African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 404: Getting Rich

 September 3, 1872.

 United States, 11 Wall Street.

The New York Stock Exchange, which just moved to a new address on Wall Street last year, has the newest, largest and most luxurious trading building in the world at this time.

 In recent years, after the Civil War, the United States ushered in unprecedented prosperity along with the railway economy, the development of the west, and the industrial development of the east.

Capital from various countries poured into this hot land crazily. Foreign capital accounted for half of the investment in railways in the United States alone. From 1865 to 1871, more than 6,000 miles of railways were built, more than a hundred times that of East Africa during the same period, and various The railway company planned to build more than nine times the railway mileage in 1872 than in 1865. Railway investment was unprecedentedly popular, and a large amount of money was injected into railway investment through the New York Stock Exchange.

 Railway construction has boosted the demand for steel, coal, and oil. A large number of factories have been built, even blindly and crazy. The demand in the entire market is like a black hole, greedy and never-ending.

“Boss, someone has sold 12% of Oral Railway Company’s stock. This stock has been rising in the past few months. Should we follow up and buy it?” Jack asked his boss Smith.

 Smith: "Sure, Jack, buy it all in for me."

 Jack: “Boss, the problem is that if we buy them all, our funds may be exhausted!”

Smith: "Jack, it's hard to buy railroad stocks now. If we buy it, we just sit back and wait. Without doing anything, dollars will continue to flow into our pockets, so don't be afraid. It's not for the faint of heart." If you are rich, hurry up and don’t let others get ahead of you, time is money!”

 Jack: “Yes, boss.”

Although Smith pressed hard, he was still a step late and only grabbed 20% of the shares, which made Smith a little annoyed.

He roared with red eyes: "Jack, listen to me. From now on, I will keep an eye on the stock market changes at all times. As long as someone sells railway stocks, buy them for me without asking me for instructions until all our funds are spent." So far, if you grab it, you’ll get a big bonus this month. If you don’t grab it, I’ll deduct your salary!”

 “Yes, boss!”

 Soon Smith got what he wanted. Some "idiot" sold another railroad stock. Jack quickly seized the opportunity and bought it all.

In the following days, railway company stocks were sold one after another, but the values ​​were not large and did not attract attention. Fierce bidding was heard on the exchange, and all the railway stocks in the hands of the Hechingen consortium were sold.

"The value of our investment assets in North America a year ago has almost increased tenfold, but now it seems that this is far from the limit of North America. Now the prices of these assets are still growing, which is really a pity!" Hechingen Bank North American branch staff discussed.

In order to have a hot meal, Ernst spent a total of 40 million pounds to invest in North America, which was almost 80% of the profits of the Hechingen Consortium in the Franco-Prussian War. After a round of the U.S. stock market, it has now become into 380 million pounds, which is 11.4 billion East African rhine guilders. Since the current silver price has not depreciated, this amount converted into silver is about 1.1 billion taels, which is about eight times the indemnity of the Shimonoseki Treaty ( Considering the fact that silver had already depreciated during the Treaty of Shimonoseki), the United States, as the world's second largest economy after the United Kingdom, was indeed wealthy at that time.

 In addition to the profits in North America, Ernst also sold a large number of assets in Europe. The total amount of money was about 80 million pounds, which is completely incomparable with North America. However, this is related to the fact that the main body of the Hechingen Consortium is in Europe. Most of the European companies under the Hechingen Consortium are high-quality assets, which are completely different from the "high-quality industries" hyped in North America. For example, the American Oral Railway Company last year When it was first established, it had a total of just over 30 employees. After a large amount of capital was injected by the Hechingen Consortium, it recruited troops to take over the railway project from Philadelphia to New York. The company's market value soared a hundred times. Subsequently, the Hechingen Bank gradually looked for opportunities in the stock market. The takeover man took over, and when the Bank of Hechingen sold all its shares at a high price, the railway only completed the construction of one station.

Although Ernst has a lot of money in the financial market circle, it is not all of his wealth. The huge Hechingen Consortium is the real boss. Several large companies under the Hechingen Consortium will be regarded as world-famous in future generations. Among the top 500 companies, the Bank of Hechingen is among the top few.

At present, the Hechingen royal family is one of the strong contenders for the world's richest man, because no one knows the background of those ancient families, such as the famous Rothschild family, a group of European royal families and nobles that cannot be underestimated. The richest man is Rockefeller in the United States, with a net worth of more than one billion U.S. dollars, but Rockefeller is no longer on the same level as Ernst.

Ernst also had the political entity of the East African Kingdom under him, which was completely inestimable value. In 1871, the financial revenue of the East African Kingdom government was more than 7 million East African rhine guilders, about 800,000 taels of silver.

This money is not much, but it does not mean anything. For example, most factories in East Africa do not pay taxes. The only exceptions are the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, which are the two largest tax revenue sources for the East African government. The main place of origin is related to its foreign trade.

However, the fiscal revenue of 800,000 taels of silver was about 16% of the Japanese government's fiscal revenue during the same period, which is not small, because the population of East Africa during the same period was close to 7 million, while Japan's population was more than 38 million, and the population of East Africa It is 18% of Japan's.

The Japanese government has invested in a large number of industries, and with the wealth accumulated over thousands of years, it is normal for the fiscal revenue to be higher than that per capita in East Africa.

Of course, there are still more than 23 million indigenous people in the East African Kingdom (including South Africa), but most of the indigenous people are currently in a free-range state, mainly concentrated in the western part of the kingdom and South Africa. Only more than 9 million indigenous people are used as production tools by the East African Kingdom. .

 The wealth they created cannot be concretely reflected in money. For example, it can be used to replace cattle, horses and other livestock to cultivate land, work together, pave roads, build water conservancy facilities, etc.

These are pure human inputs. Their contributions to the East African Kingdom will be distributed to the East African citizens. For example, the land in East Africa is developed according to the total number of citizens. The grain produced by one acre of land in East Africa is It uses more human resources than other countries, especially in labor-intensive industries such as plantations and rice. It takes more than one labor force in East Africa to create the value created by one person in other agricultural countries of the same type. However, East Africa is still based on one person. Computing and statistics.

The overall productivity level in East Africa can be said to be relatively backward, even a little low, but the East African Kingdom also faces many more difficulties than other countries. Take land as an example, land development in East Africa is completely a process from scratch. It requires a lot of investment and is difficult to achieve results in the short term. However, other agricultural countries have developed mature land long ago, and the operation time is long and the output is stable.

The number of livestock in East Africa is also far less than that of the agricultural countries of the same era. It cannot immediately evolve from a human empire to a mule and horse empire. It will take several years or even decades to cultivate to meet the needs of the East African kingdom. This is a flaw in the entire Africa. There is no domesticated local people. Livestock were available to the East African kingdoms, which required large quantities of imports and introductions.

Shortcomings are also reflected in agricultural tools. A large number of basic agricultural tools need to be imported, such as hoes, shovels, iron plows, etc., which need to be imported in large quantities from Germany. It’s not that East Africa can’t produce it, but that its production capacity is limited and its quality is unreliable.

There are still many problems existing in East Africa, but East Africa plus the colonial period only lasted seven years, so we cannot be too harsh.

 (End of this chapter)