At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 647, Rome's Northern Railway
On June 48, the 6th year of the Han calendar, in the Roman Empire, in Marseille, in the council hall.

Zhao Gang of Feihai Money House, Song Dian, manager of Industrial Money House, merchant Wang Zhong, Liu You and other big merchants of the Han Dynasty in Rome all gathered here. These people can be said to be the representatives of Han Dynasty business in Rome.

The Roman Pax Romana Association's expansion into the north represented a huge commercial market in the north, so a large number of merchants expanded their business territories in Rome. They either purchased local cash crops or helped the Roman Pax Romana Association purchase machinery. The Roman Pax Romana Association's annual turnover was as high as 10 billion yuan, making it a huge blue ocean market.

Liu You smiled and said, "What valuable industry does Rome have that is worthy of so many of us gathering together?"

Each of these people represents an economy worth tens of billions. General interests are not enough to bring so many people together.

Zhao Gang said calmly: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to do business in a bank nowadays, so any profit you can make is a good one."

Song Dian smiled calmly and said, "Your Feihai Bank is not a small business. It is said that you have invested tens of billions of dollars in Rome. From banks to railways, steel mills, and textile factories, you are everywhere. The Roman nobles say that your Feihai Bank is going to buy the whole of Rome."

Capital is liquid, which is fully demonstrated in these people. Because of Xu Fan's relationship, the Han Dynasty has very strict control over capital, especially auxiliary financial industries such as money houses, which are managed extremely strictly. The Han Dynasty has promoted the popularization of telegraph systems around the world, which has accelerated the flow of information, which is a good thing for money houses. The various strongholds of the money house system can be combined into a whole, and the scale of lending can be greater.

But the Han Dynasty quickly reduced the loan interest rate of the bank to less than 10% to promote industrial development. This was a good thing for industrial development, and their profits increased greatly, but it was not a good thing for the people in the bank system. Their profits quickly dropped from more than 10% and 20% to only about 50%. The most intuitive feeling for the people in the bank system was that business was difficult.

The Han Dynasty was a good place for small and medium-sized merchants to do business, but it was not so friendly to the wealthy and powerful merchants. The Han Dynasty strictly limited their profits and might even close their businesses when they reached a certain scale. Part of the profits they earned had to be distributed to the craftsmen and part to the Han Dynasty's Shaofu. Only about 25% of the profits really belonged to them. They also changed from bosses to employees.

Therefore, the big merchants and nobles of the Han Dynasty were not willing to invest their money in the Han Dynasty itself. They preferred to invest in the New World, India, the Xiongnu Kingdom, and Daqinzhou, where the profits were higher and they did not have to distribute the profits. However, due to the turmoil in Daqinzhou, the merchants of the Han Dynasty did not dare to invest in those small countries. Most of their money was invested in Rome and Carthage, among which Carthage was a key investment area. A large part of the development funds for the three Celtic islands were provided by the merchants of the Han Dynasty.

The focus of Feihai Money House's investment is in Rome. Whether it is the Senate in the south or the Roman Maastricht in the north, they have huge investments.

Zhao Gang said in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "Compared to your business as a housekeeper, our Feihai Bank is just a small business."

At this time, Fabius, the Lord of Marseilles, came in and said with a smile: "Thank you all for coming to Marseilles in your busy schedule. I won't say any more polite words. We, the Roman Pax Romana, invite you here so that you can help us build a railway connecting the Spanish Peninsula, Gaul Province, and the Iberian Peninsula, and connect all the territories of our Roman Pax Romana with railways."

Zhao Gang knew more about the situation in Rome. He was surprised and said, "The scale of this railway is not small. The length is nearly ten thousand miles?"

Fabius said: "The total cost of a nine thousand mile railway is about 600 billion coins."

Liu You said, "The so-called Gaul Province you mentioned seems to have been established two years ago. There are only a group of Gaul barbarians there. How can we make a profit even if we build a railway in such a place? We don't even care about the 10 miles of wild land along the railway."

In recent years, the Roman Empire has continued to expand to the north. Although its territory is getting larger and larger, it is also extremely desolate. Now the Qin Continent is not a place that has robbed the whole world like in later generations, but a wild land full of swamps, virgin forests, and grasslands. Building railways in such a place will not only make a profit, but even the operating costs will be difficult to recover. Moreover, Rome is different from the New World. Although the New World is also wild, it has a lot of gold and silver, and Rome does not have this condition.

Others also looked at Fabius with interest. These members of the Roman Maison were really ambitious. They had not yet unified the whole of Rome, and even the South was eyeing them covetously. Instead of trying to unify the country first, they put forward such a huge railway plan. I don't know if they were confident or arrogant.

Fabius said: "The railway is fully funded by our Roman Datong Society. You only need our Datong Society to raise funds, and our Datong Society will give you generous profits. This is a regular business behavior and does not involve any political stance."

Now the importance of railways has been recognized by more and more countries. The reason why the Roman Pax Romana carried out such a huge project before the war was that they wanted to connect all their territories together and concentrate all their strength. The Roman Pax Romana knew the importance of railways, so naturally it was impossible for them to allow foreign forces to control their country's railways.

