Chapter 1199 British Sponsorship (First Update, Please Subscribe)

A gold bubble swept through London's investment community like a storm. Thousands of investors went bankrupt overnight and tens of millions of pounds went up in smoke. The losses were devastating.

However, the British Empire is a huge country with a lot of wealth. They wouldn't even blink an eye at the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds, let alone 40 or 50 million pounds.

In fact, the decline of an empire is almost like this - it often starts with lavish spending of money. Although the ways of spending money vary, when the wealth accumulated over hundreds of years is spent in this way, the decline of the empire is inevitable.

Of course, for the British people on both sides of the Thames today, they are certainly not aware of this problem.

For them, it is nothing more than a series of failed investments. After all, losing money is a normal thing in doing business.

No one at that time was aware of this loss, but what was lost was the wealth of the entire empire.

The British didn't know, but as the initiators, they were very clear about the meaning behind it.

"Our profit this time is over 13.26 million pounds. According to the investment ratio, in addition to the royal family, banks, army and navy, the Imperial National Pension Fund, as the largest investor, received 40% of the profit..."

Hu Xueyan, the president of the Imperial Bank, seemed very excited when reporting the investment income from the gold mine in southern Africa. After all, there are not many opportunities in the world to make money by doing nothing.

Besides, this one pick up can amount to tens of millions!

"Notify the Imperial National Pension Fund that another opportunity will come soon. There is still a chance at the gold mine."

What is the Imperial National Pension Fund?

It is the social security fund of the empire. The pension insurance of tens of millions of citizens of the empire is managed by them. Since the establishment of the foundation, they have made various investments along with the expansion of the empire, and the returns on the investments are extremely rich. For example, the return on investment in the African colonies has exceeded 50 times. According to calculations, ten years later, the return on investment in the African colonies alone will be enough to support the pension insurance expenditures of the empire, and it will be more than enough.

However, even so, Emperor Zhu did not forget to make money with the Imperial National Pension Fund. After all, everyone's retirement money will be paid from it in the future, so of course everyone should make money together.

"One more chance?"

Hu Xueyan was a little confused and looked at the emperor in surprise.

"Gold mine?"

“Yes, it’s a gold mine!”

Emperor Zhu nodded and said.

"This is just the first move. There will be a second wave of gold investment in southern Africa. This time, the scale will be even larger than this one. The market size is expected to exceed 100 million pounds. If we seize the opportunity, we can make about 20 to 30 million pounds!"

Twenty or thirty million pounds!

Hu Xueyan was almost scared when he heard this. This was hundreds of millions of Ming Yuan!

Perhaps this amount of money is not much for the empire, but it is almost equivalent to the treasury revenue of the Tang Dynasty!

Such a huge sum of money still needs to be taken from the UK. How much meat does this "Big Fat Britain" have to withstand such taking?

Hu Xueyan said with some doubt.

"Hey, he's already suffered a loss once, I'm afraid he won't be fooled so easily next time!"

"Fooled?"

Emperor Zhu was too lazy to pay attention to him.

My goodness, am I a liar?

"How could it be a scam? It's a real investment. There must be gold there, and it is very likely the largest gold mine in human history. In a few months, a new round of investment frenzy will surely be set off there. We can just take this opportunity to make another wave of money!"

It's not just one wave, but several waves - now almost all the land in Baishuiling has been acquired by companies under the Investigation Department. After the news of "gold discovery" spreads, they can take the opportunity to raise the land price and make a fortune from the land.

Of course, this is small money, what is the real big money?

It must be the subsequent investment boom in the Whitewater Ridge gold mine - hundreds of companies with a market value of hundreds of millions of pounds!

This is an opportunity to make big money!

Seizing this opportunity and not letting the British contribute several months' pension to all the people of the Ming Dynasty would be a waste of the hard work that the fat British have put in plundering India for so many years.

Think about it, it’s not easy for the British either!

The wealth that had been plundered in India for so many years was just transferred in southern Africa.

So...get more!

“Is there really gold there?”

Hu Xueyan said in surprise.

“There really is gold!”

“That’s definitely a long-term investment.”

Shaking his head, Emperor Zhu enjoyed the roast duck on the table and said.

“One duck, three ways to eat it!”

"What?"

"This wave is still a bubble, but it is exaggerated because there is indeed gold. However, according to the geological report we obtained, this gold mine is quite interesting..."

But after mining the gold mines on the surface, the British found that the ore became harder and harder as they went deeper, and the content of the ore became less and less. What was even more terrible was that the "mercury amalgam method" used to extract gold at that time could not extract gold with such a rare content.

Then, the capital market responded honestly, and the second gold mining investment boom in southern Africa broke out again. Another wave of Londoners jumped into the Thames.

What are twists and turns? This is twists and turns!

If it weren't for the fact that he knew that a few years later, that gold mine would become the largest in the world, containing one-third or even more than half of the world's gold, Emperor Zhu would really want to sympathize with the British.

Of course, Emperor Zhu couldn't say that he knew all this a long time ago, so he could only attribute the incident to the geological report of the geological exploration department.

Listening to His Majesty's explanation, Hu Xueyan was stunned.

"This, this Englishman is so unlucky!"

"Bad luck?"

Emperor Zhu sneered.

"What bad luck! The real unlucky ones are the Boers. If the technical production problems of such a large gold mine were solved, would the British just sit there and watch the Boers occupy it?"

"The Boers cannot hold on to such a large gold mine."

When the word "cannot be held" was mentioned, Hu Xueyan's eyes lit up and he said.

"Your Majesty said one duck three ways to eat... Let's eat the investment boom twice, and then invest in gold mines. With the help of the empire, the Boers will naturally not have to worry about the British."

"The Boers don't have to worry about the British, but they will still worry about us. An innocent man is guilty of possessing a treasure. No matter who the Boers choose between the two major powers, the final result will be the same. In their hands, the gold mine is like a child carrying a thousand gold in a busy city."

With a smile on his face, Emperor Zhu spoke directly.

"You don't need to worry about the future of the gold mine. Just like before, mobilize the best investment experts and seize the opportunity to make some quick money. As for the gold mine..."

Of course it had to be handed over to the British, otherwise why would the Great Emperor Zhu have gone through so much trouble to set up a shell company in the UK, wasn't it just to get the British stuck in the quagmire of war? Ming Dynasty intervened?

Let yourself get stuck in the quagmire!

In another world, the Boer War marked the rise and fall of the British Empire. In this world... with the friendly help of the Ming Dynasty, they will surely decline even more.

"The money earned by the navy is just enough to build a few more warships. Thanks to the sponsorship of the British Empire..."

(End of this chapter)