Chapter 582 Pay attention to your eating manners
Thanks to his experience as a keyboard warrior during the iron ore price hike in his previous life, the slave owner knew the approximate location of Australia's iron ore, which was in Western Australia, a state with many deserts and salt lakes, vast land and sparse population. It is rich in mineral resources, accounts for one-third of the entire Australia, but has a population of only one-tenth of Australia. In the early twentieth century, the population proportion was even lower.
This is just like the important transformation of the Sheffield family after Texas was incorporated into the United States. As the owner of the joint venture, he believes that investing in Australia is the basis for the second take-off.
Although the environment in Western Australia is far from excellent, the per capita resources owned by the sparse population are very terrifying compared to the vast area. The British even created a special word in English to describe the fact that Australia has a small population and a large land area, and can live a very high-quality life without doing anything.
When the mining industry was popular, with the iron ore from Western Australia, the entire Australian population of more than 20 million could easily live a good life, and the per capita output was easily higher than that of the United States. Moreover, the pressures on both sides were completely different. The United States was a purely capitalist country, and the so-called welfare only existed in the mouths of some public intellectuals. It was far inferior to European countries with only half the per capita output of the United States, let alone Australia.
In Sheffield's eyes, Western Australia is a super-enhanced version of Texas, and the best owner here is of course himself. Western Australia also faces the most populous Eurasian continent. No matter which country wants to develop, it needs Australia, a country sitting on the mine cart, to provide raw material support. At least in the next 100 years, there will be no worries about food and drink.
It would not have been easy to travel from the prosperous east side of Australia to Western Australia if they did not have their own shipyard to provide the cargo ships for this voyage. Even Edith Rockefeller and Louisa Morgan complained about coming to the desolate Western Australia.
"How can you make an investment without seeing the local environment with your own eyes?" No matter how much the two women nag, Sheffield remains unmoved and is determined to see this most pristine part of Australia.
"There's nothing but weeds and sand here!" Louisa Morgan curled her lips and said, "Even the population is so sparse. What's the value of completely self-sufficient farming and animal husbandry without a market?"
"If it's exploration, you have to be prepared to lose money. You Morgans don't understand this." Edith Rockefeller said with a smile, "Exploration itself is a high-risk thing. This risk cannot be eliminated. In a sense, it's just a matter of luck."
"Edith is right." Sheffield nodded. How much money would a country spend on exploration? It was an unimaginable amount of money. It could be said that the future Republic's domestic exploration was ongoing every moment. Tens of millions or even hundreds of millions would be gone in the blink of an eye. No one knew how much it cost.
After sailing along the Australian coastline and appreciating a lot of natural scenery, the ship arrived in Western Australia. When docked at the port, Sheffield had already seen two familiar faces, the armored ships Port-au-Prince and Haiti, which originally belonged to Haiti. For a naval power, these two warships were no longer useful in the early twentieth century when the tonnage increased every year and the standard changed every three years. However, they were still very threatening to some colonies.
Now the two warships have been owned by the Kuwaiti Guard, stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect William Pasha's territory. It is a bit like the Fifth Fleet of the US Navy in later generations, maintaining the stability of the Persian Gulf region. Although it cannot be compared with the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, it can also play the role of kneeling on the ground and punching.
After landing, Brown, the head of Black Gold Company's Kuwait base, was already at the dock to greet his boss when he got off the ship.
"We should consider replacements for these two ships. Although I have a shipyard that can manufacture battleships, I cannot sell them directly to my own territory. This is a troublesome matter. Britain and Germany are in a naval arms race and there is no time to spare production capacity. It seems that I should let my wife think of a solution from Paris. Although the French warships are not as good as those of Britain and Germany, they can be used to deter other forces!" Sheffield stopped in front of the two warships for a moment and shook his head slightly, "If you want to use it, use my name. Send a telegram to Arlington and tell Anne about it."
For cost reasons and the existence of a shipyard, it would of course be best to do it ourselves, but we cannot get around the federal government.
"By the way, I haven't been to Kuwait for many years. How is the situation there? Are the British still causing trouble from time to time?" Sheffield waved his hand and asked as he walked, ignoring some curious Australian locals.
"There has obviously been no friction in the past two years. As for Kuwait itself, there are currently more than 20,000 people, all of whom are members of the Eastern Christian sect in the Middle East. Loyalty is not a problem." Brown introduced the situation in Kuwait honestly. "The locals make a living by herding and fishing. I wouldn't say that their lives are that good, but they are still acceptable compared to the Arabs around them."
