Wild North America 1846

Chapter 395 Two Good News

"Your Majesty, I think Argentina will soon be in big trouble of its own. It has neither the energy nor the ability to expand to its southern neighbors. Chile, on the other hand, has already taken action first. The imperial government has given a warning about this. I believe they

Able to understand the meaning of negotiations." Prime Minister Ryu Hyun-jun reported.

"It's just a small South American country, don't worry about them." Richard waved his hand and said with disdain.

Argentina, which is dominated by the descendants of white Spanish immigrants, has many external conflicts and constant internal strife. The internal conflicts between Buenos Aires and other provinces are sharp. One side hopes to establish a central power state, while the other side hopes to establish a province with great autonomy.

As a federal country, the struggle between the two parties has been fierce to avoid being seized by the Province of Buenos Aires.

What's important

Paraguay has very tense relations with both Brazil and Argentina. As a landlocked country, Paraguay has always wanted to have access to the sea since its independence. This desire has been jointly suppressed by Brazil and Argentina. The three parties have continued disputes and have only come to blows.

Speaking of Argentina's troubles, all the ministers present laughed.

Everyone knows

The relationship between Argentina and its neighbors is not good. A few years ago, Argentina just fought a war with Bolivia in the northwest. Fortunately, it won the war and cut a large piece of land from Bolivia.

Nowadays, Argentina has hostile relations with Paraguay in the north and the Mapuche people in the south. It also has tense relations with its neighbor Chile to the west. The surrounding situation is a mess.

In particular, the Mapuche people are not weak. If Argentina had not possessed more advanced weapons and its overall combat effectiveness was much higher, they would have been worried about the invasion of the Kingdom of Patagonia.

in the original history

After the Argentines solved the troubles of their surrounding neighbors, it was not until they launched the second desert expedition 15 years later that they completely eliminated the enemy of the Kingdom of Patagonia and expanded their southern territory to Tierra del Fuego.

Nowadays, there is definitely no such opportunity.

Chang'an City

Over the past year or so, many new changes have appeared on the broad streets of Chang'an City. Trams running from south to north have replaced horse-drawn public carriages and become the main force of urban public transportation.

With its convenience and low cost, trams quickly spread throughout the cities of the Tang Empire and became a beautiful sight in the city.

Relying on the tram industry, the Tang Empire quickly developed dozens of tram factories. Today, its products have received orders from many continents and countries. The development momentum is very bright, and this has become an emerging industry in the empire.

With innovations in many fields, the Tang Empire became increasingly prosperous in the fields of chemical industry and electric power, becoming an advanced country leading the second industrial wave, and its performance was very eye-catching.

This is inseparable from the vast market of the Tang Empire, sufficient financial support and a policy environment suitable for the development of scientific and technological talents. In the right soil, more scientific and technological inventions were bred.

Cars with novel styles also appeared on the streets, often aristocratic children driving these expensive cars through the streets, attracting a lot of attention.

Compared with the rapid popularity of trams, new things like cars have been around for several years. There were also more than a dozen car manufacturers in the Tang Empire, producing cars of different styles.

However, most of these cars are expensive and have low driving reliability. They are often playthings in the hands of aristocratic children who like to try new things, and there is still a long way to go before they are popularized.

After the victory of the North American War

The Tang Empire truly ushered in a golden period of economic development. The expanded market demand brought opportunities to all walks of life. With money in hand, the imperial government also expanded the scale of infrastructure construction, thereby creating more employment opportunities.

.

After the war, the Tang Empire enjoyed high loan principal and interest repayment income from the United States of America and the Confederate States of America every year. This amount amounted to tens of millions of dollars every year, which greatly enriched the empire's financial strength and gave the government money to do more.

Many things.

The imperial family of the Tang Dynasty was extensively involved in investments in banks, important mines, weapons industries, emerging power and telegraph, petrochemical and steel industries, and controlled a large number of important enterprises related to international people's livelihood. Therefore, it became the richest royal family in the world.

The huge investment in the North American War in the early stage produced a steady stream of generous war dividends in the later stage.

Visible changes to the naked eye include the launch of a large number of municipal construction projects, the widening and asphaltization of roads, the construction of more bridges and reservoirs, and the construction of dozens of thermal power plants across the country. After the asphaltization of main roads in developed coastal provinces, various towns and cities

Roads and rural feeder roads were also renovated and tarred.

