Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1952 Gold and Railways

"The gold production of Zhaoyuan Gold Mine is becoming more and more stable now." Nan Yimin walked cautiously in the mining area full of gravel, and said to Lu Zheng who was following him.

Lu Zheng is the son of Lu Fang, an official of the Southern Pioneering Team. He had been studying in the East Coast before.In this enterprise mainly engaged in the mining, smelting, and processing of precious metals, diamonds, and gemstones, Lu Zheng struggled for ten years. Later, because of his outstanding work performance, he was assigned to the Far East as the Zhaoyuan branch of the East Coast Gold Company. The general manager of the company is fully responsible for the daily production and operation of Zhaoyuan Gold Mine.

As for Nan Yimin, he is the son of Nanjiro, the former deputy director of the Military Administration and Djibouti's garrison commander. He is 37 years old this year.Somewhat similar to Lu Zheng's experience, he has worked hard for 20 years in the Southern Railway Company and finally made his way. While climbing to the position of director, he also served as the real vacancies of the Jiaoyan Railway Management Committee, which is quite good.You know, it may not be too difficult to be a director or bureau chief, as long as the grades are good and the qualifications are old enough, but it is not easy if you want to have a very good job. Nan Yimin's ability to act as the director of the Jiaoyan Railway Management Committee on behalf of the Southern Railway Company is a testament to his ability.

Someone from Nan came to Zhaoyuan Gold Mine today, actually at the invitation of Lu Zheng, to see if a railway branch line could be built to connect Zhaoyuan Gold Mine and Jiaoyan Railway, so as to facilitate the daily operation of the gold mine.To be honest, Nan Yimin had no interest in this matter at all, and didn't want to build this branch line at all, but he had to come over to take a look because of his kind invitation.

Although Director Nan is currently the top leader of the Jiaoyan Railway and is responsible for the daily operation of the railway, his life is actually not very comfortable.First of all, although this railway connects the bustling area of ​​Jiaodong Peninsula and the business is booming, it is not sure how much money it will make.The main reason is probably the high maintenance cost of the railway, which not only includes the costly import of most of the parts and components needed for railway maintenance, but also the cost of personnel. There is a lack of professional railway talents, and it takes a lot of money to hire them from the local area. The cost of this is not a small amount.

In addition, large troop movements were carried out more and more frequently by rail.According to the current agreement between the Southern Railway Corporation and the military, this part is completely free, or even if it costs very little.Over time, it is only natural that the Jiaoyan Railway, which has taken up a large amount of transport capacity for military supplies, will have a large deficit in this regard.However, considering that when the railway was built, the military also donated some cash and materials, and even drove a large number of prisoners of war to the construction party for free use. In addition, the previous presidents of the Southern Railway Company were military officers on active duty, and there was a relationship with the army system. They are inextricably linked, so the Jiaoyan Railway cannot get rid of this burden no matter what, and can only carry it by itself.

Finally - and a very important factor - the mainland of the East Coast has not yet approved the establishment of a wired telegraph network in the Far East.You know, the cable telegraph is very profitable. In the early days when the local railways were not yet profitable (in fact, they are not profitable now), the State Railway Administration had to rely on the profits of the cable telegraph to subsidize the loss-making railway department.However, this model cannot be replicated in the Far East. Although the Jiaoyan Railway is not strictly speaking a loss, without the cash cow of the cable telegraph, its operating conditions will certainly not be very good.Therefore, this time Lu Zheng invited Nan Yimin to visit the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, and euphemistically proposed that he hoped to build a branch line. I am afraid that it is impossible, because there is no reason, and he Nan has no money!

"Zhaoyuan Gold Mine now produces nearly two tons of gold per year. Although it is not as good as the local Tieling Gold Mine, it is almost the same." Lu Zheng pointed to the large mining area in front of him and said: "The Army has established a The garrison has more than 1500 people, all cavalry, scattered around, strictly guarded, and no suspicious people are allowed to approach. Next year, I plan to recruit more workers and expand the scale of production. By that time, Zhaoyuan Jin The output of the mine will inevitably become the largest in the country. After all, the potential of the Tieling Gold Mine has actually been tapped to the maximum, and the output has stabilized at a little over two tons a year, which is unlikely to increase. On the contrary, Zhaoyuan Gold Mine The current production capacity utilization of mines is actually far from enough, which has a lot to do with the local long-term neglect. In the past two years, the international silver price has fallen rapidly, and the local masters finally realized the value of gold, so they began to urge all over the world to increase The production of large gold mines is to prepare for the currency value reform in the future. In fact, I just want to ask, why did you go so early?"

Lu Zheng is the son of Lu Fang, and Lu Fang is the brother-in-law of army leader Yang Liang, so Lu Zheng can be regarded as a three-generation founder of the country. The self-righteousness of the people is much stronger.Therefore, Lu Zheng dared to scold the local officials and lords, and dared to accuse them of their mistakes, but Nan Yimin was more cautious about this, and kept laughing by the side, not expressing his opinions.

Of course, from his heart, he actually somewhat agrees with Lu Zheng's opinion.Those idiots from the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Precious Metals originally collected not a lot of gold, and they used it to repay foreign debts and build infrastructure in times of financial difficulties.In the documents of the Ministry of Finance back then, the words "use gold reserves of tens of thousands of yuan" were often used, which meant that the budget was not enough, and the gold reserves were temporarily used for expenses.But the problem is that this part of the used gold has not been replenished afterwards, so the gold reserves of the East Coast government have been very small for so many years, which is very embarrassing.

