Chapter 208: The orthodox battle is bigger than the sky
Regarding American Mining Company, Li Xuan knows the good and bad better than others.
As Wang Haitao, general manager of American Mining Company, said himself, American Mining Company has too many mineral resources. In addition to precious metal minerals, the company also owns nearly half of the various mineral resources in the Americas that have proven reserves.
Most of the rich iron ore and coal mines in the Great Lakes region are under the control of the company.
At the same time, the company also owns a large area in the Gulf of Mexico in the Americas, where oil reserves are extremely abundant.
Such a behemoth will have a great impact on the Americas.
If something goes wrong, problems may arise.
So, even if Wang Haitao didn't say anything, he was still preparing to split the American Mining Company.
However, when splitting, we must also take into account the empire's control over American resources, and even maintain a consistent pace, because even if it is split, it will be a split within the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, and private capital will not be allowed to join in.
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After this coal conference, the coal development plan of the Tang Empire in the next few years was basically determined.
The core is the large-scale use of mechanical equipment to reduce costs and significantly increase output. The ultimate goal is to increase the supply of coal to the market.
In order to alleviate the current shortage of coal in the market and the excessive price of coal.
The value of coal in the Tang Empire has continued to decline over the years, but overall the price is still relatively high.
This was mainly because the Tang Empire had too much demand for coal!
Not only is the amount of coal used in industry huge, but coal used in transportation is also a huge number. Countless steam engines of various types are running every day, and the amount of coal consumed is very scary.
In addition, another major source of coal consumption is coal used by private households.
With the emergence of briquettes, coal has become the preferred fuel for the people of the Tang Dynasty. It is used for cooking, boiling water, and heating. Nowadays, people in the Tang Dynasty cannot live without coal, especially urban residents.
The amount of coal consumed every day is astronomical.
Therefore, in the past few years, although the coal output of the Tang Empire has increased year by year, and now reaches an annual output of 300 million tons, it is still not enough for the huge empire.
After all, the empire has a population of hundreds of millions and has established a complete industrial system. The coal consumption is very terrifying.
This is also the reason why Li Xuan specially held a coal conference. The existing coal production is still not enough, far from enough.
After the coal conference, after determining the strategic goal of doubling coal production within three years, Li Xuan held another steel conference.
Like coal, steel is also a basic material for an industrial country and has a significant impact.
At the steel conference, Jiangnan Iron and Steel Company and other important steel companies in the empire also launched their own production expansion plans, preparing to significantly increase steel production capacity to meet the empire's huge steel demand.
In the past, the empire's demand for steel was mainly concentrated in the field of national defense, and later in the general industrial field. Now, even the private construction industry has a huge demand for steel.
For example, the tap water pipes in contemporary cities are basically made of steel pipes.
For example, new buildings these days have begun to use reinforced concrete structures.
This kind of building structure was only used in a few places at first. Now with the decline in steel and cement prices, and also because of the popularization of steam hydraulic elevators, most urban buildings now tend to build high-rise buildings, which is naturally indispensable.
Use of steel.
The demand for steel in Datang society was growing day by day.
Therefore, increasing steel production capacity is as important as increasing coal production capacity.
When the production capacity of these two major industrial basic materials increases, it will have a series of impacts, satisfy the empire's huge market demand, and stimulate further economic development.
At the same time, it will also bring about a very important additional impact, that is, the cost of ship construction will be further reduced, and the transportation cost will be further reduced.
Lower shipping costs will be the best tool to connect the homeland and overseas territories.
Distance is not the key factor that hinders the homeland and overseas territories, transportation costs are!
Qingpu Meat Company's global meat product supply system proves this point. They plan to purchase meat products globally. After refrigerated transportation to the mainland, it is expected that the cost will not be much more expensive than transportation from the northern part of the empire and Central Asia.
It's even more convenient.
Once there is a huge local market, overseas territories can calmly develop the grain industry, cash crop industry, and animal husbandry without worrying about producing too many agricultural and animal products that will pile up and not be sold.
In the spring of Xuanping 41, when various plans were initially launched, the American Mining Company also officially announced that it would sell part of its business to other companies to use the funds to focus on developing precious metal minerals in the Americas.
The coal business was split and sold to several companies such as South China Mining.
The same goes for the steel business and the oil business.
They retained their precious metals and copper mining businesses and raised a large amount of funds to prepare for development.
After the split, the American Mining Company actually existed in name only. Even though it seemed to be still very large, it was no longer able to influence the situation in the Americas.
The split of American Mining Company is nothing to others. Anyway, this company is fully owned and consolidated by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, and even delisted directly after being acquired.
Moreover, after the split, other businesses were sold to large enterprises affiliated to the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises.
To put it bluntly, it means changing the left hand to the right hand, and there is no difference for ordinary people.
