1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 163 The Opportunity to Subvert the Industry
Vanderbilt had two main sources of access to gold in California.

One comes from his 20% share dividend in Xiangshan Gold Mining Company.

In order to win over Vanderbilt and people in Vanderbilt's circle, Liang Yao used 30% of the shares of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company and the right of first refusal of the land in the Sacramento gold producing area in exchange for part of the Stonington Railway Company and their 5% to 20% of the shares in shipyards, steam engine factories and other factories.

Of the 30% shares of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company, 20% is held by Vanderbilt, and the remaining 10% is divided among his old buddies.

As for another source of gold, it is the Staten Mining Company established by Vanderbilt and his old buddies. This mining company is only slightly smaller than the Boston Company, and its profits are also very objective.

It's just that Liang Yao didn't take a share in Staten Mining Company, Liang Yao had no way of knowing how much profit Staten Mining Company could bring to Vanderbilt, only Vanderbilt and the others knew.

"You personally hold 20% of the shares of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company. According to this shareholding ratio, you can get about US$410 million in dividends." Liang Yao thought about it carefully and said, "The exact amount of dividends you can get will go back and check carefully." Only after checking did I know that it won’t be much different from this number.”

Liang Yao reported a figure that satisfies Vanderbilt. Counting the US$280 million income brought by the Staten Mining Company, he can obtain US$690 million in the California gold industry.

Counting the US$300 million in bank deposits, he now has more than US$1000 million in cash, which can fully support him in the railway industry.

The folks at Vanderbilt are also very satisfied with this dividend figure, because according to this ratio, their 10% shares can also receive more than 200 million US dollars in dividends from Xiangshan Gold Mining Company.

A million dollars is a very considerable amount of wealth for the richest man in the United States like Vanderbilt and Backhouse, let alone small rich like them, this is simply a huge sum of money!
"It seems that there is no more profitable way in this world than directly mining gold." Vanderbilt said with emotion.

In less than a year, he earned 690 million US dollars from the gold industry, which is more than the money he earned in ten years of shipping.

However, Vanderbilt did not indulge in gold panning. He believed that panning for gold was good for a while, but panning for gold was not a long-term solution after all.His purpose in obtaining gold from California was only to raise enough funds to enter the railroad business.

"It's a pity that this gold rush didn't last long. I heard that the gold resources in the Sacramento area have been exhausted?"

Theodore sighed in disappointment, only regretting that he hadn't joined the gold rush army in California earlier.

"The gold resources in the Sacramento area have indeed been exhausted, but the Sacramento area is only a small part of California. There are still many places in California that have gold, such as the Nevada area and some mountainous areas. A lot of gold has also been found in these places." Liang Yao smiled. road.

He is not worried about the depletion of gold resources in California. California was the second gold-producing state in the United States until 1988, more than a hundred years later, when 602505 ounces of gold were mined that year.And the first is Nevada.

With the technology of this era, it is impossible to mine all the gold in California in just a few years.

It's just that wealthy gold mining areas like Sacramento are hard to find anymore.

It is difficult for a person who is used to eating delicacies to let him eat simple food, and it is difficult to adapt for a while. This is the current mentality of Theodore and others.

"I hope there will be such a bumper harvest in the coming year." Theodore laughed.

"I can selflessly share with you a priceless business secret. Australia has also discovered gold." Liang Yao said, "If you are interested, you can join me in entering Australia and fighting side by side."

"Australia also discovered gold?"

Vanderbilt's eyes lit up when he heard this.

"However, Australia is the territory of the British, and the situation is much more complicated than that of California."

"Yes, it depends on whether you have the courage to enter Australia." Liang Yao said lightly.

"That's tempting news."

Vanderbilt was very interested in this news. He had already tasted the sweetness of the gold mining industry, and this explosive news was very attractive to him.

But now Vanderbilt discovered something more interesting, that is, the tracks laid by Liang Yao's California Railway Company.

The tracks laid by the California Railway Company are very good. Not only is there a thick layer of gravel under the tracks, but the tracks are also marked with high-quality spikes to fix the tracks.

This is also rare in the eastern region where poor-quality rails dominate.

Moreover, Liang Yao's rail shape had never been seen by Vanderbilt before.

"Isn't the cost of laying these tracks high?"

Vanderbilt, with a keen sense of business, squatted down to inspect the newly laid railroad tracks.

Now that he has decided to enter the railway industry, he must have made a detailed investigation of the American railway transportation industry.

He has done research not only on the rail transport industry in the United States, but also on the rail transport industry in Britain.

The high rate of railway accidents is a chronic disease of the American railway industry.

There are many reasons for the high accident rate of American railways, in addition to the objective reasons of late start and backward technology.

The American Railroad Company seeks short-term interests most, and the short-sightedness is the more important reason.

It is still possible to catch up if the technology is backward, but God cannot save me from being short-sighted.

Poor quality rails are an important reason for the frequent accidents on American railroads.

