Chapter 204 Grand Prize
The Grand Dukes do not engage in production, but receive hundreds of thousands of rubles in salary from the empire every year. Add in the income from the fiefdom, the profits and dividends from various commercial investments, and the profits and dividends from various commercial investments can easily reach millions of rubles.
Ordinary Russians work hard all year round and can only earn a hundred and ten rubles. After deducting living expenses, there is not much left. This is the fundamental reason why the Tsar was frequently assassinated.
George has no objection to the princes doing business. Money only makes sense if it flows.
But the way the princes did business caused extremely serious harm to the empire.
If the princes were doing business as honestly as George, even if they were running a monopoly, as long as the taxes that should be paid were paid on time and the salaries that should be paid were paid on time, the conflicts within the empire would not be so acute.
No way to make money.
In other words, the princes who don't want to make "hard-earned money" not only focus on the bit of meat on their plates, but also care about what's in the pot.
They will fight anyone who dares to touch their flesh.
Ya Er moved, so Ya Er was assassinated.
Just as Ya San was about to move, the special train derailed.
Nikolai is not afraid of tigers as a newborn, and George will not let Nikolai fight alone.
It should be said that compared with Ya Er and even Ya San, Nikolai's qualifications are somewhat mediocre. He does not know where to start to change the status quo and nationalize the privately operated railways.
George has an idea.
The Russian Empire’s investigation into the derailment of the Tsar’s train was not thorough, and it is extremely irresponsible to hastily conclude that the switchman made a mistake
The person responsible for investigating the matter was Count Vorontsov Dashkov.
George decided to reopen the investigation into the derailment of the Tsar's train.
"This matter is over, what's the use of pestering again and again?"
Nicholas does not agree with restarting the investigation. For him, the derailment of the special train is like a nightmare. Nikolai Ra didn't even want to remember it.
“Can a small switchman derail the royal train?”
George firmly believed that there must be something hidden behind this incident.
Even if it doesn’t exist, it must exist.
The Tsar Train derailed on a route owned by the South Western Railway Company.
Southwestern Railway Company is precisely the company with the most stubborn attitude towards the nationalization of railways.
The reason why George wants to restart the investigation is that the boss of the Southwestern Railway Company is a Hebrew.
Oh, it’s the Hebrews again.
Why are there Hebrews everywhere?
Nicola spread his hands.
Isn’t this a very reasonable explanation for a drunk railway switchman’s mistake that caused the Tsar’s train to derail?
It does sound reasonable.
But when the Tsar's special train derailed, only one railway switchman was punished, which is unreasonable in itself.
"Borki Railway Station is owned by the Southwestern Railway Company, so the Southwestern Railway Company bears unshirkable responsibility for the derailment of the special train. I feel that the person in charge of the Southwestern Railway Company has some conspiracy. The Tsar's suspicion."
George knows how to investigate.
The process is not important, the conclusion is not important, and even the truth is not important.
The original sin of the Tsar is that he is the Tsar and must be responsible for all the mistakes of the empire.
The original sin of the Southwestern Railway Company boss——
There is no need to draw on the original sin.
George believes that as long as he investigates the Southwestern Railway Company, he will definitely get what he wants.
George did not believe that any of the railway tycoons in the Russian Empire these days had a clean butt.
A Hebrew man can actually own a private railway in Russia.
This sentence doesn't seem clean.
“George, it’s not that serious.”
Nicola was startled by George’s words.
If we follow George's method of investigation, many heads will fall.
"Nikki, if you have to sacrifice the boss of a private railway company to benefit all Russians, how do you choose?"
George didn't like Ya Er's boil-the-frog-type improvement approach.
I don’t even like Yasan’s behavior of reversing history because of fear of change.
Nicholas was not a qualified czar, but his trust in George was unparalleled.
What George gave Nicholas was not a multiple-choice question. There was only one answer to this question.
Leaving Gatchina Palace, George and Nicholas went to find Werther.
Before Witte entered the Ministry of Transport, he worked for the South-Western Railway Company and was the general manager of the special railway company, earning fifty thousand rubles a year.
Witt is compiling a report on his trip to the Far East, preparing to submit it to the Tsar.
Witt did know a lot about the South Western Railway Company.
Just as George thought, no one in the Russian Empire of this era can really stand up to scrutiny.
“The biggest problem of private railway companies is not lack of capacity or disrepair, but deception.”
The biggest advantage of Witt is that he will work for whomever he supports, and he will never do it half-heartedly. Since Werther now worked for the Tsar, Werther sold all the dirty tricks of the railway company.
