The late Qing government, which had only ten silver yuan left in the treasury, must not be able to pay this money, and since February 1853, the Qing government borrowed 13,000 silver oceans from the ocean, and began to borrow abroad. Over the next 58 years, 208 foreign debts were owed, totaling 1.3 billion taels of silver. Among them, the well-known "Xinxiu Treaty" 450 million taels, the "Shimonoseki Treaty" 200 million taels, the "Nanjing Treaty" 21 million silver dollars, and the "Beijing Treaty" 8 million taels.
Treasury silver
So, will such a high debt be settled because of the demise of the Qing government? Of course not. Chinese pay attention to "paying the father's debts and the son", the Republic of China government that succeeded the Qing government automatically became the "unjust leader".
It is also a shame to say that when Yongzheng took the throne, the Qing government's treasury was full of 8 million taels of silver. After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, the national inventory doubled several times, and the old father Yongzheng left 60 million taels of silver for his precious son. After Qianlong's efforts, suppressing the rebellion, expanding the territory, and going down to the south of the Jiangsu six times, the national treasury barely maintained to 70 million taels of silver.
However, after Qianlong there was no Ming Jun, especially after the extravagant Cixi came to power, the Qing government completely began to make ends meet.
In 1912, Empress Dowager Longyu issued the "Edict of Abdication", and Puyi's abdication heralded the demise of the Qing government. When Yuan Shikai took over the mess and cleaned up the treasury with anticipation, he was dumbfounded, because there were only a few silver ingots (another 10 silver yuan) left in the treasury.
But what if the debt is still there?
The foreign debt situation of the Qing government
As we all know, the turning point at which the Qing government began to borrow was the Sino-Japanese War, because since then, the debt owed has been counted in "100 million". So, how much money does the Qing government owe?
In 1853, Wu Jianzhang, a Daotai in Shanghai, borrowed 13,000 silver oceans in order to eliminate the Taiping Army, and it has been out of control ever since. By 1911, of the 1.3 billion taels of foreign debt owed by the Qing government, the reparations required for unequal treaties alone accounted for 60% of the foreign debt. Only 1% of the debt was actually used for the revolution, and only 6% for coastal defense. Therefore, the late Qing government was either paying back the money, or on the way to find a way to repay the money.
From the beginning of the Opium War in 1840 to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, the Qing government signed as many as 1,100 treaties and treaties, almost all of which were unequal treaties.
Britain was the first to taste the sweetness, signing the Treaty of Guangzhou in 1841, and received 6.7 million taels of reparations from the Qing government. The following year, the Qing government again signed the Treaty of Nanjing with Britain, this time worth 21 million silver dollars. Only 16 years later, Xiaolongnu came out of the valley of despair, and the British Empire began to float, this time the demanding Britain only asked for 2 million taels through the Treaty of Tianjin.
It's just a million taels of silver, which is still a small wind and waves for the imperial court, because the real stormy waves are also coming. Until 1895, when China and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the amount of reparations was shocking, 200 million taels of silver was only the basic compensation, plus 30 million taels of "ransom fees", the desperate Qing government could only tear down the eastern wall to make up for the western wall, and borrow money from Russia, France and Germany to repay debts.
At the same time, in order to repay the debts of these three countries in turn, the mining rights in the northeast, the South Manchuria Railway, and the management rights of Lushun, Dalian, Jiaozhou Bay, and Guangzhou Bay can only be handed over to Russia, France and Germany.
However, what really makes the Chinese people unable to raise their heads is the Xinqiu Treaty. 450 million taels of silver, plus interest paid off in 39 years, the rolling profit is equivalent to 1.3 billion taels of silver. As a result, the Qing government's largest foreign debt was created.
The isolated Qing government had no right to resist, and could only compromise and submit endlessly, and even cheeky to curry favor, in exchange for the lions of the Western powers.
In the end, the Qing government, which was troubled internally and externally, collapsed, but the debt still existed.
The financial situation of the Qing government
In the autobiography of the last emperor Puyi, "My First Half of Life", it is mentioned that Puyi once went to the treasury to register the antiques left by Qianlong when he was young, and the moment he opened the treasury, the little emperor was shocked. He only knew that Qianlong loved collecting, but he never thought that this mountain of treasures could be so overwhelming. Of course, these treasures were eventually squandered and looted.
The glory of the Qing Dynasty lasted for a hundred years, but it left a terrible sequelae: the royal family became more and more extravagant, the bureaucracy became more and more corrupt, and the people became poorer and poorer.
Especially the people, the relief money that has been allocated from the treasury has been exploited layer by layer, and there is not much left. After that, all kinds of exploitation continued, the Qing officials and the people could not survive, the imperial court taxed the people, and the corrupt officials doubled the taxes of the people, and internal worries arose.
Take Qianlong's favorite Hejun, when Jiaqing will raid the house of Helong, 800 million taels of silver alone will be searched! You know, this money is equivalent to the tax revenue of the Qing government in the Qianlong period 15!
Film and television stills
So, are those in power aware of this problem? At least in Cixi's view, if there are corrupt officials, it means that they still have dependence on the imperial court, and they will definitely not oppose, so it is better to raise this group of corrupt officials, which is equivalent to maintaining the stability of the Qing Dynasty.
Compared to these corrupt officials, Cixi himself was extremely profligate.
In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War was in urgent need of military spending, but unfortunately, it hit Cixi's 60th birthday. For her, a decent birthday party is the most important thing. So, this luxurious feast spent 10 million taels of silver.
