On March 31, 1701, George Montgomery was riding in a carriage stopped on the side of the road.

This is Doumen Township (located near the small town of Riotel Zero in later generations). In the wilderness, there are no people around except some of the reclaimed immigrants who are harvesting rice in the fields.

Doumen Township is one of the four major townships under Changyang County, which was newly established in the second half of last year. The county is the 200th county-level administrative unit in the country, with a population of Changyang Town, Doumen Township, Yuanyan Township and Xinfa Township, with a population of more than 10,000, and agriculture and animal husbandry are the main sources of economic resources. At the same time, Xiaolu County and Xinli County were established. The former is the 201st county in the country, with a total of five towns, including Xiaolu Town, Jieshi Township, Songlan Town, Dalu Township, and Donglei Township, with a population of about 13,000 to 10,000, and is also dominated by agricultural economy. The latter is the country

The 202nd county has a total of five settlements, with a population of nearly 15,000. Economically, it is not said that it is still mainly agriculture and animal husbandry, and will be mainly used for a long time in the future. But this does not mean that these counties do not have industrial populations, and handicraftsmen are also industrial populations, at least in the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the East Coast.

The location of Doumen Township, Changyang County is still good, because it is actually a point on the Luoyan Railway. After starting from the Nancheng District of Luoyang, the railway goes south through Luoyi District, Doumen Township, and Yuanyan Township, heading towards Yancheng, an important export port for grain, wool, mutton, leather, livestock, salt and seafood. The whole site is more than 1,000 kilometers. It is one of the main transportation lines of the Pampa Plain and is of particular importance for the development of the vast inland area.

The construction of the Luoyan Railway has actually been going on for many years. The leveling of the railway subgrade has been carried out in sections and the progress is very fast. However, when it comes to the laying of railway tracks, due to transportation restrictions, it has been carried out unilaterally, that is, extending from Yancheng Port inward, which has more or less affected the construction efficiency. According to the latest situation statement released by the American Railway Company, after the Luoyan Railway has sent a large number of personnel (mainly Indians and Mestiso people), it has now been built Waqiao Township (located near the town of Eduado Castes in later generations) and arrived at the Jinxi Township Railway Station, which is under construction. The mileage has been completed exceeds 500 kilometers.

Most of these more than 500 kilometers of railways have been opened and operated one after another in recent years, bringing great benefits to Yancheng, Yongchun, Zhongxing, Jinhui and other counties along the way. Specifically, the economy is that the population of the four counties is growing rapidly, various investments are coming one after another, the government's fiscal revenue has also risen, and the overall economy is in a virtuous cycle.

Whether there is a railway is really different! At this time, we can fully understand why all counties and townships in inland areas are flocking to railways, and their driving effect on the economy is very huge. If you don’t have a railway, you will try your best to build some highway projects. If you don’t have a first-class national highway, then you can grab a second-class national highway! If it doesn’t work, you can make do with third-class national highway. It’s better to have it than not. To get rich, it is impossible not to build roads first.

It is worth mentioning that the trunk railway of Luoyan Railway, such a trunk railway, absorbs a large amount of capital from foreign countries to relieve financial pressure. After the latest accounting, the American Railway Company currently only holds about 50.5% of the shares of this railway, and all other shares have been sold to recover funds. In addition to the many East Coast middle class, there are also many investors from England, United Provinces and Italy who bought railway shares. They spent a lot of money and not only bought a large number of shares of Luoyan Railway, but also bought a lot of Luoshang Railway shares that had just started construction, in order to reasonably allocate assets and avoid the risks brought by the increasing war.

As a leader of the younger generation in England, George Montgomery, who was from a famous family, was very optimistic about the prospects of the East Coast Railway. He had invested thousands of pounds in the Lok Salt Railway before, and even Ambassador Paul Scott did not invest much more. This time, after hearing that the Lok Ming Railway broke ground and issued stocks in the Qingdao financial market, he raised funds from multiple sources and invested more than 3,000 pounds.

The railway investment of more than 7,000 pounds in total was an incredible big deal for a young diplomat who was not a family heir. Maybe he threw in most of the assets he deserved, which was far from the scope of risk aversion and was an aggressive investment that was extremely optimistic about the East Coast Railway.

Both railway stocks held by George Montgomery have not yet made any profits, and there will be no dividends in the next few years. However, it is strange that Italian merchants come to ask if they can be transferred. There are too many people optimistic about this railway.

