Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 733 Mobil is in a hurry

The blocked chapter 724 is released. Interested friends can look back. In the future chapters, the word kingdom will appear as little as possible, instead of "Australia", "Ryukyu", "Vietnam" and "Hawaii". For place names such as "Lanfang", please read it carefully.

  Close to the subject

  Borneo

  Samalinda, the capital of East Kalimantan

  This was originally the capital of Borneo in the Dutch East Indies, the military and political center of the Dutch colonists who ruled the region. It has been a small city with a population of more than 100,000 for more than 200 years.

  Since December 28, 1881

The Dutch East Indies took the initiative to launch the invasion of Shangri-La Island, which meant that the first East Indies War broke out. In September 1882, Australia launched a full-scale counterattack, and the fleet successfully attacked the port of Samarinda in Borneo. Open the prelude to the second battlefield.

  Today, 14 years have passed.

  The small town with a strong Dutch colonial architectural style in the past has developed into a regional town with mixed Eastern and Western architectural features and high-rise buildings. The urban population has reached 571,600 people, breaking through the 500,000 population mark, and ranking among the big cities.

The food here has the characteristics of a fusion of Chinese and Western. There are many western restaurants along the street, but almost all of them are Chinese food, especially Guangdong and Hong Kong dishes, supplemented by a variety of regional snacks, such as Fujian's potside and noodles, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang's crab roe. Pan-fried buns and crayfish, Sichuan hot pot and skewers, even Northeastern dishes, pork stewed vermicelli and large plate of cut pork elbow.

  It is especially famous for its seafood. The whole street of Samarinda Harbor is full of restaurants selling seafood. There is a flood of gluttonous customers who come to taste it, and the lights are more lively at night.

  There are many buildings on both sides of the city streets, and the shops are densely packed, and the crowds show the prosperity of commerce.

The wide and flat asphalt road extends far away, and the tall palm trees in the green belt highlight the beautiful scenery of the tropics. Under the guidance of the German urban drainage system, this rainy coastal city is not flooded in the rainy season, and the dry season is clean and tidy. This has become Australia. Business card for urban development.

  Whether it is in Australia or overseas states, it is clean, tidy, picturesque, and has world-leading urban planning concepts. It has become the norm to attract powerful countries in Europe and the United States to send experts to exchange and learn, and learn useful experience in urban management for their own use.

Australian urban agglomerations generally have no silt or waterlogging during the rainy season. There is no dust in the early season. There are large green spaces and some forests in the city. Pedestrians and vehicles are all left to the right. Pay attention to the construction of civilized etiquette, pay attention to the management of vendors, and pay attention to Urban residents develop good habits, and it is strictly forbidden to throw debris anywhere, spitting anywhere, and feces everywhere is strictly prohibited.

  In the green woods, you can see the public toilets with red roofs and white walls from time to time, which are managed by special personnel. Therefore, many Europeans who have been to Australia will laugh after returning;

  You need money for everything in Australia, even for going to the toilet.

  This is almost a maverick anomaly in today's world. Since the Middle Ages, Europeans have been accustomed to solving internal emergency in dark back alleys or remote places, and this bad habit has been brought to the North American continent.

  So, regardless of the beauty of the city in Citi, the back streets and alleys will always have a strong smell of excrement and urine.

  The extensive establishment of public toilets in Australia not only solves the major problem of urban sanitation, but also brings stable economic income to many disadvantaged populations, which has a strong public welfare nature.

Public toilets are invested and constructed by the government and are contracted for socially disadvantaged groups. The contractor needs to be recommended by a social charity organization to prove that the work capacity is indeed low, the income is below the social average for many years, and cannot adapt to high-intensity labor. Disabled persons are preferred.

  The contractor needs to ensure that the public toilets are clean and tidy. They are engaged in daily cleaning work. The government will send personnel to inspect from time to time. The tenants who fail to meet the requirements will be issued a yellow card warning, which is to put a yellow sign on the toilet door.

  If two consecutive yellow card warnings are still not corrected, the contractor’s qualifications will be cancelled and another contract will be issued.

  The contractor has the right to appeal, which in turn restricts and supervises the administrative power.

