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Text Chapter 580 The Impact of the Civil War

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    "Boss Zhang, the price of cotton has skyrocketed again. Are you getting rich this time?"

    ¡°It¡¯s just a small profit, a small profit!¡±

    "What's the problem with small profits? A pack of cotton originally only cost five taels of silver, but if you look at the market price, it now costs more than thirty taels of silver to buy it. And this Guge still begs grandpa to tell grandma, you  There must be three hundred bales of cotton in my hand!"

    "This is all because of the war between the North and South Citigroup. It's just that I took action too early. I took action at fifteen or six taels!"

    The topic everyone is talking about is the hottest topic of the Civil War. Since the U.S. election last year and the official outbreak of the Civil War this year, the cotton price around the world has skyrocketed. The price of cotton in Shanghai was initially five or six liang per pack, but it has quickly increased.  Soon there were foreign businessmen snapping up the products at prices of seven to eight liang per pack, and the price soon rose to twelve to three dozen per pack.

    Local cotton merchants in Shanghai thought that the price was too high, and immediately sold 50,000 bales of cotton in stock. However, it turned out that they were wrong. The Civil War caused a shortage of cotton around the world, and the price was only 12,322 bales.  It can be said that it is of high quality and low price. Less than two days after they sold 50,000 bales of cotton, British businessmen were already snapping up cotton merchants in Chongming for 25,600 taels of silver.

    Soon the price of cotton exceeded 30 liang per bale. Compared with the cotton shortage caused by the Civil War in history, the demand for cotton in this time and space is greater. You must know that China¡¯s government needs alone require tens of millions every year.  cotton uniforms, and China's nascent light industry also required large amounts of cotton.

    Xia Keli knew one thing clearly, that is, the textile mills in Manchester were now completely shut down because they could not get enough raw materials. Due to the Civil War, the whole world was plunged into a economic panic.

    You must know that the United States in this time and space is already almost the largest industrial body in the entire world. The direct result of its plunge into all-out war is that the entire world has happily fallen into an extreme boom. You can make money from anything you produce. Small businessmen like these in China  These are the people who are making a lot of money during this boom.

    ¡°What a good year!¡±

    "Yes. It's a good year, all prices are good, and you can make a little money in whatever you do!"

    ¡°Especially when doing business with Citigroup, it will be more advantageous¡±

    ?As soon as I heard these small businessmen talk about American business.  Xia Keli shook his head. That Liu Chang was truly an unprecedented profiteer. Perhaps he was the biggest winner in the Civil War. Xia Keli even suspected that he made more money than the entire British government.

    Among other things, in 1859 and 1860, the Chinese government applied for tens of millions of dollars in loans from the U.S. government and businessmen at very high interest rates.  British products are comparable.  Commercial loans between the Chinese government and businessmen are said to have reached US$100 million, even more than the U.S. treasury. However, when the Civil War started, the entire United States had worked for the Chinese government for two years in vain.

    Yes, the entire United States has worked for China in vain for two years. Now neither the northern nor southern governments are in a hurry to ask the Chinese government to repay this debt. Quite the opposite.  They are also eager to import more gunpowder, rifles, artillery, clothing and more military supplies from China to get all China's military and civilian factories up and running. Even the nascent Chinese shipbuilding industry has received several  Ten orders.

    Xia Keli even knew a fact.  That is, in addition to these public orders, Liu Juehu had a unique vision. He actually snapped up a total of 200,000 cotton before the outbreak of the Civil War. At that time, a pack of cotton only cost less than five taels of silver, and this  All the cotton was purchased by His Majesty the Emperor's private company, and now this batch of cotton alone is enough to cover His Majesty's personal expenses for several years.

    So the more he thought about these things, Xia Keli felt that his mission became more and more difficult. The emperor's eyes were too old, and it was quite difficult to make him obey the will of Her Majesty the Queen.  What's more, because of the Civil War, he now has no hope of contacting the imperial government.

    But just when he thought of this, he found that the atmosphere in the entire teahouse became solemn: "What's wrong?"

    "What's wrong?"

    People in the teahouse didn¡¯t know what happened, but soon came an uncertain news: "Hu Xiang ascended to heaven"

    Hu Xiang ascended to heaven

    Xia Keli knew that the so-called Prime Minister Hu was the Prime Minister of China. He was a nasty conservative minister and a major obstacle to cooperation between China and Britain.

    ??This cannot be said about the Prime Minister.  Everyone, including Xia Keli, knew that this was just a transitional caretaker prime minister, but no one expected that this watcher would become a caretaker prime minister.??The Prime Minister actually stayed in the position of Prime Minister for so long, until the last moment of his life.

