European Financial Emperor

061 Become a chaebol (1)

The East Stellar Company had the Rhodes family buy up all of the oil fields in the Middle East and Africa.

Now, East Stellar has been recognized for its property rights in the oil field through an external agreement, and construction is underway so that oil can be actually drilled and brought back there.

In March 1825, around the time John Quincy Adams of the United States became the sixth president, Yi Hwan received a report on the purchase of oil fields.

“The defeat of the Ottoman Turks boosted trade with the Middle East. That made it much easier to buy oil fields. We also acquired sovereignty over the land that the president pointed out among the still undeveloped areas. Not only that, but the Dutch and British governments have also taken steps to ensure that these property rights are recognized.”

“Um, that’s good. What about the permanent presence of mercenaries in the Middle East?”

“Once the East Stellar Mercenary Corps is a subsidiary of our company, the presence itself is not an issue. However, a contract agreement is in progress on the condition that any military activity that could be considered an act of aggression cannot be carried out.”

“Um, good. That’s enough.”

“And there are additional reports on real estate. It is about the Panama-related real estate purchase you mentioned earlier.”

“No, has it already been signed? I know it’s been less than a month since I gave the order.”

“A Colombian official came into contact with our East Stella while they were in Europe. I am going to place an order for road construction.”

“Oh, right?”

“In the process, we talked about the purchase of a rubber plantation in Panama, and they have been saying how about receiving half of the proceeds in Panama.”

“We get half of the money in Panama… … ?”

“Everything from the borderlands in northern Panama to northern Colombia will sell to us. Instead, they asked me to cut the cost of the road construction in half.”

For now, you could say that this sounds like some kind of robbery.

An agreement was signed for a one-way construction of Paris and Amsterdam alone for a whopping £7.5 million, and if half of the construction cost was discounted in a difficult-to-construct area such as Colombia, Lee Hwan was almost doing business with a full blown business.

No, if it was wrong, Lee Hwan could have suffered losses.

Because there are many variables in road construction, if you make a mistake, you will have to restart the construction from the beginning.

But Lee Hwan didn’t care.

‘I have a map of the world in my head, what does it matter?’

It seems that there was someone who knew not only the world map, but also the geological condition around it in great detail.

He must have been a geologist from South America, but for future knowledge, this was not so great.

But now it was different.

This is because no one has adequate knowledge of the geology of South America, and no theory exists as detailed as the knowledge of the future.

“Then let’s do that.”

“Hey, are you serious?”

“Just ask for a share of the road. So that our company can use the highway for free.”

“Can we benefit from that alone?”

“of course. Make sure you have a legal system in place so that Panama can become the property of East Stellar.”

“Yes, I understand. Then, we will work in conjunction with the road construction project that we won in the Brazilian Empire.”

“Do by that way.”

Already, 500 East Stella mercenaries and 500 civil engineers have crossed over to Brazil, procuring local workers and starting the construction.

Perhaps, if Colombia and Brazil are connected by road networks, North and South America will be connected by roads to achieve fairly rapid economic growth.

Lee Hwan was trying to directly generate the economic growth and get some incentives from it.

“This project will be a decisive growth engine for East Stellar in the future.”

“Um, really?”

“You don’t believe me?”

“It’s not, but… … .”

There are still many parts that are difficult to empathize with.

However, it was clear that the story would be different once the construction was completed.

***

In early April, East Stellar Company finally succeeded in developing and commercializing a hydroelectric generator and storage battery.

It also made it possible to supply electricity not only to roads and ports, but also to the whole of the Netherlands.

By signing an electricity supplier contract with King Willem I, Lee Hwan was registered as a ‘power operator’ who could supply electricity by installing hydro and thermal generators throughout Amsterdam.

Now that the East Stellar Company’s factory complex is also powered, a new production system can be established.

He made a conveyor belt so that it could be distributed.

“Let’s build a conveyor belt system that helps the factory process as a rubber belt passes through it, rather than people making and moving things. If this is developed, loading and unloading operations at ports and warehouses will be much faster in the future.”

“… … Huh, is this?!”

When the researchers at East Stella saw the blueprint Lee Hwan gave them, their hearts jumped out of their mouths.

He made it possible to apply for a patent right away.

“Now send someone to Amsterdam, London, Paris, etc. to get them patented.”

“Yes, I understand!”

“And if you have any of the UK and French bad debts that have stopped working idle, get them up and running again so we can introduce an automated system. However, ask each government to find out if tariffs and various tax benefits can be obtained as a condition of operating factories.”

“Then can we set up a negotiation table for the purpose of establishing a factory complex?”

“Do by that way. Who is good at negotiating?”

“Charles of the Morgans are capable.”

“Charles Morgan! good. Let’s put him in charge.”

Charles Morgan is John Morgan’s cousin and one of the backbone of East Stellar finance.

