Holy Roman Empire

Although petrochemical products have not been popularized all over the world, looking at the demand of Shinra, we can know how huge this market is.

According to the calculations of social economists, it is estimated that within five years, the world's crude oil demand will increase to 3500 million tons per year, of which the Holy Roman Empire alone needs to consume 2500 million tons per year.

This set of numbers may be inconspicuous in future generations, and any country can surpass the past.But these days, that's an astronomical figure.

Calculated according to the current crude oil price in the international market, the crude oil industry alone is a market worth 3.5 million Aegis per year, which is about to catch up with the annual fiscal revenue of the Vienna government.

However, compared with the entire petrochemical industry, crude oil is only a small part of it.If all of them are developed, at least it will be a big market of 10 billion Aegis per year.

The most important thing is that this market is in a period of rapid growth.Doubling the demand in five years is just the beginning, and it is not a dream to double the demand in ten years.

Although the royal family is not the only oil producer, the production cost of its oil fields is the lowest in the world.

If it wasn't for Franz's intention to restrict crude oil exports, it is estimated that the entire supply of crude oil in Europe would be monopolized by the royal consortium.

Do competitors really exist?

There are only two oil-producing countries in the European world these days, except for Shinra, only Russia is left.Although the cost of mining the Baku oilfield is not high, it cannot stand up to the high cost of land transportation!

In the context of immature oil pipeline technology, transportation is the primary problem facing the oil industry.

Not only did the Russians encounter it, but the Allied Powers across the ocean also encountered it.It's just that the Americans are lucky. Most of the land is in plain areas, and it is relatively difficult to install oil pipelines.

In contrast, the Baku region is not.With the technology of these years, even if the oil pipeline is built in Baku, the oil cannot be transported out. "The most expensive oil pipeline in the world" is not in vain.

In contrast, the oil companies under the royal consortium are in a much better situation.The oil field reserve itself is sufficient, and the exploitation of coastal oil fields that are easy to transport can meet market demand.

Mining and transportation costs are both low, coupled with the world's most advanced mining and smelting technology, it is clear that it is a blow to dimensionality reduction.

With so many advantages, it is natural that you will not make less money.Today, these oil companies are already the largest cash cows in the royal consortium.

Now that it is about to go public, there are naturally many issues that need to be considered.Frederick has been troubled for several days as to whether to consolidate into a giant and go public, or split up and reorganize to create a bunch of small and powerful companies.

The interests involved were too great, and even Frederick felt terrified.Any mistake in decision-making may cause tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of Aegis losses in the future.

It can be said that since he took over this task, he has never been relaxed.There are countless documents to look at every day, and all major affairs require him to make decisions.

With the implementation of the policy of focusing on the development of the petrochemical industry, the best time to go public has come.With Frederick signing the document, the vigorous listing plan of the oil company was officially launched.

The four oil companies are listed together, and they will raise 2 million Aegis funds in Vienna and Frankfurt for the construction of petrochemical supporting industrial chains.

Upon receiving this news, the financial news media in Europe were immediately blown away.

"2 million Aegis", this number is really amazing.Even if it is divided into four, the average is 5000 million Aegis.

This figure still exceeds 90.00% of the national fiscal revenue of five countries in the world.At present, the listed company with the highest market value in the world, Austrian Power Group, has a market value of only 8.5 million Aegis.

You must know that the Austrian Power Group controls nearly [-]% of Europe's electricity supply and is the world's largest giant company.

According to the valuation of these four oil companies by the capital market, the highest one has reached 5.7 million Aegis.After listing, it is very likely to break the leading position of the Austrian Power Group in market value.

Of course, there are reasons for the high valuation.In this era when petrochemicals are regarded as high-tech products, the listing of oil companies is entirely based on the storytelling of high-tech companies.

Different from the spring and autumn dreams of other technology companies, the oil company's picture is at least visible and tangible.

Just look at assets and profits.Leaving aside the hard-core mechanical equipment, plant and technology.The oil fields under the name of each oil company have billions of tons of crude oil reserves, and can earn tens of millions of Aegis profits every year.

Coupled with the promise of annual double-digit profit growth rate and the market's forecast for the future petrochemical industry, a high valuation is inevitable.

In fact, if it were not divided into four companies, this valuation could continue to rise.As long as the word "monopoly" is attached to any industry, the capital market will give a super high premium.

Take the Austrian Power Group as an example. At its peak, its market value once exceeded the 25 billion Aegis mark.Now that it has fallen, in addition to the stock market crash, the more important thing is that the performance is not as good as expected.

There is no way, who makes the European people poor?Although power grids have been popularized in many cities, the bottom-level people with the largest number of people cannot afford it.

The expected increase in industrial electricity consumption, after Shinra came out, it was discovered that not every country is keen to promote new technologies, and electric motors are not popular at all.

In addition, some countries need to import coal, and the cost of power generation is so high that the power grids laid in many overseas cities have suffered short-term losses.

Although the prospects are broad, it is an indisputable fact that the performance growth will slow down in a short period of time, and the capital market will naturally respond.

