Chapter 368 Huge Investment
When Angela had just received her tractor driving license and had not returned to Chestnut Village, Frederick had a headache on the farm by the sea.
According to the plan, Lilu will drive the Flying Tulip to a nearby river and park it for a few days. When a ship runs on the sea, it is inevitable that there will be a lot of organisms attached to the bottom of the ship. A sea-going ship can stop it in fresh water for a while. To kill them, scraping the bottom of the boat will be much easier.
It is planned that after scraping the bottom of the ship in Amstel, the Flying Tulip will go to the Wesson shipyard for a comprehensive inspection and repair, providing valuable experience for the armed merchant ships being designed.
It’s just that the city of Amstel has just experienced a catastrophe. The fire ignited by the riots, fueled by the constant northwest wind, burned down most of the city. The city is world-famous for the prosperity brought by shipping. The pearl turned into charcoal in the mud.
Nowadays, survivors are rummaging through the ruins of their homes for what they can still use. Many people use unburnt wood to prop up rags as shelter.
The church organized manpower to collect the victims, and the shipyard by the river was turned into a coffin factory, with lights brightly lit at night.
The gentlemen in the city and the powerful nobles of the Gallic Kingdom had long since disappeared without a trace.
Everything in the city now is handled by the presidents of some local chambers of commerce and the church priests. Lilu directed the Dawn Chamber of Commerce to stop several ships selling grain to Weisen State, and through the expedited After telegraph communication, the ship owner was asked to deliver the goods here, barely guaranteeing that no one would starve to death.
Frederick did not come forward, leaving everything to Lilu and Shupaiya to discuss. Unexpectedly, the fire finally came to his own head.
Shupaiya was extremely nervous when handing a document to the big boss, and the sweat on his forehead was like a cold drink just taken out of the refrigerator on a hot day.
Frederick couldn't help but tremble when he saw the document.
One of the main businesses of Dawn Chamber of Commerce is marine insurance. In the past two years, it began to get involved in city house fire insurance and also launched this business in Amstel City.
When we first promoted our business, there were activities such as giving away house fire insurance when buying ship insurance, cargo insurance, seamen’s life insurance, and giving eggs or cooking oil when buying insurance. In addition, Frederick had a good reputation, so the purchase There were so many people, but I didn’t expect to catch up with the Amstel fire.
Now that the fire losses have been calculated, there is a rough statistical table for the leaders to see on the first page of the document.
The average three- and four-storey wooden houses that ordinary civilians live in cost 5 florins each, and there are 3,680 houses in total;
The better houses that ordinary businessmen live in average 30 florins each, and there are 1,125 houses in total;
< br>Houses with courtyards cost an average of 90 florins per house, 360 in total;
Small mansions where wealthy people live cost 150 florins in total, 18 in total;
Have facades , warehouse or work area, shop or workshop with 2 to 3 rooms, an average of 15 florins each, a total of 868;
Large warehouses with tile roofs cost an average of 50 florins each, a total of 512;
There is one accounting school and one literacy school each, with an average cost of 300 florins each.
In total, the Dawn Chamber of Commerce needs to compensate a total of 126,470 florins, which is 443 kilograms of gold after rounding, which is slightly more than the income of the royal family of the Rhine League in four years. Even Frederick frowned.
The Dawn Chamber of Commerce has high profits, but the funds and reserves it turns over every year are not low. At the same time, it also invests in the construction of radio stations and telegraph stations at various ports. It cannot pay so much money alone. Forcibly withdrawing funds will cause The entire capital chain was broken and eventually went bankrupt.
For a long time, the income of the Wesson family - including investment income and Wesson state taxes - has not been disclosed to the public for fear of scaring people. To put it simply, last year's income was about 10 times that of the Rhineland Union. Of the royal income, 95% is used for various expenditures of the Wesson state government, and 5% is used by the Wesson family.
Frederick adhered to the concept that gold was money when it was circulated. Every year, a large number of gold coins were spent to promote economic development through infrastructure construction, scientific research, and funding for poor painters. The gold as a reserve was not much.
Wessen just experienced the battle to regain Constantbul last year, and the profits have not been repaid, so this year it is necessary to issue a special bond of 150,000 florins to deal with the war and start the later basic road construction. project.
Frederick calculated in his mind that he could not allocate such a large amount of funds in a short period of time without affecting his financial health. Now is the time to spend money after the war, demolishing the east wall to pay for the west wall In the end, all the walls collapsed.
Although there are many good things in the treasury of Archduke Franken, Archduke Regens and others that can be sold, this tulip scandal is only the beginning. It involves a wide range of things. How many landlords are there? It's hard to say how much food will be left. There will be many people cheering for it, but no one paying for it.
The most important task now is to get enough cash to pay the fire compensation within July, otherwise the reputation will plummet and there will be no way to turn around.
