Manchester is an important industrial city in the UK, the pillar industry is the cotton spinning industry, the products are mainly exported, and the nearest is the port city of Liverpool, which is 48 kilometers apart. With the rapid development of industry, the demand for cotton in Manchester is increasing, and the humid and cold climate of the United Kingdom makes it impossible to grow cotton because their sheep wool is of good quality. Cotton could only be imported from the United States, and merchant ships sent it to nearby Liverpool, where the raw material was transported via canals and overland wagons.

But the cost of transporting horse-drawn carriages was prohibitively high, and the canal company's monopoly on freight was not cheap. With the advent of railroads, factory owners tried to take advantage of this emerging technology against the monopoly canal companies and the high cost of horse-drawn carriage transportation. So the capitalists in Liverpool proposed to build a railway. The purpose of the Liverpool capitalists was to reduce costs, not to compete with the nobles who ran the canal, so before forming a railway board, they took the initiative to communicate with the canal company to persuade them to reduce the freight rate, but the canal company completely ignored their demands.

With the support of Liverpool's capitalists, Liverpool and the Manchester Parliament passed a resolution to form a railway company.

The construction of the Liverpool-Manchester railway was not actually the result of Stephenson's direct development, but the result of the conflict of interests between the emerging capitalists and the powerful canal owners, and the process was of course full of conflicts, such as the aristocratic canal owners did not allow the railway to cross their canals, and it was the parliament that passed the bill and approved it. In order to avoid the most powerful aristocratic landowners, Stephenson had to take risks to build a railroad in the swamps.

The railway was a great success, and the commercial trade of the two large cities of Liverpool and Manchester benefited the railway a lot, so that the railway finally became the climate, because the railway itself has become an extremely profitable industry, and the various heroes who poured into the railway industry are no longer able to compete with the old aristocracy, and the British aristocracy is not so old-fashioned, and even the aristocracy began to take the initiative to participate in the construction of the railway, just as they built the canal back then, as long as they can make money, they are willing to do it.

China's canal forces oppose railways for no other reason than profits.

But their power is too strong, so strong that not only the local government is jealous, even the six departments feel tricky, why the Ming and Qing dynasties insisted on shipping instead of shipping, in addition to safety issues, a reason that is often mentioned is that "it is related to the livelihood of millions of river workers", and the population relying on the canal for their livelihood is one million, which is not an imaginary number.

Moreover, among these millions of people, there are hundreds of thousands of organized Cao gang members, and these people dare to use knives.

Therefore, the place was pushed to the prime minister, and the prime minister reported it to the emperor, and no one could decide, only the emperor decided.

The railway company has the emperor's shares, and it has always been strong, in fact, Zhou Lang's shares are not large, just like Elizabeth's investment in pirate ships, the purpose is just to support a certain industry, of course, Zhou Lang supports the railway, and Elizabeth supports pirates, which is much brighter, but in politics, as long as it is beneficial to the country, the pragmatic monarch does not count the reputation.

Now Prime Minister Huang Qiuwu suggested that the emperor should get rid of it first, withdraw from the railway shares, and let the two companies solve it by themselves, not to involve the imperial family, in case of death, it will damage the emperor's reputation.

Zhou Lang is a person who wants to be famous, but in this matter, he can't take care of it, the reason why he invested in the railway company back then was to use the imperial power to escort the construction of the railway at a high price, who knew that in the face of million-level interests, there were really people who were not afraid of death, and they were not afraid of death, and they built up the momentum in advance, and the coffin was placed at the door of the headquarters of the canal company.

Every day, they publish advertorials in social newspapers that have begun to appear intensively, portraying them as a weak person who is oppressed by the powerful, and talking about the livelihood of millions of river workers, who can take a few dollars from the canal to make a living, and the shareholders of the company are all fat and oily.

"Why don't I talk to them? If the railway is repaired, will it be good for the canal? The railway station leads to the canal wharf, and the department stores are gathered, and both sides benefit! ”

Huang Qiuwu tried to adjust.

Zhou Lang shook his head: "The government will not come forward in this matter first, and the more politics are involved, the more troublesome it will be." Let them settle the matter by legal means and litigate in the local court. ”

"Both sides have the privilege to expropriate land along the railway line and give reasonable supplements," Huang said. The Canal Company also has this power. The two rights are offset, and the railway company has no right to move the land of the canal! ”

This is the crux of the matter, there is no clear right and wrong, both sides feel that they are reasonable, and they have talked several times, but they have not reached an agreement, which is why they are in this state.

