Chapter 15: The East China Chamber of Commerce (Part 2)

  Sorry for the delay of the second update. I was busy making an advertisement board by myself and didn't get back home until 10:30 PM, so I just had a quick bite to eat before updating!

  The first watch will be posted before 8 o'clock tomorrow morning.

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  Just as Jiang Yu was organizing the Farmers' Association, the domestic situation also underwent great changes. First, in early December, the north and south held peace talks under British mediation.

  Yuan Shikai sent Tang Shaoyi, while the Southern faction sent Wu Tingfang. The differences between them were considerable, just as Jiang Zhiyuan had anticipated, and Yuan initially intended to adopt a monarchical constitution.

  This way, Yuan Shikai has many benefits. First, he doesn't have to bear the infamy of usurping the throne, and secondly, after the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, there is no need for elections.

  However, the Southern Revolutionary Party refused this proposal and insisted on the abdication of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.

  To win over Yuan Shikai, this powerful man, Sun Yat-sen promised Yuan that if he supported the Republic, he would let him become the President.

  Yuan Shikai then faced two problems, one of which was what he would do if the negotiations broke down.

  If armed force were used to crush the Southern Revolutionary Army, first, all birds would have been shot and bows hidden. Second, he had no money to fight with, and furthermore, the British did not support him in fighting.

  Manqing lost a large sum of public funds after the stock market crash 10 years ago due to the financial storm, which caused the collapse of the money house. Moreover, when the revolution broke out, it was during the autumn harvest season, and taxes from the south could not be collected, so there was no money at all.

  Can't even afford to fight, let alone have money to fight.

  Yuan Shikai saw this and by the end of December, Tang Shaoyi also acknowledged the Republic and no longer insisted on a monarchical constitution.

  After Sun Dachuan returned to China, he immediately engaged in a power struggle with the Wuchang faction. As Sun Dachuan had been active for many years and was skilled at propaganda, he quickly suppressed the Wuchang government. On December 29, he convened representatives from various provinces to elect the President of the Republic of China.

  The representative of Anhui Province was absent, and the representative of Jiangsu Province was dispatched by Cheng Dequan. In the end, Sun Daqiang was elected as the Provisional President of the Republic of China with 15 votes.

  Sun Dapao was successfully elected president and went everywhere to borrow money.

  Firstly, borrow money from the Japanese and say: If there are no tens of millions of silver coins, then I can only flee in defeat even if I become the president.

  The Japanese said: We can't change so much silver at once either.

  Finally, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce donated 8 million taels of silver to support Sun Yat-sen's appointment as the Provisional President of the Republic of China.

  Jiang Yu received the news and suddenly became furious.

  "What's the point of having money for Sun Dapao to eat, drink and have fun if there's no money to invest in northern Anhui?" Jiang Yu was unhappy. The Farmers' Association had just been established, and he was already busy preparing for the "Industrial Development Conference", with the intention of absorbing national capital and jointly establishing factories.

  In terms of foreign capital, Jiang Yu is resolute in not inviting wolves into his home.

  Looking back, foreign capital has taken away 60% of China's GDP every year, thus hijacking the economy, politics and diplomacy, leading to a complete collapse of the middle class and long-term malnutrition among the grassroots people.

  Foreign capital is foreign capital after all, and it's not one's own in the end.

  There is an economic effect called the "trickle-down effect", where high-income groups consume and thus pass on nutrients layer by layer to low-income groups.

  If foreign capital invests in many industries, it is equivalent to 'leaking water', and it is continuous leaking. At that time, although the surface appears prosperous, in fact, it is not so, but rather will cause very intense internal contradictions, and fundamentally, it is not worth the cost.

  Jiang Yu did not introduce any foreign capital at all, but instead was extremely exclusive to foreign capital. The administrative office of Huai set a very high tax rate for industry and commerce, but there was a refund policy for national capitalists. At the same time, it notified the administrative personnel below that they could stall or delay the procedures for foreign capital as much as possible, and play them to death.

  In order to cultivate a group of national businessmen who can serve the nation, Jiang Yu did not accept all Chinese businessmen, but selected from among them. Those disorderly and unscrupulous comprador bourgeoisie and those immoral businessmen were excluded, while those who met with Jiang Yu's approval were drawn into the "Huadong Chamber of Commerce".

