Chapter 638: The American Trip
Chapter 624 The American Trip
In the age of imperialism, the embassies of the great powers in foreign countries also moonlighted as intelligence gathering. After sending Nino away, Minister Tom got busy checking the relevant intelligence information.
There was no way around it, France had limited interests in Colombia, and Colombia ranked very low in diplomatic activities.
To be a minister here is basically a mixed bag of food, and after a long time Minister Tom has fallen, intelligence is still being collected, whether to read it or not is up to his mood.
Now to get the Panama Canal development rights from the hands of the Colombian government, do not understand the weakness of the other side, how can it work?
Time passed by, Tom has a general understanding of the recent events in Colombia.
As for the detailed intelligence, I’m sorry that the embassy had limited funds and was not capable of investigating in depth. The intelligence gathered now was actually similar to what was read in the newspapers.
Putting down the information in his hand, Minister Tom frowned, obviously the information on it was not what he wanted.
“Disf, find out the information about Austria’s activities in Colombia, as well as the information related to the Panama Canal program.”
Secretary Dieseff replied unhurriedly, “Your Excellency the Minister, the embassy only has information on the activities of the Austrians, the Panama Canal program is not within the scope of our intelligence gathering.
We will be able to find out what is publicly available from the Colombian government within a week if needed, additional funds will be required to find out the deeper information.”
Minister Tom’s face grimaced, the French government was rich, but the French Embassy in Colombia was poor.
This could be seen in the staff of the embassy, all together there were less than 10 members, including a cleaner, a cook, and two guards.
In these days, when communications were difficult, ministers abroad had a great deal of power, and the employment of ordinary staff was one of them.
The main reason for such a small number of embassy staff was the lack of office funds. Otherwise, Minister Tom would not mind hiring a few more staff.
Without money, many things can not be done, for example: the collection of intelligence, can only selective focus on the collection, secondary intelligence can only be discarded.
Under normal circumstances, the Republic of Colombia’s canal program will not have a relationship with France, they are too small here, there are benefits can not get their hands on.
Now the situation is very obvious, belongs to the abnormal situation. Minister Tom inwardly spat more than once at the capitalists blindly tossing and turning, completely disregarding the actual situation.
For the face of the franc, since he promised people, Minister Tom still has to honor his promise, this is his professional conduct.
“No problem, I’ll give you a special grant of 10,000 francs, it is necessary to investigate the details of the Columbia Canal program as soon as possible.”
Secretary Dieseff was puzzled, suddenly generous, this was not like the minister he knew.
In his impression, the usual period of Tom Minister are able to save, especially the intelligence department, not even a professional spy, collect intelligence are embassy staff personally on.
Ten thousand francs might not be a big number, but for the intelligence department, it was a broken record.
In the past three years, the entire cost of the Embassy’s intelligence department’s activities had amounted to less than 5,000 francs.
Every penny counts, and since the funds are small, it is natural not to expect much. Usually, some information was taken from the newspapers, together with the hearsay from the banquets, and a bit of organization was considered to be the completion of the task.
Doubtful as he was, Dieseff had no intention of getting to the bottom of it. In any case, the first thing to do was to get the money for the event.
“As you wish, Your Excellency the Minister. In three days at the most, you will be able to see the relevant information.”
It was good to have money to do things, and this had just taken out the funding for the event, and the efficiency was instantly improved.
Disulf had been around for many years, and his network of contacts had been established long ago. Besides, the Colombian government was like a sieve, with no sense of secrecy at all, and it was too easy to get some unimportant information.
As long as they were willing to drop money, they could even bring out the original information directly. There was no doubt that Disiv was not prepared to throw money at it.
By virtue of his status, to view unimportant information, it was just a matter of going directly to the Colombian government archives.
If someone dared to refuse, he would make things happen to create a diplomatic conflict. This was a tried and true tactic, and the Colombian government was most afraid of diplomatic disputes.
……
Nino didn’t come from a great background, only middle class. He has put in a lot of effort to move up the ladder. This canal program is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.
The bigwigs behind the scenes had promised that as long as he was able to complete the preliminary work and convince all parties to restart the canal program, he would be the first president of the canal company, fully presiding over the canal excavation and operation.
The credibility of this promise was very high, and the bigwigs would not break their promise on this small issue, and there was a ready-made case in hand. The first president of the Suez Canal Company is a case in point.
High rewards naturally come with high difficulties, and if anyone could pull it off, it wouldn’t be worth the price.
According to the information in hand, Nino quickly found: the Panama Canal is dispensable for the Union State, their coastline is concentrated in the east coast.
On the contrary, the United States of America, whose territory spanned the east and west coasts, was now busy building railroads in order to strengthen trade and commerce.
If the Panama Canal opened, narrowing the distance between the East and West Pacific, the United States of America could gain huge economic benefits and strategic value.
