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Silver!

Silver is the foundation of everything, nothing can be done without silver, and the development of any business needs to be based on capital. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoWhether it's the construction of a factory, the construction of a wharf, or the implementation of education. In short, in a word, the new policy that Wuchang wanted to implement was completely dependent on the support of silver money.

Without money, everything will come to naught.

Just like the Han-Guangdong Railway, this railway with the "first road in the Far East", carrying the hopes of tens of millions of Cantonese people, at least carrying the hopes of Guangzhou merchants, in order to build this railway, the gentry of Guangzhou and the towns along the line contributed as much as 41.5 million taels, since its construction, it can be said that this money has been spent like flowing water.

Although more than 200 kilometers of railways have been built in Hubei and Guangdong, more than a dozen foreign engineers come to China almost every month to participate in this project, because once the project is launched, the manpower is certainly not enough, because there are many mountains in Nanling, and there are many bridges and tunnels along the railway. That's why hundreds of engineers are needed to guide the construction of dozens of railway sections.

"It seems that in a few years, this railway will be put into use,"

Zhu Yifeng, who came to the railway construction site for the first time, said to Pan Zhaolin with a smile:

"Once this railway is completed, the three provinces can be united, and then your railway company will make a great contribution to China's recovery!"

Of course, more importantly, this railway will truly enable itself to directly control Lingnan and form a modern transportation network of "water and land transport" in China in the future.

In the past year, with the small inland steamship of about 100 tons manufactured by Wuchang Shipyard, the Huguang Steamship Bureau has successively opened up the Yangtze River, Hanjiang River and Dongting River in Hubei and Hunan, as well as water routes such as Lishui, Yuanshui, Zishui and Xiangjiang River, and has established a modern regional water transportation network covering 80% of the two provinces while obtaining huge profits.

The importance of this water transportation network may not be understood by the outside world, but for the Ministry of War, it can transfer Yunxian to the Hunan and Guangdong borders within 10 days, or to transfer military supplies from southern Hunan to Jiujiang within five days, which was unthinkable in China in the past.

Relying on 35 100-ton steamships, although the mobilization of troops and materials could not be said to be "a thousand miles a day," there was no problem with hundreds of miles a day. In addition, the capacity of the steamship made the freight very low when the rice and grain from Hunan were transferred to Hubei, and the low transportation cost allowed the governor to mobilize the materials of the two provinces as needed.

Once the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway is built, it will be possible to form a "combined transport of water and land" by trains and inland steamships, connecting Lingnan, which has been unable to connect with the inland for thousands of years, with the hinterland of the Central Plains, and at that time, he will be able to mobilize the human, material, and financial resources of the three provinces to support the future battle of reunification.

"The minister doesn't dare to be greedy for merit, but the minister still has a concern......

In the face of Han Du's praise, Pan Zhaolin was extremely cautious, originally he thought that by "sending his cousin to the palace", he would be able to take charge of the railway company alone, but to his surprise, although his cousin has now entered the palace and become the second wife of Han Du, he has more control over the railway company than in the past - for businessmen, the railway is only an industry, but for the governor's mansion, this railway is the lifeblood.

"Huh? Tell me about it? ”

"It's such a person, these days, I have seen in the newspaper that the Guangdong-Hanzhou railway is not good for Guangdong, Huguang is rich in all kinds of local products since ancient times, and there are fish and rice benefits, other days the railway is opened, Huguang local goods can be transported to Guangzhou by railway and sold overseas, and in addition to salt and sugar, there are few local goods in Guangdong for Huguang, so some people are worried that there will be no goods to transport on this return trip in the future......"

As for the previous "Lihan is not good for Guangdong", Pan Zhaolin just said that no one knows better than him what this railway means for Guangdong, especially for Guangzhou. And now the reason why he said this, the most fundamental reason is that he is worried about the future idle capacity, once the capacity is idle, it may lead to the increase in freight, and the increase in freight may affect the export of local goods in Guangzhou, and eventually affect the operation of the railway company.

Of course, this is not the root cause, what really worries him is that in the future, the reason why the railway is important to the Governor's Office now is because the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are held by the Taiping army. The Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway has naturally become the lifeline of the Governor's Office, but what about the future?

For thousands of years, the most convenient way to get inland was inland shipping. And now relying on steam ships to establish river shipping, the Yangtze River basin and the river basin along the river basin have an unprecedented convenience -- steam ships can transport hundreds or even thousands of tons of goods to Wuchang or Shanghai, in this case, how can the future Guangdong-Hanzhou railway compete with river shipping.

However, Pan Zhaolin did not directly pick out this point, for him, now he would rather tie the railway company and the Han Du in front of him tightly through his cousin, so that he will take into account the interests of the railway company in the future.

"No ...... to ship"

Pan Zhaolin's words made Zhu Yifeng stunned for a moment, looking at Pan Zhaolin as if he was looking at a monster.

