1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 171 The Umbrella Company

In Tingtao Garden, after a lot of fighting back and forth, Liang Yao finally put the wooden sword on Mason's neck.

It was his first fencing victory over Mason.

Fremont had praised Colonel Mason as the best fencer in the Army.

But according to Liang Yao's experience of fighting several times, if the two of them didn't let go of their fencing training with him, he personally felt that Fremont's fencing skills were better than Colonel Mason's.

There are rumors in the world that Fremont's American-style house is also a must. At least a dozen people have fallen under Fremont's American-style house.

It's just a pity that Fremont has already gone to explore the route of the Pacific Railway. Otherwise, we can see whether the swordsmanship between Mason and Fremont is better.

"You won, your sword skills have improved a lot."

Mason took off the protective gear on his head and said out of breath.

He is a bit older, and every time he goes through a high-intensity exercise, he always feels exhausted.

The state and federal governments have reached a settlement that has freed Mason.

According to the latest order from the Department of War, Mason's troops will be stationed on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and New Mexico, and will no longer be in charge of border defense in California, which relieves Mason a lot of pressure.

After panting for a while and recovering his body, Mason continued: "You are a respectable opponent, and I hope we will not become opponents again in the future."

Mason has seen the soldiers of the California Infantry Regiment. Although the California Infantry Regiment has just been established, it is undeniable that this infantry regiment has high combat quality and fighting will.

This new infantry regiment is placed among the fifteen or six army regiments in active service in the United States, and it must also be an elite regiment.

"No one can tell what the future holds."

Liang Yao said indifferently after taking off the protective gear.

It was also within his expectation that Mason was not tried by a court-martial. He was different from the executioner Sherman in Los Angeles. He had a more noble and prominent family background and a wider network of contacts.

Liang Yao didn't expect that the laws of the United States would be able to judge Mason with a strong background.

"I owe California an apology."

Mason bowed to Liang Yao and apologized with shame on his face.

Liang Yao turned his head and did not accept Mason's apology: "You should save these words and tell the dead American people in Los Angeles. Apologizing will not bring the dead back to life."

"L.A. I'll be there in person to apologize."

As he said that, Mason ordered the black servant beside him to bring an extremely well-made Ames cavalry knife, and came to Liang Yao with the knife in both hands.

"This is a gift from President Polk, which can also be said to be a commendation. I now give you this cavalry knife. I am no longer worthy of holding this cavalry knife, but you are worthy of this cavalry knife." Knife."

Liang Yao unceremoniously took the Ames cavalry knife held by Colonel Mason. The slightly curved blade was very light.

He pulled out the knife and played with it for a while. This knife is very suitable for chopping and thrusting. The gorgeous hand guard is not flashy, and can protect the user's wrist well.

Of course, the most special thing about this knife is that it is a gift from Polk, the eleventh president of the United States. The inscription of President Polk is engraved on the body and handle of the knife, which is a symbol of honor.

Only senior Army officers who have distinguished themselves during their time in Mexico are eligible for this cavalry knife.

Liang Yao walked up to a rose tree, swung his knife and chopped at the rose tree that had just been planted in front of him.

With the knife in his hand, Liang Yao skillfully retracted the knife into the scabbard.

The rose sapling was chopped off in half, leaving a neat cut on the small trunk which was more than an inch long.

"Mason! In the future, if you lead troops to invade California and do things in California, your fate will be the same as this sapling."

After speaking, Liang Yao turned and left without looking back. This was his last warning to Mason, and he hoped that Mason would be able to take care of himself in the future.

Mason left Liang Yao's manor with a wry smile, and ordered the black servant to pack his luggage and prepare to leave San Francisco by boat.

Invasion of California?California has now become a state, is there still such a possibility?Unless there is a civil war in the United States and Liang Yao is still on the opposite side of the American federal government, otherwise he and Liang Yao will not meet each other again in the future.

"Sir, Mr. Vanderbilt asked me to ask you, when will the [-] laborers you promised him be able to hand over, and the Nicaragua side is waiting to start work." Liang Yao had just returned to the study, and Kony leaned forward asked.

"I have asked Jin Chen to handle the labor matters. First, hand over [-] laborers to Mr. Vanderbilt, and the remaining [-] laborers will wait until the fleet of the Global Shipping Company returns from Guangzhou. transfer."

