Chapter 36 Zongli Yamen

Although the civil strife was pacified, the sky in the Qing Dynasty was not only sunny, but also hazy. As mentioned earlier, after the end of the Second Opium War, Xianfeng and Cixi's mother and son were relieved by a series of land cede and indemnity treaties, freeing up their hands to deal with Hong Xiuquan and Zhang Luoxing. However, there is always a price to be paid for seeking skin from a tiger, because the world speaks by strength. For a powerful tiger and leopard, as long as it has urinated in that place, it means that this place belongs to it, and no one will dare to compete with it.The current British and French powers are like tigers and leopards, and ceding land is like tigers and leopards urinating. Without any complicated steps, the great powers can pull China's land piece by piece into their arms.

But compensation is not so simple, the Qing government can't come up with so much cash for a while, what should I do?Just like everyone buying a house or a car now, we can only pay in installments and pay back a part each time. But this method has two disadvantages, one is high interest, and the other is the need for mortgage. The leaders of the Qing government didn’t care about the first shortcoming. The common people were cows anyway, so the big deal was to increase the tax and squeeze the cows. What they cared about was the second. Britain and France required the Qing government to use the annual tax revenue as collateral. Such as customs tax, salt tax, etc., if the Qing government could not pay the compensation, Britain and France would directly deduct it from the tax.

However, the Qing government’s main fiscal revenue comes from taxation. Apart from taxation, it has no money to pay compensation. That means that most of the annual tax revenue is directly held by Britain and France, and the Qing government can’t get a few taels of silver. Here is a question: How can Britain and France guarantee that they can get the money? The British thought of a very simple solution-let them manage and supervise the taxation of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing government, which was not as powerful as others, could only nod in recognition. After some discussion, the decision-making team of the Qing government decided to add a new general taxation department to the foreign ministry "Li Fan Yuan" to take charge of the national taxation and hand it over to the British. moral management.

However, the warm face of the Qing government put the cold ass of Britain and France. The British and French said that the word "Fan" in "Li Fanyuan" somewhat discriminated against their "barbarian" status, and asked the Qing government to redesign a professional counterpart to deal with them! Therefore, under the auspices of Prince Gong Yixin, in 1861, the upgraded product of "Li Fan Yuan" "Prime Minister's Office of State Affairs" debuted. The "Prime Minister's Office of State Affairs" is also referred to as the Prime Minister's Office. Its specific affairs are all-encompassing. In addition to the General Tax Department emphasized by Britain and France, it also includes many aspects of diplomacy, economy, military, transportation, and foreign trade. Its functions are similar to today's State Council. It is very similar, not only that, the head of this new agency is also called the Prime Minister.

The first Prime Minister was Prince Gong Yixin. This brother has worked in this position for a total of 28 years. You must know that the Prime Minister's Office has only existed for 40 years!Almost all of the remaining twelve years belonged to Prince Yikuang, who was later a big celebrity before Cixi. Under the Prime Minister, there are two important helpers: the Minister of Commerce of the North and the South, who are concurrently held by the Governor of Zhili and the Governor of Liangjiang respectively.The number one scholar and Tanhua among the nine governors-general were appointed as the ministers of trade in the North and South China Seas, which shows its importance.The minister of trade and commerce is roughly equivalent to the sum of the current vice minister of foreign affairs, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, and minister of commerce.Why did the Qing Dynasty set up such a powerful position?

Here I have to mention Yixin. Among the aristocrats of the Qing Dynasty, this man was quite clear-headed. After dealing with the great powers for several years and signing several treaties that forfeited power and humiliated the country, he finally realized that if he lagged behind, he would be beaten, so he took advantage of the great powers to encourage the Qing Dynasty The establishment of Zongli Yamen was a good opportunity to take the opportunity to promote the reform and opening up in the late Qing Dynasty - the Westernization Movement of "learning from barbarians to improve skills to control barbarians", with the intention of enriching the country and strengthening the army.

The Minister of Commerce and Industry was born under this background. The function of this position is very mysterious: the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs means a legal and appropriate status to deal with foreign powers, and use this status to negotiate with foreigners, learn advanced experience, and introduce foreign capital and equipment. , Then use the power of the director of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Minister of Commerce to use these experience, foreign capital and equipment in the reform. Of course, the establishment of the Minister of Commerce and Industry marked the official opening of the Westernization Movement!

Having said so much, everyone can see that the Zongli Yamen has a very important position and is one of the most important decision-making organs of the late Qing government. Since it is only one of them, we have to mention another mysterious power organization that will appear repeatedly in this book-the Military Aircraft Department.