In this era when interests determine the relationship between countries, it is obvious that the interests of the United States and the canal plan are the same from the point of view of interests, and then the partner in this case can only be the United States.
Nino in the heart of the calculation many times, pulled the United States and Spain, the three countries united in Colombia against Austria, the odds are still very big.
Compared to join forces with Britain and Austria, or join forces with the United States and Spain is more likely to obtain the dominant power, even if the problem occurs, France has the strength to subdue them.
After sending back a telegram to the country, explaining the situation, Nino hoofed it to the United States by boat, ready to pull people in.
……
Affected by the failure of the Civil War, the United States suffered a heavy blow, the government finances were once bankrupt, in the war to support the government of the consortium, naturally, is the loss of blood and money.
After the war, the prestige of the central government was greatly damaged, and each federal state acted on its own, and local protectionism prevailed. In the original time and space, a few consortia were dominant, but now it has evolved into a hundred competitors.
Nino’s job this time was a heavy task, not only to convince the federal government, but also to obtain the support of these capitalists.
A skinny camel is bigger than a horse, as the king of Wall Street, the Morgan Consortium is still the number one consortium in the federation, only its influence is not as perverse as in the original time and space.
In order to show importance, Nino chose Morgan Manor for his first stop.
……
“Mr. Nino, I admit that you have a point, the opening of the Panama Canal is indeed beneficial to the economic development of the United States, but what can we gain?” Morgan asked directly
Morgan was not interested in this uninvited guest. As far as he knew, there was no such person in the French capitalist world, and if it was not recommended by the French minister, he thought he had met a liar.
Nino smiled slightly, put down the coffee in his hand, and replied unhurriedly, “I heard that local protectionism is prevalent in your country, and in these recent years, the Morgan Consortium has been developing very poorly, right?
If the Panama Canal opens, the situation will be different. The commercial trade between the east and west coasts is bound to prosper, Morgan Consortium has the right to speak in the canal, still afraid of these enterprises do not cooperate?”
Blank check, it is not difficult to do this if you control the dominance of the canal.
But the problem is that the strength of the United States is limited, after the opening of the canal, what makes the Morgan Consortium able to obtain the dominant power?
Is it just money?
I’m sorry, but these days the French consortium is much richer than they are. The Morgan Consortium is at best a second-rate consortium in continental Europe.
Can not get the dominant power, as a small shareholder, obediently waiting for dividends on the right. If you want to make a demon, I guess even the dividends are gone.
At that time, not to mention the wool of other enterprises, or maybe the Morgan consortium itself had to accept the French capital into the shares, once again lost autonomy.
Morgan shook his head: ”Mr. Nino, this matter is too involved, we alone can not promote. We have to find others to join forces, more people involved, how much of our say can still be?
At the risk of asking, how many shares are you willing to pay, if it’s too little, we don’t need to waste our time.”
Nino hesitated for a moment’s effort before giving an answer that he thought was generous: “Developing the Panama Canal, there are too many countries involved, we have to have more partners, the United States can get up to 21% of the shares.”
The development of the Panama Canal can not be developed without the cooperation of the local snakes, no matter how the Colombian government will have to share a share, and pulling in the Spaniards will likewise have to share a share.
Standing in the position of the French, to control the dominant power of the canal, without more than half of the shares is not possible, leaving the three countries to divide only a small half of the remaining.
In fact, this is only the ideal figure, if the other countries of Europe capital participation, will inevitably have to release a portion of the shares, the 21% are empty.
This 21% is a blank check, the final United States can get the shares will only be less, after the listing of financing, the proportion will be further diluted.
Morgan waved his hand: “Sorry, Mr. Nino. Morgan will not participate in this business.
With only 21% of the shares, it is impossible to convince all parties that the risks we need to take are not proportional to the benefits.
As far as I know, Austria has always had a soft spot for the Panama region. It also has a large number of immigrants in the area and could turn the Panama region around at any time.
Once Panama falls into the hands of the Austrians, there is no guarantee for our investment. Will your country not go to war with Austria for our benefit?”
Nino frowned, “Mr. Morgan, the chances of that happening are very slim. The Panama Canal involves the interests of four families, Colombia, Spain, us, and your country.
With the four countries joining forces, the forces that can be put into the Panama region are not weaker than the Austrians in the slightest.
The Vienna government is not reckless, and they will not venture into the Panama region without certainty, even if they harbor ambitions for it.”
Nino did not make any wild promises, everyone was an understanding person, it was too difficult to fool the other party.
Really if the promise: France will protect everyone’s investment, it is expected that Morgan will have to drive people away.
A capitalist representative, what qualifications to represent the French government? Even if the French capitalists are very strong, they do not have the ability to decide the direction of the country’s politics.
Not to mention now, even at the height of the consortium’s power, it can only influence government decisions, not make them for the government.
Don’t spray drop wise, read it and say it, it actually happened in history.
(End of chapter)