Chapter 1221 The Behemoth of the Empire (Second update, please subscribe)
Iron is a metal, and like all metals has its price. Of all metals, iron is the cheapest, yet the most indispensable.
It can even be said that iron is the foundation of the country!
After humans entered the Iron Age, iron weapons and farm tools brought about one revolution after another, both in the military and in agriculture.
But, that’s not worth mentioning.
The Industrial Revolution was the first time that iron was fully utilized. After the Industrial Revolution, iron and coal became the foundation of industry. Only with iron and coal could it be possible to manufacture various machines, including steam engines.
Iron is the least valuable of all metals, yet it is the most valuable.
In ancient times, with iron, people could make weapons and armor, and rob others of their gold, silver, women, and land.
In modern times, iron can be used to make weapons, continue to rob, and build giant ships and railways to further conquer more distant lands and rob more wealth.
Steel is the nation; without iron, there can be no modern industrial power.
And iron smelting requires iron ore!
There would be no steel industry without iron ore.
In fact, it can be said that the steel industry of the Ming Dynasty has never been easy. During the Nanhua era, there was only a small iron mine with a reserve of only 100 million tons. Even in the early days of the empire, it could only rely on a few small iron mines. In order to develop the steel industry, the empire had to reach out to Africa and develop the Simandou iron mine in Guinea, West Africa. It was that distant iron mine that enabled the steel industry of the Ming Empire to develop by leaps and bounds. Relying on the input of tens of millions of tons of iron ore, the empire established a powerful steel industry.
But the Simandou iron ore mine is far overseas.
However, the raw material problem that plagued the empire's steel industry was not fundamentally solved until the empire occupied Brazil. The Belo Horizonte Iron Mine in Minas Gerais, with reserves of tens of billions of tons, became the mother of the empire's steel industry.
"Vale!"
The discovery of the expedition team almost made Emperor Zhu want to blow a whistle to celebrate. Everyone in China knows the name of Vale. I remember that in another world, the giant iron mine was not discovered until the 1960s and 1970s. After all, it was a remote place... No, it was not a remote place, it was simply an uninhabited area! That's why the iron mine has never been discovered.
But we never thought that it would be discovered by the expedition team. Although we don’t know much about the iron mine, we still need to know more. Even though the empire’s demand for iron ore has been met now, good exploration in advance will also lay a good foundation for the future.
Just when Emperor Zhu was about to pick up the phone, he suddenly thought of another thing - monopoly.
At present, the empire's industries are highly monopolized. The royal consortium headed by the Nanhua Company monopolizes many industries in the empire, which is obviously not a good thing.
Take mining companies for example. On the surface, Ming Dynasty has Southwest Mining Company, Northern Mining Company, Northwest Mining Company and African Mining Company, but who are the major shareholders of these mining companies?
South China Company.
Our Ming Dynasty has its own national conditions. Although Emperor Zhu has not interfered much in the company in the past decade or so and has split the company many times, the company's assets are still growing like a snowball.
Emperor Zhu's wealth grew like a snowball, and now he is so rich that even he himself is a little shocked.
All this made Emperor Zhu very helpless.
"Oh, forget it..."
The hand that was originally reaching for the phone suddenly dropped down. He looked at the report in his hand and shook his head helplessly.
"I hope that one day, there will be other capital to develop it."
At this moment, Emperor Zhu completely lost his previous excitement and enthusiasm. Now the empire did not have an urgent need for the giant iron mine. After all, Xuzhou... this Xuzhou was not the same Xuzhou, the former State of Minas Gerais. A giant iron mine was enough to meet the needs of the empire for the next hundred or even two hundred years. At least within a hundred years, there was no need to worry about iron mines.
As for the iron ore in the Amazon, it is really not needed right now!
It doesn’t matter which company or enterprise Vale will belong to in the future. What matters is... as long as it doesn’t belong to Nanhua Company.
"The tail is too big to shake off."
Emperor Zhu stood up and walked to the window, deep in thought, his eyes still fixed on the royal garden outside the window.
"Faced with such a behemoth, sometimes I feel that I may have made a mistake, but on the other hand, if there was no South China Company, how could there be the current empire?"
While talking to himself, Emperor Zhu shook his head and sighed helplessly.
The current Nanhua Company is essentially the largest chaebol in the Ming Dynasty, and this chaebol is involved in all walks of life. This is directly related to the poverty of Nanhua back then. When the "Antis" arrived at Nanhua Bay, there was no industry there. It was at that time that the company, as the only investor, invested in various industries and eventually became the industry leader.
And now?
The enterprises to which the company belongs have utilized their intellectual advantages to continuously innovate in technology and have long left other enterprises far behind. With technological innovation, they can not only sell products, but also set industry standards.
In a word, the person who gets ahead will be the leader of the industry.
Today, Nanhua Company and the companies that it directly controls or controls through multiple banks are industry leaders in their respective industries.
Although the outside world has not said it, as far as Emperor Zhu knows, the people of the Ming Dynasty now have reached the point where they cannot live without three things in their lives: death, taxes, and Nanhua.
This Nanhua refers to the Nanhua Company, which is so powerful that it almost covers the food, clothing, housing and transportation of hundreds of millions of subjects in the empire, and such a powerful business empire is also a royal property!
What does this mean?
What does it mean that he is connected with the supreme power of the empire? The company of the future is almost a giant beast, a monster that directly controls the lifeblood of the country's economy, industry and technology.
Staring at the royal garden in the twilight, Emperor Zhu seemed to vaguely see a giant beast hidden in it. It seemed to be tamed, curled up docilely, and lay at the feet of its owner.
Owner!
Who is its owner?
Of course it is Emperor Zhu himself. What next?
He is the crown prince of the empire and the heir to the throne. In the hands of the royal family, perhaps this giant beast will be very docile, but who can predict the future?
But what can make Emperor Zhu happy?
Even now, it has not affected the diversification of the empire's industrial and commercial economy. It is just a leader...
As for the future, this dragon head will eventually disintegrate, because Emperor Zhu has many children, and the inheritance of those children will eventually completely disintegrate this behemoth.
As long as there are enough children, it doesn’t matter how big the beast is. After all, every child will get what they deserve.
Well, maybe having many children is not necessarily a bad thing for the empire. At least, they will divide the property and prevent the empire from being ruled by a giant chaebol.
It seems that for the sake of the empire, I still need to work hard for a few more years and have more children.
(End of this chapter)
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