I want to be emperor

Chapter 693 The Arrival of Investors

Song Alin, a very old-fashioned name, because his father was an illiterate farmer, not only his father, even the three generations of his ancestors were all illiterate farmers.

In fact, he didn’t even have a big name. When Wang Shi entered Guangdong, he joined the army. The recruiter asked him what his name was, and he used the nickname A Lin that his parents had given him since he was a child. The person in charge of recruiting obviously He didn't bother to meddle too much, so he just filled in Song Alin.

After this registration, Song Alin became his official name.

He served in the army for several years, and retired with the rank of sergeant in the ninth year of Chengshun. He also studied hard in the army, passed the examination of the higher primary school, and obtained a high school diploma.

Originally, based on his military rank when he retired, and the preferential treatment for retired soldiers in the early years, of course, this is also because there was a large lack of grassroots officials with a certain basic culture and a high sense of identity with the empire in the early days of the empire.

Therefore, if he chose to change jobs at that time, he could be assigned to a public office in his hometown. I dare not say if he is high, but there must be a patrolman, so he will not worry about it in this life.

But Song Alin is a thoughtful person, he did not choose to accept the arrangement, but started his entrepreneurial journey with a higher retirement settlement, plus the military salary and spoils he had accumulated over the years of service.

This kind of situation is actually very common. Many small and medium businessmen in the empire are actually retired soldiers with retirement settlement funds and years of accumulation to start their own businesses.

After all, whether it was before or now, all parts of the empire are in full swing, and in the early years, it was a lot of money to do anything casually.

Even setting up a stall in a big city to sell breakfast can make a fortune.

Not to mention not accepting changing jobs and taking resettlement funds to start a business, even many low-level officials in remote areas, because there is no hope for official careers, and the salaries of these low-level officials are poor, and they hear about it every day. Whoever made a fortune in the outside world, so many people couldn't help but resign from the public office directly, and then went to start a business!

This trend has become very popular in the last ten years.

This is mainly because the Great Chu Empire started industrialization, and there were really many opportunities to make a fortune.

Not to mention direct investment in the industry itself, even if it is because of the urbanization brought about by industrialization itself, these rapidly developing cities have suddenly increased so many urban populations, and the consumption power of these urban populations is quite good.

Around these new urban populations, the local real estate industry, food industry, general service industry, etc. are developing, and these industries can accommodate more employed people.

This chain of links has led to the benign development of each industrial city.

There are too many opportunities to make a fortune in it.

Song Alin went to Guangzhou first and seized the opportunity of Guangzhou's early industrialization and urbanization!

The industry he was engaged in at the beginning was not complicated. He just set up a non-staple food store, which mainly sold all kinds of non-staple food and dry goods such as mushrooms and fungus.

He had a close comrade in arms who started the non-staple food business with the support of his family after retiring from the military, and he was able to bring Song Alin into the business.

Relying on Guangzhou's early industrialization and the tide of urbanization, Song Alin's non-staple food business is doing very well. After all, the population in the city is increasing, and what these people need to eat is of course rice, noodles, vegetables and meat. Cheap and affordable non-staple food is also indispensable.

Later, his non-staple food business became bigger and bigger, hired many people, opened many branches, and gradually moved closer to the upstream, and began to be a wholesaler of various non-staple food.

After making a lot of money, I found an opportunity to directly acquire several non-staple food processing factories, and began to transform into food processing.

The year before last, he integrated his factories, channels, retail and other businesses, and established Donglin Food Company.

At this time, Donglin Foods was already a medium-sized food processing enterprise, and it also had certain channel business and retail business, with an annual turnover of 60 million Chu Yuan.

This scale is not small in the food processing industry.

However, Song Alin will not stop at the current scale. He has been working hard to expand his business. In addition to expanding the production and sales of existing product lines, he also wants to find new products.

And tea processing is a major category that he values.

Although tea is not considered food, in fact, selling tea is his old line of business. In his non-staple food wholesale business, tea is a large category of products.

However, Guangdong does not have any large-scale and high-quality industrial production areas. Most of the tea is purchased from Fujian and Zhejiang.

Just at this time, I had some business contacts before. To be precise, a big boss he asked for came through someone, saying that there is a place in northern Guangdong that is very suitable for growing tea, and there are also people who support the development of the tea processing industry. Determined, ask him if he is interested in taking a look.

They said they were asking him if he was interested, but the boss spoke... Song Alin had to go no matter whether he was interested or not.

