1855 United States Tycoon

"You can think of this, it's very good." Scrooge praised Dorothea's last words, "This shows that the training these days has been very effective. This is indeed a It's a good investment project, but we don't have much power to compete for this matter." Scrooge spread his hands to Dorothea, "Because we don't have much funds for activities. And we still have more important investments than this. So..."

"Do you just watch the opportunity to make money slip away?" Dorothea said a little dissatisfied.

"Ah, it feels bad. I fully understand." Scrooge smiled, and he walked over and sat down next to Dorothea. "Dorothea, let me tell you a story."

"Okay, go ahead," Dorothea said. Although Dorothea felt very depressed because she had to let go of an opportunity to make money, and because it was an opportunity to make money she found, it was still good to listen to Scrooge's story. Most of Scrooge's stories are very enlightening, of course, the prerequisite is that when he is serious. Sometimes, this bad thing will say something that is not suitable for a girl in a serious manner, which makes people hate it. However, in general, Scrooge Uncle's storytelling is still very popular with "Miyoshi Girl Dorothea".

"John and George went to a race with a prize of one thousand gold coins. As soon as the starting gun fired, the two rushed out. They ran almost as fast. At this moment, John suddenly dropped a shiny gold coin from his hand. George thought that it would be foolish not to pick up gold coins, so he slowed down and stopped to pick up gold coins, and then John won the championship prize of a thousand gold coins."

"This story is not true at all." Dorothea wrinkled her nose and criticized. "How can there be a stupid stupid like George in the world... Well, you are mocking me! You bad guy!" Dorothea Thea suddenly opened her eyes...

After a burst of laughter, Dorothea was as usual again, because of lack of "strength", she lost to the fellow Damn it, and was bullied by him for a while.

"Huh, you're a bad thing! You know bullying." Dorothea's cheeks flushed, and she leaned weakly against Scrooge's arms. "Well, by the way, you just compared the Central Pacific Railway to that gold coin. Then tell me, where is the bonus of a thousand gold coins?"

"Finally thought of this?" Scrooge smiled.

"If it wasn't for you to make trouble, I would have thought of it!" Dorothea said.

"Okay, then, I'll tell you where the bonus of one thousand gold coins is." Scrooge said.

"First of all, the rise of the McDonald family has always been based on scientific technology. Now, we are on the eve of a technology revolution. Do you know that every revolution in technology, what kind of revolution is the first?"

Dorothea shook her head, she hadn't had time to learn these things.

"The first revolution is always the revolution of power." Scrooge said, "Take the textile industry as an example. At first, people spun yarn and weave fabric by manpower. Then the Jenny Textile Machine was the limit of manpower. Later, people invented hydro-spinning. Yarn machines and hydropower looms, hydraulic power has replaced manpower, and the efficiency is suddenly higher. Therefore, any textile enterprise that relies on manpower can no longer compete with textile enterprises that use water power. However, hydropower textile mills must follow the river Construction, and it is difficult to operate in the dry season. After the emergence of steam engines, the textile mills powered by steam engines got rid of their dependence on rivers and seasons, so they quickly eliminated hydropower textile mills from the competition. Now, steam engines It has become the source of power for almost all industries. If there is no steam engine, almost no factory can still operate normally. However, the power to replace the steam engine has some clues. Dorothea, tell me, compared with this , Central Pacific Railway Company, has it become just a small gold coin?"

"Really? Is there something that can replace a steam engine? Does it have a greater advantage over a steam engine?"

"This is one of the family's top secrets." Scrooge smiled, "But to you, all the family secrets are open, just like facing me. Let me tell you about it, um, Remember the basic concepts of electromagnetics that I told you when we talked about wireless telegraphy?"

"Remember a little. But that thing is too complicated, I don't know it clearly." Dorothea frowned.

"You only need to remember that the wires passing through the magnetic field will be subjected to electromagnetic force." Scrooge said with a smile, "Based on this principle, it is possible for us to develop a power source that uses electric drive. I call it a motor. Of course, we also need a matching generator. The magical electricity can be transmitted far through a thin metal wire. Compared with the steam engine, the motor has a simple structure and can easily set the power. The size. So we can change that every workshop needs a steam engine, every steam engine has a boiler to take care of, and all the machines must be extended from this machine through a series of complex speed change devices. The drive spindle. Any adjustment to the production line is extremely difficult, complicated and expensive.

