Chapter 997

The power of the Government of France was much greater than that of a few capitalists. After being authorized by the Government of Paris, Minister Tom's confidence was suddenly full.

In less than a month, he obtained the rights to develop the Panama Canal from the Colombian government in exchange for a batch of material aid.

The main reason was arms. The Colombian armed forces did not fight, mainly due to external pressure.

Everyone was afraid of the outbreak of civil war and being taken advantage of, becoming a colony again.

In particular, they were afraid of Austria next door. Austria's Central American colony already had military power that threatened their survival.

Because of the example of the Central American countries, the Colombian government did not even dare to accept European immigrants, for fear of being subverted from within.

Colombia itself did not have a large population and did not dare to accept a large number of European immigrants, so the economic development was naturally not fast.

Now the Panama Canal was authorized to the French, in addition to material aid, it was also to introduce the French power to balance Austria.

These were all small problems. Neither Fao nor France took Colombia seriously. If they wanted to play balance, they had to see if they could control it. If they couldn't control it, they would suffer a backlash.

If the Panama Canal was already open to traffic, then for the sake of interests, the Fao and France might indeed have a conflict. Unfortunately, the current canal was only on paper.

It was impossible to let the two big countries have a conflict over the possible interests. To put it bluntly, digging a canal also required preconditions. If the geological conditions were not suitable, it was not surprising that it could not be dug.

Everyone was very realistic. It was already far-sighted for them to be able to consider things that would happen ten or twenty years later.

It would be nonsense to think about things that would happen a hundred years later. The world was changing so fast, who knew what would happen in the future?

The price offered by the French was good, and the Government of Vienna did not interfere.

The establishment of the canal company was very smooth. Nino, the scapegoat president, was in high spirits organizing personnel to explore the terrain.

The headquarters of the Paris Canal Company had already begun to prepare for listing and financing. There was no exploration report, no design plan, and the listing plan came out first.

This was not a joke, but reality. In the face of interests, these procedures were not important, and the capitalists had ways to avoid it.

There were many such scams in the capital market. As long as they could make money, the success or failure of the project did not matter.

Nino still had some ability, otherwise he would not have become a scapegoat. Looking at the investigation report in his hand, President Nino had a headache.

The Panama Canal had a tropical climate, and the local rain was abundant and the soil was loose.

In terms of construction, the loose soil seemed to be a good thing, as it was easier to excavate the earth. But for the canal project, it was a disaster.

In CEO Nino's opinion, "sufficient rain + loose soil = landslide + silt" not only meant that the cost of developing the canal would increase, but also the operating costs in the later stages would increase.

In addition, there were many poisonous insects in the local jungle, and diseases were often encountered during the construction of the canal.

CEO Nino didn't care. With the classic case of the Suez Canal, he knew very well that it wouldn't be possible to dig out the Panama Canal without tens of thousands of lives.

The Strait of Panama seemed narrower, but it was only 61 kilometers, only slightly more than a third of the Suez Canal. In fact, the construction difficulty was much higher.

After a preliminary evaluation of the incomplete information in his hand, Nino helplessly came up with the conclusion that he didn't want the most.

The secretary, Ralph, reported in a deep voice, "President, the embassy has just sent news that the Colombian government is refusing to provide us with labor on the grounds of a lack of labor."

Everyone knew that there were many casualties during the construction of the Suez Canal. It was no secret among the higher-ups that hundreds of thousands of labourers had died.

Naturally, the Colombian government had also heard about it. The Egyptian government had jumped into this huge pit and made life difficult for the people in the country, which allowed the French to take advantage of the situation and occupy Egypt.

The Colombian population was even smaller. It was impossible for them to provide hundreds of thousands of workers.

Recruiting indigenous labor was fine, but if they dared to use Caucasians as laborers, there would be chaos in the country before there were enough workers.

Nino frowned. "Contact the embassy and ask them to continue to communicate with the Colombian government. We must get them to provide a batch of workers.

The board is trying to find cheap labor. As long as we get through the beginning of the project, we won't need them later. "

There were too many scams these days, and investors were not easy to fool. He had to start work early so that he could earn money more easily.

How could a project on paper compare to a project that was already in place? The Canal Company's IPO plan had been exaggerated, and the board urged him to start work every day.

Ralph said, "Yes, CEO."

Just as he was about to leave, Nino added, "Wait, report the information we have to the board of directors.

Remember to hide the possibility of a disease outbreak. Even if it's a local outbreak, the shareholders won't want to see such a note. "

Even without a cost analysis, Nino knew that the canal project had exceeded the initial cost estimates. It was impossible to build a canal with a third of the Suez Canal's budget.

It hadn't been easy for him to become the person in charge of this project, and Nino didn't want to see the canal project fail. If he missed this opportunity, he might never have a chance to go any further in his life.

The best way was to start the canal project first. Once they invested more money, the capitalists would be reluctant to give up and could only continue.

As for whether or not it would cause trouble for the big shots behind the scenes, Nino wasn't worried at all. The Panama Canal Company was going to be listed for financing, and the costs could be passed on to the investors.

It was normal for there to be loopholes in the work. As long as everyone could get rich returns, nothing would be a problem.

Nino was very confident in the Panama Canal project. As long as the canal was open to navigation, he was confident that he could recover the cost within ten years.

Nino was very confident in the Panama Canal project. As long as the canal was open to navigation, he was confident that he could recover the cost within ten years. Such a generous return would be enough to appease the shareholders' resentment.

…

In London, Prime Minister Benjamin was worrying about the war report. He already knew what would be written in the newspapers tomorrow.

The opposition would definitely take the opportunity to attack the government's prestige.

That was what everyone did. They worked hard on the stage to implement their political views and reap benefits, but when they were offstage, they worked hard to undermine their competitors.

At the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin threw a telegram on the table. "This is a telegram from that useless Ismail asking for help. The war has just started, and we've already lost a fifth of our troops, including an army regiment.

As for the results, it's really brilliant. We wiped out 200,000 enemies.

I'd rather believe that the sun will rise from the west than this result. We've already wiped out 200,000 enemies, and we're asking for reinforcements. Does the enemy have millions of troops? "

False reporting of results had become a chronic problem in the British Army. This was especially true when they were defeated. In order to escape responsibility, they had to create a glorious victory.

It was just that they had gone too far this time. If they had reported tens of thousands of troops, the Government of London would have accepted it. After all, if the lid was opened, the government would also be scolded.

Based on the principle of turning big things into small things and small things into nothing, usually when something like this happened, everyone would quietly cover it up.

Minister of War Fox said awkwardly, "Prime Minister, the radio operator may have made a mistake and typed an extra zero.

We've sent someone to verify it. Our army has suffered 5,876 casualties, three-quarters of which are Indian colonial soldiers. We've wiped out a total of 15796 enemies, which is rounded up to 20,000. "

This number was much more acceptable to most people. More than 5,000 casualties and wiping out nearly three times the number of enemies was barely acceptable.