Chapter 278: A sensation
Chapter 269 A Bombardment
After a week-long exploration, Father Barker gave the final answer, “Congratulations, Sir Baron. You’re about to get rich.
This is a river alluvial mine, the river sand on the surface contains 8 grams of gold, and the ore sampled from the lower layer actually contains 16 grams of gold.
This gold mine spreads along the river for two kilometers, and the preliminary estimate of the gold reserves could be as high as 50 tons, and as long as you complete the reporting with the colonial government, this place will be yours.”
Hearing this news, everyone got excited, such a rich mine is not rare in Austria.
Baron Fikeni, who was ecstatic, forcibly suppressed his emotions and immediately stated, “Not only am I going to be rich, all of us are going to be rich.
Please rest assured that the original agreement is still valid, this gold mine belongs to all of us, including in order to find the gold mine sacrifice lads, also have a share.
I can assure you all with the honor of the Stray family, as long as the registration is completed in the colony, half of the proceeds from the gold mine will belong to you.
Now let us all guard this gold mine of our own!”
The discovery of the gold mine also meant that the most dangerous moment had arrived. In overseas colonization, there were not too many firefights caused by too much profit and unequal sharing of the spoils.
Not to mention internal firefights, even news leakage was very dangerous before reporting the property rights to the colonial government.
In the face of huge benefits, there are not too many incidents of blackmail. In the open on the African continent, the most dangerous thing is not the jungle, not the indigenous cannibal tribes, but millions of peers.
Baron Fikeni’s value is not thick, after equipping everyone with weapons and equipment, it is almost spent, naturally, it is impossible to have money to pay everyone’s salary.
Since he didn’t have any money, he could only draw a big pie. Sharing the benefits of the gold mine together was the core of his gathering this group.
Obviously the credibility of the Stray family was still very much in the minds of this group of people, and if it wasn’t for the long-standing notion of inferiority and superiority, the atmosphere on the field would be even more enthusiastic right now.
“Your generous Baron, please rest assured that we will definitely defend the gold mine to the death!”
“Honorable Baron, just rest assured, as long as we are still alive, the gold mine will not be lost!”
……
The crowd assured in a chorus of words.
Having received the assurances from the crowd, Baron Fikni revealed a delighted smile. After pacifying his men, he was able to head to the colony to register and report with confidence.
Even if the title was established, it did not mean that the gold mine was safe. This was the African continent, the last thing that was lacking was outlaws, and guarding the safety of the gold mine was equally a top priority.
Some weak colonial teams, even if they have found a gold mine, they do not have the strength to mine it, and can only sell it to the colonial government for a one-time return.
Obviously, Baron Fikeni is not that short-sighted. This gold mine was sold to the colonial government for a maximum of 500,000 to 600,000 divine guilders, and if they mined it themselves, then the final profit could be as high as millions of divine guilders.
……
After Baron Fikeni determined the property rights of the gold mine, the news of the discovery of the gold mine in Guinea was sent back to the country in the shortest possible time.
Mizuno Palace
Franz, who was trying to make a baby, was also attracted by this news. Gold mine means wealth, it can be imagined that it will not be long before Guinea will set off a gold rush.
Gulf of Guinea Gold Coast, Franz still some impression, the specific location of the gold mine where, there is no way to know.
A lot of place names in later years, this era does not exist, even if you remember it is not any use.
Like this gold mine found in Guinea now, in the Guinea region of the latter half of the world, are a big hello.
This area of the African continent, or no master land. The colonial government also does not have the so-called concept of sovereignty, anyway, I occupied even if it is mine.
In later years, the African countries, that neat border line, in fact, in the Berlin conference to determine, before this each region does not have a clear border line, who occupied even if it is who.
The cruel reality let Franz give up digging gold mine rich dream, but with the news of gold, attract immigrants is a good way.
Gold diggers can get rich in the will always be a very small number, most of the people’s end is the money used up, the gold has not been found, and finally had to stay in the colony to find work to make ends meet.
