Chapter 49 Defend sovereignty and open gold mines

When the mine was built in Kaiping, because of limited funds, only one type of coal and iron could be developed.Li Hongzhang used the strategic decision of coordinating the overall situation and focusing on the large and letting go of the small to only develop coal and give up iron.But coal and iron are complementary things, and Li Hongzhang's enthusiasm for the development of metal mines has not diminished.From 1881 to 1891, the metal mines that Li Hongzhang invited and was allowed to open include: Rehe Pingquan Copper Mine, Shandong Dengzhou Lead Mine, Shandong Pingdu Gold Mine, Heilongjiang Mohe Gold Mine, Shandong Zichuan Mine Lead Mine, Rehe Chengde Lead Mine, Jilin Huachuan County Sanxing Gold Mine, Rehe Jianping Gold Mine.It's just that some of these metal mines have wrong development methods and failed to produce a large amount of metals, and some of them have wrong business methods and cannot raise funds and shares, so they had to close down.Among them, the most successful and most influential one is the Mohe Gold Mine.

The first person to propose the opening of the Mohe Gold Mine was Heilongjiang General Gong Tong, not Li Hongzhang.The so-called Heilongjiang generals were an administrative system established in the northeast frontier by the Qing Dynasty. The generals did not only manage the army, but also managed the local administrative, military and political power, roughly equivalent to the function of a governor.In the 1880s, the Russians secretly crossed the border and ran to the Mohe area of ​​China to dig for gold, but were expelled by the troops sent by General Gong Tong of Heilongjiang.Gong Ting said to the Qing Emperor: The gold contained in Mohe is better to be dug openly by ourselves than to be dug by foreigners; rather than to be dug by the people privately, it is better for the state to open gold mines and dig in an organized way.In this way, it is beneficial to the country and the people.At this time, Liu Ruifen, Qing's envoy to Russia, got the information that in order to obtain the Mohe gold mine, the expelled Tsarist Russians had organized a large-scale collection of shares by officials and gentry, and they would not give up until they won the Mohe gold mine.From the perspective of consolidating frontier defense and enriching the national treasury, the Qing government appointed Li Hongzhang, who was keen on developing the mining industry and had experience in running Kaiping Coal Mine and Shipping Merchants, to take full charge of organizing the matter.Li Hongzhang sent Daoist Li Jinyong to take charge of the matter.

Li Jinyong is a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. When he was young, he went through business and fought in the Huai army. Later, he settled in Hunchun and dealt with Tsarist Russia in Aihui. He is familiar with the situation in Heilongjiang and Tsarist Russia.After Li Jinyong was appointed, he immediately went to Mohe, Heilongjiang for on-the-spot investigation, and sent samples to foreign countries for testing.The result of the test is: 871 points of gold, 71 points of silver, and 54 points of lead, sulfur, and iron out of 1,000 points, the composition of which is equivalent to that of gold in San Francisco, USA.Li Jinyong then submitted to Li Hongzhang the articles of association for the establishment of the Mohe Gold Mine, including 16 articles such as raising capital, inviting miners, purchasing machines, opening roads, and spending profits.

Li Hongzhang and Heilongjiang General Gong Tong conducted repeated consultations on the charter submitted by Li Jinyong.With the experience of operating the Kaiping Coal Mine, Li Hongzhang understood that when it was first established, businessmen did not dare to invest and take risks easily, let alone a remote place like Heilongjiang.So he first raised 100,000 taels of money for business, and respectfully allocated 30,000 taels of treasury silver as the initial preparation funds for the gold mine.At the same time, branch offices were established in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Jilin to attract investment and share capital. It is estimated that 200,000 taels will be raised, divided into 2,000 shares.Li Jinyong is fully responsible for the gold mine affairs.