"Thanks to the great German Empire!" Sheffield suddenly spoke. If it weren't for the aggressive Allies pulled by the Germans, which attracted the attention of the British, there would be no good life today. "How was the talk with the Portuguese? I have always respected these predecessors. In fact, if we sit down and have a good talk, it will also make the rebels more cautious when facing resistance in the future. It is indeed a long way to reach Western Australia from Kuwait. If we can have a transit opportunity in Goa, it will be a good thing for us. The Portuguese can create some jobs, and we have a place to stay."
Goa is located in India and is a colony of Portugal. At that time, the traditional land spice trade route to Europe was interrupted by the Ottoman Empire, and Portugal's goal was to establish a colony in India to monopolize the maritime spice trade from India to Europe. Albuquerque, the commander of the Portuguese fleet, defeated the Punjab king who had sovereignty over the local chieftain Timaya and occupied the old city of Goa. Different from other Portuguese enclaves along the coast of India, Portugal not only stationed troops in Goa, but also hoped to build Goa into a colony and naval base.
Unlike other Latin colonies and English colonies, where intermarriage was not frowned upon, and English colonies were all racially discriminatory, Portugal encouraged intermarriage with local women and settled in Goa as farmers, traders or artisans. These married men soon became a privileged class, and Goa had a considerable Eurasian population. Subsequently, a council was established to maintain contact with the King of Portugal.
"We are talking to the Portuguese about this, it shouldn't be a problem," Brown replied with a nod.
“Tell the Portuguese that the national consciousness of Indians is awakening, and the Indian upper class has learned from the British that they think highly of themselves. If one day Goa becomes like Australia, its position will be very dangerous. Of course, we cannot say that cooperating with our joint company will make the Indians afraid to confront us, but at least it will provide an extra layer of insurance. Louisa Morgan knows the insurance industry best. What you buy is security.” Sheffield pointed at Louisa Morgan and said with a smile, successfully earning a roll of the eyes.
Sheffield was not sure that the Indians would not dare to attack Goa in the future. After all, they were a powerful country. But Sheffield could guarantee that if his industry was invaded, he would have to pay the price in blood. If it didn't work, he would build a mustard gas warehouse. He still thought it was dangerous to keep that thing in Texas.
"What's the difference between what you're doing and what the East India Company is doing?" Edith Rockefeller sighed softly. "Your Black Gold Company has surpassed the private armed forces of ordinary companies."
"Why should there be a difference? It is much more powerful than the East India Company." Sheffield said lightly, "The Black Gold Transport Company is the pioneering force of the United Company's nationalization, so it is natural that it should be more international. Since it is an international company, it naturally cannot be compared with companies whose business is all domestic."
Sheffield imagined the Black Gold Company's base layout, and the Indian Ocean part was Kuwait, Goa and Western Australia, so that people would feel at ease.
He is even planning to encourage United employees who come to Australia to become naturalized citizens and settle directly in Western Australia, replicating his family's move from Louisiana to lead the westward immigration and take up residence in Texas.
After a short rest, Sheffield complained in a telegram to Arlington that the two Kuwait warships were no longer useful, and asked his dearest wife to see if she could find a way to build two 10,000-ton ships at the French shipyard to replace the Black Gold Company.
After doing all this, Sheffield took Jimmy from United Mines to visit the ministers of Western Australia and listened to the requests of these local officials in a gentlemanly manner.
This is absolutely impossible in the United States, where employees just do what their boss says. But it is not possible in Australia, because Sheffield represents foreign-owned enterprises, and Australia is ruled by the Labor Party. The Labor Party may be xenophobic, but it will never make mistakes in protecting workers' rights, as this is the Labor Party's stronghold.
Since you are abroad, you must be careful about your eating habits, unlike in China. In China, you don’t have to worry about it. Take the Republic as an example. Apart from state-owned enterprises, the ones that respect the various rights and interests of labor laws the most are European and American companies, Japanese and Korean companies, Hong Kong and Taiwan companies, and private companies in that order.
The companies that call on the country to support national brands are often the most reckless in exploiting labor, and their protection is at the bottom, because everyone is too familiar with each other. Since we are all from the same country, I will not be polite. I am also part of the people, what can you do to me? Inciting xenophobia?
Being fearless is also the biggest support for Sheffield, Rockefeller Jr., and Morgan Jr. to have no worries in the country.
(End of this chapter)
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