PeachBlossomGoddess

Ukraine's poverty is self-inflicted. Its really a poster child for democracy at its very best - they voted for a joker who thought it would be fun to join NATO and hang out with the big boys. And sentenced his own country to a lost generation of young men and poverty. When a smart leader would have continued to play NATO against Russia and extracted massive economic benefits from both sides. But hey, they voted for this dumbass. The violins play very softly. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sure Chinese firms can and will bid for the rebuilding projects just like the Koreans and Japanese firms will. As long as it is on commercial terms that do not come with massive Chinese state subsidies. If the Americans and Europeans want to expand NATO and start wars, they can jolly well pay for the fallout themselves. Esp when they are dying to build more bases that encircle China. Why should Chinese money subsidise that effort directly or indirectly by helping them foot the bill for Ukraine? China is not that dumb. And China is still a very poor country on a per capita basis. Its one thing to help poorer countries in Africa and elsewhere with their infrastructure bc China is rich by comparison. But to take Chinese money to bail out super rich war mongering countries will never go down well in China. Aid is for poorer not richer countries.

Exactly! Poor GPY - he is the patsy! Ms Su's self satisfied smirk at the wedding says it all.

I sense Ms Su’s dirty hands in this - she probably has some angle, most likely just another way for her to get GPY killed. LWT advised Li Qin to ask GPY to avoid this task if possible so I assume all the merchants with powerful backers declined this “honor”. It is essentially a task that to succeed involves footing a huge restoration build. Just like they are now hoping China is dumb enough to offer to rebuild Ukraine which obviously they should not! GPY was chosen bc he has no backers and is in no position to decline.

From what I understand, the Marshal just wants his troops at Nanjing who haven't been paid for over a year disbanded peacefully. And he is dumping the problem of doing so on GPY; ie. making him figure out how to pay for it. Of course he also should have some responsibility for rebuilding the city he just destroyed. But idk what his official position is he many or may not have gotten his next assignment yet but I think he is more useful at the frontlines than in some administrative role. At the time Qing was quelling civil unrest and foreign overtures left and right. After years of wars, their coffers were bare. I think all high officials had a vested interest in fixing the economy asap.

Yes of course, it should all be played out by then. I may have gotten some of the sequence of events wrong bc I did that from memory and my notes but it should roughly be correct.

Nanjing was the capital of the Taiping Revolution. It was decimated when Marshal Jiu led the siege and massacre. The Qing needed to rebuild the finances of all of its conflict damaged provinces and Nanjing is very strategically located for trade and is one of the 4 ancient capitals of China. But as Ms Su/Marshal Jiu pointed out, he is a general he knows nothing about business, trade and commerce. The only way to rebuild it is to get business investment back to the city, led by merchants like GPY.

Marshal Jiu is not the Viceroy of Liangjiang. Ms Su said the Viceroy of Liangjiang is a Rui Lin, whom I assume is a fictional character. He is in the cast list.

I actually think GPW totally has his father's gene pool - he is greedy for the trappings of wealth and power, constantly harping about getting an official position for himself. I can imagine him doing exactly what LWT does if he were in a position to - use powerful backers to extract maximum financial gain. He just did not inherit his business acumen, but he did all of his proclivities and greed. Hopefully GPY keeps him on a tight leash bc this dude is not just a clown, he is a clown that could be tempted to do a bunch of really bad things.

Good guess but the Marshal Jiu (or the Ninth Marshal) that Ms Su referred to should be Zeng Guoquan, the 9th brother of Zeng Guofan. He is a well known historical figure from the time, widely known as Jiu Shuai 九帥/Ninth Marshal for obvious reasons. He should be Li Hongzhang's mentor or teacher, something like that.

Spoiler above of the Shanxi bank plots (~eps 8-11 approx).

Your question covers several related plots, which all relate to how a banking system works. LWT was trying to swallow all the Shanxi banks by forcing the 8 families to be indebted to him. He got Prince Shen to demand $3mm each "patriotic contribution" to his military supplies for his delayed military campaign. They refused so they were jailed. In jail, LWT's Taiping Bank offered to bail them out by lending them the $3mm each. At the same time he spread rumors and tried to create a bank run on the 8 Families banks per @dizzeedollee. He was creating a liquidity problem for the 8 Families hoping this would force them to reveal King Li's hidden treasure to cover the $24mm military demand and the bank runs.

