**Chapter 34**
**Railroad (7)**
The day of the IPO.
The stock price, which started at 500 Pesos for 10 shares, soared.
New technology, monopoly, genius.
They are magical words in the stock market.
Even modern people who know from repeated learning that investing based solely on those words is risky, end up falling for them, don't they?
I have one more keyword.
"Crown Prince."
The one who will be the Emperor of this Empire in the future.
The power of these four words was overwhelming.
"Sold!"
"Wow!"
Just 10 shares, or 0.01% of the equity, were sold for 1,000 Pesos.
At this moment, the market capitalization of a company with no revenue reached 10 million Pesos.
That's an amount that could pay off one-third of Mexico's total debt of 33.5 million Pesos at once.
Unfounded, absurd investment, or rather, speculation, was taking place in real time.
"Yessss!"
The bidders, throwing away their landowner dignity.
The heated atmosphere from the start didn't cool down until all 10,000 shares were sold on the first day.
"I need to push this further."
The people here are Mexico's wealthiest individuals.
They are those who take pride in being descendants of the conquistadors.
I've prepared a place to stimulate that pride.
I guided the guests of the stock exchange, which had closed for the evening, to the palace's party hall.
"I hope you enjoy the party."
I said it was a party for the landowners who had come from afar and had worked hard to participate in various events, but in reality, it was a place for competition, comparison, and pride battles.
"I'm the second-largest shareholder after the Crown Prince!"
As the alcohol flowed, the emotions they had been suppressing erupted.
"I bought 300 shares!"
"Ahem... You've spent too much money. You seem to be overdoing it."
"I can handle this!"
300 shares is 30,000 Pesos on average.
Actually, it's not a terribly burdensome amount for a landowner here. But they also had doubts about whether it was justified for just 0.3% of the total equity.
I subtly added fuel to the fire.
"It might seem expensive, but today might be the cheapest day. When a spiderweb-like railroad network is truly completed in the Mexican Empire, you might not be able to buy at the same price as these 'early investors,' right?"
"Hmm. That could be true."
My words made those who had bought shares feel proud, and those who hadn't were in deep thought.
I quietly slipped away, seeing that.
"It's best to do it in moderation. Let's see what the atmosphere is like on the republican side."
I didn't go close enough for them to hear me. I just observed the atmosphere from afar.
"Rafael, the chairman, seems surprisingly quiet. It seems like others are making gestures as if they're controlling him..."
What decision will Rafael, the chairman, make?
The second day.
Those who had lost face at the party and those who had been tempted by the fuel I added at the party started to participate in the competition.
"1,050 Pesos!"
"You're so rich, why only 50 Pesos? I'll bid 1,200 Pesos!"
"···3···2···1. Sold!"
"Hmm!"
It was still early, so there wasn't an atmosphere for cheers yet.
It's true that landowners in Mexico are definitely the ruling class who own large farms called "haciendas," but there are no official noble titles.
The only way for them to show their status is through their economic power.
If they were landowners from nearby farms, they could gauge each other's strength by indicators like the size of their land, the amount of crops they produced, and the number of workers they employed. But what about this gathering of the top landowners from across the country?
"There's only one way to prove it, Pesos."
The air is gradually heating up.
"1,300 Pesos!"
"1,350 Pesos!"
"I told you not to keep raising it by 50 Pesos!"
"Where's the rule for that?"
They were shouting and making a fuss.
In the end, the price per 10 shares rose to 1,650 Pesos.
Today's average price is about 1,500 Pesos.
Of course, I held a party again today.
I laid out the table for them to show off, so they couldn't resist it.
I added more fuel to the fire again.
"Of course, the amount of money collected for the railroad construction in the respective areas is important, but we also need to consider the shareholders' profits to some extent, don't we?"
I gave an ambiguous answer, but that was enough.
"Please, Your Majesty!"
A landowner member of Congress, who wasn't even in the Imperial Party, shouted happily after hearing my words, already drunk.
"Hahaha, you're our shareholder!"
I played along.
The republicans were in a much worse mood than yesterday.
They must have seen the stock price rise by 60%, which they thought was expensive.
"The opportunists pretending to be republicans will be hard-pressed to hold on."
The third day dawned.
***
Pedro Gonzalez, a young republican member of Congress, felt like he was having a nightmare.
He could see the face of the insidious Crown Prince, smiling from behind.
"That wicked son of a bitch."
The thing he had feared had finally happened.
The area where the republicans had implicitly sat was thinning out.
"···Even Rafael, the chairman?"
Even their leader had left.
"Isn't this a bit disgraceful? Who would accept them now that they're switching sides..."
He could see Rafael, the chairman, shouting happily, "2,000 Pesos!"
"This is ridiculous."
The conservative guys were patting Rafael on the shoulder, laughing along with him as he laughed after winning the bid.
"It seems like they accepted him."
"They're the Landowner Party."
"···Not the conservatives?"
"I heard yesterday that they've split. Those who are loyal to the Emperor, the central army officers, the governors, the Supreme Court justices, the government ministers, etc. They're the Imperial Party, and those who aren't are the Landowner Party."
"Ha. So, they accepted those traitors? Because they're weaker than the Imperial Party?"
"It seems that way. Damn, they're thick-skinned. Haah... What's going to happen to us? Our power has been shrinking anyway..."
The republican fellow members of Congress were despairing.