Shupaiya reminded Frederick: "The farm's wheat, golden beans, pumpkins and Elizabeth potatoes will be harvested soon. After delivery in August, there will be a profit of about 10,000 florins. We can let the acquirer pay in advance."
Frederick's farm here, which was reclaimed from swamps, is an important granary in the Wesson state. The purchaser is the Chamber of Commerce run by the Wesson state government and his vassals. The advance payment is only A matter of words.
But he didn't react at all. He just sat on the sofa, picked up the tea cup and took a slow sip of tea, concentrating on thinking about countermeasures.
"Record the order."
Frederick suddenly ordered in a deep voice, and Shupaiya immediately took out his notebook to record.
Frederick said: "Using the tax revenue of the Wessen state government for a total of ten years from 1035 to 1044 as collateral, Wessen Bank issued disaster relief bonds of 200,000 florins, with a three-year term and an annual interest of 5%." "Of which 60,000 florins are issued." Rollin bonds were sold in the city of Ven, the capital of the Osmaga Empire, 50,000 florins were sold in the city of Cologne, 40,000 florins were sold in the city of Barris, the capital of the King of Gaul, and the last 30,000 florins were sold in The city of London, the capital of the King of England, was sold, and the remainder was purchased internally by Wesson Bank."
"Cancellation of all contracts for all farms in the lowland areas outside the area, according to the contract. Compensation will be paid and sold at normal prices after harvesting."
"From tomorrow on, all grain sold to Weisen State will be delivered here, and we will continue to open a porridge shed with the church."
"Say to Weisen State and send a batch of winter clothes and quilts...and medicines, and they will be distributed by the church organization."
After he finished speaking, he sighed. The original plan to acquire local assets when the tulip bubble burst could not be carried out, but unexpectedly it turned into disaster relief.
After repeating the leadership instructions, Shupaiya left. At this time, he was no longer nervous.
He was no longer nervous. Count Rank had been listening. When he heard that Frederick was going to issue a bond of 200,000 florins, he subconsciously took out the small silver bottle containing the heart disease medicine.
After Earl Rank drank half a glass of juice to calm down, he said: "Wesson, there is no need for you to invest so much money here. It is easy for riots to occur if taxes are raised in the new territory."
< br>The amount Frederick raised was more than the amount of insurance claims that needed to be paid, which was almost the royal family's income for three years. Moreover, this place was a dependency of the Kingdom of Gaul, and it developed only to make clothes for others.
Moreover, not to mention the principal of a 200,000 florin bond, the 5% interest rate is 10,000 florins per year. Count Rank and his companions had previously estimated that the annual income of Wessen is about 20,000 florins. It's probably going to break your muscles.
In Count Rank's opinion, if Frederick wanted to fill such a big hole, he could only scrape the land.
Frederick held his chin and asked him: "You said I have done so many good things and donated some money, can I get a title and a territory?"
Lan Earl Ke was speechless. It was not that he was afraid of surrendering to the enemy. It was not surprising for a nobleman to have titles and territories in foreign countries due to family marriages and the death of distant relatives, but was it necessary to do so at the expense of the comfort of his base?
Frederick continued to think, and he took the note beside him and wrote: "I plan to inject some vitality into the city of Amstel, such as custom-made the hulls of twenty merchant ships that do not use sails. ”
"No!" Count Rank jumped up all of a sudden, "Ships without sails must be top secret and cannot be leaked!"
Frederick smiled and said: "I don't know how many there have been over the years. People imitate our steam engines, and I don’t know how many people have been killed. Sometimes they are not as powerful as ours, but they are much larger.”
“Let’s not talk about anything else, just the ones on our steam engines. No one has been able to make those valves that are barely qualified so far. They are either leaking or have a short service life, and they are extremely expensive.”
“We have a factory there that specializes in producing and researching this steam valve. Yes, the boss spent more than 7,000 florins in three years to make qualified valves. In the end, he did better than the steam engine factory. The steam engine factory discounted part of its own valve production and invested in that valve factory. . ”
“Machine technology is constantly developing, and the steam engines we used to produce have begun to fall behind, so we have recently begun to sell them cheaply and are preparing to replace them with better machines. ”
"To be honest, the Flying Tulip has actually fallen behind a month ago. This time it will be completely refitted when we go back, and then we will start from it to build a fleet that occupies the entire ocean."
Lan Earl Ke was frightened by his plan, and suddenly understood why he needed the title of Lord of the Navy.
Suddenly, he found that a pile of charcoal in his heart that had been cooling for decades seemed to be burning again.
“If you want the territory here, it’s better to spend your money in the Kingdom of Gaul.” Count Ranke didn’t know why he started giving advice to Frederick, “You’d better go to the city of Barris in person and make friends. Some friends."
"There are also Angland, Danmar, and even the pagan dark land and Green Island in the north. If you want to dominate the North Sea, you must at least establish your reputation in those countries."< br>
"I have some friends in those places, and I can introduce them to you when the time comes, as a stepping stone to get on the stage."
(End of this chapter)