Double-tracking projects were generally launched on the main railway lines across the country, more roads connected coastal and inland provinces, and wireless telegraph companies also experienced great development.

In particular, the Royal North American Telegraph Company is planning to lay a submarine cable connecting Europe. This will be an eye-catching mega project that has the ability to change the current lagging situation of transatlantic information transmission between Europe and the Americas.

After the beginning of spring in 1863, the Tang Empire received two pieces of good news.

The first is that after more than one year and seven months of negotiations, an agreement was finally reached on taking a stake in the Appalachian Coalfield. Investors led by Royal Red Oak Bank and Royal Chang'an Bank committed a package of investment worth 430 million yuan.

, in exchange for a 45% equity interest in the above-mentioned coal fields.

This includes investment in mining machinery and equipment worth no less than 50 million, which will help increase the annual output of the Appalachian coalfield from the current more than 38 million tons to 56 million tons, significantly increasing the income and value of the coalfield.

Another 380 million yuan worth of cash investment will be used to repay and replace the high-interest loans held by loan sharks such as Britain and France. This is also an important part of the debt restructuring of the United States of America.

through the above means

The United States of America (North) can reduce the total amount of international high-interest loans of 1.375 billion to less than 1 billion, reduce the overall loan interest rate to an average annual level of 5.6%, and bring the overall debt into an affordable range. The most it can do is borrow new debt to repay old debt.

This move is conducive to stabilizing the soaring inflation in the United States of America, stabilizing the country's financial situation, and laying the foundation for the issuance of new U.S. dollars linked to the Tang Yuan, completely solving the hidden dangers of high inflation in society and the popular dollar phobia.

The cash worth 380 million Tang Yuan provided by more than 10 Imperial Bank investors, including Royal Red Oak Bank and Royal Chang'an Bank, was mainly settled with bank loans. These powerful banks have enough means to use Alaba

The annual income from the Chia Coalfield will fill the debt hole, and all it takes is time.

After the output of the Alabachia coalfield reaches 58 million to 60 million tons, the gross profit will be close to 100 million, and the profitability level will be higher.

It is estimated that within 12 to 13 years, the entire investment cost can be recovered and you can enjoy stable and high dividend income.

Through this move, the Tang Empire further deepened its economic control over the United States of America. Following its control of the eastern railway network, central railway network and major coastal ports of the United States of America, this was another major economic penetration action.

In addition, the powerful Imperial Banking industry is still sparing no effort to control the Wall Street banking industry, using relatively low prices to penetrate, and has successively controlled a series of banks such as Bank of America, Bank of New York, Citibank, and World Bank, and has mastered the right to speak on Wall Street.

besides

Since the Tang Empire held huge war reparation claims totaling up to 500 million Tang Yuan, and therefore controlled the customs of the United States of America as collateral, it actually controlled the country's finances and thus had decisive influence.

During the entire 25-year principal and interest repayment period, based on an average annual interest rate of 5.5%, the United States of America has to repay a huge principal and interest of 30.7 million yuan every year. This is an astonishing figure.

The shortfall can only be met by borrowing.

This means that even 25 years later, the United States of America will still find it difficult to escape the debt trap, and has to endure the terrible situation of pumping blood every year to feed the economy of the Tang Empire. Its citizens are faced with the squeeze of high taxes.

This is also the original intention why the government of the United States of America had to sell high-quality assets significantly in an attempt to reduce the total debt.

After the overall economy recovers slightly, the government of the United States of America plans to continue selling assets to reduce the debt principal and interest paid to international loan sharks such as Britain and France. This is also a no-brainer.

Another good news came from the Confederate States of America. Due to the same considerations, after fierce political games within the Confederate States of America, they finally passed a parliamentary vote with a slim majority to sell Texas to the Tang Empire.

There is no way, the debt burden is too heavy.

The Confederate States of America, which won the war, found that they simply could not afford to repay the high war loan of 580 million yuan they owed the Tang Empire (375 million yuan of debt had been eliminated and transferred to the Yankees), let alone 25 years, it would be 50 years.

I can't afford it for years.

