In a corner of the Telegram Laboratory, there is a map occupying the entire wall. On the map, the planned telegram lines are well connected. As long as they can be realized, the world will change greatly. How to change greatly? Yu Wen Wen, who came to visit the laboratory, gave an example to Xu Shao, who accompanied the visit.

A merchant from Chengdu took a boat to carry goods into the Yangtze River. Before leaving, he sent a telegram at the Chengdu Telegraph Bureau and transferred to Jiangling through Chang'an, telling Jiangling's branch manager about when he would arrive and ask him to contact the merchant.

When he took a boat downstream, he left the Three Gorges and arrived in Jiangling. As soon as he arrived on the shore, he sold the Shujin he brought, deposited the payment (circulation coupon) into a certain cabinet shop and completed the remittance procedures, and sent the money to the Xiyang semi-colon of the cabinet shop, specifying the payee and codeword.

Then I took a telegram and told the shopkeeper Xiyang branch to the code, and asked him to use remittance to purchase goods.

When the merchant arrived in Xiyang on regular passenger ships, the shopkeeper of the branch had loaded the goods, so the merchant took the goods with the ship and headed to Guangling downstream.

When leaving Xiyang, he sent a telegram to Guangling, told the shopkeeper of the branch to contact the buyer, negotiate the price, and then sent a telegram to Jiangzhou Gongkou, telling himself to place it in the outdoor room of Gongkou: My husband is ready to arrive.

He sent a telegram to Nanchang again, and asked the shopkeeper of the branch to hurry to Fuliang to get the tea, and hire the boat at the boat trip, and agreed on the date of handover between the two parties. After he and the outdoor room had a few days together, he carried the tea back, entered the Han River, and went ashore in Fancheng.

Send a telegram to Chang'an, ask the shopkeeper of the branch to contact the buyer, and send a telegram to prepare the outdoor room in Chang'an.

When I arrived in Chang'an, I handed over the tea leaves and gathered with the outdoor room for a few days. Then I returned to Chengdu with satisfaction. Before leaving, I sent a telegram to ask the main room: What jewelry do you want, rouge and powder? I bought it for you in Chang'an for my husband!

Then he sent a telegram to the shopkeeper who was sealed by Qinzhou, asking him to buy cotton and wool products and send it to Luoyi, Qizhou. Then he went to Luoyi, the warehouse, took the goods, and returned to Chengdu with the gifts he had given to his official residence.

"Look, with the telegram and steamship, how convenient is it for merchants to do business?"

"So, the main force of private consumption of telegraphs is merchants. Only with strong commercial demand can the income of a telegraph line. However, the general official documents exchanges are mostly more, but they cannot compare to the income of civilian telegraphs."

Yuwen Wen said, Xu Shao could not stop nodding. Now the court plans to set up telegram lines on a large scale, but due to financial tightness and it is impossible to issue unlimited government bonds, many telegram lines need to be set up by the government-civilian joint operation (official supervision and commercial operation).

Rich people are not fools and will not take out their money for nothing. Therefore, if you want to attract private funds to "invest" in various telegram (investment) branches, the court has to give them sweetness.

What is the sweetness? It means dividends. To achieve dividends, it is necessary to ensure that all telegram (investment) branches are profitable.

Speaking of profit, it is like doing business. A trading company can only make profits by attracting customers as much as possible. If the telegraph lines of each telegraph (investment) branch want to make profits, they have to figure out who is the "main force" of consumer telegraphs.

There is no doubt that the court needs telegrams, so the official documents of the government along the telegram line are realized by paying to send telegrams. The cost of the "official report" will be one of the sources of income for the telegram line.

However, because the military affairs sent by officials above a certain level and above are free of charge, the income of the "official newspaper" will not be too high.

For wealthy families, telegrams are good and can contact relatives who are away from home at any time, so they have the ability to send telegrams frequently, but in terms of total volume, they account for a small proportion.

For ordinary people, they can’t afford to eat a few meals a month, and no matter how cheap the telegram is (relatively speaking), they can’t afford it.

If you want to contact your relatives from afar, it is better to write a letter. After all, with the implementation of postal services, communication is also very convenient, so ordinary people are not the "main force" of telegram consumption.

Only merchants who are rich and have high requirements for the timeliness of news are the main consumer force of telegraphs.

Of course, each cabinet can rely on telegrams to strengthen contact with local semicolons to better complete exchange business, so it also needs telegrams.

Then, if a telegraph line is set up, it will attract merchants to send telegraphs and make profits in areas such as the Yongji Canal, the Tongji Canal, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Fen River, and the Huai River.

In this way, when the telegram line jointly run by officials and the people (official supervision and business office) is set up in these areas, the imperial court does not need to invest a large amount of money, but only rely on private funds to build it.

Of course, the court must invest in shares, and the saved expenses can be invested in telegraph lines that do not have much commercial value but have national defense and administrative value.