Before setting off, I also prepared myself. No matter how good or bad the situation is, I have to invest a little bit, otherwise I will lose face.

After all, this favor must be repaid!

Besides, he managed to catch up with the high-level line of the Western Trading Company, and sent all kinds of non-staple food of his own into the procurement system of the Western Trading Company. .

Otherwise, don't expect to be able to enter the procurement and supply system of the Western Trading Company in the future.

As one of the only two armed trading companies in the Great Chu Empire, the Western Trading Company has a monopoly trading company with monopoly trade rights in the Indian region. sole channel provider.

Whether it's ordinary goods or weapons, they have to go through the Western Trading Company.

This is the monopoly authority granted to the Western Trading Company by the Great Chu Empire. Without this monopoly authority, the Western Trading Company would not be able to maintain such a huge colonial expenditure!

In order to compete with Western colonial companies, to fight against local natives to seize various colonies, strongholds, and open up trade markets, in addition to conventional merchant ships and armed merchant ships, the Western Trading Company also owns hundreds of professional warships, most of which are inland rivers Offshore gunboats, but there are also more than [-] warships capable of ocean-going operations. There are as many as six cruisers with a thousand tons, and the rest are professional warships with a size of several hundred tons.

The fleet of the Western Trading Company is quite powerful.

In addition to warships, a large number of armed merchant ships, and ordinary merchant ships, the Western Trading Company also has a ground combat force of about 8000 people stationed in various colonies in Bangladesh and India.

The Western Trading Company also owns property rights to most of the land in the colonies.

However, administrative and taxation rights do not belong to them.

Administrative management power reflects sovereignty, and naturally belongs to the unified jurisdiction of the empire. As for taxation, let alone this, it is exclusive to the taxation department.

The tax department has always been very strong in terms of taxation. Not to mention the Western Trading Company, even if the leaders of other institutions in Gyeonggi want to get involved in taxation, they will have to face a strong tax backlash.

People's backlash is not just shouting, but arresting people directly!

And the most disgusting thing is that they generally don't arrest them casually, but arrest them with real evidence. After all, tax evasion is too frequent. Usually, because of the cost of tax inspections, the tax department actually thinks about many tax evasions. If you want to investigate and deal with it, you can only use limited manpower and resources to catch big fish.

As long as the little fishes don't bump into them by themselves, they won't bother to care about them.

After all, there are too many people who evade taxes on a small scale, and it is impossible to control them.

But...if other people's tax agencies are really eyeing you, and you have tax evasion, you can basically find out.

Don't underestimate the tax police's ability to handle cases, they dare to carry artillery to handle cases...

And many officials actually have corruption problems. It is estimated that no official will be stupid enough to report corruption income to taxes these days... But for the tax department, they have nothing to do with corruption, but your corruption income If you don't file taxes, that's a big problem!

The tax law of the Great Chu Empire clearly stipulates that all income needs to be taxed, and all income naturally includes illegal income!

In short, the tax department doesn’t care where the money comes from, they just collect taxes. If you don’t pay taxes on your corrupt income, it’s a violation of the tax law. There’s nothing wrong with arresting people directly.

And the high-level people in the empire dare not say 100%, but most of them have or have had illegal income, and there is a high probability that no one will really honestly report these illegal income...

So if anyone dares to bully the core power of the Taxation Department, that is, the taxation power, the Taxation Department will immediately check the taxes of these people... Once the investigation is accurate, they will be arrested directly, even if it is the second-rank Shangshu. Catch it right.

The Tax Police Superintendent in the Tax Department is much more powerful in arresting officials than the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the Inspectorate.

This has also led to the fact that Western trading companies that are rampant in India still have to pay taxes when doing business in Indian colonies...

Most of these colonies were built by themselves!
However, Western Trading Company doesn't care too much about this, because Western Trading Company has become 100% owned by official capital after multiple integrations and share recovery, and is directly under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Cabinet. Western Trading Company is supervised by a second-rank senior official.

So the money goes in with the left hand and goes out with the right, so it doesn't have much impact.

And such a Western trading company, because of its monopoly position, makes domestic products need to enter their procurement and supply system first if they want to enter the Indian market.

Otherwise, don't expect to sell the goods to India.

Song Alin has always wanted to enter the procurement and supply system of Western Trading Company. After several years of hard work, on the one hand, it is to improve product quality and cost performance, and on the other hand, it is also actively contacting Western Trading Company for convenience.

