Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2050 Pampa (24)

At noon on February 2, after staying on the crowded train for a full twenty hours, Oleg Naryshkin straightened his crumpled coat and went down to the platform angrily.

The car he was in was packed with soldiers in uniform.They didn't bring weapons, and they looked like recruits who went to Yancheng Port to replenish the retired veterans.However, these recruits still put great pressure on Naryshkin. They are physically strong, and their eyes are not so friendly. Master Oleg was very annoyed, but there was nothing he could do.

Oleg knew that most of these people went to the Patagonia region to eliminate the natives.There are probably not many aborigines left in that vast wasteland, right?Having been so actively attacked by the East Coast people for decades, no matter how prosperous the tribe is, it can't stand it!When Oleg was in Russia, he often heard that the tsar’s troops went out to conquer the aborigines in the newly conquered lands, but they were not very active and the frequency of dispatches was very low. Besides the military, they mainly focused on political appeasement.It's not like these people on the east coast, who don't consider economics at all, mobilize some troops every year, spend huge sums of money, and arrest those Indians like sheep, so that they are almost extinct now, it is so cruel!

In this way, the powerful Star of La Plata steam locomotive carried a large number of goods and passengers along the laid steel track, clanging all the way south, and finally drove into Yancheng Railway Station puffing out black smoke.

From Nancun Port to Yancheng Port, to be honest, the train is already the most comfortable and fastest way.Compared with the smelly sea ship and the nightmarish experience of swaying on the sea for a week, Oleg Naryshkin still thinks the train is cuter, and the short time is the key!

As the starting point of the Yanbu Railway, Yancheng Port has a large-scale locomotive manufacturing and repair center, which is used to maintain various types of locomotives on the east coast, which is the guarantee for the normal operation of the railway.Moreover, in the future, if the special railway for wool transport on the Patagonian platform (divided into the northern line and the southern line) is also successfully opened to traffic, then Yancheng Port will become the intersection center of the three railways, and the country's largest wool, sheepskin, mutton It is a distribution center for bulk goods such as , wheat, beef, tallow, salt and related chemicals (such as soda ash and chlorine products), and it is a proper regional central city.

Not to mention, there is a naval base next to Yancheng Port, which is itself one of the seafood processing centers. After years of continuous immigration, the population ranks first in the country, so the economic development is still very good.It is not the first time that Oleg Naryshkin has come to Yancheng Port, but every time he comes, he can feel that the city has undergone some new changes.As soon as I got off the train station today, the business atmosphere that hit my face shocked our young master Oleg. At the same time, the two major buildings under construction near the train station also attracted his great attention——Yancheng Memorial The hospital and Yancheng Fisheries College, the former is a large general hospital, and the latter is a school specializing in aquatic products, reflecting the development and progress of the city of Yancheng.

Oleg just took a stroll around the train station and fell in love with this special city.He even moved to build another Naryshkin Building here, but unfortunately, the funds on hand are basically exhausted, and he can't spend any more money, unless he is willing to sell some stocks and bonds to return cash.

The population of Yancheng County has now exceeded [-], and it cannot be considered a small city on the east coast.The proportion of people who make a living from industry and commerce is extremely high, probably close to half.The agricultural population is scattered in the outer towns, but they do not produce much food. They mainly raise ostriches, graze cattle and sheep, grow vegetables, fruits, and garden flowers. Many agricultural production cooperatives have been established, just like other big cities on the east coast. .

Oleg Naryshkin stayed near the train station for about an hour, and then took a carriage to the Jieshi restaurant by the sea, the most famous high-end restaurant in Yancheng County, which specializes in Shandong cuisine and is very popular with dignitaries and wealthy businessmen A favorite of celebrities.Oleg hosted a banquet here for the boss of the American Railway Company and general manager Chen Jiachen, who is also a senior official of the Ministry of Railways (upgraded from the State Railway Administration). so that we can prepare for the next stage of investment direction.

At twelve noon, Chen Jia arrived as scheduled with a secretary and a guard, and met with Oleg in the Linhai private room of the Jieshi Restaurant.To Oleg's surprise, about 10 minutes later, several guests came uninvited. According to Chen Jiayi's introduction, they turned out to be investors from the Netherlands and Italy.

These investors are all businessmen or their representatives from the Old Continent who are interested in investing in the East Coast. The most famous of them is Jacob from the Tripp family. The leader of the new generation of miners' family.Being sent to the east bank urgently this time, to be honest, there is also some meaning of apologizing.

It is said that the development of the Tripp family over the years is fairly so-so.They were originally one of the important supporters of the Republican faction, and at the same time they married the Falconer family, who were famous before the Prince of Orange. Speaking of which, this is a typical hedging and riding on the fence.This time the republicans fought against William III for the domination of the country. The Tripp family also sold a lot of power to William III. They not only promised to increase capital in England's industry and commerce, but also paid for him to hire Germans to "persecute their own people." , the guilt is not small.Therefore, although the Tripp family also funded Van Boyningen with a sum of money for him to pay part of the cost of the East Coast Navy stationed in the United Provinces, they were really worried that they would be liquidated next, because there would be republicans The advantage is already very huge, and William III seems to have no power to fight back, so they urgently sent the younger generation of the family to the east bank by boat, hoping to improve the relationship through investment, and embrace the thigh of the east bank, In order to prevent the republicans from attacking their family too hard.

Jacob Tripp has not been in the east coast for a long time, but he listened to someone's advice and grasped the key point, that is, to invest in the wool transportation special railway that is under construction.When I came to Yancheng Port this time, I also came to pay a visit to Chen Jia, the general manager of Amtrak, to see if there is any possibility of cooperation.

