Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in hlnovel.com -> Historic -> The Young Marshal s Spring and Autumn Period Through the Republic of China

Chapter 688 Gengzi Indemnity

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    You can search for "Young Marshal's Spring and Autumn Period Through the Republic of China" on Baidu to find the latest chapters!

    Since Zhang Zuolin had nominally unified the Republic of China, the time had come for him to pay the Gengzi indemnity. Naturally, the great powers had expectations for him.

    In the Year of Gengzi (1900), the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China. The Qing government signed the "Xinchou Treaty" in Beijing on September 7, 1901 with the ministers of 11 countries including Germany, France, Russia, Britain, the United States, and Japan.  Paragraph 6 stipulates that the customs clearance of various countries will be compensated with 450 million taels of silver, with an annual interest of 4%, which can be repaid in 39 years. The total principal and interest is 982,238,150 taels, with customs duties, regular duties and salt taxes as collateral. Regular customs at treaty ports are also under the management of the customs.

    This huge compensation completely reduced Chinese society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. It was also the largest single compensation payment in China in an unequal treaty in modern history.  China's population at that time was about 45,000 people, and each Chinese was allocated about one tael of silver in the Boxer Indemnity.

    The repayment of principal and interest for this compensation will be handled in Shanghai, and will first be collected by HSBC, Dehua, Daosheng, Huali, and Zhengjin Five Banks.  The following year, Citibank of the United States opened a branch in Shanghai and participated in the formation of the Banking Committee. The principal and interest collected were paid to designated banks in various countries.

    The Qing government could only repay old foreign debts with customs duties. In order to raise compensation, it apportioned an annual amount of more than 21.21 million taels to various provinces and customs, which resulted in land tax, grain tax, deed tax, pawn tax, salt price increase, etc.  Customs duties, taxes, unified taxes and various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes continued to increase.

    Because the price of silver fell when repaying the compensation, various countries insisted on "paying gold at the market price on the due date". By 1905, the pound deficit owed 1.2 million pounds (8 million taels of combined silver).

    On April 26, in order to pay the difference, the Qing government borrowed 1 million pounds from HSBC with an annual interest of 5% and was repaid in 20 years. The total principal and interest were 1,525,000 pounds.  The bonds were issued in London at 97% with the tariff and Shanxi Provincial Tobacco and Liquor Tax as offset, and the market price was 99% to 103%.  This loan is actually an additional burden for the Gengzi compensation.

    According to the provisions of the "Xinchou Treaty", the Qing government paid a total of 450 million taels of silver to the eight Western countries, of which the United States should receive more than 32 million taels, equivalent to more than 24 million U.S. dollars.

    In early December 1904, Liang Cheng, the Chinese Minister to the United States, argued with the U.S. Secretary of State John Hay on whether China's reparations should be paid in gold or silver. During the conversation, John Hay revealed: "The Gengzi compensation case is really too much."  ¡ª¡ª" This information was immediately captured by Liang Cheng.  This shows that the US government has discovered that its relevant departments have "exaggerated and falsely reported" the losses caused by the Gengzi Rebellion.

    Liang Cheng very smartly gave up the negotiation strategy and stopped arguing with John Hai about whether the compensation should be paid in gold or silver. Instead, he "took advantage of the opportunity to regain the lost profits."  He did not miss any opportunity and lobbied the U.S. Congress and members for the return of false compensation, and unexpectedly achieved unexpected gains.

    At that time, the domestic elites in the United States did not approve of material plunder. Edmond James, the president of the University of Illinois, believed: "It is more reliable for business to follow spiritual control than to follow the military flag." For this reason, he said in 1906  At the beginning of the year, a memorandum was sent to President Theodore Roosevelt, requesting the U.S. government to speed up attracting Chinese students to the United States.

    He urged the U.S. government to take measures to attract Chinese students to create a new group of leaders who will intellectually and spiritually dominate China for the U.S.: "Which country can educate this generation of Chinese youth will be able to educate this generation of Chinese youth.  The effort put into it reaps the greatest rewards in terms of spiritual and commercial impact.¡±

    On March 6 of the same year, American missionary Ming Enpu went to the White House to visit President Roosevelt. He suggested that the president return part of the Boxer Indemnity paid by the Qing government of China to specifically open and subsidize schools in China.  In 1907, Ming Enpu published the book "Today's China and the United States", in which he pointed out that more Chinese intellectuals should be allowed to study in the United States.