  Take a glimpse and get the whole picture

It is precisely because of the establishment of a complete urban management system that Australian urban management is at a leading level in the world. The Royal School of Administration in Tianquan City, East Xiangzhou has attracted a large number of foreign students from Europe and the United States. Its urban planning and design, urban management, Colonial area management, census and social statistics, social sciences and other gold-medal majors enjoy a high reputation in the world. They are known as super-first-class administrative majors and are recognized as the top level in the world.

   mid-November

The streets and lanes of the city of Samarinda are cleaned up completely. The carriage with buckets on its back washes the paved streets of the city’s tar roads. On the kerosene street lamps on both sides of the road, beaming red lanterns are hung. Hunting and floating exhibition.

  Such a big battle is to welcome His Majesty the King to visit and inspect.

These days, there are often royal guards soldiers riding white horses, with the assistance of the royal police, blocking the street intersections, and then the black crown sedans roaring by, each time it always attracts the excited shouts of the citizens, forming a mountain. The huge echo like a tsunami hung in the air for a long time.

  However, the whereabouts of His Majesty, the dragon sees the end, no one can get a glimpse of the holy face, let alone the ordinary people to see His Majesty, this possibility is almost non-existent.

  On the outskirts of the city, a luxurious palace hidden in the lush forest.

  Xinggong is on the edge of a small clear lake. Not far away, waterfalls splash, rugged rocks, and flowers and green plants around the lake make the scenery beautiful.

  Li Fushou wears a light and light long gown and sits barefoot on the rocking chair of the observation deck. Under his feet is an expensive floor made of Indonesian ebony wood. It is scrubbed as bright as a mirror and not stained.

  His tall figure is sitting lazily, his temperament is elegant and dusty, his eyes are staring at the sparkling beautiful lake, and he is lost in thought.

  Nothing else, the current situation in the Far East is treacherous, and there is no trace in the original history. It has been more than two months since the "Guangzhou Incident" broke out, and the situation is still in a fog.

  As a superior, how to break the game has become a difficult problem for Li Fushou.

  The Qing court is convenient to continue to pretend to be deaf and dumb. After replacing several officials in Fujian Province, there is no more information.

  Liangjiang Governor Zeng Guoquan secretly assembled part of the Hunan army, but only in a defensive posture. With its current military strength, it is far from the ability to threaten the Guangdong and Guangxi regions.

  Since this time

  Governor's Office of the Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces made frequent actions. After the Manchu and Qing forces were completely eliminated, they sent supervisors to the counties and state capitals under their jurisdiction. They had essentially deprived the administrative power of the local government and were presided over by the supervisors.

To this end, Australia has sent more than 400 administrative officials, and removed more than 170 from the Royal Secretariat to strengthen the overall control of the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Gu Yanchuan, over the local area, to implement the New Deal, reforms, and suppress reactionary landlords and local governments. The evil forces have already achieved gratifying results.

  As if a room that had been decayed for many years opened the door, and a breath of fresh air was blown in.

  Report to the imperial court according to the governor’s mansion of Guangdong and Guangxi;

  Manchu Jiang Zuozhong, who went to great jail, has already pleaded guilty to more than 20 people and committed suicide in fear of sin.

  This move greatly touched the court. Those princes Baylor entered the palace to meet the queen mother. It is difficult to know the specifics, but they were basically repelled. The palace ordered them to examine themselves behind closed doors.

  The water behind this is extremely deep, and it is mainly the attitude of foreign powers to intervene.

  As a member of the great powers, the Ocean Kingdom entered the joint mediation mission, where it used diplomatic means to stir up the mud, and it has achieved very good results.

  The method is to use the inherent contradictions between the European and American powers to break through each, so that the joint mediation of the powers will reduce the pressure on the governor's office of Guangdong and Guangxi.

  The first thing to provoke was France. In line with the principle that every England must be opposed and every law must be rebelled, since France discovered that London was also secretly participating in the backstab of the Ocean Kingdom, his mentality has changed.

With reference to the policies of Citigroup during the War of Independence, for all things that could make London unhappy, France, in a selfless international spirit, contributed money and people to unconditionally support Citigroup against London, and even rolled up their sleeves and sent volunteers to end in person, even if it cost a lot of money. Capital is also not hesitating.

