Quang Ninh coal mines have a long history of mining, but they have always been small-scale mining in the form of handicrafts, and the Vietnamese have no ability to do this on a large scale.

Not long ago, when Chinese businessmen discovered that high-quality anthracite coal was produced here, they immediately attracted the attention of the Jiangnan Mining Company, the country's largest coal company, and even the navy.

In the era of steam warships, coal was as important as oil during World War II, and it was an indispensable strategic material, and anthracite was a strategic material among strategic materials.

At this time, the French attacked southern Vietnam on a large scale, and the Vietnamese sought support from the Empire, so at this time, the Empire took advantage of the situation to exchange ordnance support and low-interest loans for the mineral mining rights in Quang Ninh Province.

By the time the Vietnamese, with the assistance of Chinese military advisers, began to train their forbidden army, a large number of ships and technicians from the Jiangnan Mining Company had already departed from China and arrived in Ha Long Bay.

In exchange for a one-time cash payment of 50,000 yuan, the Jiangnan Mining Company obtained the right to mine minerals in Quang Ninh Province for 50 years from the Nguyen Dynasty, and of course, the mined minerals still need to pay taxes to the local Vietnamese government, with a rated rate of 4% (including export duties).

In fact, at present, the Jiangnan Mining Company is still continuing to negotiate with the representatives of the Nguyen Dynasty, trying to seek the right to mine minerals in the entire Beiqi region and even the whole of Vietnam.

At the same time, the Nguyen Dynasty also faced the invasion of the French, so it did not have too many concerns about selling the mining rights of minerals. It's better than no country to sell!

In order to mine Guangning coal, Jiangnan Mining Company specially established Guangning Coal Company, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Mining Company. The head office directly injected up to 100,000 yuan, of which 50,000 yuan was used to pay the mining fee to the Nguyen Dynasty. The remaining 50,000 yen is for upfront investment.

At the same time, in order to develop Quang Ninh coal better and faster, Quang Ninh Coal Company took a large number of loans from the Royal Bank as collateral for a large number of mining rights, and the first batch of loans reached 200,000 yuan.

Before and after investing 300,000 yuan to develop a coal mine, this is also a lot of money for Jiangnan Mining Company, when they developed Tangshan coal mine before, their initial investment was only 200,000 yuan.

However, it is worth noting that, according to the judgment of Jiangnan Mining Company, this investment is expected to pay for itself within one year.

Why?

Because the domestic coal market is now extremely hot. The amount of domestic coal is rising, and the supply of domestic coal is insufficient, so it can only import coal from Australia and the United Kingdom, and the price is naturally rising again and again.

By 1861, the CIF price of coal in Shanghai had risen by about 20 percent compared to 1859, and the most expensive British anthracite had risen from 14 to 16 yuan.

To put it mildly, this price is grossly inflated, a quarter higher than the price of coal in markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. One of the most important reasons is that it is difficult for China to produce its own coal, and there is a lack of high-quality coal, which leads to the need for large imports.

And after British anthracite arrived in Shanghai after being transported thousands of miles away, could it not be expensive?

As long as nothing else. Within a year of commissioning, Quang Ninh Coal Company will be able to recoup its upfront investment, if it continues to increase investment. Then it is possible to make a profit of more than one million a year.

Jiangnan Mining Company acquired mineral rights in Vietnam and quickly invested in a Quang Ninh coal plant. But for Jiangnan Mining, this investment is only a secondary investment. Jiangnan Mining Company's major investments in the past two years have been in China.

As the largest supplier of steel and coal in China, Jiangnan Mining Company is not only a purely commercial organization, but also a royal industry with a strong political background, and its every move is more to make money than to serve politics.

Without political promotion, it would not have been possible for Jiangnan Mining Company to spend huge sums of money to build mines and steel plants in multiple parts of the country at the same time.

In 1860, after the completion of the second phase of the Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant, the Jiangnan Mining Company announced that it would continue to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in the construction of the third phase of the Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant.

As a supporting tool, there is also the mine construction of Maanshan Iron Mine!

At the same time, after the smooth operation of the Xuzhou Railway and the opening of the export channel of Xuzhou coal, although the quality of Xuzhou coal is not too good, Jiangnan Mining's subordinates have increased the capital and expanded the production of Xuzhou coal, making it the largest coal mine in China.

Of course, the Xuzhou coal mine has too many restrictions, and even if it increases investment, there is not much prospect, so Jiangnan Mining Company has put its hope of solving the coal supply on the Jiangxi Pingxiang Coal Mine and the Tangshan Luanzhou Coal Mine.

At the end of 1860, the Tangshan Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Jiangnan Mining Company, together with several other coal mines invested by private capital in the Luanzhou mining area, established the Luanzhou United Coal Company, in which the Jiangnan Mining Company occupied 70 percent of the shares and the rest of the private capital occupied 30 percent of the shares.