    However, Xia Keli soon discovered that this was a good thing. This conservative Prime Minister has always had a deep hostility towards the British Empire. If he ascends to heaven, then the new Prime Minister may become more enlightened.  .

    "But who will be the new Prime Minister?"

    Xia Keli has been considering this issue. According to tradition, the acting Prime Minister will be the Minister of War, His Excellency Qu Jie. However, His Excellency Qu Jie is always the acting Prime Minister. No one thinks that he will officially take up the position of Prime Minister. Then  We should find some friends who are more friendly to Britain, such as Minister Fang Rong

    He quickly returned to his embassy and told his subordinates to focus on this information. The death of this prime minister will most likely represent a transformation of the entire Chinese foreign policy. Now he needs someone who has a better understanding of Britain.  Friendly Prime Minister.

    It¡¯s just that he didn¡¯t have much interference in the decision-making of His Majesty the Emperor of China, so he spent the whole day thinking about how to influence His Majesty the Emperor. At this time, unexpected good news came.

    His Majesty the Emperor decided to receive him, the British Ambassador, and expressed through private channels that the two sides could reach consensus on some previously disputed issues. Xia Keli knew that his opportunity had come.

    Yes, this should be the best opportunity.

    "The two sides can have an in-depth exchange of views, and Xia Keli can exert his influence on His Majesty the Emperor. Especially on some issues that Whitehall is most concerned about, the two sides can reach a comprehensive consensus."

    Therefore, Xia Keli put on a straight dress and even carefully prepared several gifts for the emperor. After having morning tea, he set off for the palace.

    The emperor's palace has always been simple. In fact, such a palace cannot be called a palace at all, it is just a few large houses. However, Xia Keli admired His Majesty the Emperor on this point. It is rare for a ruler to have such a character, especially  It is even more rare to be the founding emperor of a dynasty.

    After simple repairs and initial expansion, the palace now covers an area of ??about 160 acres. The perimeter is guarded by imperial infantry and cavalry. They expressed Jinshen's welcome to Ambassador Xia Keli, but after entering the palace, there was no one else.  The existence of men, including guards and chores, is completed by a group of women. Among these women, the most dazzling group of noble concubines. Today Xia Keli only saw some of the emperor's concubines, about twenty.  , they were well behaved and followed the emperor closely.

    His Majesty the Emperor quickly extended his left hand: "Welcome, Ambassador Xia Keli!"

    "Thank you, His Majesty the Emperor!" Xia Keli said with a smile, "I have brought Her Majesty the Queen's goodwill!"

    "Thank you very much for your Majesty the Queen's opinion!" Liu Chang took the ambassador's hand, sat down directly, and motioned the concubine to step aside: "I thank Her Majesty the Queen for her kindness, but I came to see you today because I have more important things to think about.  Communicate with you!¡±

    "Thank you very much for His Majesty the Emperor's kindness!" Xia Keli quickly expressed that he had sufficient authority: "As long as it has nothing to do with the war, we can communicate on anything!"

    "Then you mean we can't talk about war-related issues?" Liu Chang smiled: "Then let me declare in advance that I agree with any stance your country makes on the US issue."

    "Any statement?" Xia Keli quickly understood the meaning of these words: "You mean, including interference?"

    As in history, the American Civil War has now become an issue that the entire British government and Parliament have to pay attention to, and the impact of the American Civil War is even more far-reaching.

    Historically, the cotton shortage caused by the American Civil War only had a huge impact on the entire British textile industry. Tens of thousands of British workers were unemployed. Although cotton was in short supply, Egyptian cotton soon partially filled the gap caused by southern cotton.

    However, in this time and space, since 1855, the entire Chinese region, and even the entire pan-Chinese cultural circle region, imported a large number of British industrial products, especially cotton. As a result, starting from 1855, the entire British textile industry  Industry has entered a period of extremely unreasonable expansion. You must know that from 1855 to the end of 1866, China's imports of British industrial products increased eightfold, and this was not due to the impact of the American Civil War.  If so, it might have been growing on a large scale in 1861.

    The fact is that only Liu Chang and a few people know that with such a terrifying leap forward by the Chinese government, if the American Civil War had not broken out, the Chinese government's finances would have declared bankruptcy in 1863 or 1864. But this  The American Civil War made the entire empire's finances healthier than ever.

    But the American Civil War brought a deep war to BritainThe disaster is no longer as simple as tens of thousands of workers losing their jobs. Hundreds of thousands of young workers have lost their jobs throughout the UK. They are asking the government to use all means to obtain cotton.

    Both the British government and Parliament regard intervention as an option, and now Liu Chang calmly replied to Xia Keli: "If the British government must intervene, our country will provide comprehensive support in terms of military strength."  .  )

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