"This is absolutely impossible, once the railway is built, the only thing that worries people at that time is not that there is no goods to transport, but that there is a lack of capacity!"

"Lack of capacity?"

"Yes, that is, the capacity cannot meet the demand, you know, this railway not only connects the Central Plains, but also connects the southwest hinterland in the future, and this 30-pound track cannot meet the ......needs of the country at all."

Shaking his head, Zhu Yifeng looked at the cast rails on the side, which were both imported and self-produced by Daye, and they would be replaced by steel rails in the future.

"Let's not talk about anything else, let's just say that there are few people in southern Xiangnan, and its grain needs to be purchased from Dongting and other places, if the railway is built, it does not need to be purchased from Dongting at all, and the commercial houses in Guangzhou can directly buy cheap Vietnamese rice, Luzon rice, and Siamese rice, just like the people of Guangzhou eat cheap foreign rice......

For the import of foreign rice, Pan Zhaolin is no stranger, in fact, as early as the Kangxi period of the imperial court to encourage the import of foreign rice, if the import of ten thousand stones and even to reward officials, Guangdong has few people, hundreds of years of imported foreign rice is continuous, imported rice is even one of the thirteen main industries.

"What about Dongting rice?"

Pan Zhaolin asked puzzled.

"As for this Dongting rice, it is naturally sold to Henan, Shaanxi and other northern hinterlands along the water and land along the water and land routes! What is the role of the railway? ”

While walking forward, Zhu Yifeng asked rhetorically.

"The biggest role of the railway is to connect the provinces together, so that the whole country as a whole, in the past, the lower price of foreign rice can only be eaten in the coastal areas of Guangdong, and the freight is too expensive to transport inland, but after the railway is built, it can not only be transported to the hinterland of Guangdong, but also southern Hunan and other places can also benefit from this."

Due to the limitations of the times, Pan Zhaolin and the others did not understand the significance of the railway, and although Han Du's answer made him aware of the future market of foreign rice, he still asked with some concern.

"It's okay in Shonan, but what about in Shoho? And Hubei, where there are so many ships, will it have an impact on the railway? ”

"Of course!"

Zhu Yifeng naturally did not deny this, in fact, even after a hundred years, inland waterway transportation in some areas is still constantly challenging the railway.

But the impact is not as big as imagined, as the old saying goes, "A hundred miles do not sell wood, thousands of miles do not sell wood." "Often, the sale of large quantities of local goods such as rice and grain is within 100 miles of a navigable or navigable waterway. If you don't rely on waterways, let alone 100 miles, or even 50 miles, there may not be people trafficking. In fact, water transport and railways are complementary to each other, limited by natural conditions, some natural waterway transport actually has to make the product detour far away to reach the destination, and the railway can directly connect the origin of agricultural products with the market, and improve the transportation efficiency.

Railways can be used more efficiently by replacing expensive land transport such as horse-drawn carriages, which can transport goods close to waterways; Of course, the waterway can also transport goods to the vicinity of the railway, so that the goods can be transported to their destination faster. After all, the railway transport time is shorter, the speed of the train is more than 30 kilometers per hour, while the speed of the steamer in Xiangjiang is only 3 knots. With more than 5 times faster speeds, the rail can move more goods elsewhere in less time. ”

As a businessman, these truths can be said to be a little bit of a point in han du's explanation pan zhaolin s brows were tense and sometimes loose, and then he was

"In the past, the inland river was the only blood vessel connecting the coast and the inland, and in the future the railway will also be a blood vessel, the railway will make the commercial development free from the shackles of the water system, and in the future, the railway and shipping can form a large intermodal transport company, just like the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway can be associated with the Huguang Steamship Bureau, through cooperation, to resolve the conflict on transportation. Just like now, 90% of the materials required for the railway are carried by the steamship bureau at a low price of 20% lower than the market price. In this way, the steamship bureau can put more ships into more convenient routes, and as for secondary routes, such as the Leishui area, they can be withdrawn, what do you think? ”

With a smile at Pan Zhaolin, Zhu Yifeng uneconomically threw out a bait - the Steamship Bureau!

This is his bait, the steamship bureau is a government-run enterprise, but based on the concept of from the river to the sea, the steamship bureau will definitely be separated from the government-run enterprise in the future, so as to devote more energy to shipping, and the railway company is undoubtedly the best takeover, more importantly, now the steamship bureau is a good asset that makes hundreds of thousands of taels of profits every year.

"My lord, do you mean that the government is willing to sell the steamship bureau?"

Looking at the lord in surprise, Pan Zhaolin could hardly believe his ears, he could have inquired that the profit of the steamship bureau this year might exceed one million taels.

"It's not for sale!"

Shaking his head, Zhu Yifeng looked at Pan Zhaolin and smiled.

"It's a shareholding, and the governor is going to take the steamship bureau and the coastal wharves and warehouses as the share capital to invest in the railway company!" (To be continued.) )