The Beijing-Hankong Railway was completed and opened to traffic in the 26th year of Guangxu's reign. It made an extraordinary impact. The Qing government agreed to continue to prepare for the construction of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

Since most of the huge investment in the construction of the Beijing-Hankow Railway was made by Sheng Xuanhuai in cooperation with the British in the 21st year of Guangxu, he borrowed a loan from HSBC with an interest of 5% and was repaid in fifty years.

But in the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, which happened to coincide with the year of the Gengzi Indemnity, the Qing government not only had an empty treasury, but its national reputation was in jeopardy at home and abroad. Coupled with the influence of Southeast Mutual Insurance, domestic and foreign merchants were recruited, and investment participants Liao

Liao.

At this time, the British government proposed a plan for him to fully finance the construction of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, which would be completed in five years. The permanent ownership of the railway would be vested in the British side, and the after-tax profits would be shared equally with the Qing government after fifty years of depreciation.

At that time, important ministers in the DPRK such as Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other Westernizers who advocated the integrity of sovereignty resolutely opposed this plan and believed that railway ownership could not be attributed to foreigners.

Some people have also suggested that for the sake of safety, the Guangdong-Hankong Railway cannot continue to cooperate with the British HSBC to prevent one company from becoming dominant and losing control in the future.

In addition to HSBC, other bidders include Citibank, Zhengjin Bank, Credit Agricole, and Macquarie Bank.

In fact, behind them are the five governments of Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Germany.

The emerging imperialist United States hopes to seize the operating rights of this railway from the British side. They played a trick and proposed a plan that does not require permanent ownership, but only fifty-year operating ownership.

The conditions are quite attractive.

In the end, Sheng Xuanhuai chose to cooperate with Citibank.

In this way, the Qing government signed the "Guangdong-Han Railway Development Contract" with the American consortium Hexing Company, the major shareholder of Citibank.

The terms of this contract are relatively novel. It exchanges 50 years of operating rights for the entire investment in the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

Note, fifty-year operating ownership, not perpetual ownership.

That is, Hexing Company invested in building the Guangdong-Hankou Railway within five years, and then obtained the ownership of the railway transportation operation for fifty years.

During this period, road construction rights and operating rights cannot be transferred to a third country.

At the expiration of fifty years, the operating ownership was returned to the Qing government.

Damn it, who knows what kind of changes will happen in these fifty years!

In this way, starting from the 26th year of Guangxu, the American Hexing Company controlled the road construction rights of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

The American Hexing Company is a US foreign investment consortium. It is composed of many congressmen, political parties, steel and oil consortiums in the United States. It has a strong background and can influence government decisions.

Hop Hing Corporation is also one of the major shareholders of Citibank.

However, three years have passed. By the 29th year of Guangxu, Hexing Company had only built about 18 kilometers of railway line from Huangsha to Guotang in Guangzhou, and about 30 kilometers of Sanshui section. It only built roadbeds, sleepers and

The railroad tracks haven't been laid yet.

In other sections, only exploration and planning have been completed, but no construction has started.

The reason is that Hexing Company discovered that the investment cost of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway is several times the cost of the Beijing-Hankow Railway.

Not only is the investment huge, but the engineering is also difficult. Half of the lines have to be dug into mountains and filled in to build bridges, which is incomparable to building roads on the North China Plain.

The economists of Hexing Company are worried that if they continue to invest like this, it will be difficult to recover the cost in fifty years of operation. In other words, the input-output will be disproportionate.

The railway itself is a long-term investment, and it will bear operating losses in the early years after its completion, as well as unforeseen risks, such as war risks and regime changes.

In a word, capitalists never engage in business where they lose money and make money.

For this reason, they came up with the idea of ​​retreating, but did not say so clearly.

In the 30th year of Guangxu's reign, Hexing Company privately sold two-thirds of the operating equity of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway to the Belgian IWC.

They decided without authorization that the southern section of the Guangdong-Hankou Road, that is, within the territory of Guangdong Province, would be built by the Hexing Company, while the northern section, that is, within the territory of Hunan and Hubei, would be built by the Wanguo Company.

IWC is a multinational company headquartered in Shanghai. It was initiated by Belgium and held shares by consortiums or banks from France, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries. It mainly invests in railways, trams and other transportation industries in China.

Therefore, IWC has a complicated background, and their willingness to lose money and make money is related to their domestic strategy, and it has its own ulterior motives.

Everyone knows that the railway artery is not only a vitality for the economy, but its military use is of greater significance in wartime.

When informed of the news, insightful people, country gentry, and national industrialists from the three provinces of Guangdong, Hunan, and Hubei were very angry and demanded that the original contract be revoked and the right of road be taken back and be handled by themselves.

Fifty years later, who knows what changes will happen in the meantime?

At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai had already resigned from the position of Minister Zuo of the Ministry of Industry because of Ding You. After Ding You ended, he concentrated on the management of the Commercial Bank and the Steamship Merchants Company and had no intention of paying attention to this matter.

Zhang Zhidong was ordered to supervise the management of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway. He was a nationalist and advocated the redemption of the road rights. He decided to go to Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei provinces to "raise their own funds and build their own roads".

The construction of the Guangdong-Hankong Railway was mainly funded by private funds in various provinces of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, it was borrowed from foreigners to build the Guangdong-Hankou Railway. It was still a road run by the government and the private sector.

But although Hexing Company violated the terms of the contract and felt that it was at a loss, Dongfang Wanguo Company did not agree to the transfer of the right of way.

Zhang Zhidong decided to negotiate with the American Hexing Company based on the principle of safeguarding railway sovereignty, "As long as the company belongs to me, and there is no need to worry about the floating price."

He advocated gaining support from bureaucracies and business people in Guangdong, Hunan, and Hubei, and firmly demanded the recovery of road rights.

Zhang Zhidong entrusted Mr. Liang Cheng, the Qing Minister to the United States, to negotiate with the Hexing Company, and the two parties signed a road redemption contract.

Hexing Company demanded high sums for the Guangdong-Guangzhou Water Railway section under construction, as well as the exploration and design results of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

After more than a year of arduous negotiations, the Qing Dynasty finally redeemed the road construction and operating rights of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway from the United States at a high price of 6.8 million U.S. dollars, equivalent to approximately 10 million taels of silver.

In that year, the Qing government issued a specific decree on railway construction across the country:

"The railway is an important matter for the country. The Guangdong-Hankou Railway was taken back and run by ourselves. Businessmen and people raised funds to build it, and officials were there to protect it."

As a result, the gentry and merchants of the three provinces established the Guangdong-Hankou Railway Co., Ltd. and decided that each province would develop its own methods to prepare a section within its own province.

Guangdong Province was initially designated as mainly commercial-run, Hubei Province was designated as mainly government-run, while Hunan Province compromised and was designated as government-supervised and commercial-run.

There is a high probability that the tone will still be government-supervised and private-run.

Chen Tianhua knew very well that at present, the Qing Dynasty's treasury was empty, private and commercial funds did not have such great strength, and no one had the difficulty of building this railway. It was fully estimated that it was all based on enthusiasm.

In reality, enthusiasm alone is not enough.
Chapter completed!