The Belgian Syndicate, having been driven out of business
by the financial boycott which the official group was strong
enough to organize on the European bourses, it remained for China
to see whether she could not find some combination or some man who
would be bold enough to ignore all governments.
Her search was not in vain. In September (1912) a London
stockbroker, Mr. Birch Crisp, determined to risk a brilliant coup
by negotiating by himself a Loan of 10,000,000 pounds; and the
world woke up one morning to learn that one man was successfully
opposing six governments. The recollection of the storm raised in
financial circles by this bold attempt will be fresh in many
minds. Every possible weapon was brought into play by
international finance to secure that the impudence of financial
independence should be properly checked; and so it happened that
although 5,000,000 pounds was secured after an intense struggle,
it was soon plain that the large requirements of a derelict
government could not be satisfied in this Quixotic manner. Two
important points had, however, been attained; first, China was
kept financially afloat during the year 1912 by the independence
of a single member of the London Stock Exchange; secondly, using
this coup as a lever the Peking Government secured better terms
than otherwise would have been possible from the official
consortium.
Meanwhile the general internal situation remained deplorable.
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