September 3, 1872.

11 Wall Street, USA.

The New York Stock Exchange, which just moved to a new address on Wall Street last year, has the world's newest and largest and most luxurious trading building at this time.

In recent years, after the Civil War, the United States has ushered in unprecedented prosperity with the railway economy, the development of the western region and the industrial development of the east.

From 1865 to 1871, more than 6,000 miles of railways were built, more than 100 times that of East Africa in the same period, and the railway companies planned to build more than nine times the length of railways in 1865 in 1872.

The construction of railways has stimulated the demand for steel, coal, and oil, and a large number of factories have been built, even blindly and madly, and the demand of the entire market is like a black hole with endless greed.

"Boss, someone has sold 12% of the shares of the Auror Railway, this stock has been rising for the past few months, should we follow up and buy?" Jack asked Boss Smith.

Smith: "Of course, Jack, buy them all in." ”

Jack: "Boss, the problem is that if we buy them all, we're afraid we'll be drained of funds!" ”

Smith: "Jack, now the railroad stock is hard to find, buy it and we sit and wait, don't do anything, the dollar will continue to flow into our pockets, so don't be afraid, the timid can't make a fortune, hurry up and stud, don't let others take the lead, time is money!" ”

Jack: "Yes, boss. ”

Although Smith pressed very tightly, he was still a step slower and only grabbed 20% of the shares, which made Smith a little annoyed.

He roared with red eyes: "Jack, you listen to me, from now on, give me an eye on the stock market changes at any time, as long as someone sells railway stocks, buy them for me, don't need to ask me for instructions, until we spend all our funds, grab it, this month's bonus is big, if you can't grab it, I will deduct your salary!" ”

"Yes, boss!"

Soon Smith got his wish, and I don't know which "idiot" sold another railroad stock, and Jack quickly seized the opportunity to buy them all.

In the following days, the shares of the railway company were sold one after another, but the value was not large, and it did not attract attention, and the fierce bidding in the exchange was endless, and all the railway shares in the hands of the Heixingen consortium were sold.

"The value of our investment assets in North America a year ago has almost increased tenfold, but now it seems that this is far from the limit of North America, and now the price of these assets is still growing, which is a shame!" Employees of the North American branch of Hexingen Bank discussed.

In order to have a hot meal, Ernst used a total of 40 million pounds to invest in North America, which is almost eighty percent of the profits of the Hexingen consortium in the Franco-Prussian War, and after the American stock market has gone around, it has now become 380 million pounds, that is, 11.4 billion East African Rhine guilders, because the current silver price has not depreciated, this money is converted into silver about 1.1 billion taels, which is about eight times the indemnity of the Treaty of Shimonoseki (considering the factor that silver has depreciated at the time of the Treaty of Shimonoseki), So at that time, the United States, as the world's second largest economy after the United Kingdom, was indeed rich.

In addition to the profits in North America, Ernst also sold a large number of assets in Europe, which added up to about 80 million pounds, which is completely incomparable with North America.

However, this is related to the main body of the Heixingen consortium in Europe, most of the European companies under the Heixingen consortium are high-quality assets, and the "high-quality industries" hyped up in North America are completely different, for example, when the American Auror Railway Company was established last year, its total employees were only more than 30 people, and then through a large amount of capital injection of the Heixingen consortium, recruited troops to win the railway project from Philadelphia to New York, the company's market value soared 100 times, and then Heixingen Bank gradually looked for a takeover man in the stock market to take over, When the Hexingen Bank sold its shares at a high price, the railway only completed the construction of one station.

Although Ernst has a lot of money in the financial market circle, it is not all of his wealth, and the huge Heixingen Consortium is the real boss, and several large enterprises under the Heixingen Consortium are in the forefront of the world's top 500 in later generations, and Heixingen Bank is the top few existences.

At present, the Heixingen royal family is one of the world's richest contenders, because no one knows the heritage of those ancient families, such as the famous Rothschild family, a group of royal families and nobles in Europe cannot be underestimated, and now the richest man on the surface is Rockefeller of the United States, worth more than one billion dollars, but Rockefeller can no longer exist with Ernst as the same level.

Ernst also had the political entity of the Kingdom of East Africa, which was of inestimable value, and in 1871 the government of the Kingdom of East Africa had revenues of more than 7 million East African Rhein guilders, about 800,000 taels of silver.

It's not a lot of money, but it doesn't mean much, for example, most of the factories in East Africa are not taxed, with the exception of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, which are the two main sources of tax revenue for the East African government, which is related to its foreign trade.

However, the fiscal revenue of 800,000 taels of silver was about 16 percent of the Japanese government's fiscal revenue during the same period, which is not a small amount, because the population of East Africa was close to 7 million during the same period, while the population of Japan was more than 38 million, and the population of East Africa was 18 percent of that of Japan.

The Japanese government has invested in a large number of industries, and combined with the wealth accumulated over thousands of years, it is normal for fiscal revenues to be higher than per capita in East Africa.

Of course, there are more than 23 million indigenous people in the Kingdom of East Africa (plus South Africa), but most of them are currently free-range, mainly concentrated in the western part of the Kingdom and South Africa, and only more than 9 million indigenous people are used as tools of production for the Kingdom of East Africa.

The wealth they created could not be embodied in money, such as replacing cattle and horses for livestock, working together, paving roads, and building water conservancy facilities.

For example, the land in East Africa is developed according to the total number of people, and the food produced by one acre of land in East Africa is more than that of other countries, especially the labor-intensive industries such as plantations and rice, and East Africa can only create the value created by one person in other agricultural countries with more labor force than other agricultural countries, but East Africa is still calculated and counted according to one person.

The overall level of productivity in East Africa can be said to be relatively backward, even a little low, but the Kingdom of East Africa has to face many more difficulties than other countries, take land as an example, land development in East Africa is completely a process from scratch, requiring a large amount of investment, it is difficult to achieve results in the short term, while other agricultural countries are familiar land that has been developed for a long time, and the operation time is also long, and the output is stable.

The number of livestock in East Africa is also far less than that of the agricultural countries of the era, and it cannot immediately evolve from a human empire to a mule and horse empire, and it takes several years or even decades to cultivate to meet the needs of the East African Kingdom, which is a hard wound in the whole of Africa, and there are no domesticated local livestock that can be used by the East African Kingdom, and a large number of imports and introductions are required.

A large number of basic agricultural tools need to be imported, such as hoes, shovels, iron plows, etc., which need to be imported from Germany in large quantities. It's not that East Africa can't produce it on its own, it's that production capacity is limited and the quality is unreliable.

There are still many problems in East Africa, but East Africa plus the colonial period is only seven years, so it should not be too demanding.

(End of chapter)