The banquet continued, the staff of the Russian Consulate were busy entertaining these Shanghai nobles in the venue, and Witt and Hartung came to a small rest place in the banquet hall, the waiter brought red wine to the two of them, Hartung sat down and took out a cigar from his body and handed it to Werther, and then trimmed it with a cigar cutter and lit it and took a sip before saying: "Mr. Consul, I came to Shanghai at the age of 20, step by step from the running hall to the present, as you said, it is like a dream for me to be able to have everything now." Many people outside the pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info say that I am a black-hearted businessman, but many people in Shanghai are like me, but they don't have my courage and dare to take a shot. ”

Witt also lit a cigar and listened to Hartung sigh that it was not easy, and after Hartung finished speaking, Witt said: "I admire Mr. Hartung's achievements from the bottom of my heart, after all, in the case of the corrupt situation in the concession at that time, Mr. Hartung did the opposite, which requires extraordinary courage." But I admire another person who knows you more than Mr. Hartung. ”

"Who? Can you tell me, Mr. Consul? Harton heard that there were people that Witt admired more, or his acquaintances, so he asked suspiciously.

Witt smiled slightly and said, "This person has known Mr. for more than ten years, and he is your wife, Ms. Luo Jialing. ”

Hartung heard Witt praise his wife, and the smile on his face was even worse, and he couldn't help but say, "Mr. Consul has an overreputation." ”

"Mr. Hartung, don't be modest. Ms. Luo Jialing is a rare kind of female hero, although she was born in a green building, but she has a far-sighted vision and judgment, and I think Mr. Hartung also agrees with my judgment. Witt spoke eloquently.

Hartung nodded and admitted this, and Witt continued: "Mr. Hartung knows that we urgently need to build a consulate, and we have taken a fancy to that vacant land, and the personnel of our consulate have also been in contact with Mr. Hartung many times, but in terms of land price, can Mr. Hartung want to let me go more?" ”

"Mr. Consul, I don't want to, but the location of that land is excellent, and I intend to build a hotel here." Hartung got to the point, and said, "If Mr. Consul really likes, I can sell it." Well, for the sake of me and Mr. Consul, how about a total of £500,000 for me and the consul to have a good conversation and hit it off at first sight? ”

After Hartung finished speaking, he looked at Werther, who was also calculating at this time. According to what he learned in Shanghai during this period, the land price in the central area of the British and American concessions was the highest, with a price of about 190,000 pounds per acre, while the land price in the Bund area in the central area was the highest, with a price of between 380,000 pounds and 440,000 pounds per acre.

Although the location of the land is excellent, after all, it was a wasteland before, and the median value can be taken as 400,000 pounds per acre, which means that the land is about 0.43 acres, and if it actually costs 180,000 pounds, that is, about 870,000 silver dollars, it will only cost 180,000 pounds.

Although Hartung is no longer as good as the previous 1.5 million pounds like a lion's big mouth, the price is obviously much higher than the market price, and Witte couldn't help but look at the most inspirational figure in Shanghai in front of him and said: "Mr. Hartung, thank you very much for your love for me. But forgive me, I still think your price is a bit high. Mr. Hartung, if you are really willing to sell this land, I am willing to pay 1 million silver dollars to buy this land, what do you think? ”

Hartung naturally knew that his offer was very high, and it was obvious that the consul in front of him was not unaware of the land price in Shanghai. The reason why he reported so high was that on the one hand, he really did not like the Russians, and on the other hand, he wanted to see how this consul was. So he smiled slightly: "Since Mr. Consul has spoken, then I will reluctantly accept it." Mr. Consul's money can be transferred directly to my account with HSBC in Shanghai, and of course it can be settled directly with the same value of gold. ”

"Thank you very much Mr. Hartung for your understanding." Witt smiled, "Since I hit it off with my husband, I don't know if I have a deal that will make him profitable, is he interested?" ”

Ha Tong was stunned and asked, "Please also ask Mr. Consul to elaborate." ”

"As far as I know, the United States, Britain, France and other countries have repeatedly asked the Shanghai local government to extend the concession, but they have all been opposed by the Shanghai local government. Hartung nodded, and then only listened to Werther continue: "A few days ago, Mr. Yu of Lu Lin & Co. leased to me a house about 20 acres, or 3.3 acres, next to the concession, for the office of the consulate. ”

Witte stopped here and did not continue, Hartung immediately understood the business opportunity from Werther's words, once the Russian consulate rents this house as the consulate's office, then the road will be built, and in this way, this property, including the plots on both sides of the road, will be included in the concession, and the road can be built more, build farther, then the area of the concession will be larger, the real estate will be more, then the profit will be very considerable.

