The first thousand three hundred and sixty-five chapters of the maiden voyage of the famous lady
Capital pursues profit, so don’t expect private capital to invest in the construction of railways in other places.
This is also the reason why Li Xuan does not open up the railway industry to private capital. Datang Railway Corporation can rely on profitable railways such as Jiangnan Railway for blood transfusion, and then use it to build unprofitable railways in other places.
But if it were private capital, they wouldn’t do this!
After many considerations, on the one hand, in order to raise funds, and on the other hand, in order to alleviate the conflicts among the people against the empire's restrictions on other enterprises' entry into railway navigation, officials from the Ministry of Industry and other departments formally petitioned to further increase the railway company's
Loan lines, issuance of more corporate bonds, etc., so that more private capital can enter, and it is initially expected to raise 10 million yuan.
This can not only solve the problem of lack of funds in the official finance, but also allow private capital to enter and share the dividends of the upcoming railway transportation explosion.
If you have money, everyone can make it!
The huge private capital actually does not care whether the railway is built or not. What they care about is making profits from the railway transportation industry. This is true for opening up the railway transportation industry, and the same is true for allowing private capital to enter directly through loans and corporate bonds.
The former may lead to many railway companies popping up at the same time, eventually leading to problems that are inconsistent with the empire's unified planning for railways and national security.
As for the latter, there won't be so much trouble. After all, the only profits are distributed, but the management rights are still firmly in the hands of the official.
In order to get the important officials in the court to approve this plan, people from the Ministry of Industry also took the Datang Western Trading Company as an example. The Datang Western Trading Company was so important that even a company with an army could be listed on the market, and had about 100%
More than 40 shares are owned by private investors.
Why can’t Datang Railway Company raise funds from private capital?
What's more, in order to avoid trouble, Datang Railway Company has not announced plans to go public. It is only preparing loans and issuing corporate bonds.
This will be the first large-scale railway and main road in the empire, and is expected to make an outstanding contribution to the economic development of the empire.
At the same time, in addition to the Jiangnan Railway, some railways should also be built in other places, such as the Northern Railway Plan, which is the railway from Tianjin to Youzhou, Guangzhou to Foshan, and then to Huizhou.
In these places, some branch lines should be built first, and large-scale railway projects should be planned at the same time, such as the railway line from Jinling to Youzhou.
However, the amount of money required to build these railways is not ordinary. The railway line from Jinling City to Shanghai is expected to cost about 8 million yuan, and the entire Jiangnan Railway is expected to cost 1,000 yuan.
Around ten thousand yuan.
This is the Jiangnan Railway with flat terrain, dense population and easy construction. If it is built elsewhere, the cost will be higher. If many projects are launched at once, it is estimated to be tens of millions.
No matter how much fiscal revenue the empire has, it is impossible for it to do this!
The empire has many places to spend money, and in recent years it has focused on the construction of water conservancy facilities. It is really powerless to do anything about railway construction.
So for railway construction, what Li Xuan means is that policies can be provided, but the money is gone and Datang Railway Corporation has to raise it itself.
But what the Railway Corporation is waiting for is Li Xuan's words. It's not like they don't know the financial situation of the empire. Not to mention that they don't have the spare money. Even if they have it, they can't use it on the railway. So all he wants is Li Xuan's nod.
.
Next, they will solve the funding problem on their own!
How to deal with it!
Of course it’s a loan, issuing corporate bonds to raise funds!
When they built the Beijing-Zhenjiang Railway before, they relied on the funds raised, and the funds needed for the Zhenjiang-Shanghai section of the railway to be launched later were also raised through this method.
Now, it’s just a matter of increasing the scale of fund raising!
After getting the policy permission, Zhili Railway Company, a subsidiary of Datang Railway Company, started a new round of fundraising. They planned to raise funds from many large domestic banks such as Royal Bank, Imperial Bank, Development Bank, Textile Bank, and Northern Bank.
The loan, the amount of the loan reached five million.
As for why it's not more, it's because the banking group feels that the risk is too great. Even if so many banks share the loan limit, they still have to control costs.
The rest is through the issuance of corporate bonds and company stocks!
In short, all available financing channels have been used, and we are preparing to raise a total of 10 million yuan in funds to build the Jiangnan Railway, a super railway from Jiujiang to Hangzhou!
As for the large-scale railway construction in other places, it is not of such a large scale for the time being. Whether it is banks or other institutions, they believe that although the risk of building a super large railway in Jiangnan is high, it is still within the controllable range, but it must be built
The railway from Jinling to Youzhou is too risky.
However, they are very interested in some branch railways that are obviously profitable!
For example, businessmen are very interested in the railway from Guangzhou Trade Zone to Foshan Town!
Another example is the railway from Tianjin to Youzhou, and the railway from Kaifeng to Luoyang, etc.
No matter what, the railway plan is finally on the right track!
In addition to the railway plan, the Transportation Department of the Ministry of Industry also proposed that merchant ships should be encouraged to adopt steam power on a large scale.
