After a while, some consuls were a little moved when they heard this. Because all countries were really skilled in using social unrest and crises to hype up prices, and they all had very rich experience. The current situation in Shanghai is indeed a good time to hype up prices. However, after the failure of the silver dollar run, the consuls of various countries were much calmer. At the same time, they also realized that the strength of the East China government was much stronger than expected, and their confidence in Powell had also decreased a lot, so they did not dare to make a decision easily at this time.

After a while, Clermondo said: "Your Excellency, I admit that what you said just now is indeed a great opportunity to speculate, but the premise of raising prices is that we have enough capital to rush to buy and hoard daily necessities in the early stage, and Shanghai does not have enough supplies, so that we have the opportunity to push up prices in Shanghai. In addition, if there are local merchants in Shanghai, the chance of success will be greater. However, from the perspective of the run of silver dollars, we all have shortcomings in these aspects. First of all, our merchants in Shanghai are indeed limited in strength. Secondly, behind Shanghai, the full support of the East China Government. Moreover, whether they are voluntary or forced, they are absolutely obedient to the East China Government at present. Therefore, can we push the prices in Shanghai up? I personally express serious doubts about this."

Powell still looked confident and said, "Of course, our businessmen in Shanghai are indeed limited in strength, and local businessmen in Shanghai cannot count on them, but there are still many businessmen around Shanghai! In Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui, there are both our businessmen and Chinese businessmen, which together are a powerful force. The support of the East China government to Shanghai is indeed a problem, but we also have ways to deal with it. We only need to create some conflicts on the border and attract the attention of the East China government. This is enough to prevent the East China government from fully supporting Shanghai. Therefore, in this regard, we need the help of Russia and Japan."

Russian Consul Primakov immediately said: "Please rest assured that our Russian government has agreed to create several conflicts with the East China Government at the border to attract the attention of the East China Government and assist merchants from all countries in Shanghai. But if this is successful, Russia requires equal benefits from the negotiations between various countries and the East China Government."

Japanese Consul Takajiro Oda also said: "We in Japan do not have much interests in Shanghai, but for everyone's common interests, the Japanese government also agreed to create several conflicts with the East China government at sea, restrain the East China government, and contribute to our actions in Shanghai."

Powell nodded, very satisfied with the attitude of Japan and Russia, and said: "Japan and Russia have already expressed their attitude, so what are the plans of other countries!"

The others whispered again, and Clermondo said, "Okay, we need to discuss it for a while before we can decide."

Powell said: "Of course, but I want to remind you that if we give up now, then all our previous investment will be useless. If we want our early investment to be valuable and meaningful, we must stick to it to the end and continue to fight with the East China Government. Only by continuing to fight can we have a chance to win."

Clermondo's eyes twitched a few times, and finally nodded, saying, "I understand, we will seriously consider your advice."

In fact, Powell reminded consulates of all countries that if the run of silver dollars in Shanghai fails like this, all consuls will be blamed. Although this plan was proposed by Powell, it was also supported by consulars from various countries at that time, and consuls from various countries convinced the country to agree and support Powell's plan. Therefore, they are responsible. Only by continuing to implement Powell's next plan and jointly push up the prices in Shanghai, not only letting merchants make a fortune from it, but also forcing the East China government to make concessions, so that consulars from various countries can be separated from their relationship. Powell also saw this point and seemed full of confidence and firmly believed that consulars from various countries could only support themselves. Of course, this joint push up the prices in Shanghai must be successful and must not fail.

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"The report said that the third batch of materials has been put into the market, and today's price index has fallen to 1.37. The prices of major commodities have fallen below twice as much as before the year, including the rice index 1.87, the cotton yarn index 1.62, the cotton cloth index 1.71, the coal carbon index 1.53, and the small hardware index 1.56."

Li Songchen nodded and was very satisfied with today's price index, because the trend of running silver dollars has basically subsided, and Li Songchen's focus has also shifted from running silver dollars to price.

After the New Year, Shanghai's prices have remained high and have been rising all the way. As the seigniorage tax began, the trend of running silver dollars came. In addition to grabbing silver dollars, Shanghai residents quickly spent all the banknotes that were not exchanged into silver dollars and exchanged them for daily necessities to prevent the banknotes from failing, which further pushed up prices.

