Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1970 New Development and New Opportunities ([-])

Today is the last day of 1686.In the headquarters of Xingnan Port Southern Railway Company, the president Xu Xiangdong put away the pen in his hand, got up and walked to the window, looking at the faintly visible railway line across the sky in the distance, and sighed softly.

According to the latest agreement signed between the company and the government, the date of the handover of the Southern Cone and Oceanic Railway is set on the last day of this year.In this regard, the government naturally couldn't wait any longer. It was originally determined to be handed over at the end of 1688. They even communicated with the senior officials of the Southern Railway to take it back one year in advance.As for the Southern Railway Company, to be honest, one more year and one year less will not have a great impact on them, not to mention the government's special approval to allow them to transform, and issued many licenses (such as financial licenses), enabling them to establish a large-scale concern company, Southern Railway Company. Iron Group.

It is reported that the main assets of the South Railway Group in the future will include the Jiaoyan Railway Company (including the railway subsidiary and some terminals in Jiaozhou Port), the South Railway Trading Company, the South Railway Machinery Factory (production, assembly and maintenance of steam trains), and the Pacific Shipyard. , Nantie Publishing House (the parent company of Nantie Weekly) and Nantie Guest House, and others such as Nantie Tannery, Nantie Flour Mill, Nantie Oil Press, Nantie Brewery, Nantie Fishery Company, Xingtie Enterprises such as Nangang Terminal and Araucan Port Terminal are either sold (purchasers are required not to use the Nantie brand) or handed over to the state in exchange for other policy support. Southern Railway Insurance Co., Ltd. provides assistance in transportation and business operations.

It can be said that after the adjustment, the assets of the Nantie Group have directly caught up with several other super state-owned enterprises, such as Nanhai Group (under the jurisdiction of Nanhai Transportation Company, Nanhai Fishery Company, and Nanhai Liner Company, and also owns shares in many terminals), Tieling Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (under the jurisdiction of Tieling Special Steel Works, Tieling Mining Bureau, Tieling Machinery Processing Plant, West Forging Plant, Tieling Boiler Plant, and the First Heavy Machinery Plant), Ping'an Coal and Steel Complex (under the jurisdiction of Ping'an Iron and Steel Plant, Ping'an Coal Mine, Coking Factory), State Reserve Grain Depot, Central Railway Company, are faintly stronger than Heishan Industrial Company, Northern Chemical Group (under the jurisdiction of Northern Chemical Factory, Dye Factory), Caribbean Shipping Company and other enterprises, and they are also giants in the East Coast No hegemony company - of course, then again, in terms of asset size, none of the above-mentioned companies can compare with the famous "Mr. 20%" of the East Coast Republic of China. This is the real Big Mac, but it is usually very low-key and does not show the mountains and dews.

In fact, this is also good. The Southern Railway Group can concentrate on building railways in the Far East in the future.There is a huge market there, which represents the future. At present, the Jiaoyan Railway has begun to make stable profits—although the railway transportation department is still losing money, the operation of the affiliated areas is not bad, so the overall profit is still profitable, although not high—— Substantial preparatory work has also begun for the construction of the Ding Railway, which is a profitable railway in the railway transportation business itself, and the Southern Railway Company has strong confidence in it.In addition, after the stable operation of the Shangding and Jiaoyan railways, they plan to cooperate with the local government to build the third railway in the Far East in the future, that is, the long-planned Pingrong Railway, so as to further prosper the transportation industry in the Denglai area.

All other businesses, including publicity and reporting, finance and insurance, mechanical processing, hotel accommodation, commercial trade, etc., all revolve around the railway, that is, the railway is the core business, and other businesses use this as the basis to make money.Even the Pacific Shipyard (a medium-sized shipbuilding enterprise, which is said to be moving to Liucheng Port, which is relatively rich in shipbuilding resources) is used to provide maintenance for ships transporting railway equipment and personnel, and it is not separated from this whole. outside.

Xu Xiangdong, who has been automatically promoted to the president of the Southern Railway Group, just signed the document handed over by the secretary to Liangyang Railway.So far, this railway, which has been in operation for nearly 40 years, has finally left the Southern Railway and has become another important asset of the Central Railway Company, and it is also one of the most profitable railways.

In principle, the departure and retention of Liangyang Railway employees depends on their personal wishes, but in actual operation, the Southern Railway Group has tried every means to retain some core personnel, and about one-third of them have entered the railway machinery factory such as the Southern Railway Machinery Factory. Processing and manufacturing enterprises are regarded as staying in the local area; one-third of them are hired by the Far East with high salaries, and go to the local area for a few years, and help train a group of local professionals by the way; as for the remaining one-third, they Most of them went to Xinhuaxia Island, and Xinhuaxia Railway Company (South Railway originally held shares in it, but now most of them have been sold, with less than 5% retained) paid a lot of money to hire him to operate and maintain Daqing Railway and Tower in the future. The professional talent team of East Railway.