  The situation is similar now

   France, in the joint mediation mission of the great powers, immediately started fishing, and secretly took a stance toward the Ocean Kingdom, and in turn helped other great powers do their work.

  As long as it can make London unpleasant, Paris is willing to do it unconditionally, not bargaining the price, just talking about dedication, don’t ask why, it’s so magical.

  The second is to pressure the Fuso government, which is simple.

  The Minister of Ocean Kingdom in Fusang directly met with the Prime Minister of the country and pointed out in a stern tone;

  The Japanese nation is participating in extremely dangerous activities, the consequences of which are by no means the Japanese nation’s ability to bear. It should be quickly reined in the precipice, not to mention unpredictable.

  So, the Japanese government immediately persuaded.

  For the Italian Minister, he emphasized the friendly cooperation between the two countries on the Ethiopian issue in Africa, emphasized the Far East position of the Ocean Kingdom, and hoped that it would not affect bilateral relations.

  To the German Minister, it is to raise the issue of the Jiaodong Peninsula. If you don’t want the Ocean Kingdom to stir things up in it and destroy the good things of the Germans, then it is best to maintain cooperation on the issue of Guangdong and Guangxi, otherwise everyone will fall apart.

  After some diplomatic efforts

  European and American powers have been misfired. London is definitely not able to take the lead against its own little brother Ocean Kingdom. It can only be tricked behind its back, so the force is very limited.

  The most fierce jump now is Citigroup, who is presiding over justice and directly defines the actions of the Guangdong and Guangxi Governor’s Office as "rebellion" and spares no effort to exert pressure.

  The other European powers all thought about him, retreating from his original position.

  In this case, it is easy to handle.

  Governor's Mansion of Guangdong and Guangxi began to make trouble for American merchants in the territory. Goods from Citigroup were also stranded at customs and various ports, and the days of customs clearance were far away.

  Even after customs clearance, no one dared to undertake transportation and sales matters.

  Governor's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi is indeed incapable of dealing with the citizens of Citigroup, but it is really a three-finger pinch of snails... it's a stable comparison!

  Holding on for a while, the American businessmen complained and complained loudly, and they began to complain loudly about the American minister, and strongly demanded that they did not confuse it. The current US Far East policy has seriously harmed the interests of American businessmen.

  Especially Mr. Abis, the president of Mobil Oil Company, went directly to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Kodiak, expressing strong protest against the US Far East policy, thinking that this would seriously harm the company’s interests, he said;

"The Far East is the most important export market for Mobil. As a market leader, Mobil receives millions of dollars in huge benefits every year. Now this market is being strongly attacked by Australian Petroleum Corporation, and our government’s policies force us Having to quit the market obediently and hand over the huge profits, this is an unacceptable funny scene."

  As Citi's extremely politically influential monopoly chaebol, Mobil’s statement caused shock in Washington. The adjustment was instantly lowered by an octave, and it began to fish.

  More than two months after the Guangzhou incident, although everything is still in the mist, the situation is developing in a good direction.

  Li Fushou estimated;

  Without the secret encouragement and support of European and American powers, the Manchu Qing court would not have to let it go for long, and the time advantage was on its own side.

  Especially this slap in the face of the US side. It hurts Mobil to the waist and eyes, and it also makes the arrogant US representatives sober up, on the three-square acre of the Far East;

  Citi is a younger brother regardless of political or economic influence.

this age

  The land of Shenzhou is an "oil-poor country" and does not produce oil.

  Whether it is kerosene or gasoline, it must be imported from abroad.

  From Peking to Shanghai, from Jinmen to Guangzhou, the oil sold in all cities is of foreign brand. It is shipped from foreign countries by steamer and then packed in lead drums and sold by catty.

  The main importers in the market are US-funded Mobil, British Royal Shell, and United Petroleum. The first two are established companies and have entered the Chinese market for more than 30 years.

  Australia's United Petroleum Corporation is an emerging power. It has only entered the Far East market for five or six years. However, it has expanded rapidly. It has become one of the three major players in the oil market in the region and can compete with established British and American oil companies.