After the integration, Luanzhou United Coal Company owned the mining rights of almost the entire Luanzhou coal mining area, and then carried out additional share financing, raising up to more than 500,000 yuan for expanding production.

Not long ago, Shi Bingcong, general manager of the Luanzhou United Coal Company, made a bold statement at a fund-raising shareholders' meeting held in Shanghai that it would increase its annual output to 50,000 tons within one year and become the largest coal producer in China, and to reach 200,000 tons within three years, accounting for half of the domestic coal market.

In addition to Luanzhou coal, Jiangnan Mining Company has also made progress in coal development in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and is already making preliminary investment, but before the construction of the railway from Pingxiang in Jiangxi to Zhuzhou, Hunan, it is difficult to transport coal from Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and it is difficult to increase production rapidly.

In addition, Jiangnan Mining Company has also carried out preliminary surveys in Liaoning, preparing for large-scale coal and iron ore mining in Liaoning in the future.

Coal and steel were basically matched in this era, when the Jiangnan Mining Company invested in the Pingxiang Coal Mine, and even built a railway in order to develop the coal mine. They also started large-scale iron ore development in Daye, Hubei Province.

Hubei Daye Iron Mine, anyone who is a little familiar with China's modern history will know. This iron ore is the main source of iron ore for the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant, which belongs to the famous Han Yeping Company.

This iron ore is a typical iron ore that is easy to mine and has relatively good quality. Therefore, Jiangnan Mining Company naturally will not let go of this iron mine, as early as 1860, it has already carried out preliminary exploration and small-scale development.

By the time of this year, Jiangnan Mining Company was already preparing to build a steel plant directly in Daye to make steel on site.

As for why the steel plant was not built in Wuchang or Hanyang, because the Jiangnan Mining Company was not Han Yeping, and Lin Zhe was not Zhang Zhidong, naturally he would not say that the steel plant must be built in the provincial capital, but how convenient and how to come.

If you build a steel plant directly in an iron ore area. It eliminates the pain of iron ore transportation.

The past two years can be said to be the key development period of Jiangnan Mining Company, the third phase of the Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant, the construction of Daye Iron and Steel Plant, the development of Xuzhou Coal Mine, Luanzhou Coal Mine, Pingxiang Coal Mine, well, as well as the development of Quang Ninh Coal Mine in Vietnam, these investments have extremely significant strategic value for Jiangnan Mining Company.

Once the above investment is successfully completed, it will play a great positive role in promoting the industrial development of the country, for example, many coal mining companies under the Jiangnan Mining Company will supply sufficient coal. Then there is no need to import so much, and the price of coal will fall accordingly, and the fluctuation of coal price has a great impact on modern industry, and its importance is the same as the fluctuation of oil prices in later generations.

Furthermore. The steel production of Jiangnan Mining Company has increased, so that the large-scale construction of railways in China is possible, and the steel required by the domestic machinery manufacturing industry can be guaranteed. Ships have a large number of cheap and sufficient steel support, in order to be able to develop rapidly.

Coal and steel played a significant role in the Empire's industrial revolution. This role is no less than that of the textile industry such as raw silk and weaving.

The textile industry was used for the accumulation of primitive capital, while coal and steel were used to lay the industrial foundation.

It's just that the development of heavy industry is much more difficult than the development of light industry.

As the businessman at the time of investment. For these industrial empires, only need to give some policy guidance and support, and a large number of businessmen will flock to them, and Shanghai's North Shore Industrial Zone can be developed in just a few years is the most obvious example.

Heavy industry, especially coal and steel, requires a lot of investment, is technically demanding, and pays for itself slowly.

Coal is better, thanks to the sharp increase in the empire's demand for coal, the coal market is extremely active, in the past two years has been a private capital began to invest in the coal industry, for example, the previous Tangshan Luanzhou, in addition to the Jiangnan Mining Company, there are other private capital investment in a number of coal mines, the integrated Luanzhou United Coal Company, also has more than 30% of private capital.

If it were not for the Jiangnan Mining Company's urgent loan to the Royal Bank and then the capital injection, I am afraid that the proportion of Jiangnan Mining Company's shares in the Luanzhou United Coal Company would have dropped significantly.

But it's a bit more difficult in the steel industry, where investment is larger than that of the coal industry, and the payback period is slower.

For example, the Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant, including its subordinate mines, Jiangnan Mining Company has invested more than 3 million yuan, but now the profitability of the steel plant is still relatively low, and it will take many years to recover the cost.

Without the support of official capital, Jiangnan Mining Company would not have been able to develop the Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant and Daye Iron and Steel Plant.

The year 1861 was a year of great strategic significance for the industrial development of the Empire, both in light and heavy industry, which brought a large amount of tax revenue to the Empire, and the increase in tax revenue could help other developments of the Empire.

For example, education, which relied purely on financial investment, relied on the rapid development of the empire's finances by a substantial increase.

Chapter 452 (To be continued.) )