After hearing what Marshall said, Alvin Rockefeller also fell into deep thought. Of course he knew about road construction. As for whether there was money to be made from building roads, the answer was yes.
However, the income from this business is too single and requires heavy capital investment. The initial construction period may take three to five years, during which time no profit can be seen at all.
These consortiums are well aware that the entire European aid plan is now planned based on four fiscal years.
That is to say, once this highway is built, the European aid program may end. No one knows what Europe will be like by then.
More importantly, everyone knew that the European aid program had another more important goal, which was to curb the infiltration and development of the Soviet Union. Look at the various industries in the areas controlled by the Soviet Union, almost all of them were nationalized.
Who among these big financial groups or individual capitalists would be willing to take such a big risk to make such a heavy capital investment? If they are not careful, they may lose everything.
Most of those who are participating in this plan now actually come for the country's aid funds. In addition, they also want to take the opportunity to buy some high-value industries in European countries.
For pure fixed asset projects such as highways, once built, it is impossible to withdraw investment. Once they are nationalized, all the money will be lost.
There is only one way to recoup the investment from a highway, and that is to obtain the highway franchise, or in layman's terms, the right to collect tolls. The fees collected are used to repay the cost of road construction, as well as maintenance, operation and labor expenses.
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Therefore, generally such projects need to be led by state-owned capital, but European countries now obviously do not have the ability and funds to take the lead in restoring their domestic road transportation networks.
The emergence of the European aid plan at this time obviously made many countries find a scapegoat.
But it is obvious that the United States is not trying to be a sucker in its aid to Europe. The total amount of funds for the entire aid plan is only 13.1 billion US dollars. If it is distributed among so many European countries, each country may only get more than 1 billion US dollars.
If this money is really used to build roads in Europe, it may only be enough to barely connect some major cities, and this is assuming that there is already a road infrastructure.
However, the funds for this aid program are needed to purchase technology, equipment and basic living supplies from the United States.
If you want to build a highway, you can't just buy steel and cement from the United States! How much American capital can be involved in this? Not to mention that American taxpayers will not agree, even the consortium will not support it.
Rockefeller, who was familiar with the situation in the United States, was of course very aware of these circumstances. Therefore, when he heard Marshall raise this difficult question, he frowned.
He spoke directly:
"We are just providing assistance, why do you make it seem like we owe them something?"
This made Marshall look embarrassed. He glanced at Charles Morgan and said helplessly:
"These European countries also understand that our aid is not free, so they ask for so much."
Fang Lang immediately caught this look, and at this moment he couldn't help but start to wonder if all this was a trap set for him by the Morgan Consortium, trying to get him to step forward and take on this business.
After all, Rockefeller's presence was clearly an accident.
Fang Lang couldn't see the conspiracy now, but he knew very well that no matter what, this business could not be undertaken by a single company alone.
There are so many consortiums that want to participate in the aid program, and others have put forward conditions. It is impossible for only one consortium to take over the mess while the others make crazy money!
Thinking of this, Fang Lang glanced at Morgan and the others calmly, then slowly said:
“This kind of project can be initiated by the governments of various countries, who can apply for loans from banks!
As long as these governments can provide suitable collateral, I believe it will not be a problem to raise funds for infrastructure construction, right? "
These words made several members of the Morgan family frown. After all, among the several financial groups here, only their Morgan family started out in finance. If anyone could provide loans, it must be them.
But now they are obviously unwilling to make large investments in uncertain places.
In fact, the reason why Fang Lang felt that there was a conspiracy but could not find out where the problem was specifically was that he had the vision to see through the fog of history.
Be able to know what future history will be like.
But the financial groups and politicians of this period did not have full confidence in the current situation, whether in Turkey and Greece, which are fighting against the Soviet Union, or in other European countries, such as Germany, Italy, France, etc.
There are a large number of political parties and people in the country who believe in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In fact, some parties established in several countries have become the largest parties in the local area.
This is also the reason why the political situation in various countries was chaotic during this period.
The United States and the United Kingdom, as the big and second largest capitalist countries, must of course find ways to maintain the order of the capitalist world. This is why the United Kingdom is still trying its best to support Turkey and Greece even when it is in a very difficult situation itself.
Because they knew very well that if they could not allow the people of Türkiye and Greece to have a good life under their social order, they would throw themselves into the arms of the Soviet Communist Party without hesitation.
Once Türkiye and Greece fall, the whole of Europe will fall like dominoes. This situation is absolutely unacceptable to the US and British governments that represent the interests of the bourgeoisie and the landlord class.
This is also the reason why the United States insists on pushing forward this European aid plan even though it knows that it may be strongly backlashed by the domestic people.
Even in history, when Marshall gave a speech on the steps of Harvard Memorial Church announcing that the United States was ready to help Europe's recovery, in order to avoid the attention of American newspapers, no American reporters were invited to the speech. Truman also held a press conference on the same day to divert the attention of domestic media.
Fang Lang, who came from later generations, knew very well that this European aid plan actually achieved his goal.
Of course, this plan is just one of the means to maintain the capitalist world order. It is already January 1947. In March, Duterte will deliver a message to a joint meeting of both houses of Congress, declaring: All countries in the world today are faced with a choice between two different lifestyles.
This also announced the beginning of "Lao Duism" and marked the official start of the confrontation between the two world hegemonies.
People standing in the mist of history cannot see the future, but they can see the strength of the Soviet Communist Party. Therefore, even the American people with big firecrackers do not have absolute confidence that they will definitely be the victorious side.
Therefore, everyone is very wary of this type of total asset investment project in road traffic.
It was not until Duterte's Doctrine was officially implemented in Greece and Turkey, and the United States sent troops to successfully interfere in the Greek civil war and won, that these big financial groups and capitalists gradually built up the confidence to fight against the Soviet Union.
