dognovel Chapter 378: 0 tariffs?
Chapter 378: 0 tariffs?
As a local tyrant who owned thousands of acres of fertile land and a large group of Mengjia Village villagers in the mountain basin north of Bago before Zhang Chi crossed over, Meng Xingfa's influence should not be underestimated.
He is now the first to take the lead in responding to the reform, transforming and establishing "Meng's Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.", introducing shares and machinery equipment of Nanhua Group, and piloting large-scale mechanized planting. This undoubtedly played an excellent leading role among the local landlord class.
Meng Xingfa was no fool. In his early years, he'd relied on his ancestral land and the prestige of the mountaintop for a living, even leading his family to battle the natives for water. Now that times have changed, who still counts on a few dozen oxen to plow their way to a better future?
As for those hot gold mine shares, Zhang Chi lost a nephew in the last anti-drug campaign. He escaped the disaster by taking the blame himself. Now he has finally figured it out and handed over all the shares after asking for a buyout fee.
Recently, he decided that "a man who knows the times is a hero", so he simply followed Zhang Chi and boarded the Nanhua ship, converted all his land into shares, and became an agricultural capitalist.
Zhang Chi's attitude towards Meng Xingfa was also very clear: if you work hard, I will provide resources; if you don't make trouble, I will give you face. So when the Meng family's new mansion on the outskirts of Myitkyina was completed, Zhang Chi naturally accepted the invitation and attended the housewarming dinner.
This new house of Mengfu is Meng Xingfa's face project. It is 300 meters long, 150 meters wide and covers an area of nearly seven hectares.
The courtyard is fully equipped with pavilions, towers, corridors and waterside pavilions, with gardens, rockery and ponds scattered among them. The main buildings are modeled after the Suzhou garden style, with red bricks and green tiles, carved beams and painted rafters. Even the door plaques are specially hand-written in gold-lacquered regular script by an old artist.
Judging from the grandeur, it is not much inferior to the Jia Mansion in Dream of the Red Chamber.
The dinner was held in a side hall in the main courtyard, brightly lit and fragrant with aromas. The guests who came to the dinner were all local prominent families and representatives from the Chinese business community.
Now Zhang Chi has become the true Chinese King of Nanyang. When the guests heard that Zhang Chi was coming, everyone became excited and took turns to toast at the main table. No matter how much they said "I'll drink it, you can do whatever you want", Zhang Chi was forced to drink a lot of rice wine.
After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Zhang Chi felt a little dizzy, so he pulled Bai Hongsheng to walk in the yard to sober up.
The female secretary Liu Shengnan, wearing a cheongsam and a shawl, followed lightly behind. Behind her were several tall bodyguards with strong shoulders and strong backs, holding pistols and looking very imposing, to prevent anyone from disturbing them without any sense of caution.
Walking to a rockery and a stream, Zhang Chi suddenly asked, "Is Special Envoy Harold from the White Eagle side still urging us to sign that zero-tariff agreement?"
"Yeah." Bai Hongsheng nodded. "He even sent a newly drafted document yesterday."
Zhang Chi clapped his hands and said, "Damn it! Uncle Sam is still obsessed with dumping."
Bai Hongsheng laughed. "Didn't you already develop a theory of 'colonial financial closed-loop chains'? The foreigners' system of bank capital injections, trading companies, and industrial plunder is all about using this land to feed their empire."
Before the Japanese came, areas such as Pegu, Siam, Malay and Chittagong were the traditional sphere of influence of the John people. They were both the source of cheap raw materials and the dumping ground for goods.
Foreign companies like Jardine Matheson and Swire, which were well-known in the Republic of China, had businesses throughout the Far East and also had tentacles in Southeast Asia.
Especially banks like Standard Chartered Bank, which are controlled by big capital in the foggy city of the United Kingdom, made a fortune by relying on a complete chain of "banks injecting capital into colonial foreign companies, foreign companies controlling local plantations and mines, shipping raw materials back to the British Isles, and then shipping industrial products back to the colonies for sale."
