The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 992 The East India Company Disguised as an Empire

The murky waters of the Thames lapped against the steel hull of the "St. Francis," a colossal ship secretly built by the Jiangnan Shipyard, as it slowly entered the Port of London. In the morning mist, Grand Duchess Natalia stood by the gangway, fine water droplets clinging to the collar of her mink coat. Behind her stood a whole column of the Imperial Guard of the United States—soldiers of uniformly Chinese features dressed in black woolen uniforms, revolvers made by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at their waists.

"Mother, is this London?" Luo Xinbei's voice was filled with undisguised contempt. This top student from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Naval Academy pointed to the outline of a shipyard in the distance: "Their dry dock is no more than 150 meters long, not even enough to fit our Jingyuan armored cruiser."

Natalia didn't respond immediately. Her gaze swept across both sides of the riverbank—London Port in 1886 was still the world's busiest port, but its decline was evident in the details. Wooden piers made up 70% of the docks, with only 30% replaced by reinforced concrete. Stewards moved cargo listlessly, and old cranes creaked and groaned. Compared to the brand-new steam cranes of Shanghai and Ningbo ports, the efficiency here was appallingly slow.

“New Taipei,” she suddenly pointed to the mountains of sacks piled up at the East India docks, “do you know what those are?”

“Indian jute,” the young officer said without hesitation, “was imported 82 tons last year, accounting for 67% of global trade.”

"Anything else?" Natalia asked.

“棉花55万吨、茶叶19万吨、靛蓝染料4.7万吨，香料.“罗新北如数家珍，“印度每年为英国贡献1.5亿英镑的贸易顺差，相当于大英帝国财政收入的42%。这还仅仅只是印度为英国提供的利益的一小部分.而且还是在仅仅只有15万盎格鲁-萨克逊人在印度为大英帝国镇压和搜刮下取得的！如果有两三百万盎格鲁-萨克逊人进入印度不敢想象啊！”

Natalia nodded in satisfaction. Her son had perfectly inherited her and his father's memory—the very data that Luo Yaoguo had personally instructed him on before his departure, which he had memorized after hearing it only once. At that moment, two gilded carriages rolled over the slippery cobblestone road, the griffin emblems on their doors gleaming brightly in the morning light.

The two carriages stopped at the dock, and Nathaniel Rothschild, the representative of the Rothschild family, stepped down slowly. The financial oligarch wore a well-tailored black tailcoat with the Bank of England's emblem pinned to his chest. Alighting from the other carriage was the elderly White Sven—the former Qing Dynasty official, now completely British, dressed in the most fashionable grey suit in London and carrying a cane with an ivory handle.

“Your Highness the Grand Duchess,” Rothschild said with a slight bow, her voice deep and elegant, “welcome to London.”

The head of the Rothschild family in England and Natalia had known each other for a long time!

Natalia returned the greeting gracefully: "Mr. Rothschild, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Bai Siwen stepped forward and said in fluent English, "Your Highness, are you getting used to the weather in London?"

He and Natalia were old acquaintances—Natalia had been to London quite often over the years!

“It’s warmer than St. Petersburg,” Natalia replied with a smile, “but the fog on the Thames is getting thicker and thicker.”

Luo Xinbei stood behind his mother, his sharp eyes scrutinizing the two invited guests. He noticed a faint, cold smile playing on Rothschild's lips beneath his meticulously trimmed beard; while Bai Siwen's shrewd little eyes kept scanning the "St. Francis," as if estimating the cost of the luxury liner.

Inside the specially designed soundproof conference room of the "St. Francis," a world map drawn in 1886 hangs on the teak-paneled walls. Natalia points her finger to the Indian subcontinent: "Three hundred million people, more arable land than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and an annual grain production of two hundred million tons—thirty percent more than the entire European continent."

Rothschild paused slightly as he trimmed his cigar. He knew these figures all too well—as the de facto head of the Bank of England, he understood better than anyone the significance of India to the British Empire: without India, there was no empire! The so-called British Empire was, in reality, nothing more than the East India Company masquerading as an empire!
“Your Highness,” Rothschild said, snapping the end of her cigarette with a silver cigar cutter, “do you know what Australia and New Zealand have to offer?”

He answered his own question: “Only sheep. Statistics from 1885 show that Australia had 8000 million sheep and New Zealand had 2700 million—together, more than thirty times the total number of white people in those two countries.” The smoke from his cigar drew a mocking arc in the air. “There aren’t even many railways there; the main line from Sydney to Melbourne is still not completed.”