Well, now the gentlemen see that silver is becoming less and less valuable, and feel that the gold and silver double standard system still has great flaws, and it is not as good as the gold standard for maintaining and increasing value.However, it is not so easy to carry out the reform of the gold standard currency system. This first requires the east bank government to have sufficient gold reserves: I dare not say too much. In order to prevent major economic problems, there must be at least one worth tens of millions of yuan Are the gold coins in circulation?This is dozens of tons of gold reserves!

In other words, the current annual gold production of the Edomite Republic is about five tons (including the gold obtained from trade), and it takes more than ten years to save enough to reserve enough.And this only considers the gross profit rate of gold. If all costs are counted, it may take [-] or [-] years.

Therefore, if you don’t want to accumulate slowly step by step-God knows if you can save it, in case the money is not enough one day, maybe you will use the reserve gold again-then open more gold mines and finish the issuance faster The reserve gold required by the currency is the real thing.Therefore, Dongan Gold Company began to instruct the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine and Huma Gold Mine in the Far East to immediately expand production and strive to increase production as soon as possible.For this reason, they helped clear up the relationship, purchased a large number of new steam engine mining equipment from the local area, and shipped them to Denglai for local gold production.

This kind of treatment should not be low, because many coal mines in the Far East do not have enough steam engine equipment for pumping water, washing coal, and transporting it.Therefore, Lu Zheng also felt the pressure, which is why he invited someone from Nan to visit the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine this time.

Nan Yimin and Lu Zheng walked around the gold mine now. Seeing that the time was almost up, Nan Yimin didn't want to procrastinate any longer, so he said directly: "Manager Lu, I'm not going to tell you what's going on." By the way, the matter of building a railway branch line to the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine that you mentioned earlier is not realistic to be honest. Really, it’s really a lot of difficulties if I don’t help you if you’re not a brother. To this side, there is a distance of about [-] kilometers, which will cost more than one million yuan in road construction funds. To be honest, our company can't afford it, and it's not me who is a small director of the Jiaoyan Railway Management Committee. Those who can decide, this needs to be discussed at the company headquarters to make a decision."

What Nan Yimin said was true. With a mileage of more than 70 kilometers and a fund of more than 100 million yuan, even if he was killed, he would not be able to get it together. Therefore, this branch railway is destined to be impossible to complete.Even though the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine is rich and powerful, its annual gold output is considerable. Except for a part allocated to the Denglai pioneering team government, the rest must be shipped back to the mainland on the east coast, so it is impossible to embezzle this part of the gold. There will be big troubles in repairing the railway.

"So, this branch railway is doomed to be just a delusion?" Lu Zheng asked a little depressed.

Nan Yimin nodded lightly, and said: "The Jiaoyan Railway has been in official commercial operation for two or three years. So far, I haven't saved much money, and the dividends to shareholders are pitiful. The cost of a railroad would probably take decades, and it's not a good investment."

"However, in terms of social and economic benefits, the Jiaoyan Railway has reduced the time and cost of logistics transportation between the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, accelerated the flow of personnel, capital and goods in counties and towns along the railway, and prospered the local economy. The government has increased taxes a lot. This part of the income is actually quite large, but it cannot be reflected in the accounts of the railway company.” Lu Zheng said with a wry smile: “Well, I understand what you mean. It’s called poor. The profitability of the Jiaoyan Railway is low, and most of the benefits have been taken away by the local government, right? Forget it, I didn’t force you to build this branch railway. But look at you It’s so shabby, how will the Pingrong line be repaired in the future? I remember that the Jiaodong Peninsula in the government’s plan has one vertical and one horizontal railway. With the Jiaoyan line, if there is another Pingrong line, it will be true. It’s amazing, it can effectively mobilize the power of more than 200 million people in the entire Jiaodong Peninsula.”

"The Pingrong line will be in the year of the monkey." Nan Yimin handed Lu Zheng a cigarette, lit one himself, and said, "Anyway, in my opinion, if the Denglai local government does not make a big deal, the Pingrong line will It is determined that it will never be completed. Our Southern Railway Company is a commercial enterprise after all, and we may have to pay attention to the rate of return on investment and be responsible for shareholders. The Pingrong Line is longer than the Jiaoyan Line, and it costs a lot of money. It is impossible for us alone The Denglei local government should show its sincerity. Now that Jiaodong’s economy is developing so well and its population is increasing day by day, since the railway is crucial to economic development, it must be sincere. You know, the Southern Pioneering Team , is also actively contacting our company, and wants to build a railway in the Ningshao area. I think that the Ningbo area is densely populated and economically developed, so the request for building a railway is justified. Liu Houfei, Captain Liu, has invited our company to The technicians are going south, and if there is no accident, our next step of work is to start to gradually transfer to the local area.”

I have been busy with work for 2 days on the weekend, and I expect to be very busy next week. Thank you for your support. I really appreciate it. It is not easy to come together now.It can only be said that try to stabilize the update as much as possible, as much as possible.

(End of this chapter)