Although his brain was slower than John Morgan, he was agile enough to be unmatched when it came to arithmetic.

Taken from readwn.com

Moreover, above all else, he was very loyal to Lee Hwan, so he would do anything responsibly.

After Charles Morgan’s dispatch was decided, Lee Hwan visited him directly.

The headquarters of East Stellar Finance is located in eastern Rietterkirk, and the building was raised to 6 stories above ground and 2 stories below ground on a site of 7,000 pyeong, and was responsible for not only receiving and receiving finance but also the recently started leasing business.

Charles Morgan, who has an office on the third floor of the financial headquarters, ran out with socks when he heard that Lee Hwan had come.

“Are you here, boss?! If you had contacted me in advance, I would have come to meet you.”

“Do I even need to telegram that I’m coming?”

East Stella’s hometown of Ritterkirk had telegraphs all over the place, so it took only a few exchanges to walk through the distances of an entire day.

It would take at least six months for full-scale commercialization because it was still in the testing stage and there were quite a few problems in base stations and exchanges.

Charles Morgan is quite fond of these telegrams, especially those in the financial sector, who tend to use them a lot.

He took out Nuwara Eliya to Lee Hwan.

“I recently bought black tea from Ceylon. I don’t know if it will suit your taste.”

“Oh, Ceylon tea! Good.”

Sri Lanka is still often called Ceylon, but since Sri Lanka has been producing a lot of tea since ancient times, tea from Sri Lanka was collectively called ‘Ceylon Tea’.

Lee Hwan drank Ceylon tea and informed Charles Morgan that he had been appointed as a financial negotiator with the UK.

“You should go to London. There we need to get as many benefits as possible instead of buying and rolling out the idle factory complex.”

“Leave it to me! I will bring as many benefits as I can!”

“okay. I will wait and believe that there will be good news.”

I left the work to Charles Morgan and went down to the first floor to see a telegram arrived from Lee Hwan.

He received a telegram from the operator at the information desk.

“It’s a telegram from the lab. When I heard the news that the boss was here, I guess he sent a telegram in a hurry.”

“Did something big happen?”

When I received a telegram in a hurry, I was usually in a cold sweat.

But when I read the contents of the telegram, that wasn’t the case.

Rather, it was written in the telegram that Lee Hwan would be greatly pleased.

– Diesel train development has been completed. It’s not quite satisfactory yet, but it’s much better than a steam engine.

Lee Hwan called for joy.

“right… … !”

Solving the wheel problem and starting to roll cars on the road will revolutionize transportation, and the diesel trains will revolutionize logistics, trade and transportation.

In short, it was the sound of two revolutions taking place at the same time.

He immediately got into his wagon and drove to the Ritterkirk East Stella Institute.

The ‘West Stella Locomotive’, the first prototype of East Stella, was placed on the temporary pavement railroad.

West Stella locomotives will be mainly used for freight transport in the future, and will run with passengers after approximately two to three years of improvement.

The Stephensons, who completed the diesel locomotive, explained their work to Lee Hwan very confidently.

“It has a lot more horsepower and is faster than the original steam engine. In addition, the volume of fuel consumed itself is different, so it can operate in better conditions than a steam engine.”

“How crazy is the magic that we originally expected?”

“It was closer than 70%. It’s not perfect yet, but a train of this size can still be used for the Dutch North-South Railway, which will be completed by the end of this year.”

“okay. Although it is still a little short, this will not affect the operation.”

Even if the train was printed as it was designed by Lee Hwan, the diesel engine was still in its infancy, so it could not produce enough output or horsepower to be 100% satisfied.

However, this alone could be called innovation.

“Will the North-South railway be completed by the end of this year?”

“Yes, it is. And within one month, the East-West railroad will be opened, and four main railroads derived from the two railroads will be opened.”

“Well, good. Until then, we’ll see if we can complete the telegram.”

The telegram was already nearing completion, and Lee Hwan had just heard the news about the completion of the diesel engine by telegram.

As expected, it should be completed within six months, but the exact details would be known only after meeting with the researchers.

Hwan Lee visited the East Stellar Research Institute’s communications research team.

The communication research team gave the opinion that it is likely to be commercialized within 5 months to Lee Hwan, who visited.

“Five months is enough for commercialization.”

“Is it safe enough to do temporary construction in advance?”

“Yes, it is. However, if we are to connect the north, east, west, and north of the Netherlands by telegraph, we need a lot of exchange offices and base stations.”

“In short, will it cost a lot to commercialize?”

“Yes, it is.”

Hwan Lee, who had accumulated a huge amount of cash at the same time, patted the head of the telecommunication research team and said.

“You don’t have to worry about money. You made enough money to build a telecommunication empire by constructing the whole of Europe and extending that line all the way to America.”

“iced coffee! Then you are safe.”

“Don’t worry about money. I have a lot of money.”

It is clear that the saying that money makes money was made for Yi Hwan.