Capital pursues profits, so don't expect private capital to invest in the construction of railways in other places.

This is also the reason why Li Xuan does not open the railway industry to private capital, and the Datang Railway Corporation can rely on the blood-transfusion of railways such as the Jiangnan Railway, which makes money, and then use it to build railways that are not profitable in other places.

But if it were private capital, they wouldn't do that!

After many considerations, on the one hand, in order to raise funds, and on the other hand, in order to alleviate the contradiction of the private sector on the empire's restriction of other enterprises from entering the railway navigation, officials from the Ministry of Industry and other departments formally requested that the loan amount of the railway company be further increased and more corporate bonds could be issued, so that more private capital could enter it, and it was initially expected to raise 10 million yuan.

This can not only solve the problem of lack of funds in the official finance, but also allow private capital to enter, and then share the dividends after the outbreak of the upcoming railway transportation.

If you have money, you can make it!

In fact, the huge private capital does not care whether to repair the railway or not, what they care about is to make profits in the railway transportation industry, and the same is true for opening up the railway transportation industry, and it is the same for private capital to enter directly through loans and corporate bonds.

The former may lead to the emergence of many railway companies at the same time, and eventually lead to problems, which is not in line with the unified planning of the empire for railways and national security.

In the case of the latter, there is no so much trouble, after all, only profits are divided, but the management is still firmly in the hands of the official.

In order to make the important ministers of the court approve this plan, the people of the Ministry of Industry also took the Datang Western Trading Company as an example, and the Datang Western Trading Company is such an important enterprise, and even has an army, can be listed, and about 40 percent of the shares are in the private sector.

Why can't Datang Railway Company raise funds from private capital?

What's more, in order to avoid trouble, Datang Railway Company did not say that it had plans to go public, but only prepared loans and issued corporate bonds.

This will be the Empire's first major railway, the main road, and is expected to make a significant contribution to the Empire's economic development.

At the same time, in addition to the Jiangnan Railway, some railways should also be built in other places, such as the Northern Railway Project, that is, the railway from Tianjin to Youzhou, Guangzhou to Foshan, and then to Huizhou.

In these places, some branch lines were built first, and at the same time, large railway plans were planned, such as the railway line from Jinling to Youzhou.

However, the amount of money required to build these railways is not ordinarily large, just the railway line from Jinling City to Shanghai, it is expected to cost about 8 million yuan, and the entire Jiangnan railway is expected to cost around 10 million yuan.

This is still the terrain is flat, the people are dense, the construction of the Jiangnan Railway, if it is built in other places, the cost will be higher, if a large number of projects are launched at one time, it is estimated that tens of millions of it.

No matter how much money the empire has, it can't do this!

The empire has spent more money, and in recent years it has focused on the construction of water conservancy facilities, and there is really nothing that can be done about the construction of railways.

Therefore, for railway construction, Li Xuan's meaning is that the policy can be given, but the money is gone, and the Datang Railway Corporation has to raise it by itself.

But what the railway company was waiting for was Li Xuan's words, and they didn't know the situation of the empire's finances, not to mention that there was no spare money, and even if there was, it would not be possible to use it on the railway, so all he wanted was Li Xuan's nod.

Next, they will solve the funding problem on their own!

How to fix it!

Naturally, it is a loan, and the issuance of corporate bonds to raise funds!

In the past, when they built the Jingzhen Railway, they relied on these raised funds, and the funds needed for the subsequent preparation of the Zhenjiang-Shanghai section of the railway also began to be raised in this way.

Now, it's just a matter of making the fundraising bigger!

After obtaining the policy permission, the Zhili Railway Company, a subsidiary of the Datang Railway Company, began a new round of fundraising, and they planned to borrow from a number of large domestic banks such as the Royal Bank, the Imperial Bank, the Development Bank, the Textile Bank, and the Northern Bank, and the amount of the loan reached 5 million.

As for why it is not more, it is because the bank group feels that the risk is too great, even if so many banks share the loan amount, but they still have to control the cost.

And the rest, through the issuance of corporate bonds and the issuance of company shares!

In short, all the financing channels that can be used are used, and we are ready to raise a total of 10 million yuan for the construction of the Jiangnan Railway, a super railway from Jiujiang to Hangzhou!

As for the large-scale construction of railways in other places, there is no such a large scale for the time being, whether it is a bank or other institutions, believe that the construction of a super railway in the Jiangnan area, although the risk is large, but it is still within the controllable range, but to build a railway from Jinling to Youzhou, the risk is too great.

However, for some regional railways that are obviously profitable, they are very interested!

For example, the railway from Guangzhou Trade Zone to Foshan Town, businessmen are very interested!

Another example is the railway from Tianjin to Youzhou, and the railway from Kaifeng to Luoyang.

Anyway, the railway plan is finally on the right track!

In addition to the railway plan, the Ministry of Industry's Department of Communications also proposed that the use of steam power on a large scale should be encouraged for merchant ships.

