Because of the uneven distribution of spoils in the Nanyang War, a new round of confrontation between the army and the navy occurred in the spring of the 16th year of Chengshun. The army and navy fought fiercely, but the wind was loud and the rain was light, so many people were confused.

A little boring.

Even if you beat them back and forth and you can't show any real result, it's nothing to watch. You might as well watch the new year's oiran competition on the Qinhuai River. Watching the young ladies twisting and turning is no better than watching those warriors playing tricks.

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And some people who really pay attention to current affairs do not pay attention to the trivial matters of the army and navy, but to the diversion of the Yellow River, which has been gaining momentum recently.

After more than ten years of surveying and many preliminary preparations, the Yellow River Alteration Project began its first phase of construction in the 13th year of Chengshun.

After three years of continuous construction, the first phase of construction has been completed. The construction in this phase did not actually divert the Yellow River, but mainly focused on the construction of the flood discharge area of ​​the scheduled new river channel, and some of the flood control facilities of the original river channel.

In terms of construction, the main task is to strengthen the embankments.

Starting this year, the Dachu Empire will begin the second phase of the Yellow River diversion project.

This phase of construction will widen, straighten, and strengthen the dams of a large range of original river channels to ensure that when a large amount of Yellow River water inflows in the future, the dams along the way can withstand the pressure of floods, especially the scheduled inflows.

In the direction of Haikou, large-scale river construction projects are needed.

Secondly, we began to build various water diversion canals on a large scale so that in the future, large amounts of river water can be introduced to places where water resources are needed for irrigation.

At the same time, these diversion canals are also part of the canal network, which can navigate some small-tonnage flat-bottomed boats and build an inland water transportation network.

This phase of the project is expected to take about five years. Once completed, in principle, the new river channel will have the ability to receive the water of the Yellow River, and the rest will be some finishing work.

The entire Yellow River diversion project will last until about the 22nd year of Chengshun, and various constructions will continue to follow to ensure the safety of the new river channel and even some Yellow River channels in the Central Plains region and the effective use of the Yellow River water resources.
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The impact of the Yellow River diversion project is huge. It can not only control the constant flooding in the Jiangbei region and the Central Plains, but also bring sufficient water resources to the North China Plain, so that the local area can obtain more water resources and free up more land.

Get watered.

In addition, the Yellow River diversion project itself will also create a huge number of jobs and wealth!

Especially after the second phase of the large-scale project was launched, a large number of domestic companies were watching, trying to get a piece of the pie.

These matters concerning vital interests attract more attention than the quarrel between the army and navy.

Under such a big wave, the second phase of the Yellow River diversion project has also started smoothly. Hundreds of thousands of people will be working on the long river at the same time. The funds required are provided by the central government and localities along the way, including the Yellow River.

The financial burden will be shared through various places, such as Jiangbei Province and other places.

Of course, commitment does not mean that we can allocate huge amounts of funds in one fell swoop.

These funds are basically coordinated and arranged by the Yellow River Diversion Project Team in Jinling, and the Ministry of Finance is entrusted to raise them by issuing treasury bonds. In the future, the national treasury and local finances will slowly repay the debts...

Even for a country as large as the Chu Empire, if it wanted to carry out a huge project like diversion of the Yellow River, it would need to mobilize a large amount of private capital to participate, and it would be impossible to come up with so much cash just relying on its own finances.

It’s not that there really isn’t that much money, but that money has a predetermined use. Military expenses and various administrative expenses, as well as support for industrial and commercial development, education, infrastructure and many other expenses require money. It is difficult to spend extra money.

A large sum of tens of millions of dollars came.

Therefore, the only way to raise money is to borrow money first and then pay it back slowly.

This is not the first time that the Great Chu Empire has issued national debt. During the Unification War, and even when Huguang was squatting, the Great Chu Empire tried to issue national debt, but the effect was not very good at that time.

The first issuance of treasury bonds was not very effective. After the Chu Empire occupied Jiangnan, the second issuance of treasury bonds was slightly better.

However, the series of treasury bonds issued during the Unification War were rarely purchased by ordinary people. Basically, they were purchased by interest groups who had already boarded the ship of the Chu Empire, such as those officials and related businessmen.
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They buy national bonds basically to show their loyalty, especially those officials, who purchase quotas for themselves according to their rank and position...

Of course, the amount purchased by the official group is not large... If it is purchased in large quantities, you will have to explain how you got the money?

On the whole, it is still carried out in a way similar to raising funds for charity!

The main force in buying national debt is those businessmen with interests in the Chu Empire, and they are not buying the national debt for the interest, let alone as an investment, they purely regard the national debt as the Great Chu Empire's version of apportionment...
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As for apportionment, traditional businessmen in China are very familiar with it. As long as the amount is not too exaggerated and beyond the scope of knowledge and the number is reasonable, they will not talk nonsense to you and just pay...

But after the Unification War ended, the people saw that the empire had completely changed. The most important thing was that the Chu Empire had gradually cashed in its maturing national debt and paid the corresponding interest.

Only then has the public's trust in the national debt been truly established, and they have treated the national debt as a financial product for investment and value preservation.

Although the interest rate on national debt is not high, it is better than being stable!

Banks are at risk of bankruptcy, and depositing money in banks these days does not earn interest... This is also the bank of the Dachu Empire. If it is a bank in other countries, such as a banker in Italy, you can deposit money and pay back

I charge you a storage fee.

But as for the treasury bonds of the Da Chu Empire, you can treat them as time deposits, the kind that also pay interest.

