March 1923
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Imperator Pax
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March 1923
The paper work pushed up was in austere military language. The man who had written it had come out of the quartermaster's corp and it showed. The central bank had a mandate for long term stability. That was its mission orientation, and objective for operations. Even the framework it had been written in was something that the professor, that Reisnch had remarked had a militarized tone. Maybe he was right, that the English language charter, and even its vernacular chinese translation, had been written by officers immersed in the profession of arms. Those men had also largely presided over the finalization of text books for primary school.
Compulsory education had begun as part of the cadre's efforts to education the children of company employees, and then of Xian's urban populace growing further and then of whole provinces as they had assumed the mantle of provincial governance. Where Reinsch disapproved, the elder Forrest, Allen's father had begrudgingly acknowledged that they were doing things as he put it in 'the right fashion'.
None of the cadre were immune to the shift in opinions put forward in papers. It was a sentiment found in former soldiers of the British Empire ingrowing numbers and that was making the rounds now. That required a man to read them, which was a facet of having public papers and ones that wrote for the working class, or for younger men.
The education program put forward by the committee was bi lingual. It favored english because of the lack at the time of formalizing vernacular Chinese. Chinese was to be the language of arts, of poetry of compositions. Most the cadre agreed with Hodges's observation a decade ago that chinese tonal ballads were quite pleasing to the ear after all. It would have to share history to some degree, but mathematics, and science were taught in English. As a result for all talks of baihua of vernacular chinese English was the language of political discourse... and in Xian this entailed men in the broadsheets continued to use words taken from the vernacular of the army.
So editorials which came from educated men here often read like the reports he read from his staff... and sometimes they were even from the same pens. Burke was a popular source of quotes. His father opposed mercantilism, and the cadre agreed it supported free trade in principle even if it had been disabused of any notions that trade would make people peaceable, would keep them from doing anything foolish. Property rights supported by Burke, were paired with criticism of French trade policy and protectionism.
Broadsheets went out, casting a much cleaner break in things than was true. That showed in certain claims put out there that had their roots in the previous century.
Capitalism was an anglo-saxon tradition, born from developing of industry, of industrializing. Western Europe... Spain, France and expanded to include Germany were not capitalist countries in the world view the cadre wrote about. It was the combination of common law, which included views on property rights, of national banks and corporate bodies that had evolved before and after the English civil war that had given modern England and then the colonies their tools. It was scientific thought like Bacon and the man Lewis was named after.
But it also as their generation had recognized, that protestant churches were not immune to swindlers and thieves, the pilgrims of New England and their founders were a prime example of that historically, never mind their absurd hand wringing over witches. Embezzlement violated the fiduciary duties a man had to his organization... it was a felony. A crime which entailed particularly egregious breaches of decorum. The leaders of the pilgrims had run from England for being accused of financial mismanagement after all.
Allen pinched the bridge of his nose. The pattern of embezzlement that had crippled the Qing was a frequent topic in the papers. Men railed against it. Railed against it vigorously. That was fine. The problem was that it created new internal problems... sort of internal problems. "We had suspicion that Zhang Xun took the bank specie." Which frankly he had been entitled to at least some of that, maybe even all of it. The pony tailed general had been rich, but rich as a result of his position.
The vernacular literati, and the english papers alike were quick to find fault with the enrichment of the Jun-fa system... the corruption and tax farming that pervaded particularly the coastal provinces but truthfully contributed also to the mess of szechwan. Zhang Tso-lin was shielded from some criticism for Manchuria's success, for his successes in various reforms, but plenty were willing to tar him after last year's defeat. Cao Kun was unfortunately not immune for he was a fairly hands off sort, who enjoyed the prestige as dujun of Zhili in name but largely left things to others as he grasped for still other posts... and that was a familiar sort of thing
Waite addressed the elephant in the room, "Cao Kun's ambitions are going to be a problem, but lets not play around. The real difference between our papers and Shanghai's is this business Sun's gotten himself in with the Bolsheviks."
... and Xian's papers, and their writers were not happy. Sun's history of failed rebellions were trotted out, the lack of military successes called out to civilian readers as well, but it had more sway on a politically involved military class here. Especially since Lenin and his members had few real military successes, had humiliated themselves at brest litovsk and yet insisted on using military language, a term meaning 'playing soldiers' the same insult that Zhang had tarred Wu with with ironically enough was thrown around.
Allen stopped massaging the bridge of his nose, and glanced over to the engineer, "Whats new on that front?"
