Chapter 1858 Sharing Wealth
Although the event organized by Haihan Bank was already a sensational event in postwar Seoul, it was still a bit crude in the eyes of Haihan. If it were operated according to Haihan's standard celebration content, then the opening of Haihan Bank's Seoul branch probably would not have ended so hastily. At least there would have to be a dragon and lion dance parade to go around Seoul. .
However, North Korea does not want Haihan to be too high-profile in publicizing this matter. After all, several bank accounts in Seoul have official or even royal backgrounds. Not everyone is happy to see Haihan. Bank opens in Seoul. If Kim Sang-hyun and Choi Ming-gil hadn't both appeared, today's scene might not have been completed so smoothly.
For ordinary North Koreans, the country's banks are naturally more reliable, but Haihan has very rich experience in banking operations. His preferred customers are not ordinary people, but businessmen and merchants who have a large amount of funds. The rich and powerful use these upper-class people in society to drive the bank's business.
The way Haihan Bank proved its strength was also very simple and crude. It invited the distinguished guests present today to the vault located in the second entrance yard and showed them the gold and silver that had just arrived here a few days ago.
Any language modification is not as effective as the visual impact brought by the gold bars and silver ingots piled up on the entire wall here. Even high-ranking officials like Kim Sang-heon and Cui Ming-gil who do not put money in their eyes, but It was the first time in my life that I faced so many gold and silver belongings, and my heartbeat could not help but speed up. As for the businessmen standing in the back row, their eyes were already shining and their saliva was about to flow out.
"Everyone, seeing is believing. Real money cannot be deceived. I wonder if there is any other bank in Seoul that can compete with us in terms of funds? Strong funds mean safety. This is the truth. I believe all the distinguished guests present understand that whether you are depositing or lending, you are welcome to open an account with our bank. As for the specific procedures, you can consult the staff here later if you feel inconvenient or need special services. For guests, we can also handle it at your doorstep.”
After the public ceremony, Mei Baiji felt much more relaxed, and he felt much more relaxed when he introduced the advantages of the bank to the guests. For the potential customers present, before they have experienced the advanced operation methods of Haihan Bank, the most intuitive comparison item is the amount of funds. Private banks and banks are at a disadvantage in all aspects. Even the banks in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are backed by well-funded salt merchants, grain merchants, and maritime merchants, are still unable to compare with Haihan in this project.
However, North Korean officials, who lack professional financial knowledge, did not realize what the massive funds held by Haihan Bank meant, nor did they think that such an institution might affect the direction of North Korea's domestic funds in the long run. Even Kim Sang-hyun, who has always been scheming, could not imagine that the various functions undertaken by Haihan Bank could even achieve goals that could not be achieved in war.
North Korean officials who have never been to Haihan territory can hardly have a first-hand understanding of just how wealthy Haihan is. However, after visiting the vault of Haihan Bank here today, they can all confirm that the rumors are indeed true. Some people have begun to think that maybe depositing money in institutions opened by Haihan people to earn interest is also a good financial management method. After all, the deposit interest rate announced by Haihan Bank is far higher than that of domestic banks.
However, although the financial management method of saving money and earning interest is stable, it is not very profitable. The information sent by Haihan Bank to these large customers also has other methods with higher returns, such as the bonds that will be issued for industrial cooperation projects, and the interest rate will be Much higher than the deposit. If even this cannot meet the investment needs of some customers, you can also ask Haihan Bank to provide a tailor-made investment plan, and it is no problem if you want to invest funds overseas.
Since the North Korean officials present do not belong to the same camp, some topics regarding the transfer of benefits cannot be discussed too deeply and can only be touched upon. Those who are truly interested can naturally consult the bank for details later.
Mei Baiji booked a restaurant in the city in advance and held a luncheon to entertain the distinguished guests present today. The heavyweight guests at this banquet were two opinion leaders in North Korean official circles.
