Da quickly agreed.
Rama V secretly arrived in Yangon by boat from the western coast of Siam, took the British railway, entered Yunnan via Mandalay and Lashuo, and went directly to Guangzhou. This was the year when the British built the Great Britain Bridge and the French War broke out, and another railway in Asia Greater was also opened to traffic last year.
When Chulalongkorn arrived in Yangon, he was secretly met at the port. He came by boat from Singapore and was personally met by Zhang Bishi, Minister of Singapore and Singapore.
This man is the famous founder of Changyu wine in later generations, but at this time, he can’t pull away from wine. His main business is to cultivate a rubber plantation in the Dutch colony and hire thousands of Chinese. Because he is consistent with the strategy of colonizing Nanyang and has a huge network of contacts in the local area, he was invited to be the ambassador to Singapore to manage all Nanyang affairs
"I have kept the minister waiting."
Rama V was very humble in asking for something from others.
Zhang Bishi leaned down and said, "Your Majesty’s welcome is only two days earlier than your Majesty."
Lamar V sighed, "Singapore’s sea route is really convenient."
Zhang Bishi laughed. "Railways are more convenient than taking a boat. If Siam connects with the King of Railways, it will not delay the journey. If there is a railway in Singapore, it will also be less tiring."
Rama V, the railway to Siam and Singapore, was worried.
Section seven hundred and ten The rich merchant and the king
Zhang Bishi arranged very well and chartered a luxury car, which is not only comfortable, but also the most important thing is that there will be no British police to harass people of their status. The last thing people want is trouble, especially when they are on this trip or in secret activities, especially when they can’t make public whether they are discovered by France or let the British know before.
Zhang Bishi is a native of Cheluping Village, Huangtang Township, xihe town City, dapu county, Guangdong Province. His father was a rural schoolteacher and doctor. He was literate when he was 15 years old. Many people left their homes and went out to make a living. Zhang Bishi also crossed the sea with fellow villagers to make a living in the Dutch city of Batavia in Nanyang. After being introduced by his fellow villagers, he went to his hometown to run Wen’s rice business. The clerk found that he was diligent, agile and excellent. He was a rare talent, honest and trustworthy. He betrothed his only daughter to him. A few years later, the boss died and Zhang Bishi
After Zhang Bishi continued to operate for less than ten years, he became the local richest man.
Zhang Bishi talks to Rama V from time to time. He is a wealthy businessman in Nanyang and a very rich adult. Apart from his excellent luck, he also has a high emotional intelligence. If he can’t make the boss like him, how can he become a boss’s son-in-law to inherit the family business?
In officialdom, he also has a delicate history. He served as the consul of the Qing court and fought against foreign factions, but he funded Kang and Sun Yat-sen. It can be said that no matter who got the day, he bought a way.
How can such a figure miss the opportunity to make a good friend with the King of Siam? The King of Siam went to China for help, so he was willing to get some big news from Zhang Bishi.
Siam is not bad because there are a large number of Chinese living in Siam, and the trade volume between them is very large, and it is the largest importer of rice in Siam and the largest trading country in Siam.
The most important thing is that Siam has a good attitude towards Chinese. Of course, there are not so many Chinese who go to Siam. The number of Chinese in Siam is much higher than that in Vietnam.
Later generations evaluated the situation in East Asia. There are three independent countries here, one China, one Japan and one Thailand (Siam). It is said that China is too big to make foreigners learn from Japan, because it is too strong to manage the reform, and Siam is too clever to deal with Britain and France.
Siamese Qiao is not only in the century, but also in ancient and modern times. They have been actively developing friendship with the Central Plains Dynasty for a long time, and the Chinese have developed smoothly in Siam.
Siam is also willing to give some preferential treatment to China businessmen in Siam, so that Chinese people can enjoy "reasonable and free commerce. Kings of all dynasties treat each other kindly." On the one hand, for a long time in Siam’s history, trade was monopolized by the royal family, and they made huge profits by building ships and trading with the outside world, but the royal family could not do business on their own, so they needed help. Obviously, the ethnic group with the richest business knowledge in Asia was the Chinese, so the Chinese had long taken over the Siam royal family’s foreign trade business. During the Qing Dynasty, the fact was that Chinese drove the tribute boats of the Siam
In addition, areas affected by Indian culture tend to be relatively extensive in management, and the tax revenue of a certain area is contracted by some wealthy businessmen. The Dutch colonies have also inherited these systems, and the Chinese have been the largest contracted tax business group in this area in history. They are also engaged in this business in Siam.
