Chapter 333 Thousand Islands
Hua Village has been extremely lively these days, and there is an endless stream of people coming to congratulate him. George doesn’t even know where he got so many relatives.
They are both members of the royal family, so forget it about the princes.
But even the seven aunts and eight aunts of the Grand Duchess came to join in the fun, which George really didn't expect.
Who said Europeans are not sociable?
That’s because people don’t want to talk to you.
The young Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess grew up quickly, and they grew white and fat in just a few days. The elder sister’s name is Alexandra, and the younger brother’s name is Boris. Both names are Ye. Katerina picked it up.
The name Alexandra has no special meaning.
George's brother who died in infancy was named Boris.
From the perspective of Easterners, this seems unlucky.
Ekaterina believes that this is the continuation of life.
It doesn’t matter to George, he can be called whatever he wants, as long as the children can grow up healthily.
Anne is a little regretful, but it doesn’t matter. Anne and George are still young and still have a chance.
On August 2, Alexandra and Boris were baptized according to the Orthodox tradition. Nicholas and Alex attended as the godfather and godmother of the two children respectively.
After the baptism ceremony, George began to prepare to return to Vladivostok.
Alexeyev should be very happy. Nicholas named a newly commissioned armored cruiser "Yureyev" and equipped it with the Siberian Fleet.
"Yuryev" will, together with two light cruisers, escort the "Dolgorukov" back to Vladivostok.
On August 15, under the joint mediation of Britain, France, Russia and Germany, Japan and the Qing Empire reached an agreement. The Qing Empire paid Japan 30 million taels of silver in exchange for Japan returning the Liaodong Peninsula to the Qing Empire. .
The compensation of 200 million taels of silver had already overwhelmed the Qing Empire.
Now with an additional 30 million, the Qing Empire's need for loans is even more urgent.
On September 10, Witte took the initiative to invite a French consortium to establish the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank in St. Petersburg.
The purpose of Daosheng Bank is not for loans, but for the China Eastern Railway.
In order to avoid causing concerns in other countries, Dowson Bank came forward to undertake the construction project of the Middle East Railway, and then handed over the project to the Middle East Railway Company headquartered in Vladivostok, thus minimizing the influence of the Russian Empire in the Far East. expansion.
The investors of Daosheng Bank are the International Commercial Bank of St. Petersburg, the Siberian Bank of Vladivostok, as well as 6 financial institutions including French Bank Hodinger, ABN AMRO, Lyon Trust Company, and National Discount Bank of Paris. .
At the beginning of its establishment, the principal of Daosheng Bank was 6 million rubles.
The bank's board of directors has eight directors, including five from Russia and three from France.
The first chairman of the board was Duke Ukdomsky, who had accompanied Nicholas on his travels around the world.
In addition to the Eastern Railway, another major task of establishing Daosheng Bank was to issue 100 million ruble bonds for the Qing Empire.
It was precisely because of this loan that the Qing Empire agreed to have Russia build the Middle East Railway.
If George were still in St. Petersburg, he would definitely laugh at Werther to his face for overestimating his capabilities.
The Russian Empire had to issue bonds to build its own warships. The treasury was so poor that it couldn't even pay salaries, yet it dared to promise to help the Qing Empire issue bonds. Financial people are really brave.
The main reason why Werther dared to promise to help was because of George, a wealthy man.
Everyone knows George’s ability to amass money. In just a few years, the Bank of Siberia has become the most powerful bank in the Russian Empire. In addition to asking George to help sell bonds, Witte also wanted the Bank of Siberia to assist the Imperial Treasury in promoting the silver ruble.
The silver ruble is the paper ruble. To put it bluntly, it is paper.
Prior to this, Russia's rubles were all gold rubles, which were directly linked to gold. The currency value was quite strong. Prices throughout the Russian Empire did not fluctuate much for a hundred years.
In the past two decades, the financial situation of the Russian Empire has continued to deteriorate, and the gold ruble has gradually become unsustainable. It is imperative to introduce the silver ruble.
St. Petersburg began to issue silver rubles last year, but the issuance of silver rubles was not smooth. In just ten months, the value of the silver rubles has depreciated by more than a quarter.
What makes Witte very unhappy is that the Bank of Siberia still does not accept silver rubles. This is also an important reason why the implementation of silver rubles is not progressing smoothly.
The reason why George returned to Vladivostok before the two children were one month old was to avoid Werther's harassment.
Another reason is that you can’t miss this gluttonous feast.
Don’t even think about silver rubles. It’s okay to help issue bonds. Although the interest of 4% is not much, the key is that it can indirectly influence the customs of the Qing Empire through borrowing money, which is very beneficial for Vladivostok products to enter the Qing Empire.
Many of the raw materials needed for the Vladivostok factory were directly imported from the Qing Empire, especially Chinese medicinal materials and raw silk. Only the Qing Empire could meet the needs of Vladivostok.
A long time ago, George purchased land in the south of the Qing Empire through Mulinder to provide industrial raw materials for Vladivostok.
Because of the conservativeness of the Qing landowners, this work did not proceed smoothly.
If the Qing Empire officially comes forward, the situation should change.
On September 12, the "Dolgorukov" arrived in Vladivostok.
From last year to now, George has been away from Vladivostok for as long as one year and eight months.
He will not stay long this time. He will go to St. Petersburg next spring to attend Nicholas' coronation ceremony.
Nicola's coronation ceremony will be held on May 26 next year.
What George cares most about is definitely the military.
After Nicholas came to the throne, the Amur regular army expanded to two divisions. The commanders of these two divisions were Andrei and Vasily. Yerosin served as the deputy commander of the Amur Military District. When George was not in Amur, Yerosin was solely responsible for Amur's military affairs.
The current total strength of all regular troops and reserves in the Amur region exceeds 50,000. The offense is insufficient, but the defense is more than enough.
Although the Amur River Fleet is under the banner of "inland river", it also includes Sakhalin Island within the patrol range, so one destroyer is far from enough. Yeroshin believes that the Inland River Fleet must have at least 11 destroyers , in order to fully protect Amul’s interests.
“I think we should take back the Kuril Islands from the Japanese at the right time, so that we can open up the fishing grounds to Hokkaido and have better food security.”
Ye Luoxin sees food security as a lifeline.
There is enough food in Vladivostok now.
As the population gradually increases in the future, Vladivostok will sooner or later become increasingly dependent on external input.
In 1875, the Russian Empire and Japan signed the "Sakhalin Kuril Islands Exchange Treaty" in St. Petersburg.
The treaty confirmed that the sovereignty of Sakhalin Island belonged to the Russian Empire, and Japan gained sovereignty over the entire Kuril Islands.
Since then, Japan's territory has expanded northward to Jimshou Island, which is only 11 kilometers away from the Kamchatka Peninsula.
(End of this chapter)