Chapter 598 Sugar Workshop and Industrial Vouchers
When Leonardo was shocked by the description in Rufeier's letter, Rufeier had not yet arrived at the Holy Artifact Hall, and he had heard all the descriptions of the Holy Mechanism from Armand.
After the Constituent Assembly ended, Lufair, Abaz and their group followed Catherine to Rapid City.
His Majesty Sheng Sun did not return. Instead, he went to his hometown of Upper River County with Jeanne, Meliati and others to handle an important matter.
After a short stay in Rapid City, Catherine stayed to deal with the issue of industrial bonds and asked Armand to lead the three of them to visit Castle Joan of Arc.
The first stop for Armand and others was the industrial area on the outskirts of Castle Joan of Arc.
Wooden pulley cranes can be seen everywhere in the industrial area on the east bank of the Ibe River. In rows of trench foundations extending in all directions, laborers wielding pickaxes gasped for air.
The covered carriage moved forward in the mud and soon stopped beside an old monastery manor.
Surrounding the four monastery buildings are five sugar workshops under construction.
Since the new sugar workshop had a larger number of people and was different in nature and shape, in order to distinguish it from the previous small workshop, Horn specially named it "workshop".
These workshop buildings were based on the classical revivalist concept put forward by Witte, the deputy mayor of the Holy Armory, and detailed designs by his grandfather Faunt, and were built under the leadership of Rocker, who almost followed Horne to Daze Township.
Originally it was not his turn, but in order to compensate him and cover up his act of supporting his grandson under the guise of public charity, Faent still handed over the project to him.
It has to be said that Rockel may not be good at design, but he does have a down-to-earth character.
The sugar factory in front of you is built with red bricks and bonded with mortar. The roof is made of wooden beams and sloped tiles. The total area is about 500 square meters and 80,000 bricks are used.
"This workshop, including the copper pot for boiling sugar and the stone pot for stirring crystallization, plus construction costs, will cost about 480-550 gold pounds." Standing next to Armand, Halkin introduced the building in front of him incessantly. "Look, this is the cooling crystallization area, where the processed sugar water will crystallize and turn into white sugar. Look at these ventilation windows, how spacious they are."
Following Rufeil, Abaz glanced at the sugar workshop in front of him melancholy.
This sugar workshop is different from their wooden shed, using a monastery-style corridor design.
From the entrance to the exit are the raw material accumulation room, the cooking and purification room, the cooling and crystallization room, and the finished product warehouse at the exit.
Whenever the workers complete a process, they are sent directly to the next processing room, instead of the common practice in small workshops where the master and the apprentice complete everything themselves.
The five sugar workshops are like a group of fortresses guarding the large monastery in the middle. According to Halkin's introduction, the white sugar will be packaged and packaged in the monastery, and then transported by horse-drawn carriage to the transfer terminal not far away.
This transshipment terminal can handle 50-100 tons of cargo every day.
For the current sugar and grain transportation, this throughput is quite generous, but Abaz saw strong ambitions from behind.
The finished sugar was served in a pottery plate, and Halkin shook the bond introduction book in his hand:
"I'm not lying. The efficiency in the first year is relatively low, and the income may only be more than 200 gold pounds, but two years will definitely be enough to recover the capital, three years will be enough to make a profit, and four years will be doubled!
Therefore, our Megdi Industrial Bonds provide an ultra-high interest rate of 10% for five-year industrial bonds, which is enough to offset the risk.
I am also a businessman, and I know that business is difficult. It is easy to make a profit of 2 dinars from a 1 dinar business, but it is very difficult to make a profit of 10 gold pounds from 100 gold pounds, especially if it has been profitable for five consecutive years. ”
"Industrial coupons?" Abaz repeated this unfamiliar word. It was obviously a new noun, and it seemed to use the prefix of craftsman and the suffix of debt.
"Yes, it's an IOU. You lend me money and I'll pay you back when I make a profit."
"Participate in shares?" Abaz's eyes lit up instantly.
The joint-stock partnership caravan in the empire is not new. It means that several merchants pay to hire a ship to do business, and then distribute the profits according to proportion.
The autonomous city of Shirasatsu introduced the concept of shares and increased annual dividends.
After that, the reforms of the Megdi Chamber of Commerce allowed the circulation of shares on the Rapid City Exchange, which formed stocks.
The trend of stocks has gradually been promoted in the Kingdom of Fran and the Kingdom of Norn in recent years, so Abaz knows the concept of shares.
Since Horn uses alchemy technology, it is equivalent to openly engaging in high technology and the "black industry" in the definition of the empire.
The new nobles didn't have the policy to allow alchemy, and they didn't have the technology to purify brown sugar. Horn also found the royal family as a bridge, so they could only watch and worry.
But if you can participate in these industries, you may be able to get back the lost profits.
Halkin shook his head: "No, no, no, no matter whether the industrial bonds are profitable or losing, we will pay the principal and interest. If the losses are so great that we can no longer operate, there are generally three situations: debt-for-equity swap, auction, and debt restructuring.
