1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 355 State Corporations

"The city of Los Angeles will provide the money? Standard Oil will provide the personnel? Form an oil company that will be operated by the government as a shareholder?"

Deng Wenshun was very puzzled and confused by Liang Yao's ideas.

"Isn't this just a matter of turning the left hand into the right hand? Why do you need to do it multiple times?"

"It's not a matter of left hand and right hand. One belongs to the public and the other belongs to us." Liang Yao said seriously.

"In California, aren't we just a public family?" Deng Wenshun still couldn't understand Liang Yao's thoughts.

"If it is true as you say, we are a public company, and the deficit of the state government at the beginning of the year should be paid for by us." Liang Yao said with a smile.

"Why? There are so many wealthy people in California, why do we only have to pay to repair this hole? Robinson, Sutter, and Fremont, Gervin, Wu Yuanhua, Pan Zhengwei, they usually get a lot of benefits."

At this point, Deng Wenshun became anxious.

"We shouldn't be the only ones who have to pay."

"This is the difference between government and private." Liang Yao sat down and said.

“Some industries that have begun to involve large investments and are not profitable still need the government to do it, such as the railway. Even though California has developed so fast in the past two years, the California Railroad Company has not yet recovered its capital.

The prerequisite investment for these projects is too high, and if the government wants to do this kind of projects, it also needs money to do it."

Deng Wenshun was silent. After pondering for a long time, Deng Wenshun said: "Third brother, I don't have much knowledge. You are a person who wants to do big things. I will listen to you how to do it."

"If you don't have much knowledge, just read more. Will the Los Angeles City Government's finances have a surplus this year?" Liang Yao asked about the financial situation of the Los Angeles City Government.

"It stands to reason that the Los Angeles state government's finances will have a surplus this year, but you also know that.

Los Angeles has also spent a lot of money this year, paving roads and repairing bridges, expanding docks, and two months ago jointly established a chemical engineering school with Standard Oil Company. Last month, it hired more than a dozen doctors from San Francisco to establish a new school.

A city hospital.

All of this costs money, and it still costs a lot of money. After all this trouble, there won’t be much money left in the Los Angeles city government’s accounts.”

Deng Wenshun is very familiar with the financial situation of the city of Los Angeles.

Although Los Angeles' fiscal revenue was small in the past, there were fewer people in Los Angeles, so expenditures were naturally less. Although Los Angeles' fiscal revenue has experienced explosive growth this year, the growth rate of Los Angeles' population is not at all slower than the growth rate of fiscal revenue.

"How many are left?" Liang Yao asked with a frown.

"No more, no less, about US$75,000." Deng Wenshun replied.

"I can help you think of a way to deal with the money, but you must choose the right person for me. This is the first government-owned company in California. If it is done, Los Angeles will benefit the most. Don't be careless about me.

"Liang Yao specifically explained.

This is the first government-owned company in California. Its success or failure is related to the subsequent establishment of other state-owned companies. This matter can only succeed, not fail.

"Understood, I don't dare to take anything the third brother explains lightly." Deng Wenshun nodded and said, "The third brother plans to use his own money to set up this government-owned company?"

"I am giving money to myself?" Liang Yao shook his head and said, "California is everyone's California, so why should I give money to myself? I am not a philanthropic person. The state government will provide some money, but not too much.

We also need to count on other wealthy people in California to contribute, because they, like us, are California’s biggest beneficiaries.”

"Asking them to pay is more uncomfortable than killing their parents," Deng Wenshun said with a smile.

The capitalists in California were no more generous than the gentry of the Qing Dynasty.

Based on Deng Wenshun's understanding of California's capitalists, the few people like Fremont, Robinson, and Sartre who truly regard California as their home may be willing to pay.

As for whether other people are willing to pay money to the public, it's really hard to say.

The squires of the Qing Dynasty felt that it was a sin to use their free money to relieve the poor.

California capitalists will also feel that handing over golden dollars to the government is a sin.

This is the result of human nature. We all have the same virtue, and no one should laugh at anyone else.

"You only need to do your part, and leave the rest to me." Liang Yao said, "You rest in the hall for a while, and I will go inside to change clothes. After a while, all the dignitaries from California will arrive.

Just have a meeting.”

With that said, Liang Yao took the daguerreotypes sent by the newspaper in the morning and returned to the bedroom on the second floor.

When Liang Yao returned to the bedroom, Aoki Ling was sitting at the desk, biting her lip, racking her brains to form words and sentences, and writing instructions for Vaseline.

Liang Yao came forward lightly and silently looked at the instruction manual written by Aoki Ling.

Aoki Ling's Chinese is very good, both in speaking and reading and writing skills. The Chinese instruction manual written by Aoki Ling has concise words and smooth and beautiful sentences. If Liang Yao writes it by himself, he may not be as good as Aoki Ling.

However, Liang Yao really cannot compliment Aoki Aya’s English proficiency.

Liang Yao glanced at the English instruction manual that Aoki Ling had just written and was full of loopholes, and habitually slapped Aoki Ling on the butt.

After that, Liang Yao kissed Qingmu Ling gently. Qingmu Ling wrapped her nightgown and rummaged through the closet for Liang Yao to find a tuxedo and a shirt that had just been ironed, and helped Liang Yao put it on.

After getting dressed, Liang Yao dug out a photo of Aoki Aya from a stack of U.S. dollar coupons in his wallet. This photo was developed from negative film.

The emergence of negative film made it possible to copy images in batches.

This technology has become increasingly mature after more than ten years of development and improvement. However, compared to the non-replicable daguerreotype, the relatively cheap negative film also has a relatively large disadvantage, that is, the image quality is not as high as that of the daguerreotype.

Therefore, many of the celebrity photos that were passed down to later generations during this period were daguerreotypes.

Due to the high imaging quality and non-replicability of daguerreotypes, these photos often have very high collection value and are hard to find in the market.

Liang Yao dipped some Vaseline on the back of the paper photo, and then pasted the photo on the Vaseline bottle.

"Doesn't it look good? I want to use your photo and portrait as the packaging of Vaseline." Liang Yao said, holding the Vaseline bottle with the photo on it.

Aya Aoki is plump, round, dignified and generous, and has a typical oriental beauty appearance. It is suitable to use her portrait for the packaging of Vaseline.

Aoki Aya looked in the mirror, looking at herself in the mirror and at herself on the daguerreotype, and marveled.

"It's exactly the same. Even the best painter in Edo couldn't paint such a realistic portrait."

"One is art and the other is technology, there is no comparison." Liang Yao said calmly.

(End of chapter)