At the peak of Shanghai's prices, the price index once reached 1.87, the rice index reached 2.76, the cotton yarn index reached 2.83, the cotton cloth index reached 2.79, the coal carbon index reached 2.91, and the small hardware index reached 2.61.

After the tide of silver dollar runs subsided, prices did not fall significantly. Shanghai residents rushed to buy supplies, and the sentiment of daily necessities continued to be inertia. However, Qingdao provided Shanghai with three batches of supplies, including more than 8,000 tons of rice, more than 5,000 pieces of cotton yarn, more than 80,000 pieces of cotton cloth, 2,000 tons of coal, and more than 100,000 pieces of small hardware. All of them were put into the market. Not only did it finally stop the price increase in Shanghai, but it also fell to a level similar to that during the New Year.

Li Songchen also breathed a sigh of relief and finally stabilized the situation in Shanghai. However, Li Songchen did not dare to be careless at this time, because after calming the tide of the silver dollar run, merchants from various countries did not react much. This was obviously abnormal. According to Li Songchen's perception, countries would never be able to admit defeat honestly. After all, although the run of silver dollar failed, merchants from various countries actually did not suffer much loss and had the power to fight again. However, there was no action yet, and it was obviously holding on to the big move. If merchants from various countries still wanted to fight with the Shanghai government, then manipulating the prices in Shanghai would undoubtedly be a good tool.

So Li Songchen reported to Qingdao and suggested that he could not be completely relieved and should continue to prepare supplies to prevent unexpected uses. At the same time, he also sent people to closely monitor the development of Shanghai's prices to ensure that he could keep in mind the information.

On the second day, Shanghai once again experienced a post-buying trend. Qingdao bought more than half of the third batch of supplies that supported Shanghai. At the same time, the rice, flour, yarn, cotton cloth, coal, medicinal materials, oil and salt, small hardware and other items on the market in Shanghai were also rushed to buy. Moreover, this time, the rushing purchase was mainly bulk purchases, and there were not many retail sales. Many foreign companies also participated in the rushing purchase, and several of them participated in the rushing silver dollar run.

After receiving the report, Li Songchen immediately realized that merchants from various countries had finally taken action. And as he expected, the battlefield this time was the prices in Shanghai, so he immediately ordered that all the remaining materials be put into the market. At the same time, he immediately recruited Sheng Xuanhuai, Zhang Jian and others, asking them to restrain the local merchants in Shanghai and not participate in the manipulation of prices in Shanghai.

However, the Shanghai Municipal Government only lasted for two days and was sold out all the remaining materials on the market. The supplies of other merchants were almost all bought out. So after accumulating a large amount of daily necessities in hand, merchants from various countries immediately began to raise prices. In one day, they pushed Shanghai's price index to above 2.0, and the price index of major daily necessities exceeded 3.0.

Qingdao's reaction was also very fast. In just three days, it immediately transported another batch of supplies to Shanghai, including more than 3,000 tons of rice, more than 2,000 pieces of cotton yarn, more than 45,000 pieces of cotton cloth, 1,200 tons of coal, and a total of more than 30,000 pieces of hardware. The Shanghai Municipal Government immediately put the batch of supplies on the market, and then once again put the prices down.

But this time, merchants from various countries were obviously prepared and prepared quite sufficient funds. Therefore, this batch of materials was bought out after only 3 or 4 days. Moreover, according to the report, not only were the local foreign companies in Shanghai, but also a group of foreign companies in surrounding areas, and even local Chinese companies also participated. After this batch of materials were purchased, merchants from various countries pushed up prices in Shanghai again, and it was rising every day. By the time the next batch of aid materials arrived in Shanghai, Shanghai's price index had been pushed up to more than 3.17, and the price index of major daily necessities exceeded 5.0.

However, this time, Qingdao not only sent supplies to Shanghai, but also ordered local governments around Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and other places to prepare supplies to support Shanghai. Therefore, this time, there was a constant source of material resources. At the same time, Li Songchen also learned to be smart. After the materials arrived in Shanghai, they did not invest all the materials into the market in one go, but instead invested in batches in installments, as long as the prices could be controlled, it would be enough.
Chapter completed!