Chapter Thirty-Seven: Northern Bank Volume

  Chen An stood on the ruins of the floating bridge in the north of Yulai, quietly watching, with thoughts constantly turning in his mind. For the first time, there were different opinions within Chenjiazhuang on whether to rebuild the floating bridge. Chen An suggested building a steel bridge at the old site, but was strongly opposed by Lin Yue'er, who was fully responsible for reviewing internal finances.

  Lin Yue'er, who had just taken office, pulled out a large stack of data and pointed out that they were already saddled with a huge debt of over 100,000 taels. In the next month alone, it would increase to over 200,000 taels, and if they were to build new steel bridges, they would need to add another 200,000 taels of silver. Unless they could wipe out the debt, they couldn't afford to undertake any more large-scale projects.

  The decision-makers in Chenjiazhuang were all intimidated by the huge debt, and they didn't dare to look at it. Anyway, supporting Lin Yue'er may not be right, but it's absolutely not wrong either. Everyone raised their hands to support Lin Yue'er's suggestion and continued to repair the floating bridge.

  Chen An looked at everyone's unanimous words and was suddenly stunned, how could such a thing happen? Indeed, it is difficult to raise only small people and women.

  Chen An couldn't clearly explain the inside story of those arms deals, and everyone thought they were just reselling instead of producing themselves. Naturally, no one believed that a few transactions could turn losses into profits.

  After wasting countless words, Chen An was unable to get everyone's agreement and had to temporarily put aside his idea of building an iron bridge, instead opting to set up a pontoon bridge first. This kind of meeting became more and more frequent over time, eventually becoming the norm. Initially, it was called the Chen Family Village Financial Meeting because Lin Yue'er convened it for financial reasons. Later, the content of the discussions became diverse, but the name remained the same, with only "Chen Family Village" changed to "Northern Group", still being referred to as a Financial Meeting from start to finish.

  Let's repair the pontoon bridge first, and then unblock the transportation route. After selling three batches of military supplies and sending a large sum of silver back to the village, everyone will naturally agree to build an iron bridge. Chen An picked up a stone and threw it forcefully onto the river surface, creating a beautiful ripple.

  Shanghai sent an urgent telegram, the content was very vague, but Chen An knew that the first transaction had been successful, a total of 126,000 taels of silver had entered the secret room in the house rented by Krause. The Beiyang New Army was also extremely cautious about this transaction, Cao Kun personally led the team to secretly go south and successfully completed the handover.

  According to the original plan, Kroeze immediately spent a lot of money buying a three-story foreign-style house near the Shanghai Municipal Council's Public Works Bureau at a high price. He then openly and ostentatiously deposited one million taels of silver into the Shanghai branch of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation as registered capital to formally establish the Northern Bank. Although the Northern Bank's capital was almost negligible compared to other foreign banks, it was more than sufficient compared to the numerous small private money shops and banks in China.

  It was astonishing that a German with no background dared to open a private bank in China, and the foreign banks and compradors in Shanghai's concession were ready to watch the joke. However, after the opening, Krause bluntly announced that the Northern Bank would only serve the Northern Industrial Company and would not accept any public or private business, instantly shattering the expectations of many people in Shanghai.

  Krauze also hired a number of bank experts and employees, plus various red envelope expenses, so not a single cent of the over 100,000 taels of silver from the first arms deal was transported back to Gansu.

  The first business of the Northern Bank was to secretly exchange a large amount of US dollars smuggled by Liu Shi into silver, preparing to transport it back to Gansu to alleviate the urgent need. Since the Northern Bank already had direct receipt of military funds in Shanghai, there was no need to keep these US dollars anymore. At that time, they could directly pay Niesenbaum with silver, saving the trouble of transportation.

  After careful calculation, Klauser's telegram came over immediately.

  It is suggested in the telegram that not all of the over $300,000 should be exchanged for silver. Firstly, there would be a significant loss due to exchange rates, and secondly, transportation costs are high. Exchanging only 50,000 taels of silver and transporting it back to Gansu to open a branch of the Northern Bank in Jiayuguan, then issuing bank drafts for payment would suffice. After all, internal transactions within the company do not necessarily require physical silver, and some clients who do not need to exchange for physical silver immediately can also be advised to use bank drafts.

  In this way, the principal of 50,000 taels of silver can issue at least 150,000 taels of banknotes, which is enough to temporarily settle transactions. As for later military expenses, as long as there is enough money, the principal will be replenished, and in fact, all banknotes issued by banks are over-issued. Unfortunately, the Northern Bank only serves internally, and even if it is over-issued, there is no profit to be made, so naturally, as long as the crisis is passed, it will still be issued according to the principal later on.

  After the telegram, Kroeze also pointed out that the value of silver is still relatively volatile internationally and far less stable than gold. It would be more convenient to transport it back to Gansu. He suggested that all silver should be exchanged for gold except for necessary daily transactions.

  It seems that Crowe is indeed a talented person. Chen An suddenly looked at him with new eyes, and the foreigner who dared to come to China to deceive and mix was not a fool after all. I don't know what Laine's ability is, but at least Koval can speak four foreign languages, and he is simply a language expert.

  Chen Anfu sent a telegram back, inquiring about how the banknotes were issued and ensuring safety, but agreed to the gold reserve immediately.

  Krause's response was humorous: "Ask Laine."

  Dizzy, Chen An was speechless, could it be that Lain was actually a counterfeiter?