In the end, I was able to enter the procurement and supply system of the Western Trading Company and became one of the suppliers of multiple categories of non-staple food. Although it is only one of more than a dozen suppliers of similar products, this qualification is not easy to obtain.

Among them, the help of official figures is indispensable.

Otherwise, there are too many non-staple food manufacturers in China, and Donglin's products have no obvious advantages. Why do people buy your non-staple food and sell them in India?

Just your big face?

So Song Alin is still unwilling to offend the big boss unless there are special circumstances. Even if the other party brings a message and wants to let him invest in a place that doesn't shit, he won't refuse.

However, even though he was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the harsh local conditions when he actually came to Heping County.

Nima, there are mountains everywhere!

How can you invest in this poor place?

After this investment, even the transportation of products to the outside world has to rely heavily on Dongjiang water transportation.

At this moment, he really wanted to go back on his word!
Not only him, but most of the other dozen or so investors who came together also retreated in their hearts.

That's right, this group of people are actually investors recommended by Wang Tu's senior secretaries, and there are no big businessmen. They are all small and medium-sized enterprises.

But it is one thing to come to investigate, but it is another thing to invest or not.

Song Alin looked at the small pier ahead and waited until the ship docked to disembark. In a depressed mood, he found that there were already more than a dozen carriages and more than a dozen people in official uniforms waiting ahead.

Seeing this scene, he felt a little better. At least the government in this place is quite enthusiastic. If you really want to invest, it is probably easier to deal with the government.

A group of people were picked up and moved forward, and finally arrived at the only inn in the county to stay.

That night, they were also invited to the county government office to attend the reception banquet, and Song Alin also saw the young and somewhat excessive Wang Tu.

After seeing this person and inquiring about his origin, he finally understood why a group of people like himself came all the way to investigate.

Nima, this person came from the Secretariat of the Imperial Academy, so he has a lot of background.

It's just that he couldn't understand why this kind of rising star who knew at a glance that he had a bright future would go to this place where no shit.

He didn't know much about the official affairs, but he felt Wang Tu's enthusiasm.

Not only Wang Tu, the county magistrate, but several other local officials are also very enthusiastic. From this look, we can see that they want people to invest in them in their dreams!

Looking at the performance of local officials, at least Song Alin knew that if he invested here in the future, it would be easier to deal with the local government.

Because they are eager for foreign investment!
However, Song Alin will not be confused by the performance of such officials. For his Donglin Company, if he wants to come here to invest in tea planting and processing, even if the investment is casual, it will start with tens of thousands of Chu Yuan. , If it is a large-scale investment, it will cost more than [-].

You can't be too cautious.

Returning the favor of a big man is also valuable!

After all, no one wants to lose money.

So he was very cautious in the next inspection, not only looking at it himself, but also asking his attendants to find some basic information provided by a large number of local government.

After a preliminary inspection, there are indeed several places in the local area that are suitable for growing tea, and it is not a problem to process tea after having tea.

But still the same sentence, there are many places suitable for large-scale tea plantation in China, but not every place will have people investing.

In addition to considering the natural environment in investment, transportation is also considered. Obviously, in terms of transportation, Heping has no advantages, or even is at a disadvantage.

There are also local cultural conditions and the attitude of the government.

Song Alin knew that the local folk customs are relatively tough, and they are the kind who play with weapons at every turn. He is a businessman from other places who came to this place to invest. Want to catch blind?
In particular, tea plantation involves large-scale mountain forest land, and this kind of land can easily cause many conflicts.

When the Great Chu Empire Railway Corporation confiscated land to build a railway, it would encounter resistance from innumerable people, let alone an ordinary businessman.

So after a detailed investigation, he felt that it was not a good idea to personally intervene in tea plantation, as it would be easy to lose money and cause a lot of trouble.

But if it's just tea processing, then it's not a big problem.

As long as the local area can provide a large amount of tea, he can process it locally and then transport it to Guangzhou through the Dongjiang River, thereby increasing the tea business of Donglin Company.

The tea business is the business he plans to focus on. Even if he doesn't get tea sources here, he is going to find tea sources elsewhere.

Therefore, when Song Alin faced a lot of nonsense from local officials, he made it clear that he refused to invest in large-scale tea planting, but he also said that he would not do tea planting, but tea processing could.

Aren't you worried that growers have worked so hard to grow tea but can't sell it and make money?
We can definitely sign a purchase agreement with those tea growers. As long as you grow the tea, as long as the quality meets the requirements, then we will purchase according to the contract, so as to eliminate the worries of the growers.

