Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1913 Pampa (Nineteen)

On October 1684, 10, the weather had gradually warmed up, but the construction site of the Yanbu Railway was deserted.The reason is that the railway construction funds in the third quarter have not been allocated in time, and even many project funds in the second quarter have been delayed many times, and have not been settled yet.

Although the several companies in charge of railway construction are all state-owned enterprises, it is impossible for them to work without receiving money all the time.They also have expenses, and they also need to support people. If they don’t receive money, they will lose money or even go bankrupt. Therefore, even though the State Railway Administration repeatedly said hello, they still resolutely stopped working, and then accepted several projects from the State Development Administration. We built reservoirs, dug ditches, and sometimes helped build some standard brick houses, which managed to keep the team going.

Seeing that this was not an option, the State Administration of Railways immediately sent important officials to Yancheng County by boat to hold a consultation meeting, but the boat carrying the special envoy sank at sea.After learning about the situation, the Railway President re-authorized Chen Jia, who had been promoted to the deputy general manager of the American Railway Company, to hold a meeting nearby to discuss the resumption of work, but the time was greatly delayed.

Today, Chen Jia drove to Chenqiang Township Railway Station in person.The railway from Yancheng Town to Chenqiang Township has been open to traffic for a long time, so someone Chen can take the Star of La Plata train to arrive at the station and hold a meeting, um, an investor meeting.

The representatives attending the meeting were shareholders of the Yanbu Railway, in addition to representatives of local governments and state-owned enterprises, representatives from the Italian consortium, Gianluca from Genoa, representatives from the Portuguese consortium Almeida and the consortium from Spain Representative Rodriguez and others have attracted the most attention.

Gianluca himself is an investor of the Yanbu Railway, and bought more than [-] bank bonds in lire. At the same time, he is also the spokesperson for Italian investors such as the Doria family and St. George's Commercial Bank. His every move is very eye-catching.Although the time to come to the east bank is not very long, it is definitely more than Luciano, the boss of the forest development company who has lived in the east bank for many years. He is the most famous Italian in the country on the east bank.

Needless to say, Almeida is familiar with people from the east coast. He was the "big benefactor" of the early east coast and the main trading partner.However, this old family with a deep background in Brazil and Portugal never forgets many technologies of the East Bank. At first, they stole the cattle and sheep bred on the East Bank. Later, they couldn't forget the steam engine technology, so they were directly beaten to death with a stick.

Fortunately, this family has deep connections in Portugal. Although their vitality was severely injured at one time, they finally recovered.And in line with the change of attitude of the upper class in Portugal, Dongfeng once again entered the east coast market and restored certain business contacts.Moreover, the Almeida family is also quite obedient this time. After returning to the east coast market, in addition to routine trade, they also invested a lot of money in some basic projects with low returns and long cycles, and purchased a lot of government-issued 20-year , 30-year long-term low-interest bonds.This kind of behavior really won a certain degree of goodwill from the East Bank government very quickly, which made the family's eyesight in the relevant departments no longer so "bright", and their family's business on the East Bank also developed more orderly. stand up.

For the construction of the Yanbu Railway, the Almeida family also bought a lot of bonds issued by the State Administration of Railways, with a total of more than 8 yuan. They are not small investors, so they were honored to be called to the meeting.

Compared with these two "big players", Alvarez Rodriguez, who represents many Spanish investors in La Plata, is much inferior.The Rodriguez family, which has accumulated a lot of wealth through decades of trade with the East Coast, managed to raise only [-] pesos to buy bonds, and the other small families only invested more than [-] pesos bonds or stocks, really not that much.However, considering that their foundation is relatively weak, and most of the industries under their names are agriculture and animal husbandry, they cannot be compared with those overseas giants, so they are not bad.