GPY partly solved the 8 Families liquidity problem by convincing Prince Shen to accept ä piece of paper or an IOU backed by a pledge by the 8 Families as a more practical way to fund his military campaign. Rather than the cumbersome process of moving tons of physical teals all over the place during a military campaign. That piece of paper can be passed from one owner to another as a demand note on the ultimate issuer, creating a multiple of the value of that note through the system. This is how even till this day, credit is created in the financial system. Banking and credit is ultimately a function of trust - so long as there is trust that the piece of paper or IOU can be repaid, it is as good as cash in hand.

GPY addressed the issue of potential bank runs by suggesting that they pool their assets to guarantee each others deposits, thereby creating a reserve against bank runs. So at any point in time, if one of them have a liquidity issue, the others step in to solve it - i.e., they guarantee each others credit. Bc bank runs are theoretically just a timing difference between when depositors want their money back and when the bank's loan book matures. Banking is an extremely lucrative business, esp during those times so it is just a timing issue - over time they can make enough spread between deposits and loans to cover all of the $24mm and return all deposits. Since the 8 families didn't have to physically cough up $24mm for Prince Shen, they just gave him an IOU, they were able to meet Taiping Bank's demand for their $6mm deposit. Since Taiping Bank was offering higher deposit rates, they also threatened to deposit all of their excess capital at Taiping Bank, potentially causing huge losses/bankrupting them. In the end both sides took a step back - GPY did not end up sending all their excess capital to Taiping Bank and LWT decided to leave his $6mm deposit with the 8 Families.

As it turns out he wasn’t trying to crush him he was actually letting him off easy.🤦🏻‍♀️. Not a fan of this turn of events - so it seems GPY wasn’t that smart after all and LWT isn’t that ruthless.

You may have missed the part where he explains to his son that he only really set out to really crush GPY/Anhui tea association after they got on the wrong side of Prince Song with the tea competition. Unfortunately for them Prince Song is vindictive and LWT was ordered to crush them. His businesses all depend on Prince Song's goodwill and support. Not defending him, that is just how business was done at the time.

To LWT its mostly just business, its not really that personal.

What do you mean?

😂😂😂 Indeed, with the help of his son Li Qin, GPY was helping him make a small fortune... from a very large one. I feel some sympathy for his frustration.

Mr. Hart in his capacity as Qing customs official approved of GPY's private transaction to sell tea to Wu Caisen who is then transporting the tea outside of China. This does not technically violate any customs regulations, specifically Li Wantang's exclusive right to export tea from China. But the sheer quantity of it definitely exceeds any reasonable amount for private use, which is the substance of LWT's protest. The Shanghai administrator Liu is new in his post and did not want to be forced make a decision that would be lose lose - ie., either way he offends someone with connections - GPY is also an official appointed by Cixi herself vs LWT and his association with Prince Gong. So he urged GPY and LWT to compromise with each other. But GPY engaged in gunboat diplomacy by hiring the British Royal Navy captain to take his tea back to India with him. If the customs boat dared to fire on the British Royal Navy there would be war, one that the Qing was in no position to win (look at the British warship vs the little boat). That terrified Administrator Liu so much he was practically peeing in his pants. Of course he didn't know the British captain was prepared to dump the tea into the ocean rather than start a war with Qing.

In summary:
1. Li Wantang had an export monopoly on tea and an exclusive right to sell tea to foreigners. GPY went around that by making a private sale to Wu Caisen/Eight Families (not a foreigner).
2. Wu Caisen is bringing the tea he bought privately to India. Whatever he does with it there is his business. By then, the British India Company's tea monopoly was over even though they still were the most dominant player. GPY somehow knew this and was sending Anhui tea to India, which was a major tea trading hub to compete with their tea. Hence his boast that he would make Richards (British India rep) sorry he didn't buy his Anhui tea.

Well let's see - GPY has so far destroyed his Shanxi bank venture, his attempted takeover of the Eight Families and his Anhui tea monopoly. At this rate, he will soon be forced to change his moniker from Li Baiwan (百万/million) to Li Shiwan (十万/hundred thousand). Seems to me that is reason enough to want to crush him.

Sounds like a plan! 👍👍👍