Liu You smiled and said, "Does your Roman Empire have assets worth tens of billions? Don't forget that you and Southern Rome are already in a state of division, and even war is imminent. If a war really breaks out, how can our rights be guaranteed?"

Fabius said respectfully: "Even if our Datong Society fails, I believe that as long as the Roman elders are not demented, they will not dare to touch your property in Rome. Your power in the Han Dynasty is enough to destroy any elder family."

This made everyone present smile proudly. They agreed with this statement. Feihai Money House's business spread throughout northern and southern Rome, but no senator dared to restrict the business of Feihai Money House.

Fabius then had his men take out some documents for these people to see, and then said: "In recent years, our Roman Datong Association has been continuously reclaiming wasteland. The planting area of ​​soybeans and cotton has been increasing at a rate of more than 50% every year. Last year, we sold 70 tons of soybeans. This year, we are confident that we can produce 100 tons of soybeans. Next year, the soybean production capacity can exceed 2000 million tons. Now the export price of one ton of soybeans is 20 coins. My Roman soybean industry will soon exceed billion coins."

"This year, we have planted more than 30 million mu of cotton in the north, and we expect to harvest more than 2 tons of cotton. The current export price of cotton is 60 coins per ton, and the value of our cotton output is billion coins. With the soybean and cotton industries as collateral, it should not be a problem for our Roman Datong Society to build a railway connecting the north."

Zhao Gang and others looked at the data provided by the Roman Datong Association and compared it with the data they obtained. They felt that it was roughly the same. The Roman Datong Association had been farming for more than ten years. A large number of forests in the north were cut down, swamps were drained, and grasslands were transformed into farms. The Roman Datong Association vigorously developed cash crops, and soybeans and cotton were the main cash crops. Every year, the amount of soybeans and cotton exported by the Romans increased.

Marseille, a newly established city, has quickly become the economic center of northern Rome. The most important reason is that Rome's cotton and soybeans are all transported from Marseille. These two cash crops can provide Marseille with billions of cash flow every year.

Using soybeans and cotton as collateral is a good deal. The Han Dynasty is a well-deserved beacon of the world. What is popular in the Han Dynasty will soon become popular around the world. Now the Xiongnu Kingdom and Tianzhu have also begun to use iron pans to cook. The global demand for soybeans is higher every year, and the price of soybeans is also rising steadily. Not to mention cotton, the textile industry of the Xiongnu Kingdom needs cotton, the textile industry of Tianzhu also needs cotton, and even the textile industry of the New World needs cotton imports. It can be said that as long as you have soybeans and cotton, you don’t have to worry about not being able to sell them. The soybean industry and the cotton industry provided huge funds for the industrialization of Rome. These two industries are the pillar industries of northern Rome.

Zhao Gang thought for a moment and said, "We at Feihai Bank can raise 50 billion yuan with an interest rate of %, but in the future, our Feihai Bank will take up % of the North Roman soybean and cotton export share."

Fabius said: "We will give at most 10% to your Feihai Bank."

Zhao Gang said: "15%."

Fabius said helplessly: "We need at least 500 billion coins to build this railway, and 50 billion coins can only get a 10% share at most." But Fabius thought about it and said: "Our Roman Pax Romana can order tons of rails from Feihai Bank every year until the Northern Railway Construction Dynasty is completed."

Zhao Gang nodded and said, "Okay."

Next, Song Dian lent 150 billion yuan to the Roman Pax Romana on behalf of the Industrial and Commercial Banks, with an interest rate of 150%. Song Dian's only requirement was that the billion yuan could only be used to purchase Han's steel, locomotives, construction machinery and other industrial products. Now that Han's industrial capacity is overflowing, the profits of the bank managers in various parts of Han are secondary, and their main function is to find sales markets for Han's industrial products.

Fabius agreed to Song Dian's request. Although it seemed that a war between Northern and Southern Rome was imminent, the pace of construction in Northern Rome had not slowed down. The city of Marseille alone consumed more than 3000 tons of steel, tens of thousands of tons of cement, and 3 cubic meters of wood every month, and these numbers were still increasing rapidly.

The primary industrial capacity of the Roman Empire could not meet such a huge demand. Marseilles almost bought steel, cement and other building materials from other countries in the entire Qinzhou. The Romans were only self-sufficient in wood, and they even had the conditions to export to other regions. The Romans had almost no competitors in the wood industry, but unfortunately the output value of wood was not too high, and the Romans did not make much money from the wood industry.

Fabius knew that Rome's own industrial capacity was not enough to complete the huge project of the Northern Railway, so it was worth it for them to give the steel machinery orders to the Han Dynasty in exchange for a loan.

Later, the big merchants of the Han Dynasty also obtained a half-tenth loan quota for the Northern Railway. These merchants did not have too many requirements. The only point was that the Roman Pax Romana would guarantee the safety of their funds. Fabius used the Roman Pax Romana's other industries as collateral and finally raised 500 billion yuan. The Northern Railway plan was approved.