Especially in the late 1st century, Zheng Xin, a mixed-race Chinese from Chaozhou, established the Li Wu Dynasty after the demise of the Great Dynasty in Myanmar, and Wang Dali, a Siamese country, lured Chinese to come to Chaozhou, Siam, and a large number of Chinese went south to this king’s hometown. Since then, chaozhou people has also won the nickname of royal Chinese in Siam.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the British envoy to Siam, Christopher Crowe, wrote: "Passengers are the most important input from China to Siam." "A junker (Chinese sailboat) sends 12 Chinese to Bangkok at a time." Every year, there are at least 7 Chinese in Bangkok. According to his estimation, there were 70,000 Chinese in Siam in 121.
It is difficult to count the number of Chinese who have been operating and developing in Siam for hundreds of years, but the economy has occupied a higher position in Myanmar, especially the long-term monopoly of foreign trade with the Siam royal family, which has naturally made them a big trade link with Siam.
It is easy to establish a face-to-face trade network when doing business with Siam. Siam rice, sumu and all kinds of tropical fruits are sold well in the big market, and it is the largest importer of large agricultural products, second only to Vietnam’s Nanqi, which was sent by France.
Because of the history, the king of Siam still intermarried with Chinese. It is far-fetched to say that the king of Siam is Chinese, but there must be Chinese blood in their veins. This is doubtful. I wonder if it is because this king of Siam is finally quite friendly to Chinese, and there is no racism in Buddhist culture and China culture. Chinese people are comfortable in this moderate society of Siam and have won the trust of all walks of life. If the Siamese people have strong national sentiments, Zheng Xin is capable and unlikely to have enough appeal to attract so many people to follow him and finally establish a new dynasty.
Rama V did not reject the peaceful and industrious ethnic group of Chinese, and regarded it as a part of Siam long ago. Anyway, there are more than 30 ethnic groups in Siam, and the largest Thai ethnic group accounts for only 40%, the Lao ethnic group accounts for 35%, and the Chinese account for 10%. It is unrealistic to think that Chinese is the third largest ethnic group. It was not until World War II that Thailand set off a wave of Chinese exclusion under the leadership of nationalist warlords, but it was not actually implemented. After the war, those policies were abolished and the generals themselves were all of Chinese descent, and their grandfathers went to China from China. There was no
Solomon V has a relative trust in China. This time, he released Bangkok to the Great Navy in the hope of expelling France with great strength. After France colonized Cambodia, it became more and more unfriendly to Siam, which not only forced Siam to sign various unequal treaties, but also created frictions on the border many times. The ambition of annexing Siam was obvious. If they hadn’t sent troops to Vietnam first, they might have found a chance to attack Siam. Once they had a foothold in Vietnam, their goal would be Siam. Now they are about to fail in Vietnam, but it is not affected in Cambodia. It is conceivable who France will attack in the future.
In Britain, although Siam eventually dealt with Britain and France, the British were also not good birds, and they occupied a lot of special places in Siam. Moreover, in order to win over the British Siam government, they were British consultants from finance to diplomacy, and almost all the mining in Siam was handed over to the British.
But even so, it may not be able to dispel Britain’s ambition for Siam. Is Myanmar still a British protectorate? Didn’t Britain destroy Myanmar while France was fighting in Vietnam? It abolished the Burmese royal family and sent Myanmar to a province in India. This kind of situation may not happen in Siam, and it is very likely that it will happen in Siam. I was deeply shocked by this understanding, especially when Britain abolished the king of Myanmar. Rama V found that Britain and France were unreliable except China, who were more reliable in dealing with the country and never interfered in politics.
However, although Rama V took a big risk and pushed the big fleet to release Bangkok behind the British, he did not dare to enter Cambodia for fear of being retaliated by the French. As a result, he missed the opportunity and did not form a military alliance with France to deal with it. In the end, he hastily joined the war, but he still changed the situation in Cambodia, and Britain no longer supported Siam and Britain instead supported France, which made Rama V feel that he had no choice.
In order to keep Siam, let Siam people live in peace and make Siam’s mountains and rivers last forever, he is willing to claim to be a vassal according to the unification to the Central Plains dynasty, that is, the great tribute
However, Zhang Bishi’s attitude towards Rama V seems to be more friendly than he imagined. Zhang Bishi told Rama V that he did not intend to seize the territory of Nanyang region, nor did he intend to bully the Nanyang National Congress to show his etiquette to Nanyang countries. In this respect, he was qualitatively different from western countries.
