The role of banks does not need to be explained, Roque has been tossing and turning in Johannesburg for so long, and now he finally has all the conditions to set up a bank.

The gold in the basement of the Rock Gold Mine is the capital of Roque's start-up bank.

The Chinese population in Johannesburg is a natural target for banks.

Ida fills the most important link, whether it is Roque or Xiao Si, it is not suitable to come forward to prepare the bank, and Ida is the most suitable person.

"Awesome Locke, a bank, is that why you called me from Cape Town?" Ada's eyes are like silk.

"Of course not, I want you to come, just because I miss you-" Roctor looked affectionately into Ada's eyes and stroked the back of Ada's hand through the coffee table.

Ida was so ecstatic that she leaned over and kissed Roque on the face, and then continued to write at her desk.

"It's very simple to set up a bank, the most convenient way is to acquire it directly, you don't have to worry about this, leave it to me to operate, there is a rand gold mine in Johannesburg, it is too necessary to set up a bank, your lover Scarlett seems to have worked in a bank before, do you want Scarlett to be a general manager?" Ada seemed to mention it casually, and she didn't seem to mind much.

"Come on, I really have nothing to do with Scarlett, put away your little thoughts." Roque is very discerning, and his desire to survive is also very strong.

Ida Jiao smiled and came over again to give Roque a reward for a dragonfly, but she didn't expect to be stolen by Roque's people, and then-

Indescribable!

——

In the evening, Roch takes Ida to visit Henry.

Henry didn't feel any dissatisfaction when he saw Ada, just like an ordinary friend, and didn't seem to be worried that Ida would affect the relationship between Rock and Phyllis.

It seems that this kind of thing is indeed normal.

"Setting up a bank? No problem, I will invest as much as you invest. "Henry and Roque are highly aligned, and this is obviously a chance to make a fortune sent to the door, and whoever doesn't want it is stupid.

"Okay, I'm going to invest one million, plus your one, and go back and see how much Xiao Si is willing to invest." Roque came to Henry for this purpose, and of course he would not refuse Henry's investment.

If nothing else, Xiao Si's investment will also be around 1 million pounds, so that the bank, whose name has not even been determined, will have 3 million pounds of share capital.

What is the concept of 3 million pounds?

The most successful investment bank in the UK at this time was the Bank of Baring, which had a total share capital of only 2.9 million.

When Roque and Henry were talking about these things, Ada and Lacey did not interject, and the eyes of the two men were full of pride, after all, not everyone was qualified to casually talk about a million-dollar business.

Roque and Henry were indeed casual, settled the matter in a few words, and then changed the subject.

"The second phase of the cement plant is about to be completed, and the output of the cement plant can reach 30,000 tons per month, can Nyasaland run out?" Henry's eyebrows fluttered at the mention of the cement factory, which has now become a "gold mine" for Henry.

In these years, it was too simple to engage in industry in Johannesburg, as long as you spent money, you could buy any technology and equipment, there were almost endless Zulu people to provide cheap labor, and the money was like picking up for nothing, when Roque wanted to build a cement factory, Henry didn't think so, and now Henry is full of gratitude, Roque did find a new source of money for Henry.

"Yes, as much as you want." Roque is welcome, cement is not too much at any time, Nyasaland is undergoing large-scale development, and the cement gap is very large, because of Roque's stake in the cement plant, Roque's cement from the cement plant is equivalent to a five-fold discount, and it is used freely.

"The railroad is almost finished, it looks like it passed through Salisbury the other day." Henry cared deeply about the railway, and when it was completed, Nyasaland and the Transvaal would be able to become one.

"It's coming-" Roque didn't talk much about this topic.

The South African company went all out, and the speed of building the railway was still very fast, from the border of the Transvaal and Rhodesia to Salisbury, nearly 500 kilometers, and it took Xiaosi less than four months.

The reason why the speed is so fast, the price paid can be imagined, to put it mildly, this railway was laid with Zulu lives, even if not to the extent that there is a Zulu under every sleeper.

