At this time, Prince Qing Yili, as the Prime Minister of the Prime Minister's Affairs Office, was meeting with the US Minister to the Qing Dynasty Connor and Citibank's senior executive Lawvens.

Connor and Lawvins came to Yili to set up a branch of the Bank of America in the Qing Dynasty. Now the Boxer Indemnity has long been finalized, and all countries have set up Banks in China to collect compensations.

However, the United States has always been collected by Minister Connor, which has aroused dissatisfaction among other countries and has rebuked the United States for its unconformity to traditional diplomatic practices. Citibank seized the opportunity and immediately applied to the US Congress to establish a branch in the Qing Dynasty.

At this time, Citibank's name was still New York City Bank. It could not handle interstate business in the United States, but it first established a multinational branch.

Fortunately, Citibank has vision and applied for a cross-border business license in advance. US President Roosevelt also hopes to make the matter more formal so that other countries will not laugh at it, so he agreed to Citibank's application.

This is a super fat thing. Even commercial banks are trying hard to get deposits, not to mention Citibank, which was just starting not long ago.

Therefore, Lawvins attached great importance to his errands and studied and formulated a planning letter with Connor, the Minister to China, early on, and listed the various terms and agreements for the establishment of the bank.

They arrived at the Prime Minister's affairs office in various countries early in the morning, and after waiting for a long time, they finally met Yi Li.

Yi Li didn't deliberately delay. He is really busy now. Every day, many ministers or counselors take turns to him, and the matters they talk about are either setting up concessions or applying for military entry.

How could Yi Li make decisions immediately? He had to go to see Empress Dowager Cixi again. Fortunately, Cixi gave him good treatment and could go to the palace directly in a sedan chair. But many things were not decided by meeting each other, and often had to run back and forth several times.

Yi Li's old bone has been almost dispersed during this period.

At this time, Yi Li was frowning with his forehead and looking at the planning book in front of him. The planning book was written in English, but his English level was probably not as good as a primary school student who had just learned English for a year.

He looked at it for a long time and handed it to Ruizheng, the translator next to him, "Please help me see."

Ruizheng is a graduate of Tongwenguan, but his level is not very good, but he is Yilian's distant relative. Yilian is nepotist and can do things with money. He actually left Ruizheng as a translator.

Ruizheng took over the planning book. The dense English pages of more than thirty pages were really a headache. He quickly sat on the table next to him, and translated the small dictionary slowly word by word, and then wrote the translation on the paper next to him.

Seeing that his movements were too slow, Connor said to Yili: "Dear Prime Minister, I have explained to you just now that Citibank in our country is exactly the same as HSBC established in the UK, and has no other redundant business."

Yi Li touched the handle of the chair at hand and said slowly: "Mr. Minister, I naturally understand what you said, but I still have to do such a big thing no matter what."

Citibank senior official Ravens was most anxious. He immediately said: "I hope the Prime Minister will make rapid progress. Our bank's business capabilities will not be worse than HSBC. We have advantages in interest rate payment, exchange business, security and insurance, service quality, etc.."

Lawvens didn't know how to speak Chinese. He spoke quickly. Yi Li didn't understand and looked at the translator Ruizheng next to him.

Ruizheng was concentrating on translator, but he didn't understand. He said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't hear it clearly."

Connor felt that it was too slow to let him translate again, so he immediately repeated it in Chinese in order to improve efficiency.

When Yi Li heard this, she was talking about HSBC again. If they said it was better to be simpler than HSBC, it would be the same as HSBC. It would extend its business to all aspects and even mining and road construction, which would be more troublesome to deal with it.

Seeing that Yi Li was still not too slow, Lawvens knew that he had to use his trump card and said, "Prime Minister, we have added a document in addition to the official documents, which can reduce and refund part of the interest as appropriate. In addition, if the Prime Minister can deposit money in our bank, we can also pay more interest."

Of course, this sentence was translated by Connor.

Yi Li was a smart man. When he heard that he had a "trick" in his words, he immediately became interested. He ignored the bank's affairs and asked, "What is the statement about this interest refund...?"

The Boxer Indemnity signed in the "Xin Chou Treaty" is not simple, with only 450 million taels of silver. The Qing Dynasty could not afford so much money at one time, so it could only pay in installments, with an annual interest of 4%, which is 4% interest. After calculation, the total compensation is nearly 1 billion taels!

"According to the terms, we can reduce the interest of 4 cents to 37 cents to 5 cents. Of course, the official document says 38 cents, and the other half of the interest is for the Prime Minister. And if your country deposits in our bank, you can also get interest, and you can naturally continue to receive interest reductions accordingly."

At first glance, these words were pointed out by someone, pointing directly to Yili and the key points of the Qing court. Lawvens' eyes rolled a few times and looked at Yili confidently.

There was a small abacus on the table next to Yi Li. He quickly dialed it a few times. According to the proportion, the compensation from the United States was as high as 160,000 taels per month. Although the interest refund of 200,500 taels does not sound much, it is still more than 5,000 taels.

And one thousand taels of them are for himself, and it is more than ten thousand taels a year. Lawvins's work is indeed very big.

Lawvins also knew that Yi Li was a corrupt official and could not take him down without taking any serious weight. Besides, the interest loss of only 0.0025% was only a drop in the bucket for them.

This killer move is absolutely attractive to Yi Li. Not only can he get 10,000 taels of benefits himself, but the court can also lose 60,000 taels of burden every year. More importantly, this can be regarded as a diplomatic "victory" and can definitely be bragged about in front of Empress Dowager Cixi.

A few years ago, Li Hongzhang was shot in the cheek by an angry youth in Japan. Under public pressure, Japan reduced the compensation of 50 million taels of Shimonoseki Treaty. Although he didn't talk much this time, he could count it as 60,000 taels per year, and more than 2 million taels in 38 years. He was not shot, but he was completely the meat he sent to his mouth.

Yi Li thought about it for a while, and immediately made plans in her heart and said to Connor and Lawvens: "This proposal is very good. I will report it to the Queen Mother in detail. Don't worry."

Connor knew that as long as Yi Li collected money, he would definitely get things done. He stood up and shook hands with Yi Li: "We believe that your prestige can completely contribute to this matter."

Yi Li smiled: "This is a great witness to the friendship and diplomatic relations between our two countries!"

Yi Li said this without changing his face and his heart was not beating. It felt like a weasel came to his house to steal 100 chickens. He accidentally found that someone left an egg for you, and he immediately became happy to dance!

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!