Because when railways are built, they can be thousands of kilometers long, and there are so many places that need to be connected to railways, which leads to a huge demand for railway lines.
Datang Railway Corporation has to announce huge new railway plans every year, but it is still difficult to meet the huge needs of the empire.
And the key point is that although the Tang Empire was huge, many places were uninhabited or sparsely populated places.
For example, especially in the northeast, north, northwest and other regions, there are actually not many people there, because the vast area to the north is the northern ice sheet area, as well as large areas of land, deserts, grasslands, etc.
The cost of building railways in these places is not only high, but also cannot be recovered.
Otherwise, the previous Northwest Railway and Central Asia Railway would not be repaired as war-ready railways.
You know, when these railways were being built back then, the military provided money and effort to help build them. Datang Railway Corporation alone could not build them.
Even if they are repaired, the operation of these railways is still a loss-making operation...
After all, the population along the route is small, and the cargo transportation is relatively small. The biggest customer every year is the Army...
Under such circumstances, it is normal for railway operations in these areas to suffer losses.
Fortunately, the Datang Railway Corporation is not a pure enterprise. Although it is officially under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, it actually has huge assets like the two special enterprises of the Datang Grain Corporation and the Datang Salt Corporation.
, also bears the name of the company, and in most cases operates commercially.
But in fact, it is still a semi-official organization. The general managers of these three major companies are all second-level senior officials.
This situation is not available to other companies in the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. Even the three extremely important weapons companies and several oil companies, mining companies, machinery companies and other core companies do not have such treatment.
But only the Datang Railway Corporation can build railways in these remote areas and maintain operations without considering profits and losses.
It is precisely because of companies like Datang Railway Corporation that they are able to build large-scale new railways every year, because they can use their huge railway operating profits in the central and eastern regions to subsidize railway construction in the west, north and other remote areas.
,operations.
Even companies like Datang Railway Corporation can obtain huge low-interest loan support from the Royal Bank, Imperial Bank and other major banks in the empire.
It is said that the current total assets of the Datang Railway Corporation have reached more than 460 million yuan, which is basically equivalent to the central fiscal revenue of the Datang Empire this year.
Of course, the debt is also staggering, directly exceeding 300 million Tang Yuan, but even after deducting the debt, it is more than 100 million Tang Yuan.
The net assets are more than 100 million yuan, and the annual operating profit is not low. Last year, the operating income of Datang Railway Corporation was more than 50 million yuan. Looking at the entire empire...
Well, actually it’s nothing, I can’t even make it into the top ten…
When it comes to making money, the most powerful company in Datang is Datang Salt Corporation. It’s boring to talk about assets. People don’t bother to count net assets. Anyway, the entire salt industry belongs to their company, including
They don't even know how much money they have in salt farms, processing plants, transportation channels and wholesale channels...
The data they collect are profits and taxes paid every year.
The annual salt tax contributed to the finance at all levels and the normal commercial tax of the attached subsidiaries are at least more than 20 million...
In addition, at least more than 20 million yuan in profits will be handed over to the central government every year.
That adds up to over 40 million!
Therefore, no one will compare you with your sales volume or your company's net assets. Instead, they will compare you with your tax bill of 40 million, which will scare you to death!
The Tang Dynasty Grain Corporation is also very impressive. In its granaries across the empire, it stores enough grain to feed hundreds of millions of people for at least half a year. You can't measure the value of this grain in money, even if you really measure it.
.
There are also several newly emerging oil companies, such as Nanyang Petroleum, Royal Petroleum, and Imperial Petroleum, the three largest petroleum companies. Each of them is also extremely rich, with an annual turnover of tens of millions and a net profit of
Over ten million.
Speaking of making money, Datang Railway Corporation can actually make a lot of money. If the railway transportation price increases a little, tens of millions more operating income can be generated in an instant.
Just reduce the number of railway construction projects and operations in remote areas, and you can save a lot of costs. The net profit can be tens of millions per year.
However, it is precisely because Datang Railway Corporation does not increase prices and continues to invest in the construction and operation of some railways at a loss that we can see the importance of Datang Railway Corporation.
If there were no Datang Railway Corporation, it would be replaced by a pure capital company that would play with railways. Those companies would not build railways in remote places.
There is no doubt about the importance of Datang Railway Corporation, especially in the new round of economic development plan.
In the Nanyang Development Plan, there is a related Nanyang Railway Network Plan, which has multiple lines.
One is the coastal railway plan. It plans to use the already operating Guangzhou-Jiaotong Railway as the source, continue to extend to the southern coastal areas, build all the way around the Nanyang Peninsula to Bangkok, branch off in Bangkok, go all the way south to connect with the Port of Malacca, and go all the way west.
Connect to Yangon.
The entire railway line basically circles around the coastal areas of the Nanyang Peninsula. This is because the above-mentioned coastal areas are also where new immigrants from the Tang Empire currently gather.
The Tang Empire's immigration in the Nanyang Peninsula will be concentrated in coastal areas or along several relatively large rivers for the time being and for a long time to come, because the transportation in coastal and river areas is more convenient and the topography
It will also be flatter and easier to develop.
At the same time, the railway can also connect Songpingcheng, the provincial capital of Annan Province, Bangkok, the provincial capital of Siam, Malacca, the capital of Malacca, and Yangon, the provincial capital of Myanmar.
In addition to the core Nanyang coastal railway network, there are several other railway lines that are also important.
One is the Song-Kunming Railway, which is already under construction. It was originally intended to provide Yunnan and other southwestern regions with a more convenient railway to the sea. Now, it is even more important.
In addition, there is another railway line being planned, which is the railway line from Kunming to Yangon.
This railway also has a certain purpose of being a war-ready railway, because when the railway goes south, it will run through the entire Burma Province, allowing the imperial troops stationed in the Yunnan-Guizhou region to quickly enter Burma.
At the same time, around this main railway line, several small-scale branch railways will be built in the west, eventually extending to Bangladesh.
These branch railways will allow the Tang Empire to better complete its strategic blockade mission.
Nowadays, Myanmar Province is used as a blockade and isolation zone in the mainland of the Tang Empire.
Even though there is already a state of Bengal in the west, and even though a no-man's land with a width of hundreds of kilometers has been created, the people of the Tang Dynasty are still worried about the intrusion of the indigenous people from India every day.
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty has always deployed heavy troops in Burma and Bengal in order to block the area and prevent large-scale indigenous migration into the empire.