Roque doesn't know how many people have died for this railway, and he doesn't want to ask, and the South African company has no record of this, so let these black materials disappear into the long river of history.

The next day, Xiao Si came to Pretoria from Salisbury and happily took the share allocated to him.

It's really a distribution, if you can, Roque, Henry and Xiao Si are willing to make additional investments, but it's a pity that the other two will not agree to any of them, so the final distribution plan is that Roque, Henry and Xiao Si each have 30% of the shares, and the last 10% belongs to Ida.

In order to get this 10% of the shares, Ida personally contributed 350,000 pounds, which does not need to be paid by Roque, and Ida herself has this economic strength.

With the addition of Xiao Si, the establishment of a bank is far simpler than Ida and Roque imagined, Roque does not know how to set up a bank at all, Ada was originally going to buy a bank, and then transform the bank, but when it comes to Xiao Si, there is no need to acquire at all, Xiao Si just sent a telegram, and immediately someone sent all the procedures required to set up a bank, no need to report to the Imperial Bank, no need to apply to London, within a day, the bank called "Rand" was registered in Salisbury.

I almost forgot that Rhodesia is the kingdom of Xiao Si, and even the consuls of Rhodesia need to be appointed by Xiao Si, so it is not too simple to set up a bank.

Within a week, the RAND Bank completed the site selection and started construction in four cities: Salisbury, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape.

Recruitment for the bank also began at the same time, and Ida really asked Scarlett to come over as the deputy general manager of the RAND Bank, and she herself became the general manager of the RAND Bank.

"What's wrong, reluctant?" Ida watched Roque's expression with interest.

"No, it's just that as soon as Scarlett leaves, my side will be more troublesome, Scarlett is now in charge of the financial work of the gold mine and the reservoir, and I don't feel at ease to hand over this job to someone else." Roque still trusts Scarlett, it doesn't matter if the Crocodile Bay Company is not, there are too many secrets in the Rock Gold Mine, and Roque doesn't trust anyone else.

"Don't worry, I will send special financial staff to the gold mine and reservoir, you can rest assured that there will be absolutely no problems, I promise." Ida swears.

"What if something goes wrong?" Of course, Roark trusts Ada, but as for the others.

"I'll pay you myself if something goes wrong—" Ada replied with a smile.

Luo Ke's heart immediately became hot, this demon girl must correct the Fa on the spot.

Banks in places such as Salisbury have not yet been built, and the RAND Bank has opened its doors in Ziwei Township.

In fact, Roque had already made all the preparations for the establishment of a bank, and after changing the brand of the agricultural cooperative, the first branch of the world's first RAND Bank, was successfully opened.

With a bank, of course, there must also be a business, and the first business of the RAND Bank came from the Rock Gold Mine, and the business content was to pay salaries on behalf of others.

Payroll payments were commonplace in the 21st century and were definitely the first of its kind in the early 20th century, and Roque had to convince Ida to agree to open accounts for so many miners at the same time.

"God, 5,000 customers, Imperial Bank customers in Cape Town don't know if there are so many." Ida didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

In the era when there were no computers, managing so many accounts at the same time was a disaster for a private bank.

Therefore, at this time, the banks are basically for the big customers, the general small customers are not qualified to let the bank provide services, the bank is not to say that they do not accept small customers, but to use a variety of small means to raise the threshold, such as high account opening fees, and management costs after opening an account, enough to discourage the vast majority of small customers.

The same is true of the Imperial Bank in Cape Town, at least when Roque was in Cape Town before, he had never been to the Imperial Bank in Cape Town, and he didn't give a good face to others as far as Roque's salary was.

"This is just the beginning, in the future, there will be Crocodile Bay Company, Ziwei Hospital, Ziwei Public School - all companies that can pay salaries on their behalf will pay their salaries in the future." Roque is not too troublesome, compared to this salary increase, Roque is more important to the data, if everyone in Johannesburg is willing to open an account with the RAND Bank, then Roque will have more detailed information than the Home Office.