It is interesting to say that although the two men had very different opinions on confronting Qing Yi, their political views on how to cooperate with Haihan after the war were similar. Kim Sang-hyun has been dragging his feet in the negotiations, but in fact he is only cooperating with King Li Jie's intentions and has not raised any objections. Although Cui Mingji participated in the negotiations under the banner of the opposition, everyone soon realized that he was not here to oppose the cooperation plan, but to gain a place for himself in the negotiations and subsequent implementation. Let Kim Sang-hyun's faction monopolize the many benefits that this cooperation plan will bring.
Because Kim Sang-hyun had previously led the introduction of Hae-han reinforcements to fight against the Qing Dynasty, he had won unprecedented prestige in North Korea's domestic political arena, as well as the full trust of King Li Zhu. Coupled with Hae-han's support, he was already in competition with Cui Mingji. Gained a clear upper hand. But Cui Mingji seized the opportunity given by King Li Zhu and used his research results on the cooperation plan as the content of the negotiation. He won the favor of the Haihan people in a very short period of time and returned to the center of the stage.
But for Haihan, since the interest groups represented by these two people are willing to promote the industrial cooperation plan, the best situation is for them to temporarily stop their internal fighting and first convince the king to sign the cooperation agreement so that the plan can be implemented as soon as possible. to the implementation stage.
As for the struggle between the two factions, Haihan believes that it is not impossible to resolve. If the two parties have common interests, perhaps the political situation will change in the future. As for where these common interests lie, the opening of Haihan Bank may gradually make the situation clear.
Perhaps due to the impact of the opening of the Seoul branch, the negotiation process between the two parties has indeed become smoother, and some originally controversial content has also been unanimously agreed upon by the concessions made by the North Korean side. By late August, the two parties had reached preliminary agreements on the cooperative development of several major projects.
According to the agreement, Haihan will build a large shipyard at the Datong River base to accept the construction tasks of civilian, commercial and military ships. As part of the military assistance, in the future, exploration-class and expedition-class warships of export models will be built here through cooperation with North Korean materials and labor contractors, and then equipped to the North Korean naval fleet to enrich the maritime armed forces.
In addition, Haihan will build a vast salt field on the coastal tidal flat north of the mouth of the Datong River. Its production scale is even expected to be comparable to the Yinggehai salt field, which has the largest output under Haihan's rule - of course, North Korea It may take several years of construction for this salt farm to reach the same production scale. The salt produced here will mainly be supplied to North Korean officials at low prices. Although it has not been explicitly mentioned in the agreement, there is actually the possibility of using part of it as official salt. The first mine Haihan selected in North Korea was also very close to the base of the Datong River. It was on the south bank of the estuary. The straight-line distance between the two places was only fifty miles. This place was a large-scale open-pit iron mine in later generations, which happened to be very suitable for the mining technology of this era. In addition, there is a phosphate mine not far to the north of the Datong River base, which can also be mined in the open. As for coal, which has a wide range of uses, there are many mines that are already being mined near Pyongyang. Buying it directly from North Korea is cheaper than mining it yourself. In addition, Haihan’s own professional and technical personnel are limited, so it is not possible for the time being. Think again.
For these three industries alone, Haihan expects to gradually employ more than 30,000 people from North Korea as development progresses, and this number may increase after production is put into operation. If we include the North Koreans working for Haihan inside and outside the Taedong River base, then there may be 40,000 to 50,000 North Koreans working for Haihan in the Taedong River Basin alone.
This is only the population engaged in front-line labor. If we consider that the output of these industries is almost all sold in North Korea, then the number of North Koreans who rely on Haihan for their livelihood is far more than this. As for how many officials and dignitaries will benefit from it, it is even more difficult to calculate a more accurate number now.
The benefits North Korea has gained from this are also obvious. In addition to providing long-term jobs for tens of thousands of war refugees, more importantly, the industries provided by Haihan will help maintain North Korea's stability. As one of the conditions of exchange, Wang Tom has agreed to Li Yan. After the iron ore mining on the south bank begins, he will build an arsenal near the Datong River base. Haihan will transfer part of the gun manufacturing technology to North Korea and guide North Korea to produce it on its own. Advanced weapons.