However, the commercial interests in Nanyang still need to be maintained, and commercial interests are also sought in Nanyang region
Although, like Rama V, the great powers in the Central Plains often don’t think much of the small countries in Nanyang, it also worries him that if Da is not interested here, why should he risk offending Britain and France to protect Siam?
The success or failure of this trip is unpredictable. Rama V feels that he needs to find help in big officialdom. At present, this minister of Nanyang is friendly and knows Nanyang customs like the back of his hand, which is his best help.
So Rama V talked to Zhang Bishi about business. In Rama V’s impression, Chinese people are willing to do anything to make them make money.
But he soon found that this Zhang Bishi didn’t seem so easy to buy, and if it was bought at a high price, Siam might not be able to afford it.
Because this man is too rich.
After inheriting his father-in-law’s family business, Zhang Bishi showed an extraordinary industrial genius. He set up a liquor business in various countries with part of his assets, and undertook local liquor tax and Singapore pawn donation. Later, he contracted some islands in the Netherlands East India for opium and tobacco tax revenue, which was even more lucrative.
In the 16th century, due to the large number of Dutch colonies in Indonesia, the Dutch colonists were unable to grasp the benefits of many islands. Fortunately, they let overseas Chinese organize reclamation companies so that they could get tax revenue from them.
Zhang Bishi seized this opportunity to put most of his assets into this cause. In 166, he founded Yuhe Reclamation Company in Grobabu, the Netherlands, and cultivated tropical economic products such as coconut, coffee, rubber, pepper and tea on a large scale, and grew miscellaneous grains in the reclamation area, which gained great economic benefits. In 175, he founded a new reclamation company in Aceh, Sumatra, and in 177 and 17 years, he founded Yuye Reclamation Company in Yili, the Netherlands, and Liwang Reclamation Company in Java, where there was a rubber garden.
While operating the reclamation company, Zhang Bishi is good at seizing other business opportunities. He set up Dongxing Company in Wendongbu, Pahang, British Malaya to mine tin and made a lot of money. Set up Rili Bank in Rili to handle overseas Chinese exchange and remittance business and become an overseas Chinese banking giant; And gold financing in Medan, Penang to build a combination of Chinese and Western residential development of real estate; Established a joint overseas drug wholesale company. Most of the precious Chinese drugs were approved by Zhang’s drug company. Most of the western medicines were approved by Zhang’s drug company and returned to China to communicate with the overseas drug market.
No one knows how much money Zhang Bishi has, and he won’t easily disclose his property to others. But Rama V is also a child prodigy. Judging from the scale of business he told him through Zhang Bishi, this person’s wealth is probably higher than the annual national treasury income of Siam. How can such a person buy it?
Rama V guessed it was right. Zhang Bishi’s business enterprises made amazing profits. Later generations said that by 169, Zhang Bishi’s property had reached 22,000 silver, making it the richest man in China. In this year, the Qing government’s fiscal revenue was only 72,000. Zhang Bishi’s property was higher than that of the Qing government. What’s more, a Siam?
But in fact, Siam is not poor, and their financial situation is excellent.
After the reform of his father and his two generations of kings, the efficiency of Siam’s financial system has greatly increased, and Siam is rich in tropical products and resources, which enables Rama V not only to continuously carry out reforms and carry out various modernization, but also not to borrow a dime.
History in the year before Rama V’s death, Siam’s fiscal revenue was equivalent to 39% of the Qing Dynasty at that time, and its per capita income was 173 times that of the Qing Dynasty, which was also several times that of Japan. However, it is impossible for Siam’s tax rate to compare with the day when the people were frantically plundered during the reign of Qing Dynasty. Considering from other angles, Siam’s reform achievements were not lost to Japan at all.
However, during this period, when the wealth was far higher than that of China and Japan, a large number of overseas Chinese flooded into Siam to make a living. The only defect was that Siam reform did not make the country strong, but the basic fact that Siam had a population of 6 million people did not meet the conditions for becoming a strong country.
A king who values finance and a wealthy businessman who is good at making profits soon have some common ideas. For example, Zhang Bishi thinks that if Siam can increase rice cultivation, Siam’s economy will be very promising and its national strength will increase greatly.
Rama V deeply felt the same way. Before the French launched a large-scale development in Nanqi, Siam had always been China’s largest food-responding country. However, the development of Siam was limited to the middle reaches of the Chao Phraya River in the delta region, and the biggest restriction was the traffic problem.
Railroad!
They soon realized that the key to the problem was the railway.
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But instead of intervening in Siam, we should win over the Grand Lama V to express our hope to the Grand Consulate and invite him to have a direct meeting with the Grand Emperor in the near future.
