Chapter 318: Settlement in Earth Currency Is Impossible
In the imperial palace, the imperial emperor Li Fu held a grand welcome ceremony to welcome the arrival of Zhao Dongye, the president of the Earth Federation. Of course, when Li Fu and Zhao Dongye stood together and clasped their hands, countless lights flashed continuously. The two represented the two most powerful forces of mankind.
After a set of cumbersome welcome ceremonies, the two sides officially entered the negotiation stage. Zhao Dongye came to the empire this time, but he brought a very large team to seek cooperation and exchanges in many fields such as economy, technology, military, and culture, among which the most important are the three fields of economy, technology, and military.
"A few decades have passed in a flash. When I was in college, I would never have thought that our two brothers would meet in the distant Centaurus galaxy as we are now."
Zhao Dongye looked at Li Fu opposite him. His appearance had not changed much from that in college. Time seemed to have no trace on him at all. Although he took good care of himself, time was ruthless. The wrinkles between his eyes could already show his real age.
Recalling the scene of studying together and living in the same dormitory at Huaxia Imperial University in college, too many memories came to mind. Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, they are both leaders of a huge country.
Especially at the beginning, although Zhao Dongye treated everyone equally and did not look down on Li Fu, who came from a rural background, he could never imagine that he could predict that Li Fu would become the emperor of a powerful empire. After all, the way Li Fu behaved at that time, at most he would be an outstanding scientist in the future.
"The world is unpredictable and changes too fast. We humans have already taken our own steps in the interstellar and universe, and will continue to rise in the interstellar and universe in the future."
Li Fu also nodded. Too many things are difficult to predict. This may be the wonderful thing about everything.
The two chatted about family matters, which was also a way of reminiscing about the good times in college. The people accompanying both sides also had smiles on their faces and listened carefully. Many people were surprised to know for the first time that Zhao Dongye and Li Fu were actually college classmates and roommates in the past.
Soon, the talks between the two sides returned to the main topic and began to exchange and discuss on many aspects such as economy, technology, military, and culture.
"Your Majesty, in our economic and trade exchanges, we have always used gold to settle or barter, which is very unfavorable to the economic and trade exchanges between the two sides. I think we can consider using the currencies of both sides for settlement."
Speaking of formality, Zhao Dongye also called Li Fu "Your Majesty the Emperor", which obviously meant to handle official business.
"Before discussing this issue, I think I should tell Mr. President about our Empire's monetary policy. Our Empire implements a constant energy monetary policy, and the currency will never depreciate. If the trade between the two sides is calculated in the currency of our Empire, we naturally have no objection."
"But if the settlement is made in the currency of the Earth Federation, then I'm sorry I can't agree."
Speaking of the economic and trade issues between the two sides, this settlement method has always been a major contradiction between the Earth Federation and the Empire. The Empire has formed a huge trade surplus with the Earth Federation with its powerful technological products, and all these trade surpluses are settled in gold.
So although the gold reserves on the Earth Federation side are very rich, with the development of interstellar mining, the gold production is also constantly increasing, but after these years of economic and trade exchanges, the gold of the Earth Federation has basically been transferred to the hands of the Empire.
If this continues, the Earth Federation will have no gold to buy the Empire's products, and the Empire's demand for the goods on the Earth Federation side has never been large, and they are all traditional products, such as porcelain, silk, clothes, etc., which are not of high value.
The Earth Federation has reported to the Empire more than once, asking for the use of the Earth Federation currency for settlement, but the Empire has always refused.
Just kidding, if the Earth Federation currency is used for settlement, the Earth Federation will frantically buy up everything in the Empire. What use will the Empire have with a pile of waste paper from the Earth Federation? It will also depreciate every year, so it is impossible to agree to their request.
Unless the Empire currency is used for trade settlement between the two sides, in fact, the Empire currency is very popular in the Earth Federation. One dollar of the Empire currency can even be worth thousands of regional federation currencies in the Earth Federation, because everyone wants the Empire currency to buy the Empire's products.
The Earth Federation is unwilling to use the Empire currency for settlement, because there is no doubt that this means that the Earth Federation needs to hoard some Empire currency as foreign exchange reserves.
This means that a lot of things need to be exchanged for these things, and this deal is not worth it. The Earth Federation's Finance Minister is Uncle Sam's former Finance Minister, and he knows this very well. The two sides have had a lot of friction because of this, and neither side is willing to give in.
Even if Zhao Dongye talked to Li Fu in person, Li Fu still insisted on his principles. Just kidding, the currency of the Earth Federation has been depreciating year by year. He would be stupid to use the currency of the Earth Federation for settlement.