If the debt is converted into equity, it is equivalent to converting the money you earned from buying industrial bonds into shares. ”
In order to make money to finance the huge military expenditure, Horn used the financial instrument of bonds to make a fuss. The evolution was so fast that Abaz was not yet familiar with this concept.
But through Halkin's narration, Abaz gradually understood.
Unlike stocks, bonds pay dividends regardless of profits or losses, which means they have priority in repayment. Although they lose the income from capital appreciation, they have low risk.
Moreover, the brown sugar purification technology is unique to both policy and technology, and there is also the French Royal Trading Company. They are even an independent force in the Kingdom of Leia, and the French upstarts cannot interfere.
This sugar and grain trade is 100% profitable. Not only is it profitable, it is also huge. Although the income is not as high as direct equity participation, it is better than earning nothing at all, and it is also stable.
"In fact, you can consider becoming our broker in the Kingdom of France, and we can give you a commission of 0.5%." A hint of coldness and cunning flashed in Armand's eyes, "I think those old nobles will definitely like bonds. .”
The Blue Ocean Market, where the Abaz family was engaged in sugar trading, had not yet reacted, but Venise's smelly face suddenly twitched.
His family mainly makes money from overseas grain trade and futures, and they know this very well.
The landed aristocrats are all old-money families. Nowadays, with the influx of precious metals and cheap food from the Flesh and Blood Royal Court, prices are soaring, and the money in their hands is slowly depreciating.
Some nobles raised sheep in enclosures, planted cash crops or invested in commerce, and quickly transformed into the current French new nobles, that is, the robe nobles.
The rest either have no conditions, cannot lose face, or have failed in transformation, and are extremely anxious about the devaluation of their real estate and assets. These people are the sword-wielding aristocrats.
Although the bond yield is low, it has low risk and is stable, which is most in line with the conservative mentality of the sword-wielding aristocrats. If it can still be traded, it will be a king.
If this business is done well, the income will be no less than that of sugar trade. The only problem is national credit and long-term survival.
If the Kingdom of Leia pushes them away in the future, won't all the money be lost?
"Do you have three-year industrial coupons?"
"For a three-year term, the interest rate is probably not even 7%."
“It doesn’t matter if the interest rate is lower, the question is whether the principal and interest can be paid on time?”
"You can rest assured that we will sign a multilateral netting agreement with the French Royal Trading Company."
"Is it possible not to go through the French Royal Trading Company?"
Looking at the two people communicating with Halkin, Armand smiled lightly and said: "You two might as well write a letter to your family and ask if you can form your own chamber of commerce. We will contract for you by region, whether it is sugar or bonds. Okay.”
"You two, what do you mean?" Lu Feier asked with a pout.
"Huh? I didn't mean that..."
"That's not what it means. What does that mean?"
Armand suddenly felt a headache. He shouldn't have made a joke and asked Lu Feier to go to the barn to take a look. Now this little girl has problems with him everywhere.
But for the sake of Shengsun's industrialization plan, for the time being, we can only continue to greet him with a smile.
They need these new French nobles, or in other words, they need the money in the hands of the new nobles.
If industrialization is to be completed, a large amount of capital investment is required. Catherine once estimated at a royal meeting that the entire Qianhe River Valley metal currency would be worth only about ten tons of gold.
With an income level of less than 1 gold pound per capita, it is difficult to support oneself. How can there be so much spare money to invest in industry.
It is absolutely impossible to complete industrialization with Qianhe River Valley's own capital. Either the farmers have to be squeezed to suck blood, or they have to accept investment from foreign capital.
Horn doesn't like to earn poor people's money. He earns from whoever has money.
If a Frenchman is rich, he will earn money from famous French families, especially those sword-wielding nobles.
If it is still not enough, you can also launch an exorcism jihad in accordance with the will of the Holy Father and reduce the foreign debt to zero through creditor restructuring.
This bond move can be used not only on the French people, but also on the nobles of the Thousand River Valley itself.
The empire forcibly fixed medieval production relations and forcibly suppressed productivity, thereby forcibly suppressing the profitability and mobility of capital.
Then don't blame Horn for taking advantage of the Thousand River Valley policy to open a small opening in the sluice of the Money Dam.
It's still just a trickle now. When he can defeat the Kingdom of Leia in the future and achieve the true establishment of Thousand River Valley, the national credit he has established will be enough to ensure his stable payment ability.
By then, the imperial capital that has gone crazy will come rolling in and completely overwhelm the economic dam erected by the empire.
After appeasing Ruphire by saying, "I'll play some wind-up guns with you this afternoon," Armand wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief: "The sugar workshop is roughly like this. There are workshops around here. Do you want to visit it? ?”
"We might have to..."
"It's not yet noon. It's too early to go back now. You can accompany us to look around."
Amidst the complicated faces of Venise and Abaz mixed with jealousy, sadness and despair, Rufell took the lead and said to Armand with a smile.
(End of chapter)