Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1139 Opportunity ([-])

November 1657, 11, Qingdao County Expo Road, sunny.

A new-style carriage drove up on the clean and tidy street. Under the control of the driver, two beautiful draft horses quietly stopped in an open space by the side of the road, and then a woman dressed in a coat and dressed as a Ming Dynasty The woman got out of the car and entered the gate of a magnificent building in front of her under the escort of her entourage.

This is the famous "Registered Stock Exchange" on Expo Avenue, where the shares of the famous Southern Railway Company were issued many years ago.And now, another company similar to Southern Railway has also begun to publicly raise funds on the registered stock exchange. The name of this company is Caribbean Shipping Company. %, the price per share is 40 yuan (slightly higher than the original 60 yuan of the Southern Railway Company), and the expected fundraising is 50 yuan.

The company is basically a maritime version of Southern Railway and Super Concern. The Ministry of Finance on the East Coast bought shares at a discount from the monopoly trading rights of the Governorate of New Spain. In addition, it also allocated 8 yuan in cash and four older escort gunboats. For the company, it took a full 60% of the shares, and the other 40% of the shares were given to the public for public fundraising.

According to the agreement with the Spaniards, the shareholders of the Caribbean Shipping Company can only be Spaniards and people from the east coast, and the company's shares must also be sold to the nationals of the Kingdom of Spain. Mo San, who presided over the negotiation at that time, agreed to this condition.However, things changed dramatically later. When some Spanish businessmen rushed to Qingdao Port after hearing the news, they were told that the sale to Spanish nationals had ended on the night of November 11.

Naturally, the Spaniards did not believe this, so they inquired one after another. Later, Mr. Charles from the United Kingdom confirmed that the shares of Caribbean Shipping Company had indeed been publicly sold on the registered stock exchange late that night, but only for 5 minutes, and then announced No one came to buy, and the sale was over—at that time, Mr. Charles’ late-night visitor returned to the Golden Deer Shop and inadvertently noticed the whole process—this result stunned all the Spanish businessmen, who didn’t know what to say.

Of course, for the Spanish businessman or Hidalgo who really had a great influence in the Spanish American colonies, the people on the east coast allocated some shares of Air Canada to them in advance, which accounted for about 5% of the total share capital. 5000 yuan of funds, after all, in the future to do business in the Caribbean, there are many places that need Spanish local snakes.

At this time, the lady who drove to the registered stock exchange naturally also came to buy stocks, and she was relatively generous. She sold 250 shares, accounting for 1% of the shares, and spent a total of more than 1.5 yuan ( including handling fees).

The generosity of the woman shocked everyone in the exchange, and someone familiar with the rich and powerful circles on the east bank quietly popularized science to the people next to him: "This woman is the beloved daughter of Commander Putin Pu of the Gendarmerie. The wife of Tian Xingtian, who was transferred to the Far East, has a lot of money. But this time, she spent a huge sum of 5000 yuan. Outsiders know."

The lady left after buying the stocks, but other people in the hall were very entangled in whether to buy the stocks of Caribbean Shipping Company, because in the articles of association announced by the company, the funds raised will be used for three purposes: The first is to build a large number of ships for transporting goods, the second is to build plantations along the Mississippi River in North America, and the third is to recruit and train various talents to take over the customs of the cities that Spain promised to open.

The first condition is easy to understand. Since the Caribbean Shipping Company has monopolized the trade of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, it naturally needs a large number of ships to transport goods. The shareholders are very happy to see that the investment is spent on this.

But the second condition is a bit painful, that is, the construction of plantations on the banks of the Mississippi River in North America. This is completely a policy task imposed by the Executive Committee.Considering the current rumored "Chinese-Black Partition" plan, most of these plantations also use blacks as their labor force—perhaps there are also many Malay prisoners of war in New Huaxia Island—to be honest, the profit prospects of these plantations It is extremely suspicious and has formed a great competitive relationship with the plantations on Xinhua Island. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is not profitable.Not to mention that the local situation is complicated and the security situation is not optimistic. In short, this is a very risky project, and it will inevitably squeeze out a lot of valuable funds of Air Canada and affect the company's daily operations. Therefore, potential investors like them have been allowed to Extremely criticized.