Vanderbilt knew this, and so did many railroad executives.

But just unwilling to make changes.

Because wanting to make a change is tantamount to admitting that the frequent occurrence of railway accidents is caused by poor-quality tracks, and demolishing these existing tracks and re-laying qualified tracks requires a very high cost.

Not only the demolition of the track, but also the cost of laying the track, the outage of the route will bear the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars every moment.Only the lines that are in operation can bring huge profits to the railway company.

This price is not willing to bear by the top management of all railway companies.

As for the casualties caused by accidents, they were not the ones who died anyway.

In fact, many wealthy businessmen who invest in railway companies are very reluctant to travel by train, because they know the risks better than anyone else.

Therefore, although they are engaged in the railway transportation industry, they prefer to travel by horse-drawn carriage and steamboat when they travel by themselves. They cherish their lives very much.
If an accident causes casualties, just use money to buy news media public relations. The cost of public relations is much lower than directly demolishing inferior railway tracks and laying new tracks to completely solve this problem.

They also reported in newspapers that the railway accident rate in Britain, France and other countries is very high. Whenever there is a railway accident in a country on the other side of the Atlantic, they will write a big book in the newspaper, making the American people gradually accept the reality of the railway accident rate.

In this era of relatively limited information, newspapers are the main way for Americans located on the edge of the world to obtain information. They trust newspapers, especially authoritative newspapers.

Under the exaggeration of these unscrupulous media, the American people even sympathized with the Europeans on the other side of the ocean, and felt that compared with them, the railway transportation in the United States was considered safe.

The American railway company is also very conscientious, at least the attitude of apologizing for the accident is very sincere, and it will give some compensation.

In fact, before the middle of the 19th century, the general accident rate of the American railway transportation industry was 3.87 times that of the United Kingdom and 3.54 times that of France, and the rate of major accidents was 5.86 times that of the United Kingdom and 5.73 times that of France.
This situation did not change until the Civil War, because some front-line soldiers who took the train to the front were killed or killed by railway accidents before reaching their destination, resulting in unnecessary attrition.

The military trains for the army's logistics supply often failed to arrive on schedule due to accidents, which delayed military planes. The frequent occurrence of railway accidents made the American government and Congress intolerable for the American railway companies.

"Is this railway open to traffic?"

After carefully inspecting the excellent track laid by Liang Yao's California Railway Company, Vanderbilt looked up at Liang Yao.

He saw an opportunity from this kind of railroad track, an opportunity that could subvert the American railroad industry, which made him very excited.

Vanderbilt had a bold idea in mind that would reverse his relatively late foray into the railroad business.

"It's open to traffic, but there are fewer trains every day."

Every station of the California Railway Company, regardless of size, is specially equipped with a telegraph room for communication between stations.

Liang Yao told Coney to go to the telegraph office and pull a special train over. He wanted to take the train back to San Francisco with Vanderbilt.

The railway around Jinshan Bay connects several large and small villages built along Jinshan Bay, realizing the connection of every village in the Jinshan Bay area.

After the opening of the railway around Jinshan Bay, the population of these villages has grown significantly, especially Xinze Village, which has a population of 2000 and is submitting applications to the California government and state legislature to establish a town or even a city.

However, Liang Yao did not intend to pass these applications. The villages and towns near Jinshan Bay Liang Yao did not intend to set up separate towns. He planned to build a metropolitan area around Jinshan Bay.The villages and towns near Jinshan Bay were set up to facilitate unified management.

Xinze Village is located more than 60 kilometers southeast of downtown San Francisco. Its location is roughly equivalent to the later San Jose City (the third largest city in California in later generations). There is a valley called Santa Clara near the village. Kataya has a world-famous name in later generations: Silicon Valley.

It's just that this valley now only has some sporadically reclaimed fields, which is very desolate.

Xinze Village got its name from the swampy area nearby.

The growth rate of the number of immigrants in California far exceeds the expansion rate of the San Francisco urban area. Many immigrants who do not want to stay in the San Francisco urban area and continue to involve have begun to migrate to the surrounding areas to welcome a new life.

Xinze Village is one of the ideal migration places for immigrants. There are vast uncultivated lands, rivers, and abundant water resources, which are very suitable for agricultural planting.

After the opening of the train line from downtown San Francisco to Xinze Village, the transportation here has also become very convenient. I believe that it will soon develop into another big city in the west.

The ear-piercing sound of the steam whistle brought Liang Yao's thoughts back to reality. The huge Pioneer train was puffing thick smoke above its head, and besides, it was slowly entering the Berkeley Village Railway Station.

　Thank you book friend Yi Meng Wei Ma for the 10000 rewards!
　　On June 6.4th, book friends Niya and MinNa tipped 5000 points, which was just over [-] points when combined with the previous tip. I will strive to repay this tip tomorrow.

　　These two chapters are difficult to understand without a map. I will post the pictures to the book review area first, and then study how to post pictures.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)