The Southern Railway Company, a large enterprise that had dominated the east coast railway industry for many years, has gradually faded out of related industries in China, and only retained a related railway manufacturing enterprise in the remote Southern Cone. 40 Years of Oceanic Railroad Proof.In the future, the company's focus will be shifted to the Far East, relying on the millions of people and countless wealth there, to start a new business, and eventually build itself into a powerful transportation group.

Here we focus on the Nantie Machinery Processing Plant located on the outskirts of Xingnan County.When this enterprise was first established, it was purely for the maintenance of trains. Its personnel and tools also proved this point. Basically, it did not have the ability to manufacture carriages and locomotives. It was a southern vehicle located in Meilin County. Plant's patent (until now).Later, with the development of the Southern Cone Liangyang Railway and the increasingly busy business, the Southern Railway Machinery Factory gradually began to undertake the important task of manufacturing some train parts and railway equipment.To this end, they obtained a license issued by the State Administration of Railways, and then purchased a large number of machine tools through loans from the parent company. At the same time, they also recruited many skilled workers to slowly build this shelf.

Up to now, Nantie Machinery Factory is already a large-scale machinery manufacturing enterprise with more than [-] technicians and apprentices. It has the ability to process nearly half of railway equipment and train parts, and the quality is not bad. It is widely used in two foreign countries. The "La Plata Star" train used by the railway was even exported to the Jiaoyan Railway in the Far East in the past two years due to overcapacity, and it competed with the Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory in the Xinhua Island railway market. It can be seen that its strength.

So you can see that after selling a series of assets such as Nantie Fishery Company and Nantie Leather Factory, Nantie Group still keeps the machinery factory firmly in its hands. Instead of pushing it to the market, it plans to increase Investment, on the one hand to expand its production scale, on the other hand also intends to enrich the product line.

The former is actually easy to understand. Even though the Liangyang Railway has been handed over to the country, the Nantie Machinery Factory is close at hand and is familiar with the actual operators on this railway. It is foreseeable that the Liangyang Railway will be quite large in the future. Part of the demand for railway equipment is still met by them.As for enriching the product line, this is Xu Xiangdong's decision just this year, mainly to attack the parts that the former Nantie Machinery Factory did not produce, and to compete with China Railway Corporation's "pro-son" Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory in an all-round way.

For example, Nantie Machinery Factory is currently researching and producing the latest railway signal devices: interlocking switch and interlocking signal machine.This device, which houses the rods in a separate long locking frame, can ensure that the signal machine will not give an indication that does not match the position of the switch, thereby preventing two trains from entering the same closed section at the same time , resulting in a vicious accident of a crash.You must know that in the East China Republic, most of the railways are single-track railways. The reliability of signaling devices is very important, and it is also a big market.

Additionally, some improved night signal lights will also be made.Compared with the traditional gas signal indicator light, Nantie Machinery Factory intends to cooperate with the East Coast Power Company this time to try to replace the gas lamp which is very inconvenient to switch with an arc lamp.Although I don't know if there is a market, but the factory is full of confidence and plans to conduct research in this area.They feel that electrification is the future trend. If they can go down this road and develop automatic electrical signal indicators, then the market will be very broad, and it may not only be used in railways, but can also be sold to other industries. In many industries, the profits can go to the sea.

Another product that Nantie Machinery Factory plans to mass-produce is a new type of four-wheel locomotive bogie that they invested in research and development and improved and applied for a patent.This new type of bogie is different from the traditional one in that its wheelbase is quite long, the pivot can move in a horizontal groove, and the lateral movement is effectively controlled through some slopes, so the steam locomotive will run more smoothly.

The design of this new type of four-wheel bogie is very delicate, so it was appreciated by the locomotive manufacturer Nanfang Locomotive Works as soon as it came out, and it plans to use it on the latest steam locomotive "East Coast Star-3" on the East Coast that it is developing. above using this new device.Undoubtedly, this means that the good times of Nantie Machinery Works are coming. In the future, as long as the more "East Coast Star" is produced, they will make more money. Even some old locomotives may be overhauled so that they can be installed The market for the new bogies they produce is too big.

