In early May 1921, the Princess Anna arrived in Shanghai, China. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This cruise ship, which has just been in operation for only three years, is currently the world's largest cruise ship with the largest displacement and the largest number of passengers, and it is also a well-deserved champion of passenger ships! This is a giant cruise ship commissioned by Huntelaar Shipping to build the Huntelaar Shipyard after winning the title of the world's largest shipping company and surpassing the second and third places combined.

Although it is the largest, the ticket price of the Princess Anna is not very high.

Originally, according to the plan of the Huntelaar sea, such a cruise ship had to be the most luxurious, and preferably operating on the Atlantic. However, under John's personal intervention, they gave up this plan, and after going to sea, they have been operating in the Pacific Ocean, running the route from San Francisco to Shanghai, and of course stopping in Japan, the Philippines and other places. In this case, this cruise ship does not take the high-end route, and the price is very close to the people.

John and two friends were on this cruise ship.

According to the arrangement of Huntelaar Shipping, since it is the big boss of his own family who wants to travel, it must be to send a luxury cruise ship, even if it is with Princess Anna, all other passengers should be rejected and specially served by the boss. But John didn't want such a waste, and ended up taking all the first class cabins on the cruise. And he was accompanied by an extremely large team. Just John? Huntelaar alone had a butler, two chauffeurs, two accompanying cooks, four maids, four secretaries, and more than thirty bodyguards......

On May 4th, the cruise ship arrived at the Shanghai terminal.

Dozens of military and political dignitaries, including the mayor of Shanghai, the governors of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, a vice president of the central government, ministers of industry, education, finance, and foreign affairs, as well as representatives of the medical, industrial, scientific and technological, and industrial and commercial circles across the country, gathered at the wharf to welcome the arrival of the Princess Anna. At the same time, in order to welcome China's closest friends, the Shanghai government even did not hesitate to suspend the entry and exit of all other ships, and specially set aside half a day for the Princess Anna!

This kind of courtesy is almost unprecedented!

In the First World War, less than two years later, China reaped great benefits with John's help. Because of the large-scale low-interest loans of the Huntelaar Bank, both the government and the private sector had relatively abundant funds, and the foreign banks ensured that their products could be sold at a good price from the foreign powers. For example, Han Yeping's steel, originally because the pricing power was not in hand in history, and the price did not rise until the end of the war, and it was a golden opportunity to miss it, but the products of Han Yeping in this world have always been consistent with the price in the United States, and there has been a very huge accumulation in the past five years......

Even the matter of participating in the war was secretly grateful by many people.

Although hundreds of thousands of casualties were caused by the European battlefield, China received 800,000 war-tested elites and a large number of advanced weapons that cost nothing, and also trained a large number of skilled industrial workers, which is an immeasurable wealth for China. And more importantly, by taking the opportunity of this war, China also gained the "friendship" of the Allied powers. Everyone knows how unreliable this friendship is, but it was worth it when the Japanese frequently hit a wall on the issue of China at the Paris Peace Conference, when the treaty between China and Soviet Russia was recognized by all countries for the first time, and when all countries gave up their privileges and concessions in China and began to return the right to tariffs.

All of this, the Huntelaar consortium is a great contribution.

So when John? When the news of Mr. Huntelaar's coming to China reached China, countless people became agitated. Needless to say, the people of the Huntelaar family also attach great importance to the government at all levels, from the central government to Shanghai, and no one is willing to give up this good opportunity to get close to the richest man in the world -- according to the newspaper not long ago, Mr. Huntelaar has already taken advantage of the opportunity of the war of the century to determine the name of the richest man, and it is said that the cash in the bank alone is enough for the Chinese government to borrow for decades......

……

A week later, Shanghai.

"How do you feel these days?"

In the hall of his villa, John asked with a smile.

"Not bad."

Shrugging his shoulders, little Morgan smiled and said: "Most of the factory equipment looks like second-hand, but the quality of the products is not bad, especially what surprises me is that you have built an assembly line here!" Hehe, the quality of those workers is also very good, no worse than the United States. ”

"Haha, that's all trained!"

Haha, John also nodded a little proudly; "Either you graduated from our technical school or you came back from Europe, and you definitely don't have the technical ...... There are now four million such people in China, and it is likely that they will exceed 10 million in ten years! ”

"Oh, that's a lot of money."

