Shu Jinxi knew that what Wang Wenwu said was the truth. The Beiyang government was not only politically dysfunctional, but also had an extremely chaotic financial and economic situation. Due to the lack of true political unification, local governments acted independently. The central government's decrees often did not go beyond the scope of the capital, and local finance and taxation were mostly controlled by powerful local factions.

Withholding and not turning it over to the central government resulted in a sharp drop in national tax revenue. Coupled with frequent military operations and huge military expenditures, the national finances were in extreme difficulties.

Moreover, China has a large amount of tariffs, except for two layers that are reserved by the customs for its own use. Most of them are used to repay domestic and foreign debts, especially foreign debts. Many loans are pledged with tariffs.

Shu Jinxi said: "Sir, you said that the Republic of China was a new era? Why do we need to recognize the previous loans? We ordinary people are very particular about the cancellation of personal debts. The Qing Dynasty has been subjugated for so many years, and the money was not signed by the Qing Dynasty people.

What we owed during the contract. Why should we pay it back?"

At this point, Wang Wenwu couldn't help it. After all, governments of all generations have given priority to repaying foreign debts. If a foreign debt is about to mature, the foreign debt will be repaid first, that is, the arrears of wages will not be repaid to various departments.

Wang Wenwu really couldn't bear this anymore. Wang Wenwu himself was fine, and his whole family did not rely on this for a living. However, there were many low-level officials borrowing money from everywhere. With his good reputation and low interest rates, Wang Wenwu

Tears made a lot of interest money.

Not to mention that the money is not much, but it is still quite a lot. Although many people work in Qingshui Yamen, which has little profit, but after all, they are officials in BJ City. They often default on their arrears.

It is not easy for civil and military officials to collect money.

Not only that, but I was also afraid that someone would abandon their official position and run away. That would mean losing all their capital and profits. They would not be able to beat, scold or urge anyone.

It just so happened that at this time, people still valued their trust. Although the monthly payment was often delayed, as long as they had enough money, they would always pay back the money as soon as possible.

Wang Wenwu said angrily: "What else could it be because of? Isn't it to win the trust of those first-class foreign powers and capital groups? Otherwise, how could it be so easy to conquer Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai? It does not bear all the foreign debts left by the Beiyang government.

,Don’t even think about this kind of thing.”

Shu Jinxi also sighed greatly, "The slogan of the Northern Expedition at that time was to overthrow the great powers. How come now? Not only do we not overthrow the great powers, but we also have to admit all foreign debts. Otherwise, we cannot even unify China?"

"

Seeing this, Wang Wenwu said as if to comfort him: "The current Nanjing government is much better off than the BJ government at the beginning. After all, after the European War, China's debt pressure has been reduced.

Because China was the first to participate in the war at the request of the Allied Powers, in exchange for the Boxer Indemnity being suspended for five years and renewed after November of the 11th year of the Republic of China.

After the war, China joined the Entente and formed belligerent relations with Germany and Austria. After the defeat of these two countries, the indemnity owed by China was naturally cancelled. In addition, Russia voluntarily gave up the unpaid Boxer Indemnity after the October Revolution. These three indemnities accounted for half of the Gengzi Indemnity.

Nearly half of the total amount of money”

Shu Jinxi asked curiously: "Sir, how much money did the BJ government borrow?"

Wang Wenwu thought for a moment and said: "I remember that in the 14th year of the Republic of China, the government's annual budget revenue was only more than 400 million yuan, and the annual expenditure was as high as 600 million yuan, with a difference of more than 100 million yuan. At that time, in order to make up for the budget

Insufficient, the BJ government resorted to borrowing heavily.

There are many ways to borrow money, including public bonds officially issued by the government, short-term treasury securities, and short-term loans borrowed from various banks.

However, due to the government's lack of financial resources and insufficient credibility, when issuing domestic public bonds, the BJ government had to use the suspension and deferred compensation payments that could have been used for various government fiscal expenditures as a guarantee fund."

Shu Jinxi also asked casually, but he didn't expect Wang Wenwu to be so clear about it. It seems that the BJ government owes money, which is really too much. Otherwise, how could Wang Wenwu know so well with his character!

Shu Jinxi said: "Have you received the monthly bonus you received when you were at the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce?"

Wang Wenwu immediately became unhappy, and said he was fine when he left. But in the end, he was only given two months' monthly bonus, which was still short of half a year's monthly bonus.

"There is still half a year's monthly payment left. If I hadn't been in BJ. Every month

You all need to go there, otherwise they won’t be reissued at all. It was issued for more than a month before I came here!”

There are serious problems in borrowing debt. Most foreign debts are guaranteed by customs and regular tariffs. The more foreign debts there are, the more serious the loss of China's tariff rate will be, and the more difficult it will be to recover; while domestic debts are guaranteed by customs surplus and delayed payment of Gengmeng payments, which are also guaranteed.

It is easy for foreigners to intervene in China's economy, forming a vicious cycle in which foreigners continue to strengthen their control of China's finances through tariffs.

In fact, the more serious problem is that most of the borrowed domestic and foreign debts cannot be used for economic construction, but are used for military expenditures. In terms of the use of borrowed foreign debts, military and administrative expenses account for 60%, railway expenses account for three and a half, and the rest are used

In industry. Public opinion at the time criticized the government for "living on debt", but in fact it had no way to rely on debt.

In the 16th year of the Republic of China, the BJ government planned to issue 20 million yuan of "Eight Percent Public Bonds" to meet urgent needs. However, during the process, it repeatedly ran into various obstacles due to issues such as guarantees, interest, discounts, etc., and encountered internal and external opposition. In the end

By forcibly sharing the 15 million yuan in government bonds that the banks reluctantly issued, the government only had 6.2 million yuan available for government expenses, and this amount was not enough to pay off the government's old and new debts.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance was so poor that it could not even issue a payment of one hundred yuan.

In order to minimize the obstruction of foreign forces during the Northern Expedition, the Nanjing government needed to accept all domestic and foreign debts borrowed by the BJ government since Yuan Marshal.

Wang Wenwu's friends in finance have said that he has made statistics in private. In the fifteen years since Yuan Dashuai, the BJ government has issued a total of 27 types of domestic debt, with an estimated total amount of nearly 900 million yuan.

The foreign debt owed by the government has reached 2.2 billion yuan. Most of these foreign debts are borrowed from Japan, followed by loans from the United Kingdom, and thirdly from the United States. Some of them are guaranteed and some are not guaranteed.

But don’t think that you can abandon the debt without a guarantee. During the European War, Russia owed a lot of money. If the new government had not said that it did not intend to pay back any of it, there would not have been any subsequent intervention by many countries.

Russia can overthrow the multinational coalition, and it would be good if the Chinese generals could not hold back. So the priority of debt repayment is: repay foreign debt first, then domestic debt. Finally, the remaining money will be used to pay wages.
Chapter completed!