As a political elite in the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang overthrew countless people, including both political and economic skills.
What helped him defeat Zuo Zongtang's faction with economic skills was a bank.
And this bank, even today, is still constantly playing the role of a churning stick behind our backs, such as in the Meng Wanzhou incident, and of course, those in Hong Kong.
Today we will talk about the past events related to HSBC.
Many years ago, there was a popular best-selling book in China called "Red Top Merchant Hu Xueyan", which was regarded as a must-read for business tycoons.
The protagonist of the book, Hu Xueyan, is a famous merchant in the late Qing Dynasty and a representative figure of hui merchants. But his identity is not only a businessman, he is also the right-hand man of the late Qing Dynasty tycoon Zuo Zongtang, who has formed an army for Zuo Zongtang, opened a shipyard, raised military supplies, and has his presence from the suppression of the Taiping Army to the pacification of the northwest. Therefore, at the highest light, he hung the official title of a political envoy, and was also given a yellow coat from the Erpin Grand Officer, because the top beads of the official hat of the Qing Dynasty's First and Second Pin Officials were red-crowned, so they were also called red-top merchants.
Friends familiar with the history of the late Qing Dynasty know that Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang are sworn enemies. In order to defeat Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang decided to first attack Zuo Zongtang's money bag Hu Xueyan, and soon this opportunity came.
In 1882, in the eighth year of the Qing Dynasty, Hu Xueyan made a bold business decision, he set up a silk factory in Shanghai, wanting to monopolize the domestic silk business in one fell swoop, at least to break the dominance of foreigners in the silk trade.
But this caused a crazy counterattack from foreign businessmen, in addition to being targeted commercially, the international economic situation at that time was not good, which led to a large amount of raw silk he hoarded could not be sold at all.
Therefore, Li Hongzhang saw the opportunity to punch down with a set of combination punches, causing Hu Xueyan to fall to the bottom.
First of all, he asked his brother's relatives, Shao Youlian, who was then the Shanghai Dao Observation Envoy, to deliberately default on the amount that should be paid to Hu Xueyan, causing Further tension in Hu Xueyan's capital chain.
Immediately after, he let his own money bag, another major official merchant in the late Qing Dynasty, Sheng Xuanhuai, move around, cutting off Hu Xueyan's channels for raising funds from other domestic businessmen.
The last blow came from HSBC, which happened to be due at this time, and Hu Xueyan originally wanted to apply for an extension from HSBC, but Li Hongzhang found HSBC and asked them to refuse Hu Xueyan's request to postpone repayment, and at the same time let HSBC's people step up the collection.
Hu Xueyan's qianzhuang, which has completely broken the capital chain, has been squeezed again and completely bankrupt.
This is not the end, one by one, Hu Xueyan, who has been completely bankrupt, still ushered in the end of raiding the family.
To be honest, HSBC did not play a big role in this matter, and the whole thing was also caused by Hu Xueyan's own investment failure. But the point is, why would HSBC listen to Li Hongzhang? Foreign banks headquartered in Hong Kong didn't need to care about you as a Qing Dynasty official at that time.
In fact, the cooperation between Li Hongzhang and HSBC has a long history.
In 1874, the Japanese army once sent troops to land on Taiwan, and finally under the mediation of the British, it ended with the Qing government paying compensation for the withdrawal of Japanese troops. In order to deal with Taiwan's affairs, the weak Qing government had to borrow money everywhere. At this time, HSBC borrowed a usurious loan to the Qing government, and it was Li Hongzhang who presided over the matter.
Of course, this mini-version of the treaty of bereavement and humiliation of the country naturally needs to be signed by Li Zhongtang.
After so many things, Li Hongzhang thought to himself, HSBC this little guy is good, very good.
Since then, a large number of project financing of the Qing government has found HSBC, and a large number of state loans have also been borrowed from HSBC, from military loans in the Sino-Japanese War to the war reparations of the Eight-Power Alliance, all of which have their shadows, and they all occupy the majority and hold the dominant power.
At this point, this foreign bank completely dominated the financial revenue and expenditure of the Qing government after that.
Even XI Zhengfu, HSBC's agent in China, has become a new generation of red-top businessmen, wearing yellow coats and wearing the red top of Erpin.
Because of this influence, the members of the Qing government were very relieved to deposit their corrupt income at HSBC.
For example, Li Hongzhang's deposits at HSBC alone amounted to 1.5 million taels of silver.
By the time of the Republic of China, HSBC's position was still solid.
After Yuan Shikai came to power, he borrowed money from several major foreign banks such as HSBC at the cost of selling state tariffs and salt taxes.
The situation during the Chiang kai-shek government was similar, and the HSBC comprador Xi Zhengfu in China mentioned earlier had various relations with the four major families, and the Song family and the Chen family were in-laws. Xi Zhengfu's great-granddaughter is also married to Song Meiling's younger brother Song Ziliang, and from this point of view, it is necessary to call Mr. Jiang a brother-in-law.
At that time, Hong Kong, a British colony, was home to HSBC's headquarters, and HSBC also owned the majority of Hong Kong dollars. HSBC's comprador in Hong Kong, Ho Sai Wing, whose family power has continued to this day, is his nephew ho Hung-sin, the macau gambling king.
As we mentioned in the previous issue, HSBC was investigated by the US Department of Justice in 2012, not only because of the embargo, but also suspected of laundering money for various criminal organizations.
Of course, it is all business, in addition to paying huge fines, HSBC also has to perform in other aspects in exchange for the tolerance of the US Department of Justice, such as selling customer information, which is the origin of the so-called evidence that Meng Wanzhou was sued.
Even in Hong Kong in 2019, behind those well-known times, we can see the shadow of HSBC.
Of course, we won't say more about this.
Speaking of Li Hongzhang, the great Qing shoufu who was previously defined as a national thief seems to have reversed the wind comments on the Internet in recent years.
So what does the real Li Hongzhang look like?
Is it the pillar of the country that carries the pot for people, or the thin national thief in the world of Hefei?
Let's talk about Li Hongzhang in the next issue.