Chapter 144: The Yellow Bird at the Back

  Chapter 142: Yellow Bird in the Back

As soon as the news of the railroad company’s foreign share offering spread, it immediately caused a sensation, and in less than three days, the initial shares of these five companies were divided up, raising a total of thirty million guilders in start-up capital.

It has to be said that the great nobles are just magnificent, one family contributes one million eight hundred thousand guilders, all without blinking an eye.

We are all well-informed, and we know very well that the purpose of the government is to bring together the local powerhouses to get rich together, so that no one will mess up the railroad project.

Even so, there is no reason for everyone to refuse to get rich, right?

Franz was willing to bring them together to get rich, so that meant that the Emperor treated them as his own people, which put a lot of people at ease.

As for the heads that rolled from last year’s suppression of the rebellion killings, it was automatically ignored by them. Unconsciously the ass moved again, the traitors naturally deserved to be killed.

With so many powerhouses on board, nothing behind the scenes needed to be a concern for Franz. These people are more anxious than him, the railroad will be built one day earlier, and everyone will be able to make money one day earlier.

The exploration team of the Ministry of Railways has already left, in order to speed up, the newly established railroad company also organized its own exploration team, joined the exploration work.

Five railroads were started at the same time, namely: the Double Bub Railway (Prague to Bratislava), the Vise Railway (Vienna to Szeged), the Vimy Railway (Vienna to Milan by way of Venice), the Lusatian Railway (Ljubljana to Sagreb) the Galicia Railway ……

Of course the actual distances built, there must be more than that, these five are just the main lines.

For example: there would be a branch railroad connection between the Bisbue Railroad and the Vise Railroad, which would extend west to Salzburg, and a bunch of branches of the Bisbue Railroad.

The Lusa Railway, not to mention, the straight-line distance between the two places is just over a hundred kilometers, how can such a short distance become a main line?

Naturally, it was extended in both directions, westward to Firach and Vimy railroads connected together, and eastward to Slavonia Brod.

The main road alone was 4,000 or 5,000 kilometers, and with the miscellaneous branch railroads, more than 10,000 kilometers was proper.

There is no doubt that the Ministry of Railways has smuggled in some of the difficult routes, using bundling methods.

This was also acquiesced in by Franz, and as compensation the Austrian government would provide some free labor for the railroad companies, depending on the construction conditions.

All aboard, and now you want to quit? Without the expendable labor in the hands of the government, it would not be easy for the railroad companies to build the railroads.

Once the casualty rate is too high, even if everyone’s eyes are open, they can’t cover it up, right?

Imagine the social impact of thousands of deaths. Not to mention, the pension alone could make them vomit blood.

This is also one of the reasons for the slow growth of railroad mileage in European countries, hundreds of kilometers of railroads every year, the number of casualties to control within a certain range, we can still afford.

If the casualties were high, the workers would go on strike. Could slaves be shipped back from overseas to do the work? The price of slaves in this era was also not cheap, and the shipping cost was not a small amount.

The construction of railroads in this era could be said to be very cruel. Machinery and equipment were too few, and most of them had to be carried on the shoulders and backs by manual labor, and the dangerous areas were often finished together with the equipment.

Opium, but also a lot of unscrupulous railroad companies for workers to prepare daily necessities, most people can not stand the pain, all rely on opium to paralyze themselves, a few years later, people will be wasted.

Undoubtedly, these few newly established railroad companies in Austria are the representatives of unscrupulous railroad companies, and the shareholders behind the scenes are a group of dignified aristocrats.

Precisely because of the aristocracy, they must take into account the reputation, many things can be done in secret, to the surface they can not do.

It’s not easy to clear your name, and the reputation that your ancestors have accumulated is even more unspeakable. Look at Franz’s performance to know, the emperor himself does not touch, the Habsburg family investment must also open the vest trumpet.

In this case, what is more assured than using criminals? No more deaths, and public opinion will not condemn them, at least in this day and age.

Of course it’s not uncommon to find a few managers, presidents, or whatever to take the blame, and in condemning them for mismanagement, and then there’s no more.

These people are rebels and have been blackballed to the bottom of the pot in terms of public opinion, and as long as the Austrian Empire exists, there’s no way they’ll be turned over.

Don’t think that just because there are no strains in Europe, the Austrian government won’t engage in them. If you are involved in a rebellion, the high and mighty nobles are finished, not to mention the ascendants.

Everyone is pretending to be confused, the ordinary people days will not admit that someone in their own family rebel, as long as the peace and quiet, the government also pretends not to know anything.

Anyway, in times of war, so chaotic, want to check the situation is also very difficult, just directly as the death toll dealt with, otherwise Metternich come up with the death toll is how to come?

These people were already dead in the civil registry, and their families treated them as dead, and many of their funerals were organized in advance.

With the exception of Franz’s initial suppression of the Vienna Rebellion, where “rebels fighting to be the first to turn” were given a lighter sentence, the rebels in Italy and Hungary were basically dead men.

These people also became the best laborers, those who died once could not do it again, these people died directly a fire and finished.

No salaries to be paid, no pensions to be paid. There are no families to cause trouble, no media to condemn, and there will be no subsequent trouble.

The only problem is that these people are in the hands of the government, and it’s only natural to want to use them. It’s true that there aren’t that many additional sections according to prior agreement, but again, there’s no promise of free labor, is there?