The African continent has little else, but plenty of land. There are enough laborers to develop the local land, bringing far more than one or two gold mines can be compared to the earnings.
The maid’s voice rang out, “Your Majesty, the cabinet ministers are here.”
“Hm, I’ll go over right away.” Franz replied.
The charm of a gold mine is huge, especially a large rich mine attracts the attention of many people, even the Vienna government cabinet is no exception.
If the gold was exchanged for money, it was estimated that this allure was greatly reduced. One ton of gold is only worth 273,200 Shendian, and fifty tons of gold is just over 13 million Shendian.
In fact, the mining of gold also needs cost, the final net profit may also be three or four million Shenduan, and the mining of gold also needs time, averaged to a return of 100,000 to 200,000 Shenduan per year.
For Franz, this could only be considered a small sum of money, and for the Vienna government, it was just a day’s financial income.
Obviously the account is not so calculated, the government takes the biggest use of gold is as a reserve to issue currency, which contains the potential profit is much larger.
……
Minister of Finance Karl said in a spirited manner, “Your Majesty, a large gold mine has been discovered on the African continent, and after geological experts have analyzed it, there may be other gold mines in the surrounding area, and the colonial government has blocked the news.
If we organize manpower now and carry out a comprehensive exploration, we will definitely make a big gain, and the African colony will be able to turn a loss into a profit right away.”
Franz was puzzled, he hadn’t heard of a large vein gathering in Guinea ah, it’s not strange to find a large gold mine, but it’s impossible to find a large gold mine without causing a stir.
However, Franz did not rush to deny the finance minister’s statement, this era colonies are free to develop and expand, if a colonization team ran out of Guinea and found a gold mine, he would not feel strange at all.
Guinea is not big, don’t expect the colonization team will follow the latter days of the national boundaries of action, this group of people’s activities to where, only they themselves know.
Colonial Minister Josip Jelacic proposed, “Your Majesty, the Gulf of Guinea has always been known as the Gulf of Gold, and now that gold has been discovered in Guinea, then it means that the gold in this region has not been mined out.
Now let’s send out troops to occupy this region in its entirety before the news leaks out, and then slowly search for gold!”
Franz shook his head, opened the map and drew a few lines and asked, “Expanding in the Gulf of Guinea is fine, but the British, Portuguese, Dutch, and French all have strongholds along the coast.
It is impossible for us to clash with so many countries at the same time, so the best way is to avoid these strongholds and expand inland, can this be done?”
The reputation of the Golden Gulf was too loud, even though few new gold mines had been discovered in the area in recent decades, it had now become a gathering place for the African slave trade, and slave traders from all countries had gathered here.
Don’t look at their individual strength is not strong, once united, is not so good to deal with. And also a slight change in the whole body, in case of a behind the countries involved, Austria still want to monopolize the Gold Coast, is simply dreaming!
Josip Jelacic replied with confidence: “Your Majesty, the local colonial strongholds of these countries are mostly private acts and not organized by the government.
We’ll just send out civilian armed groups to compete with them, not to mention driving them out, it’s still feasible to establish some more strongholds along the coast.
As long as we have a large enough number of immigrants in the area, we will occupy the initiative of colonization, and until gold is discovered on a large scale, the involvement of governments will be limited.
As long as we have established enough advantages before that, then the later can be resolved by negotiation, it’s nothing more than everyone dividing the territory locally based on strength and weakness.”
Civilian armies are the mainstay of governments’ overseas colonial activities, and even if these organizations fight, there is room for maneuver, and governments will not be dragged down directly.
After hesitating for a few moments of effort, Franz drew a few circles on the map of Africa and then said, “Let’s use these areas as the targets of the fight, these are all areas where a large amount of gold may exist.
However, our goal is not gold, the most valuable wealth on the African continent is the fertile land that has not been developed, followed by some natural minerals, and finally gold.
