Chapter 31: Crazy Borrowing (Part 2)

  The news of Jiang Yu's loan application was soon picked up by a British newspaper, exposing the absurd borrowing plan.

  Jiang Yu's loan application had mortgaged most of his assets.

  Power companies, telegraph offices, water supply companies, department stores, as well as Wuhu Steel Plant, Hangzhou Shipyard, Huaiyin Arsenal, oil refineries, various mines and factories, even oil fields are all in the pawnshop.

  Even the agricultural reclamation company under its umbrella, which owns over 90 million mu of land, was also mortgaged. After all these assets were mortgaged, the loan amount applied for was ￡1 billion.

  Equivalent to Japan's expenditure on the Russo-Japanese War at that time.

  As soon as this loan amount was exposed, China was suddenly in an uproar, and someone immediately jumped out to accuse Jiang Yu of treason. However, most of these assets belong to individuals from the Huadong Group, so what does a commercial loan have to do with you?

  Yuan Shikai was terrified!

  Japan was informed of the news and was the first to jump out in opposition to Britain's provision of a loan to the China Eastern Railway.

  However, the British were stunned after carefully reading the financial reports of various assets provided by Huarong Group, because the assets mortgaged by Huarong Group are all good and mostly high-yielding assets, and many have strategic significance, such as oil and steel.

  In fact, the British had already sensed the enormous pressure that East Asia was bringing to British business in the Far East.

  For example, the development of coal mining, metallurgy and textile industries in Hua Dong Group led to a sharp decline in sales of British coal, steel and cotton in China.

  The coal industry hasn't fallen too much, and Huadong Group will still import some.

  However, the market share of iron and steel and cotton cloth has plummeted. At this time, Wuhu Iron and Steel Plant of China Eastern Group already had an annual output of 150,000 tons of steel. In addition to the large amount of steel used in shipbuilding and railways, most of the steel was sold on the market.

  In iron and steel, not only was British iron almost squeezed out of the Chinese market, but some were exported.

  In the cotton fabric sector, Huadong Group's textile company's cotton fabrics quickly occupied the Chinese market with a momentum of sweeping everything after the situation stabilized following the Xinhai Revolution and began to be sold overseas.

  The production cost of cotton fabric in Huadong Group is too low.

  Huadong Group has many factories with advanced technology, such as the engine manufacturing plant that applies for loan mortgage, which can produce the world's most advanced internal combustion engines.

  The British had already seen an emerging industrial and commercial group, and according to intelligence, the Huadong Group had a close relationship with Germany.

  If Germany were really to be allowed to build up a strong force in the Far East, it would necessarily cause great trouble for Britain's global strategy.

  During the Russo-Japanese War, the British supported Japan with great enthusiasm in order to check Russian expansion in the Far East, lending Japan ￡46 million and providing her with warships.

  The Japanese beat the Russians in Manchuria, finally causing Russia to shift its interest to expansion into the European continent, thus rapidly deteriorating relations with Germany and successfully pulling Russia into the Allied camp, forming a siege against Germany on land again, giving Britain a renewed sense of control over the situation.

  The emergence of Jiang Yu's two Huai administrative offices and the Fuxing Army, however, made the British feel a huge variable.

  Once the Huadong Group completely turns to Germany, it will inevitably cause great damage to Britain's interests in the Far East, and even make the colonial interests in the Far East lose everything.

  Obviously, if no loan is given to Huarong Group, Germans will also be very happy.

  These loans are not political loans, but commercial loans. From a commercial loan perspective, although the amount of this loan is huge, it is very cost-effective for the lending bank.

  So Germany wants to lend money to Huawei without the government spending a single penny, German banks are willing to put out this sum of money.

  For Britain, although this loan is a large sum, it does not require the government to spend money, and British banks can raise this loan.

  Zhu Dejian accepted Jiang Yu's bribe and naturally spoke for Jiang Yu with great effort, while also taking care of British interests.

  He suggested to the British Cabinet: "The Huadong Group's application is for a six-year commercial loan, which requires settlement of interest after three years and has an annual interest rate of 20%, that is to say, after six years, the British Empire can recover at least ￡2.2 billion in funds or assets. Given the current world economic situation, it is unlikely that the Huadong Group will be able to turn ￡1 billion into ￡2.2 billion within six years. In the end, they can only declare bankruptcy and use their assets to pay off debts. The only concern is whether the Two Huai Administrative Office will resort to armed resistance, but if the British Empire brings in the United States, France, Russia, and Japan for a five-country bank loan, once the Two Huai Administrative Office defaults, it will face joint strikes from Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and Russia. I believe they do not have such courage. Once the Huadong Group goes bankrupt, the Empire will seize a large number of high-quality assets under its umbrella, which can not only restore the Empire's market decline in the Far East but also directly destroy this commercial rival competing with the British Empire for the market."

  "At the same time, the Empire should set up a supervisory team to strictly supervise the use of funds, so as not to let these funds flow into military construction. As long as these funds do not flow into military construction, the military strength of the Revival Army will still be very limited. If Germany is allowed to participate in this loan, it will inevitably lead to a large amount of funds being invested in military construction, which will be a huge trouble for the British Empire..."

  Jewell's suggestion made the British cabinet see the light, in the current global industrial environment where overcapacity is emerging. If the China Eastern Group really invests this money in industrial construction, it will inevitably lead to a situation where the flow of funds cannot repay the loan.

  Moreover, as long as the British Empire hinders it a bit, the business operations of the Huadong Group will fall into trouble. At that time, the Huadong Group will not be able to pay its debts and can only declare bankruptcy and use its assets to offset its debts.

  Of course, the British Empire rarely took action personally in global disputes. Even during the Napoleonic Wars, it supported a large number of smaller allies as proxies. If the Huadong Group really wants to use force to avoid paying its debts, that would be difficult to deal with, after all, they are quite far away.

  If Russia, Japan, France and the United States are all involved, then this concern will also be resolved.

  If at that time the Huadong Group still wants to shirk responsibility, then it's completely crazy. With the strength of various countries, they can thoroughly divide up the whole of China.

  Although it is difficult for foreigners to enslave the Chinese like they did with Indians, due to their resistant nature that makes it impossible for any country to occupy China for a long time, however, hollowing out China's industry is not a problem.

  Of course, Japan may have intended to occupy China for a long time, but Britain would not allow such a situation to occur, even if Japan was Britain's junior.

  Because if Japan were to occupy China, its national power would become enormous, because China is too big, and in the eyes of the British, the Japanese have already had a taste of industrial civilization.

  However, for the Chinese, the British are quite reassuring, and the last fig leaf of this country was pulled down during the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

  This is a muddy empire, nothing to worry about.

  Even if they were to obtain a large loan, but lacking an industrial foundation and with Chinese officials being notoriously corrupt, the British did not believe that the Chinese could make anything of it.

  Being able to achieve the current level may already be the limit of the Far Eastern monkey.

  ————

  Yesterday I had a relapse and was locked up in the hospital for a day, what a rip-off! So I stopped updating, sorry! There will be another update later.

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