?
"Excuse me, Minister Hong, do you know how the British persuaded Lin Zexu back then?" Henry Melton and Hong Ren? That was a very threatening question.
Hong Ren? Melton was glad that the information provided by the Viceroy's Office happened to include this information. Whether one was prepared or not would come into play at a time like this. People were always a little afraid of the unknown. For things that they already knew, people could still use a relatively rational attitude to deal with it.
Hong Ren? "As far as I know, it was a guy named Yilu who told Lin Zexu that the seizure of the merchants' cigarettes would cause a war. But was there any comparison between what happened then and what happened now? Are you trying to tell me who seized your cigarettes? "
"The British Empire has the obligation to protect the freedom of trade for its citizens!" Henry Melton said in a threatening tone.
Hong Ren? He turned to the merchants from other countries and said loudly, "There are French merchants and American merchants here. As far as I'm concerned, England doesn't export such a large amount of cigarettes to France and America. Also, France and America don't have big smokehouses like Guangdong. I believe this information is correct, right? "
This sudden attitude of forming an alliance made the British merchants' expressions change. Many of the French and American merchants couldn't help but laugh out loud. Of course, this wasn't an acknowledgment of Hong Ren. It was a collective mockery of China and England.
"You will be punished for blocking free trade," Henry Melton shouted fiercely. "You will be punished for blocking free trade," Henry Melton shouted fiercely.
"Let me correct you again," Hong Ren said, pointing at the British merchants. He pointed at the British merchant with his finger. "We have repeatedly said that we hope to establish a free trade system and are willing to do business with merchants from all over the world. The purpose of inviting everyone here today is to inform you of our plan to expand the import quota of foreign goods. We are also willing to cooperate with other countries. I don't need to hide anything here. We have been in contact with the British side and hope to hire some British professionals to join us in establishing customs, banks, and judicial systems. We will use foreign experience to complete these tasks. Of course, I would like to emphasize that everything we do is based on the inviolability of China's sovereignty. We, the Chinese, are the masters of China. We will take out our fair and just judicial system to protect the legitimate business practices. We will also establish our China's customs to protect the legitimate business practices of the legitimate businessmen from all over the world. But no matter who it is, if they want to use force to force us to agree to any conditions, even if we will actually make the exact same laws after the war, we will not accept such threats! Whoever wants to encroach on China's sovereignty will have to step over the corpses of the Liberation Army and the Commander-in-Chief's Office! "
Hong Ren? Although he did not want war, the policy of the Viceroy's Office clearly stated that there was no reason to fear war to defend the country. Therefore, he was not a war-loving hawk. He had no choice but to make it clear that he was not afraid of war.
After the Merika businessmen heard this, they began to clap with an obviously provocative attitude. A burst of malicious laughter came from the place where the French merchants gathered. At the moment when the United Kingdom dominated the world, although they did not dare to be enemies with the United Kingdom, such a small resistance seemed to be the attitude of the United States.
"Then I have a matter now. Our representative of the Ministry of Commerce would like to talk to you about our views on expanding the import quota." Hong Ren gave the rostrum to the representative of the Ministry of Commerce.
Steam engines, railways, ironmaking, steel-making, cloth, raw materials. The number of products needed by the Viceroy's Office was quite large. Many of them were "high-end technology" of this era. The number of these goods. The Viceroy's Office hoped to build a railway in the coastal area of Guangdong and introduce transport steamships on the Pearl River. They were all goods with a large quota.
The representative of the Ministry of Commerce also clearly proposed a plan to set up a settlement bank based on the customs. "Trading with gold and silver is a very troublesome thing. Everyone knows the benefits of a settlement bank. The new settlement bank relies on the customs, and the benefits need not be described by me. And we can even do more business in the future, including guarantees. As our bank continues to develop, this bank can even provide ticket business in the future. I think this will be a huge boost for free trade … "
Listening to the China's description of the future, of course, the United States was overjoyed, and the French were also very interested. Although most of the British people were in the tobacco business, there were also a small number of British businessmen who were in other trades. For these businessmen, the idea put forward by the Viceroy's Office was very attractive. The British East India Company had a large number of goods, such as cotton and gauze. The Viceroy's Office said that they would increase the import of these goods in the future. Although they still looked down on China, they felt that it was a good thing.
Of course, their view of the Americans was not so friendly. The southern United States was an important cotton production area. This cotton was supplied to British factories in large quantities, and the southern United States bought industrial products from Britain that were far better than the northern United States. Now that the China market seemed to be showing signs of opening, the United States would not let it go easily. Although the industrial technology of the United States was inferior to that of the United Kingdom, the import conditions proposed by China obviously favored cheap goods, which gave the United States a great opportunity.
So in the end, the meeting still played a role. The British tobacco businessmen did not cause trouble, nor did they protest or threaten to leave the meeting in anger. Moreover, China also took out some medical morphine as a new product they had recently launched. Making a living at sea was a very dangerous thing, and the crew had a high demand for medical morphine. The price of medical morphine that China offered was cheap, at least in a place like the Far East, which was quite attractive.
Some of the tobacco businessmen knew a little medical knowledge. They knew that medical morphine was a product extracted from tobacco by the French. Of course, they did not know that China provided morphine hydrochloride. The hydrochloride of morphine was easier to dissolve and more easily absorbed by the patient. Although the Liberation Army had accumulated a lot of experience in dissecting corpses in the war and even had a lot of experience in surgery. Anesthetics had always been a big problem. It was not until Vézé began to make mercury fulminate that he used sulfuric acid to prepare nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. Morphine hydrochloride finally appeared.
Although the British merchants did not know this, if China wanted to produce a large amount of morphine, they would naturally need a large amount of tobacco. The British businessmen, who had connections in other products but were not doing very well in the tobacco business, were even considering whether they should let the Viceroy General's Office purchase their tobacco business while providing other products that the Viceroy General's Office seemed to care about.
After the meeting, the British and Hong Kong officials did not continue to make any aggressive moves, but the Ministry of Commerce had a large number of foreign businessmen coming in and out all day long. Many of the British who had already begun to provide textiles to the Restored Viceroy's Office were now extremely eager to strike a deal with them.
Seeing such a situation, Hong Ren was shocked. He felt much more at ease. The British are greedy for profits, and the merchants are so enthusiastic. It can be assumed that the war will be further and further away. But when he began to report this matter, Vézé heard Hong Ren's words. He laughed mercilessly at the beautiful prediction of the future.
"Commander-in-chief, why are you laughing?" Hong Ren didn't quite understand Vézé's attitude.
Vézé laughed and said, "The British businessmen are so anxious precisely because war is almost inevitable. They want to take advantage of this last window period to make a good profit."
"What?" Hong Ren? Hong Ren was stunned.
Vézé put away his smile. "Minister Hong, I don't know if you have noticed, but although the American and French businessmen are also enthusiastic, they are asking a lot of questions at this time and basically do not do business. Only the British businessmen want to make a deal as soon as possible even if the price is lowered. Moreover, their furthest delivery time is no more than seven months. It will take about nine months for the British to mobilize troops from the United Kingdom to China. You can go to the Ministry of Commerce to find out in detail how many merchants have agreements that exceed nine months. "
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