When it comes to the first question, the two sides are deadlocked. Neither side is willing to back down. They can only avoid this topic and start discussing the next topic.
"We hope that both sides can send students to each other and deepen our exchanges."
Zhao Dongye chose a topic that he thought was not very important. Sending students to each other was a very common thing in the countries on Earth in the past, and it should be relatively easy to achieve.
The technology of the Empire is very advanced, which is inseparable from the education of the Empire. The Embassy of the Earth Federation in the Empire has also suggested to the Earth Federation more than once that it should send students to each other and learn the advanced education and advanced technology of the United States.
However, the Empire has always refused to exchange students with the Earth Federation, because in universities, this technology is the easiest to leak out. The rise of China in the past was based on those students who traveled across the ocean to learn advanced knowledge for the rise of China.
"Of course we can send students abroad, but our empire also has its own rules, so we only accept descendants of Yan and Huang. We will not accept students who are not descendants of Yan and Huang."
Li Fu pondered for a long time, slowly nodded and agreed to this request, but also added conditions.
In the past, the foundation of the empire was not stable, so naturally it would not consider accepting students abroad. Now it is not afraid, but the empire has always implemented the principle that those who are not of my race must have different hearts, and is still only willing to accept the descendants of Yan and Huang.
There is no doubt that Li Fu also has his own little calculations. After these students come to the empire, they may learn some advanced technologies of the empire, but the empire can also attract them to stay in the empire. After all, they are all descendants of Yan and Huang, and those who can come to study abroad must be outstanding talents.
Hearing Li Fu's words, Osles, Jones, Ajinsa and others were unhappy. This Li Fu really discriminated against race in front of them. The most unsatisfactory thing about the empire on the Earth Federation side has always been that the empire carries a strong sense of racial discrimination when implementing any policy.
Only the descendants of Yan and Huang are accepted as immigrants, and limited care is given to them in business, etc. Now even studying abroad is like this, so naturally everyone is unhappy.
However, no matter how unhappy they are, they still have no way to deal with the Empire. The Empire is no longer the Huaxia of the past, and will not kowtow to the so-called foreign guests. Everything must be done according to the rules of the Yanhuang Empire.
If the Empire does not follow the rules of the Empire, the Empire would rather break off diplomatic relations with the Earth Federation than change. It is naturally impossible to break off diplomatic relations with the Empire now. The Earth Federation has too many things that rely on the Empire, so it can only hold its nose and honestly follow the rules of the Empire.
Seeing that the deal was done, Zhao Dongye's face was full of smiles. At least he gained something. Although if this news was passed back to the Earth, it would definitely cause demonstrations and protests around the world, but these things have become accustomed to it.
Every time the Empire announces a new policy, the Earth Federation will have a large-scale demonstration to protest the racial discrimination of the Empire's policies. There are almost people marching and protesting at the door of the Empire's Embassy in the Earth Federation every day.
"Our Federation and your Empire are both members of human civilization, and they all come from the same source. In the interstellar and cosmic era, we should deepen exchanges in science and technology and the military, and work together to create a starry sky for our human descendants."
As they chatted, Zhao Dongye shifted the topic to the key points, science and technology and the military.
Although the population of the Empire is much smaller than that of the Earth Federation, its technological strength is obvious to all. The technology of the Empire decades ago has not yet been fully mastered by the Earth Federation. Scientists on the Earth Federation side estimate that the Empire is at least 50 years ahead of the Earth Federation at present, which is still a conservative estimate.
As for military strength, let alone, although both sides have been working hard to develop military strength, the Earth Federation has been constantly importing space battleships, space fighters, arms and weapons from the Empire, but the gap with the military strength of the Empire is getting bigger and bigger.
Apart from other things, the Empire now has more than 10 space battleships of the same level as the "Huashan", and it also has two large space battleships, the "Huangdi" and the "Qin Shihuang", with a mass of more than 10 billion tons, which are more powerful than the Earth Federation!
PS: I recommend some books by friends to everyone. If you are short of books, you may want to read them.
"Projection of the Heavens" The infinite flow written by Tu Gou is quite good and worth reading.
"Bringing the Stars to the Beautiful Fantasy" The infinite flow of the plane robbers, students who like beautiful fantasy should not miss it.
"Chatting Group of Villains in the Heavens and the Worlds" The infinite flow of the classmate Ga Wu is also a new material, worth reading.
"Advanced Players in the Arc" Tu Mao is quite unkind, and even deceived my leader.
"The End of the World Crazy Cat" The new book of Catcher Dream is also quite interesting, the end of the world flow plus pet crazy