rubbish from nowhere.

Some trash is clearly illiterate, but wants to apply for the assistant to the mayor.Why is he so confident?The other party answered that he had a Western face.

Zhou Qingfeng asked the Political Security Bureau to take care of this kind of garbage that was useless but could become a hidden danger to public security, so as not to run around in the society and be a hindrance to the public.

When he saw a third brother coming in, Zhou Qingfeng also felt that God made a big joke on himself.

The third brother rushed in and said, "Sir, I can speak English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Cantonese, and Shanghainese. I can also read, write, and speak. Can I apply for a job as a translator?"

Zhou Qingfeng's first reaction was that the third brother was too good at bragging, which was very in line with the characteristics of Indians.He has a 'knowledgeable language', changed to German, and asked suspiciously: "If you dare to lie, I will screw your head off."

"Sir, I'm very talented in languages." The third brother also replied in German with a Bavarian accent.

"How did you learn so many languages?" Zhou Qingfeng asked in Russian.

"I am a Gujarati, and I grew up in the port of Goa, India. My job is to sell goods to sailors from all over the world. I must master enough languages ​​to make money, otherwise I will starve to death.

When I was 15 years old, I was spotted by a British captain. He took me around the world and I was his clerk and translator.The captain had a bad temper, and I had to work hard not to be whipped and reprimanded.

I learned Cantonese after only half a year in Guangzhou.After coming to Shanghai for two years, I mastered Chinese writing.I am familiar with maritime trade and the legal provisions of various countries, and I am good at dealing with people from different countries.

I am 36 years old this year, but my brain is very easy to use. I always learn more things habitually so that I can use them when I want. "

This long passage was spoken in a mixture of different languages, and Girard repeated it in Shanghainese.If it wasn't for Zhou Qingfeng's automatic translation in his mind, he would have been fooled by this third brother.

After finishing speaking, Girard rubbed his hands and asked carefully: "Sir, will you hire an Indian as a government interpreter? I am also good at bartending, calculation and financial management, and I am also competent as a housekeeper."

Zhou Qingfeng sucked his teeth, and said in a deep voice: "If you work hard, you can earn a lot of money from us, enough for you to return to India in a prosperous future.

If you can make outstanding achievements in your post, we may consider promoting you to become a senior civil servant.Guaranteed to give you glory and status.

If you can achieve creative results, or irreplaceable achievements, we will ask you to naturalize, no matter what race or color you are.

As long as you are capable, I don't care what your origin is.If you pass the written and re-examination, I think you are too talented to be an interpreter, and the position of Deputy Commissioner of Shanghai Customs just happens to be vacant. "

Chapter 41 Reorganization

There is a saying in the education field: talents are cultivated, geniuses are screened out.

There are dozens of students in a class, most of them are mediocre, but there will always be a few top students and poor students.The ratio is about one-tenth each.If you want to be top-notch in the whole grade, you must choose one out of a hundred.

If the whole city wants to select students who can participate in the provincial Mathematical Olympiad in middle and high schools, it must be one in ten thousand.But to be able to win the ranking in the national science and engineering competition, the difficulty immediately rises to one in a million.

For a country to develop, it is necessary to popularize basic education.But a few geniuses can often become a force for tackling difficulties, and then become academic leaders and unparalleled national scholars.

On the one hand, the Ministry of Education of the "Holy Light" recruits students to build schools across the country, and at the same time conducts talent screening, screening out the most intelligent students aged 15 to [-] from the country's [-] million population.

The screening method is very simple, that is, teaching.Understanding by analogy and drawing inferences from one instance are the basic abilities of a genius, and it is easy to appear different.

The Ministry of Education will provide material incentives for the screening work, hoping to screen a thousand or eight hundred prospective talents from the grassroots every year for key training, and then quickly climb the technology tree with points and faces.

After the National Defense Forces took Shanghai, they also had to screen the original bureaucratic system.For example, in the first round, Huang Jinrong, the only Chinese inspector general in the patrol house in the former French Concession, was screened and sent to prison.

In addition, talents with outstanding abilities must be screened out to fill job vacancies. Based on the principle of preferring shortages to excess, the new Shanghai government strives to ensure that candidates for each position are on the pass line in terms of ability and integrity.

