Chapter 434 Railway Bond
Tang Xianzu is already a qualified Railway Department official.
In Tang Xianzu's view, the requirements of the Ministry of Revenue were simply unreasonable.
Before the construction of the Su-Song Railway started, the Ministry of Household Affairs required that the railway should start making profits within two years. Can I decide whether the railway is profitable or not?
It is also necessary to reduce construction costs. The water network in Susong area is crisscrossed. In order to build railways, a large number of bridges across rivers must be built. These alone are a huge expense. Now this cost report has been calculated and calculated by Tang Xianzu. .
Tang Xianzu engaged in a verbal battle with the officials at the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Pang Xinyue, who was also a Jinshi of Guanzheng, was stunned for a moment.
How come everyone is a Jinshi of Guanzheng, why are you, Tang Xianzu, so cunning!
He, Pang Xinyue, still maintains relationships with the department and is familiar with the working procedures of the Department of Accounts.
Why did you, Tang Xianzu, start quarreling with my boss and my boss’s boss?
It was clear that Tang Xianzu was the only one, and that Tang Xianzu was only sixteen years old, but the official uniform of a Guanzheng Jinshi was so conspicuous. Everyone present did not regard Tang Xianzu as a small ninth-grade trainee official, but as a capable person. Representative of the Railway Department.
After Tang Xianzu's arguments, the Ministry of Household Affairs finally gave up the requirement that Su-Song Railway be profitable within two years, but still strictly controlled the cost of railway construction.
The Ministry of Revenue sent back the railway department’s cost accounting report and asked the railway department to produce a lower-cost plan.
At the same time, various departments of the Ministry of Household Affairs also discussed plans to issue the first railway bonds.
The first batch of railway public bonds were bonds. Those who purchased public bonds could not participate in the operation of the Susong Railway, but they could get interest on the public bonds every year. The interest calculated by the Ministry of Accounts was 3% a year, simple interest.
This batch of railway bonds will be redeemed uniformly after five years.
The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Railway Department agreed that the interest on the public bonds within five years would be paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs, but the money for redemption of the railway bonds after five years would be paid by the Susong Railway Company itself. This could be regarded as forcing the Susong Railway to make profits as soon as possible.
Another small thing is that railway bonds are bearer bonds and can be transferred at will.
To this end, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will set up a public bond trading center in Shanghai, where anyone can list and purchase railway public bonds for sale.
However, stamp duty is payable on transactions at the Public Debt Center.
Even officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs feel that this is superfluous. As long as it is stipulated that railway public bonds can be freely transferred, the private sector will naturally trade them. Why set up a public bond trading center? And you have to pay taxes to trade here. Whoever pays more will trade here. The interest on your public bonds is only 3% a year, and there is nothing left after paying the stamp duty.
I heard that this regulation was proposed by the Governor himself, and officials from the Ministry of Accounts had no objections. It is just that the Financial Department has an additional job and needs to supervise the trading center.
When Tang Xianzu left with the thick documents in his arms, the household officials in the meeting hall did not disperse.
"The future generations are terrible." Lu Yuanwailang, the member of the household department who chaired the discussion, said with emotion.
"Indeed." Huo Chengzhen, the head of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs, sighed as he looked at the direction in which Tang Xianzu was leaving. Director Huo's eyes swept over him. He also had a Jinshi who was a political observer, so how could he not be as capable as Tang Xianzu?
Lu Yuanwailang said: "It is said that Chief Lu of the Railway Department is impulsive, and some people ridicule him for being a craftsman. He only got such an important position because of his personal relationship with the Governor. Now it seems that the Governor is still very discerning. Ju, Chief Lu is also a talented person. He can train Guanzheng Jinshi so well. He will definitely become a great talent in the future." Chief Huo also sighed and
said, "It's because of the incompetence of my subordinates."
However, Yuan Wailang Lu said: "How can we say that you are incompetent? I think the burden you put on the young people is too light and you did not let them grow up early." Chief Huo immediately
understood what Lu Yuanwailang meant.
Lu Yuanwailang added: "When we were preparing to set up the Cash Customs Office under the ministers, weren't we busy every day and forgetting to eat and sleep? At that time, you and I were just ordinary officials, and we didn't make progress step by step by doing practical things. To this day?"