If the second condition is only the possibility of loss, then the third condition is completely thankless.Because the Caribbean Shipping Company will accept the entrustment of the Executive Committee to set up customs and collect customs duties in many commercial ports along the Caribbean Sea coast. This is simply nonsense.Gein, after Air Canada monopolized the trade in the Governorate of New Spain, its largest market share is undoubtedly in its own hands. Occasionally, there may be some ships from the Netherlands, Genoa, and Courland that are licensed by the east coast. Trade, but it does not account for the mainstream, so it is conceivable that the bulk of the tariffs are still on the head of Air Canada itself-it is really nonsensical to collect taxes on itself.

Of course, it is not without some advantages for Air Canada to actually operate the customs. After all, they have the final say on how much the customs charges - they only need to use part of the funds to bribe the Spanish staff in the customs (according to regulations, the Spaniards must Occupy a certain proportion in the customs), you can make the customs tax revenue a mess - and you can also seize the goods of foreign smuggling ships and strengthen your monopoly position.You must know that these places were not the markets of the people on the east coast in the past, and the smuggling trade was extremely rampant. If Air Canada can gain a firm foothold in the local area, then it is not a luxury to eliminate these smuggled merchant ships and monopolize the local market for excess profits.

In addition to the above three points, there is actually another point that discourages investors, that is, the dividend distribution issue of Caribbean Shipping Company, a large concern company that is deeply controlled by the government, that is, whether they will truthfully distribute the profits they get every year. To give everyone dividends.This question is very critical, because there is a very bad example in the south, that is, the Southern Railway Company, which is also controlled by the Army, has a very bad reputation in terms of dividends. It obviously makes a lot of money every year by relying on railway transportation and monopoly trade , but the company used a large amount of profits for development and construction, making the annual dividends to shareholders very poor, completely lower than investors' expectations (even in the first few years, the Southern Railway had a "six consecutive losses" Therefore, investors now have reason to suspect that Air Canada may also be driven by the Executive Committee to act as a pioneer in colonization, spend a lot of unnecessary money, and bear a lot of policy losses, so that the company’s profits will be greatly reduced. Shareholders' dividends have been substantially reduced.Therefore, based on such doubts, many investors with funds in their hands are afraid to buy the company's stocks.

However, even if many investors adopt a hesitant and wait-and-see attitude, the stock of Air Canada is still sought after by some people, especially those rich people with keen sense of smell and well-informed information. Now, Air Canada raised tens of thousands of dollars in just one morning—their idea is also very simple. How could the stocks that the government secretly sold behind the Spaniards’ backs not be a good thing?Even if the company has a lot of burdens, as long as the number of ships is sufficient, as long as the government navy is able to clean up (including some European smuggling ships), as long as they can continue to monopolize the import and export trade of New Spain, then these are not problems, and the company will be able to Earn a lot of money.

After raising the first capital, Air Canada can almost use it to order ships from the three major shipyards in China.It is estimated that in the second half of 1658 at the latest, the Spanish Kingdom’s order to open trade with the east coast will be transmitted to the New World. By then, the company has almost accumulated some ships and can already start Caribbean trade.In addition, according to the latest progress schedule of the "China-Black Partition" plan, the first batch of Black Eight Banner officers and soldiers and their families will board the ship and settle near the mouth of the Mississippi River in the middle of next year, and Xinhua will also hand over a batch of horsemen Comedians, Comoros, and Swahili to the Caribbean Shipping Company, local cotton plantations are almost ready to start.

These handed over "labor workers" (in fact, contract slaves) will re-sign labor contracts with Air Canada, promising to work in the company's North American plantation for a number of years, and their monthly salary will also be fixed.And once their work contracts expire, they themselves have the priority to renew the contract. Of course, if they are unwilling to renew the contract, they will automatically become free citizens of the country established by the Black Eight Banners in the local area-this is subject to the East Bank protected by others, the Kralls of the Black Eight Banners have no way to say anything.

By the way, according to the "China-Black Partition" plan, this black eight-banner country established on the banks of the Mississippi River has a very ironic name: Free State (I don't know which time traveler gave it the name).The Free State includes more than [-] people in the Black Eight Banners. According to the system established for them on the east coast, almost [-] fighters can be drawn out (of course, one-third of them are still fighting in the Far East), and all of them have experienced Year-round training and strict discipline in the militarized organization that integrates soldiers and civilians. Many people have been born and died in the Far East battlefield and have rich combat experience. Facing those white colonists is like cutting melons and vegetables.I believe that if Air Canada can fully cooperate with the Free State, it will definitely be able to break out a world in the lower reaches of the Mississippi River.

(End of this chapter)