"The Imperial Railway Affairs Bureau consists of a Finance Department and a Freight Department. In addition, there is a Freight Committee responsible for reviewing the freight rates of major railway companies, and a Freight Commission responsible for handling related matters. Price Affairs Meeting——"
Witt introduced George in detail to the structure of the Russian Railways.
“The empire is too large, and the conditions vary from place to place, so the Freight Rate Committee only stipulates the maximum price for railway transportation freight, but does not regulate the minimum price.”
"In order to compete, the major railway companies have greatly reduced freight rates. However, in addition to freight rates, there are also various ancillary costs, which has caused huge losses to the empire's finances."
Witt estimated that the Russian Empire was in Losses on the railways amount to 48 million rubles per year.
When he heard this number, Nicholas's expression was ferocious.
George and Nicholas work hard to make money, how much per year?
The sum that Nikolai and Georgi received was only 5 million rubles.
The major railway companies' freight charges alone caused losses of 48 million rubles to the empire every year.
These people——
Deserve to be killed!
“Not all the money earned by private railway companies is taken away by the company bosses. Officials of the Railway Affairs Bureau must be filial, and members of the Tariff Committee must also take care of it. The dividends paid by the South Western Railway Company every year, As high as 2 million rubles, the taxes paid to the treasury are only a pitiful 200,000 rubles.”
“Very good, very good!”
Nicholas's hands were shaking.
"George, arrest all these people and send them to Siberia in your own way!"
With Nikolai's support, George can finally let go and fight.
What makes George angry is that the boss of Southwestern Railway Company is not actually in Russia, but lives in France.
Okay, probably this Hebrew named Levi Bernstein also knew that he could not withstand the investigation, so he did not dare to stay in Russia at all.
There was nothing left to say, and George sent Yankov secretly to France to bring Levi Bernstein back to St. Petersburg.
Run?
As long as George is willing to look for him, he can catch him even if he goes to the ends of the earth.
Yangkov was amazingly talented at this kind of thing. It only took one week to bring Levi Bernstein's family back to Camp Oak.
George immediately interrogated Levi Bernstein.
The Hebrews are all very smart.
Levi Bernstein would never admit that he had anything to do with the derailment of the Tsar's train.
Not even admitting that he is responsible.
“The route and timetable of the Tsar’s train are the responsibility of the Minister of Transport. The Tsar’s train is also managed by people sent by the royal family and is inaccessible to others. So that incident was completely unexpected. Any conspiracy."
"21 people died and 37 people were injured. Even if this incident has nothing to do with you, you must be responsible for it."
George brought Levi Bernstein back from France not to reason with Levi Bernstein.
In George's opinion, whether he is a second or third grader, he is too tolerant of certain groups in the Russian Empire.
If this were replaced by my Qing Dynasty, Levi Bernstein would be a fattened pig. He must be killed when it is time to kill him, otherwise he would eat nothing during the New Year.
Levi Bernstein still doesn’t know George well enough.
“Duke, how can you say that?”
"Oh, let's talk about the freight rates of the Southwestern Railway Company."
George's restart of the investigation is just an excuse. The key is to nationalize the railway.
“Freight rates are set by the Freight Rate Committee. Southwestern Railway Company has no pricing power at all. Southwestern Railway Company’s freight prices are already the lowest among all railway companies in the empire.”
Levi Bernstein thought he was perfect.
“In the past few years, I have sent things by rail from St. Petersburg to Odessa many times – I had a chat with Vishnevgradsky some time ago, and guess what I discovered?”< br>
George sneered.
Vishnegradsky was the finance minister.
The Southwestern Railway Company has two sets of accounts for freight charges. The accounts used to determine taxes are very low, with almost no profit at all.
The freight paid by George to the Southwestern Railway did not match the accounts used by the Treasury to determine the Southwestern Railway's taxes.
There is no way to explain this.
George still underestimated the shamelessness of these Hebrew merchants.
"Duke, running the railway in the empire is a risky and complicated matter. Yes, the taxes paid to the empire by the Southwestern Railway Company are not much, but the money is not taken away by me, and It was taken away by some big shots in St. Petersburg."
Levi Bernstein made it clear.
Yes, South Western Railway Company has evaded taxes.
But the reason is not with Levi Bernstein.
If you want to know the reason, go back and ask your brothers and uncles.
“So, what you’re saying is that Southwestern Railway doesn’t make money, right?”
George used his spear to attack his shield.
Let’s not talk about who took the money. As a businessman, if you don’t make money, what are you doing?
“It cannot be said that there is no profit, there are still some meager profits.”
Levi Bernstein yelled that something was wrong. If George continued to struggle with this issue, Levi Bernstein would have to dedicate the Southwestern Railway Company to the empire.
Since your company is not making money, then just let the empire run it, and the empire will give you a grand certificate. How about that?
(End of this chapter)