Even if the gold is abundant, what can be done? The amount of mining each year is limited, it is not worth investing a lot of resources and countries to fight on.
So once things can not be, the abandonment of the abandonment of good, gold in the coastal areas may exist, but more inland areas.
We do not have the ability to develop the interior, but authorized to civil society organizations, so that they are free to develop.
If countries are concentrating on Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, then we’ll go for the hard core of Nigeria, and just take the opportunity to clarify our interests in West Africa.”
Listening to Franz’s explanation, the crowd was shocked, that is, Austria this kind of land power countries, if you change the sea power countries, this kind of speech is deviant.
Can not say that we are short-sighted, is digging a gold mine, only one or two years, the colony can be profitable; If you open up a plantation, planting cash crops, no five or six years are difficult to see the results.
This is still established in the case of enough immigrants, unfortunately now all the major colonial empires are short of people, the local population is too insufficient, where is the ability to develop colonies?
Holland, Portugal, this kind of native less than five million population of small countries, not to mention, even Britain and France is more than 30 million people, growth rate and snail about the same, and there are a large number of colonies, simply can not be developed.
On the contrary, Austria’s situation is better, the number of colonies is not large, the number of people in the country is quite large, and the population growth rate is much higher than that of Western Europe, in order to have enough human resources to carry out in-depth development.
Minister of Finance Karl reminded, “Your Majesty, if the government gives up its monopoly on the gold mines, I am afraid that our colonies will remain in the red for a long time.”
“This loss is within our tolerance, giving up the benefits of monopolizing the gold mines, but acquiring a large influx of immigrants.
With some artificial control on our part, the gold rush can last for at least five or six years, and as long as a third of these gold seekers can remain, our roots on the African continent will be secure.” Franz replied calmly
The gold panners may not be able to make money, but those who provide logistical supplies to the gold panners will definitely make money.
What the government needed was a colony that was sustainable in the long run, not a colony that boomed because of the gold mining and depressed because the gold mining was finished.
Is it true that the colony is losing money? This account depends on how it is calculated.
If the simple calculation of taxes and administrative and military expenses, then the accounts may be a loss, but the gold rush will also form a local market, can expand the Austrian domestic industrial and commercial goods sales.
For example: tents, kettles, shovels, hardware, ships ……
With so many related industries getting orders, it’s bound to generate a lot of tax revenue that feeds back into the coffers.
Not yet able to fill the loss, then the government in the local acquisition of gold, used to make reserves to issue currency, collected currency tax folded up, always able to profit, right?
Countries are losing colonies are not one or two, but we still did not give up, we know that this behind the scenes of the hidden interests.
……
The Vienna government released the blockade, the news of the discovery of a large gold mine in Guinea, quickly spread in the new Holy Roman Empire, and then spread to the entire German region.
This was just the beginning, after the discovery of the gold mine by Baron Fikeni, gold mines were discovered one after another, only these gold mines were not so big.
But it doesn’t matter, as long as there are gold mines, that’s all that matters. Even certain gold mines with too low gold content and no mining value were taken out for publicity by the unscrupulous colonial ministry.
Anyway, they were all gold mines, and the officials just announced the reserves and gave an ambiguous figure for the gold content of the ore.
For example: 0.8 to 45 grams, 0.8 grams of gold content per ton may not be the lowest figure, but 45 grams of gold content per ton must be the highest, or even far more than the highest gold content.
These data are used to fool ordinary people has been enough, each piece of ore gold content is not the same, have such a big gap is normal, and then the trash gold mine will occasionally produce a piece of high-quality ore ah!
The media is also very cooperative in publicizing that so-and-so got rich overnight in the gold rush, for example, Baron Fikeni became a household name, so people know that he became a multi-millionaire overnight.
As for the fact that the wealth was still buried in the ground, and that it cost money to mine the gold, it was decisively ignored by the media.
(End of chapter)