In contrast, as long as the generators and motors get a breakthrough, a factory, or even many factories in a city, only needs a generator driven by water power or a large steam engine, and then a steady stream of power can follow the metal The wires are sent to each large and small motor in each factory. In this way, the cost of producing and maintaining the entire production line, the difficulty and cost of adjusting and changing the production line, and the number of workers that need to be hired will all have a huge drop. As soon as such a company appears, any factory that does not use electric motors will be crushed by it in competition. Now, in our large laboratory, this kind of research is proceeding smoothly. For this reason, large sums of money have been invested in it. In addition, you also know that the tower project will also consume a lot of our funds. However, once they succeed, they will become inexhaustible gold mines for a long time.

And what about the Central Pacific Railway? "Scrooge smiled," The construction of this road over the Rocky Mountains is too difficult. If we didn't intervene, well, Mr. Stanford might be able to rely on the bones of the Chinese slaves and pile him up with human lives, but now, we can't do such a shameless thing. Therefore, the progress will be very slow, and the benefits will be much smaller. What's more, in this operation, we are not the party who contributed the most, so we did not share much benefit. Therefore, the Central Pacific Railway, compared with our big plan, is just a small gold coin. Let them pick up the gold coins, Dorothea, we shall run hard while they are picking up the gold coins. ""In addition, there is a very profitable project that will consume a lot of our funds." Scrooge said again, "Have you heard of Alaska?"

Dorothea shook her head. This is normal. At the time, few people noticed this wild land near the North Pole. The Bering expedition of Tsarist Russia discovered and surveyed this land, which allowed Russia to obtain territorial sovereignty over an area of ​​1.52 million square kilometers in Alaska. But the Russian government only regards Alaska as a territory for acquiring offshore resources and conducting fur trade. Although it is vast, it is actually useless.

In 1859, under the impetus of Senator Seward, the United States government expressed to Russia that it was willing to bid $5 million for Alaska. After research, the Russians determined that this was a good price. They feel that it is a very cost-effective business to sell such a useless piece of land for $5 million. So began to seriously bargain with the United States government.

By 1861, Senator Seward became Lincoln's Secretary of State (United States Foreign Minister), and the convenience of his position naturally made this transaction more likely to be successful. But at this time, the Civil War broke out, and all the power of the Lincoln government was thrown into the war, and it was really impossible to spend money to sell this piece of land. So the transaction was suspended.

After the war ended, the business should have been discussed immediately, but in the original history, the assassination of Lincoln and Seward took place. Lincoln died and Seward was stabbed several times. Fortunately, it was not dead, but immediately after the government change and a series of other messy things, it was not until 1867 that the two parties formally reached an agreement. United States paid 7.2 million US dollars to get Alaska, which is equivalent to every square meter. Kilometers are 4 dollars and 74 cents. The largest land sale in the modern history of the world was completed. The territory of the United States increased by 20%, and the United States has since become a legitimate Arctic country. Although the price is so cheap, Seward was slammed for this business. The people simply called Alaska Seward's Big Refrigerator, saying that he spent so much taxpayer money on a piece of useless land.

But Scrooge, who has traveled through later generations, knows how cost-effective this sale is. There are abundant oil reserves in Alaska, the largest oil field in the entire United States, and even a treasure given by God, which is extremely shallow and rich in gold reserves. In fact, in the original history, since 1874, large and small gold mines have been discovered continuously, and new gold rushes have also appeared. Even the writer Jack London once left his pen and went to Alaska to search for gold. . The pinnacle thing, just the gold that those gold prospectors can find in a year is enough to buy several Alaska.

Scrooge certainly didn't want to let go of such an opportunity. In order to facilitate this transaction as soon as possible, "Black Water" prevented the assassination of Lincoln and Seward in the original history. In the face of the government's lack of money, Scrooge even stated that as long as the government buys the land, he is willing to provide the government with a long-term loan of at least two million US dollars at very low interest. Of course, this is by no means unconditional. The condition is that the government must give him the ownership of some of the land that Scrooge took in his favor. And he is willing to buy these areas at a price three times higher than the average land price.

This kind of enthusiastic help, of course, quickly promoted the negotiations. Now Seward has basically reached an agreement with the Russians to buy the entire Alaska for $6 million. All that is left is that Congress approves the government's signature. Once this transaction takes effect, Alaska's largest oil field and the largest gold mine will immediately fall into the hands of the McDonald family.

Thank you for reading this story at mtlarchive.com. Your support enables us to keep the site running!