Page 24 of Ravishing Camille
“On my way, sir.” The man clapped his hands and spun to it.
“I do not wish to trouble you, Victor.”
“None at all. We have a standing order from the tea shop around the corner. And I’m hungry, too.”
“Excellent. I wanted to take Camille to luncheon before I came but she was occupied with a friend.”
“Lady Brianna Price?”
“The very one.” Pierce nodded. An earnest and peppy woman. Victor and Pierce wrote lengthy letters to each other, detailing everything from the intricate business items to the family goings-on as well. Friends were not omitted from the descriptions. Nor were, in Victor’s case, details about constituents or public policy debates. “Is she that woman who makes your hair stand on end?”
Victor snorted as he sank into the chair opposite. “In the flesh. I like her, never doubt. But if she could have my seat, she’d do me in with a grin and a bash on the head.”
“I’ve read a bit about her. Wants voting rights for women. Assistance for women in the family way.”
“Scholarships to colleges for those women who qualify for admission to medical studies.”
“All fine ideas,” Pierce noted with a chuckle.
“Say you and I and she and Camille. Plus your father and mother.”
Pierce winced. “Makes six of us. And the rest of the family.”
Victor sighed. “Not quite enough to pass a bill up to the Lords.”
“Exciting concepts though.”
“Truly,” Victor agreed. “What else can you regale me with?”
“Ah, well! I bring you news. First, as you might expect, just before I left, I signed the deal with the Mitsubishi family in Tokyo for them to buy the blueprints for construction of five passenger steamers.”
“Like theManchu Empress?” Victor was grinning.
And Pierce followed. “Replicas. They need do nothing but follow the blueprints. Add more amenities, if they wish. With this and their government contracts for the mail service, they become the leading steamship company in Japan.”
“Killian knows?”
“I told him yesterday. He’s thrilled.”
“You and I should be celebrating. I’ll get that brandy.” Victor got up. “And the other news we should celebrate?”
“Increased sales of silks to Germany and the United States. Porcelains too.” Pierce liked giving Victor news of increasing profits in the silk and porcelain trade. That had formed core of Victor’s business and was what Pierce managed for him. Victor’s profits in Pierce’s businesses were fewer because his investments were smaller. “But the other news is that on the voyage, Lee Macfarlane and I devised a plan to encourage Li Hung-chang to buy more steel from us to complete the Shanghai railway north to Peking and south to Wuhan.”
Victor paused, his frown showing his surprise and worry. “The Chinese have started and stopped efforts like this so often. You will pardon me if I don’t get excited over this until you tell me the details.”
“I understand. Macfarlane and we split the investment, work and proceeds. We use only Shanghai laborers speaking the local dialect. We use our own Chinese engineers who have been American-trained. Lee will conduct all the meetings. Only he and his staff, only men who are true Ningpo natives.”
“That will make the viceroy happy.”
The imperial viceroy in charge of the province near Shanghai was Li Hung-chang, an aged Confucian bureaucrat who’d been appointed by the emperor to solve many problems. While Li was at heart a staunch conservative Confucian, he also saw the value of improving his country’s railroads and infrastructure. But he faced enormous opposition from most of his colleagues who thought of foreigners as arrogant purveyors of tools that would destroy the peace of the empire.
They were right, of course. The Opium Wars of the forties and fifties had disturbed it. That narcotic trade, still illegally conducted and mostly by Americans merchants, destroyed the health of millions of Chinese, as well as the internal economy of the empire. The Tai-Ping Rebellion, initially a peasants’ revolt led by a man who declared himself as the brother of Jesus Christ, had swept the countryside, killing more than thirty million. Now those who prospered in China were the thousands of British, American, French and Germans who lived along the coast. Those who had arrived later—the Russians and the newly revitalized Japanese—added to the contrast which the impoverished Chinese peasants witnessed.
“The viceroy will remain happy too, because,” Pierce said, “Lee Macfarlane will ensure that all on the project speak only the Ningpo dialect.”
“Ah. And the Court won’t have any criticisms that we do not permit Mandarin into the mix?”
“A delicate balance. Lee says he’ll hire two men from Peking who speak both dialects. Their job will be to negotiate any conflicts.”