Hearing John say this, little Rockefeller was also interested.

For these big capitalists, capital and equipment have never been a problem, and all they care about is manpower and the market. If it's in the U.S., it's fine, but it's more difficult in China. Originally, in this era, there were hundreds of thousands of industrial workers in China, and the number of factories was only more than 1,000. But with John's intervention, after twenty or thirty years of continuous efforts, the number of workers in China has now exceeded 5 million, a tenfold increase, and the number of factories has exceeded 20,000!

This number is small compared to later generations, but it is already huge for China in 1921.

Little Morgan and Little Rockefeller were of course very aware of this, so Little Morgan looked at John and smiled meaningfully: "Mr. Huntelaar, only when you come to this place in China in person can you understand how much you have invested here over the years......

"Hehe, thank you."

Smiling lightly, John nodded indifferently. In fact, no one knows better than him how much he has invested in it over the years.

Comparing with numbers is the easiest and easiest.

For example, in the original history, during the First World War, China opened a total of 379 new industrial enterprises (including mines) with a capital of more than 10,000 yuan, with a capital of 85.8 million yuan. But in this world, the direct investment of Huntelaar Bank alone is as high as 110 million US dollars, equivalent to nearly 300 million yuan, and if you add the domestic national capital, it will be more than 400 million yuan!

For example, who in the whole of Shanghai does not know that Mr. Huntelaar is the largest landlord? The slightly better plots are almost all the land of the Huntelaar Bank and the foreign bank, and the land that has been bought over the years accounts for almost one-tenth of the entire city! Moreover, there are more land reserves in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, most of which are leased to those international students to start their own businesses, and only charge some symbolic rent every year.

Another example is education, several comprehensive universities and a large number of medical schools have now basically been completed, and a few have even begun to enroll students. As the descendants of the Huntelaar education system, they have the top teachers and hardware conditions in China and even Asia, and their future development is almost doomed. The larger number of technical schools, normal schools, and primary and secondary schools laid the foundation for the development of these modern "scientific" universities -- what John wanted to do was to change the history of China's higher education before 1949, which emphasized literature over science......

How about doubling these numbers?

In addition to direct investment, the more important role of the Huntelaar consortium is to help bring in technology, buy equipment, train workers, and these are even more important than direct investment! Especially now, tens of thousands of international students every year are immeasurable wealth in China!

And......

The greater role of the Huntelaar consortium in China is also reflected in resisting the aggression of foreign capital. Without their involvement, World War I coincided with a large-scale invasion by Japanese capital, and the comeback of the European and American powers after the war also caused a huge shock. And it was precisely because of the sniping of the Huntelaar consortium that the Japanese concentrated on the development of the army in World War I, but neglected the development of the economy, and the gains were greatly reduced. China's victory in the European war also allowed them to reclaim almost all the privileges of the great powers, and China's large army also guaranteed that they could protect their interests in the future......

These investments cannot be measured by money alone!

Of course, John didn't understand too much about the two "outsiders", so after laughing, John said lightly: "Gentlemen, we have run so many factories in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai these days, I think you should know about it." I can guarantee that there is no shortage of skilled workers here in China, and the market capacity is huge enough, and what is lacking is nothing more than capital and technology...... Trust me, you won't lose money investing here! ”

"Hahaha......"

After glancing at each other, little Morgan and little Rockefeller burst out laughing at the same time.

If the two were skeptical before they came, after this month, they have established that China is indeed a good place. If nothing else, Mr. Huntelaar's list of iron and oil mines, as well as the huge railway investment plans for the future, were enough to make up their minds.

"I'm a little strange, sir."

After laughing, little Morgan asked with a twinkle in his eyes: "With the current capital and influence of the Huntelaar consortium in China, you can swallow these cakes by yourself, why ......?"

"Gentlemen!"

Without waiting for little Morgan to finish speaking, John waved his hand and smiled: "I understand your concerns, in fact, the reason is very simple, on the one hand, the Huntelaar consortium is facing some difficulties after the war, so I need allies now, and strong allies, and on the other hand, ......"

John paused when he said this, and then smiled slightly: "For a long time to come, the Huntelaar consortium has little interest in developing these ordinary industries in China, and we are more interested in education and medical ......."