In addition, when Song Alin was inspecting, although the focus was on the tea industry, he found that their Camellia oleifera was not bad, and the yuba was also good.

Immediately, they said that their Donglin Company is a comprehensive food processing industry, and the edible oil business is also a major business of them. Although camellia oleifera is not a mainstream edible oil, it still has a certain value as a niche high-end edible oil. market, I can also build a Camellia oleifera processing plant here.

The same is true for yuba. The channel wholesale subsidiary of Donglin Company already has yuba business, but their yuba comes from Jiangxi, and they are all shipped by sea. Because of the long-term sea transportation, it is actually difficult to guarantee the quality. .

If the bean curd stick processing industry and sales can be established locally in Guangdong, there will be great potential.

After Song Alin's preliminary investigation, he has lost his mind on the local planting industry, but he is still interested in using local specialties to start some food processing industries.

Anyway, it is estimated that the total investment will not be large. If you just throw in [-] to [-] Chu Yuan for investment, it will be enough to build two or three factories.

This can not only avoid trouble, but also explain to the boss above.

Song Alin's decision made the local officials very satisfied. This is the first foreign investor in so many years, and the investment is tens of thousands of Chu Yuan.

This is actually not small for the local area.

Except for Song Alin, half of the other investors who came to inspect made it clear that investment is impossible, but depending on the local infrastructure and other conditions, they can donate one or two appropriate donations to help the local area build bridges, pave roads, etc. However, it is also possible Just a donation of 2000 yuan from Chu Yuan.

Obviously, they wanted to spend a little money and get there.

In this way, the favor can be returned, and there is no need to go to such a mountain to invest and lose a lot of money.

The remaining half of the people are as interested in some industries as Song Alin. For example, a ceramic merchant surnamed Li has taken a fancy to the local high-quality ceramic clay, and saw that there are some coal resources here, so he is planning to do business here. A relatively large mechanized ceramics factory.

Song Alin and Li's ceramic merchants are the investors with relatively large investment in their group.

Some of the remaining people also have investment intentions, but the investment amount will not be large.

But this still satisfies Wang Tu very much. The total investment of this group of people who came to investigate is expected to exceed [-] Chu Yuan.

This amount of money is nothing if you put it in those big cities, or even some ordinary state capitals, but it is already very good for a remote place like Heping with a small population.

This has exceeded the total amount of all local industrial investment since the founding of the country.

After getting off to a good start, Wang Tu personally went into battle to prepare for the establishment of a local industrial park to facilitate the landing of these newly invested factories.

At the same time, it is also preparing to dredge a section of the river to facilitate the transportation of goods in the future.

Not only to facilitate the transportation of these industrial goods in the future, but also to facilitate the water transportation of the population and daily goods in ordinary times.

Today, the local population in Heping has already transported supplies to the outside world, and they all rely heavily on Dongjiang transportation.

As for the railway, Wang Tu has already heard news that the higher-ups are planning to build a railway from Hukou, Jiangxi to Guangzhou, and there is a high probability that they will pass through them peacefully.

But railway construction takes time, especially in the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong, which are so difficult to repair, I am afraid that it will not be repaired every three to five years.

In this way, by the time the railway is opened in Pingping, it is estimated that he has been transferred away long ago.

His time is limited, and it is unlikely that he will really stay in the valley of Heping for too long. Two or three years is basically the limit.

Therefore, river transport is still an indispensable means of transportation in a short period of time.

Even after the opening of the railway in the future, the cheap cost of water transportation will still play an irreplaceable role in the transportation of bulk goods.

Therefore, it is also necessary to dredge waterways and develop river transport.

For this reason, he also contacted Liuhe Shipping Company, which is currently the only company that has opened regular steamship flights in the Dongjiang River Basin, and asked them to add peaceful regular steamship flights.

The local area will provide other conveniences, especially the dredging of the channel to ensure the unimpeded passage of ships.

The Liuhe Trading Company has already agreed to increase some of the trips, but the additions are all the small steamer trips from Heping to Heyuan Prefecture.

If you want to go to Guangzhou, you have to go to Heyuan Prefecture to change trains, because the large ships that go directly to Guangzhou currently only sail to Heyuan Prefecture.

If a large ship goes directly to Heping County, on the one hand, the waterway cannot support navigation, and on the other hand, the local economy and personnel logistics transportation needs in Heping cannot support it, so there is no need for that.

Wang Tu is also quite satisfied with this, at least there is already a relatively convenient external river transportation, which can greatly promote the future development.

(End of this chapter)