Like rubber and palm plantations, Harrison & Crossfield owns hundreds of thousands of acres of land and also operates tin mines and trade.
Guthrie Company, which dominated rubber exports by hiring a large number of Chinese indentured laborers to reduce costs.
Standard Chartered Bank, which lent money and monopolized the right to issue currency in the colonies.
Steele Brothers, which controlled and monopolized rice exports.
The Irrawaddy River Steamship Company monopolizes Myanmar's inland waterway shipping, owns more than 600 ships, and controls shipping traffic in Bago.
These British trading companies were naturally massacred during the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia. After Zhang Chi led the Anmin Army to liberate Pegu and Siam, the assets of these trading companies were naturally all confiscated as "enemy property" and have now become Chinese-funded enterprises.
This is the biggest contradiction between Zhang Chi and Prime Minister Qiu. Killing someone's parents is not as great as the "great hatred" of stealing their money.
As the nominal "little brother" of the White Eagle, the Anmin Army naturally took over the gap left by the John's foreign company and was taken over by the White Eagle capital. Now, many new White Eagle foreign companies have been established in major port cities such as Chittagong, Bangkok and Yangon.
However, there is one thing that Zhang Chi has never given up.
"We can engage in international trade. Uncle Sam is currently on the rise. We should be humble and give them some of the market share we have conquered. We must also make appropriate compromises with the White Eagles to exchange some supplies and technology, but we must not give up our tariff autonomy."
"Are you afraid that if they really want zero tariffs, our private Chinese-owned industries won't be able to handle it?" Bai Hongsheng asked tentatively.
Zhang Chi nodded. "That's right. White Eagle's industrial system is the most sophisticated in the world. Even if it's substandard or second-hand goods, a shipload of them could bring down our fledgling factory. By then, private capital will be wiped out, and the Nanhua Group will be completely wiped out. The economic lifeline of our territory will be in the hands of others."
Even with the system in hand, Zhang Chi had to admit that the White Eagle was the strongest BOSS on the Blue Water Planet. Even though the system could provide some technology that was beyond the times, it was still effortless for Uncle Sam to crush the Anmin Army with his size.
"I understand." Bai Hongsheng replied in a low voice. "As for Harold... I don't think he's really following the official White House line. It seems more like some exporters and shipowners in the southern states are pushing him behind the scenes."
Zhang Chi was also a little distressed. The White Eagle side was pressing forward in diplomacy, and he couldn't figure out whether Special Envoy Harold was acting on his own initiative under the influence of the capital behind him, or whether this was what Commander Luo meant?
"These Angsa are all ruthless and heartless guys. They're impossible to tame..." Bai Hongsheng, who had also been drinking a lot, spoke boldly. "How about we sign the Most Favored Nation Agreement first and give Harold some benefits?"
"No rush, just play with him..." Zhang Chi picked up a stone and threw it into the newly built pond in Mengfu, splashing a large amount of water.
"Harold has a lot of White Eagle import and export traders behind him, but he doesn't know that I also have connections in DC..."
Through Yegorov's gloves, Zhang Chi was also connected with many of White Eagle's bank capitals and oil capitals. He was ready to test who was behind this matter.
"I just don't believe it. If the tariffs don't come down, can Harold still rely on those dozens of Marines in the diplomatic area to force me?"
Bai Hongsheng stepped forward and grabbed Zhang Chi, who was drunk and almost fell into the pond:
"I think the Hydra theory you mentioned earlier is very correct. Harold and the people behind him are just one of the heads of Hydra. The remaining heads may not care about the reciprocal zero tariff. I think we can just leave Harold alone."
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After drinking a cup of sobering soup, Zhang Chi felt much better. He lay down on the carved yellow pear wood bed in the guest room of the Meng Mansion and soon fell asleep.
Outside, Liu Shengnan chased Miss Meng away, nodded to the bodyguard at the door, closed the guest room door, and walked towards the big bed...