1928: The rise of giant merchants

July 7, the 17th year of the Republic of China (1928).

The Jinling National Government officially announced the abolition of unequal treaties between China and foreign countries.

Wang Zhengting, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of the National Government, held a press conference and issued a declaration of abolition in public: If the treaty with various countries has expired, the original treaty will be abrogated and a new treaty will be made; if the treaty has not yet expired, it will be terminated through "formal" procedures. If the original covenant has been concluded, a new covenant shall be made; if the old covenant has expired and the new covenant has not yet been concluded, a temporary measure shall be made.

In the afternoon of the same day, Wang Zhengting and the U.S. Minister to China Ma Murui jointly signed the "China-U.S. Tariff Treaty". The United States became the first powerful country to support the Jinling National Government's independent tariff policy. At this time, the United States was already the world's number one power and enjoyed international prestige. And the strength has faintly surpassed the former empire where the sun never sets.

With the United States taking the lead in supporting, other major powers such as Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and other countries have also begun to respond. The realization of true tariff independence is just around the corner. The only one who opposes the National Government is still Japanese invaders.

They completely ignored Wang Zhengting's declaration and continued to go their own way, extremely resistant to the tariff independence strategy.

As the number one supporter, the United States has also received the most-favored-nation commitment and treatment.

When the news came, countless businessmen applauded, but Ye Luo was not so excited.

Because this tariff autonomy agreement only completely reformed the two major problems of the most unreasonable uniform tax (unified tax rates for all goods) and the non-unification of land and sea tariffs, the actual managers of tariffs are still British people, not officials of the National Government. .

There are still restrictions on the increase in tax rates for imported goods. Basically, they will be implemented in accordance with the tax rates agreed at the 1926 Tariff Conference. As for the domestic product protection policy, it is even more difficult to implement. It can only be said that this declaration has painted a beautiful picture for countless Chinese businessmen. As for the big pie, when it will be fully realized, everyone has no idea.

Only Ye Luo knew this point in time, and the spring for their Chinese businessmen would not come until the new tariffs were completely implemented in early 1930.

Another consular jurisdiction that Wang Zhengting had in mind could not be negotiated.

The negotiation was going well at first, but for some reason various countries suddenly put forward various obstructive opinions, and the negotiation suddenly reached a deadlock. If the foreigners in China were brought under the jurisdiction of the local courts, it would inevitably directly level the status gap between the Chinese and foreigners. This is obviously the current situation of the great powers. Something that cannot be tolerated.

After several discussions, they finally only agreed to reorganize the courts of the two concessions in Shanghai, take back the jurisdiction of the two concessions, and establish the court system of the National Government.

As for the recovery of concessions and leased land, it is like a fantasy. It is just a request, and the great powers will not satisfy it at all.

The reform of the judicial system is exactly what Ye Luo wants.

At that time, the public concession and the French Concession only had the Concession Court, which was jointly managed by foreigners and Chinese. However, the actual right to speak was in the hands of the consulate, the Ministry of Industry, etc., and the Chinese had no right to interfere.

The handling of Galt's murder is the best proof of this.

Because of this unclear case, Wang Zhengting was ready to take back the jurisdiction of the two concessions in Shanghai. Even if the Chinese were guilty, they would have to be tried!

Now the Concession Court is undergoing intensive reorganization, and judicial talents from all walks of life must be immediately mobilized to form a temporary court. Many people must be transferred from the Songhu Police Department and other agencies. Previously, a group of Ye's security companies and Ye family's cronies have entered these institutions. middle.

In order to comply with this major move by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the anti-gang and anti-evil operations carried out by Shi Zhongcheng and others in Shanghai continued in full swing. A number of gangs suffered heavy losses, and they also saw the determination of Zhang Dingyao and others.

The New Labor Federation is undoubtedly the gang that has suffered the most serious losses.

When the Labor Federation was disbanded, Ye Chen with a smile took away all the gray industries and most of the warehouse inventory. Unable to digest the heavy smoke, he cooperated with the Eight-Party Party and Yu Likui's rickshaw shop. Zhang Wanlin's line managed to get rid of a lot of opium, but he didn't expect that the 37th Army Independent Regiment would conduct a frantic raid on opium dens in the county and suburbs, causing him to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Ye Chen, whose vitality was severely weakened, could not support so many "brothers" who came from the Labor Federation, and he was reluctant to part with the batch of human resources he had originally allocated, so he had no choice but to shyly ask the three tycoons of Yongxing Company to borrow money, but was rejected. .

