The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 442: Interest
"I have contacted Xi Ligong of Aurora Bank. He has set up branches in Wuchang and Xuzhou. He will send people to find you and actively solicit deposits in the southern Zhili area."

"When you take office, you must guarantee the Aurora Bank in my name as the Governor-General of Zhili. After the war, as long as everyone is willing to withdraw the funds into their own hands, there will be no obstacles."

Zhou Fu was naturally aware of the relationship between Aurora Bank and Teng Yuzao, and he smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"Xingfu, although the Aurora Bank has a lot of capital, it was just opened not long ago. Although it has the Governor's Office as a guarantor, these people may not be trustworthy."

"It would be better to contact the banks in Shanxi. The wealthy families in Zhili would probably be more willing to hand over their silver to these Shanxi merchants. For example, Qiao Zhiyong in front of us runs two famous banks, Dadetong and Dadefeng."

Teng Yuzao nodded. "My uncle is right. But if the Aurora Bank announces that depositing money with them will earn interest, do you think these wealthy families will still be willing to deposit their money with them?"

“Give me interest!”

Teng Yuzhao's words surprised Zhou Fu, because now only banks opened by foreigners give depositors extremely low interest rates. Domestic banknote exchanges do not offer any interest. People who deposit silver in banknote exchanges do not do so for interest, they just do it for the convenience of carrying.

Zhou Fu turned around and waved to the two servants who were holding teapots and waiting to pour tea for them, and the two servants hurriedly stepped away.

Teng Yuzao knew what Zhou Fu was going to say and didn't want anyone to hear it, so he waved to Xu Ting, and Xu Ting also retreated with his men.

Zhou Fu then hurriedly said, "Xingfu, I am also aware of the affairs of the Aurora Bank, and the flour mill and pen factory that Jizhi has opened are both very prosperous."

"Jizhi mentioned in his letter to me that the flour produced according to Xingfu's method is whiter than snow, and is almost sold out by grain merchants as soon as it leaves the factory. Some foreigners even approached him and ordered large quantities of their flour to be shipped overseas for sale. The supply has long been in short supply, and he is now expanding the factory and purchasing more machinery to increase production."

"Although the domestic sales of the pens produced by that pen factory were not high, foreign merchants bought them in large quantities. Jizhi said that the foreign merchants shipped the pens back to their own countries for sale. As the supply could not meet the demand, Jizhi had raised the price several times in a row, but the foreign merchants were still flocking to buy them."

"These two factories alone can bring in a fortune for the Vanguard Army. Even if you open more factories as you wish, the funds of the Aurora Bank will be sufficient to cope with it. You don't need too much money to circulate. You can absorb the funds of these wealthy families to make it easier for them to leave, but you don't have to follow the foreign banks and pay them any interest!"

Teng Yuzhao has been thinking about the issue of interest for a long time. The wealthy and powerful people in the country, including the big landlords, would rather bury their silver underground than put it in money shops and bill shops.

In addition to these people, people are also not confident about money shops and bill offices. The main reason is that their money will not increase by a penny no matter how long it is kept in the money shops and bill offices.

On the contrary, these people have to worry about the bankruptcy of money shops and bill exchanges, and the safest way is to try their best to hide the money at home.

For example, there was a Shanxi businessman who built money into the wall. Later, a warlord came to him to borrow money. He dug up a wall on the spot and easily took out 300,000 taels of silver from it.

Teng Yuzhao believed that the stagnation and lack of liquidity of capital was also one of the reasons for the underdeveloped industry and commerce in the late Qing Dynasty.

"Shibo."

Teng Yuzhao organized his words in his mind and then began to speak.

"Now, we are thinking about how to drive the foreign devils away as soon as possible. As for how to drive them away, we have just talked about it." "Then may I ask, uncle, after driving the foreign devils away, what should we do next?"

Zhou Fu said without hesitation, "Of course, we should resettle the people who were displaced by the war as soon as possible and start to restore their livelihoods."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "My uncle is right. The war this time spread to half of Zhili, and nearly ten million people were affected by the war to varying degrees."

"The biggest impact was on Tianjin and its surrounding areas. The entire city of Tianjin was destroyed. I got news that the foreigners even demolished the city wall of Tianjin. The next worst impact was on Shuntian Prefecture in the capital. Most of the outer city of the capital was also destroyed."

"War is also a disaster, except that it is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster. However, it also requires disaster relief."

Teng Yuzao said in a heavy tone, "Although we are fighting against foreign invasion, these places have been destroyed, leaving thousands of people without a place to live. Most of them are related to me, Teng Yuzao."

"Now the court has given me the post of Governor of Zhili. How can I just be an official and not care about the displaced people? I must provide disaster relief."

"But disaster relief requires money. Where does the money come from?"

Zhou Fu frowned and said, "The court may not be able to come up with such a large sum of money. Even the military expenses of the vanguard army may not be enough at that time, unless you agree to cut military expenses or lay off a large number of troops. But everyone knows that the vanguard army must not be laid off. Even the people in various places may not agree to it."

"So, the final military expenditure will probably still have to be paid by Zhili itself, as for restoring Zhili's post-war economy."

Zhou Fu shook his head with a bitter face and didn't say anything else.

This is exactly the effect Teng Yuzhao wanted, he said with a sigh.

"We will have to solve this problem by ourselves in the end."

"So you thought of 'Aurora Bank'!"

Zhou Fu smiled bitterly and said, "Xingfu, if the profits from your bank and the factories that Jizhi has set up can meet the needs of the vanguard army, you will be very lucky. How can you still have any plans to take advantage of them?"

Zhou Fu continued, "In addition to disaster relief, I have read your "The Rise of Great Powers" and can guess what you are thinking. I am afraid that you will vigorously promote the Westernization Movement. The scale is estimated to be much larger than what Li Zhongtang and Zhang Xiangtao did back then. This money alone is a huge amount of money. I have been thinking about this matter these days, unless the court does not want our Zhili taxes."

Hearing Zhou Fu's last words, Teng Yuzao couldn't help but laugh.

This time the court wanted him to come, saying that they had something to ask, and Teng Yuzhao guessed that it was probably about the war.

Teng Yuzhao also wanted to take this opportunity to solve a post-war reconstruction problem that he had been thinking about. He was not willing to just solve the post-disaster reconstruction problem. Zhili had to develop greatly in his hands. Otherwise, with his strength, it would be difficult to deal with the Russian army outside the Great Wall, and there might even be the Japanese devils who were good at learning and improving.

(End of this chapter)