Moreover, the fiscal revenue of the Dachu Empire is extremely high, so there is no need to worry about solvency.

People’s thinking is, I’ll just buy a national debt worth tens or hundreds of dollars, and the empire’s central fiscal revenue is more than 100 million, so no matter what happens, my little money will not be missing!

If it really doesn’t work, you can still borrow new debts to repay old debts!

You see, people have even come up with ways to pay off their debts...

As for the risk of complete bankruptcy, it can basically be ignored. After all, the Chu Empire was just established not long ago and is still rising at a high speed. According to traditional concepts, the national destiny will last at least one or two hundred years.

Even if you are unlucky, you should be able to hold on for decades.

Therefore, the risk of buying three-year, five-year, and ten-year government bonds is very small, and it is less risky than depositing it in a bank.

Under such circumstances, the treasury bonds of the Dachu Empire truly opened up the market. They lost the apportionment and fundraising attributes of the past and became a financial investment product.

Because treasury bonds are fixed-term, the principal and interest will not be paid before maturity. However, considering that after people buy treasury bonds, something will happen to them one day and they need money urgently. Therefore, the treasury bonds of the Dachu Empire are also divided into registered and

There are two types of anonymous.

Both types of government bonds can be traded.

Registered treasury bonds are generally large-denomination treasury bonds, which are basically purchased by wealthy individuals or companies and other investment institutions. To change ownership, you need to register the change at the provincial branch of a certain central bank that issues the registered treasury bonds.

Unregistered treasury bonds are simple. You can recognize the vote without identifying the person. You can trade it by yourself, or you can go to the treasury bond trading center of the provincial branches of the central bank.

To a certain extent, this is also the first financial investment product in the Chu Empire that is officially recognized and organized and can be freely traded.

Therefore, up to now, the national debt of the Chu Empire can be directly used as large amounts of cash to some extent.

The smooth issuance of national bonds in recent years has also allowed the Chu Empire to raise more funds for investment in some basic projects and even some large industrial projects.

For example, the Ministry of Industry entrusted the Ministry of Finance to issue and raise industrial treasury bonds, which has provided great assistance to the Ministry of Industry’s series of industrial layouts in recent years.

Industrial investment costs money, especially in the heavy industry where official capital focuses on investment. It is like a gold-eating beast.

Any project can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some may even require millions of dollars.

For example, the Ministry of Industry leads the investment of Jiangnan Machinery Company, which is a machinery company focusing on large and ultra-large equipment. At the same time, the company is also the core enterprise responsible for future steam engine mass production plans.

Another example is Jinling Precision Instrument Company, which is a company that focuses on ultra-precision instruments and mainly provides various types of precision mechanical equipment for research and development in various industries.

The Ministry of Industry has also launched a large number of similar projects. It has been involved in almost every industrial field, and it has invested heavily in heavy industry.

Many of these investments are not purely factory construction and equipment purchase expenses, but are actually more research and development expenses.

For example, Jiangnan Machinery Company has to undertake the mass production project of future steam engines. However, many of the materials and processing techniques used in the steam engine projects under development are innovative, and many of them are currently products in the laboratory.
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What Jiangnan Machinery Company needs to do is to conduct research and development on these new materials and new processing techniques independently or in conjunction with other manufacturers.

Therefore, Jiangnan Machinery Company is not only a machinery company, its core components include the Materials Research Institute, the Special Equipment Research Institute, etc.

These few enterprises are only a small part of the official capital investment, and there are many similar projects and enterprises in the Dachu Empire.

At present, the Ministry of Industry has cumulatively invested in the establishment of 17 very large enterprises with an investment amount of more than one million yuan, and more than 100 large enterprises with an investment amount of more than 500,000 yuan.

As for investments below 500,000 yuan, they are basically not directly led by the Ministry of Industry, but are invested internally by large and very large enterprises, or by local official capital.

Over the past ten years, official capital has accumulated direct investment in the industrial field of more than 100 million yuan.

This only counts direct investment from the Ministry of Industry, and does not include investment by government-run enterprises using their own profits or regular bank loans.

What is this concept? It is as much as the current annual central fiscal revenue of the Chu Empire!

Naturally, these investments cannot all be financed by the government. Although the Chu Empire provides great support in the industrial field, it is impossible for it to spend so much cash for direct investment.

These investments were official direct investments in the early stage, and in the middle and later stages, they were multi-pronged. On the one hand, they relied on loans provided by several banks such as the Finance Bank, and on the other hand, they issued industrial government bonds (this part can actually be regarded as

loan).

It can be seen that industrial treasury bonds and bank loans have become important boosters for the industrial development of the Dachu Empire!

Of course, the direct investment from the Ministry of Industry (including local industrial departments) can only act as a booster, and the real investment in the industrial system still needs to be promoted by the major government-run enterprises themselves.

They either use their own profits or conventional bank loans to invest in construction.

Let’s not talk about bank loans, this is routine operation!

It is worth mentioning that the reinvestment of corporate profits is not a small amount of investment, and even exceeds official capital investment and bank loans.

Regardless of the fact that official capital investments are in heavy industries that seem slow to return their capital, in fact, at present, government-run enterprises are quite profitable, especially those in special fields, which are making money every day.

For example, Daye Steel Company, Hantian Machinery Company, Dangtu Steel Company, Dangtu Machinery Company, Guangzhou Machinery Company, and a series of other companies focusing on the fields of mining, smelting, and mechanical equipment, many of which are very profitable.
To be continued...