  Huadong Chamber of Commerce is a disciplinary organization in Jiangyu with binding force. Members who join the Huadong Chamber of Commerce must abide by various regulations.

  Firstly, foreign luxury goods cannot be purchased. If they must be bought, an application to the Chamber of Commerce is required. If those luxury goods are really needed and China does not produce them, then some can be allowed to be purchased.

  Capital must also have borders and cannot be borderless like international capital. In other words, businessmen who join the Chamber of Commerce are not allowed to withdraw funds out of the country.

  Moreover, the merchants who joined the East China Trade Association should not be too extravagant in their lifestyle and should not excessively occupy scarce social resources to avoid internal conflicts. For example, houses cannot exceed three, and the occupied area cannot exceed 150 square meters. Women are also a scarce social resource, so they are prohibited from having multiple wives and concubines. If they can't help it, they can go to brothels or marry several foreign women back home.

  The last and most important thing is that all capital should serve the nation as its priority, must obey the command of the Chamber of Commerce, and must open its purse when the nation faces difficulties.

  In return, Jiang Yu will open a convenient door for them, strongly support them, and hunt and invest with them together.

  The establishment of the East China Chamber of Commerce is similar to the Freemasons in the United States.

  The Chamber of Commerce will not only absorb national capital merchants with national consciousness, but also absorb all kinds of social elites. At the same time, it will set up overseas branches and develop overseas members.

  The Chamber of Commerce is divided into core members and peripheral members, only core members can access the decision-making level.

  The larger the business scale, the broader the connections and the wider the channels. Once a goal is set, a large number of connections can be mobilized immediately, and professional elites can come up with a complete implementation plan immediately.

  When the scale of a business association reaches a certain level, in the market, whoever dies will die, and must go bankrupt, thereby excluding those businessmen who cannot be used by the business association from the market, and allowing more emerging businessmen to flock into the business association.

  This pattern is similar to that of Freemasonry in the United States, which is composed of various financial groups, with a system basically identical to that of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.

  Zhang Jie, You Xianjia, Zhu Baosan and others became the first batch of members of the Jiangsu-Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. They attended the Industrial Development Conference in Huaiyin.

  During their participation in the conference, they visited Huaiyin's administration, troops and factories.

  There are many places that make them feel shocked. Jiang Yu has only returned to China for two years and has achieved such great results, which also makes these old-generation businessmen ashamed.

  At the same time, he also realized that this young man would be the master of China's future.

  In terms of economic strength, the economic power controlled by Jiangsu and Sichuan is already the strongest in China, and their industrial capabilities are unmatched by either Yuan Shikai or the Southern Revolutionary Party.

  In administrative terms, they also saw a different style from the Nanjing government.

  After the Nanjing government was established, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce supported Sun Da with 8 million taels of silver. As a result, those revolutionaries were busy fighting for power and interests all day long, with very few actually doing practical work. They were experts at embezzlement and corruption, causing great chaos in southern Jiangsu Province and elsewhere, to the point where ordinary people began to miss the days of Qing rule.

  In northern Jiangsu and Anhui, however, the situation is different. Here, the administrative style is clean and honest, officials are practical, diligent, fair and law-abiding, and almost no remnants of old bureaucratic habits can be seen.

  In northern Jiangsu and Anhui, developing industries is completely worry-free on the government's part. Absolutely no one will come to make trouble or extort money.

  At the same time, Jiang Yu also introduced a number of industrial and commercial support policies, but most are limited to members of the Huadong Chamber of Commerce.

  For example, in terms of technical support, Jiang Yu has a lot of advanced technology at his disposal and has connections in Germany, which allows him to exchange technologies with German factories.

  A good administrative environment and social security, coupled with a strong technical competitive advantage, make northern Jiangsu and Anhui a paradise for industrial and commercial development.

  Jiang Yu's various policies have changed the difficulty of developing industries in China, making everything simpler.

  At the same time, in terms of military strength, although the scale of Fuxing Army is not large, it is absolutely elite and has its own arsenal. With a lot of silver in Jiang Yu's hands, once there is a need, they can expand their army at any time, and the construction cost of the land army is not high.

