At this time, Prince Yikuang of Qing, as the Prime Minister of the Prime Minister's Office of Foreign Affairs, was receiving Connor, the U.S. Minister to the Qing Dynasty, and Citibank executive Lawrence Lowes.
Connor and Lowens came to Yikuang this time to set up a branch of the Bank of America in the Qing Dynasty. Now that the share of the Boxer reparations has been finalized long ago, various countries have set up banks in China to specialize in collecting reparations.
However, the United States has always had Minister Connor handle the collection, which aroused dissatisfaction from other countries and criticized the United States for this unconventional diplomatic approach. Citibank saw the opportunity and immediately applied to the U.S. Congress to establish a branch in the Qing Dynasty.
At this time, Citibank was still called City Bank of New York. It could not handle cross-state business in the United States, but it first opened cross-border branches.
Fortunately, Citibank had the foresight to apply for a multinational business license in advance. US President Roosevelt also wanted to make things more formal to avoid ridicule from other countries, so he approved Citibank's application.
This is such a huge advantage that even today’s commercial banks are trying their best to attract deposits, let alone Citibank, which was just starting out at that time.
Therefore, Lowens attached great importance to his errand. He had studied and drafted a planning document with Connor, the Minister to China, and listed in detail the various terms and conditions for the establishment of the bank.
They arrived at the Prime Minister's International Affairs Office early in the morning and waited for a long time to finally see Yi Kuang.
Yikuang didn't delay on purpose. He was really busy right now. Several ministers or counselors came to him in turn every day to talk about either setting up a concession or applying for military garrison.
How could Yikuang make the decision immediately about these things, and he had to go to see the Empress Dowager Cixi again. Fortunately, Cixi gave him good treatment, and he could ride directly into the palace in a sedan. But many things cannot be decided in just one meeting, and often
It takes several trips back and forth.
Yikuang's old bones are almost falling apart during this time.
At this time, Yi Kuang was frowning as he looked at the planning document in front of him. The planning document was written in English, but his English level was probably not as good as that of a primary school student who had just learned English for one year.
He looked at it decently for a long time, then handed it to Ruizheng, the translator next to him, "Please help me take a look."
Rui Zheng is a graduate of Tong Wen Guan, but his level is not that good, but he is a distant relative of Yi Kuang. Yi Kuang is nepotistic and gets paid to do things easily, so he actually keeps Rui Zheng as a translator.
Rui Zheng took the planning book. Looking at the more than thirty pages of dense English gave him a headache. He quickly sat on the table next to him and flipped through the small dictionary while slowly translating word for word, and then wrote the translation next to him.
on paper.
Connor saw that his movements were too slow, so he said to Yikuang: "Dear Prime Minister, I have just explained to you that Citibank in our country is exactly the same as HSBC in the United Kingdom, and there is no other redundancy.
business."
Yikuang touched the handle of the chair at hand and said calmly: "Mr. Minister, of course I understand what you are saying, but I still have to handle such a big matter according to the rules no matter what."
Citibank senior official Lawrence Lowes was the most anxious. He immediately said: "I hope the Prime Minister will move forward quickly. Our bank's business capabilities will not be worse than HSBC's. We have advantages in interest rate payment, exchange business, safety insurance, service quality, etc."
.”
Lowens did not speak Chinese, and he spoke very quickly. Yikuang did not understand and looked at the translator Rui Zheng next to him.
Ruizheng was concentrating on translating, but he didn't understand it. He said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't hear it clearly."
Connor felt that it was too slow to ask him to translate again, so he immediately repeated it in Chinese in order to improve efficiency.
When Yikuang heard this, he took issue with HSBC again. If they said it was simpler than HSBC, it would be even more troublesome to deal with it if it was really like HSBC. Their business extends to all aspects, including mining and road construction.
Seeing that Yi Kuang was still unhurried, Lawrence knew that he had to use his trump card and said: "Prime Minister, in addition to the official document, we have also added a document that can reduce and refund part of the interest as appropriate. In addition, if the Prime Minister
You can deposit money in our bank, and we can also pay more interest."
Of course, this sentence was translated by Connor.
Yikuang was a smart man, and when he heard the word "gao" in his words, he immediately became interested. He ignored the bank's affairs and asked: "What does this refund of interest... mean?"
The Gengzi compensation signed in the "Xin Chou Treaty" was not simply 450 million taels of silver. The Qing Dynasty could not afford so much money at once, so it could only pay in installments, with an annual interest rate of 4%, that is, 4% interest, principal and interest and
After all, the total compensation is close to 1 billion taels!
Lowens said: "According to the terms, we can reduce the 4% interest to 3%, 7.5 cents. Of course, the official document says 3.8 cents, and the other half cent interest is for the Prime Minister. And
If your country makes a deposit with our bank, you can also earn interest, and you can naturally continue to receive interest exemptions accordingly."
It seemed that these words were prompted by someone, and pointed directly at the key points of Yikuang and the Qing court. Lawrence's eyes rolled around a few times, and he looked at Yikuang confidently.
There was a small abacus on the table next to Yikuang. He dialed it a few times quickly. According to the ratio, the US compensation was as high as 160,000 taels per month. Although the interest refund of 2.5 cents didn't sound like much, in total it was
There are more than five thousand taels.
Moreover, one thousand taels of it was for himself, which would be more than 10,000 taels in one year. This was indeed a very generous act of Lowens.
Lawrence also knew that Yi Kuang was a corrupt official and would not be able to take him down without a strong hand. Moreover, the interest loss of only 0.0025% was only a drop in the bucket for them.
This trump card is definitely attractive to Yi Kuang. Not only can he get a benefit of 10,000 taels, but the imperial court can also reduce the burden of 60,000 taels every year. More importantly, it can be used as a diplomatic "
"Victory", you can definitely brag about it in front of the Empress Dowager Cixi.
A few years ago, Li Hongzhang was shot in the cheek by an angry youth in Japan. Under the pressure of public opinion, Japan reduced the compensation amount of 50 million taels in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Although I didn't negotiate much this time, it amounted to 60,000 taels per year.
Liang, more than 2 million taels in 1938, and he was not shot at. It was just meat that was delivered to his mouth.
Yikuang thought about it for a while, and immediately had a plan in mind, and said to Connor and Lawrence: "This proposal is very good. I will report it to the Queen Mother in detail without any changes. Don't worry."
Connor knew that as long as Yikuang collected money, he could definitely get things done. He stood up and shook hands with Yikuang vigorously: "We believe that your prestige, Prime Minister, can definitely facilitate this matter."
Yikuang smiled: "This is a great testimony of the friendly relations between our two countries!"
Yi Kuang said this without changing his face or heartbeat. He felt like a weasel came to the house and stole 100 chickens. When he accidentally discovered that someone left an egg for you, he immediately danced with joy!