"These new scholars are our Southeast Elite Chinese Selections, but you just let them waste their time all day long." "If
I look at the preparation of the trading center this time, I can let him go to Shanghai to prepare the government bond trading center. "
Both Lu Yuanwailang and Chief Huo were Fang Wanghai's capable subordinates when he was organizing the Customs Office, and they also rose to this position step by step through their work.
Pang Xinyue, a new scholar who was originally serving tea and water, did not expect that Tang Xianzu's visit to the Ministry of Revenue would completely change his ordinary life.
After the issuance of railway bonds was finalized, the administrative system in the Southeast began to work.
First of all, it is an old habit in the Southeast. Whenever something is to be promoted, newspapers start to build momentum.
Many newspapers in the southeast began to report on the start of construction of the Su-Song Railway, and then published news about the issuance of railway bonds, and announced the date of the issuance of railway bonds.
The people in the Susong area certainly support the construction of the railway.
But this public debt has made people retreat.
Although the credibility of the Southeast Government is much higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, the person who borrowed the debt is the Southeast Government after all!
If you lend money to ordinary people and you really can't get it back, you can still come to ask for it. Can you still go and ask for money borrowed from the government?
Three percent interest per year seems attractive, but doesn’t your own principal look more attractive?
And the most important thing is that public bonds need to be redeemed after five years.
A lot can happen in five years. With the North and the South now competing for hegemony, who knows what the situation will be like in five years?
If the south unites the north, then the public bonds can naturally be exchanged and redeemed.
What if the north unites the south? The public bonds will become a pile of waste paper, and even the people who bought the public bonds will be liquidated.
Therefore, this time about the railway bonds, ordinary citizens and small businessmen have shown great enthusiasm to subscribe. After all, the credibility of the southeastern government is here, and the interest of 3% a year is very suitable for ordinary people who have no investment channels. It is also a good profit.
But for those big businessmen, the return of 3% a year is not attractive, and the risk of five years is not worth the gain.
Poor Pang Xinyue, who had just lived a life of drinking tea in the Ministry of Household Affairs, was kicked by his boss to Shanghai, where he was responsible for setting up this railway bond trading center.
Pang Xinyue looked at the few temporarily transferred officials under him and felt like crying. How on earth is this railway bond trading center going to be built?
There was really no choice but to bite the bullet. Pang Xinyue worked out a set of trading center regulations in accordance with the Department of Finance's regulatory regulations on the insurance industry.
Immediately afterwards, they began to squander the land and prepare to build a concrete and glass building on the edge of the Huangpu River to serve as the office space of the bond trading center.
The reason why it is built with concrete glass is not that Pang Xinyue deliberately pursues the trend.
In fact, glass and concrete buildings are not comfortable to live in.
Due to problems with insulation and heat dissipation, cold winters and hot summers often occur. Therefore, Su Ze was so stingy that he only used the Crystal Palace as the venue for the Constitutional Conference in the spring and held an expo in the fall. If the meeting were held in the Crystal Palace in the summer, everyone would probably die from the heat.
Pang Xinyue tried to use new buildings because the budget of his department was too small!
Using glass ceilings can increase lighting and effectively reduce lighting consumption.
Moreover, this kind of house can be built quickly and does not require many workers. Pang Xinyue just needs a trading place that looks spacious and bright.
This is not an exquisite building like the Crystal Palace, but just an open-air market with glass on all sides and roof.
Pang Xinyue's busy feet are not touching the ground here, Songjiang Mansion.
Most of the land owned by the Xu family in Songjiang has been transferred.
Because Shen Shixing implemented a progressive land tax rate in Songjiang Prefecture that year, any large household that occupied too much land needed to pay a higher tax rate for land tax.
Xu Kun, the second son of the Xu family, made a prompt decision and transferred all the land except for the land that had been converted into workshops and used as a storage dock.
In fact, Mr. Xu Ergong has long been dissatisfied with the little income from farming, and as the business grew, Xu Kun also began to mature.
The term "Xu Family Half Huating" is a sharp knife placed over the Xu family's head.
Xu Kun's father was the chief minister of the former Ming Dynasty. Not only did the Xu family have no backing in the southeastern government, Xu Kun also thought about seizing the Shanghai Terminal founded by Su Ze.
The sale of land can also be seen as Xu Kun responding to the call of the southeastern government and wanting to make a fortune in a low profile.