The oil fields it develops are mainly located in Balikpapan, 120 kilometers south of Samarinda. Oil was discovered in the area in 1885, and the oil field was formally built in 1888. It took 8 and a half months to produce oil from the first oil well in January 1889. .

  Today

Relying on the strong oil resources of Balikpapan Oilfield, with an annual output of more than 5 million barrels of oil, the Ocean Kingdom has taken off its oil-poor hat in one fell swoop and has become a net oil exporter. Australasia has quickly emerged as a world-class oil company. It meets the strong domestic demand for oil and gas resources, and can be exported to the Far East and Southeast Asia in large quantities.

  Li Fushou’s visit to Borneo this time, Balikpapan’s petroleum industry is the top priority, especially the development of petroleum-related petrochemical and deep processing technology, which will become the focus of the future.

  The government plans to use the petrochemical industry to drive the industrial development of East Kalimantan and surrounding areas and become a leading pillar industry.

  This plan has been passed by the Parliament. Balikpapan Oilfield will work with universities and colleges to tackle scientific and technological problems, and introduce advanced foreign petrochemical technologies, and intensively cultivate in the fields of oil production and deep processing, and further develop its resource-advantaged industrial capabilities.

  Li Fushou attaches great importance to this and personally led experts and high-level government officials to come to investigate. According to plan, he will set off tomorrow, following the wide and flat asphalt road 120 kilometers south of Samarinda, directly to Balikpapan.

  So much trouble is that the petrochemical industry can make up for the missing industrial sectors of the Ocean Kingdom and drive the economic development of the entire region. No matter how important it is, it can’t be overstated.

  Back to the topic

  The unilateral seller's market of Shenzhou Dadi has caused expensive and shortage of oil. At that time, not only was gasoline expensive, but owning an Australian car became a luxury only available to princes and nobles. Even the kerosene used for lighting at night was a huge burden for ordinary people.

  In the history of China

  Before the kerosene lamp entered, traditional lighting mainly used vegetable oil, plus a wick made of cotton thread.

  The brightness of this kind of lamp is very poor, the so-called "a lamp is like a bean", which expresses the characteristics of vegetable oil lamps very clearly.

  After the Second Opium War in 1861, the Qing court was forced to open five ports for trade, and kerosene lamps quickly entered Shenzhou, which was used for lighting in the concession at that time.

   Later, foreigners adopted dumping methods and quickly seized the mainland's night lighting oil market.

At that time, foreign kerosene was very cheap. In Hankou in 1879, camellia oil was 5 taels per 100 yuan, and hemp oil was 5 taels per 100 yuan, while foreign kerosene was only 2.8 yuan per 100 percent. You can buy 2 taels of domestic oil. Dan foreign oil.

  The price of rapeseed oil is about 120 wen a catty, while kerosene is only 65 wen a catty. Foreigners dumped at half the price of domestic oil.

  In order to promote kerosene to the common people more conveniently, Mobil Petroleum Company has also developed a tank-type kerosene lamp with a glass lampshade. Anyone who purchases Mobil’s kerosene will be provided with a high-end glass-covered kerosene lamp for free.

  This kind of low-cost sales or even giveaways, and then let you buy his consumables, is it familiar?

  American-owned foreign companies spread its sales network to every corner of Huaxia Village through layers of agents.

  The service provided by Foreign Bank is also first-class. In the "Petroleum Manual" issued internally by the Asia Group at that time, it stipulated:

  As long as it is a customer who can bring business, even if it is a small fire candle shop in a remote country, the foreign company also requires its employees to respect and respect, "understand what they like and what they don't like, so as not to hurt their feelings."

   And this kind of extremely powerful low-price dumping, coupled with the combination of giving kerosene lamps, was simply not something the people of the late Qing Dynasty could handle.

  Shortly after, kerosene launched Chinese traditional vegetable oils out of the market.

  In 1863, the input of kerosene was 2,100 gallons (1 gallon is equal to 3.7854 liters). In 1886, it increased to 23 million gallons. In 23 years, it increased by 11,000 times. The scale is extremely impressive.