They believe that since naval warships can use steam power, then merchant ships can naturally do the same!
If the cost of using a steam engine is relatively high, the cost of using a sail on the sea is low. However, on inland rivers where sails are inconvenient, especially when going upstream, the advantages of steam ships are too obvious.
However, today's steam engines are expensive and inconvenient to use. It is still difficult to popularize them on a large scale among the people. Even if they want to use them, they can't find the talents to operate and maintain them. Why?
Therefore, in order for steam engines to spread rapidly, relevant majors should be established in educational institutions to train specialized talents. In particular, major technical colleges should train professional talents for steam engines.
In addition, enterprises under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises should take the lead in adopting steam engine-powered ships for passenger and freight transportation.
When private enterprises see the benefits of steam engines and ships, they will naturally follow up in time.
Within the next year, a certain number of steamships should be put into commercial operation. Within the next three years, steamships should temporarily occupy the main transportation position in some waterways where sailboats are difficult to navigate. Within five years, steamships should be completely popular.
On the one hand there are trains, on the other hand there are steamships. This is the strategic development plan formulated by the Ministry of Industry for the future transportation plan after seeing the emergence of high-pressure steam engines!
The plan put forward by the Ministry of Industry must be said to be very grand, and Li Xuan was a little surprised when he saw it!
Naturally, he knew better than anyone else the innovative role brought by trains and steamships, but he did not expect that the Ministry of Industry would be so radical. After all, the use of steam engines in the transportation industry was still a new thing and needed a promotion process.
If you are too impatient, many problems will arise in the promotion process.
For example, the performance of today's steam engines is still unstable. Laboratory tests can run continuously for a long time, but when it is actually used, who knows what will happen. If problems occur frequently, it is easy for people to develop a distrustful mentality towards steam engines.
.
Once this distrustful mentality arises, it will be difficult to reverse it in the future.
So Li Xuan felt that this matter should be done slowly and not in a hurry. You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry.
But now that he has seen the enthusiasm of officials from the Ministry of Industry, Li Xuan cannot easily dispel their enthusiasm. After all, this enthusiasm for science and technology has only emerged after he has deliberately guided and continuously supported him for more than ten years. He rashly gave up this enthusiasm.
That's not a good thing.
So Li Xuan asked the Ministry of Industry to take care of it first, but he had to take it easy and make sure that no problems would arise. He couldn't ignore numerous problems just to take risks.
When Li Xuan no longer objects, then there is no force that can stop the Transportation Department of the Ministry of Industry from promoting the application of steam engines on ships on a large scale!
The Yangtze River Shipping Company became the first guinea pig!
Although they are wholly owned by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, the government needs a company to be a guinea pig, so they have to bite the bullet and become this guinea pig!
Soon, with the assistance of the Royal Institute of Technology, they refitted a river merchant ship. However, what they did not expect was that when the merchant ship went on its first trial voyage, it would be greeted by many high-ranking officials from the court.
During the inspection, even the Holy Emperor came to watch this steamship trial in person!
Li Xuan watched the trial run of the steamship. He did not mobilize any troops. He only brought more than a dozen courtiers and hundreds of Guards soldiers. He also did not go to the dock to watch, but at the military port base of the Guards fleet.
Here, I stood on the roof of the building of the Guards Fleet Headquarters, holding a telescope and looking at the steamship trial ahead!
Well, this time the trial voyage was arranged in the military port of the Guards Fleet!
And those who served as guinea pigs were not only the Yangtze River Shipping Company, but also dozens of tons of cargo and dozens of Guards soldiers!
Well, although it is said to be a commercial trial voyage, in fact, because Sheng Tianzi came to watch it in person, the ordinary passengers originally arranged were canceled. The cargo was replaced by coal, stones and water for ballast bilges, and the passengers were replaced by
Soldiers of the Guards.
However, although the goods and people have changed, the trial voyage is still a trial voyage!
Holding a telescope, Li Xuan carefully looked at the ship that had been prepared on the dock. This ship was a typical inland river merchant ship, which was improved from the previous sand ship. Later, some emerging ship design theories were added, and
Equipped with a new type of longitudinal sail, the draft is not deep, the hull is stable, the cargo capacity is large, and the sailing ability against the wind is quite good, and it can generally load cargo and carry a certain number of passengers. It is very common in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Today's inland river merchant ship has a displacement of about 150 tons.
There are two huge wheels on both sides of the ship's side, and in the middle of the hull, there is a huge and towering chimney. The internal boiler is burning anthracite coal from Guangning, Annan. The exhaust of the burning anthracite coal passes through the smoke and flies towards the sky. It emits light white smoke.
Its slender hull is newly painted with brown tung paint, with white sails and light white smoke. From a distance, it looks like a pure white goddess descending to earth, elegant and charming!
And this steamer has two large black characters painted on its hull: "Lady"
Li Xuan looked at these two big black characters, then put down the telescope, turned around and said to Liu Bagou: "After today, this lady's title will probably go down in history!"——