When the British delegation expressed the hope that China could substantially expand its imports of British products but refused to accept opium, Zhu Jinglun knew that they had encountered the same dilemma again. They dared not make irresponsible remarks about the opium trade, but they would choose to acquiesce in expanding imports of other merchants on a reciprocal basis.
The attitude of the British made Zhu Jinglun feel that this was a windfall. His biggest purpose in cracking down on opium trade was actually to divert the East from the West and to abolish the coolie trade. However, I didn’t expect the British government to really consider giving up the opium trade in the face of the great pressure of the textile industry in the economic crisis.
It is a great gain to attack opium and coolie trade at the same time, which seems to be cost-effective at the expense of textile industry at present
Zhu Jinglun immediately instructed Wu Chongyao to let him have secret contact with the British, telling them that there is a great way to substantially expand the trade volume of British businesses. There is an advantage for Wu Chongyao to come forward. Wu Jiashen is a big merchant family. He told the British that they can place orders with the British Chamber of Commerce through the Chamber of Commerce. Every time the trade volume of opium in the sea was reduced by 12,000 silver last year, they would expand the trade of other businesses.
The British Mission is very satisfied with this. Unofficial intervention is not included in the treaty, so opium interest groups can’t find an excuse to target the government, and they can’t publicly say that the government has cracked down on their interests. The financial interest groups of the big noble Group behind them can’t find a reasonable excuse.
The British called this situation "there is no impenetrable wall in compensation trade", and later the term soon became Yamato, and the British government never admitted that they had such compensation trade agreements, otherwise it would not only be Britain, but other countries would also consider it an infringement of trade freedom.
After the private and dirty business is completed, the normal negotiation will be put on the table. After summing up the demands of the Chamber of Commerce in China, the British have made more than ten demands. They hope that they can give up the tax on textile trade and reduce the tax on other businesses. There are many kinds of businesses, such as coal and steel. Obviously, in the textile industry, coal and steel groups have joined the ranks.
However, it is obvious that the opium British are going to abandon the opium trade. Of course, it is also to leave them a successor. Once the compensation trade is not carried out according to private agreements, they will go public with the opium trade and shout loudly against the heavy taxes levied in China.
Now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a completely different way of doing things from the former Qing court officials. They have already understood the international rules. Even though the rules were formulated by the British, it does not mean that they cannot come to the country to fight for interests. One of the most important diplomatic principles is reciprocity, which is particularly necessary in business negotiations.
Since the British hope that the taxes on many industries, especially textiles, are so big, there is reason to demand that Britain should not impose taxes on large-scale production. The first is the tea tax. Although Britain has given up heavy taxes on tea, the tea tax is still as high as 17% in Britain. The second requirement is that Britain should pay all taxes except raw silk and silk weaving; The third is the tax on handicrafts such as ceramics.
Finally, after fierce negotiations, the two sides compared various data and gave each other certain preferential tax rates, such as textile tax, tax elimination and other taxes, and the British equivalent tax except tea tax and transaction tax except British machinery tax and transaction tax except China handicraft tax; Coal, raw silk, steel, ceramics and so on total up to more than 30 industries.
During the negotiations, both sides adopted a principle, that is, the principle of advantageous industries. The industries that Britain gives big taxes are all Chinese, but most of them are Chinese, and there is no climate industry at present.
Therefore, the two sides quickly reached an agreement, but it is not good for the big ones, because it is tantamount to putting shackles on many industries, and these modern industries are likely to encounter the impact of British superior production in the future development.
But the reality is that the government is stronger than people. Since it wants to abolish opium and coolie trade, it must pay a certain price, even if those injuries are brought by foreigners, you must swallow the bitter fruit when you are not strong enough.
Although the negotiations were completed and the threat of war was gone, Zhu Jinglun was not very happy. He felt humiliated.
In particular, the British refused to negotiate on the Hong Kong issue, and Zhu Jinglun never thought of solving the Hong Kong issue now. He hoped to regard Hong Kong as a problem, but the British did not recognize Hong Kong as a controversial issue, so they regarded Hong Kong as British territory.
At the same time, the British did not have the Macao problem, and acquiesced in the big recovery of Macao.
In fact, Zhu Jinglun later realized that what the British didn’t talk about was that Hong Kong was threatened by the forcible recovery of Macao. They were worried that this emerging eastern country would one day fail to follow the international rules. Once they regressed to the past, the Qing Dynasty showed an arrogant attitude, then western businessmen in other British countries needed a refuge like Hong Kong, especially after Macao was taken back by others for hundreds of years.
The economic reason is that a large number of businessmen from Macao, Portugal and other countries have all fled to Hong Kong, which has greatly improved Hong Kong’s fiscal revenue for a while. They have the ability to make their own decisions without the input of the British government, which has reduced the dissatisfaction of the British government departments with subsidizing Hong Kong.