Without hesitating for long, everyone still decided to repair. Only to put these sections in the back to repair, anyway, save the biggest piece of labor expenses, also can not increase the budget much.

In the future, if there is profit, then put into operation, no profit ten days and half a month to send a car, this is also their freedom.

Austrian railroads as long as the control of the operating frequency, the possibility of losing money is actually not big, and then remote areas, ten days and a half months can be put together a carload of goods out.

The Ministry of Railways planned out the route, connected to the city, not the countryside, how can there be no business?

Cold routes, not able to earn money, but the problem of capital preservation is not a big problem, even if the loss will not be too much.

This is the advantage of private railroad companies, they can flexibly deploy train schedules, freight and passenger transportation can be deployed according to actual demand.

Government operations will not be able to, if you give the following scheduling staff, so much authority, it is estimated that the railroad system will soon be emptied by them, this regulation is also very troublesome.

Private enterprise owners will keep an eye on their own, the government sends anyone to keep an eye on can not guarantee not to be corrupted, can not Franz, the emperor every day to pay attention to this problem, right?

There is also the government to consider political factors, many local economic development needs railroads operate every day, the short-term railroad system will lose money, but the local economy is also driven up, the government’s tax revenue increased.

In the end, the Government will lose money or make money, and it is very difficult to calculate this account clearly.

In order to avoid large-scale corruption and minimize losses, the frequency of most government-operated railroads is usually fixed.

If you want to make a dispatch, you have to make reports at all levels. Unless it is a special case, most of the time, very few staff members will ask for trouble, and the operating costs naturally go up.

After a series of bargaining, everyone finally managed to reach an agreement, and the great Austrian railroad construction was launched.

In order to recover the cost in the shortest possible time, this time the “three-side program” (side exploration, side design, side construction).

Railroad construction work has just begun, we helplessly found a problem, it seems that the railroad around the sand and gravel mines have fallen into the hands of the Austrian sand and gravel group.

This made many people regret, before the construction of the railroad, only around the city gravel is still worth a little money, the sand and gravel in the wilderness is simply no one asked for.

But now it is different, the construction of the railroad will certainly use a lot of sand and gravel raw materials. In this era, there is no car, can only rely on manpower or animal transportation, in addition to the local materials there is no choice.

Just got the news, the management of the railroad company is angry, they were shareholders gracefully invited to do the dirty work, this time it is their turn to appear.

Unfortunately, there is no opportunity for them to perform, when the Austrian sand and gravel group lit up the background, one by one as what has not happened.

Not right, happened. Come when ready to smash the scene, get clear about the situation, it becomes a business talk, left with a good supply contract signed with the Austrian sand and gravel group.

A real child’s fair trade, all the sand and gravel supplies went at market price, which should be considered a fair trade if the market price wasn’t controlled.

Franz still knows the importance of light, a small profit can be, if you play too much, spread the influence is not good.

So the market price of sand and gravel did not increase dramatically, just than the railroad before the start of construction increased by three layers, of course, the railroad company is a big customer, and gave a 20% discount.

Combined, the unit price has only increased by four percent, almost no increase in price, definitely counted as a conscience price.

This is also within the rules, as early as the first half of Franz to the cabbage price to buy these minerals, many of which are bought from the hands of the nobles.

The most valuable thing in this era is information, there is no way they are not well informed enough and greedy for small advantages, they can only admit defeat.

The only thing that reassured them was that it seemed that His Majesty the Emperor was not specifically targeting the railroads. Bought not only gravel mines, in addition to gold and silver mines too expensive minerals do not want, other messy mines are acquired a bunch.

Even these sand and gravel mines, not all of them are along the railroad, there are inside the barren hills and mountains, apparently also rely on a wide net in making money.

So many gravel mines, Franz is naturally impossible to send people over to manage, after all, the unit price of gravel is not high, the profit is mainly by volume.

As a feather-loving emperor, the things that oppress the workers naturally can’t be done, including the things that he is the boss behind the scenes are not allowed to leak out.

This time it is necessary to find contractors, the big nobles are not able to see the second-hand dealers, not there are small nobles and small capitalists?

This does not need Franz to worry about, after putting out the wind of subcontracting, someone soon contacted the person in charge of the Austrian sand and gravel group.

In the hands of the order contract in, destined to make money in the sale, the negotiation is still very easy.

The contractor was responsible for recruiting workers for the mine, for managing all the work on the site, and for taking legal responsibility for it.

Depending on the actual situation, the Austrian sand and gravel group withdraws twenty to thirty percent of the profit of the contract sum, and the rest is at the disposal of the contractor, including the payment of taxes and the payment of labor wages, and the contract is terminated after the completion of the construction of the railroad.

Can earn money, depends on the management level of these people, anyway, and they signed the contract is the Austrian sand and gravel group, but also all the responsibility is dumped on the contractor, even if in addition to the big problem, at most, but also traced to the Austrian sand and gravel group of this vest number.

Then there is no then, the vest number is still behind the vest number, to this point also stop. Those in the know are smart people, no one will uncover the lid.

No matter how others counted, how they dragged their feet, with a turn of the hand, Franz earned the biggest share of the profits.

It is estimated that by the time these railroads are finished, Franz will have recovered all the money he put into buying the mines beforehand, and the mines are the biggest profit he has ever made.

To know that this is only a beginning, only developed a part of the gravel mine, there are still a bunch of mines behind waiting to be developed. At this moment Franz realized that the mine owner was the happiest.

(End of chapter)