As more and more victories were achieved, the various financial groups and big capitalists became completely convinced that they could achieve final victory, and their investment in European countries became increasingly larger.
In other words, although these big conglomerates and big capitalists have seen the huge benefits behind this European aid plan, they still have certain doubts about whether this plan will ultimately succeed.
Everyone's attention is now mainly focused on the $13.1 billion in aid that the US government can provide, so the major financial groups do not want to invest large sums of money in European countries now.
This is also the reason why the European aid plan, which had already been prepared, was not implemented immediately. Instead, it was rehearsed in Greece and Turkey with the support of the powerful US military after the announcement of the "Duzheng Doctrine".
After both Greece and Türkiye achieved victory, the entire aid plan was officially announced to the public the following year and was quickly implemented, a process that was full of blood and violence.
Almost all of them were carried out with the cooperation of the US military, which is why the United States later had nearly a thousand military bases around the world.
Of course, these are the specific directions for subsequent implementation. Although the various consortiums are not absolutely sure now, they are very clear about how much benefit this plan can bring.
With such huge benefits as an inducement, the capitalists will try every means to facilitate the implementation of this plan. Whether it will trigger a new world war is not something the capitalists should be concerned about.
After all, they don't have to fight in the war, but they can make a fortune from the war.
Therefore, this so-called European aid plan has never been a simple economic aid plan, but a sugar coating used to wrap up the shells.
While accepting this aid, European countries must also accept military intervention from the United States. Of course, this interference is packaged under the guise of NATO allies.
Fang Lang even suspected that it was for this reason that Truman chose to let a five-star general serve as the civilian Secretary of State.
Now, the reason why everyone is hesitant about such infrastructure projects is still due to risk assessment considerations.
Some people may think that since it is uncertain, we can just put it aside for now! It is not too late to talk about it later. But in fact, before these big financial groups start to implement such a big plan, they must first make a good distribution of benefits.
Otherwise, by then, everyone will know that there is a lot of money to be made here, and everyone will rush in one direction, wouldn’t that cause chaos?
The difficult problem raised by General Marshall is exactly the tough nut that no one is willing to take on.
If these benefits are not distributed before the plan officially begins, everyone will only want to eat the meat and not the bones, which will inevitably affect the subsequent plans for everyone to get rich together.
That's why Marshall says this is a difficult problem.
Although Fang Lang's words made Morgan frown, they made Marshall's eyes light up. As a military strategist and politician, his goal was not whether the consortiums could make money, or how much money they could make.
Rather, it was whether his political ideals and ambitions could be realized. When he heard Fang Lang's words, he realized that there was room for manipulation.
It's not that he doesn't understand such a simple truth, but he has already had a round of communication with the Morgan Consortium and other consortiums on this matter, but everyone is obviously unwilling to invest in such a heavy asset project with slow results and huge risks.
His uninvited visit today was also a deliberate act by the Morgan family to let him raise this issue in front of Fang Lang again to create pressure on Fang Lang.
After all, Fang Lang is now staring at his share of grain exports, thinking only of getting the most benefit from the whole plan without paying enough price. It is time for him to understand that there is no free lunch in the world.
The reason why these big conglomerates can eat the fattest and biggest meat is because they also have to face the toughest bones to chew.
Unexpectedly, this guy said casually that it would be enough to let the governments of various countries take out mortgage loans. Does he need to say this? If there were no risk of political unrest, everyone would know that roads can be built with loans and tolls can make money.
But the Soviet regime doesn't care about these things! All the capitalists' things will be confiscated directly! If the plan fails, this kind of heavy asset investment will be a business that loses all the money.
Even the Morgan family might go bankrupt and be liquidated directly. Who would dare to take such a risk?
“Governments are certainly willing to provide appropriate collateral and even make appropriate concessions on other aspects such as the length of the franchise.
As long as road traffic in various countries can be restored as soon as possible, the local economic situation will surely grow rapidly.
This is very important for the rapid recovery of the entire European economy, so I sincerely hope that you gentlemen can seriously consider it. "
Marshall didn't pay attention to Morgan's look at this time, but quickly responded to Fang Lang's words. After all, he came here not only to help the Morgan family, but more importantly, he urgently needed to find a way to solve the problem.
Everyone understood what he said, but at this time, no one was willing to take on this high-risk business.
Eli Morgan, who had always had a close relationship with Fang Lang, tilted his head towards Fang Lang and whispered:
"It's not that people don't know the importance of transportation, nor is it that people are unwilling to invest in road construction. The main reason is that the risks are too high. Take Greece today as an example. The Greek Democratic Army, which was formed last year, has fought several battles with government forces.
Instead of being destroyed, their strength has grown stronger and stronger, and now they have a team of nearly 30,000 people.
If the Democratic Army wins, all our previous investments will be wasted.”
After hearing what Eli Morgan said, Fang Lang was a little puzzled:
"Has our army not yet gone in to intervene?"
Fang Lang did not lower his voice when he said this, and everyone heard it. They all looked at Fang Lang in surprise.
After hearing this, Marshall coughed lightly and said awkwardly:
"Ahem... this is another country's internal affairs. How can we just send troops to interfere?"
Now it was Fang Lang's turn to be surprised. He quickly realized why everyone gave such a high risk assessment to road construction. It turned out that although the British fat man Qiu gave a speech in the United States.
But at this time, I don’t know whether Trump in the United States has not yet thought of Trumpism or it is still in the planning stage.
In short, the Americans have obviously not yet begun to form the idea of being the world police in the future and start to interfere in the internal affairs of countries around the world.
They should at least have some dignity and not recklessly regard themselves as the saviors of the capitalist world.
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