"Realistically not a whole lot." Marx's nonsense was largely limited to the population that had connections to European education. The success of the bolshevik revolution to seize power in an exhausted Russia one that had been beaten black and blue by the Kaiser's army had attracted attention from radical students and intelligentsia in treaty ports, and on universities. "I'd attribute his success to the failures of others. We don't have this problem because there is a home grown literary culture. And one that is quick to distinguish details and reasons for success to given concrete explanations for success. Shanghai has too many gangsters causing trouble, too many incidents that stir up sentiments of resentment and not enough things to have pride in locally." Cullen's chinese half siblings had lived in Shanghai before 1914 and before things had reoriented to Xian after Bai Lang had been killed, and the European war began. "That's my read anyway. Sun's partnership with the Soviets is mostly wind, the bolsheviks can't really afford to give him much more than recognition that isn't worth much anyway... he might well have read too much into Rapallo," the treaty between Germany and the Bolsheviks, "if he's expecting support, or the bolsheviks are expecting a communist party they both seem as like to be disappointed."
"What do you think we should expect?"
"We didn't come into this business with continentals in tow," Waite remarked speaking up, "Or englishmen for that matter that's why the papers are the way they are. Think about it, the States have always enjoyed a good opinion to the Chinese public, it helps that there have been other things, the Dutch sinophiles come to mind, or our ties to Luzon." The government of the United States was not perfect by any means but, "But as a general rule we came in buoyed by a popular impression of our country. We compounded that starting capital with success, and thus the public impression of the hundred of us who started it stands where it did when the old dynasty did collapse."
And even though it didn't always seem like it that had been a long time ago now. Waite was right, the end of the European War had meant the influx of many new faces, new experts from Europe but people who had seen the European continent at war... but that industrial war had come with numbers and explanations even as it had been unfolding to Xian's populace at large. A populace that frequently had exposure to the language used by the army as well. "Cole, this bit about Zhang Xun and the gold, how much of it do we think is still in play?"
"I'd guess a lot," Cole replied, "enough that he's still relevant in Shanghai's circles. The back chatter between Zhang Xun, Zhang Tso-lin, and the Guomindang ... I'd say that they're planning to go around again."
"And these actions in Shanghai?"
"He's a big enough player financially, he has a sworn brother at the stock exchange who is the middle man for the money, but its Zhang Xun's money to be sure." Something to speak with Percy about, Allen suspected, but Cole continued, "It means he is probably the main source of hard currency in this group of strange bedfellows... but it'll be his money I think that will pay for arms that come into Shanghai." Tso-lin could buy his own weapons, or have his own rifles manufactured, and Zhang Tso-lin was buying from lots of people, including Vickers to the consternation of some.
The paper work pushed up was in austere military language. The man who had written it had come out of the quartermaster's corp and it showed. The central bank had a mandate for long term stability. That was its mission orientation, and objective for operations. Even the framework it had been written in was something that the professor, that Reisnch had remarked had a militarized tone. Maybe he was right, that the English language charter, and even its vernacular chinese translation, had been written by officers immersed in the profession of arms. Those men had also largely presided over the finalization of text books for primary school.
Compulsory education had begun as part of the cadre's efforts to education the children of company employees, and then of Xian's urban populace growing further and then of whole provinces as they had assumed the mantle of provincial governance. Where Reinsch disapproved, the elder Forrest, Allen's father had begrudgingly acknowledged that they were doing things as he put it in 'the right fashion'.
None of the cadre were immune to the shift in opinions put forward in papers. It was a sentiment found in former soldiers of the British Empire ingrowing numbers and that was making the rounds now. That required a man to read them, which was a facet of having public papers and ones that wrote for the working class, or for younger men.
The education program put forward by the committee was bi lingual. It favored english because of the lack at the time of formalizing vernacular Chinese. Chinese was to be the language of arts, of poetry of compositions. Most the cadre agreed with Hodges's observation a decade ago that chinese tonal ballads were quite pleasing to the ear after all. It would have to share history to some degree, but mathematics, and science were taught in English. As a result for all talks of baihua of vernacular chinese English was the language of political discourse... and in Xian this entailed men in the broadsheets continued to use words taken from the vernacular of the army.
So editorials which came from educated men here often read like the reports he read from his staff... and sometimes they were even from the same pens. Burke was a popular source of quotes. His father opposed mercantilism, and the cadre agreed it supported free trade in principle even if it had been disabused of any notions that trade would make people peaceable, would keep them from doing anything foolish. Property rights supported by Burke, were paired with criticism of French trade policy and protectionism.
Broadsheets went out, casting a much cleaner break in things than was true. That showed in certain claims put out there that had their roots in the previous century.
Capitalism was an anglo-saxon tradition, born from developing of industry, of industrializing. Western Europe... Spain, France and expanded to include Germany were not capitalist countries in the world view the cadre wrote about. It was the combination of common law, which included views on property rights, of national banks and corporate bodies that had evolved before and after the English civil war that had given modern England and then the colonies their tools. It was scientific thought like Bacon and the man Lewis was named after.
