Chapter 54 The Temptation of Gold Mine

Schmidt's method of using gold to lure investors is indeed feasible.

It's just that bankers with large sums of money are all well-informed and shrewd.

Such fake news has limited effect, and real tycoons will not take the bait.

Since it has been decided to use the news of gold mines to promote the development of the Congo Railway Company, there must be real gold mines with real materials and real prices.

According to the approximate distribution of Congo gold mines in Constantine's memory, Constantine instructed Banning to hire some geographers or mineralogists from developed Western European countries such as Germany, Britain, France, and Belgium to go to North and South Kivu provinces in Africa for geological and mineral exploration.

The Congo Commission funded this exploration and has ownership of the minerals discovered this time.

Unless it is necessary, Constantine does not want to expose Congo's rich mineral deposits to the world too early. Countries that are not strong enough and have a treasure land and are jealous can easily cause trouble for Greece.

However, Congo, which is of little value, has no ability to attract investment. If the colonial forces want to make quick profits and the transportation shortcomings are not solved as soon as possible, Greece's development will be hindered.

Therefore, Constantine instructed Banning to limit the scope of activities of the exploration team, pay attention to controlling the direction of the situation, and limit the scope of exploration to the vicinity of North and South Kivu Provinces, so as to avoid attracting the covetousness of various countries after all the mineral resources in Congo are exposed.

Kivu Province was not chosen by Constantine at random.

The reason for choosing this province is that this province is in the east of Congo, an inland province, far away from the western coast of Congo.

If countries are really interested in the gold mines here, they will naturally increase the construction of the Congo Railway. After all, various mining equipment and personnel, as well as the transportation of gold mines, are inseparable from railways.

In this era where currency is gold and silver, and gold and silver are currency, no one can resist the temptation of gold mines.

In order to obtain a trade deficit and enable their countries to grab more gold and silver, countries have taken various measures to strive to create a closed economic circle to prevent the outflow of gold and silver.

The problem of railway financing has been solved. Constantine breathed a sigh of relief and walked out of the office with Schmidt.

On the empty playground, the two heard the sound of "bang bang" of gunfire coming from a distance.

Seeing Constantine's interest, Schmidt replied; "It's the soldiers training shooting."

"Let's go, let's go and see together," Constantine said excitedly.

When the two came to the playground, they saw the soldiers lined up in neat rows, in platoons, and took turns to shoot at the targets under the command of the commander.

Constantine waved his hand and signaled the commander in the distance to come over.

The three four-pointed stars on the rank showed that this was a captain.

"Captain, how many bullets do the soldiers shoot in training in a year?" Constantine asked after saluting.

"About 10 rounds a year, sir," the captain replied while returning the salute.

"Only 10 rounds a year, is it like this all year round?" Constantine frowned and replied.

"Yes, sir. Soldiers only have 10 bullets per year, so they usually train the basic skills of shooting. Officers and soldiers cherish the opportunity of live-fire shooting," the captain replied.

Constantine and Schmidt came to the headquarters and told Metaxas that the soldiers had too few bullets for training.

"In recent years, the government's finances have been very tight, so the training of soldiers has also been affected." Metaxas looked helpless when talking about the live-fire training of soldiers.

"You know, the weapons and ammunition of the Greek army, every bullet, every shell, must be imported from abroad. The government owes a lot of debts and has the pressure of repayment every year. The military budget is not allocated well, and the training of soldiers will naturally be affected," Metaxas replied.

"If this continues, the combat effectiveness of soldiers will be affected if they do not get enough training. After all, excellent soldiers are fed by bullets," Constantine replied regretfully.

After a period of understanding, Constantine has a clear understanding of the situation of the First Division.

In general, the morale of the soldiers was good, but the training was affected by the lack of military funds, and the soldiers' live-fire shooting and artillery training were forced to be compressed.

For a country like Greece with weak industrial strength, the cost of maintaining tens of thousands of soldiers alone is already very strenuous.

It is no wonder that officers like Metaxas would be anxious to launch military operations against Turkey.

In general, the strength of a country's army is still constrained by the economy after all.

Even if Constantine was dissatisfied with the current situation of the Greek army, the government's investment in the army had reached the financial limit when industry and commerce did not improve.

Four months later, in the division commander's office.

"Your Highness, a telegram from Congo," Schmidt suddenly reminded.

After taking the telegram, it was the news from the Congo exploration team.

After Constantine's reminder, the expedition team, with the help of the Congo Commission, crossed the Congo River Basin safely and discovered many gold mines in North and South Kivu Provinces.

The main type of gold mine is placer gold, which is distributed in rivers and valleys in North and South Kivu Provinces.

The gold content is as high as 64 grams per ton. It is undoubtedly a rich mine with mining value.

"Schmidt, send a telegram to Banning and ask him to take the news of the proven gold mine and release it through Western European newspapers," Constantine said.

"Then let the Congolese government send professionals to negotiate with those bankers or mining development companies in Western Europe, using the ownership of the gold mine as a bargaining chip to attract them to invest in the Congo Railway Company," Constantine said.

Although there have been large gold mines discovered in South Africa, there is no need to worry about too many gold mines.

The end of the 19th century was the period when the gold standard was popular, and all countries needed a lot of gold as currency.

The reason for this is that the output of silver has increased dramatically, which has caused the value of silver to depreciate every year, and it has been declining for a long time.

Compared with the instability of silver, the output of gold is limited and the price has been very stable.

Therefore, holding a huge amount of silver is equivalent to shrinking every year, and various countries have successively established the gold standard system.

Gold coins are a common means of payment in various countries.

Deep down, if Congo's development was not in urgent need of funds, he would rather leave these gold mines to Greek companies to mine, so as to keep the gold in the Greek domestic market.

At the end of the 19th century, almost three-quarters of the gold was held by the powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, which made gold scarce in other countries and plagued economic development by currency shortages.

Even so, due to the stronger competitiveness of goods and greater international influence of powerful countries, gold continued to flow to the powerful countries at the top of the food chain.

Gold mines became a scarce strategic asset and were welcomed by all countries.