Nanjing City.

A few days ago, countless merchants suddenly flocked to Nanjing from all over the country. For a time, inns in Nanjing were full of rooms, and even the prices in the city suddenly increased a lot. Businessmen with a lot of money could be seen everywhere in various restaurants, making Nanjing, which was already full of flowers, even more lively.

It was really a bit surprising that so many businessmen, especially the heads of major business owners, came to Nanjing. Outsiders couldn't figure out why such a thing happened, but those who knew the inside story knew that this was mainly due to the Ministry of Works.

It was about a month ago that the Ministry of Industry suddenly established a new department, which is known as the Railway Department, and as the name suggests, is responsible for railway matters.

The establishment of this department was originally inconspicuous. After all, there were many departments established by the court over the years, especially after Zhu Yicheng reformed the official system, some institutions that were not originally had sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. I am afraid that the so-called Railway Department is the case.

But no one expected that a few days after the establishment of the Railway Department, the Railway Department of the Ministry of Industry sent official letters to major commercial banks and several banks in the name of the court. The content of this official letter was mainly that the court was preparing to start a railway, and to establish a semi-independent business institution dominated by the Railway Department. This institution will operate in a commercial nature. In other words, the so-called railway operation is led by the official, and the court and the private sector will invest together to complete the construction. After the construction is completed, it will be distributed based on its shareholding and profits.

To put it bluntly, in the words of later generations, the Ministry of Industry took the lead in establishing a railway company, then raising shares to all parties, and then used the funds from the raising funds to build the railway. After the railway is completed, the railway company will operate it and obtain profits from the railway according to the proportion of their respective shares.

This kind of operation method is not uncommon in later generations. For example, in China, the construction of a highway network that has become the world's number one in the country is often the case. Government loans and enterprises invest in the construction of highways in various places, and then the toll rights of the expressway are handed over to a special expressway company, and then the toll collected is used to repay the loan and recover the investment, and even later profits are included.

This model has become very common in later generations, but now it is an emerging thing. Even Zhu Yicheng did not expect that when he threw this matter to Jiang Jin, Jiang Jin would come up with such a trick without any instruction, which made him unexpected.

It has to be said that this move is better than Zhu Yicheng's initial attempt to raise funds with bonds. Although it has certain advantages in investing with the state, it also has unavoidable disadvantages.

First of all, the country needs a lot of capital investment, and the funds spent on building railways are extremely huge. Even in peacetime, the Ming Dynasty's current financial resources may be a bit difficult, not to mention that the Ming Dynasty has not yet pacified the four directions, and various places are still continuing to fight.

Secondly, the state will carry out specific operations after the railway is built, which is the common state-owned enterprises in later generations. The disadvantages of such enterprises are everywhere, such as low efficiency, poor service, more people who eat idle food and few people who work, unknown accounts, and even serious losses.

Finally, and the most important reason is the future development of railways. China is a big country. If the Ming Dynasty wants to truly build railways in various places, it will be extremely difficult to rely on the court alone. Moreover, railway construction will involve many local factors. If the court comes all out, it will certainly encounter some unnecessary troubles, but it will be completely different for merchants to come forward. For the sake of profit, merchants will naturally have ways to solve a series of problems. At that time, the court did not need to go forward directly to avoid trouble, and could intervene and coordinate with the role of a third party to grasp the overall situation.

It has to be admitted that Jiang Jin's move is indeed beautiful and has solved these problems. It seems that Zhu Yicheng's promise to Jiang Jin allowed him to exert his wisdom beyond the limit and thus came up with this solution.

What's more, since the public letter was sent, Jiang Jin has also vigorously boasted about the importance and convenience of railways in various businesses through his own network of relationships. As for the future benefits of railways, he also drew a desirable blueprint.

In recent years, the Ministry of Industry has cooperated a lot with various commercial banks. As the Minister of Works, Jiang Jin has had a great influence in various commercial banks. In addition, the imperial court endorsed this project, and the heads of some major commercial banks have also learned some inside information about the railway. They have also seen the previous operation of railways in mines and the results of the Academy of Sciences' train experiments, and immediately became interested in this project.

Merchants can be said to be the most well-informed group of people in the world. To some extent, merchants' sense of smell is even stronger than Jinyiwei. Of course, this first involves interests, that is, money.

When the big business banks showed interest in this matter, small and medium-sized business banks also keenly discovered the potential benefits of this matter. Therefore, as time went by, these businessmen began to gather in Nanjing, and everyone was ready to get a share of the railway project.

"Brother Zhou, your old man has always been cautious in business. He didn't expect that he would send you to Nanjing this time." In the private room of a restaurant in Nanjing, five businessmen were gathering together, with sumptuous wine and food on the table. One of the businessmen in his thirties couldn't help but smile at the middle-aged man sitting in the main seat.

The businessman named Zhou smiled and said without hiding it: "This matter is a decision made by my old man. Although he has been cautious in his life, his vision is not bad. In addition, Brother Wang, don't forget what business is my family doing."

"Yes! Brother Zhou almost forgot if we didn't mention it. No wonder the old man has such great courage. He probably knew about the railways for a long time, right?" The person next to him immediately patted his forehead and sighed, and asked with a curious expression.

The businessman named Zhou smiled and nodded. His Zhou family did know more about railways than other merchants because his Zhou family was originally from iron smelting.

The grandfather and great-grandfather of the Zhou merchant were once a famous blacksmith family. The Zhou family's blacksmith shop was well-known in the local area. When the family business was passed down to his father, the blacksmith shop became even more prosperous. Mr. Zhou not only knew how to smelite, but also had excellent management skills. In just over ten years, he expanded the family business several times and became a wealthy family in the local area.

But no matter what, no matter how big a blacksmith is, he is also a blacksmith. He had to be a craftsman before, and his social status was very low. Although the Zhou family was not a real craftsman and had some money in the Taoist family, they were also looked down upon because of their professional reasons. It was not until the revival of the Ming Dynasty that Zhu Yicheng issued an order to cancel the household registration of a low-key household and become a civilian. The Zhou family truly stood up and was grateful for the grace of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Yicheng.

Because the Zhou family was under the Ming Dynasty very early, they naturally received the dividends of the rise of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Zhou family owned blacksmith shops and iron smelting technology. Later, while Zhu Yicheng gradually encouraged industry and commerce to vigorously develop industry, the Zhou family took the lead while seeking cooperation in part of the cutting workshops, thus starting a complete transformation of the family industry.

Now the Zhou family is no longer the time to run several blacksmith shops. Now the Zhou family has three large iron smelting plants, which can not only refine hundreds of thousands of kilograms of fine iron every day, but also can directly refine good steel. In addition, the Zhou family also has a medium-sized ordnance factory, which mainly produces some ordnance processing orders from the department. Of course, the ordnance produced is not high-tech weapons such as muskets and cannons, just conventional cold weapons and armor, etc., plus some naval warship iron and steel parts, etc., but this is enough to make the Zhou family soar.

Because of this, the cooperation between the Zhou family and the Ministry of Industry is extremely close, and both iron and steelmaking require ore resources, so the Zhou family is also very familiar with the mines built by the imperial court.
Chapter completed!