  Urgent recall of the mysterious Laine, one inquiry revealed that they were not good stuff. The repentance letters of these two people only wrote about their fraudulent activities in China, but did not mention why they came to China.

  Krause was once an employee of a small bank in Germany, and his position was not low. Lehn, who looked more honest, was a technical backbone of a printing factory, both belonging to the white-collar class. However, Krause later accidentally offended a high-ranking official at the bank, was maliciously framed and dismissed, and almost went to jail. His good friend Lehn took up the cudgels for him and secretly used the factory's equipment to produce a large number of fake bonds from the small bank, which were put on the market, almost causing the bank to go bankrupt.

  Later, seeing the wind was not right, Crow and Lane hastily fled to the Far East. At that time, truly understanding printing technology was no different from being able to print banknotes. Banknotes and newspapers were only different in terms of paper, engraving plates, ink, and secrecy. As for engraving plates, the exquisite techniques of Chinese master craftsmen far surpassed those of Western countries.

  Chen An immediately recalled Laine to headquarters, specifically in charge of researching and producing the Northern Bank's banknotes. As for the affairs in Chongqing, they were simply handed over to Lin Yushan's Intelligence Division, anyway, it was also necessary to have a cover identity to gather intelligence.

  The Far East did not have the equipment to print banknotes, so Lane had no choice but to report truthfully that they needed to procure them from Europe. However, neither he nor Krause could go back, and there was no way to contact European machinery manufacturers.

  Chen An couldn't think of a good solution either. Xu Shangwu, the technical director at Kowal, simply said after hearing about this, "Let Laine go to him and explain the structure and principle."

  A few days later, Lin Yushan went to Hanyang, Hubei again, holding Xu Shangwu's secret letter, and quietly found a few old masters.

  Half a month later, Laine stared at the brand new printer placed inside the newly established headquarters building of the company, with his mouth agape for half a day, unable to utter a word.

  It was crafted entirely by hand, and how such a precise machine could be made, even to the point of perfection, Ryan couldn't imagine. Xu Shangwu hummed and said, "How can foreigners understand the essence of our Chinese craftsmanship?" Then he walked away with his hands behind his back.

  Lai En from then on listened to Xu Shangwu's words and took him as his idol.

  Ink is well resolved, Laine himself is a medium-sized good hand.

  As for the special banknote paper, it can be purchased in Shanghai because many foreign banks issue banknotes in Shanghai, which are printed on paper with cash. Lane sent a telegram to Krause, instructing him to secretly purchase a batch of banknote paper under the name of the Northern Bank.

  Willow stone smooth road escorting fifty thousand two silver and a dozen or so boxes of paper money back to Chenjiazhuang.

  Lin Yushan immediately took charge of leading the team, escorting the second batch of six Japanese-style 75mm field guns and 600 rounds of ammunition to Shanghai, preparing to complete the handover of the second batch of military supplies.

  In the telegrams exchanged between Chen Ang and Cao Kun, the Beiyang New Army demanded that the production of eighteen large-caliber artillery pieces be given priority, which was naturally produced first, and the monthly production volume was just enough to meet the scale of six 75mm field guns and their corresponding shells.

  But the problem of banknotes came out again. In accordance with the tradition of Western countries, banknotes are all made with the king or president as the face value character. Laine naturally prepared to use Chen An's portrait as the face value character, but was scolded by Chen An after seeing the draft and hastily destroyed all the manuscripts.

  Damn it, you can't harm people like this, this is going to exterminate nine clans. Chen An pointed at Lain's forehead and scolded him severely.

  Is it made with Gansu map shape? Veto, want to make trouble?

  Is it a national map shape? Or is it decided, could it be an imperial banknote?

  That's Northern Industrial Company's main business is making military equipment? Immediately vetoed, this is a bank note, not an ammunition note.

  After discussion, the final draft was set against the background of a wheel steamship on the Huangpu River in front and the scenery of Tianchi in the back. For the time being, only two types of banknotes exchangeable for 10 taels and 50 taels of standard silver were issued.

  The first batch of 100 million yuan worth of Northern Bank notes was quickly printed.

  Ten taels of silver were just enough to be distributed among the soldiers of the patrol battalion on duty, and as a result, it immediately caused a sensation.

  The sensational topic was not the banknotes, but the fact that the officers and soldiers only now realized that their actual military pay was far higher than what they were initially recruited for, at least more than double. Many of the officers and soldiers who had borrowed money to support their families in difficult times saw that they still had extra pay left over and immediately knelt down, kowtowing repeatedly towards the direction of Chenjiazhuang.

  The fifty-two volumes were distributed to merchants who had business dealings with Jiayang, Hanzhong and Sichuan, as well as senior personnel of the Chen An Group. The merchants only asked about the places where they could be exchanged, without much ado, apparently having become immune to such small-denomination silver certificates after seeing larger ones, and were only surprised that the Northern Bank's volumes could be exchanged in Shanghai for a while.

  A month has passed, and only less than 30,000 taels of the 50,000 taels of gold have been exchanged. Either there was no time to exchange them, or it was not worth the trouble due to ongoing business transactions, or people had faith in the Northern Bank, and a few banknotes even circulated in Shanghai for exchange. In short, the issuance of Northern Bank notes achieved unexpected success.

  This made Chen An breathe a sigh of relief, and he ordered Lin Yushan to exchange the second batch of military transaction fees for gold and transport them back to Gansu for storage.