At the same time as the passenger ship left the dock, Yan Guang and the others also "rubbed" in their four-person room.

"That's right." When it was Zhou Zining's turn to play cards, Zhou Zining suddenly asked. "Brother Yan, what are you coming to Sichuan for this time?"

"That's right, Brother Yan shouldn't have gone to Sichuan to buy railway stocks, right?" Chen Yuguo also asked.

"Why, now that the Sichuan-Han Railway has started selling stocks?" Yan Guang was a little surprised.

"Of course!" Chen Yuguo looked even more surprised than Yan Guang. "Since 04, the Sichuan-Han Railway Company has become a commercial railway company, and now the stock has been sold for three or four years."

"That's it..."Yan Guang touched his head. I just returned to China, so I don't know much about it, it turns out that the Sichuan-Han Railway has been selling stocks for so many years..."

"Just returned home?" Zhao Xuan's expression moved, but Zhou Zining had already spoken.

"Brother Yan, although I don't know what you are going to do in Sichuan, I advise you not to touch that stock."

"What's wrong?"

"No, I just think the Sichuan-Han Railway is very difficult to do, and if you throw money into it, I'm afraid it will be wasted."

After listening to Zhou Zining's words, Zhao Yuan put aside what he had just remembered and nodded in agreement.

"It is true that the Sichuan-Han Railway is different from the railways of several other provinces. Most of the railway stocks in other provinces are bought by local gentry and merchants, but we in Sichuan are different, the vast majority of people who buy stocks are farmers, no..."Zhao Wenbin smiled bitterly. "It's not so much about buying as it is about coercion..."

"Forced?"

"That's right, forced..."

Then Zhao explained to Yan Guang the history of the Sichuan-Han Railway...

The Sichuan-Han Railway Company was founded in January 1904 under the auspices of Xiliang, a well-known new bureaucrat and governor of Sichuan, and was the earliest provincial-level railway company in the country. The company "does not solicit foreign shares, does not borrow foreign debts", and the funds come from four ways: political axe investment, businessman investment, rent-drawn shares, and public interest shares.

At that time, it was stipulated that all peasant households in the province who collected more than 10 stone (120 catties per stone) of grain annually would draw "shares" according to 3 percent of their actual income in the current year. Gongli shares are the income obtained from investing in other projects in the name of the railway company.

The problem lies in the rental shares, although the rental shares also share dividends, but at that time the minimum denomination of shares was 50 taels, the vast majority of the people paid the rental shares far from reaching this amount, so the railway company first issued receipts, and then they paid 50 taels every year and then took the receipts for stocks, and for those farmers who were just enough to meet the standard, it would take at least sixty or seventy years to get together a stock.

Therefore, the people did not even have a single stock in their hands, and all the dividends went to the government of the agency that rented the shares. The so-called leasing of shares is actually tantamount to an increase in a kind of "personal income tax", which will inevitably cause a certain degree of public resentment.

The Sichuan-Han Railway is different from the Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong railways in that the leased shares account for the majority.

In other words, if the nationalization of the railways in other provinces only harmed the interests of the gentry and merchants, then the nationalization of the Sichuan-Han Railway would hurt the interests of more than 50 million people in Sichuan.

Then I introduced some Zhao Xuan and others did not know, that is, by the end of 1910, the company's income was 11.98 million taels, of which the political axe investment was only about 230,000 taels, the businessman investment was 2.45 million taels, and the leased shares were 9.28 million taels, accounting for about 77% of the total share capital. Although many people have not seen dividends, nominally, this railway belongs to all Sichuan people, which is also a reason why the road protection movement was in full swing in Sichuan.

In addition, the railway was flawed in its planning. The company decided to repair a section of the railway from Yichang to Wanxian, and invited Zhan Tianyou as the chief engineer, the geological conditions of this section are extremely complex, most of the area is karst landform, full of karst, dark rivers and other bad geology. In order to avoid mountains and rivers, Zhan Tianyou modified the route in line with the principle of building fewer bridges and fewer holes, so that the road would go farther and the project would progress slowly. By May 1911, only 17.5 kilometers of railways had been repaired.

In 1910, Shi Dianzhang, the person in charge of the Shanghai branch of the Sichuan-Han Railway Company, failed to invest in the rubber business with public funds, and the money bank went bankrupt, and the arrears could not be recovered, causing a deficit of more than 3 million taels to the company.

In short, the heavy burden of the people, the poor management of the company, and the slow construction of the railway, the Sichuan-Han Railway was not satisfactory in all aspects, which also gave the Qing government the excuse to take it back to the state.

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"Now you get the idea." Diploma Zhao sighed. "It takes sixty or seventy years for the average farmer to raise enough stocks, in other words, if you want to enjoy the dividends, you have to wait until sixty or seventy years later."

"Sixty or seventy years? I'm afraid that many people who have bought rental shares will not be able to wait for that day..."There is another sentence that Zhao Xuan did not say, that is, the Qing court is now in the twilight of the West Mountain, which many people can see, the new army formed by the Manchu political axe is full of a large number of revolutionary parties, and although the three of them are also soldiers of the new army, although they have not joined, they still know some about it. If you put the money into the railroad now, if one day the Manchu Dynasty collapses, how should the money put into it be calculated?

At this time, Chen Yuguo said. "There is also a problem with the speed of railway construction, Sichuan is mountainous, and it is difficult to build a railway, and it may take twenty or thirty years to complete the construction of the Sichuan-Han railway..."

In his previous life, Yan Guang had been puzzled when he was studying the road protection movement, why the Qing court caused such a big shock after announcing the nationalization of the railway, and in his opinion, the people who bought the railway stock only accounted for a part of Sichuan, how could so many people emerge at once?

However, after listening to Zhao Wenping's words, Yan Guang realized that the so-called rented shares were actually a tax that was evenly distributed to all farmers in Sichuan. Of course, if it is just a simple tax collection, it may be no problem, and even a new tax will not have much reaction if it is thought of directly, after all, there are too many harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes in this year, and ordinary people have already been used to tossing.

It's a pity that I have to come up with a lease share.

If it was just one more tax, the common people would only think that there was another harsh tax and miscellaneous taxes, at most there would be an uprising in some areas, and the governor of Sichuan thought the same thing at that time, but in order to look good, he added a name of renting shares. However, although renting shares is actually a miscellaneous tax, it nominally belongs to the common people, and nationalizing the railways is tantamount to robbing the common people of what belongs to them...

The difference between the two is very different...

"Therefore, if possible, it is better not to buy railway stocks in Sichuan, even if you do some other business, I am afraid that you will make more money than buying this stock, if you have to buy railway stocks, I suggest you go to other provinces, those provinces are bought by gentry and merchants, even the imperial court does not dare to offend these gentry..."

"Don't worry." Yan Guang laughed. "I didn't come to Sichuan this time to buy stocks, because I already have a lot of stocks, and I came to Sichuan this time mainly to open a factory."

"Factory?"

"Yes, Factory!"

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Ask for collections, and ask for recommended votes in people's hands~~~