Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2424 Pampa (47)

On March 1701, 3, George Montgomery's carriage pulled up on the side of the road.

This is in Doumen Township (near the small town of Rio Tercelo in later generations), in the wilderness, except for some settlers who are harvesting rice in the fields, there are not many people around.

Doumen Township is one of the four townships under the jurisdiction of Changyang County newly established in the second half of last year.The county is the 200th county-level administrative unit in the country. It has jurisdiction over Changyang Town, Doumen Township, Yuanyan Township, and Xinfa Township. It has a population of more than 201 and uses agriculture and animal husbandry as its main source of income.At the same time, Xiaolu County and Xinli County were established.The former is the 4000st county in the country, under the jurisdiction of Xiaolu Township, Jieshi Township, Songlan Township, Dalu Township, and Donglei Township, a total of five townships with a population of about 202 to 5000. The economy is also dominated by agriculture.The latter is the [-]nd county in the country, under the jurisdiction of Xinli Township, Luyang Township, Huning Township (located near the small town of Hu Ning later), Cangshang Township (located near the town of Lincoln later), Qingniu Township (located in the later Pinto near General Town), a total of five settlements with a population of nearly [-].Economically, I didn’t say anything, agriculture and animal husbandry are still the mainstay, and it will be for a long time in the future.But this does not mean that these counties have no industrial population, handicraft craftsmen are also industrial population, at least according to the statistics of the East Coast Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The location of Doumen Township in Changyang County is good, because it is actually a point on the Luoyan Railway.Starting from Funan District of Luoyang, the railway goes south through Luoyi District, Doumen Township, and Yuanyan Township, and runs to Yancheng, an important export port of grain, wool, mutton, leather, livestock, salt and seafood. More than 1000 kilometers, it is one of the traffic arteries of the Pampa Plain, which is of special significance to the development of the vast inland area.

The construction of the Luoyan Railway has actually been going on for many years.The leveling work of the railway embankment has always been carried out in sections, and the progress is very fast.However, when it comes to the laying of railway tracks, due to the limitation of transportation, it has been carried out unilaterally, that is, extending inward from Yancheng Port, which more or less affects the construction efficiency.According to the latest situation statement released by the American Railway Company, the Luoyan Railway has already repaired Waqiao Township (located in the later Eduadoca Near the small town of Stuss), arrived at the Jinxi Township Railway Station, which is under construction, and the completed mileage exceeds [-] kilometers.

Most of the more than [-] kilometers of railways have been opened for operation in recent years, bringing great benefits to Yancheng, Yongchun, Zhongxing, Jinhui and other counties along the way.The specific reflection on the economy is that the population of the four counties is growing rapidly, various investments are pouring in, government fiscal revenue is also rising, and the overall economy is in a virtuous cycle.

It is really different whether there is a railway or not!At this time, we can fully understand why all counties and townships in the inland areas are flocking to the railway, and its driving effect on the economy is very huge.If there is no place to grab the railway, I will try my best to get some road projects. If there is no first-class national road, then grab the second-class national road!If it doesn’t work, third-class national roads can do just fine. It’s better to have something than nothing. It’s impossible to get rich without building roads first.

It is worth mentioning that Luoyan Railway has absorbed a large amount of capital from foreign countries in order to reduce financial pressure.According to the latest calculations, the American Railway Company currently only holds about 50.5% of the shares of this railway, and the other shares have basically been sold to withdraw funds.In addition to the large middle class on the East Coast, many investors from England, the United Provinces and Italy bought shares in the railways.They spent a lot of money, not only bought a lot of shares in Luoyan Railway, but also bought a lot of shares in Luoming Railway, which has just started construction, and Luoshang Railway, which is still under planning, in order to rationally allocate assets and avoid the growing risk. risks of war.

As a leader of England's young generation, well-born George Montgomery was very optimistic about the prospects of the East Coast Railway.He had already invested thousands of pounds in Luoyan Railway before, even Ambassador Paul Scott did not invest as much as him.This time, after hearing that the construction of the Luoming Railway broke ground and the stock was publicly issued in the Qingdao financial market, he raised funds from various sources and invested more than [-] pounds.

A total of more than 7000 pounds of railway investment was already a huge sum for a young diplomat who was not a family heir.Maybe, he invested most of the assets he deserved. This is far from the category of risk aversion, and it is an aggressive investment that is extremely optimistic about the East Coast Railway business.