Zhou Lang smiled: "That's why I let the locals decide." They want the railroad, and the local jurors will support the railroad, and if they want the canal, they will support the canal. Let the people play within the framework of the law. The government should not intervene, as long as it is tightened a little, and no one will be killed. When people die, they are in trouble. As soon as a person dies, the scolding comes. If you scold me less, I'm afraid that the eight generations of ancestors will be pulled out and scolded. ”

Huang Qiu worried: "Weichen is not afraid of being scolded, and if he wants to scold, he will first scold the railway company." Do you think they won't mess with the millions of riverworkers on the canal? There are places in the north where there are no canals, go to Guanwai to build railways, go to the northeast to repair, Mongolia to repair, who will care about them! ”

Zhou Lang sighed: "But isn't it." Wealth is moving, and as much lobbying as the north can have, it can drill into the south of the Yangtze River. There is no shortage of transportation here, but I want to come, Jiangnan has money. It's all more icing on the cake, less charcoal in the snow! ”

Zhou Lang couldn't help but sigh, according to his ideas, he is a strong support for the development of railway companies in the north, compared to the south there are a large number of natural rivers and canals to rely on, the transportation cost in the north is too high, the railway compared to the canal, is the increase in speed, but compared to the carriage team that is all-round improvement, but the problem is that the north is backward, the south is developed, in the south to build a railway, gold and silver rolling, in the north, in addition to the coal transportation in Shanxi, the cattle and sheepskin on the grassland really can not support the operating costs of the railway. Therefore, the railway company sharpened its head to repair the railway in the south, found all kinds of excuses to delay the northern railway project, talked about the mountains in the north, and found all kinds of experts to argue that the mountains could not build railways.

Aren't the rivers in the south an obstacle? It's not because it has just been announced that the Tianjin-Beijing Railway (Tianjin to Nanjing) will be built, the stock price has risen sharply, and bonds have been popular.

Huang Qiu worried: "What Your Majesty said is extremely true. Businessmen are oblivious to profit and always have to drill where there is a lot of money. Several railways in the north are indeed losing money, they are all doing business, and it is not a way to lose money all the time. ”

Zhou Lang smiled: "Is it temporary to lose money?" Thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi, who dares to say what the north will be like in ten years. This is not the Westerners have just stopped fighting, and the price of tea has risen again and again this year. Tea should now go by rail, not by sea. This year is tea, and next year it may be cotton, silk, and the volume of railways will sooner or later rise to the point of making money. ”

Huang Qiu worried: "Tea, cotton, silk, which one is not produced in the south." It's no wonder that they want to drill into the south and let them go to court, I'm afraid it's troublesome. Don't even think about fixing it in three or five years. ”

Zhou Lang said: "We don't have to worry about this, with the support of these railways in the north, it will change greatly in three or five years, and then the southerners will also know that the railway is a good thing." The lawsuit will be won, and the management of society still depends on the law! ”

Zhou Lang and Huang Qiuwei were right, the lawsuit between the railway company and the canal company went on endlessly, both sides showed their concessions, and it was the local elders who ruled right and wrong, and most of the lawsuits were lost by the railway company because they were unfamiliar with the railway. Railways pay attention to coherence, not to mention losing most lawsuits, even if they lose one or two games, they will become meaningless to build railways.

So the process of the railway company going south was postponed, and it was forced to continue to develop silently in the north, but at present, in addition to the profit of the line from Datong in Shanxi to Tianjin, the grassland line has been losing money, and it is impossible to support high stock prices in the long run, and it may even affect the risk of bond issuance and capital chain breakage.

The practice of the railway company is to greatly increase the freight, anyway, everyone is used to using the railway, no matter how high the railway freight is, it is not as high as the pack team and the carriage, even if the cost is as high as the pack caravan, the railway is faster!

In fact, at this point, the railway company and the canal company are all the way to the goods, and they are using their monopoly advantages to make profits, resulting in a surge in logistics costs in the north, and in some places the logistics cost is several times higher than the price of the goods themselves.

Zhou Lang is very concerned about these situations, many things were originally designed to be good, but there will always be unexpected changes in the process of operation.

Supporting the construction of railways was originally to reduce logistics costs and drive economic development, but the essence of business is often not so long-term considerations, too much to seek short-term interests, after all, a businessman always hopes to recover the cost as soon as possible, so that the grandfather planted trees and grandchildren to pay for food, that is the wise man's doing, not the ordinary people can do it.

To put it bluntly, the railway companies in the north and the canal companies in the south are too powerful because they have no competitors.

However, in such a capital-intensive industry, excessive competition will greatly affect the ability to raise funds, and it will not be able to achieve the effect of concentrating on big things.

Zhou Lang can't find a good way for the time being, and then chartering a railway company will worsen the competition, and there will be no profit for one family, and if you join another, the industry may collapse.

At this time, the practice of a local railway gradually attracted Zhou Lang's attention.

This local railway company is not from the rich Jiangnan and Fujian, but from the poor Yunnan!