When Wen Han and others heard Rothschild's name, their faces became tight. The Rothschild family was mysterious and powerful. Nathan Mel Rothschild, one of the five tigers of the Rothschild family, was an important representative of the family in London, England. He won the dominance of the City of London in the Battle of Waterloo, thus gaining control of the British economy. Since then, the UK has always been in the hands of the Rothschild family.

A Prussian diplomat in the UK once said: "Rothschild has an amazing influence on financial affairs here (London). They completely influence the foreign exchange transaction prices in the City of London. As bankers, their power is astonishing. When Nathan gets angry, the Bank of England is trembling."

In addition to London, the Rothschild family also opened banks in famous European cities such as Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna, and Naples, and established the largest financial kingdom in the world at that time. Now is the heyday of the Rothschild family, and their power of ups and downs has made European princes and nobles also fallen behind. Wen Han and others were naturally surprised to hear this name.

Midile reacted quickly, and he frowned and said, "Alexander, is the representative of the Rothschild family in the Far East yours Jardines Company?"

Alexander did not intend to deny it. He admitted happily: "There is indeed support from the Rothschild family behind us. This is why my uncle and Jardine were able to start Jardinet in Guangzhou on July 1, 1832 the day after the Maniak Company went bankrupt. This is why I have the confidence to say that the opium policy of the Taiping Army was useless to us."

After the success of the Rothschild family, their eyes also turned to the Far East. Unfortunately, the East India Company was in the limelight at that time. The trade monopoly made the Rothschild family unable to invest more funds, but soon they found a suitable opportunity to use some energy to make the British government cancel the East India Company's trade privileges. Nathan saw it very accurately on this point. The British government was not satisfied with the East India Company's practices and believed that it hindered the Far East trade, so Nathan once again calmly cleared a business obstacle. After that, the East India Company broke down many businessmen. The Rothschild family chose Madison and William, and the two became the agents of the Rothschild family in the Far East. After the establishment of Jardinet Foreign Company, it has gradually become the leader of the Far East in Chinese and British businessmen. Of course, this is inseparable from Madison and William's talents, but there is more support from the Rothschild family behind it.

Jardine Wong Foreign Company received support from the Rothschild family. Few people knew about it. The Rothschild family never came out to interfere in Jardine Wong's affairs. Madison only regularly reported the trade situation to the London headquarters, and even reported in detail the political situation, pattern and other information here. The two seemingly unrelated commercial entities are actually closely related, and it is not surprising that Wen Han and others do not know it.

When he heard Alexander admit it frankly, Wenhan was relieved. He understood that the Rothschild family figure mentioned by Alexander must have come to China through Jardine Mahjong. He followed Luo Weilin to Suzhou. As a result, he disappeared there, so Alexander was very anxious to find him.

"Who is that big shot? Can you tell us?" Wenhan handed over a cigar.

Alexander declined the cigar and said worriedly: "He is the youngest son of the late Mr. Nathan, Clifford Rothschild, twenty-five years old, and he has 15% of the equity of all banks under the control of the Rothschild family in London. He is definitely an important figure."

Wenhan gasped. Old Nathan's youngest son was not very good, and the Rothschild family was not very good either, but a person who owned 15% of the equity of the London Bank was a big man! Wenhan secretly scolded Alexander for causing big trouble for himself. Such an important person came to China and did not notify him or the consulate. If something went wrong with this person, Wenhan believed that he could pack up and go back to China immediately. The reason was very simple. In order to prepare for a war with Russia, the British government must need the support of the Rothschild family!

Seeing that Wenhan's expression was very ugly, Alexander hurriedly said, "Mr. Minister, I didn't mean to hide it. It's really the big man who didn't let him reveal his whereabouts, and I can't do anything about it."

Midie said oh and said gloatingly: "It turns out that he is a wealthy son who is difficult to serve. Mr. Madison, I sympathize with your experience."

Wen Han said irritably: "Now is not the time to talk about these things. Find a way to solve the problem. I don't want Clifford to have an accident in China during my term of office!"

Midile thought for a moment and said, "My Lord, it seems that we still have to ask for help from the Western King for this matter. Suzhou is his jurisdiction. Without his support, it will be difficult for us to find Clifford."

Wen Han thought for a while, leaned on the sofa and said, "It seems that this is the only thing. That guy is just a smiling venomous snake. Maybe he will use this matter as a threat to exchange for our concessions. Aliguo, Midile, two gentlemen, you can do this matter, I hope he won't ask too much."

...

The tariff negotiations on the next day were very smooth, which made Xiao Yungui overjoyed. The British representatives agreed to cancel the tax rate of opium as imported goods and also agreed to charge a tax rate of 30% for imported cloth goods. The French and American ministers and merchants felt very surprised, why did the British who were very clamoring yesterday to change their attitude overnight. Masali and Blombul immediately understood that the British were targeting the investment projects of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Investment and Trade Administration, and the two countries also made concessions.