But at this time, it was a huge shock to some powerful people in the Americas, especially the three major vassal kings!
The top executives all know what role the American Mining Company played in promoting localization. Every one of the three major vassal kings in North America has had contact with the American Mining Company.
But now, American Mining Company is dead in name only.
They know exactly why this is the case!
In Prince Zheng's Mansion in Wuhuzhou City, the sixth son of Emperor Li Zheng looked at the letter in his hand, and after reading it, he put the letter on a candle and burned it!"
A middle-aged man in casual clothes next to him said: "Your Highness, this American Mining Company is the key to our defeat. What a pity!"
But King Zheng said with a smile on his face: "What do you know? No matter if we split it up, a mere American Mining Company is insignificant!"
King Zheng stood up: "If this American mining company has not been split up, I will still be worried, but now!"
These words made the person next to him dumbfounded.
"However, we have put a lot of effort into the American Mining Company before. Without the support from us and the other two companies, how could the American Mining Company have obtained so many resources? Those shareholders were only promoted by us.
He was just an agent, and now that he is gone, isn’t it all in vain?”
King Zheng smiled: "Tell me, what is going on behind this American Mining Company? How can my father not know about it? So, whether it is split up or not, it means that this matter is in the past."
The man immediately looked horrified: "Does the Holy Emperor know?"
King Zheng glanced at him and waved directly: "Okay, go back and prepare for tomorrow's dinner. The first governor of Wuhu Province has taken office, and the reception work has been done well!"
When the man saw King Zheng like this, he hesitated to speak, but still went out.
After waiting for others to go out, in the huge and enlarged study room, King Zheng whispered to himself: "What do you do as Hantong, let alone the American Mining Company, even if I eat something tonight
, Hantong probably has perfect records!"
"So, my father knows very well what I and other companies have done!"
"But, father, did he stop it?"
"No!"
King Zheng knew very well that his every move was under Hantong's supervision, and no matter what he did, his father would know.
He also knew that his father allowed him to do many things, even purchasing the most advanced Li Fu rifles and breech-loading artillery and other advanced weapons for the palace guards through local channels, but his father turned a blind eye.
So King Zheng knew that his father allowed him to do some things, but he didn't know where the bottom line was!
So in the past many years, what he has done is to constantly test!
Winning over the officers and soldiers of the Royal Guard, increasing the strength of the Royal Guard, conducting military training for the palace attendants, and handing over civil and military officials in the Americas, my father never stopped him.
But some of them were blocked. For example, he tried to expand the size of the Royal Guards. He had just started to do so, and the captain of his Royal Guards was directly transferred back to his homeland.
King Zheng knew very well that this was a warning from his father!
So without saying a word, he directly stopped his attempt to secretly expand the size of the Royal Guards.
This time, the American Mining Company was naturally behind the tricks of him and the other two brothers.
At first, the father didn't say anything, but later he directly took over the American Mining Company, and now it has directly split it up. This also shows that controlling the mineral resources in North America also violated the father's bottom line.
Now that you know the bottom line, you should naturally not foolishly violate it again.
Over the years, he has tested his father's bottom line again and again. What he needs his father to allow him to do and what he is not allowed to do.
Over the years, he has learned a lot about his father's bottom line.
But he still couldn't figure out why his father did this!
Judging from the behavior of the father, he does not allow overseas territories to rebel and become independent. This can be seen from the empire's series of administrative measures. The economic development plan sounds good.
King Zheng was not stupid. He could see that this economic development plan would obviously bring many benefits to the overseas territories, but it would also cause the overseas territories to lose their independence and then completely turn them into vassals of the local area.
However, my father never stopped these overseas vassal kings from improving their reputation, especially their influence in overseas territories.
Even my father was happy to see the influence of his overseas vassal kings increase in the fiefdom.
And this is obviously very contradictory!
To be honest, he couldn't understand why his father would do this!
If you want to avoid rebellion, there is no need to do anything else, just recall all the vassal kings to Jinling.
The Holy Emperor issued an edict, who would dare to disobey it?
Everyone must return to Jinling obediently, and then naturally there will be no problem of reducing the vassal status.
But the Holy Emperor didn’t do that!
If the Holy Emperor wanted them, the overseas vassals, to be independent, then why did he block the localization of overseas territories?
He doesn't understand!
Just because King Zheng doesn’t understand doesn’t mean that others don’t understand either!
After learning that the American Mining Company had been completely broken up, the seventh son of the emperor of Nanhe State in North America, Song King Li Shi, laughed alone in the empty pavilion in the middle of the lake: "Father, you are too optimistic!"
"How can it be so easy for emperors all over the world to be Li's family?"
"Even if I am willing to take sides in the future, the ministers around me are not willing, and neither are my brothers!"
"The whole world is not the land of the king, and the shore of the land is not the king's ministers. There can only be one emperor!"