According to the telegram report from the United States, it is not easy to buy the railway, but it is not difficult to become the majority shareholder of the railway. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Pacific Railway was originally built by two major railway companies, the western section was built and operated by the Central Pacific Railway Company, which is familiar to Chinese, and the eastern section was built and operated by the Union Pacific Railway Company.

The eastern section was built from Omaha in Nebraska to the west, and the western section was built from Sacramento to the east, compared to the terrain of the Great Plains west of Omaha, the western section was directly through the steep Sierra Nevada Mountains from the beginning, and at the beginning it was impossible to build normally by employing Irish laborers who were not very obedient.

However, under Zhu Jinglun's troubles, the Chinese laborers who built the railroad were liberated as coolies, and they could only use the Irish. As a result, construction faltered, leading to a financial crisis for the railroad, and eventually the majority shareholder, Stanford, broke his wrist and sold his stake to rival Union Pacific Railroad.

As a result, the railroad was actually monopolized by the Union Pacific Railroad.

Unlike the Central Pacific Railroad, which was formed by a California giant, the Union Pacific Railroad is a railroad company chartered by the U.S. federal government, primarily by President Lincoln through the Pacific Railroad Construction Act. The company was too politically charged, and many of its shareholders were state legislators or even members of Congress, so there were too many political constraints to buy the railroad.

Lincoln originally established this company in the hope that the Union Pacific Railroad would be able to compete with the Central Pacific Railroad, and the federal government and President Lincoln did not want to see the California tycoons monopolize the railroad. Their plan was perfect, and with some special policies later, the two railway companies had to compete with each other, because whoever built it faster would have more subsidized land on both sides of the railway, and whoever would get more wealth in the future.

At the same time, the federal government also gave financial support, allowing railroad companies to issue bonds, but the amount of bonds issued must be issued in proportion to the length of the railway, that is, the faster the construction of the railway, the faster the bond issuance, the lower the cost of capital, Stanford-controlled Central Pacific Railroad, because of the slow progress without financial subsidies, finally had to sell the stock before bankruptcy.

But what Lincoln didn't expect was that he did make the two companies fiercely competitive, but the rogue capitalists of the American era were obviously not so obedient and industrious to get rich, and the Union Pacific Railroad was mired in a corruption scandal from the beginning, and this company had a group of rogue capitalist shareholders who secretly formed another construction company, and then contracted the project to this company at an unusually high price, and paid for the bonds guaranteed by the federal government.

In fact, it is equivalent to swindling money from the government. But this company has a deep background, first of all, it was established by the federal government, and there are a large number of political figures among the shareholders, and both government and business can be eaten. In order to thwart government investigations, these rogue shareholders sold railroad shares to members of Congress at extremely low prices, successfully keeping the judiciary scrutinized. Even then-U.S. Vice President Colfax collected a large amount of railroad stock; James Garfield, who has since been elected president of the United States, was also involved.

In the early days of the railroad's construction, a scandal erupted that caused public outrage, and it was during the Civil War that the company was shut down, and all the railroad workers joined the U.S. Army and drove south to fight the Confederates. Construction of the railway began again after the war.

Like the Central Pacific Railroad, the Union Pacific Railroad mainly employs Irish workers for construction, but unlike the Central Pacific Railroad's predicament, the Irish laborers of the Union Pacific Railroad, although they also have a bad record of being short-tempered, drunken and fighting, but they have just experienced the war, and the discipline they have cultivated in the war allows them to work like marching and fighting, avoiding the tragedy of the use of Irish laborers by the Central Pacific Railroad in the west.

Even the chief engineer and the management in charge of the project are retired generals. Union Pacific's management of its employees continues the model of military management. The scouts determined the route at the forefront, the advance troops then built the roadbed, and then the main force laid the sleepers.

Under militarized management, the Union Pacific Railroad did not collapse like the Central Pacific Railroad, and even after the construction of the Nevada mountains, the progress of the project became slow, but it was still proceeding in an orderly manner. It's really hard to repair here, it's really dangerous here, but as long as you fill it with human lives, you can fill up the valley as deep as you want.

But the problem is speed, they just entered the Sierra Nevada in 1869, and a year later began to divide the watershed after all, at this time they encountered a huge problem, that is, the tunnel through the main peak of Nevada, historically, the Chinese dug thirteen tunnels here, each of which was halfway up the mountain at six or seven thousand feet, and the snow began to fall in September, and the normal start of construction was less than half a year a year.