Although merchants from various countries were not very happy, they had to change their trade trends when they saw that the wind direction changed. They learned from different channels that the Taiping Army's demand for arms and arms industries will reach a peak in the future, and merchants from various countries are also secretly preparing to adjust their trade strategies to meet the changes in the demand market.

Finally, the tariff storm that had been entangled for several days came to an end. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Shanghai Customs Customs Details and Customs Articles were officially issued. As the first tariff bill of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this rule and Articles absorbed advanced Western tariff policies and management methods, and made clear provisions on the tax rates of more than 250 imported and exported goods. These goods are of various types. Even if you want to import a needle, you can find the corresponding tax rate, which completely bid farewell to the era of unclear goods in the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, the customs charter strictly stipulates a series of procedures for customs declaration, inspection and tax payment of imported and exported goods. Each procedure is subject to strict supervision by Chinese personnel. Xiao Yungui took back the consular approval authority for customs declaration from various countries, retained only the consular review authority, and sent Chinese observers to this link for supervision.

In other words, in the future, any goods imported will no longer require approval from the consulars of various countries. Merchants from various countries can import goods to China as needed. The extinction of this regulation is very epoch-making. This means that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can import what they want without being choked by the so-called consulars of various countries on behalf of various countries. Although countries can still control them from the source of export, the shackles on the Chinese customs side have been eliminated, which is a very great success.

Moreover, the tariffs are adjusted according to the price ratio, which also gives the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a lot of room. China can adjust the tax rate as needed. Tariffs will definitely play a role in protecting their own industry and commerce in the future.

Then merchants from all over the world began to pay taxes one after another, including the tariffs owed during the Battle of Shanghai. Xiao Yungui also took them unceremoniously. This should have been collected by the Qing Dynasty, but now it has fallen into Xiao Yungui's holy warehouse.

Shanghai Customs was established on the same day, and Wei Helin served as the first director of the Customs Department, with the same position as the inspector. Li Taiguo was the general counsel of the customs department. Each trading country of the Customs Department set up a customs department to manage it separately. Its subordinates promoted a group of businessmen from the army to serve as the chief of the customs department of various countries. The chief of the customs department of each country accompanied a supervisor. Most of these supervisors were appointed by famous compradors under Chinese merchants and foreign companies. At the same time, among the customs staff under the subordinates, Xiao Yungui asked Li Taiguo to hire a large number of foreigners as the ones. After all, foreigners are familiar with foreigners, and it is more convenient to deal with them.

After the tariffs were settled, Xiao Yungui breathed a sigh of relief. The next day, Wang Kaiyun was in charge of the establishment of the General Administration of Investment and Merchants. Zhu Changlin became the first director of the Shanghai General Administration of Investment and Merchants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his position was inspected. The General Administration of Investment and Merchants of the General Administration of Investment and Merchants of various countries was shocked by businessmen and Chinese businessmen in their own countries. This plan involved railways, telegraphs, mineral mining, military industry, shipbuilding, clothing, medicine, education and other fields.

In terms of railways, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom plans to build a railway to Suzhou. This railway passes through Jiading, Kunshan and other places, and is more than 100 kilometers long. Xiao Yungui hopes to use Suzhou as a pilot first to see the effectiveness of building the railway and the reactions of the people, and then build a railway to Hangzhou and Wuxi.

The same is true for telegrams to build a flying line from Shanghai to Suzhou, and then promote it after checking the results.

In terms of minerals, Guangde, west of Huzhou, has been captured by the Taiping Army, where there are coal mining. Guangde began to mine coal one after another during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. By the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a record of tens of thousands of people entering the mountains to dig coal. Xiao Yungui hoped to run a coal mine business here supervised and commercially run here, specifically responsible for coal mining. At the same time, Xiao Yungui also issued an invitation to hire mining enterprises from various countries to explore minerals in southern Jiangsu. Once explored, there will be priority mining rights.

In terms of military industry, Xiao Yungui launched the procurement of three rear-loaded rifled musket production lines, six gunpowder assembly lines, a 6-pound rifled gun production line, an 8-pound rifled gun production line, a 12-pound rifled gun production line, and several shells and bullets assembly lines. At the same time, the Taiping Army also listed a list of guns and gunpowder that needs to be purchased in the near future, and the total value of this batch of arms is close to 1.6 million taels.

When many enthusiastic merchants saw this order, they couldn't help but gasp. Such a huge arms purchase seemed to be impossible to complete by any foreign company. When they saw this order, Midile was very surprised. This batch of arms was enough to arm an army of nearly 100,000 people. It seems that this Western King will become the overlord with the most firearms in the Far East in the near future. (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, the novel is better, updated and faster!
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