The Northern Railway Project was approved, and the scale of 500 billion shocked the whole of Rome. This was almost the income of Rome's finances in the past ten years, and it was the largest engineering project since the founding of Rome. More importantly, the approval of this project allowed the citizens of Rome to see the ambition of the Roman Pax Romana to build industrialization, a determination to sell everything they had for industrialization. Compared with the senators in the South who were engaged in petty gains and losses, the citizens of Rome were more inclined towards the Roman Pax Romana.

More and more Roman citizens came from the south to the northern city of Marseille, where they saw a new city built of steel and cement. Although the citizens here were busy, they had hopeful smiles on their faces, which was completely different from the mental state of the decadent city of Rome.

October 48, 6nd year of the Han calendar

In the meeting room of Marseille, Claudius met with Maxius and other representatives of Southern Rome.

Maxius asked, "Are you really so confident that you can defeat the Senate that you don't want to arm your army at this time, but spend 500 billion to build a railway network?"

Claudius smiled and said, "It's not that we, the Roman Pax Romana, look down on the Senate, but our Pax Romana's original goal was to build Rome into an industrial country, and building railways was part of our plan."

Maxius was extremely surprised to hear this. This was no longer a confidence that he could defeat the Senate, but a complete disregard for the Senate. Others also heard this and didn't know what to say for a moment. They said Claudius was arrogant, but compared with the atmosphere in Rome and Marseille, they didn't think the Senate could defeat the Datong Society. But he said he was not arrogant, but the Datong Society spent 500 billion to build a railway when the war was about to start.

Claudius continued, "You all came all the way from the Apennine Peninsula to Marseille and have seen many of the Roman territories in the north. What do you think?"

A young man named Aulus said: "The Datong Society has expanded its territory, recruited citizens to share land, expanded the number of Roman citizens, built railways and roads, opened mines, established industrial zones, and reclaimed wasteland. These policies are all excellent. These are what the Senate should have done, but they did not do it. I only see hope for Rome in the north."

The young Romans behind Aulus also nodded in agreement. Although the southern Rome was richer than the north, the whole social atmosphere was downward and decadent. In contrast, the citizens of the northern Rome were positive and optimistic, which was completely different from the south. Therefore, Aulus said that the north was the hope of Rome.

Maxius was worried, "Your policy is too radical. Although it is good to build industrial zones, you have to do it within your means. A railway network worth 500 billion yuan passes through most of the areas that are not rich. Even if such a railway network is built, it will be difficult to get a return. It is not easy to borrow money from the Han people. If you cannot repay it, all the accumulation of your Datong Association for more than ten years will go to the Han people."

Claudius said: "It is because the Spanish and Gaul provinces are desolate that we want to build railways. Our Datong Association does not focus on the economic efficiency of the railways, but on the military and social benefits of the northern railway network to the local area.

Everyone can see the military benefits. After the successful construction of the northern railway network, Rome’s northern territory is no longer divided into several pieces, but is connected into a whole. At the same time, Rome now occupies a large amount of northern territory. It is these territories that bring new wealth to us Roman citizens, but these lands are vast and the population is sparse, far inferior to that of Rome itself.

If we want to develop these areas, we need to build infrastructure projects in advance, and the northern railway network can speed up the development of the north. Without this railway, the development of the northern land will become quite slow. With this railway, we can transport all kinds of materials to the wild land in the north, use pumps to drain swamps, and use tractors to reclaim the wild land. The construction of this railway will allow Rome to develop the northern territory decades in advance, greatly enhancing Rome's national strength. "

Then Claudius said confidently: "If the north is developed, Rome can also confidently say that it is a great power."

After listening to this, Maxius suddenly realized that he had nothing to say. The entire Roman team admired and feared the big man. He had only seen someone as confident as Claudius who kept chasing the big man here.

Afterwards, Claudius talked with these compatriots from the south for a long time, and talked a lot about their plans for the development of the north, covering industry, infrastructure, military, society and other aspects. In short, they planned to build an industrialized Rome based on the Han Dynasty. In general, the conversation between the two sides was very pleasant.

Aulus asked: "Why don't you, the Pax Romana, attack Rome now and spread your ideas to the whole of Rome?"

This was actually the direct reason why they came here. Since the Senate used despicable means to prevent Claudius from becoming consul last year, the Senate has begun to gather troops and prepare for a war with the north. However, although the border between the two sides is tense, the two sides have been in a standoff for almost a year, but the war has not yet broken out.

Claudius said calmly: "We in the Datong Society want to make more preparations and take over the Senate's governance of Rome at the lowest cost and with the least casualties."

Although no large-scale war broke out between the two sides this year, small-scale conflicts did not stop. What made the Roman senators helpless was that they were always the losers in these small-scale wars. Many times, small teams of dozens or hundreds of people surrendered as soon as they were surrounded by the north, and then they got the land divided by the Datong Society.

The citizens of Rome had no fighting morale and were defeated on the battlefield. The senators did not dare to take the initiative to provoke a war. They could only passively wait for the attack from the north. However, what the senators never expected was that after waiting for a year, there was still no attack from the north. Instead, the morale of the army was low and a large amount of supplies were consumed in vain on the front line.

(End of this chapter)