Recently, the English Embassy moved to the north city of Luoyang Prefecture. The Golden Deer Merchant, which had been used for many years, was vacated and started to be used as a place for English merchants to stay, meet, eat and entertainment. After the new embassy was opened, there was no big deal recently. George Montgomery ran around with the ambassador and only handled a matter of the matter where the English government borrowed fiat currency from the East Coast to 3 million yuan. Since the East Coast people implemented the gold standard, the international market has been in chaos, and many people are looking for gold coupons everywhere in case of emergency.

This does not mean that people on the East Coast do not collect silver. They are not that stupid because it will greatly affect the country's export trade. In fact, silver is still collected. Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank has this exchange business, and enterprises only have one more formality. But for state-owned enterprises on the East Coast, they are obviously given priority to collect gold exchange coupons under the government's administrative orders. This is to cooperate with the government's promotion of East Coast fiat currencies around the world. Considering the current backlog of orders of major enterprises, whoever has gold exchange coupons on hand can get the goods first. This is not a trivial matter during the war.

Of course, if you have the patience to wait until those military enterprises complete all the backlog orders, then there is no problem with paying with silver. If the company has business, of course it will not refuse. Just use a bank or an intermediary to provide exchange services. This is a bit like the later generations of "I, the Qing Dynasty", who took silver to fight with foreign banks, exchanged it for gold pounds, and then went to the UK to order goods. But the question is, can you really wait until that time? Or, are you really sure that no one is ahead of you and order gold coupons directly? If you are not sure, then the insurance point is good and you can reserve a certain amount of East Coast fiat currency at hand. You can learn from Italians to use gold to exchange it to the State Administration of Precious Metals on the East Coast, or you can directly borrow (the interest rate is very low at present), so as to be prepared for any trouble.

George Montgomery followed the ambassador to this trip and felt a lot of emotion, and at the same time, his awe of the East Coast became deeper. The East Coast people were really far-sighted in promoting their currency, so they did not hesitate to bind many commodities that others could not refuse, and stipulated that they could only use gold coupons to trade first. If they would release some goods that other countries did not have in the future and mandate that they could only use gold coupons to settle, everyone would probably have to default, right?

In this way, the large-scale reserve of fiat currency on the East Coast became something that governments in various countries had to do. When this situation lasted for a long time, the reserve of gold coupons became a habit and instinct, and other currencies could no longer shake their status. The East Coast government could harvest the world through the seigniorage tax, in fact, it was difficult to shake other currencies. One round of fiat currency on the East Coast exchanged two grams of gold, and it was unstoppable, and it was exchanged openly and freely. There was no more solid currency in the world than this.

George Montgomery did not regret buying all the more than 7,000 pounds he could raise into the stocks of the Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Railway, because these stocks are all commodities denominated in gold coupons, and are not much stronger than your pounds in your hand? The English government still has a lot of debts that have not been paid yet. Seeing that King Carlos II of Madrid may die at any time, the war is not far away. If the Kingdom of England does not need to think too much about joining the war, this is almost inevitable. Therefore, with the current financial situation of the government, in addition to borrowing and tax hikes, there is only one additional minting of inferior currencies, artificially reducing the value of shillings, and harvesting the people.

Although the royal family in England has been carefully controlling the Tower of London for decades, doing their best to restrain their impulses and not devalue their currency like the French. But how much will the next war be? The government and the royal family really have such great determination to insist that shillings and pounds do not depreciate? It seems that no one dares to make a promise! George Montgomery did this, many people in London did this, and the intellectual merchants in Europe did this, but they are not as radical as this young man, and only allocated a portion of gold coupon assets.

"It will take about three to five years for the Luoyan Railway to be fully opened. The Luoming Railway is far away. You can't have any fantasies in the short term." Looking at the railway line that has been repaired in the distance and extends to the horizon, George Montgomery secretly thought: "With the importance of the Luoyan Railway, you can turn losses into profits within two years after opening, and you can start making profits in the third year. However, considering the debts owed during the construction period, you should not be too optimistic, and you may not start making profits in five years. Moreover, even if you make a profit, the railway may not pay you dividends, because it may use this money to operate the railway affiliated area. This investment is really a long-term investment!"

Traveling through 1630's Rise in South America
Chapter completed!