African Nationhood

Chapter 49 The dust has settled (I wish all book friends a happy Mid-Autumn Festival)
  When Shi Jintang stepped into the governor's office on the third floor, the governor immediately greeted him with a smile.

"Dear Henry, why are you here free?"

It is normal for Governor Freire to welcome Shi Jintang's arrival, because General Manager Shi is his God of Wealth.

Since the establishment of the South China Company, Governor Freire has passed through more than 200,000 pounds.

In addition, the mining situation of the Nawakab Gold Mine has been gratifying in the past few months, with the mining volume reaching 2.2 ounces last month. (In 1888, the annual output of the Rand Gold Mine was 30 ounces)
  As workers improve their mining skills, output will only get higher.

The cumulative output of the Nawakab gold mine has reached 8 ounces. Based on the gold value of 4.25 pounds per ounce, it has generated a profit of 34 pounds.

The total equity capital originally set at 100 million pounds now seems to have underestimated the value of this gold mine.

He got 5% of the shares from Shi Jintang, and the amount of dividends at the end of the year was quite large.

This is still a profit for a few months. In the future, the output of gold mines will increase year by year, and the profits will become higher and higher.

The only pity is that these 5% shares are given to Cape Colony. It would be better if they were given to him personally.

"Why don't you welcome me?"

Governor Freire chuckled, "How could it be? It's not too late for me to welcome you. What do you want to buy this time?"

Shi Jintang looked around and finally landed on the cigar box on Governor Freire's desk.

"I haven't smoked your cigar in a while, so I came over."

Upon hearing this, Governor Freire directly picked up the cigar box on the table and handed it to Shi Jintang, "I'll give you this box, and I'll give you 5 more boxes. How about it, you can be friends enough."

"Thank you for your gift, I accept it with a smile."

The two chatted and laughed for a while, and then Shi Jintang took out the American's railway quotation from his handbag and handed it to Governor Freire.

Governor Freire frowned as soon as he saw the quotation, "You want to build a railway? It's difficult to support it by relying on the profits of the gold mine. Besides, your Nanhua Company's taxes are also very low."

What Governor Freire said was true. Dividends from the gold mine could only be settled at the end of the year. The taxes paid by the Nanhua Company alone were not even a few cents, and the company's accounts were all in deficit.

Shi Jintang shook his head and said calmly: "The second gold mine has been discovered in Southwest Africa."

"What, a second gold mine!"

Governor Freire's surprise was palpable. It was normal for him to be so surprised. After all, no one could believe that two gold mines would appear in a barren colony.

The new gold mine is to the west of the Tsumeb copper mine, but the grade of this gold mine is very poor.

Compared with the Nawakab Gold Mine, this gold mine has no mining value at all. According to the determination of prospectors, it is about 2 grams of gold per ton.

In addition, the total gold content of this new mine is just over 1000 tons. The total gold content of Southwest Africa is 1 tons, of which 9% is in the Nawakabu gold mine belt.

But today's mining technology is very primitive, and no one knows how long the gold mines can be mined.

Therefore, Shi Jintang planned to use the mining rights of this gold mine as collateral to defraud the British people and use it for loans to build the railway.

"Don't be nervous. The grade of this gold mine is very low. I don't plan to develop it. Instead, I will mortgage the mining rights of the new mine with a bank."

"What does it mean to be in poor taste?"

"About 2 grams."

Hearing Shi Jintang's explanation, Governor Freire felt much more relaxed. He said calmly: "2 grams is enough. How do you plan to mortgage it?"

"I plan to mortgage the mining rights of the new gold mine, tentatively for 30 years, with a mortgage of 300 million pounds."

"Three million pounds for 300 years is probably not a good deal."

Shi Jintang shook his head, "Thirty years is a long time, enough to recover the capital." Governor Freire thought for a while, "Let me contact you."

"In addition, help me contact the British railway company to see if there is any company willing to undertake the construction according to this quotation. If not, I will go to the Americans."

Governor Freer then opened the quotation sheet and frowned even more when he saw clearly that it was the quotation from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company of America.

"Are Americans crazy? Why are the prices so low? I guess it is difficult for any company to be willing to do this business."

Shi Jintang was noncommittal and just asked Governor Freire to make arrangements.

Governor Freire had no choice but to take Shi Jintang to the British Railways office in Cape Town.

Later I went to the offices of the Mainline Railway Company in Birmingham.

Both railway companies felt that this transaction was not worthwhile. Shi Jintang finally said "helplessly": Then use the 40-year mining rights of the gold mine as collateral.

The Birmingham Mainline Railway Company was finally willing to sit down and talk.

Then the Birmingham Railway Company hired a team of academicians from the Royal Academy to explore the new mine and check the grade of the gold ore.

After the academicians and their party set foot at Walvis Bay Port, the port director James Lister immediately took action and served these academic masters wholeheartedly.

The group of people was about to leave for the new gold mine. Before leaving, Academician Brown received a check for 2 pounds.

After seeing the check, Academician Brown immediately expressed his gratitude to the sponsor's father and said that he would definitely "explore" it carefully.

After more than ten days of exploration, Academician Brown and his party returned home.

Three days later, the Birmingham Railway Company invited the First Commercial Bank of Scotland to sign a loan mortgage agreement with the South China Company.

The two parties agreed to use the 40-year mining rights of the Second Gold Mine (now the Oshikoto region of Namibia) as collateral for a loan of 300 million pounds.

Nanhua Company must classify the 5 kilometers around the Second Gold Mine as a mining area, with a total area of ​​approximately 79 square kilometers.

This loan will be transferred to the exclusive account of the Birmingham Main Line Railway Company and will be used exclusively for the purpose.

The South China Company's South West African Colony must fully cooperate with the Birmingham Main Line Railway Company on practical issues such as land acquisition and labor during road construction.

The railway construction is divided into three sections, 190 kilometers from Hot Spring City to Jinshan Town, 170 kilometers from Jinshan Town to Anhai Town, and 42 kilometers from Anhai Town to Walvis Bay Town.

Although there is no direct railway from Walvis Bay to Hot Springs City, it can be reached through a curve, which can be regarded as achieving the goal.

The total mileage reaches 402 kilometers. It is estimated that road construction will cost 266 million pounds, as well as 53 pounds for locomotives and 8 pounds for miscellaneous expenses. The excess loan will be made up by Nanhua Company.

During the construction of the railway, the property rights of the three sections of the railway belonged to the First Merchant Bank of Scotland.

The property rights will be handed over to Nanhua Company only after the acceptance is passed.

After the whole thing was signed, Shi Jintang summoned the Americans.

I regret to inform you that this cooperation is difficult to achieve. I am very sorry!
  The old vampire was so angry that he slammed the door and left on the spot, leaving only the blue-eyed handsome man William Constantine and Shi Jintang smiling at each other.

When the dust settled, Shi Jintang called William Constantine and Trudeau to have a drink together, and then went their separate ways.

Before leaving, Shi Jintang told William Constantine that he could come to Southwest Africa to find him if necessary in the future, and he could provide him with a position. The latter nodded and left.

……

Seeing that 1879 was coming to an end, Shi Jintang wanted to add some joy to everyone, so he decided to recall the advance battalion that was fighting abroad.

Taking advantage of the Spring Festival of 1880, give the soldiers a blind date!
  　Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Puppet is lazy, so there are only 2 updates today. I will make up for it later. Also, I would like to thank my book friend Di Zhe for his monthly support. Thank you all!

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)