Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2337 Pampa (45)

It is not far from Panshi Township to Zhengding County, and it takes less than half a day to get there by horse-drawn carriage.

To be honest, Zhengding Town is not much more prosperous than Panshi Township, and it can even be said to be worse.Panshi Township is on the Luoming Highway, and there will be a railway passing through it in the future, so the location advantage is extremely obvious.Mr. Cen settled his home here, and the potential for value-added in the future is boundless, which is obviously a good deal.Of course, Mr. Cen is here to provide for his life, so he may not sell this house, but even if he does not sell it, he will put it there. If his descendants do business in the future and need to obtain a mortgage loan from the bank, this house can also help Very busy.

Compared with Panshi Township, although Zhengding Town is an expensive county seat, it does not have such advantages.This city with a population of only a few thousand is currently dominated by agriculture, and some resort and recuperation facilities have been built near Daming Lake (Chiquita Lake), which can be regarded as a bit of a tourist industry foundation.However, these resorts are not owned by their county government, but projects invested by the state-owned Dongfang Hotel Group.Daming Lake has beautiful scenery in summer, the lake is vast, and the water and sky are the same color, which is quite impressive.Although this huge lake is a saltwater lake (the concentration is five times that of the Atlantic Ocean), there are not no fish living in the lake. Groups of flamingos can often be seen flying over the lake, perching and looking for food. The scenery is still very good.

Dongfang Hotel Group develops tourism projects here, of course not for Zhengding County.In fact, their main source of customers is the middle class and above in the new capital, Luoyang. This is a group with strong spending power, but they are more keen on tourism. It is very close to Luoyang, and the future will naturally be prosperous—— A while ago, Luoyang University held an academic conference by the bank of Daming Lake. During the break, the participants went swimming in the lake.

Mr. Cen came to the county today, of course not to go to the lake to recuperate.In fact, he hates that kind of behavior extremely, even if they are all big men—in the current social atmosphere on the east coast, only men swim in the lake, and most women wear cooler clothes drinking tea and chatting in the gazebo by the lake— But Mr. Cen also felt that this was a disgraceful thing, and he would not do it even if he was killed.Not to mention the old arms and legs now, what if you get a cold from playing in the lake?Not right, not right!

Mr. Cen came to the county because the Luohuang Railway Construction Bond bought by someone on his behalf has been settled, with a total face value of 20 yuan, 6 years, 600% annual interest.He has no other livelihood now. The academy run by his two sons is not making much money at the moment, and the youngest son spends even more on studying abroad, not to mention the servants and other daily expenses at home.He doesn't know how to do business either, buying bonds and eating interest is the only income he can think of.Alas, [-] yuan a year can at least cover the wages of a few servants, which is better than nothing.

However, buying bonds can only be bought with gold round coupons, which gave him a bit of a headache.At the beginning in Ningbo, he exchanged all the silver taels for East Bank silver dollars, and got a total of about 9 yuan. This is all his belongings after selling his ancestral house, fields, shops, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and other properties.After arriving on the east bank, he took all the silver dollars out of his bank account and put them in several huge steel safes he bought specially.After all, he believed in real money more than bankbooks, gold coupons and banknotes.

Fortunately, the gold and silver double standard system is still being implemented on the east coast. Gold round coupons, gold coins, and silver coins are all legal currency. It will not be officially canceled until the end of 1700, and the gold standard system will be implemented. two legal currencies.However, in order to better promote banknotes, the East Coast government has been reducing the functions of other legal tenders in order to increase the market demand for gold round notes.For example, the contracts of state-owned enterprises are first signed with gold circle coupons. For example, when paying various taxes, only gold circle coupons are accepted. For example, the issuance of government bonds is denominated in gold circle coupons.

Mr. Cen is a member of the Ming Dynasty, he was born as a Jinshi, and his ancestors were also officials for several generations. Naturally, he is familiar with history books, and knows that the treasure banknote is a vicious means to deceive the emperor and the people. He hates it very much and does not want to use it from the bottom of his heart.It's just that now the family is sitting and eating, and there is really nothing to do. I can only go to the bank to exchange silver dollars for gold coupons, and hold my nose to buy some bonds. I am actually very upset.

After completing the exchange at the only branch of the East Bank Agricultural Bank in the county and delivering the bearer bonds, Master Cen didn't stay here, but hired a carriage and drove straight home.At this time, Zhao Ke, the governor of Luoyang, had already finished his vacation and had inspected the construction site of Luoming Highway for several days.

The Luoming Highway is a first-class national road. It is used for business and people to communicate and transport goods in normal times. It is also a road for war preparation in wartime. Its importance is self-evident.He led his entourage along with several heavy-duty freight wagons transporting grain, and found that the asphalt-paved road surface was very smooth, and there were street trees, gutters, and wooden fences on both sides of the road (to stop some cattle and sheep from crossing the road at will, which is a big problem). Not uncommon in Pampa) and other facilities are readily available.The width of the road is also enough, and several carriages can be paralleled, which is really a big deal.

At this time, he unconsciously thought of the small steam vehicles developed by some domestic manufacturers.Unlike those steam engineering vehicles that have been popular for a long time, these vehicles do not carry goods, but only carry people, so they have less horsepower and should be very suitable for passing on this road.