  In 1893, the input of kerosene alone reached 100 million gallons, and by the end of 1895, it reached 177 million gallons. Kerosene completely dominated the market. The super huge population of Manchu and Qing Dynasty showed its strong purchasing power for foreign oil, which contained unlimited business opportunities.

  In the business report of Zhenjiang from 1882 to 1883, it was mentioned that “kerosene has been widely used in a considerable area around the treaty ports...every village has cheap kerosene lamps”.

  The business report in 1886 even mentioned:

  “Many of the industries that used to stop work at night now also work at night. Poor scholars can also light kerosene lamps at night... Shoemakers, millers, tailors, and carpenters all use oil lamps at night.”

United Petroleum Australia officially entered the Far East kerosene market in 1890. Relying on the "Guangjitang" organization and influence throughout the Chinese mainland, the golden sign of the Young Eagle Charity School expanded at an extremely rapid rate and became a budding emerging power representative. .

  At the end of 1895, Union Oil Australia exported 39 million gallons of kerosene to the Far East, accounting for approximately 23% of the market.

  At the end of 1895, due to the poor performance of the United States in the Guangzhou incident, it rolled up its sleeves and directly interfered in the internal affairs of the Manchu and Qing dynasties. This caused dissatisfaction among local officials and affected the market to varying degrees.

  Mobil’s oil share has been more than half from the original. In 1895, the scale of 86 million gallons shrank sharply to the level of 40 million gallons sold in 1896. A large amount of cargo was piled up in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan terminals, which were difficult to transport.

  Ocean-going ships carrying kerosene could not unload their cargo, so they had to stay in the Gulf for a long time and wait anxiously, which made Mobil anxious.

  The market gap of Mobil was divided up by United Petroleum Corporation and Royal Dutch Shell. In 1896, United Petroleum Corporation exported 69.5 million gallons of kerosene from the mainland, and its market share increased by 170%.

  The Royal Dutch Shell Company has increased sharply from 52 million gallons in the previous year to 72 million gallons, and its market share has soared by 40%.

  As a result, the three major oil companies are rearranged.

   Anglo-Dutch Royal Shell ranked first with 72 million gallons, United Petroleum Australia ranked second with 69.5 million gallons, and the original market leader, Mobil, ranked third with 40 million gallons.

After more than 30 years of cheap cultivating the market, the three major oil companies that monopolized the market are gradually increasing their prices and harvesting huge profits. The price of kerosene at the five-port trading terminal has risen year by year. Buy a few catties of kerosene.

  The poor people can't light the kerosene lamp, so they can only go to bed early in the dark in the evening.

  Value this critical period

  The rapid decline of Mobil’s position as a market leader was not because of the company’s own business problems, but because of the US minister’s messing up and causing dissatisfaction with the local governors of the Qing court. The consequences are naturally conceivable.

  At the end of the century, the situation in the mainland of China was very complicated, with different people's minds. Not all local governors led by Han ministers were loyal ministers of the Manchu and Qing dynasties.

  There is an early bird like the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi who challenged the authority of the court. Everyone is happy to see it, and just sit on the sidelines. Where do you need your Yankee to jump up and down?

  Is my head sick...Is it?

  The emperor is not in a hurry, what's the matter with you here?

to be honest

  In the present China mainland

Citi's influence and presence is quite low, not only far inferior to the European powers, but also lower than Tsarist Russia, Oceanic Kingdom, Fusang and other countries. Even the ministers of Westernization only know that this is a merchant country, On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, nothing else is known.

   Its political and military influence is very small.

   Therefore, the disgust of the local governors in the Qing Dynasty directly caused the difficulties of the company's operations.

In Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian and other places that originally occupied 1/3 of the kerosene market, the kerosene produced by Mobil was basically unable to be sold. The staff of the foreign trade company received special attention. Many Chinese executives with deep backgrounds and roads resigned and moved to Australia United Petroleum. .

  In Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hubei and Hubei regions, Mobil’s kerosene sales were severely blocked, and the market was quickly occupied by other two major companies.

   Tell me about this, how can we prevent Mobil’s executives from jumping madly with such a result?

  Mobil is in a hurry.

  (End of this chapter)