Even the Irish laborers who had received military training were not as disciplined as the Chinese laborers, especially in the face of danger, they began to make trouble, and resolutely refused to do dangerous work, when the Chinese could hang down from the cliff on the top of the mountain, dig holes in the steep stone wall, plant explosives, and then detonate, the Irish felt that it was too dangerous to do it, and only in the case of a huge bounty offered by the railway company that someone was willing to take the risk to do it.

But their speed is still too slow, in order to rush the work, the Chinese lived in the tunnel, and even in winter, when the snow closed the mountain, they lived in the cold stone cave and continued to work. But the Irish disagreed, they only worked for six months a year, and with the time wasted back and forth, the actual construction period was less than five months.

As a result, they did not penetrate these tunnels for three years, and it took only two years for Chinese workers to open up the tunnels, which is the same as the Chinese construction team in later generations, so efficient that Westerners could not imagine.

By September 1873, the Union Pacific Railroad had three difficult tunnels to be built, including the Lasse Ridge Tunnel, the Nevada Tunnel No. 6, and the Downer Pass Tunnel, which had to create a roadbed in the mountain wall to accommodate the railroad to pass through, and the Nevada No. 6 Tunnel, which had to run through the main peak, and was all granite, and used explosives every day, and could only advance a few inches, the Downer Peak Tunnel.

At this time, they no longer have the opportunity to penetrate these three tunnels, because the United States broke out in the railroad crisis, in order to raise 100 million US dollars for the Northern Pacific Railroad, the largest bond company in the United States, Jay Cook Company was dragged bankrupt, and the railroad frenzy in the United States after the Civil War basically involved private funds in the construction of the railway, and the economic crisis caused by the railway crisis plunged the entire United States into a long depression.

Historically, it was not until 1880 that Morgan helped finance the Northern Pacific Railroad and the railroad was built again.

But the Union Pacific Railroad Company is not so lucky, this railway company, full of rogue tycoons, the most powerful is Thomas Duran, who is also the vice president of the company, although he is the vice president, but in fact he controls the company, and the president of the company is often held out by this group of capitalists as a flag, such as Adams.

As a result, this Thomas saw the railroad crisis this year, and he himself sold all the shares of the Union Pacific Railroad. And the market value of the entire railway company, after three years of decline, has become a junk stock, and no one cares about it at all. Hundreds of millions of dollars of railroads have become a pile of junk assets. The entire Union Pacific Railroad was on the verge of bankruptcy.

It is not too easy to acquire a stake in this company at this time.

So this is a railway company that is inconvenient for Daming Labor Service Company to buy, but can buy a large amount of shares.

According to Zhu Jinglun's instructions, Wu Chongyao soon asked Forbes, his agent in New York, to help buy the company's shares, and only spent $10 million to acquire 30 percent of the company's shares, and then stopped the acquisition, because if the acquisition was made, it would probably attract the attention of the US government.

It doesn't matter if you buy bonds, in order to build the Trans-American Pacific Railroad, the company issued more than $100 million in bonds under the guarantee of the U.S. government, and at this time, these bonds, like other U.S. railroad bonds, fell to less than one-fifth of the original face value, so the labor company only spent 10 million U.S. dollars to buy 50 million face value of railway bonds, almost all the bonds that the United States can absorb into its own hands.

As long as the railroad can be built, and the public thinks that the railroad company will be able to repay the bonds, then these bonds will definitely rise again, and the labor companies will be able to make more money on the bonds.

The shares in hand will also become more valuable, but the problem is that now there are less than 30% of the shares in the hand, and most of them are collected through some bankers in New York, and these bankers are completely allowed to act as agents to avoid interference by the US government.

Zhu Jinglun needs a partner, a partner who has the capital and the ability to really make this railway complete.

Looking for a partner in the United States, Wu Chongyao can find a lot, whether it is the prestigious Astor family, or Forbes, who is very proficient in railways, they all have a good relationship with the Wu family, but Zhu Jinglun provides a candidate who makes Wu Chongyao break his head unexpectedly, a person who has brought countless troubles to the labor company over the years, Stanford, a California hooligan tycoon!