  In comparison, both the revolutionary party and the Beiyang government were very tight on military spending. Moreover, Jiangsu and Hubei did not put all their money into the military, but rather focused more on developing their economy and industry, which would make the power in their hands stronger and stronger.

  After some consideration, Zhang Jia'ao, Zhu Baosan, You Xianjia and others joined the East China Chamber of Commerce, becoming the first batch of core members.

  Zhang Jie has a very high reputation and connections in the business community, while Zhu Baosan, as the president of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, also has a very high prestige and connections. Yu Xianjia is slightly inferior, but he is also the president of the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce.

  They will introduce reputable businessmen from their respective chambers of commerce to the East China Chamber of Commerce one by one. To enter the East China Chamber of Commerce, someone must provide a guarantee.

  After joining, there will be a probationary period.

  Only after meeting all requirements can one enjoy the benefits of the Chamber of Commerce.

  The framework of Huadong Chamber of Commerce began to take shape, and a business group that listened to Jiang Yu's command gradually emerged.

  Zhang Jian, Zhu Baosan, You Xianxiang and others who joined the East China Chamber of Commerce began to invest in industries in Subei and Anhui.

  Jiang Yu and Zhang Jiaao jointly established the "Two Rivers Textile Company", a trust-mode textile group was born, Jiang Yu held 90% of the shares, Zhang Jiaao held 6% of the shares, and the remaining 4% were held by several other textile merchants. Zhang Jiaao served as the chairman of the board, integrating all the textile mills under the shareholders of the Two Rivers Textile Company, replacing them with advanced textile equipment from Huadong Textile Mill, and began to acquire other textile mills.

  When all competitors have been acquired, a monopoly can be formed, which would mean supernormal profits.

  However, it was not urgent for the Chinese textile mills to merge at that time, because the cotton cloth market in China was filled with a large amount of foreign cloth, mainly from Britain and Japan.

  The first step is to defeat these foreign fabrics and regain the domestic market.

  The second step is to merge with other textile mills.

  With the textile technology controlled by Erjiang Textile Company, there is a huge advantage in terms of production cost, and defeating foreign cloth is not too difficult.

  Zhu Baosan and Jiang Yu have collaborated on many projects, with banking and insurance being the two main ones. Zhu Baosan had previously established the "Tongshang Bank" and the "Hua'an Fire and Water Insurance Company". The most important collaborative project was Zhu Baosan providing guarantees for Jiang Yu to borrow loans from Shanghai banks and qianzhuang (traditional financial institutions).

  Zhu Baosan is a golden signboard in Shanghai's financial circle, famous for his creditworthiness. With just one word from him, he can borrow a large sum of money.

  You Xianjia then collaborated with Jiang Yu to establish a sericulture base, a silk reeling factory and export raw silk.

  After this industrial development conference, a total of 130 million yuan in national capital was raised. These national capitals were registered at the Huai Commercial Bureau and more than 100 industrial companies were established.

  Although these capitals are not many, the number of enterprises is not small. Many enterprises have become stronger and bigger under the support of Huadong Group, presenting a scene of blooming everywhere.

  The industrial development of the two Huai regions has far surpassed that of other provinces and is rapidly widening the gap.

  At this time, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established in Nanjing, and Yuan Shikai also decided to force the Qing court to abdicate. However, the Qing court delayed its abdication, and the national situation became even more chaotic, while the Huai River region remained very stable.

  The abdication of the Qing dynasty was not so easy, and the resistance came from the young Manchu faction led by Lang Shining.

  Starting in January, Duan Qirui joined more than 50 officers to send two consecutive telegrams threatening the Qing government and moved his command from the front line of Hankou to Baoding.

  Baoding is very close to Beijing, and the threat is obvious.

  The defeat of the Beiyang Army made the Qing court realize that it was impossible to quell the revolution in the south. However, Liangbi believed that as long as the Qing got rid of Yuan Shikai and controlled the Beiyang Army, they could still maintain control over half of northern China.

  Yuan Shikai was also wary of the 20,000 Imperial Guards in the hands of Yuan Rongyu and others. The Imperial Guards were a well-equipped army with many Manchu officers, responsible for protecting the imperial family and nobles in the capital on a daily basis.

  Soon, the Imperial Guards launched a mutiny in Beijing.