The negotiations are over, and Zhu Jinglun knows very well that the crackdown on coolies and opium trade is not over yet, just now.
Through this new trade treaty, the British secretly acquiesced that they did not support coolies and opium trade, but the real blow had to be carried out by themselves.
As early as before the signing of the new trade treaty between Daiwa and Britain, Daiwa introduced laws at the initial stage of cracking down on coolie trade, and sent a note to western countries telling them that Daiwa did not prohibit the export of labor, but opposed that there was no guarantee for the export of labor. Daiwa Export Company was responsible for the overseas work of large laborers, and this company would also be responsible for protecting the interests of these laborers. If countries and companies need to introduce Chinese laborers, they must sign agreements through Daiwa Export Company, and they must not buy from Chinese workers privately, let alone pigs.
This bill, the legal situation, the fact that coolies trade is banned at present, but it is not so easy for foreigners to accept it.
Zhu Jinglun needs support at this time.
His diplomatic activities in the United States reached the harvest time, and the Lincoln administration was the first to criticize the inhumanity of coolie trade, and then the first to announce the acceptance of the big labor export bill, requiring all American enterprises to accept this bill if they need to introduce Chinese workers.
Lincoln is still slick enough. In fact, Zhu Jinglun had long hoped that Lincoln would come out and admit the bill, but Lincoln kept dragging his feet until the British signed a new trade treaty with Dalian, and he came out to support it because he saw that Britain had secretly given up the coolie trade protection institute, and the United States was willing to accept the supervision and protection of Chinese workers by the big government
However, Lincoln’s position was still promoted by great diplomacy. Soon, those countries that were eager to profit from big profits or had already made profits accepted the bill sincerely or falsely, especially in Sweden and Denmark, two small countries where big interests have been expanding well, and they have little interest in coolie trade, and they followed the United States to accept the bill.
Prussia, which had not yet grown into the era of the German Empire, also announced its acceptance of Russia’s announcement.
However, Britain and France did not express their views. The British adopted the default attitude for fear of causing the interest groups to boycott France. They have not yet established diplomatic relations with Dalian. The French were not very friendly with Dalian several years ago because of the Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte issue.
However, after Zhu Jinglun ascended the throne, the French government saw that it would not be able to bypass this country if it wanted to expand its interests in the Far East. In the interest game of various houses, the French suddenly made a request that they send an invitation to Zhu Jinglun, hoping that Zhu Jinglun could attend the World Expo to be held in Paris in 2008 and hold constructive negotiations on the future of France and China.
This strange request of the French met with great opposition. Chen Zhiting and other important officials still remember the changes in China when Zhu Jinglun visited the United States last year. They were worried that once Zhu Jinglun visited the country again, the careerists would be ready to move again.
Zhu Jinglunheng finally accepted the invitation. He was not worried about what would happen once he had just established a major government, but France is an important country. In this era, it is really a law to stand on the world forest without establishing a major government with France.
In addition, he also wants to see whether the major government can stand alone. If the supreme leader goes abroad and a coup breaks out immediately, the government is too fragile.
But he has to make some preparations before.
On the second day after accepting the invitation of the French, Zhu Jinglun announced that the construction of the Grand Palace had stopped. He immediately moved into the Governor’s Office of Guangdong and Guangxi, which is now the Grand Palace, and then he put more efforts on Shang Province step by step.
He hopes that in the future, Shang Province will really operate like a central government of a country. He wants to see whether he will get involved or not, and whether this self-established political system can work on its own, and at the same time, it will give them a test and an opportunity to exercise.
Section four hundred and one Legacy
First of all, Zhu Jinglun, the finance minister, no longer restricts the province, and they can decide for themselves how much financial allocation is reasonable. In addition, before diplomacy, Zhu Jinglun personally came to arrest him in the diplomatic foundation of major policies, because he did have experience in this field and Chen Zhiting’s government was really strange; Finally, before the transfer of judicial power, Zhu Jinglun personally grasped all kinds of legal foundations, but now it is still necessary to recognize the need to introduce new laws. Zhu Jinglun closed his eyes and signed the roots without looking at it.
Only the army is still firmly in Zhu Jinglun’s hands, but the government has imposed certain restrictions on the army. For example, the military budget has been handed over to Shang Province for review, and Zhu Jinglun does not interfere or put pressure on the government.
Zhu Jinglun dealt with the last few important things before releasing power.
First of all, the military is afraid to hand it over to others, which is the cornerstone of this country, so Zhu Jinglun can’t help but take a conservative attitude
Let the government have some restrictions on the army, which is the limit at present, and let the army obey the government. The problem is not on the schedule at present.
