The Red River Valley City is also officially on the table for a tunnel connecting the north and south banks, which is planned to cross under the Brisbane River to connect the two banks.

From a technical point of view;

There are no technical difficulties in the construction of the tunnel, and it has been successfully piloted on the River Thames in London, England, with a tunnel under the river running through both banks, using a very advanced shield method, which has proved to be feasible.

Because the Brisbane River is wider than the River Thames, the proposed tunnel length is much higher than the 270-metre Thames Tunnel, with a total length of more than 766 metres and an estimated investment of £372,000.

Li Fushou agreed with a stroke of his pen, being rich is so capricious.

Because the entire tunnel construction will take more than three years, there is no large machinery used, most of it is manual, and the average monthly allocation is about 10,000 pounds, which is not a lot of money.

Sooner or later, the municipal project connecting the two banks of the Brisbane River will have to be built, and the early construction will benefit from the early construction, and more experience can be accumulated, and more than one tunnel can be built on the Brisbane River in the future.

Comparatively speaking, the cost of building a tunnel is much cheaper than building a bridge.

"Master, you can't spend any more money, the poor rats in the inner treasury will cry when they see it." Chen Shiheng, the head of the inner library, walked in fear, and almost knelt down with a bend of his legs.

Li Fushou stretched out his hand to help him and said kindly; "Shiheng doesn't have to be like this, what is there to sit down and talk."

"Master, you can't spend money anymore, you need to know that you live within your means, so there is a reason to eat food all the time?"

"Okay, don't be too excited, I remember that there should still be some money in the inner treasury, right?"

"And the money?" Chen Shiheng stood up again excitedly, and said one by one with his fingers; "Look, sir...... The cost of the war in Borneo was much less than originally planned, and more than £700,000 was spent on this various expenses, and with the previous deposit, there were more than £3.2 million in the inner treasury by the end of August.

But this month spent too much money, before the end of September for the "Blue Dragon" class heavy cruiser paid 310,000 pounds for the second phase, the Navy to build the "Mosquito" £62,000 for the cruiser, £376,000 for the fourth quarter for the development of the Clear Water Basin, £77,000 for the Semuda Port Reconstruction and Expansion Plan, £132,000 for the Sammarinda Fort Reconstruction Plan, £280,000 for the Eagle Plan for the fourth quarter, £575,000 for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the UK, £450,000 for the launch of the Coastal Railway Double Line Project, £640,000 for the construction plan for the Majestic-class battleships of the Red Hill Shipyard, £26,000 for the Brisbane River Tunnel Project, and more…… You can do the math, there is no money left in the inner treasury, only more than 200,000 pounds for emergency relief, and there is really no more money to spend. ”

"Uh...... How much did I use? Li Fushou was surprised.

Chen Shiheng was really about to cry, and immediately nodded like pounding garlic, maintaining a stall as big as the Red River Valley, and the little money in his hand was really not money.

Although there is a large amount of rental income and dividends at the end of the year, it can't stand the Earl's ability to spend money, and Jinshan Yinhai can't afford such a large amount of expenses.

What's more, there is basically no money to be paid back after this money is spent, not to mention the money spent on military spending, whether it is a battery or a warship, it is not profitable, let alone building battleships for the British Royal Navy, and there is no money to return to build public transportation facilities.

The coastal railway is still a bit profitable, but it will not be seen for at least three years, because the construction of the railway line will take more than two years.

The 3 million pounds spent Chen Shiheng's flesh was extremely painful, so what could he do in vain?

Li Fushou didn't look worried, rubbed his chin lightly and thought about it and said; "At least we don't have a loan in Huitong Bank, no debt is light, it's a big deal to borrow some more!"

"My lord, we have so much income, more than 30 million pounds a year, and we can live a good life with a little money, so why do we need to go into debt?"

"Huh...... Well, the more than a dozen projects in hand in the near future will be temporarily slowed down, and the second phase of development in northern Queensland will start soon, and the money must be spent in October, and the start-up money will not be less than one million pounds, involving more than a dozen cities and towns in the north, and it is not sloppy at all. ”

"I ......"

Chen Shiheng opened his mouth, but the rest of the words were not spoken, and he felt really tired at this moment.

Others can live comfortably with an annual income of two or three thousand pounds, a very decent family, ten servants, at least two carriages, and a garden house.