It can be seen from this that the various railway manufacturers on the east coast have not been idle over the years.Laymen don't know it, and think that the name of the steam locomotive is just changed, but they don't know that the inside has changed too much!The first is the improvement in reliability, which is due to the improvement of machining level and the progress of materials. The direct reflection is that the train no longer breaks down randomly, the accident rate is reduced to the extreme, and the efficiency is greatly improved.

Then there are improvements in design, such as the new four-wheel locomotive bogie patented by the South Railway Machinery Factory, the new railway signal indicating device, the new combustion fire box developed by the Engineering Technology Research Institute and licensed to major manufacturers for a fee, and the Merlin A new type of coal water car developed and patented by the railway machinery processing plant and so on.The combination of these little advancements has made great progress in the East Coast Railway, and its performance is simply not the same as it was back then.

Think about it, now Europe is starting to have a headache about how to imitate the steam locomotives and marine steam propulsion systems on the East Coast. What they are researching is actually the design used by the East Coast many years ago, and the indicators are far inferior to those of today.Therefore, when the Europeans exhausted their financial resources and energy and finally tossed it out, the railway technology of the people on the east coast did not know how far it had developed.If the export restrictions are really relaxed at that time, I believe that the major manufacturers of the railway industry on the east coast can instantly crush the infancy railway industry in the European countries, making it impossible to develop again, unless they sacrifice The weapon of tariff market access, otherwise there is no solution.

Alright, let's turn our attention to the Southern Railway Group again.After disposing of the largest asset at hand, Xu Xiangdong, the fourth president of the company, was still a little melancholy. After all, the Liangyang Railway was the foundation on which they made a fortune. After being handed over to the government in the future, maybe he was using this railway to transport There are still some conveniences when it comes to cargo, but certainly not as much as before.From now on, under fierce competition, the profits of the Southern Railway Trading Company, which is mainly engaged in trade between Peru, Mexico and the mainland, will drop significantly—in fact, after the expiration of the monopoly trading right at the end of 1678, the company’s profits It has already begun to decline, but the decline is not so fast because there is still an inertia. It is actually clear which direction the South Railway Trading Company, a once wealthy commercial company, will develop in the future. It is to follow the footsteps of the railway company of the group company and develop in the four feudal domains of the Far East, where there is a whole new world.

In fact, the Southern Railway Trading Company has been slowly adjusting its focus over the past seven or eight years, and has begun to deploy in the Far East.Especially after the official commercial operation of the Jiaoyan Railway, they have invested a lot of money in the railway subsidiary area, and established a large-scale storage and logistics center, a bazaar, a professional leather market and several shops.Of course, they also invested in the construction of some commercial real estate, and then leased it out to local businessmen who were willing to do business in the railway annex, so as to prosper the economy of the railway annex and create more profits for the head office.

Now that the Liangyang Railway has been handed over to the country one year ahead of schedule, the Southern Railway Trading Company is bound to speed up the transfer of capital. Except for a part that will continue to be invested along the Jiaoyan Railway, most of the others plan to invest in the wealthy Ningshao area. A large-scale construction was carried out in the subsidiary land along the railway line, and commercial operation officially started.They are very optimistic about the future of Shangding Railway, believing that a lot of money flows here, business is very prosperous (even surpassing many local areas), and profits are almost 100%.Xu Xiangdong also agreed with this, and ordered them to work with the Nantie Guest House to operate the property in the affiliated area, striving to turn it into a cornucopia for the company and provide a steady stream of cash for the development of the group company in various places.

Finally, there is the Pacific Shipyard in the port of Araucan.To be honest, Xu Xiangdong once wanted to give up this shipbuilding company, but under the persuasion of some old people in the company, he finally decided to keep this company.However, in view of the company's current shortage of funds, he did not plan to invest a huge amount of money in the renovation like the Nantie Machinery Factory. Instead, he only gave some money, bought a few machines, and let it continue to be maintained. Fortunately, at present The domestic shipbuilding situation on the east coast is still booming, so the Pacific Shipyard is not too uncomfortable.

As for the future of the factory, it actually depends on whether the development of the group company is going smoothly or not. To put it bluntly, it depends on whether the head office has money in the future!Although their current focus of development is on the railway, how can they know that after the future situation changes, they will not launch a diversified development strategy and start to enter the shipbuilding and ocean transportation industries?You know, this belongs to the transportation industry just like the railway, so it wouldn't be too outrageous if it really wanted to develop. Now diversified development is also a quite fashionable approach on the east coast.

Railways, shipbuilding, machinery, commerce, finance, culture and many other fields go hand in hand. If the leadership of the Southern Railway operates well and does not make any major mistakes, the future of the group company is actually very bright. There is no doubt about it!

(End of this chapter)