It has been more than half a century since Shanghai was forced to sign the "Nanjing Treaty" in 1843, and it is impossible to say that it has not accumulated some talents.

It’s just that in the past foreigners controlled Shanghai’s industrial development, and at most cultivated a group of foreign compradors. It was impossible for the Chinese to have a stage to show their abilities.

Now that the new city government wants to promote talents, it will screen out the seedlings with outstanding abilities in Bailaihao on the first day. As long as they can pass the political review of the Political Security Bureau, they will be able to take office and set up a new public service system.

But on the first day of the selection of civil servants, the biggest achievement was an Ah San from India.

Cai Xuebin personally led five or six companions with rich management experience to conduct a half-day written test and interview for Girard, and found that the bartender in his thirties had incredible life experience and insight into the world.

Gillard is of untouchable origin, dark skin.

However, he has traveled around the world several times as a captain's clerk. He has been to dozens of well-known big cities around the world. He is fluent in five or six languages, understands the customs of various countries, and is very familiar with the legal system of the sea and ocean-going trade.

The reason why he appeared in Shanghai was that the British captain who took him out of India died of illness after arriving in Shanghai.The new captain didn't want to see him, and kicked this talented but humble Indian servant away.

In order to make a living, Girard found a job at the Shanghai Club opened in the UK, with a monthly salary of only two pounds.The bartender is the upper limit of the position he can hold, and it cannot be higher.

For someone who has traveled the globe, Girard doesn't have much in the way of stereotypes.Knowing that the Chinese had overthrown the British and openly recruited civil servants, he had the guts to try it.

"Try it and try it. The 'Thousand Gold City Horse Bone' is to have a sensational effect and topicality." Cai Xuebin made a decision and let Girard work in the customs. "Who cares? Anyone who is capable is worthy of us." Pay attention to."

On the third day of the recruitment, the "Zhongye Office" at No. [-] Huangputan put up a poster, announcing that the city government decided to hire a group of civil servants, among whom Gillard, an Indian citizen, was appointed as the Deputy Commissioner of Customs.

The poster disclosed Gillard's identity, and his resume as a ship clerk and club bartender did not deny it.At the same time, clearly list the person's ability and application process, and attach his profile picture. We welcome supervision from all walks of life.

Outside the crowded public office, you can see posters in Chinese, English and French as long as you look up.The big head is black and white, but Girard's features of the Indian untouchables are very obvious.

The story of this eclectic selection of talent is too newsy.This is related to the jobs and future of many people, and the whole Shanghai is a sensation.

The "Zi Linxi News" run by the British had a special report on this, and the domestic "Ta Kung Pao" discussed this issue for several consecutive issues, and even gave an exclusive interview to Mayor Cai Xuebin.

"Ah... this damn Indian bartender actually went to apply for a civil servant." Sullivan read the news in the newspaper in the bar of the Shanghai Club, and slapped the table and cursed. "How dare he? He's a pariah."

Anthony had read the newspaper, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I can't think of how the bartender who was still pouring me wine the day before yesterday was selected by the Chinese as the deputy head of customs.

Look at how the newspaper praised him. He knows multiple languages, has an amazing memory, is familiar with business contacts, and is very humble.The Chinese must have been deceived.In this way, I can be the emperor of China. "

The report caused quite a storm of public opinion among the British circles in Shanghai.The British director of the pub was questioned at several tables and told what he knew.

"Gillard? Yes, he's been in the bar at our club for a while. He's honest and obedient at best.

As for talent, I never saw him display any talent.Newspapers have clearly exaggerated its capabilities.It may be an insult to Great Britain to elevate our servants to high positions. "

The bar supervisor in a tuxedo seemed fair and didn't say anything bad about Girard.But what he meant inside and out was obvious—either the Chinese government didn't know the goods, or it had ulterior motives.

This explanation is more acceptable to the British, but someone in the bar expressed dissent, "The newspaper said that the bartender will officially take up the job after half a month of training, we can wait and see."

"What do you mean?" Sullivan stared displeasedly at the gentleman at the other table.