Our Earl's annual income of more than 30 million pounds is the richest farmer in the world, but he has spent most of this year in debt, and he has just paid off his debts, and now that he is about to pull down the famine, who will believe it?

After a war is fought, it costs more than 13 million pounds, more than 200,000 troops and militias are mobilized, and millions of people provide logistics for the war.

Chen Shiheng is an old-school financial person, although he has been exposed to the business philosophy of foreigners in Shanghai, but he is still the old-fashioned kind of living within his means.

In this day and age

The British are also very conservative in their financial philosophy, and do not advocate excessive borrowing and making ends meet, and regard them as a flood of beasts that they cannot avoid.

Li Fushou knew Chen Shiheng's thoughts, and he also knew that he couldn't change his stubborn concept at all, so he could only persuade him to save some flowers, and finally coaxed this anxious master away.

After coming back, Li Fushou couldn't help laughing when he stood there;

I'm a rich man who owns a world-class copper and gold mine, and I have to shrink my hands and feet to spend some money, where is the reason?

Pinch your fingers and do the math

About a week later, an ocean-going freighter carrying 5,000 tons of copper concentrate will arrive at the Baihu Copper Smelter, and when copper ingots, copper rods and other products are produced, it will be almost mid-October, and the mint will produce copper pennies into the market and circulate, and it will be late October.

Today is already October 3rd, which means that I can endure it for another month, and then I can spend money openly and build as much as I want.

I can afford to wait for this time, and I don't need to look at the bitter gourd face of Kestner of Huitong Bank.

Huitong Bank has now developed into a world-class bank with bank outlets all over Europe and the United States, and more than 90% of the bank exchange business in Australia belongs to Huitong Bank, and the remaining part of the business is shared by Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank.

Australia's financial business is mainly concentrated in Queensland, and most of Queensland's financial business belongs to Huitong Bank, and a small part is shared by dozens of private small and medium-sized banks, these small and medium-sized banks do not have the strength to develop transoceanic exchange business, and most of them are engaged in some small and medium-sized enterprises and personal credit loans and savings business.

Standard Chartered Bank's exchange business in the United Kingdom is limited to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore in the Far East, Kolkata in the Indian subcontinent, and Citibank's exchange business in the United States is limited to a few cities such as Auckland on the West Coast.

In addition to cities in the Far East and the South Pacific, Huitong Bank can also connect major cities on the east and west coasts of the United States and several major financial centers in Europe, including London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, New Delhi, Munich, Frankfurt, Milan and other important cities, which are important trade and trade cities in Queensland.

Thinking about the banking issue, Li Fushou thought about it for a while, and felt that the situation of Huitong Bank's dominance was not suitable for future development, especially the issuance of onepence, twopence, fivepence, and tenpence copper coins, and there should be a special reserve bank to reconcile them, rather than leaving them all to the market to decide.

And so it goes

South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland must all be considered as a whole, as well as Shangri-La and the territory of Borneo, and each state should send a certain representative to participate in the preparation of the Reserve Bank, so as to be fair and representative.

As for the southern states of New Wales, Victoria and Tasmania are not considered for the time being, the relationship between the two sides is currently so stiff, and it involves sensitive financial issues, let alone talk about it, and I don't know how much trouble it will cause if they come together?

Simply put it aside, ignore it for the time being, and prepare for the establishment of the Reserve Bank shelf first.

So come on

The members of the Reserve Bank include Queensland, the Northern Territory (in name only, now part of Queensland), South Australia, Western Australia, Shangri-La Territory, Sulawesi Territory, Borneo Territory and other seven members, of which 5 are directly controlled by Li Fushou, South Australia and Western Australia are indirectly controlled by the Zhi Gong Party, which can implement the will of the Red Fort without hindrance, which is a good financial adjustment tool.

The position of the Reserve Bank is similar to that of the Bank of England, but this thing cannot be explicitly stated, and the word "reserves" cannot be used, which is very reminiscent of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, and the exact name will have to be carefully considered.

Li Fushou's slender fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, carefully considering the arrangement of the financial framework in the future.

Overall;

It is necessary to have management, restraint and competition to prevent the active private banking industry from falling into ossification, which is the engine that promotes economic development, and only full market competition can make it full of vitality and prevent it from falling into a financial yamen.

There is no hurry, it must be properly considered before it can be implemented.