Oil companies, by comparison, are much better off.With the vigorous development of the automobile industry, the promotion speed of internal combustion engines is much faster than that of electric motors, and the growth rate of market demand is also much faster.

……

"Your Highness, the pre-listing equity incentives and pre-subscription work have all been completed, and it is expected to be listed for trading on December 12."

No matter how fierce the controversy in the media is, the largest IPO in the financial market of the Holy Roman Empire has been launched.

Nobody cares?

That's totally overthinking.If it weren't for the purpose of deceiving others, the royal consortium would not have prepared the oil company to go public at all.

Whether it is pre-listing financing or pre-subscription, it is all arranged by the royal consortium. It is a game of left-handed and right-handed. How can the valuation not be high?

It's better if no one buys it, and it's a big deal to eat all of them with a trumpet.According to the current market demand, the petrochemical industry is the future development direction.

According to the estimates within the consortium, once the petrochemical industry chain is completed, the annual profits of these companies will be able to exceed the current valuation.

In the era when there was no major currency depreciation, the economic growth rate of the whole world was not fast.Dragons cannot grow in shallow water, and limited by the market environment, companies that can maintain double-digit profit growth every year are absolutely rare.

In fact, such high-growth companies usually don't go public.Unless it is really encountering financial difficulties, or is about to touch the bottleneck of enterprise development.

Because they are worried that the tree will attract the wind, in order to hide their wealth, they must list their own high-quality companies, which is estimated to be the royal consortium.

"Understood, everything is going according to the original plan."

For some reason, Frederick felt empty after everything was done.

Chapter 59 Prince Governor

The eldest son needs to exercise, and the second son cannot be idle.With the continuous development of the times, the governor's management model of overseas colonies has become less and less able to keep up with the times.

You can tell by looking at the Spanish colonies, which are now full of wolves.Although there are reasons for the participation of external forces, it is also an important factor that the way of governance itself cannot keep up with the times.

Shinra's colony is still stable, mainly because Franz entrusted a group of nobles out.There is a group of guys who work for themselves, suppressing all kinds of dissatisfaction.

There is no doubt that this feudal rule was even more backward.The only advantage is that it can stimulate the work enthusiasm of the subordinates and maximize the development of personal potential.

Relying on the double bondage of the vassal system and interests, there will definitely be no problems for one generation and two generations, and there will be no major problems for three and four generations relying on the strength of Shenluo.

After that, I can't say for sure.People's loyalty cannot stand the wear and tear of time, the greater the proportion of interests in the later stage.

Now that the overseas colonies are economically backward and have to rely on local support, they are naturally like a family.

With the continuous development of the economy, the future is uncertain.When one day the colonial economy develops and is unwilling to continue to serve as a source of raw materials and a commodity sales market, conflicts between the two sides arise.

The palms of the hands and the backs of the hands are full of flesh. No matter how fair the central government is, it will have a tendency to deal with problems.Once or twice is not a big problem, but ten times or eight times will be dissatisfied.

Instead of waiting for the situation to deteriorate to the point of parting ways, it is better to take advantage of the close relationship now to deal with it and give the colony greater autonomy.

Obviously, the viceroyal system cannot meet such needs.The British in the original time and space had already tried this, but in the end they were taken advantage of by the United States and the Soviet Union because of insufficient cohesion.

Since the governor's management system cannot meet the needs, it is better to continue the enfeoffment system and establish a state according to the tradition of Shinra.Even if it collapses later, the meat is still rotten in the pot.

In fact, after the rise of the colonial movement, it was not Franz's first initiative to implement the enfeoffment system overseas.

Whether it is Liangya, or Britain and France, they have all entrusted nobles overseas.It's just that the domestic resistance is too strong, and the real seal has become a false one.

Except for a few small nobles who really got the fief, most of the nobles only had a nominal title, and the right to manage the fief was taken away by the government.

Since you want to play for nothing, naturally you can't expect people to abandon the good life in the local area and go to the remote colonies to fight.

After the rise of Shinra, and after seeing the fighting power of the feudal nobles, it is not that the countries have not thought of following suit.

It's a pity that the overall situation has been decided at this time, and the bourgeoisie and the bureaucratic group are desperately blocking it.

The reason for the opposition is very lofty. The colonies belong to the country and belong to all the people, and cannot be usurped by individuals.

One sentence wipes out all the achievements of the colony pioneers, as if the colony fell from the sky.

Anyone with a little bit of knowledge knows that the government played an important role in the process of colonization, but the real main force was immigration.

"The colony belongs to the country and belongs to all the people." On the surface, it is indeed safeguarding the interests of the people. In fact, there is a sentence added after this-"The interests of the colonies belong to the bureaucracy and capital."

The essence of opposition lies in the distribution of benefits.

According to Shinra's enfeoffment model, the central government only controls major cities and important ports, and most of the remaining land is allocated to meritorious ministers, and all areas that no one wants belong to the emperor.

The beneficiaries are mainly soldiers and immigrants. Those who are lucky become fief nobles, and those who are not lucky can also get a piece of land of their own.

Although bureaucrats and capitalists also gain, it is obviously much smaller than that of the lucky ones.

Jealousy drives people crazy. In the heart that I can't get it, and I can't let others get it, opposition is inevitable.

