Because Neiro State is deep inland, and more importantly, there is too much gold in this place, although it can be mined manually, but without mechanical equipment, not much can be mined.
Just like the presence of oil in Baku and Sidan led to the promotion of partial localization, the huge gold mines in Nello State now also allow the African Affairs Office to find a solution to partial localization.
Difficulties?
If you just smash it with gold, you won’t be able to achieve partial localization!
In this environment, many mining companies, African affairs offices and the military jointly promoted the partial localization policy in southern Africa, which appeared at the cabinet discussion meeting.
This triggered a fierce debate in the cabinet!
The cabinet was undecided and was unable to make a decision. In the end, the matter could only be submitted to the imperial court for the Holy Judgment!
When Li Xuan saw this plan for partial localization of southern Africa, he also frowned!
No wonder the cabinet is arguing endlessly. This time the ambitions of the Army and the African Affairs Office are a bit too big!
This time, the scope of partial localization in southern Africa jointly proposed by the African Affairs Office and the Army and Navy is not limited to a small area like the South African plains, but also includes the two states of Loren and Nero, and this
The area demarcated by the two states is very large.
Because to ensure that the huge gold mine in Nello State can be mined smoothly, machinery and equipment are necessary, and even building a railway from Loren to Nello is necessary. Otherwise, it will be difficult to transport numerous mining equipment. Without
Mechanical equipment will no longer be able to mine on a large scale.
In fact, the Tang Empire controlled a lot of gold mines. Strictly speaking, there was no shortage of gold. Whether it was in the empire itself, various parts of Southeast Asia, or America, India and other places, the empire had huge sources of gold.
But there is too much gold in Nello.
Once it can be mined on a large scale, its annual output can instantly reach several times the current annual output.
This was very important for the Tang Empire, which implemented the gold standard and needed gold reserves.
Even if the official doesn't care, people among the people do.
In the past, thousands of people from the private sector went to hunt for gold without official intervention, and the number is increasing.
In this case, even if the empire officially is unwilling to mine the gold there, it is inevitable to invest a certain amount of power in the area to protect the safety of the people of the empire.
There are many indigenous people there, and without the protection of official forces, the casualties of gold mining personnel are too great.
However, if the government moves in and mines gold, it will need to be partially localized. This area is not small. At the same time, it is also necessary to prevent the surrounding indigenous people from infiltrating the partially localized area.
This is no small trouble.
Li Xuan himself was a little hesitant, but in the end he made up his mind. Localization was going to happen anyway, and now it was just in time to take advantage of the news of the discovery of gold mines in South Africa, and he could also take the opportunity to attract immigrants on a large scale.
As long as there are enough immigrants, the localization of the entire South Africa region will not be a problem.
To this end, Li Xuan approved this partial localization plan in South Africa after careful consideration.
This plan is very large, covering an area of nearly one million square kilometers. It is estimated that tens of millions of local indigenous people will be relocated, and there are countless indigenous tribes that need to be defeated.
Therefore, the scope and scale are very large, so we will take the most easing measures possible, mainly hiring employees and forced relocation by labor service companies. At the same time, it will not be too big at the beginning. In the early stage, we will mainly ensure that South Africa, Loren State, and the interior of
The partial localization of Luozhou in these three continents.
And adapted to the introduction of Europeans. In the early years, the Spaniards killed too hard in Africa, and now there is not enough manpower to open plantations. Therefore, the Spaniards are now looking for labor all over the world, whether they are Southeast Asian natives or African natives.
This time the Tang Dynasty will not engage in any labor dispatch. As long as you Spaniards want it, we will provide ships for free. Of course, you have to recruit the manpower yourself. We Datang people are also busy.
The navy has nothing to say about this partial localization operation. It is nothing more than escort, but in fact it is of little use.
The Army will naturally play the main role. The Army will take the African Expeditionary Force as the main body and mobilize about 50,000 troops to participate.
However, such a small number of people is far from enough. For this reason, the African Labor Service Company will also send a recruitment team of more than 20,000 people to participate in auxiliary operations.
Finally, there is the local militia force. There are not many militiamen. At most, they can only organize two or three thousand people. After all, the total local population is not that big.
This is a full plan, which only accounts for more than 60,000 people. Naturally, it is impossible to complete it from the beginning. The whole thing will last for many years.
