Bank of America owes the Manchu government $10.8 billion, how on earth did it owe it? Finally paid it back?
In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled with the Guangxu Emperor abandoning the city. At that time, Qianzhuang, the chief helmsman of the Southern Dart of the Great Qing Dynasty, was a dart bureau specifically responsible for managing the Treasury of the Great Qing Dynasty, and they had chain institutions throughout the country, and the chief helmsman, Chen Yuxin, was in charge of the transfer of the Treasury silver and silver two.
Shortly after the Coalition invaded Beijing, U.S. troops, under the command of officer Macagara, robbed many of China's money houses, silver trumpets, and pawnshops, and they focused on robbing the Treasury of the Qing Dynasty. When the Southern Dart Bureau of the Qing Dynasty heard that the national treasury had been robbed, the chief helmsman called on the martial arts masters to spontaneously organize more than 70 dart bureaus to undertake the heavy responsibility of protecting the property of the imperial court.
The final result was quite satisfactory, under the leadership of Chen Yuxin, they not only saved the general treasury of the Qing Dynasty and the gold and silver of 27 branches of the country, as well as a large number of national treasures and cultural relics, but also led people to break into the US embassy overnight and kidnapped 7 Americans, including McCagara.
Chen Yuxin made a request to the United States to exchange repayments for hostages, but the negotiation process was difficult, lasting eight years, until in 1908, under the mediation of Citibank's Shanghai branch, the bureau reached a $10.8 billion U.S. arrears with the Federal Reserve Bank.
In the agreement between the two sides, it is written that the general rudder of the Great Qing Dynasty has deposited 260 million taels of gold, 386 million taels of silver, 3,600 strings of Korean pearls, and other jade treasures, and after approval by Citibank shanghai, nine clauses have been reached. Of these, $4.2 billion in arrears should be paid off by February 8, 1938, and $6.6 billion in compensation to be paid by June 4, 1998.
It is said that in order to prevent counterfeiting, in the payment instructions, the mispelling of words such as gold was deliberately written, and there were misspellings in every place, and because of this, it became the basis for the United States not to recognize the receipt later, so in the end they did not pay back.