The Confederate States of America has a typical agricultural economic structure. Compared with the Yankees' industrial and metropolitan trade economic structure, its solvency is worse, its profitability is lower, and its annual government income does not exceed 10 million yuan.

But we have to repay more than 34 million yuan of loan principal and interest a year, which is really unaffordable even if we sell it.

I barely persisted for a year, and finally managed to repay the principal and interest of the loan for one year through new borrowings of 29 million yuan.

The Confederate States of America had a very painful year. Almost all the troops were demobilized, government spending was reduced to a very pitiful level, and all government investments were vetoed. There was no way to spend money.

even so

It only raised less than 5 million yuan, and this amount of money was a drop in the bucket for the principal and interest of the huge loan.

Thinking about having to live like this for 50 years or more, those congressmen and hard-liners in the Confederate States of America who boasted about insisting on the sacredness and indivisibility of Southerners' interests and territory first collapsed.

The words are tough, but the body is honest.

Then the wind direction quietly changed, those fierce opposition voices disappeared, and the opinions advocating the sale of Texas increased. It seemed that not selling this state was deliberately trying to make trouble with the Southerners, that was unpatriotic, and that in everyone's eyes

rebels and troublemakers.

The remaining negotiations with the Tang Empire were full of twists and turns. The attitude of the Tang Empire was very ambiguous. If you want to sell it, I may not want to buy it.

And that... how about the price?

The two sides have been arguing repeatedly for more than half a year, mainly on the price. The Confederate States of America are really poor and crazy, and they are insisting on the price of 280 million yuan.

In the end, Emperor Richard of the Tang Dynasty personally came forward and invested 280 million yuan to buy Texas in the name of the royal family.

In fact, this was a left-hand move, because the huge loan to the Confederate States of America came from the Royal Bank. Since most of it was delivered in kind, the price was extremely high.

For this huge loan of 280 million yuan, it would be good to be able to pay in kind worth 50 to 60 million yuan.

Now spending money to buy it back is equivalent to going through the bank account and crossing off the debt of 280 million Confederate States of America. Just make an account and there is no need to pay actual funds.

Richard knew that Texas was rich in oil, gas and mineral resources. The money would be returned within a year, so it would definitely not be a loss to buy it.

Thus

The scope of the Datang Empire included Texas, a territory directly under the royal family. This also became the 39th provincial administrative division in the empire, which increased the area of ​​the Datang Empire by 696,000 square kilometers, with a total area of ​​10.82 million square kilometers.

kilometer.

Following these two major transactions, the Confederate States of America (South) successively sold part of its railway road construction rights and ports, and conducted more than a dozen transactions, reducing the country's total debt to the level of 252 million yuan.

After the above operations

The Confederate States of America (South) needs to repay 252 million yuan in loan principal and interest every year. Calculated at an average annual preferential interest rate of 5.2%, the average annual principal and interest repayment drops to 14.5 million yuan, which is close to the limit of tolerance.

Since there were no other bulk products for sale in the country, the Confederate States of America could only count on introducing more new people, expanding cotton field production and slave plantations, and squeezing more profits from black slaves to repay them. There was no other way.

The shadow of debt will also become a long-term headache for the Confederate States of America. As the founding father of the two consecutive Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis has completed his historical mission and become an immortal great figure in the new country.

His statues will be erected all over the Confederate States of America, and Richmond is also busy preparing for the construction plan of the Presidential Memorial Hall. President Jefferson Davis has completed the sacred mission delivered by history and will retire soon.

His successor is General Robert E. Lee, who won high honors in the North American War. This man has already won the presidential election and is determined to become the next president of the Confederate States of America, thereby completing a historic inheritance.

After selling Texas, the Confederate States of America could easily face the future, which made them breathe a long sigh of relief.

As for the huge loan principal and interest of more than 14.5 million yuan that needs to be repaid every year, it will be a headache for the next government.

Thinking more optimistically, when the economy develops, the population grows, and the tax revenue strength increases, there will be a day when the debt is paid off.

The Confederate States of America did not mortgage their customs to the Tang Empire. They were not obsessed with repaying debts and had no sense of oppression. They just let nature take its course.

It will make you feel better if you take a look at your miserable northern neighbors.

(End of chapter)