But it also as their generation had recognized, that protestant churches were not immune to swindlers and thieves, the pilgrims of New England and their founders were a prime example of that historically, never mind their absurd hand wringing over witches. Embezzlement violated the fiduciary duties a man had to his organization... it was a felony. A crime which entailed particularly egregious breaches of decorum. The leaders of the pilgrims had run from England for being accused of financial mismanagement after all.
Allen pinched the bridge of his nose. The pattern of embezzlement that had crippled the Qing was a frequent topic in the papers. Men railed against it. Railed against it vigorously. That was fine. The problem was that it created new internal problems... sort of internal problems. "We had suspicion that Zhang Xun took the bank specie." Which frankly he had been entitled to at least some of that, maybe even all of it. The pony tailed general had been rich, but rich as a result of his position.
The vernacular literati, and the english papers alike were quick to find fault with the enrichment of the Jun-fa system... the corruption and tax farming that pervaded particularly the coastal provinces but truthfully contributed also to the mess of szechwan. Zhang Tso-lin was shielded from some criticism for Manchuria's success, for his successes in various reforms, but plenty were willing to tar him after last year's defeat. Cao Kun was unfortunately not immune for he was a fairly hands off sort, who enjoyed the prestige as dujun of Zhili in name but largely left things to others as he grasped for still other posts... and that was a familiar sort of thing
Waite addressed the elephant in the room, "Cao Kun's ambitions are going to be a problem, but lets not play around. The real difference between our papers and Shanghai's is this business Sun's gotten himself in with the Bolsheviks."
... and Xian's papers, and their writers were not happy. Sun's history of failed rebellions were trotted out, the lack of military successes called out to civilian readers as well, but it had more sway on a politically involved military class here. Especially since Lenin and his members had few real military successes, had humiliated themselves at brest litovsk and yet insisted on using military language, a term meaning 'playing soldiers' the same insult that Zhang had tarred Wu with with ironically enough was thrown around.
Allen stopped massaging the bridge of his nose, and glanced over to the engineer, "Whats new on that front?"
"Realistically not a whole lot." Marx's nonsense was largely limited to the population that had connections to European education. The success of the bolshevik revolution to seize power in an exhausted Russia one that had been beaten black and blue by the Kaiser's army had attracted attention from radical students and intelligentsia in treaty ports, and on universities. "I'd attribute his success to the failures of others. We don't have this problem because there is a home grown literary culture. And one that is quick to distinguish details and reasons for success to given concrete explanations for success. Shanghai has too many gangsters causing trouble, too many incidents that stir up sentiments of resentment and not enough things to have pride in locally." Cullen's chinese half siblings had lived in Shanghai before 1914 and before things had reoriented to Xian after Bai Lang had been killed, and the European war began. "That's my read anyway. Sun's partnership with the Soviets is mostly wind, the bolsheviks can't really afford to give him much more than recognition that isn't worth much anyway... he might well have read too much into Rapallo," the treaty between Germany and the Bolsheviks, "if he's expecting support, or the bolsheviks are expecting a communist party they both seem as like to be disappointed."
"What do you think we should expect?"
"We didn't come into this business with continentals in tow," Waite remarked speaking up, "Or englishmen for that matter that's why the papers are the way they are. Think about it, the States have always enjoyed a good opinion to the Chinese public, it helps that there have been other things, the Dutch sinophiles come to mind, or our ties to Luzon." The government of the United States was not perfect by any means but, "But as a general rule we came in buoyed by a popular impression of our country. We compounded that starting capital with success, and thus the public impression of the hundred of us who started it stands where it did when the old dynasty did collapse."
And even though it didn't always seem like it that had been a long time ago now. Waite was right, the end of the European War had meant the influx of many new faces, new experts from Europe but people who had seen the European continent at war... but that industrial war had come with numbers and explanations even as it had been unfolding to Xian's populace at large. A populace that frequently had exposure to the language used by the army as well. "Cole, this bit about Zhang Xun and the gold, how much of it do we think is still in play?"
"I'd guess a lot," Cole replied, "enough that he's still relevant in Shanghai's circles. The back chatter between Zhang Xun, Zhang Tso-lin, and the Guomindang ... I'd say that they're planning to go around again."
"And these actions in Shanghai?"
"He's a big enough player financially, he has a sworn brother at the stock exchange who is the middle man for the money, but its Zhang Xun's money to be sure." Something to speak with Percy about, Allen suspected, but Cole continued, "It means he is probably the main source of hard currency in this group of strange bedfellows... but it'll be his money I think that will pay for arms that come into Shanghai." Tso-lin could buy his own weapons, or have his own rifles manufactured, and Zhang Tso-lin was buying from lots of people, including Vickers to the consternation of some.