Liang Yao frowned and said.

"The time agreed between us has not yet arrived. Tell Mr. Vanderbilt that I will abide by the agreement and tell him not to worry. The American Group is also short of labor right now."

Not only was there a shortage of labor in Vanderbilt, Liang Yao also faced a shortage of labor after the start of the railway.

After the construction of the railroad between San Francisco and Sacramento is completed, the construction of two other railroad lines has also been put on the agenda, one is the railroad route from Sacramento to the Nevada area, and the other is the railroad route from San Francisco to Los Angeles .

The demand for labor will only increase in the future.

Fortunately, Vanderbilt's five large steamships have already crossed Cape Horn, and they will be able to arrive in San Francisco before July this year. The addition of five large steamships will greatly increase the capacity of the global shipping company and speed up the process of immigration. Speed ​​can slightly alleviate the problem of labor shortage.

Originally, it was impossible for Liang Yao to receive five large steamships from Vanderbilt in one go before this autumn.

Among the five large steamships, three of them were ordered by other shipping companies, but due to the economic downturn in the United States, many shipping companies were in a difficult situation. When the ships were launched, those who placed orders with Vanderbilt's shipyard Shipping companies have gone bankrupt.

So Vanderbilt handed over all the three newly launched boats to Liang Yao.

The World Shipping Company is now the big financier of the Vanderbilt Shipyard, and the orders Liang Yao placed at the Vanderbilt Shipyard have been scheduled until June 1853.

Liang Yao is still negotiating cooperation with Vanderbilt on crew training. After all, so many ships have been built, and there needs to be enough crew.

The current main ships of the World Shipping Lines are steamships.

Although steamships can sail without looking into the wind, they can sail in any season.

But the early steamships had a very serious problem, that is, the fuel utilization rate was low and the coal consumption was very high.

Low fuel utilization is a common problem of steam engines, especially the early steam engines, the situation is particularly serious.

This is why many early steamships still did not give up their sails, because using sails when the wind is downwind, using wind power to sail can save a lot of coal.

The Pacific immigration route that Liang Yao took was extremely long, and there was no fuel supply point in the middle. Last time, Sven's fleet was short of supplies because of this reason.

Burning coal takes up a lot of space on board, leaving ships with less supplies to carry.

If Liang Yao wants to operate this route for a long time, he must build a suitable supply point in the Pacific Ocean to refuel and provide supplies for the passing steamships, and this supply point can only be done in Hawaii.

The construction of a supply station in Hawaii seems to be a problem between California, the United States, and the Kingdom of Hawaii on the surface, but in fact it is a matter between the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, and there is nothing to do with the Kingdom of Hawaii.

While Liang Yao was thinking about the supply station in Hawaii, Gibson, a banker from the Bank of Barings, and Le Goff, a banker from the Bank of France, came to visit.

The two named bankers were actually the pioneers of colonization.

This is also an old tradition in the West. In fact, what Barings Bank does is similar to that of the British East India Company. The difference is that the authorization obtained by Barings Bank is far less than that of the East India Company, and the business is relatively simple.

The purpose of the two of them coming to visit Liang Yao was to protect the Umbrella Company, that is, the Australian Gold Rush Company.

The second is for the Kingdom of Hawaii.

"The convicts and rednecks in Australia are so hateful that they want to keep Australia's gold for themselves.

Australia is a colony of the British Empire, a jewel in the crown of Her Majesty the Queen, and the gold of the colonies should belong to the British Empire and Her Majesty the Queen. "

After taking his seat, Gibson said indignantly.

Australian colonial officials concealed the news of the discovery of gold and wanted to make a fortune silently, which made Gibson very angry.

Of course, the thing he's really angry about is that he and Bahrain can't get Australian gold.

Before the discovery of gold, Australia had not been valued by the British authorities. After gold was available, the situation was different.

Remote Australia will soon become a sweet spot, attracting the greedy eyes of British capitalists and aristocrats.

"Didn't Governor Augustus promise to cooperate with us in the development of gold in Southwest Wales?" Liang Yao laughed.

"If you hadn't told me this news, I'm afraid I wouldn't know the news of the discovery of gold in Australia until now. I really don't know how long these damn country bumpkins will keep the news hidden."

