Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1719
Before the price cut of Standard Oil, although Adan's profit was the highest among all oil companies, other oil companies were not unable to survive.

The price cut of Standard Oil opened the Pandora's Box of vicious competition in the oil industry. Adan Company was not affected much, and other oil companies were struggling to support it. It was impossible to return to the previous state.

Regardless of the vicious competition in the oil industry, Rock's interests have not been greatly affected anyway. After the new year, southern Africa officially started large-scale infrastructure construction, starting with the Orange River.

"We are going to build four large reservoirs in the Orange River Basin. The project will last about five years. After all the projects are completed, the power crisis in the Transvaal will be resolved to the greatest extent. At the same time, the entire Orange River Basin, in the There will also be sufficient water supply in the dry season, and the number of beneficiaries may reach millions, and the annual profit will reach more than one billion rand." Owen reports to Rock and Winston, and Winston spends most of the day The Palace of Justice almost regarded the Palace of Justice as his own office.

Rock expressed that he was very annoyed, and only now realized the benefits of Haig.

When Haig was the governor, he didn't come to the Palace of Justice once a month, and Rock was happy to live with Haig in peace.

Winston's ambition is obviously greater than that of Haig. Relying on his good relationship with Rock, he stays in the Palace of Justice every day, and gradually deepens his understanding of southern Africa.

"How much does it cost to invest in four large reservoirs?" When Winston was prime minister, Britain did not have such a large budget.

"It didn't cost a penny!" Rock was very proud. It is not easy to do this in a capitalist country.

The situation in the UK is different from that in southern Africa. Large-scale infrastructure such as reservoirs mostly depends on the power of social capital to realize.

This is also impossible, free trade, the government cannot intervene too much in the economy, after Stanley Baldwin came to power, he reformed the UK’s electricity supply, relying on private capital, the government did not invest directly, in fact, it was a change. Dressing.

Capital investment needs profit, so the last copper plate will be squeezed to the greatest extent.

Southern Africa is different. Although the four reservoirs of the Orange River also have private capital participation, the main source of funds is obtained from banks by the federal government of Southern Africa with the future profits of the reservoirs as collateral.

This guarantees the federal government's absolute control over the reservoirs. After the completion of the reservoirs of the Orange River and the Zambezi River, the federal government will have the greatest say in the power sector in southern Africa. How much electricity is sold will be the federal government's decision. The government has the final say, not the private power company.

Although the largest private power company in Southern Africa is the Nyasaland Power Company under Rock's name.

"Why?" Winston couldn't understand, probably in his opinion, even if Rock didn't want to make money, controlling the power company in his own hands could provide better services for southern Africa.

"Balance!" Rock's answer was concise and clear.

Absolute power leads to absolute corruption. This sentence applies everywhere. If you look at the United States today, you will know that the consequences of free trade are also extremely serious. The entire country will eventually be kidnapped by capital.

State monopoly is also not acceptable. Rock also has a deep understanding of this. Only orderly competition can promote social progress.

Rock's ideal model is balance. The government establishes rules, enterprises compete with each other, and shift their goals from profit to providing better services for customers. Although this violates the principles of economics to a certain extent, as long as the firm If implemented, Southern Africa will definitely gain a huge advantage in international competition.

When it comes to reservoirs, there is no need to emphasize the importance of power infrastructure. The energy crisis broke out in Texas, and electricity prices soared 60 times. This is the consequence of private monopoly on electricity.

Rock's ideal way is that the federal government purchase electricity from the power company at an appropriate price, and then supply it to the outside world. If the power company wants to make money, it must strive to improve its technology and reduce the cost of electricity prices, so as to form a stable power supply system. .

"In this case, the power company will squeeze employees in order to save costs. What will we do then?" Winston tried to find fault.

"You work as a labor arbitration department for nothing?" Rock had already taken precautions.

"Then what if the labor arbitration department and the power company collude with each other?"

"The labor arbitration department and the power company are ready to accept the investigation of Brad's office at any time—"

Winston finally shut up.

Rock's method is definitely not the best, but there is no perfect method. It is enough to adjust in time when problems are found during the implementation process. The fear is not that there will be problems, but that they will turn a blind eye when they occur.

The British Empire is also a leader in this regard. At the beginning of the year—not the beginning of the year, the time has come to 1927, the sun and the moon are flying—the coal workers’ strike broke out in the UK last year, and the British government turned a blind eye to the coal miners. Ask, until the coal miners ran out of ammunition and food, and had to accept the harsh conditions of the mine owner.