They were lamenting so much that they had even forgotten about their dignity. But in my opinion, they don't need to despair.
"No, it's actually good."
"Good?"
"What do you mean?"
"Those stupid guys who were controlling the republicans without any conviction, only using their power, are gone, and only true comrades remain."
"···That's true, but our power itself has weakened. If you count them up, there are quite a few fewer seats."
"No, trust me. We've become stronger."
I declared.
We've become smaller, but stronger.
A burning passion flared up deep within my chest. The stock price of the railroad company was now out of my mind.
I just wanted to say one thing to the Crown Prince.
I know it's not a wise move.
If I do this, I'll be cutting off any escape route in the future. But I'll reaffirm my resolve through this.
At the last party, I approached the Crown Prince while he was alone.
"Your Majesty, you might think you've succeeded in dividing us republicans, but you're wrong. You've made us stronger, more solid."
I uttered words that had no practical benefit, only to make the Crown Prince wary.
"Good."
The Crown Prince said something unexpected.
"···You said it's good?"
"I also hate the reality of our Empire, where our people can't even get a proper education. The church is so powerful, isn't it? In that sense, how about we work together on an education project?"
The conversation took an unexpected turn for Pedro.
***
"Your Majesty! It's a huge success!"
Diego said excitedly.
"We've raised 9 million Pesos!"
"Hee hee. I know."
The price rose to 3,500 Pesos in the end. The republican defectors showed their madness.
"Rafael, the chairman, really showed what money-worship is all about."
"You're truly amazing. You've already raised the construction cost for the railroad, so you can use the money from the sale of the shares freely!"
"That's right."
The real thief steals without even realizing he's stolen.
I hit them from behind, but they might not even know they got hit.
It wasn't a scam. What I told them was true. The Mexican Imperial Railroad Company will build a railroad network across the Mexican Empire and have an almost monopolistic influence.
"How much can we generate if we can control all this railroad network?" I asked, but I didn't go into specifics.
"I never said specifically when or how much profit we'd make, so it's not a scam."
If it were modern-day IR (Investor Relations), I would have had to talk about specific things like the profit generation period or the projected revenue, but people in this era didn't know that.
The only information they knew was that I, the Crown Prince, who had been successful so far, was the CEO, and that they would have a near-monopoly on the incredibly valuable "railroad" in the Mexican Empire.
Something unimaginable in modern society.
"Well, there was a person in modern society who succeeded in raising funds for a company with almost no profits for over 10 years using his fame and image. It's not entirely impossible in modern society."
I laughed when I thought about the money I made from selling shares.
"Hee hee hee, they're going to be disappointed."
"Why disappointed, Your Majesty?"
Diego asked, hearing my words.
"All the profits from the railroad company will be reinvested in building a spiderweb-like railroad network across the Mexican Empire. There won't be any decent dividends for at least 20 years. Ortega Construction and Locke Precision Machinery will be the only ones making money."
"And 20 years from now, I'm going to turn it into a state-owned enterprise that only pursues minimal profits."
I kept that a secret.
"Wow!"
Diego was amazed by my strategy to extort money from the landowners.
"You could say that you've taught the landowners a lesson about doing their research before investing. This is true financial education!"
***
The railroad construction is finished, the construction costs are collected, and we have enough money from selling shares, so it's time to start the next project.
It's dams and irrigation facilities.
"Dams and irrigation facilities are the key to improving agricultural productivity."
Most of the Mexican Empire's vast territory is suitable for human habitation.
Even excluding the northern territory that was torn away by the United States in the original timeline and the Central American republics that became independent, there's still 1.97 million square kilometers of territory left.
That's about 20 times the size of South Korea, and the area of the Mexican Plateau, a really good place to live, is 600,000 square kilometers, six times the size of South Korea.
This Mexican Plateau is good for farming, and although it's not a mid-latitude region, it's high enough that the weather is cool.
It's not for nothing that countless civilizations have arisen here.
"We've received a lot of immigrants, so there must be about 8 million people now."
Can we develop the vast territory of the Mexican Empire with just this population? Especially with labor-intensive agriculture?
The current situation in the Mexican Empire is that there's a lot of empty land, not just in the entire empire, but even in the central region, which is the core area.
To solve this, we need more efficient agriculture and more people.
That's where dams and irrigation facilities come in.
Agustin I is also a landowner, after all. I decided to use that.
"···So, I'll build dams and irrigation facilities for our family's farm for free, and once the effectiveness is proven, please place an order for the national farms so that we can apply it."
"Yes, Father. I can guarantee at least a 50% increase in productivity with proper irrigation facilities."
"If you're going to build it for free, there's no harm. As you said, if it's that effective, I'll place an order for all the national farms."
It's our family's farm anyway, so it's not a loss even if I build it with my own money.
If I can prove its effectiveness, we can introduce dams and irrigation facilities to the vast national farms owned by the Mexican Empire government.
"That way, we can dramatically increase the Empire's agricultural production."
Private farms will want the government to pay for the dams, but they'll want to pay for the irrigation facilities themselves.
"They're getting their farm productivity improved, so they shouldn't try to get a free ride with government money."
After organizing my thoughts, I told my father.
"Then, I'll go to the Imperial family's farm right away. Thank you for your time, Father."
"Wait a minute. Maria said she had something to tell you, so she asked me to hold you for a while."
"What? Mother?"
"What is this ominous feeling?"
I heard my mother's footsteps coming from afar.
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