Of course, apart from them, there are not no so-called "big households". For example, Mr. Oleg Naryshkin from the distant Russian Empire invested more than [-] rubles in the Yanbu Railway. In terms of investment amount, it is the first.Moreover, what this gentleman bought was the stock of Yanbu Railway, unlike most people who invested in bonds, which is even rarer.You must know that most investors are only interested in various bonds guaranteed by the credit of the East Coast government, and they are not sensitive to railway stocks. Some are worried about long-term losses, so even though the East Coast State Railway Administration has been shouting hard, few people are really willing to buy stocks, and even if they do, they don't buy much, and the sales situation is very deserted.

Against such a background, Oleg Naryshkin's behavior is so eye-catching that many people laughed at this young man from remote Russia at the beginning, thinking that he must have been deceived by people from the East Coast Yes, I bought stocks in a daze, and it looks like it's going to rot in my hands.But later, as the East Coast government continued to invest a lot of money and manpower on the Yanbu Railway, and the American Railway Company was officially established, the number of people who laughed at Naryshkin gradually decreased, but most people still don’t like this railway. The railways can make profits in the short term, and they are unwilling to try to buy stocks in large quantities.

This time Amtrak convened many major investors to participate in the fundraising conference. Oleg Naryshkin planned to invest another [-] rubles in the purchase of stocks. Chen Jia, the vice president of Amtrak, was surprised and delighted when he learned of his intention. And I hope that his actions will drive more people to realize the value of Yanbu Railway stocks, instead of just staring at those fixed-income bonds.

Before this meeting, the State Administration of Railways had already received an official document from the Ministry of Finance requesting them to suspend the issuance of railway construction bonds in the next three years in order to improve their financial situation.To put it bluntly, in fact, the Ministry of Finance does not want to give them the bottom line for the time being, and asks them to take it easy and control the speed of spending money, so as not to fall into a bigger financial quagmire.

Of course, the General Administration of Railways also resisted, but the attitude of the Ministry of Finance was very firm, and the attitudes of several bigwigs who originally supported the railway suddenly became somewhat ambiguous.They vaguely heard that the "old men" of the executive committee are now investing a large amount of funds in the construction of the navy, and at the same time appropriately expanding and reorganizing some army units. There is a more pessimistic attitude towards how much investment the railway can get in the future.

It is also because of this that the State Railway Administration, which has lost its ability to issue bonds, is now increasingly inclined to sell a certain number of stocks to raise funds for railway construction.Anyway, as long as the American Railway Company still accounts for more than 50%, then the right to operate the railway is still firmly in its own hands, and others will only receive dividends and cannot dictate the company's daily operations and management.Even, in extreme cases, only state-owned railways own more than 50% of the shares. It is enough to ensure that this railway still belongs to the state. Others can be exchanged for money, so don’t worry too much.

But the plan is good, and the reality is always the reality. The General Administration of Railways hopes to sell stocks in exchange for construction funds, and others have to buy it!No, Chen Jia, vice president of Amtrak, held a meeting all morning, but failed to persuade these people to buy how many stocks.Except for Oleg Naryshkin's 1 rubles, Gianluka, Almeida, Rodriguez and others only promised to buy shares of no more than 7 yuan, and they had to go back and negotiate before they could finally implement it. , which made Chen Jia feel very upset, and at the same time, he was even more disappointed with these guys.You know, the tens of thousands of shares they promised to buy are not even as good as the sales results of Amtrak's public offering of Yanbu Railway shares in the Qingdao financial market!The incomparably brave middle class of the East Coast Republic bought more than [-] yuan worth of Yanbu Railway stock, which is much better than their so-called big bosses, so it is no wonder that Chen Jia feels that these people are shameless.

Moreover, what made Chen Jia even more embarrassed was that the Spanish investment representative Alvarez Rodriguez also protested against the East Bank!The reason for the protest is that people from the East Coast have frequently appeared in the suburbs of Buenos Aires recently, attacking Spanish manors, farms and ranches everywhere, causing a large number of casualties and property losses.Rodriguez believes that these attackers who "speak with an East Coast accent" are skilled in riding, well-equipped, and have high tactical literacy, so they are unlikely to be ordinary bandits.They had reason to believe that there must have been soldiers from the east coast involved and played a key role, otherwise it would be impossible for them to gain the upper hand in the head-to-head confrontation with the gaucho thugs raised by the Spanish nobles.

