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The Evil of Compradors: Sheng Xuanhuai joined forces with foreign merchants to overthrow Hu Xueyan, which indirectly led to the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War
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The more I got to know Sheng Xuanhuai, the more I found that he was extremely similar to Old Man Liu. At that time, when hu Xueyan, a national entrepreneur, was giving his life to compete with foreign merchants for the right to price raw silk, what they never expected was that Sheng Xuanhuai (behind li Hongzhang, the traitor Li Hongzhang engaged in national hero Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo Zongtang supported Hu Xueyan) actually reported to foreign businessmen, originally foreign businessmen did not know Hu Xueyan's strength, and did not dare to buy silver on the market, when they learned from Sheng Xuanhuai that Hu Xueyan's silver roots were very tight, they frantically bought silver on the market, causing the people to run on Hu Xueyan's ticket number. As a result, Hu Xueyan, who had the upper hand in the "Raw Silk Merchant War", completely failed.
How did Sheng Xuanhuai know the news that Hu Xueyan's silver roots were tight? Because the telegraph company was opened by Sheng Xuanhuai at that time, he overheard the contents of Hu Xueyan's telegram and then went to inform the foreigners.
Hu Xueyan was the richest man in China at that time, and the collapse of his ticket number triggered a series of crises, resulting in the distrust of the ticket numbers in the whole of China and the only way to trade with real silver, while the corrupt Qing government did not have its own state-owned bank at that time, which in turn led to the entire Chinese economy being able to trade with real silver.
As a result, the paper money circulating in China is actually foreign, pounds, dollars, and even yen. It is tantamount to declaring that the entire foreign affairs movement has completely failed in the financial field, and its failure has brought about a series of crises, including:
First, Empress Dowager Cixi's garden has no money to repair, if the garden is not repaired well, Guangxu will not want to be pro-government;
Second, as a result, the military expenses of Li Hongzhang's navy were embezzled, resulting in the Beiyang Navy having no money to buy British warships, and the British actually sold the warships to Japan at a low price, so that the Japanese Navy quickly surpassed the Beiyang Navy in a short period of time;
Third, due to the bankruptcy of financial credit, not only did the national entrepreneurs no longer dare to borrow money from foreign banks like Hu Xueyan, but even the foreign banks of the Qing government were unwilling to lend money to it, but instead borrowed hundreds of millions of silver to Japan; therefore, before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, Japan owed Britain hundreds of millions of taels of silver, and the advisers of the navies on both sides were British. If the Japanese lose, who will pay back the borrowed silver?
Fourth, Hu Xueyan's failure in the commercial war and the bankruptcy of credit were one of the root causes of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War;
Fifth, the size of China's national economy itself has shrunk several times, the rest of the country has been occupied by foreigners, China has completely entered the semi-feudal and semi-colonial era, and even the government has become a tool for foreigners to control China;
This influence continued until 1935, which means that China did not have its own paper money for 50 years, and in 1935, the Kuomintang issued legal tender, and then its own paper money appeared.
And if China had not been infighting at that time, and Sheng Xuanhuai, the comprador, would not have been able to defeat the enemy, but Hu Xueyan would have won the victory in the pricing power of raw silk, then not only would Hu Xueyan have made tens of millions of taels of silver, but Chinese his own bank would have risen, then Cixi's garden would also have money to repair, Guangxu would have been pro-government in advance, Zuo Zongtang would have been able to recover the silver owed by Xinjiang and could be repaid immediately, and if China's financial credit was there, he could borrow silver from Britain (the Japanese borrowed 100 million taels, and the Qing government borrowed 200 million taels, because Hu Xueyan won, It is equivalent to China's financial credit has been greatly enhanced), Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Navy will also have silver to buy warships, and perhaps the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War will lose! Perhaps the Western Affairs Movement would really bring the Qing government back to being a world-class power.
By the way, this whistleblower comprador Sheng Xuanhuai, eventually advocated the nationalization of the railway, which led to the outbreak of the road protection movement, and then ignited the Wuchang Shouyi and overthrew the Qing government.
Mr. Lu Xun's evaluation of Sheng Xuanhuai was: traitor, bureaucratic capitalist, local tycoon and inferior gentleman, in fact, you can add that Sheng Xuanhuai was the first white glove comprador of foreign businessmen;
The evaluation of Hu Xueyan is: the last businessman in China's feudal society.
It is gratifying that Sheng Xuanhuai's descendants have done their best to be gamblers, while Hu Xueyan's descendants are basically scholars.