    Driven and encouraged by Ming Enpu and others, Roosevelt proposed a consultation paper to Congress, stating: "Our country should use its strength to help China implement education so that this huge number of citizens can gradually integrate into the modern situation. Methods of assistance  It is advisable to recruit students to come to the United States and join our universities and other institutions of higher learning so that they can achieve success in their studies and become great talents. I hope that our country¡¯s education sector will embody this good intention, work together with morality, and sponsor this great event for the country.¡±

    On May 25, 1908, the U.S. Congress passed Roosevelt¡¯s consultation paper.  On July 11 of the same year, the U.S. Minister to China, Roger Rouge, officially declared to the Chinese government that half of the "Boxer Indemnity" received by the United States would be returned to China for the purpose of funding students studying in the United States.  The remaining portion of "actual compensation" includes military compensation for the United States' military deployment to China and compensation for the losses of American businessmen and missionaries in China.

    On October 28, the two governments drafted regulations for sending students to the United States: Starting from the first year of refunds, the Qing government should send at least 100 students to the United States each year in the first four years.  If enough 400 people are sent by the 4th year, at least 50 people must be sent to the United States every year starting from the 5th year until the refund is used up.

    Students who are dispatched must be ""Physically strong, pure in temperament, perfect in appearance, innocent in wealth, and of appropriate age." The Chinese proficiency must be able to compose and have knowledge of literature and history, and the English proficiency can directly attend American universities and vocational schools. It is also stipulated that among them, there should be  80% study agriculture, mechanical engineering, mining, physics, chemistry, railway engineering, banking, etc., and the remaining 20% ??study law, politics, finance, normal education, etc.

    At the same time, China and the United States also agreed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing government would be responsible for establishing a training school for studying in the United States in Beijing.  Therefore, in June 1909, Beijing established the Office of Foreign Studies Affairs, which was the prototype of Tsinghua University.

    In August 1909, the Ministry of Internal Affairs allocated Tsinghua Garden, a garden given by the imperial family, to the Academic Affairs Office as the site of the Youmei Business Hall. The Academic Affairs Office recruited the first batch of students in Shijia Hutong, from 630 candidates.  Among them, 47 people were admitted and went to the United States in October.  This is the origin of the Geng Grant students studying in the United States.

    The second recruitment examination was held in August 1910.  More than 400 people took the exam, and 70 were finally admitted.  Among the second batch of Geng Grant students studying in the United States, there was a famous Hu Shi, who ranked 55th in the exam that year.  Also on the list were the later linguist Zhao Yuanren and the meteorologist Zhu Kezhen.

    At the beginning of 1911, Tsinghua Preparatory School for Studying in the United States was formally established using Geng funds to train students studying in the United States.  In the following ten years or so, according to statistics, more than 1,000 students were sent to study in the United States by Tsinghua University.  Since 1909, the United States has refunded part of the excess principal and profit as a study fund for studying in the United States. Historically, by June 1924, the remaining principal and profit of more than 12.5 million U.S. dollars had been refunded as a Chinese education and cultural fund.

    The refund in the United States has had a great international impact.  After the outbreak of the First World War, the Beijing government declared war on Germany and Austria in August 1917. From December of the same year, most of the Boxer payments were deferred for five years. The German and Austrian portion was canceled due to the defeat of the war, and the Russian payment was deferred.  , all set aside as domestic public bond funds.

    After the war subsided, China also became involved in the status of a victorious nation. All countries expressed their willingness to be "friendly" with China in order to safeguard and expand their interests in China through peaceful means. Therefore, they followed in the footsteps of the United States and gradually gave up or retreated from the  Sub-compensation balances and refunds are widely used in China's education, culture and industry.

    ???????????????????????????????????????????????????: Japan was the only country in official history that never retreated a penny, used the money to develop armaments and establish education, and quickly became a powerful empire in the 20th century.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report