Objectively speaking, the big army is already very strong, but compared with the most advanced western army, there is still a big gap. Maybe it is no problem to fight the second-class Italian and other countries’ troops, but there is still a gap against the most powerful troops such as Britain and France. It is not the difference in the training of soldiers’ technical problems. The big army has completely introduced western methods. The gap is mainly in military management and the quality of officers
The big army has introduced the staff system and the independent logistics and financial system, but the quality of officers can not meet the requirements, and the management is still chaotic. The big army is far from being a war machine, at best, it is stronger than the Qing army, and there is still a gap compared with Britain and France, not to mention the precision Prussian army.
The quality of officers is poor in two aspects. First, their scientific management foundation is so poor that it is unrealistic for officers who have never been exposed to mathematics to directly convert into digital-based accurate management. The second is their own ideological problems. Although it is obvious to all that the combat effectiveness of the western major armies has improved through learning, there are still many officers who despise the West, and it is impossible to sincerely absorb the modern knowledge that broke out in the West in the 19th century, and sooner or later they will fall behind.
Zhu Jinglun felt that he had done well enough in China before. He set up a military academy so that most middle and senior officers had studied in the military academy, but the learning effect was guaranteed by other methods. The influence of the military academy law was their thinking. In addition, the main instructors in the military academy were also officers from second-rate military countries in Europe such as Sweden, and their level was limited.
After the War in the North, Zhu Jinglun selected military students to study abroad. He didn’t choose carefully, but directly cut across the board. He was at the age of 30. The Military Department sent him to the west and sent him to various countries. After diplomatic communication, some countries in Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Germany were willing to accept China officers to study in their military schools.
Almost every young officer in the fault is sent because he despises that foreigners’ thoughts are universal and not individual, so he simply sends young people with strong learning ability to let them see the advanced nature of Europe in this era and see the fact that European troops have crushed the fighting capacity of other regions in this era to combat their blind self-confidence.
Zhu Jinglun doesn’t want Chinese people to blindly feel inferior when facing the West, and he doesn’t want to see the blind self-confidence of his own officials, whether it is inferiority or self-confidence. If it is blind, it is not objective. He pursues objectivity and seeking truth from facts.
In this one-size-fits-all policy, not only a large number of middle and junior officers have to go to the west, but also some senior officers, such as Wen Yuan, have to go to the west for a visit. I have to say that the big army is really a young and terrible army. The advantage is that this selection covers almost all levels, and once they return home, it will bring a new atmosphere.
There is also a legal problem beyond the military issue, which has dragged on for a long time. Hou Jin and Zhang Qian Shan were tried.
These two people are charged with treason. Even so, they still have to go through legal procedures. The Supreme Judge of Guangzhou will personally try them and allow them to hire lawyers to defend them.
Zhang Qian Shan did things safely, but there was not enough evidence to prove that he had the intention of rebellion. Whether he said or did things was proved by law. He did rebel at that time. In terms of speaking, he always told everyone that he had guaranteed Zhujiajiangshan. He entered Guangzhou because he was worried about the rebellion of Zhu Jinglun’s son.
The only flaw is that Zhang Rou didn’t write the letter to him, which means that Zhang Rou was not pregnant, and Zhang Qian Shan wrote a letter to tell him about her pregnancy under the guise of her daughter. However, during the trial, Zhang Rou testified that she did write a letter to Zhang Rou, saying that she was diagnosed as pregnant by the doctor at that time and wrote this letter, which turned out to be misdiagnosed.
Obviously, Zhang Rou gave false testimony. This is not what Zhu Jinglun asked her to do. Zhu Jinglun hates that Zhang Qian Shan, a troublemaker, can’t be brought to justice. But Zhang Rou is the daughter of Zhang Qian Shan. At the most critical moment, she chose to save her father. What can Zhu Jinglun say? This is human nature. He even criticizes Zhang Rou.
Zhang Qian Shan was released because of the testimony of Zhu Jinglun’s princess Zhang Rou.
Hou Jin’s trial is even more troublesome. Whether Hou Jin is a military veteran or a Zhu Jinglun brother is recognized by the outside world.
Zhu Jinglun never thought of killing Hou Jin. Killing this man had a great influence. Although this man is fine, the most important thing is that he is in a high position. He is Zhu Jinglun’s brother in life and death in the eyes of others.
If Hou Jin is sentenced to death, it can really show the power of the law and make everyone feel afraid of the law. Who will doubt the power of the law? Just like Xiao Chaogui killed his parents to bully, Taiping soldiers are more disciplined than the Qing army.
However, once Hou Jin is killed, the outside world will still regard Zhu Jinglun as a kind person. Zhu Jinglun must skillfully deal with the prestige of the emperor in law and himself.
If it were a western society, he wouldn’t have so much trouble. Even if a prince committed a crime, he should be exiled. No one would say that westerners can be exiled even the emperor, let alone anything else. But this is China, and in a human society, the emperor China is not comparable to the western king.