Of course, if the Ministry of the Interior wants to ask the RAND Bank for information, the RAND Bank will definitely not give it, Roque's ideal bank is the kind of private bank in Switzerland, no matter how bad the Swiss private bank is, but in terms of customer loyalty, the Swiss bank has indeed achieved the extreme.

"Locke, have you ever considered how much this will cost us?" Ida now feels that the bank is a pit, not to mention whether it can make a profit, whether it can survive is a problem.

"There will be some additional costs, but it is not so serious, this scale of account opening, only in Johannesburg, in Cape Town and Pretoria, and even in the future, London, Paris, how to do or what, we have to make Johannesburg people accustomed to using the RAND Bank, to form a dependence on the RAND Bank, so that the bank makes sense." Roque did not open a bank to make money at all, to make money, Roque has a way, and using the RAND Bank to indirectly influence Johannesburg is Roque's purpose.

It is a very simple fact that the world in the 21st century can be said to be controlled by bank capital, and people's clothing, food, housing and transportation are inseparable from banks.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the influence of banks on society was far from reaching the level of the twenty-first century, and many people did not notice this trend at all, but Roque certainly did not ignore the role of banks, and Roque wanted to use this gap to promote the development of RAND Bank as much as possible and prepare for the future.

"Make ordinary people dependent on banks?" Ada hadn't embraced Roque's ideas yet.

"Yes, let ordinary people also rely on banks, just like the rich and middle class now, and don't think that the miners and farmers in Johannesburg are poor, those miners may not have money, but those farmers are at least middle class, you can go to Scarlett, Scarlett is a big landlord in Johannesburg." Roque can only sigh at the wonder of fate, in order to shelter those Boer women, Scarlett bought more than 20,000 acres of farms, in the whole of Johannesburg, Scarlett is the second largest landowner after Roque, those farms look inconspicuous now, but in the future, the value of those farms will make the gold mine owners crazy.

"Okay, I'll find out." That's what makes Ida so good, she's assertive but not stubborn.

On the last morning before leaving Pretoria, Roark Ida washed up together, and Roark was horrified to discover that the mouthwash Ida used contained the element radium.

"Damn, who gave you this thing?" Roque was furious and threw the mouthwash directly into the trash.

"Oh, what, it's expensive—" Ada was reluctant to reluctantly.

"Let me tell you, in the future, anything that contains 'radium' is absolutely not allowed to be used, especially this kind of thing that still needs to be entered, you are afraid of death, right?" Roque looked at Ida carefully, it didn't seem to have changed, she was still so beautiful, her skin was still blown, her hair was still moisturized and smooth, and even the corners of her eyes that were a little provoked because she was in a hurry were so vivid.

"What's wrong?" It was only then that Ida realized the seriousness of the matter.

In 1898, Marie Curie discovered the radioactivity of radium, and then it was discovered that radium could actually treat tumors.

So the situation began to get out of control, and in the following decades, radium was believed to be able to strengthen the body, prolong life, rejuvenate and live forever.

Not only mouthwash, but radium is added to toothpaste, chocolate, cosmetics, and medicines, and doctors at this time even have to prescribe radium (quinine water) to patients in order to make patients feel satisfied.

Roque doesn't know if radium can treat tumors, but he knows that radium, an element, because of its radioactivity, must be extremely harmful to the human body, so Roque will refuse all foods and cosmetics that contain radium.

"Aside from mouthwash, what else uses radium?" Roque didn't dare to be careless, and at this time, people had not yet realized how dangerous the element "radium" was.

"No—yes, it seems to be on the watch—" Ida was surprised inexplicably.

"Watches?" Roarke is going crazy, and the watch can't be eaten, why is radium used?

"Radium emits light, and if you apply radium to the hands and dial, you can see the time even at night." Ada finally found a reason.

"Throw it away, if your bones don't want to turn into a hornet's nest." Roque is not alarmist, radium is so dangerous.

Roark suddenly realized that since Ida had so many radium-infused things here, everyone else should have them too.

For the sake of his friends' health, it is necessary for Roque to remind them.

No, it seems that something was overlooked.