Without money, the New Labor Union suddenly plummeted, with half of the employees leaving overnight. The same happened to other gangs, who were all smitten by Ye Luoyan.

Their messy financial operation model is fine when they are not being targeted. They can maintain a balance by collecting protection fees, selling cigarettes and earning income from gray industries. But once they are targeted, they don't even need to fight with them with real swords and guns. , as long as part of their financial source is cut off, the people under them will become disengaged.

After this sweep, only the first and second-rate big forces such as the Qing Gang and Hongmen were left in Shanghai. The next-level Bai Gang, Wuhu Gang, etc. were seriously injured and could not make much splash. Hundreds of large and small Within a few days, there were only a dozen or so gangs left.

Ye Luo suddenly felt that the air was much fresher.

Coupled with the tens of thousands of people coming from the north, the number of unemployed people in Shanghai has increased sharply. After the pressure on food, clothing, housing and transportation has increased, the city's security has also become slightly chaotic. Unfortunately, this time coincides with the reorganization of the Concession Court, and the Songhu Police Department has no intention of going there. Take care of these chores.

The 37th Army Independent Regiment ultimately failed to capture Fu Xiaoan, who fled to Japan, but the old-school businessmen group who had close ties with Fu Xiaoan suffered a disaster. They were jointly and severally held responsible, and were arrested one after another for interrogation and torture.

Finally, according to the rule of paying 100-1,000 oceans per person, the old-school wealthy businessmen were asked to redeem people from Longhua Prison, and the large sum of money extorted from the wealthy businessmen was used as military expenses.

Knowing that they were not welcome, the old-school merchants and Manchu elders immediately began to gather together to keep warm, and formed a new business group called the Shanghai Bund Business Hundred Alliance.

Their strength and resources still exceeded Ye Luo's expectations. I don't know who had the connections in Jinling, but they survived in the end. The price was that they had to pay an astronomical application fee of two million oceans after establishing the Business Alliance. !

This protection fee was jointly funded by Zhang Honglu and other leading old-school businessmen. As soon as it was deposited in HSBC, Song Ziwen said that it had been transferred countless times and fell into the account of Qianghua Company.

When Ye Luo heard that it was Qianghua Company, he understood.

It was the company of Kong Xiangxi's cousin. It was located in Chongqing. It was originally Jufu Yangxing Company. Its main business was shipping!

Kong Xiangxi and his wife arranged the wedding of the century for the principal and Soong Meiling last year. On December 1, 1927, the two held religious weddings and secular weddings respectively at the Soong's residence on Seymour Road, Shanghai, and the Dahua Hotel, which caused a sensation.

And Kong Xiangxi also used the power of the principal to become the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the National Government, allowing the Kong family to take the first step to become one of the four major families.

After that, the Kong family became the richest family in the country. As the limerick of later generations wrote, "The Jiang family is the Chen family party, and the Song family sisters are the Kong family wealth"!

Chen Boda wrote in the article "Four Major Families" that they had raised more than 20 billion US dollars!

According to the current exchange rate, that is nearly 50 billion oceans!

What is the concept of 20 billion U.S. dollars? In 1995, Bill Gates became the world's richest man with assets of 20 billion U.S. dollars!

But now, it is 1928.

Compared with these officials and businessmen who hold top power, Ye Luo is indeed not even a small fish or shrimp.

But he was also curious, how much money had he earned in the past few months after returning to China?

Ye Luo didn't wait long.

Because as the U.S. stock market gradually reached its peak in the first half of the year, the ongoing currency shocks were far more terrifying than anyone imagined.

And he happens to have a large amount of U.S. dollars in his hands, because he is still a VIP customer of Citibank, and he can unconditionally exchange the U.S. dollars in his account into oceans at the real-time exchange rate at any time, so Ye Luo did not hesitate this time, and after the cleaning storm gradually subsided, After that, he drove Shi Jianqiao straight to the Citibank headquarters building!