Oh, Gold!

"Huh, what is this?

Gold!

Yellow, shining, precious gold!

No, you gods, I am no idle devotee; I only ask you for some roots!

This stuff, just a little bit of it, can make black white, foul fair, wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant."

--Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

The allure of money is truly irresistible. Even having just emerged from the fires of war, California's population continued to explode, growing from 450,000 before the war to 500,000, surging at an annual rate of 10%.

Just how fast is this? Taking India, a country familiar to modern people, as an example, its population growth rate is a mere 0.8%; the current California region is growing at 12.5 times that speed.

If it continues to develop at this rate, California will have a population of 3.7 million in 20 years. But that is almost impossible, because gold mines will eventually run dry, and once the gold is gone, this land will no longer possess such great charm.

Although the Austrian Empire's alchemy technology is far superior to the historical level of the same period and the utilization rate is constantly improving, it is an indisputable fact that gold mines are a non-renewable resource.

Moreover, the land managed by the Austro-Mexican Joint Development Company in the future will not be limited to California alone. In fact, Franz is currently studying how to develop the land in Nevada.

However, unlike California's favorable natural environment, Nevada's climate is hot and arid, with high temperatures in summer and cold in winter—it could be described as having "two distinct seasons."

Nevada's terrain is complex and diverse, including high mountains, deserts, plateaus, basins, and canyons. Aside from common wild wolves and black bears, the local fauna includes specialties unique to the region, such as the Nevada