Luo Xinbei suddenly sneered, "So the British Empire would rather have a few sheep farms than India, this pearl of a nation?" He strode to the map, pointing his finger at Mumbai. "Do you know what would happen if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's navy blockaded the Indian Ocean? London's textile factories would shut down within three months, and Manchester's workers would take to the streets to smash machines like they did in 1842! Moreover, we can do far more than just blockade the shipping lanes to India." These words sounded somewhat alarming, but Rothschild knew this was definitely not a threat!

It was no secret to the British Empire's high command that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not intend to take India.

But they could still make Britain lose India—what would an East India Company have left without India?
White coughed at the opportune moment: "Mr. Rothschild, allow me to interject—India currently has only 127,000 British whites, yet they want to rule over 3.02 million Indians. If we relocate Australian and New Zealand whites there, the ratio can be increased to 1:100." The former Qing official said in a low voice, "Back then, the Manchus controlled the Central Plains with 200,000 soldiers, relying on this one-to-many strategy."

The meeting room fell eerily silent. Rothschild's cigar burned to the very end, oblivious to the heat scalding his fingers. His mind raced, calculating gains and losses—not for the British people, nor for the nation itself!

In reality, the United Kingdom as a nation may not even exist. What truly exists is a united kingdom comprised of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, along with a whole host of other colonies and dominions.

Therefore, what the Rothschilds represent today are actually "shareholders"—shareholders of the "East India Company" (referring to the British company)!
"What about the risks of future wars?" Rothschild finally spoke. "How can the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom guarantee that it will not attack India?"

Natalia took out a sealed letter with sealing wax from her bosom: "This is the 'Fourteen Points' which defines the sovereign territory of the British Empire—the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can support the claim that the entire territory of India belongs to the sovereign territory of the British Empire and sign a binding treaty to confirm this."

Rothschild fell silent—was the treaty signed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom truly binding? They were so powerful; if they really wanted to break the treaty, no one could stop them, right?
Suddenly, Luo Xinbei tossed out a very special commemorative coin. This exquisitely crafted "Taiping Yuan" coin spun on the teak table, its golden luster and silver rim complementing each other.

“My father often said that the gold and silver standard was a dead end.” The young man pressed his fingertip against the commemorative coin. “There was too little gold and too much silver—but what if we divided the world into two currency spheres?”

Rothschild's eyes suddenly sharpened. As a financial tycoon who had controlled Europe for fifty years, he knew better than anyone the fatal flaw in the current monetary system: relative to the rapid increase in industrial productivity, gold was no longer sufficient—even if the gold standard paper money magnified "gold currency" tenfold, gold was still far too scarce. Silver, on the other hand, was relatively abundant, but there seemed to be too much! It would be difficult to maintain its exchange rate with gold! Unless a powerful force like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could back silver, artificially raising its price to a high level that could be fixed against gold.

Then, paper money was issued based on silver.

If this method works, it means that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will create a massive amount of "high-credit currency"—of course, in the material world, the highest credit does not come from gold or silver, but from how many battleships a country with gold and silver has at the same time.

Otherwise, the richest people in the world back then should have been the Native Americans.
At this moment, Luo Xinbei presented a document: "The Dual-Track System of Gold Pounds and Silver Taiping Yuan," the core provisions of which caused Rothschild's pupils to contract.

"Do you know what this means?" Luo Xinbei's voice was like a devil's whisper. "The Bank of England, controlled by the Rothschild family, will jointly set the global gold-silver exchange rate with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's central bank. Just in exchange fees alone, we'll earn at least £800 million annually. Moreover, we can jointly create countless amounts of capital! By the way, the Indian rupee is also made of silver! If silver prices are driven up, can the silver rupee become a guarantee for paper money? Then what about the Indian market?"

Rothschild's hands trembled slightly. He instantly saw the terrifying potential of this plan.
As the talks concluded and Rothschild's carriage departed the docks, the bells of Tower Bridge rang four times. Inside the carriage, the financial magnate repeatedly studied the monetary plan, then suddenly ordered his secretary: "Prepare a proposal for the Prime Minister, suggesting acceptance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's terms."

"That Australia"

"They're just a few sheep pastures!" Rothschild said calmly. "The future lies in India's population, South Africa's gold, and the enormous Eastern market and terrifying amount of capital created by the Pacific Silver Dollar."

He clutched the parchment tightly, as if grasping the scepter of a new era. In the financier's calculations, the empire's territory was never measured by land, but by the rate of return on capital. As the carriage passed the Bank of England, Rothschild suddenly chuckled: "The empire on which the sun never sets? From this day forward, it will be the era of capital ruling everything."

(End of this chapter)