The first thing to start is to build a railway from Port Lorenzo to the Nello area. Only with the railway can we carry out follow-up operations.
This was also the first time that the Tang Empire built railways in overseas territories.
However, the purpose of this railway is very clear, that is, it is for military service, and it is also for the development of gold mines in Nello State.
Even in order to develop this railway and subsequent gold mines, the Tang Empire made special arrangements and granted partial localization treatment to areas along the railway line that had not actually been localized.
This is actually to loosen the buttons of railway and mining equipment.
Without this partial localization, even locomotives would not be able to transport it.
The scope of this partial localization is also very interesting. In Loren State, it only includes about 20 kilometers around the port city. It will go all the way west along the railway line, and the localized area will be within five kilometers on both sides of the railway.
If the scope of localization is exceeded, it will not count.
Then there is part of the core area of Neiluo State, where the gold mine is located. It is about a hundred kilometers long and one hundred kilometers wide. The total area is actually not large, only one hundred thousand square kilometers.
To put it bluntly, this is partial localization in advance specifically for the development of gold mines.
And this kind of thing can only be seen here. If other places also want this policy, unless there is such a large gold mine with astonishing reserves that is enough for the empire's high-level officials to pay great attention to it, then don't expect it.
The localization of this gold mine and the railway line will be guaranteed by absolute military power to prevent indigenous people from entering the above-mentioned areas.
However, the people who build the railways are still indigenous!
There is nothing we can do about it. Building a railway in such a poor place will kill people, and many people will die.
There is no way the empire could stop hundreds of thousands of people from going over to build the railway and then leaving the corpses of the empire's citizens all over the ground.
Therefore, the construction work of the railway will be undertaken by the African Labor Service Company.
In the past, there were no people building railways, but there were many people running there to pan for gold.
Ever since the news of the large-scale gold mine in South Africa spread back to the mainland, people have been running to various coastal ports almost every day, buying tickets and waiting to board an ocean liner to Africa.
Nothing inspires people to immigrate more than gold, not even the vast and fertile lands of North America.
As soon as the partial localization of the area was announced, even the indigenous people in the area had not been cleared out, and the railway had not been built. Every mining company with a name in the empire established an African branch and then went to Nairobi.
Went looking for gold mines.
It's just that they all arrived late. Since the government specially made a partial localization for this gold mine and promoted the army to send troops to build railways and so on, naturally they were swallowed up by the fattest meat early on.
Because the entire land in Neiro State now belongs to the official land, the government has all authority, including gold exploration and mining rights.
Of course, the government itself will not mine it.
The local government offices of the Tang Empire generally chose to cooperate in the development of minerals on official land.
The local government's finances use the ownership of land and mines as capital, and then cooperate with specialized mining companies for development.
In this way, the local government finance will not only receive tax revenue, but also receive dividends from the shares.
Of course, this is only limited to official land. If it is private land, then there is nothing to say. People privately own the ownership of the land and ancillary minerals and surface resources.
This is more obvious on Sidan Island. Some oil fields are located on the private fiefdoms of several nobles. In the end, Imperial Oil Company signed relevant agreements with these nobles to obtain oil exploration and mining rights.
But in Africa, except for a large amount of land in the South African plains and some coastal overseas territories, which are distributed to immigrants for free, the remaining land in the control area, including the entire Nello State, belongs to the government.
If you, a small-scale gold prospector, rush to dig for gold, the government is too lazy to take care of it. Anyway, the gold mining area is so big that it cannot prohibit secret mining.
But if you want to mine gold on a large scale here, you have to cooperate with the government to obtain mining rights.
The government is also quite shady. Depending on the gold content of the gold mine, they will usually directly ask for between 10% and 49% of the shares.
Well, other taxes still have to be collected normally!
The tax on mining gold in the empire is not low, it is very high.
If you go around like this, in fact, most of the profits from gold mines will eventually fall into the hands of the government.
Otherwise, the government would not be so active in localization and railway construction.
And you are also being blackmailed by weird people
Because the African Affairs Office actually does not seek cooperation with enterprises, it is not impossible for their own local finance to fund the establishment of a mining company and then develop it.
Many local governments do this. They do not seek cooperation from businessmen. They invest their own funds from the local finance department and set up enterprises under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises to develop minerals. Not only do they collect taxes, but they also put all the profits into the pockets of the local finance department.