Chapter 19: A Small Sense of Achievement
Looking at the intelligence in his hand, Liu Wei was speechless with laughter and tears. There were actually people who came to grab this kind of thing. But thinking about the possible consequences, Liu Wei still felt a bit fearful afterwards. At first, he had taken a great risk just to slightly change history, unfortunately, although the risk hadn't been in vain, it was also far from his original intention at that time.
From the war between the Eight-Nation Alliance and the Qing government to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Taiwan's agriculture and agricultural product processing industry developed rapidly over the past year. Due to the government providing low-interest loans, many clever people began using loans to establish large and small sugar processing factories and camphor oil processing factories. Utilizing Taiwan's abundant sugarcane and camphor raw materials, after processing they were exported to Europe and America, creating even greater wealth. From this year on, Taiwan no longer or rarely exported raw sugar or camphor raw materials, mainly exporting white sugar, camphor, and camphor oil instead.
Apart from agriculture, there were also some progress in industry, especially with the establishment of the second industrial base near Kaohsiung's Gangshan Port in Tainan, which greatly promoted the economy of Tainan, which was originally dominated by agriculture. This industrial base includes a steel mill, a chemical plant, an oil refinery, a machinery factory and two thermal power plants among more than ten factories, all of which were invested by Liu Jie, mainly to drive the economic development of Tainan and reduce Taiwan's dependence on the Keelung Industrial Zone.
With the construction of the railway and highway around Taiwan, a large number of laborers from originally relatively backward Taitung and Tainan areas entered factories in Taipei, Taichung or Tainan to work for money, not only speeding up Taiwan's industrial development but also solving part of the economic problems of the backward areas.
Due to the increasing imports and exports, settling all transactions in silver taels was no longer suitable for Taiwan's economic development. After years of effort by the Bank of Taiwan and Helena, a new economic system and currency system were finally established for Taiwan. The newly issued Taiwanese currency consisted of two types: paper notes and metal coins. Paper notes came in three denominations: 100 yuan, 50 yuan, and 10 yuan; while metal coins were divided into eight denominations: 5 yuan, 2 yuan, 1 yuan, 5 jiao, 2 jiao, 1 jiao, 5 fen, and 1 fen. Since both paper notes and metal coins featured a seagull in flight over the sea, this new currency was named "Seagull Yuan".
The New Taiwan dollar will be pegged to gold, with one ounce of gold exchangeable for 20.5 yuan, roughly equivalent to the US dollar. Since the yuan is not yet widely accepted by the people, it will coexist with silver and copper coins for a period of time. This dual currency system will gradually transition to a single currency system over the next five years, during which the Taiwan Bank will use various preferential policies to encourage Taiwanese citizens and foreign merchants to gradually accept the yuan.
It has been 14 years since the establishment of the first free education school in Taipei and Keelung. Now, compulsory education has been fully implemented across Taiwan. This year, the Ministry of Education will establish Taiwan's first regular university, a four-year college located in Taipei City, named "Ming Chuan University" to commemorate Liu Ming-chuan's contributions to Taiwan.
This era of Taiwan, due to the absence of external interference and internal governance under Liu's farsighted dictatorship, is a period of civil peace and national progress, with rapid development. However, there is still one problem that has been troubling Liu, which is diplomatic issues. Taiwan's independence has not been recognized by any country so far, so at present, the Taiwanese government is still an illegal government, not recognized by the world.
Liu Ye racked his brains, but couldn't think of a way to change this situation. Liu Ye had previously discussed this issue with David, who tentatively raised the Taiwan issue with high-level American officials he knew, and received information indicating that the US government could help Taiwan gain recognition from other countries, but Taiwan might have to pay some price, including unequal treaties such as extraterritoriality and concessions.
Liu Ye would definitely not agree to this. He's living a good life, why would he want to find a malicious stepfather to annoy him on his own turf?
"Don't acknowledge if you don't want to, now giving face but not wanting face, wait till you guys fight among yourselves, see how I'll deal with you." Liu Fen thought fiercely.
Liu Yinan has such confidence, mainly from several aspects.
First of all, it was his elementary school level history knowledge that told Liu Ye that in the near future, around 1910s, a great disaster would befall the world - World War I. In this war, several countries that could threaten Taiwan were involved to varying degrees, and for these countries, hardships awaited them, but for Liu Ye, it was an opportunity.
Secondly, Taiwan's current technological level, from infantry firearms to mortars, hand grenades and machine guns, has developed a series of weapons that surpass the equipment of various countries today. Although the Taiwanese army is still an inexperienced land force, it should be enough for defense. The navy is even more impressive, with the second-generation improved "Guppy-class" submarines already being equipped, the new "Guppy-class" submarine uses a new diesel-electric propulsion system, speed and range have been improved, especially underwater endurance has been further enhanced. The first batch of three "Keelung-class" destroyers has been delivered to the navy, from the reaction of the navy during this period, the design of this destroyer is quite good, parameters such as speed, range, seaworthiness, and firepower are all satisfactory to the navy, which plans to build another three.
In the end, it's all about money. War is expensive. Liu Bei is most at ease with his finances now. Taiwan has made great strides in agriculture and industry over the past few years, and although taxes are not high, government revenue and expenditure are basically balanced. Although large investments sometimes require Liu Bei to dig into his own pockets, he still holds a significant number of shares in "Sander Pharmaceuticals", "Sander Electronics", "Daqing Petroleum" and the soon-to-be-launched "Dongfeng Automobile". As long as these cash-absorbing giants don't go bankrupt, Liu Bei won't have to worry about running out of funds. As for companies like "Keelung Heavy Industries", "Keelung Chemicals", and "Keelung Mining", Liu Bei had already donated them to the state when he took office as president.
After the Boxer Rebellion, countries in the Far East, whether victorious or defeated, were busy scrambling for food on the rotten flesh of the Qing Dynasty to nurse their own internal wounds. The entire East Asian region entered a relatively peaceful era. Liu Yuxiang looked at Taiwan under his leadership, very low-key but with a model, developing towards an economically and militarily strong country, often feeling proud and regretful.