They think that since the warships of the navy can use steam power, then the merchant ships can naturally do it too!

If the cost of using the steam engine is still relatively high, the cost of using sails on the sea surface is low, but in the inland rivers where the sails are inconvenient to use, especially when going upstream, the advantages of steam ships are too obvious.

But today's steam engine is expensive, and it is not convenient to use, and it is still relatively difficult to make the large-scale popularization of the people themselves, thinking that even if they want to use it, they can't find the talent to open the steam engine and maintain the steam engine.

In addition, state-owned enterprises should take the lead in using steam-powered ships for passenger and freight transport.

When private enterprises see the benefits of steam engine ships, they will naturally follow up in time.

In the next year, a certain number of steamships should be put into commercial operation, in the next three years, steamships should temporarily occupy a major position in some of the shipping lanes where sailing ships are difficult, and within five years, steamships should be completely popularized.

On the one hand, there are trains, and on the other hand, there are steamships, and this is the strategic development plan for the future transportation plan after the Ministry of Industry saw the emergence of the high-pressure steam engine!

The plan proposed by the Ministry of Industry has to be said to be very grand, and Li Xuan was a little surprised when he saw it!

Naturally, he knew better than anyone the innovative role brought about by trains and steamships, but he also did not expect that the Ministry of Industry would be so radical, after all, the steam engine is still a new thing used in the transportation industry, and it needs a promotion process.

For example, the performance of today's steam engine is still unstable, and laboratory tests can run continuously for a long time, but when it is actually used, the devil knows what will happen, and if there are frequent problems, then it is easy for people to have a distrustful mentality towards the steam engine.

Once this distrust is created, it will be difficult to reverse it in the future.

Therefore, Li Xuan felt that this matter should be done slowly, and he couldn't be too anxious, because he couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry.

But since he saw the enthusiasm of the officials of the Ministry of Industry, Li Xuan is also not good at dismissing their enthusiasm, after all, this enthusiasm for science and technology has also appeared after his deliberate guidance and continuous support in the past ten years, and it is not a good thing to rashly dispel this enthusiasm.

Therefore, Li Xuan asked the Ministry of Industry to do it first, but he had to take it easy, he had to ensure that there were no problems, and he couldn't ignore many problems in order to take risks.

When Li Xuan doesn't object, then there is no force to stop the Ministry of Industry and Transportation Department from promoting the application of steam engines to ships on a large scale!

The Yangtze River Shipping Company has become the first guinea pig!

Although they are wholly-owned enterprises of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, the official needs to have an enterprise as a guinea pig, so they have to be this guinea pig!

Soon, with the assistance of the Royal Institute of Technology, they converted an inland river merchant ship, but what they didn't expect was that when this merchant ship conducted its first sea trial, it was actually inspected by many high-level court officials, and even the Holy Son of Heaven came to watch the steamship trial this time!

Li Xuan watched the trial voyage of the steamship, and did not move the crowd, but only brought more than a dozen courtiers and hundreds of Guards soldiers, and did not run to the dock to watch, but stood on the roof of the building of the headquarters of the Guards Fleet in the military port base of the Guards fleet, holding a telescope and looking at the steamship in front of him!

Well, this time the sea trials were arranged in the military port of the Guards fleet!

And it was not only the Yangtze River Shipping Company that acted as a guinea pig, but also dozens of tons of cargo and dozens of soldiers of the Guards!

Well, although it is said that it is a commercial trial, in fact, because of the presence of the Son of Heaven to watch it, the ordinary passengers who were originally arranged were canceled, the goods were replaced with coal and stones and water for the ballast floor, and the passengers were replaced by soldiers of the Guards.

However, although the cargo and people have changed, the sea trial is still a sea trial!

Holding the binoculars, Li Xuan carefully looked at the ship that was already prepared on the dock, this ship is a typical inland river merchant ship, improved from the previous sand boats, and later added some new theories of ship design, and replaced with a new type of longitudinal sail, the draft is not deep, the hull is stable, the cargo capacity is large, the ability to sail against the wind is quite good, and it can generally be loaded, and can also carry a certain number of passengers, which is very common in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

And today's inland merchant ship, its displacement is about one hundred and fifty tons,

On both sides of the ship's side, there are two huge wheels, and in the middle of the hull, there is a huge towering chimney, and the boiler inside is burning anthracite from Annam Quang Ninh, and the exhaust gas of burning anthracite is spewing a faint white smoke into the sky through the smoke.

Its slender hull is newly painted with brown paulownia paint, with white sails, and pale white smoke, and from a distance, it looks like a white jade goddess descending from the earth, elegant and charming!

And this steamer, on its hull, is painted with two large black letters: "Lady"

Li Xuan looked at these two big black characters, then put down the binoculars, turned back to Liu Bagou and said, "After today, this lady's number, I'm afraid she will go down in history!" ”

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