However, he also heard people say that these manned steam vehicles have many faults and are large in size, and the smell of coal after burning is relatively smoky, and the soot is heavy, so they are not very popular with individuals.Many consumers who have the money to buy this kind of vehicle would rather buy a bicycle produced by BMW Bicycle Factory than engage in this kind of steam car that will stain their clothes.So, this kind of steam car is good, but it is really not liked by private consumers. In the future, maybe it can only be modified, and a trailer car is added at the back for material transportation?But whether this kind of car can compete with the horse-drawn carriage, Zhao Ke is really not sure.Because the weight of this kind of car is astonishing, it has extremely high requirements on the road conditions. The general second-class national road—especially the second-class national road that has been used for many years and is full of potholes—is very inconvenient to drive. Not only is it easy to damage the road surface, but also its own mechanical parts. It may also be damaged, making its already not very high reliability even worse.

In this case, probably only one important and lighter vehicle can be developed.The Ping'an Coal and Steel Consortium by the Duck Lake in the north is now steadily producing a lot of liquid fuel every year. I heard that there are scientific research institutes in China that are researching engines that use this fuel, and they are confident that they will be much lighter than steam engines.This may be a good way. Zhao Ke even wanted to invest in this industry privately, but he didn't dare to think about it.After all, this kind of engine has not yet taken shape, and the possibility of failure in research and development is not small. He doesn't want to waste money in vain.Of course, other reasons also exist, that is, the domestic high-grade road network on the east coast is not dense enough, which undoubtedly greatly suppresses the demand for this type of vehicle, so let's take another look.

Zhao Ke spent a total of five days on the Luoming Highway, during which time he talked with many engineers and technicians.It can be said that the country is very concerned about the construction of this highway, and all kinds of materials are provided as much as possible.Although work was often stopped midway due to insufficient funds, I did my best and there was nothing to say.Of course, the progress of highway construction has been much faster in the past year or so. The mystery of this is, hehe, it’s actually very simple, it’s just that a lot of money has been printed.With money, everything will come naturally!

Zhao Ke has a vague impression that last year, the State Administration of Precious Metals authorized several major mints to print tens of millions of yuan of gold exchange coupons. During this period, apart from recovering a few million silver dollars, most of them were spent on military construction and domestic production. various infrastructure projects.However, as the upsurge of exchanging gold is getting more and more fierce, the State Administration of Precious Metals also feels a little tricky, and plans to reduce the frequency of printing banknotes this year.Otherwise, even if the bank's exchange window played a lot of tricks, it might not be able to stop the vigorous tide of buying gold in the end.Gold round coupons are still a kind of credit currency in the final analysis. Without credit, is it still called currency?

After inspecting the construction of the Luoming Highway, Zhao Ke became concerned about the progress of the construction of the nearby Luoming Railway, which was doing land leveling work.He knew very well that Luoyang Mansion would be responsible for the construction of the western section of the railway in the future. Although they didn't need to pay for it, Zhao Kelai must be the deputy director of the project department. It's better to plan ahead.

Compared with the nearly completed Luoming Highway, the construction of the railway is more costly and complicated.Zhao Ke wandered around here for a few days and found that only a small part of the most basic land leveling work has been done, let alone laying railroad tracks and building bridges.

Moreover, in terms of crucial funds, because of the "crying" of the State Development Administration, the fiscal expenditure budget for the next fiscal year will be properly tilted towards them.Considering that the issuance of golden round coupons may decrease next year, the construction progress of this railway may have to be delayed.Zhao Ke didn't care about this. Infrastructure construction is a bottomless pit.

Compared with this railway, the progress of the Luoshang Railway (Luoyang Prefecture-Shanghai County), which has absorbed a considerable part of foreign funds, may be even faster.The Italian consortium headed by the Forest Development Company has already nodded and purchased 500 million yuan of gold exchange certificates from the Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank, planning to start the construction of this railway this year.After receiving the news, the State Development Bureau naturally seized the opportunity and set up a series of new settlements near the planned railway line, namely: Changyang Township (located near the later Maria Town), Jieshi Township (located in the later Belleville Township) Town), Yuanyan Township (near the later town of Rio Cuarto), Xinfa Township (near the later town of Ucacha), Songlan Township (near the later town of La Carlota), Dalu Township (located near the later town of Alejo Ledesma), Xiaolu Township (located near the later town of Leibot), Donglei Township (located near the later town of Benato Tuerto), Lvyang Township (located near the later town of Cañas), Xinli Township (located near the town of General Arenales later), there are a total of ten settlements, and it is planned to send more than [-] settled people to reclaim wasteland and provide food. It can also be used as a labor force for railway construction, and the determination is still quite large.

Luoming Highway, Luohuang Railway, Luoshang Railway, as well as the Luoyan Highway and Luoyan Railway under construction, the transportation network leading to the new capital Luoyang Prefecture is really very developed, and Shendu District will have no It is doubtful to become a transportation hub in the hinterland. At that time, whether it is westward to Chile or northward to Chalkas, this will be the meeting point that cannot be bypassed.In addition, when these roads are all built and many local settlements are almost developed, the future benefits will be immeasurable.The economic and social development of the entire Pampa Plain will also enter a new stage.

The construction of the foundation of the king and hegemony lies here!

(End of this chapter)