But before that, you can continue to participate in Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank, quietly and secretly absorb equity, in order to achieve the ultimate control of the purpose for their own use.

Among the two banks, Standard Chartered Bank is stronger, especially the British shareholders have many big aristocrats, and they were relatively sensitive to get a share of the Borneo war.

Citibank is simple, it is completely composed of capitalists of the United States, as long as the price is right, you can buy shares, its advantage is all over the United States major cities of the bank outlets, if it can be seamlessly connected with the Australian financial industry, will greatly facilitate the financial exchanges between the two sides.

pressing matter

It is to support a strong opponent for Huitong Bank, and this kind of thing can only be done by Li Fushou himself, otherwise any bank will be crushed to death by the strong strength of Huitong Bank, and it will die before it develops.

In today's Australian financial market, Huitong Bank has an overwhelming monopoly advantage, although it is its own bank, but this is also what Li Fushou does not want to see, and he must set up a strong opponent.

The start of production of Koi copper-gold mine is a very good opportunity, and the huge resources produced can be used as the starting capital of the bank.

I thought about it for a while

The corners of Li Fushou's mouth showed a confident smile, don't look at the fact that Huitong Bank dominates the entire financial market now, but as long as he stretched out his hand and gently pushed, the situation immediately changed.

For example, the immigration loan business only needs a government order to transfer to the new bank, and Huitong Bank immediately loses a small half of the loan business, which accounts for about 30% of the total loan of Huitong Bank, which is a stable source of income.

Think about it, the loan for immigrating to Australia must be repaid first, otherwise whether it is naturalization, marriage, home purchase, joining the government department, free movement across states, travel, etc., all will encounter invisible obstacles, and in serious cases, you may be imprisoned and thrown directly into a forced labor camp to go to the mine to gnaw stones.

With such serious consequences, the default rate of immigration loans does not exceed 1%, which is undoubtedly an excellent loan variety, and can obtain a stable income of more than 8.5% per year.

With this policy-based loan business as the foundation and the huge output of the Koi copper and gold mine as the backing, the new bank will have the confidence to wrestle with Huitong Bank.

This new bank...... It's called Shangri-La Bank.

Li Fushou is too lazy to think of a new name, Shangri-La is also translated as "Shambhala", which means "the bright moon in the heart" in Tibetan, symbolizing a beautiful and ideal way of life, the British call "Shangri-La" "Shangri-La", which is similar to the "paradise" said by the Chinese, and in the English context it is similar to the meaning of the Garden of Eden, mysterious and beautiful.

Moreover, Shangri-La is a direct territory of Li Fushou, which helps to expand the reputation of Shangri-La Island, which is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

Okay, that's it.

As for the candidate for the general manager of Shangri-La Bank, Li Fushou has three candidates in mind that need to be carefully considered.

The first candidate is Zheng Canghai, the former president of the Chaoshan Chamber of Commerce, who has been thrown into Europe for more than 6 years, and is responsible for managing the branches of Huitong Bank in Europe.

Now it seems that it is unfounded, but this invisibly gives Zheng Canghai an extra resume, and he is quite enthusiastic with the German aristocracy in Munich, this guy is 36 years old this year, and he is in the prime of life.

And according to the report of the commissioner of the black guard, Zheng Canghai acted steadily, and did not find any problems in terms of morality, of course, there were a few German lovers and French lovers who were not counted, and two illegitimate children and an illegitimate daughter were not counted, mainly because no corruption and bribery were found, and the festival was not lost.

The second candidate is the former president of Brisbane's Chinatown Restaurant Guild Mai Debang, who has also been lost in Europe for more than 6 years, responsible for managing the business of Normandy Import and Export Company and other import and export companies in Europe, laying product distribution channels into various countries, and has made remarkable achievements in his tenure.

His shortcoming was that he took advantage of his position in office to seek some benefits for himself, and immediately withdrew and sincerely repented after being beaten.

Li Fushou will not beat him to death with a stick because of this, capable people always have some small problems, and a little crossing the line in some fields is that today's shortage of high-end talents is much better than using a foreigner.

The third candidate is Wang Yacun, president of the Munich branch of Huitong Bank, who is one of the Jiangnan students who stayed in the European branch of Huitong Bank.

This 32-year-old man was appointed president of the Munich branch just last year, and the only thing he lacks is experience in managing large banking institutions.