Hartung smiled slightly and said: "I understand what Mr. Consul means, but I am not familiar with Mr. Yu from Lu Lin Foreign Company, can Mr. Consul introduce me?" I am willing to give the land that Mr. Consul has his eye on for free for the Consulate to build a building. ”

"That's nature! I hit it off with Mr. Hartung, so how could I not tell him about this opportunity. Witte smiled slightly, and calculated in his heart that although he had saved more than 200,000 pounds, Witt planned to use the 200,000 pounds to invest in this real estate speculation, and if it was profitable, it would be about ten times the profit. In this way, it is enough to support the building and development of the party in China or to support the development of Sun Wen in the early stage, and to get acquainted with these people, it also lays a good foundation for further investment and profit in the future.

In November 1845, the British Consul Barfur and Shanghai Daotai Gong Mujiu jointly promulgated the "Shanghai Lease Charter" and first established the British Concession, and then the United States and France successively established the American Concession and the French Concession. In July 1854, the British, American, and French concessions established a joint concession. In 1862, the French Concession became independent from the United Concession, and a conseilmunicipal was established under the control of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indochinese Governor's Office to manage the affairs of the Concession. In September 1863, the British Concession and the American Concession were formally merged and converted into the Public Concession, and the Shanghai Municipal Council was responsible for managing the affairs of the Concession.

When the concession was established in 1845, the British concession covered only 830 acres, but by 1848 it had expanded to 2,820 acres, and in 1893 the public concession was expanded again to 10,676 acres, or about 7.11 square kilometers. The French Concession originally covered an area of 986 acres, and in 1861, after consultation with the Qing government, the French consul Aitang extended the original land to the Huangpu River by more than 650 meters, expanding to 1,124 acres, that is, about 0.75 square kilometers.

Werther knew that the Shanghai Concession would be greatly expanded twice between 1900 and 1914, and eventually the public concession would cover an area of 22 square kilometers, including the northern part of Huangpu District, Jing'an District, Yangpu District, and Hongkou District in Shanghai, and the southern part of Hongkou District, and the eastern part of Zhoujiazui (now the corner of Pingliang Road and Military Industry Road); The northern boundary reaches the junction of Zhabei and Baoshan districts; The west extends to Jing'an Temple, and the entire concession is divided into four districts: central, northern, eastern, and western. The French Concession eventually expanded to 10.1 square kilometers to include the Luwan and Xuhui districts of Shanghai, and the eastern narrow strip extended into the Huangpu district. It can be said that more than 80% of the land in the urban area of Shanghai mentioned by Shanghai locals is a concession, and only a part of Zhabei District and Huangpu District in the north (merged from the southern urban area) are not in the concession.

What Werther is preparing to expand this time is the part of the eastern boundary that was originally expanded by the public concession in 1899, and the approximate direction is to expand eastward along Pingliang Road and Yangshupu Road respectively from the Dalian Road in Shanghai in Werther's memory in his previous life, the northern boundary is Pingliang Road, the south is the Huangpu River, and the east is near Jiangpu Road, with an area of 1.21 square kilometers and an area of 1,815 acres, so this land will be larger than the existing French Concession, so Werther has identified him as the Russian Concession in his heart.

However, if Werther completes the expansion of this concession, then it will inevitably be followed by a large-scale expansion of the Anglo-American and French concessions, and Werther also provides these people with a trick that they will use in the future - to expand the territory and build roads. The so-called expansion of the boundary to build the road, that is, without the permission of the Shanghai local government, the road was built privately, and then the plots on both sides of the road were automatically included in the concession, this trick was originally used by the French after 1900 to expand the concession, but now Werther has taken it out, I really don't know whether this brings China a blessing or a curse?

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Today, because there are some things to deal with, I can only change it, and the chapter owed will be made up on the weekend~~

Thank you all for your support~~