This condition was completely unacceptable to the North Koreans. Although the manufacturing technology transferred by Haihan was not the most advanced weapons and equipment, it was enough for North Korea. Wang Tom claimed that as long as the North Korean army has a sufficient number of guns and artillery, coupled with sufficient training intensity and correct tactics, it will be easy for North Korea to defeat the Qing army in the north on its own in the future.
Being able to make guns and warships on his own is an advanced skill that even the Qing Dynasty does not possess. Li Jie, who wanted to use this to bring his country's military strength to a higher level, did not hesitate to do so after receiving Haihan's affirmative answer. The industrial cooperation agreement was signed, allowing the Haihan people to build related industries within the agreed area.
For North Korean politics, this is probably the only time since the Ding Mao Rebellion in 1627 that various factions in the officialdom have unified their opinions, which can be regarded as a very rare phenomenon.
Behind this spectacle, of course, the coordination made by Haihan is indispensable. Prominent figures like Kim Sang-hyun and Cui Ming-gil have privately subscribed for shares in these properties through Haihan Bank, and will be able to receive generous dividends in the next few years just by lying down.
However, it was not these two high-ranking officials in the court who subscribed the most shares in North Korea, but the royal family represented by Li Jie. In these properties written into the agreement, the Li family enjoys 10% of the shares, and they are exclusively owned by the reigning king. However, the national treasury and Li Zhu's private treasury had already been squeezed clean by huge military expenditures during the Anti-Qing War. Li Zhu could not spend so much money to operate this matter, so he actually only paid some symbolic money. , and got the shares that Haihan handed over to him almost as a gift.
Haihan did not propose such a straightforward "cooperation plan" at the beginning of the negotiation, mainly because of the lack of a financial institution like a bank that can facilitate the operation of large amounts of funds. If a large amount of gold and silver were to be directly dispatched to supply these special shareholders, it would be It is actually extremely inconvenient for Haihan. After the bank opens its branch in Seoul, it only needs to open accounts for these special shareholders. Most of the time, their income is just a number on the ledger, and there is no need to allocate a large amount of gold and silver. One time payment.
After the bank debuts, all parties have confirmed its safety and convenience features, so that special methods of transferring benefits can be implemented.
And another agreement that Haihan had been thinking about finally took shape after this. Park Puk-soo spent nearly a month persuading Kim Sang-heon to relax restrictions on immigration and changing nationality. At this time, Kim Sang-heon had actually acquired shares in several major industries through Haihan Bank. It seemed that he was also a member of the vested interests, and his position was naturally no longer as tough as before.
According to the revised immigration management regulations, North Koreans can apply to change their nationality on their own after working in various industrial institutions owned by Haihan for one year, but they still need to pay a tax to North Korean officials before denaturalizing. However, North Koreans with official positions are not included in this list and are not allowed to apply to change their nationality. In addition, those who are guilty of crimes or are on the run after being charged with a crime, even if they have changed their nationality, Haihan still has to return them to North Korea for processing.
Perhaps because they feel that working years and denaturalization fees are sufficient restrictions, North Korea has not set any specific restrictions on the number of people who can apply to change their nationality each year.
Although Haihan is still not satisfied with this immigration management method, it is almost the best condition that can be obtained, and it can only be implemented accordingly. Haihan's desire to obtain a large number of immigrants from North Korea will be difficult to achieve within at least one year.
At the end of August 1637, as the industrial cooperation agreement between the two countries was reached, construction began on several industries in the Datong River Basin. The nearly 10,000 North Korean refugees staying at the Taedong River base and near Pyongyang who had not yet returned home finally got the livelihood they had been waiting for, and were transported to the construction site in batches to start working.
(End of chapter)