The dissenter shrugged, "I also went to apply for the job yesterday, and there were many people who went with me. If you pay attention, you will find that those who can accept the written test interview are people with some ability.

I don't know about the Indian bartender named Girard, but I talked to Chinese interviewers.The other party is very wise and knowledgeable, and no one can deceive them at will.

The Chinese are not fooling around, they are very serious and pragmatic about the selection of civil servants.Girard is just the first batch of foreign employees hired, and I believe the situation will become clearer in the future. "

The words of the dissidents triggered even greater commotion and discussion, and no one could convince anyone.In the following week, more and more public servants were announced for employment.

About [-]% are Chinese, but there are indeed many foreign employees.

As the largest port in the Far East, Shanghai resumed its role as a commercial and logistics center after the concession was dismantled.The city government has announced ambitious infrastructure projects and industrial development plans, and has allowed regulated foreign investment.

Western public opinion believes that the Chinese cannot control customs by themselves, and that this will lead to inefficiency and serious corruption in logistics and commerce.

However, the Shanghai Branch of the Political Security Bureau is also very efficient in solving such problems, and they will be shot when they are caught.

By the end of March, the first batch of rice and rubber imported from Thailand arrived in Hong Kong one after another, and businessmen from various countries who completed the task got their final payment.The high profits stimulated their excitement.

Sullivan saw the heroism of those lucky people inviting everyone to drink in the club of the Shanghai General Assembly.

Merchants who have made money want to earn more, they need more loans for turnover, and they will work harder to transport the raw materials and industrial machinery China needs.

All these are stimulating the rapid development of Shanghai's financial industry and manufacturing industry, and have also created myths of wealth.Businessmen are also getting bolder, daring to ship anything to China.

After all, the management capabilities of governments in various countries are very limited these days, and there are too many people who are willing to take risks under heavy money.

Gillard took office at the end of the month as Deputy Commissioner of Customs.He personally received import and export businessmen from all over the world.Under face-to-face contact, it is obvious whether you have talent or not, and fluent conversation alone is an important ability.

Gillard is familiar with customs regulations and trade procedures.

On the first day he took office, he led hundreds of customs officers to handle the import and export of goods worth more than 300 million silver dollars, and the new tax rate increased the income of the Chinese treasury by 10,000+ silver dollars.

At the same time, China began to restrict the direct export of primary raw materials and export high value-added products as much as possible.For example, the export tax rate for raw silk was raised to 30.00%, but that for silk fabrics was lowered to 5.00%.

Prior to this, the export price of Chinese raw silk was controlled by various foreign companies, and silkworm farmers in the south of the Yangtze River were severely squeezed.

Now the government produces and imports its own equipment to set up a silk reeling factory, builds a silk industry chain and a quality management system, and doubles the price of raw silk through administrative power and collective bargaining.

If the export price is too low, the central government simply builds high-standard warehouses for purchase and storage, actively intervenes in the market, and safeguards the interests of its own people.

March and April are the peak seasons for silk production. This is a market worth tens of millions of silver dollars. The raw silk trade alone has touched the interests of many foreign firms engaged in East Asian trade.

In the past, a large amount of Chinese raw silk was exported to Japan, processed into silk and then sold to Europe.And Japanese raw silk is the biggest competitor of Chinese raw silk, which greatly reduces the profits of Chinese silk fabrics.

In the past, Japan could achieve industrial upgrading by earning the price difference, and then earn more and more.Now the Chinese central government would rather subsidize silkworm farmers and not make money than let Japan make money.

In April, the Shanghai Municipal Government established its own Textile Exchange to integrate the production and trading of cotton and silk products in China, especially in the Jiangnan area.

This move first bankrupted many small foreign firms that acted as middlemen in Shanghai, and Germany acted as the largest buyer and seller of related industries in China, conducting procurement between countries and safeguarding the interests of both parties.

And by April, a crash broke out on the London Stock Exchange.Because the British Empire announced sanctions on Chinese goods, and stated that it would conduct random inspections of merchant ships in Singapore and other places, and prohibit any Chinese merchant ships from passing.

This means that Great Britain has no plans to go to war for the time being, and all those who have bet heavily on getting China's war reparations will go to the rooftops.