This idea is actually to sell some of the most likely profitable telegraph lines to private capital, and the court itself sets up some telegraph lines that are not profitable and have to pay for money. In fact, from a financial perspective, it suffered a huge loss.

"However, it is a blessing to have a loss. As long as the main line of the telegram is set up to form a telegram network, the court will be the biggest beneficiary."

After Yuwen Wen finished speaking, he pointed to the map and a dotted line connecting Hongzhou Nanchang and Guangzhou Fanyu: "Once the telegram line from Nanchang to Fanyu is connected, the lines from Nanchang and Chang'an are also connected, which means that what happened to Fanyu that day will be transmitted to Chang'an the next day."

"Similarly, the telegram line that originated from Chengdu, Yizhou, passed through Nanzhong, and arrived at Jiaozhou along Yeyushui was set up, and the lines between Chengdu and Chang'an were also connected. What happened to the Longbian will also be transmitted to Chang'an the next day."

"What happened on the frontier can be received the next day, and the decision made by the center can be transmitted to the frontier the next day at the latest. This is something that countless courts have dreamed of for thousands of years. If the dynasty does it now, this is the greatest benefit."

"Compared with this, it's not harmful to sell some benefits."

"Shu is rich, and as long as the telegraph line from Chengdu to Chang'an is raised, private capital will inevitably actively subscribe to stocks, so this telegraph line can be built by private capital."

"Similarly, the telegram line from Long to Kunming in Nanzhong can be laid out along the existing new roads in Yeyushui, and there is strong commercial demand, and it can also be built on private capital."

"As for the telegram lines from Chengdu to Nanzhongweicheng and then to Kunming, the court can serve as the main investor to mount the line, divide the entire line into three sections, and set it up at the same time, and the completion speed will naturally be very fast."

"One line connection is of great benefit to the development of national defense, administration, and private commerce."

"Businessmen in Shu can directly contact the owners of Jiaozhou plantations and maritime merchants. As long as the lines are set up, there will inevitably be more and more commercial telegrams, so the entire line may lose money at the beginning, but in the long run, the court can at least recover the investment."

"There are so many benefits, as long as possible, a telegram network spread across major regions across the country is to connect all parts of the world. Therefore, the purpose of the court's concession is to achieve this goal as soon as possible."

"You go to Chengdu to supervise the installation of the Chengdu-Chang'an telegram line. You must be stable and not be disturbed by others."

"If an official advises, what telegram is a magic weapon of the country, and you should not use it on others, do you know what to do, right?"

Xu Shao replied: "Don't worry, your majesty, I will say 'Those who eat money will not compete with the people for profit'."

Yuwen Wen laughed when he heard this: "That's right, you have to use this sentence at this time."

Those who eat wealth do not compete with the people for profit, and the "Biography of the Grand Historian" was published. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party had similar opinions, but the "people" mentioned by the Donglin Party was not common people, and Yuwen Wen hated this deeply.

In order to avoid taxes, interest groups are hyping up to "the country cannot compete with the people for profit". Yuwen Wen hates this high-sounding statement, but he doesn't mind taking it out when needed.

For the court, the telegraph line is not a profit tool, but a magical tool to strengthen administrative efficiency and strengthen local control, so it is no problem to benefit the people.

In order to complete a telegram network as soon as possible, flexible strategies must be adopted to open up the stock raising of some "high-quality lines" to the public.

The so-called "high-quality lines" include: the Chang'an-Chengdu Line (connected to Guanzhong and Shu), the Chang'an-Shangfeng Line (connected to Guanzhong and Longyou), the Jingxing Line (Jinyang to Yecheng), the Yongji Line (the line set along the Yongji Canal), and the Tongji Line (the telegram line set along the Tongji Canal).

The telegram line from Chang'an to Suiyuan, Yunzhou (passed by Jinyang on the way), Chang'an to Xiyang, Huangzhou (take Wuguan Road, Rangcheng, Xiangyang, Anlu), and Xiyang to Fanyu, Guangzhou (passing Jiangzhou, Shangkou, Hongzhou, Nanchang, Hongzhou, etc.

These "high-quality lines" telegram (investment) branches will be publicly offered stocks, including powerful people, officials, big people, powerful businessmen, and wealthy businessmen. They will inevitably be rushing to subscribe like crazy.

Several "high-quality lines" can be started at the same time and quickly issued a telegram (report) to directly increase the control ability of the court in Hebei, Henan, Lianghuai, Jiangnan, Jingxiang, Hedong and Shu. Such benefits are what the court needs most.

If you are obsessed with some small profits, which will lead to the telegraph network being unable to complete it for a long time, this is to lose money and not make the gains worth it.

Yuwen Wen was explaining something to Xu Shao. An experimenter stepped forward and reported that "preparation was completed." Yuwen Wen nodded, then looked at Xu Shao and smiled and said, "Today, you can see the new magical powers."
Chapter completed!