Chen Jia's accusation against the Spaniard is very embarrassing, and at the same time a little annoyed, because Alvarez openly mentioned this matter at the investor conference, which will obviously damage the image of the East Coast Republic, and if If this matter causes other investors to have opinions on the East Bank, which in turn affects investment, then the matter will be even more serious.

"This group of lawless army horse manures did such a thing, how can I wipe your ass now!" In the meeting room, Chen Jia, the vice president of Amtrak, faced some angry questions from the Spaniards, and his heart went crazy for a while. scolded endlessly.

………………

And just when Chen Jia was having a headache at the meeting and didn't know how to explain it, a cavalry team of more than 70 people led by Inigo had just rushed into a Spanish manor outside Nancun Port.They aggressively surrounded the small manor in broad daylight, and then slowly moved away the cattle, sheep, and grain outside, and set fire to the haystack and burned it all away.

There are dozens of Spaniards with muskets in the manor, most of them are Mestizos, and occasionally there are some Walloons who came here from the Southern Netherland, which is shrouded in the threat of war. In short, all of them are very nervous. Holding the loaded musket tightly in his hand, he stared wide-eyed at the "horse bandit" who had just pulled down the gate of the manor.

The "horse bandits" can be determined to be from the east coast, but they are definitely not real gangsters, but east coast soldiers with professional skills, at least retired soldiers, which can be seen from many aspects.

At this time, the "horse bandits" pulled down the gate, first there was a burst of cheers, and then these people began to organize their formation and rushed towards the manor.The owner of the Spanish manor was also a veteran who had fought in the old continent for many years. Although his face was solemn, he was not particularly panicked.I saw him directing the dozens of people under his command, taking advantage of the cover of houses and other facilities, and calmly firing volleys of guns to roll call one by one, so that the first batch of east bank cavalry who rushed in had almost no stock, and they were all beaten into hornet's nests.

Seeing this situation, Inigo decisively issued an order to stop the attack, and everyone withdrew.They don't have heavy weapons like artillery. Now that the enemy is already prepared and organized using the terrain, it would be unwise to attack by force, as the casualties will become too great and it is not worth it.

Moreover, in recent times, they have relied on the advantage of surprise to continuously break down several Spanish colonial manors, large farms and ranches, and even went to a small town called Major Pedro Town However, before he had time to do anything, he was driven away by the Spanish colonial army who heard the news.

With such a brilliant record, naturally there is no need to fight others to the death. It is better to check the harvest at hand and withdraw the troops back to the camp for the time being.Anyway, through the recent continuous attacks, they have already played out the influence. I believe that the Spaniards are starting to panic, right?That's fine, the more panic you have, the better, it's best to move out of Buenos Aires and live in a place further north, and vacate the large tracts of land here, so that everything will be solved!

Of course, Inigo did not consider that his actions might have some negative impacts on railway financing. He has not yet reached this level, and it is impossible to consider the issue so comprehensively.But even if he knew, he would probably still act according to the previous plan, and he was unlikely to care what the railway department thought. After all, he was a security officer, a reservist, not a railway official.

The Spanish side was at a loss for the attacks of Inigo and others, and could not grasp their trajectory at all, so they could only defend passively.In addition, some relatively sturdy Spaniards also began to fight back. They even mobilized the Kelandi and Quechua, telling them that the people on the east coast would not leave them to live in this fertile land. Whenever they have the opportunity, they will kill all the aborigines, and persuade these large numbers of aborigines to fight with them and resist the attacks of the east coast people.As a result, the situation will undoubtedly become more complicated, even to the extent that higher-level officials from both sides may be required to intervene.

(End of this chapter)