Neither of George Montgomery's two railroad stocks was profitable, and neither was likely to pay any dividends for years to come.But even such a stock that cannot make money, it is strange that Italian businessmen come to ask if it can be transferred, and there are too many people who are optimistic about this railway.

Recently, the English embassy moved to Beicheng District, Luoyang Prefecture. The Jinlu Commercial Hall, which had been used for many years, was vacated and began to be used as a place for English businessmen to stay, meet, eat, and entertain.After the opening of the new embassy, ​​nothing major happened recently. George Montgomery ran around with the ambassador, and only did one thing that the English government loaned 300 million French currency to the east coast.Ever since people on the east coast implemented the gold standard system, the international market has been in turmoil. Many people are looking for gold coupons everywhere in case of emergency.

This is not to say that people on the east coast will not accept silver.They are not that stupid, because it will greatly affect the country's export trade.In fact, silver is still collected. Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank has this remittance business, and the enterprise is just one more procedure.But as far as the state-owned enterprises on the east coast are concerned, under the government’s administrative order, they are the first to receive gold coupons—obviously, this is to cooperate with the government’s promotion of the east coast legal currency around the world—considering the current Regarding the order backlog of major companies, whoever has the gold exchange coupons will be able to get the goods first. This is not a trivial matter during the war.

Of course, if you have the patience to wait until those military-industrial companies complete all backlog orders, then there is no problem paying with silver.If a company has business, of course it will not refuse. It only needs to use a bank or an intermediary to provide exchange services-this is a bit like the later generations of "My Qing Dynasty" taking silver with foreign banks, exchanging it into gold pounds, and then going to the UK Order and buy things - but the question is, can you really wait until then?In other words, are you really sure that no one else will beat you and place an order with a gold coupon?If you are not sure, then it is good to be safe and reserve a certain amount of East Coast legal currency on hand.You can learn from the Italians and use gold to exchange at the State Administration of Precious Metals on the east coast, or you can directly take out a loan (currently the interest rate is very low), so that you can be prepared.

George Montgomery had a lot of emotion when he ran down with the ambassador, and at the same time, he had a deeper awe of the East Bank.People on the east coast are really far-sighted in promoting their own currency. For this reason, they do not hesitate to bind many commodities that others cannot refuse, and stipulate that they can only trade with gold coupons first.If they let go of the export of some commodities that are not available in other countries in the future, and make it mandatory that only gold coupons can be used for settlement, everyone can only acquiesce, right?In this way, large-scale reserves of legal currency on the east coast have become something that governments of various countries must do.When this situation lasts long enough, the reserve of gold bills becomes a habit and instinct, and other currencies can no longer shake their status, and the East Coast government can mow the world through seigniorage—in fact, it is difficult for other currencies to Unshakable, one yuan of legal currency on the East Coast is fixedly exchanged for two grams of gold, unshakeable, open and free convertibility, there is no stronger currency in the world than this.

George Montgomery did not regret buying all the more than 7000 pounds he could raise in the stocks of Luoyan Railway and Luoming Railway, because these stocks are all commodities denominated in gold bills, and they are not much stronger than your pound in your hand. ?The English government still has a lot of debts that have not been repaid. Seeing that King Carlos II of Madrid may die at any time, the outbreak of war is not far away.If the Kingdom of England enters the water to participate in the war - don't think about it, it is almost inevitable - then with the government's current financial situation, in addition to borrowing and increasing taxes, the only way is to mint additional low-quality currency, artificially lower the value of the shilling, and harvest the people It's been a while.

Although the British royal family has carefully controlled the Tower of London in recent decades, it has tried its best to restrain its impulse and has not devalued its currency like the French.But how far will the next war go?Do the government and the royal family really have such determination to insist that the shilling and the British pound do not depreciate?It seems that no one dares to play this guarantee!George Montgomery did this, many people in London did the same, and thoughtful businessmen all over Europe did the same, but they were not as radical as this young man, and only allocated a part of the gold dollar bond assets.

"The Luoyan Railway will probably take three to five years to open to traffic, and the Luoming Railway will be far away. We can't have any illusions in the short term." Looking at the railway line that has been repaired in the distance and extends to the horizon, George Montgomery Secretly thinking: "Given the importance of the Luoyan Railway, it will be able to turn around within two years after it is opened to traffic, and start making profits in the third year. However, considering the debts owed during the construction period, we should not be too optimistic. Maybe five years later And even if you make a profit, the railway may not pay you dividends, because it may use the money to operate the railway subsidiary. This—investment, is really a long-term investment!"

(End of this chapter)