Gibson's attitude towards Liang Yao was very polite. Now Liang Yao is not only a partner of Barings Bank, but also a major customer of Barings Bank.

Liang Yao deposited 20 pounds in Barings Bank, which would be 97.6 U.S. dollars if converted into U.S. dollars, which is less than one million U.S. dollars.

Barings Bank was the ceiling of private banks during this period, and its assets were about 500 million pounds.

Liang Yao deposited a huge sum of 20 pounds in Barings Bank by himself. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a major customer of Barings Bank. Looking around the world, there are not many such major customers in the Barings Banking Industry.

Liang Yao didn't deposit money in Barings Bank because he had a lot of money and had nowhere to put it.

In the future, if he wants to buy supplies from the UK, he still has to settle through Barings Bank, and Barings Bank has branches in major cities all over the world. This is also the advantage of Barings Bank, a veteran bank of an old colonial empire.

"Your bank has reached a cooperation with the American Group. The umbrella company under the American Group will leave for New South Wales in a few days. I think you will be able to receive gold from Australia soon." Liang Yao said.

"I want to know when you said soon. I saw that your gold panning team has gone to the Nevada area, which makes me doubt your sincerity of cooperation." Gibson said with a frown.

"For every day we waste here God knows how much gold those rednecks and convicts are going to steal from us."

It is already difficult for California Gold Gibson to step in. He now only hopes that the umbrella company jointly owned by Barings Bank and the American Group can enter Australia as soon as possible to obtain Australian gold.

Gibson believes that with the advanced gold mining technology and rich gold mining experience accumulated by the American Group in California, it can ensure that Umbrella Corporation maintains its advantages in the gold mining field in Australia.

"Mr. Gibson, you are too impatient. There is an old saying in China that haste makes waste. Xiangshan Gold Mining Company's personnel adjustment also takes time, especially the change of management personnel. This is a very troublesome thing.

Many management personnel of Umbrella Company are drawn from Xiangshan Gold Mining Company. I don't think you don't want the management personnel of Umbrella Company to be a bunch of idiots in the future. "

California is Liang Yao's base, and it is impossible for Liang Yao to give up the gold mining business in California for the sake of Australia.

"excuse me."

Gibson bowed slightly to Liang Yao to apologize.

"Australia is a colony of the British Empire. I hope that after the employees of the umbrella company arrive in Australia, Barings can coordinate the relationship between the umbrella company and the Australian colonial authorities."

Liang Yao said that this is also the reason why he is willing to cooperate with Barings Bank. No matter how far Australia is from the emperor, it is also a British colony. It will be much more convenient for the umbrella company to have a British background to do business in Australia.

"That's natural. The governor of Augustus also owns [-]% of the shares of the umbrella company. I think for the sake of gold, this country bumpkin has no reason to stand by." Gibson said.

"Gold mining requires a lot of manpower. Australia does not have enough manpower, and those criminals are not reliable. This is really a headache, and I am worrying about it now." Liang Yao said.

"Then have you thought of a solution?" Gibson asked eagerly, "If there is a real shortage of people, I can find a way to buy some people from the Indian state. I also have some contacts in India."

"Indians are too lazy to do this job." Liang Yao said with a smile.

"We can hire some workers from the Qing Dynasty. You have seen the miners of the Xiangshan Gold Mining Company. They work very efficiently. But I need you to negotiate with the governor of Augustus to help these workers get Australia The legal native place of Dalifa."

Gibson thought for a moment, then scratched his chin and said, "I can negotiate with Augustus about the laborer's place of origin, but there should not be too many Chinese laborers naturalized in Australia. Is there anything else we need to come forward to resolve?"

"I want to buy land in Australia for investment, and then build a large manor. You know, the winter in California is too humid and not very comfortable." Liang Yao said, "It happens to be summer in Australia in winter in California. Good for vacation."

"If you see any suitable investment projects in Australia, please be sure to cooperate with Barings Bank, we will always be your reliable partner."

Gibson stood up smiling and shook hands with Liang Yao.

"Definitely, definitely." Liang Yao said.

"Are you done talking about things between you? I think it's time we talked about Hawaii."

Legoff, who was left alone, couldn't help but speak.

(End of this chapter)