September 3, 1872.
United States, Wall Street 11.
New York Stock Exchange, which just moved to the new address of Wall Street last year, has the newest, largest and most luxurious trading building in the world at this time.
In recent years, United States has experienced Civil War, along with the railway economy, Great Western Development, the eastern industrial development has ushered in unprecedented prosperity.
Capital from various countries poured into this hot land crazily. Foreign capital accounted for half of the railway investment in the United States alone. From 1865 to 1871, more than 6,000 miles of railways were built, which was more than a hundred times that of East Africa during the same period. Moreover, various railway companies planned to build more than nine times the railway mileage in 1872 than in 1865. Railway investment was unprecedentedly popular, and a large amount of money was poured into railway investment through the New York Stock Exchange.
Railway construction has also boosted the demand for steel, coal, and oil. A large number of factories have been built, even blindly and crazy. The demand in the entire market is like a black hole, greedy and never-ending.
"Boss, someone sold 12% of Aurore Railway Company's stock. This stock has been rising in the past few months. Should we follow up and buy it?" Jack asked the boss Smith.
Smith: "Of course, Jack, buy it all for me."
Jack: "Boss, the problem is that if we buy them all, our funds may be drained out!"
Smith: "Jack, railway stocks are hard to buy now. We just sit and wait to buy it. Without doing anything, US Dollar will continue to flow into our pockets, so don't be afraid, timid people cannot make a big fortune. Hurry up and don't let others get ahead of you. Time is money!"
Jack: "Yes, boss."
Although Smith pressed hard, he was still a step late and only grabbed 20% of the shares, which made Smith a little annoyed.
He roared with red eyes, "Jack, listen to me. From now on, keep an eye on the changes in the stock market. As long as someone sells railway stocks, buy them for me without asking me for instructions. Until all our funds are spent, if you grab it, you will get a big bonus this month. If you can't grab it, I will deduct your salary!"
"Yes, boss!"
Soon Smith got what he wanted. I don't know which "idiot" sold another railway stock. Jack quickly seized the opportunity and bought it all.
In the following days, stocks of railway companies were sold one after another, but the values were not large and did not attract attention. Fierce bidding was heard on the exchange, and all the railway stocks in Hohenzollern Conglomerate's hands were sold.
"The value of our investment assets in North America a year ago has almost increased tenfold, but now it seems that this is far from the limit of North America. Now the prices of these assets are still increasing, which is really a pity!" Hechingen Bank North American branch staff discussed.
In order to have a hot meal, Ernst spent a total of 40 million pounds to invest in North America, which is almost 80% of Hohenzollern Conglomerate's profit from Franco-Prussian War. After walking around the United States stock market, it has now become 380 million pounds, which is one hundred 1.4 billion East African Rheinland Shield. Because the current silver price has not depreciated, this amount converted into silver is about 1.1 billion taels, which is about eight times the indemnity of the Shimonoseki Treaty (taking into account the depreciation of silver at the time of the Shimonoseki Treaty), so at that time United States, as the world's second largest economy after the United Kingdom, was indeed wealthy.
In addition to profits in North America, Ernst also sold a large number of assets in Europe. The total amount of money was approximately 80 million pounds, which is completely incomparable with North America.
However, this is related to the fact that Hohenzollern Conglomerate is mainly in Europe. Most of the European companies owned by Hohenzollern Conglomerate are high-quality assets, which are completely different from the "high-quality industries" hyped in North America. For example, when United States Aurore Railway Company was established last year, its employees totaled only more than 30 people. Through a large amount of capital injection, Hohenzollern Conglomerate recruited troops to win the railway project from Philadelphia to New York. The company's market value soared a hundred times. Then Hechingen Bank gradually looked for a takeover in the stock market. When Hechingen Bank sold all its stocks at a high price, the railway only completed the construction of one station.
Although Ernst has a lot of money in the financial market circle, it is not all of his wealth. The huge Hohenzollern Conglomerate is the real boss. Several large companies under Hohenzollern Conglomerate will be among the top 500 in the world in later generations, and Hechingen Bank is among the top few.
At present, Hechingen Royal Family is one of the strong contenders for the richest man in the world, because no one knows the background of those ancient families, such as the famous Rothschild family. A group of royal families and nobles in Europe cannot be underestimated. Rich is Rockefeller of United States, with a net worth of over one billion US Dollar, but Rockefeller can no longer be considered to be on the same level as Ernst.
Ernst also had Kingdom of East Africa as a political entity, whose value is completely inestimable. In 1871, the Kingdom of East Africa government's fiscal revenue was more than 7 million East African Rheinland Shield, about 800,000 taels of silver.
This money is not much, but it does not mean anything. For example, most factories in East Africa do not pay taxes, with the exception of Mombasa city and Dar es Salaam city, which are the two main sources of East African government's tax revenue, which is related to its foreign trade.
However, the fiscal revenue of 800,000 taels of silver is about 16% of the fiscal revenue of Japanese Government in the same period, which is not small, because the population of East Africans during the same period is close to 7 million, and the population of Japan is more than 38 million, and the population of East Africans is 18% of Japan.
Japanese Government has invested in a large number of industries, and with the wealth accumulated over thousands of years, it is normal for Japanese Government to have more fiscal income than East Africans.
Of course, Kingdom of East Africa still has more than 23 million indigenous people (including South Africa), but most of the indigenous people are currently in a free-range state, mainly concentrated in the western part of the kingdom and South Africa. There are only more than 9 million indigenous people for Kingdom of East Africa to use as production tools.
The wealth they created cannot be specifically reflected in money. For example, it can be used to replace cattle, horses and other livestock to cultivate land, work together, lay roads, build water conservancy facilities, etc.
These are pure human inputs, and their contributions to Kingdom of East Africa will be distributed to the citizens of East Africa. For example, the land in East Africa is developed according to the total number of citizens. The food produced by one acre of land in East Africa requires more human resources than other countries, especially in labor-intensive industries such as plantations and rice. It takes more than one labor force in East Africa to create the value created by one person in other agricultural countries of the same type, but East Africa is still calculated and counted according to one person.
The overall productivity level in East Africa can be said to be relatively backward, even somewhat low, but Kingdom of East Africa faces many more difficulties than other countries. Take land as an example. Land development in East Africa is completely a process from scratch, which requires a lot of investment and is difficult to achieve results in the short term. In other agricultural countries, mature land has been developed long ago, and the operation time is long and the output is stable.
The number of livestock in East Africa is also far less than that of contemporary agricultural countries. It cannot immediately evolve from a human empire to the Mule Horse Empire. It takes several years or even decades to cultivate to meet the needs of Kingdom of East Africa. This is a flaw in the entire Africa. There are no domesticated local livestock that can be used by Kingdom of East Africa, so a large number of imports and introductions are needed.
Insufficiencies are also reflected in agricultural tools. A large number of basic agricultural tools need to be imported, such as hoes, shovels, iron plows, etc., which need to be imported in large quantities from Germany. It's not that East Africa can't produce it, but that its production capacity is limited and its quality is unreliable.
There are still many problems existing in East Africa, but East Africa plus the colonial period only lasted seven years, so we cannot be too harsh.