Chen Jia had a chat with him before, and he appreciated his willingness to invest in the wool transportation special line railway. He believed that this would greatly improve the situation of the Tripp family on the east coast and was crucial to their future development.But at the same time, Chen Jia also implicitly stated that if the Tripp family "courages a little more" and participates in the pioneering boom west of the Yanbu Railway, then it can also get the attention of the higher-ups, and the benefits will be great. It goes without saying.

Jacob Tripp understood this, and immediately expressed his willingness to invest in local infrastructure, including roads, branch railways (if any), logistics storage facilities, irrigation canals, etc. At the same time, it will also purchase various medium and long-term bonds issued by the East Coast government for 30 dong.

There is no doubt that these investments will not bring any benefits to the Tripp family in the short term, and they may even lose money.Jacob reckoned that there would be some money to be made from the toll roads. In the early days of immigration, due to the sparse population and low productivity, there should be no local output, but instead a large amount of transportation All kinds of materials go in for daily consumption, so investing in toll roads will not lose money, but logistics storage facilities and irrigation canals will mostly lose money.

But their family is in a hurry to spend money now, and they don't pay too much attention to these trivial things.Invest a sum of money in the wool transportation line, invest a sum of money in the west of the Yanbu Railway, and buy some bonds in exchange for the family's special business status on the east coast, and at the same time buy a talisman for the family.Their copper mines, iron mines and some workshops in Sweden have not been managed well in recent years, and they have been coveted by the Swedish royal family, causing a lot of troubles.Now it seems that it is time to change the business focus and find a new way out for the family.

"Oleg Naryshkin, a well-known investor active in the La Plata region, is known for being good at doing good deals." After taking the main seat unceremoniously, Chen Jia introduced each other: "Ya Mr. Gob Tripp, a member of one of the Twelve Wholesalers in Amsterdam, mainly dealing in weapons and metal products; this is Mr. Dolores, from Sicily, dealing in grain, olive oil, dairy products and Wine business; this is Mr. Pinch, from Milan, dealing in food, silk, and arms; this is from Tuscany..."

Oleg understood the situation at a glance, and today's gathering probably became a fundraising meeting again.But he is not in a hurry. He has made a lot of money from his investment in the East Coast, and he has no objection to using some of it to invest in less profitable projects, and he believes that everyone here is also aware of this.

In fact, Chen Jia had contact with him a few times before, and he had more or less given some details.In fact, the people on the east coast are still very kind. They did not ask them to invest in unprofitable buildings and water conservancy facilities. They mainly hoped that they would invest in roads and railways.The returns of these two projects are relatively low, but in the long run, they may not lose much, and if you look at the dimension of more than 20 years, they may still be profitable.

Chen Jia has made it clear that after the American Railway Company successfully completed the Yanbu Railway, it is now focusing on the north and south lines of the wool transportation line.The preliminary survey and site selection of these two railways have been completed, and the roads have been repaired a few years ago, and then the leveling of the foundation and the laying of the rails will become a matter of course.

In addition, they also plan to build two railways, one is the railway from Yancheng Port to Cordoba, and the other is the railway from Buenos Aires to Cordoba.Together with the Yanbu Railway, these two railways form a huge ring network, enclosing more than half of the Pampa Plain (or the half with a wetter climate), which can be said to be the central nervous system of the entire Pampa Plain The network is crucial.

Of course, with the current strength of the American Railway Company, it is impossible to start construction of these three railways at the same time. Even if there are enough personnel, the money is not enough.It's not a joke, it's a fact.Regardless of the fact that the two railways they are currently using (South Cone Railway and Yanbu Railway) have made profits, but the construction of a new wool transportation railway has still drained most of the company's energy, and there is really no extra funds to do other things. There are two railroads.Therefore, they thought of attracting foreign capital at the cost of giving up a part of their equity (up to 49%), and jointly built the two railways on the Pampa Plain to speed up the development of the entire region.

At present, the objects they are thinking of are the Latvians in New Courland, the Portuguese in Brazil, the Northern Italian Consortium, the United Provinces Consortium, etc., trying to find a way to get some money from them first, how many railways can be repaired As long as you cultivate, get through this for a while first, and then figure out a solution later.

This is not to say that they are fooling these foreign investors and defrauding them of their money.In fact, the government on the east coast is still making great efforts to develop the Pampa region. Even if the newly discovered gold mining area in the north and the Chaco Plain are involved, the Pampa Plain is still the highest priority. Dozens of dollars will be invested in the future. Thousands of immigrants used to be no exaggeration - based on the estimated data in the middle of 1688, the total population of the East Coast Republic of China had reached an astonishing size of 687.9 million, of which the second and third generations born in the native land accounted for more than 60% , reached more than 415 million, and the number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty also accumulated to 186.2 million. The population is still very sufficient, and this actually means wealth and productivity.

From this point of view, these foreign businessmen who came to invest with a "heroic" attitude-in fact, they also invested in infrastructure in exchange for a higher status in the East Coast trade system-may be able to relax a little bit. In one breath.Just as the east of the Yanbu Railway has rapidly prospered, as long as the east bank government makes up its mind, it can still develop the west of the Yanbu Railway within a time period that everyone can tolerate.

So, what is there to worry about now?The ones to worry about are not the Spaniards in La Plata, right?People on the east coast hardly asked for their opinions, and just built a railway system on the vast land of the Buenos Aires Prosecutor Court District (the railway in the Chaco Plain is in charge of China Railway Corporation). Treat others as air!Any insightful person can comment that within a few years, the best outcome for the Spaniards is probably to spend a sum of money and sell this piece of land that is destined to be irretrievable to the people on the east coast, that's all.

And the Pampa Plain, which has escaped from the hands of the Spaniards, ushered in not a decline, but a new life!

(End of this chapter)