No, compared with the huge expenditure of naval construction, the construction cost of the Summer Palace is really too small.
The failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was a complete failure of the will and execution of the whole country and the result of the complete backwardness of productivity and system. Without building a royal garden, it is impossible to say that Gan Kun can turn around.
Let's talk about the investment in building the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was rebuilt on the basis of the destroyed Qingyi Garden 1886.
According to the information collected by Lei Jia, there are 56 reconstruction projects of the Summer Palace, and the amount of silver used is 3166,692,800 yuan. These projects account for more than half of the total projects of the Summer Palace. It can be estimated that the total cost of the Summer Palace project is about five or six million taels of silver. Roughly equivalent to 100 to10.2 million pounds. This figure is not much different, because it took 15 years for Qianlong to build Qingyi Garden, and it only took 440285 1290 yuan 53 cents. The Summer Palace is the restoration of Qingyi Garden. Many buildings have original foundations, and all the damaged buildings have not been restored. In terms of scale, it is not as good as Qingyi Garden Project. Even considering the personal wealth of managers and the depreciation of silver, it is unrealistic to say that the Summer Palace is tens of millions of taels.
So how much can this money do at the beginning?
The rated fund of Beiyang Navy is 2 million taels per year, but in fact, the government is short of money from top to bottom, so Beiyang Navy can only receive about 6.5438+0.2 million taels per year. The construction cost of the Summer Palace can probably cover the arrears of five or six years. The problem is that during the 20 years from preparation to extinction, Beiyang Navy defaulted almost every year.
What about just buying warships for emergency?
The strongest warships of both sides participated in the Dadonggou naval battle, Dingyuan Zhenyuan, China, and Yoshino, Japan. Coincidentally, their prices are very close. All three or four hundred thousand pounds. In other words, the cost of the Summer Palace can buy three Dingyuan or three Yoshino.
On the surface, having three Dingyuan or three Yoshinos join the Beiyang Navy can really gain certain advantages in the Dadonggou naval battle. But is it really that simple? When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, it was suggested to go to Chile in South America to buy warships for emergency. One of them is Blance Encalada, whose specifications are close to those of Yoshino, but its firepower is slightly stronger (this is also the reason why it was later misinformed that Yoshino was originally ordered by China. In fact, when I ordered Yoshino that day, the Beiyang Navy had already stopped outsourcing warships.
The problem is that everyone in the world knows that you are in a hurry to beg for help at the last minute. Is there a reason why people don't kill you? So, all the way to Chile, the lion spoke and finally failed.
What is Japan doing at the same time?
Two months before the war broke out, Japan had allocated a special budget of 60 million yen to deal with the possible war, and then it sold government bonds at home to raise more military funds. At this time, Li Hongzhang has been grinding his mouth and demanding 6.5438+0.5 million yuan from the fact that he can't be deported immediately. Because the domestic fund-raising speed is too slow and the amount is insufficient, two loans with a total amount of 28 million yuan from HSBC in June 5438+0894165438+10 and June 5438+0895 supported China to finish the Sino-Japanese War. As far as burning money is concerned, Lao Li really can't burn Japan.
Before the war broke out in 1894, Japan ordered two12,500-ton battleships, Fuji and Hachijima, from Britain to prepare for the future war with China. Compared with the armored ship Dingyuan Zhenyuan, this is an epoch-making and overwhelming former fearless ship. However, Japan did not expect the war to break out so soon, and these two battleships eventually participated in the Russo-Japanese War. The construction cost of the Summer Palace, but buy a Fuji class plus some money left over from buying shells. 1897, delivered by Fuji and Hachijima, Japan ordered three battleships from Britain, namely Fushan, Chuse and Asahi, with larger displacement (15,000 tons), better armored materials (Harvey nickel steel) and stronger firepower (40 times that of the main gun).
Japan's military expenditure is a process of accelerating growth. Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese navy's military expenditure accounted for 10% to 15% of the government's budget, and the handwriting of purchasing new weapons and new warships was far from that of Beiyang Navy. Before the Russo-Japanese War, Japan spent tens of millions of pounds just buying battleships and armored cruisers from Europe. Ten summer palaces have been built, which is only the money for buying ships and only part of the military expenditure.
Compared with the European powers, Japan's navy at that time was actually not large. Facing the huge military expenditure of the great powers after the industrial revolution, building a garden in feudal countries is like buying a toy for a child.