Since there is a banquet, let's build a platform and build a pavilion, well, 2.4 million taels of silver went out. After the stage was set up, it had to be decorated, and the lamps alone cost another 1.3 million taels. Since the stage is so bright, simply renovate the palace, and nearly 80 taels of silver will be spent. Cixi loves beauty, there must be new clothes for the birthday, and it costs more than 200,000 yuan just to buy a dress! Coupled with gold and silver jewelry and other decorations, 400,000 stunned did not stop.
Cixi Luxury Night Banquet
Even in daily life, Cixi is quite extravagant. Li Lianying, the chief eunuch, once said that Empress Dowager Cixi spent 4,000 taels of silver in just one day. If all this money had been used for coastal defense construction, the Qing Dynasty would not have been bombarded by artillery so quickly. Cixi eats delicately, rice alone has to be divided into many kinds, the stove in the imperial dining room is more than 50, 50 pounds of elbows alone every day, and countless fruits.
This luxury of Cixi continued until Empress Dowager Longyu, who, according to Puyi's recollection, had hundreds of dishes for her own meal, so much so that six tables could not be placed.
In addition to paying attention to eating, Cixi is also very particular about dressing, with more than 100 bath towels for a bath and 3,000 pairs of socks changed a year. There are more than 2,000 pieces of clothing for the trip, and you won't wear them once you wear them.
Living is exquisite, and after death, it is even more extravagant, and the phoenix crown on the head is worth tens of millions, not to mention the priceless night pearl in the mouth. No wonder Cixi will be robbed of the tomb, who is not moved by such a pompous tomb?
So, now do you know why the Qing Dynasty's treasury was so short? All the looted people's fat and people's ointment were used to beautify the government, and the incompetent government then borrowed money to live by "spending ahead of time", and it was really unreasonable for the Qing Dynasty not to die.
Cixi funeral goods
Who cleaned up the mess for the Qing government?
Who else? Of course, it is the government of the Republic of China, and its strength does not allow it to escape the clutches of the Western powers, so it can only wait for the fate of being ruthlessly slaughtered by robbers.
Sun Yat-sen's "Great President's Letter to Friends and Friends" openly acknowledged the Qing government's responsibility for reparations owed and foreign debts: "All treaties concluded between the Qing government and other countries before the revolution shall be recognized by the Republic of China as valid, and until the expiration of the treaty." Before the revolution, the Qing government also recognized the responsibility of repaying foreign debts and reparations recognized by the Qing government, and did not change their conditions. ”
At that time, Yuan Shikai thought that there would be a surprise when he opened the door of the Qing Dynasty's treasury, but he was only left in shock and was forced to continue to repay. The most terrifying thing is, of course, Gengzi's reparations, so I can only follow the Qing government to borrow money from banks in various countries. This loan does not matter, the interest is 98,000 taels, which is equivalent to paying twice the compensation of Gengzi.
As early as 1908, the Qing government sent Liang Cheng, the counselor to the United States, to meet with the US Secretary of State. As a result, the US side inadvertently revealed a piece of information that the US government had to pay more reparations, so Liang Cheng seized the opportunity and constantly lobbied the US government to refund part of the reparations. Later, under the pressure of public opinion, US President Roosevelt agreed to refund the principal and interest to fund Chinese students and education. Since then, many countries have followed suit and returned part of the reparations.
Of course, this is not the kindness of the Western powers, but a different form of aggression. You taste, at least this funding from the United States, but trained a lot of pro-American people, and later a large number of people devoted themselves to the construction of the United States.
The outbreak of World War I also gave the Republic of China government a respite, and European countries agreed to suspend the payment of Gengzi reparations for 5 years in order to win China into the partnership. Fortunately, World War I ended in the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the arrears of these two countries were written off.
Soon, revolution broke out in Russia, and there was one less creditor. It was not until 1924 that the Soviet government issued a statement officially abandoning the remaining reparations.
Although various countries have returned the reparations one after another, there is only one country that refuses to give up, and that is Japan. Of course, Japan also agreed to return it, but the conditions were quite harsh.
What is incomprehensible is that until the outbreak of the full-scale war of aggression against China, the National Government is still paying this arrears, which is really strange. At that time, China and Japan were at loggerheads, and Japan was still arrogant in urging the government to pay reparations, because they wanted to use this money to expand the army, and in turn to squeeze and annihilate China.
This reparations were not paid until the outbreak of Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war on Japan by the United States and Britain.
On January 15, 1939, the National Government issued a circular announcing the cessation of all Gengzi reparations. In the past 39 years, China has paid 664 million taels of silver, and after deducting the refund, the actual amount of compensation is 570 million taels.
Of course, the money can be lost, and the unequal treaty is still in force. It was not until after the founding of New China that these unequal treaties were all abolished, and the humiliation of the past was completely over, opening a new page.
The bad debts left by the corrupt Qing government were carried down in this way. However, how arduous the process of repaying debts is, and the suffering endured by hundreds of millions of people has also nailed the incompetence of the Qing government to the pillar of shame in history forever!
It can be seen from the above that the former Qing government used subservience to establish unequal relations in exchange for peace, but it ended up looking forward to the fate of being at the mercy and slaughter. There is no capital to confront it, let alone the confidence to resist, and it is ruthlessly labeled as the "sick man of East Asia".
To be backward is to be beaten, and to lose power and humiliate the country is inevitable, and this is a lesson left to the countrymen.
In 1949, New China announced a new foreign policy: "Clean the house and then treat you."
New China was founded
Getting rid of the burden of history and getting rid of foreign sanctions is the confidence of the Chinese, and it is even more arrogant! It was, and so will it be! Not convinced? Then try again!