As far as the Labor Party still has the face to represent the interests of British workers, when the coal miners went on strike, the Labor Party did not actively coordinate to solve the problem, but was busy buying people's hearts with small favors.

While Rock and Winston were having a heated discussion, road workers from the Christian Construction Company were repairing the road in the Basutoland Mountains.

If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. This sentence is also applicable to southern Africa.

Basutoland is one of the most backward states in southern Africa. The serious lack of infrastructure is the biggest constraint of Basutoland.

Unlike the Transvaal, which is rich in mineral resources, Basutoland has no exploitable mineral resources, is sparsely populated, and has a backward economy. The Basutoland government still needs funding from the federal government every year to barely maintain a balance of payments.

Most of the water source of the Orange River comes from Basutoland. There are four reservoirs in Basutoland. There are three in Basutoland. The construction of reservoirs requires a lot of construction materials. To send these materials into the mountains, roads must be built first.

In order to build the reservoir, the Christian construction company mobilized nearly [-] workers, most of whom were from member states of the Southern African Union and some from India.

The conditions in mountainous areas are very harsh and the environment is harsh. It is difficult to imagine the difficulty of building roads in the mountains.

Fortunately, there are still river channels that can be used. There are many rivers in Basutoland, which provides some conveniences for Christian Construction Company.

"Too bad, a cement boat capsized in the Fare River, 4 people died, 12 people were missing, and the river was blocked. We must dredge the river as soon as possible to fish out the boat—" The person in charge of the transport fleet is from Jonathan of Rhodesia.

"Then hurry up and fish, I don't care what you do, you must ensure the supply of materials." The person in charge of the entire project is Xie Jin from Nyasaland.

Xie Jin graduated from the School of Architecture of Nyasaland University, which is the predecessor of Nyasaland University of Architecture.

After graduating, Xie Jin came to work in Christian Company directly, and successively participated in the relocation of San Rocco, Luanda Port, and Fawalt Steel Group.

Xie Jin is a decisive and tough person with a meticulous attitude towards work and never accepts any excuses from his subordinates.

"I know, I know, the engineering team is already fishing. If it can't be fished out, the boat will be blown up, and the work progress will definitely not be affected—" Jonathan knew Xie Jin's style, and he didn't want to make excuses at all.

"How many accidents has this been since we started work? The tenth? Or No. 11? If I remember correctly, we have lost 116 people—oh, no, 117—" Tao Yong, who is also from Nyasaland, is in charge of logistics.

Tao Yong and Xie Jin are classmates. They are good friends and relatives of their children. Xie Jin's daughter is already engaged to Tao Yong's son, and they will get married only when they become adults.

For construction companies, no matter how perfect the safety facilities are, accidents cannot be avoided.

Especially for Christian Company, Tao Yong and Xie Jin would not be used to it if the death toll did not reach [-] that year.

Even so, the environment in Basutoland is really too harsh. In the tragedy that has happened, some workers were dragged into the river by crocodiles and swallowed alive when they were drinking water by the river. Although the crocodiles were beaten dead, and the workers have long since died.

In addition to being swallowed by crocodiles, there are also those who fell to death from the mountain, were crushed to death by rolling stones on the mountain, and were killed by explosives when blasting the mountain, etc., etc.

Anyway, there are all kinds of accidents.

"There is no other way. Our task is to ensure the progress of the work. Apart from that, there is not much we can do—" Xie Jin's heart is as firm as iron. It doesn't matter if a few people die. Southern Africa was talking to the United States some time ago. Newspapers openly declared that the corpse of a Chinese laborer was buried under every sleeper on the Pacific Railway in the United States.

Southern Africa is not much better either. Southern African newspapers have publicly reported this, and of course American newspapers will publicly fight back.

In southern Africa, under every railway tie, there is also the body of a Boer buried.

This is slander and exaggeration. There are only a few Boers in total, and it is not enough to bury them all.

It is estimated that American newspapers wanted to write about Africans, but turned out to be Boers when they slipped their hands. This is definitely not slandering southern Africa for the planned genocide of Boers.

If the United States really dares to say that, then Southern Africa also has something to say, let's talk about the American Indians.

Before Tao Yong could speak, Howard, Xie Jin's secretary, hurried in.

"Sir, there was an accident in Prisca. About 150 workers of Indian origin escaped. The security personnel are chasing them. It is said that some Indians are cooperating with each other—" Xie Jin was caught off guard by the information reported by Howard.

There are Indians in southern Africa. It existed before the Second Boer War. After the establishment of the federal government, many Indians left southern Africa, and some Indians still chose to stay.

(End of this chapter)