The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 528 Honesty and Background

Teng Yuzhao was slightly stunned, then immediately understood what everyone was thinking.

Xu Shichang first said carefully, "General, I know that the Aurora Bank was opened by you. Now, due to the interest-based savings, it has sufficient funds. In addition, the Zhou Daotai and Ning Daotai have managed it well. No matter which factories or trading companies, they are all doing very well and are all golden gooses that lay eggs."

"But the money that the Marshal just mentioned will not be a small amount. Railways are especially expensive. Any railway will cost tens of millions."

"Especially, these factories require huge investments, and may even require continued investment, while the recovery of funds will be very slow, I'm afraid."

Yang Shixiang also said worriedly, "The foreigners may be worried that the Marshal cannot come up with such a large sum of money. Even if the Aurora Bank has sufficient funds, it may not be able to afford it. There will always be times when funds are tight. Once there is a run on the bank, I am afraid..."

Teng Yuzao said, "Your concerns are all justified and should be taken into consideration. However, I have a way to quickly obtain sufficient development funds. I will explain this in detail later."

"There is one thing I want to tell you first."

Teng Yuzao looked at Zhou Xuexi and said, "Jizhi, everyone here is our friend. Please tell us about the profitability of the factories you manage, and also give a bottom line to Lianfu and Juren so that they can also have an idea."

When Zhou Xuexi mentioned the factories he managed, his spirits immediately perked up.

Zhou Xuexi said with pride and complacency on his face, nodding his head.

"Our pens are now the only ones in the world that sell them because of the Marshal's patent. Pens are the most practical thing for foreigners. Every time those foreign merchants bring back a batch, they are snapped up in their own countries."

"Now foreigners have to place orders at the factory first, and then line up to wait for our pens to be produced. Once they have enough, they will be shipped away immediately."

"There are even foreign merchants who are willing to pay more in order to get our pens as soon as possible. Even so, our orders have already been scheduled until the end of next year."

Zhou Xuexi continued proudly, "Fountain pens may seem expensive, but the manufacturing cost is not high. Each time we produce a fountain pen, the cost is between one and two taels of silver. This is because our production volume is relatively small, and it is difficult to find skilled workers. The workers we hire still need to be skilled. Otherwise, even the most advanced fountain pen would cost less than half a tael of silver."

"But our selling price is as high as six to ten taels of silver, which means that the average profit of a fountain pen is more than six taels. In the past six months, this factory alone has made a profit of nearly one million taels. The most conservative estimate of the net profit for the whole year will not be less than two million, and it is very likely to reach two and a half million taels."

Zhou Xuexi's words left Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang speechless with shock.

To build the Lu-Han Railway, the imperial court and Zhang Zhidong originally planned to allocate 2 million taels each year to gradually build it. However, in the end, due to the need to build a railway to Fengtian, the 2 million could not be allocated, so they had to borrow money from foreigners and hand it over to the Dutch to build.

Today, due to the war, the Luhan Railway, which has been less than half built, is still left there in a state of suspension.

And now, a company that only makes foreign pens can make a net profit of more than two million a year. How can they not be surprised!
"And our flour mill."

Zhou Xuexi continued to speak excitedly, "The flour mill is also making a fortune every day, and almost all the flour produced is bought by foreigners and shipped back to their country."

"Although the net profit of flour is not as high as that of pens, it has the advantage of large volume. I estimate that the annual profit is likely to be more than three million. I am thinking about expanding production." Zhou Xuexi said with some regret, "It's just that the Marshal does not agree to expand production."

"And our weaving and dyeing factory."

Xu Shichang and Yang Shixiang could no longer listen to what Zhou Xuexi said next. This was not just making a fortune, this was almost making tens of thousands of dollars a day, but Teng Yuzhao was still unwilling to expand production!
Looking at Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang who seemed a little absent-minded, Teng Yuzhao waved his hand to stop Zhou Xuexi and spoke to them.

"As for the reason for not expanding production, I'll tell you later. I can also give you a tip-off. Jizhi is currently negotiating with some companies from the major powers in Shanghai about the sale of the patent rights to manufacture fountain pens. Even if we don't make these pens ourselves in the future, we will still have a lot of money to earn every year."

"I let Jizhi tell you all this because I want to tell you that when we promote Westernization in Zhili, we will not rely solely on the money from other people's deposits in the Aurora Bank. We will have plenty of silver to supplement it."

"Moreover, I can tell you clearly that I can build a few more factories like this one, even more than a dozen will not be a problem."

Teng Yuzhao's words immediately made Zhou Xuexi's eyes light up, and even other people were shocked again.

It would be amazing for others to have such a factory that makes a lot of money every day, but Teng Yuzhao actually said that he could build a dozen more. If that was true, then his money would be like the wind blowing.

Teng Yuzao smiled and waved to Zhou Xuexi, "It's just that I don't have time now. After the war is over, I will start to do it, and we will also have our own patent."

Yang Shixiang smiled bitterly and said, "The Marshal is willing to use his own money to support Zhili's promotion of Westernization. This is a noble act of the Marshal, but we have to pay it back. The stall we have rolled out at once is still too big, isn't it?"

Yang Shixiang's words made the excitement on the faces of those people except Ning Xingpu subside a lot.

Even if there is no shortage of money to promote Westernization, such a huge investment must always be repaid, and the interest will be a huge amount. I am afraid that many of the factories built in the end will be overwhelmed and unsustainable.

Teng Yuzao said seriously, "There is one thing that originally only Ning Daotai and I knew. Today I will explain it to you all."

"Although this Aurora Bank is under my name, it was established with the money donated by Ning Daotai to the Vanguard Army. It is not my private property. The factories run by Jizhi and the companies run by Caojiu are my own businesses."

"As for Ning Daotai's trading company, Ning Daotai and I each own half of the shares."

"All profits from the Aurora Bank will be used to support the people's livelihood in the Vanguard Army and Zhili, including the promotion of Westernization."

"I will talk about the bank separately later, but I can say now that all the properties under my name will be sold to Aurora Bank for 10% of its shares. This will allow the bank to not only make profits from loans, but also have its own way to make money."

"That is to say, even if it does not benefit from loans, it will have sufficient sources of funds."

(End of this chapter)