But contrary to expectations, the saying "Xu Family Half Hua Pavilion" is still circulated among the people.
It just changed from the Xu family occupying more than half of the land in Huating County to the Xu family occupying more than half of the wealth in Huating County.
Regarding this, Xu Kun was also very broken.
Ever since the expansion of production capacity a few years ago, when Su Ze used a new technology hydraulic mule machine to beat the Xu family, Xu Kun learned the hard way. Every time a new technology appeared on the market, he was always the first to follow up.
The Xu family's workshop is not the most technologically advanced, but it is the fastest technologically updated among large-scale workshops.
And the booming cotton trade seems to have no limit to its growth!
Only cotton businessmen like Xu Kun know how strong the world's demand for cotton is, and how profitable products like cotton are!
Not to mention the southeastern market that is still growing, the markets in the north such as the Ming Dynasty, North Korea, Japan, and Nanyang are all growing at an alarming rate.
Nowadays, a large number of Western businessmen have flooded into Fuzhou and Guangzhou, snatching up the gorgeously printed and dyed high-end southeastern cotton fabrics like silk.
The market is a bottomless pit. No matter how much cotton the Xu family produces, it will always be swallowed up by the market.
Xu Kun took the newspaper and walked to the back house of his family. This was a restricted area of the Xu family, and ordinary servants were not allowed to enter.
The old housekeeper opened the door, Xu Kun walked in with the latest newspaper, and went straight to the main room.
"Dad!"
The person living in the back house is the "ancestor of the Xu family", Xu Jie, the former chief minister of the Ming Dynasty who disappeared while hunting in the west of Jiajing.
The former Mr. Xu Ge was now just like an ordinary old man, wearing a simple cotton gown, lying on a rocking chair with his eyes closed and meditating.
Since leaving Jiajing, Xu Jie returned to his hometown of Huating in Songjiang incognito.
After returning home, Xu Jie stayed behind closed doors and lived in seclusion in this back house.
Awakened by his son, Xu Jie reluctantly opened his eyes.
When Xu Jie first came back, Xu Kun always came to the back house. At that time, he was like a child who got a new toy, showing off his new toy to his father. Xu Kun would tell Xu Jie about his business in Songjiang every day.
Gradually, Xu Kun came less often. After all, there were only so many topics. The Xu family's rise in the cotton industry actually relied on the Xu family's wealth and the Xu family's connections in Songjiang Prefecture.
Xu Kun has been more diligent recently, because he has begun to realize that business and politics cannot be separated. His own industry is so huge that he is no longer an ordinary businessman.
So he often consulted his father about the situation in the southeast.
"Dad, have you seen the newspaper about the railway bonds? Shouldn't our family buy more to support the Governor?"
Xu Jie said happily: "You finally have the idea. Buy it. Of course our Xu family will buy it and we must support it." The cause of the Grand Governor."
With the Xu family taking the lead, the big businessmen in Songjiang and Suzhou finally no longer hesitated and responded to subscribe for railway bonds.
Hangzhou Prefecture, the second most important economic town in the southeast, the famous investor Yu Ergongzi spent a lot of money and subscribed for 80% of the railway bonds on the Hangzhou market!
With these big businessmen taking the lead, the sale of railway bonds was successfully completed, and Tang Xianzu finally obtained the start-up capital for the construction of the Su-Song Railway.
Lu Gang went to Xuzhou. The officials in the Railway Department were all technical officials. They were higher in rank than Tang Xianzu, but they did not know how to prepare a railway.
Tang Xianzu could only grit his teeth and shoulder the burden, and went to Suzhou Prefecture to inspect and explore the route and coordinate relations with various local governments.
But other things were fine. Tang Xianzu encountered huge resistance on the issue of land relocation along the Suzhou Railway.
There is a strong atmosphere of litigation in Suzhou Prefecture. Many owners of land refused to relocate and were stuck on important routes waiting to be sold. They even sued the railway company in court.
Tang Xianzu could not resist, so he could only rush back to Nanjing and prepare to ask the Ministry of Punishment for help.
Just as he walked into the Ministry of Justice carrying the files, a Guanzheng Jinshi of the same year recognized Tang Xianzu and came forward to greet him warmly.
"Brother Tang?"
(End of chapter)