It's just that the German region is special, and the long-term melee between the princes has kept the military dominated by the nobles in a strong position.Coupled with an emperor who is willing to take the spoils, he can suppress domestic bureaucrats and capital.

Other countries are different.Take Britain as an example. The high-level positions are dominated by civil servants, the military is suppressed to death, and there is no strong emperor, so enfeoffment cannot continue.

The military can only follow behind to drink soup, and ordinary immigrants are even more exploited.Being robbed of wealth for a long time, no one can bear it.

The former space-time colonial empire collapsed, apart from the United States and the Soviet Union doing things, the most important reason is that capital and bureaucrats took too much.

Especially in the later period, the cost of colonization rose due to the awakening of nationalism, and bureaucrats and capital took too many benefits, and the colonies directly suffered losses.

Accompanied by economic tension, the colonial government had to reduce expenditure, which directly damaged the interests of the military and immigrants.You can't even drink soup anymore, so everyone is naturally unwilling to work for the colonial empire.

The people who worked hard were gone, the colony became more and more chaotic, and the maintenance cost continued to rise.Ordinary people see that the colony is not only not making money, but losing money, so they just don't want it.

When bureaucrats and capital, as vested interest groups, realized the danger, a wave of independence had already risen, and the colonial empire was powerless.

With lessons learned from the past, Franz could not have to plan ahead.Anyway, there are already many states in the Holy Roman Empire, and I don't care about adding a few more.

The abolition of overseas colonies and the establishment of states can only be done by Franz, and no one else can afford such a big thunder.

……

Vienna Palace

Franz held a document and said earnestly: "This is the appointment letter of the Governor of Central America. I will ask you one last time, Peter, are you really ready?"

Bangguo is not achieved overnight, and Franz can help solve domestic troubles.It is not new to enfeoff princes. Others can enfeoff, and it is natural for the emperor's son to do so.

It is nothing more than "billion points" when the fiefdom increases, and "billion points" when the autonomy increases. As for the title level, it remains unchanged.

The prince's acquisition of the Grand Duke is a routine operation of the Habsburg dynasty.According to Shinra's constitution, as long as the emperor's approval is obtained, the grand duke can establish a state.

Entrusting princes to establish a state is still a part of Shinra, and it is not considered splitting the country, let alone betraying the country.There are many precedents in history, and the public will not have much resistance.

The strongest opposition should be capitalists and bureaucrats whose interests have been damaged, but these people will only curse a few words at most.If you really want them to do something, you still don't have the guts.

As for the local fief nobles, the establishment of a state will not strip their fiefs, and they should have a lot of rights, nothing more than an extra boss on top of their heads.

They may be upset, but because of the obligations of the vassals, they have no way to oppose the emperor.

However, the emperor's son alone can only keep everyone respectful. If you want to win their allegiance, it still depends on the monarch's political skills.

It is too risky to do it in one step. Even though he has confidence in the son he has cultivated, Franz will not play against the child.

The post of "governor" is a good transition. If you do well, you will be a king, and if you don't do well, you will go home and become a rice borer.

In recent years, the Habsburg dynasty has also had a thriving population, and there are many backup personnel.No son, no grandson, anyway, as long as Franz is still alive, he can operate.

Except for the relatively close Middle East and Africa to be included in the mainland, the colonies in Southeast Asia and the Americas can all establish state rule.

In a sense, this is also diversifying investments.For the royal family, a few more crowns are also a guarantee.

The high-spirited Peter immediately assured: "Don't worry, father. I have been preparing for this day for many years."

It is true that he has been preparing for many years. Since the establishment of overseas colonies, Franz has plans to establish overseas states, so when raising his son, everything is carried out according to the heir standard.

After so many years of preparation, it's hard for Peter not to be excited about the implementation.After all, he is not young anymore.

Now that he is middle-aged, if the plan does not start again, before the state system is perfected, he, the founder of the country, will grow old first.

Looking at his energetic second son, while feeling relieved, Franz didn't show any expression on his face, and said pretendingly indifferently: "When you arrive in Austrian Central America, you have five years.

I don't care what method you use, as long as you can control the local area within five years, you will be the future king of Central America.

To give you one last piece of advice, if it is not a last resort, it is best not to use means beyond the rules.

Maybe the rules will tie your hands and feet, but it is still the rules that can protect you.As a superior, you can modify the rules, but you must not take the lead in violating the rules.

Of course, there is a premise for this, that is, there is no threat to its own safety and the authority of the monarch.If this bottom line is crossed, then all the rules can be overthrown and restarted.

What to do specifically, this still requires you to make a decision based on the actual situation, and no one can help you in this regard. "

……

The appointment of Peter as Governor of Central America is just the beginning, and there will be Governors of Nanyang, South America, and Alaska waiting for Franz to appoint.

However, considering the actual situation, Franz did not replace all the governors of overseas colonies with his sons at once.

Nothing can be done overnight, just appointing a prince to serve as the governor of the colony, even if there is controversy from the outside world, it will not be too big.

If it is an overseas colony, they will all be replaced by princes.Even a political novice knows what the emperor is going to do.