The Mohe Gold Mine developed rapidly under the care of Li Hongzhang. The number of miners increased from more than 500 to more than 2,000 within two years, and the gold production reached more than 18,000 taels in the first year.At this time, the Westernization Office had begun to take shape in China, and the machines used in the mine did not need to be purchased from abroad, but were all manufactured by Jilin Machinery Bureau, which saved a lot of money.The Jilin Machinery Bureau also manufactured two small ships for the Mohe Gold Mine to facilitate water transportation. In October 1890, Li Jinyong died of illness.After the general office was taken over by Yuan Dahua, he immediately started to rush to manufacture machines, expand production, rectify internal affairs, and expand investment promotion. Within a year, all aspects showed improvement, and soon he was able to return the three liang of Heilongjiang official funds and Li Hongzhang's advance. One hundred thousand taels.In the spring of 1893, Yuan Dahua prepared to build a large-scale branch factory in Guanyin Mountain, which greatly increased the output of the gold mine and made profits.Later, Yiketang'a took over as the general of Heilongjiang.Seeing that the Mohe Gold Mine is so fat, Yiketang is very dissatisfied that he, as the highest official in this area, has no interests. mine.Yuan Dahua asked Li Hongzhang for help.In order to allow the Mohe Gold Mine to be opened smoothly, Li Hongzhang ordered Yuan Dahua to report in detail the profits that the Guanyinshan Gold Mine turned over to the state every year and the situation of the ranch that it did not interfere with, and he would report to the court by himself, and let the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office make a ruling. At the same time, it was widely publicized in the DPRK and China that the Guanyinshan Gold Mine was not only profitable, but also that there were Russian towns on the opposite bank. The mine not only guaranteed China's financial resources, but also prevented the Russians from stealing gold.The Ministry of Household Affairs and Zongli Yamen finally gave Yuan Dahua a satisfactory answer, and the Mohe Gold Mine was able to develop steadily and continue to expand on the original basis.In 1893, businessmen who invested in gold mines could receive a dividend of twenty taels of silver for each share, thus creating many nouveau riche.

Li Hongzhang was very satisfied with the achievements of the Mohe Gold Mine. He appealed to the imperial court and demanded that Li Jinyong and Yuan Dahua, the two general managers who were also the heroes of the gold mine, be rewarded and rewarded.He attributed the benefits of the Mohe Gold Mine other than profit to the following: since its inception, thousands of refugees who had fled to Russia have been brought back, and the order of production and life in the frontier has been stabilized; He often coveted this treasure land. Since the mine was opened, from Qigan River to Aihui, along the Heilongjiang River for more than 2,000 miles, employees and soldiers have come and gone, which made the remote place suddenly prosperous and cut off Russia's coveting.

The vigorous development of the Mohe Gold Mine made the Qing government feel that they had finally found a cornucopia and a cash cow, so they repeatedly extorted money from the Mohe Gold Mine, asking for donations to the military pay at one moment, and money to relieve the victims at the next moment. Up to 850,000 taels.No enterprise could withstand such a toss, and the Mohe Gold Mine began to decline. In 1894, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894 brought China and Li Hongzhang into a slump, and the cause of Westernization also fell into a trough.After 1898, without the protection of Li Hongzhang, the Mohe Gold Mine became even more troubled and rapidly declined. The annual gold output was only a few thousand taels. This figure was not even enough to meet the blackmail of the Qing government, let alone maintain itself developed.

In 1900, Tsarist Russia, which had coveted the Mohe gold mine for a long time, seized the Mohe gold mine when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China and the Qing government had no time to look north. It was not until six years later that it reluctantly returned it after various negotiations.At this time, the Mohe Gold Mine had been damaged beyond repair, like a bird with its wings broken, unable to take off again. From the facts mentioned above, we can see that Li Hongzhang's position in the history of modern Chinese mining industry cannot be ignored.First of all, the many mining businesses he opened have both succeeded and failed.But all of them have prompted people to expand their political horizons. Starting from caring about the future and destiny of the country and the nation, they realized that only by taking the opportunity of mining and establishing a huge heavy industry system can China hope to embark on the road of prosperity for the people and a strong country.Secondly, in the process of setting up the mining industry, the Westernization School represented by Li Hongzhang not only brought new machines, new knowledge, and new technologies from Western countries to Chinese society, and created a group of modern mining technicians and skilled workers, but also began to change the Chinese society. The outdated management method of manual excavation and the way of thinking of satisfying self-sufficiency in people's minds.Third, the new mining industry run by the Westernization School represented by Li Hongzhang not only protected China's industrial and mining rights, but also won honor for China for gaining benefits in the international market.

In short, Li Hongzhang advocated learning from the West on the issue of establishing China's modern mining industry, which is rare among bureaucrats and bureaucrats in the late Qing Dynasty.His repeated propaganda for the establishment of modern China's mining industry, his great efforts, and the theoretical and practical experience he produced and formed have laid a good foundation for the development of China's mining industry in the 20th century.Li Hongzhang's achievements are indelible.