Chapter 249: Gold Rush
The news of the discovery of a gold mine in the Congo Territory quickly spread to Spain and extended to other European regions beyond Spain.
The news of the gold mine immediately attracted the attention of the nobles. Some nobles had plantation businesses in the Congo Territory, and they immediately dispatched personnel to the area where the gold mine was discovered to search for other gold mines. Some people did find new gold mines, but the scale of these new gold mines was not as large as imagined.
The location of the gold mine was in the northeastern part of the Congo Territory, which was absolute African inland. It could be said that except for Spanish colonizers, basically no colonizers from other countries had set foot in these regions.
This also allowed Spain to widely publicize the gold mine discovered in the Congo Territory. This was basically fat meat that Spain had already eaten into its mouth, and other countries had no qualification to take a share.
William, as the Minister of Colonial Affairs, personally took charge of publicizing the news of the discovery of gold ore in the Congo Territory. Regardless of the size and reserves of the gold mine discovered, as long as it was a gold mine discovered in the Congo Territory, it would be packaged and then grandly publicized.
The small gold mine that was first discovered by someone had a shallow layer river sand gold content of 7-8 grams per ton due to being an alluvial deposit from river water, and the average gold content of the deep layer ore reached about 17 grams per ton.
Not all gold mines could reach this level of gold content, but this did not prevent the Colonial Affairs Department from using this small gold mine with full gold content for publicity and treating it as a representative of the gold mines in the Congo Territory.
Because the relevant news only announced the estimated reserves of each gold mine, there was no clear range for the gold content of the gold mines.
This led the public to naturally associate the first gold mine discovered in the Congo Territory with it, believing that the gold mines in the Congo Territory were basically all gold mines with at least 7 to 8 grams of gold content.
Calculated at 1 pound sterling equivalent to 33 grams of gold, the value of ore per ton of these gold mines exceeded 1 pound sterling.
The money supply of various countries was calculated based on gold holdings, which also meant that the value of this gold could at least multiply several times.
Not to mention those gold prospectors, even the Spanish nobles were sensationalized by this.
The Congo Territory had a large indigenous population, and these indigenous people could be forcibly compelled to dig gold for themselves.
Digging out one ton of gold ore per day could yield profits of 3 to 5 pounds sterling. If 100 tons of gold ore were dug per day, the profit would reach 300 to 500 pounds sterling, which was about 7,800 to 13,000 pesetas.
This was also a considerable income for the Spanish nobles, and it made more nobles start paying attention to the news of the Congo Territory.
At this time, the Colonial Affairs Department gave another assist. The Colonial Affairs Department announced that Spaniards had the right to possess the minerals they discovered in the Congo Territory, and the Royal Family recognized this property sovereignty.
Spaniards only needed to pay a mining tax to the Royal Family and the Congo Territory government to legally mine the minerals they discovered, and the profits obtained only needed to be legally taxed to be safely put into their own pockets.
This eliminated the concerns of those nobles and gold prospectors. As long as they could discover a gold mine in the Congo Territory, they would naturally possess sovereignty over it in the Congo Territory.
Of course, only Spaniards had the right to possess minerals. If they were foreigners, even if they discovered mineral resources, they had no right to occupy them.
This was mainly aimed at those nobles, after all, only these nobles had sufficient strength to organize personnel to conduct mineral exploration and incidentally develop the Congo Territory.
As long as a gold mine was discovered in the Congo Territory, more personnel would definitely be organized to mine the gold mine. Mining the gold mine also required refining gold, and with more personnel, the population of the Congo Territory would naturally increase.
The various policies promulgated earlier in the Congo Territory only attracted some nobles to invest, but after the news of the gold discovery was announced, many nobles proactively went to the Congo Territory to invest, with the purpose of obtaining a large amount of unexpected wealth by discovering a gold mine in the Congo Territory.
The Colonial Affairs Department also vigorously publicized successful figures among the nobles. Among them was a relatively lucky baron who, due to his family falling into decline, bet almost all his family assets and luckily discovered a small gold mine in the Congo Territory.
The gold content of this small gold mine was still very high, with the highest gold content reaching 23 grams per ton and the average gold content around 6 grams per ton.
The discovery of this small gold mine directly turned this baron into a millionaire instantly, and he was just one step away from becoming a multimillionaire.
Although it would take a long time to fully realize the gold mine, at least this baron successfully preserved his family property and had hope of making his family even wealthier.
There were not a few nobles like this baron who bet their family assets, because many nobles in Spain had already fallen into poverty.
Due to the large number of Spanish nobles, the lowest nobility titles such as count and baron had no presence in Spain.
After Prime Minister Primó’s reforms, the nobles also lost all their privileges. Some nobles who had barely survived by collecting land rents lost all their former glory after the reforms.
The gold mines in the Congo Territory were indeed an opportunity for them to make a comeback, and at least this opportunity was relatively fair.
As long as they could find gold in the Congo Territory, they would make money. If they were lucky enough to encounter a gold mine with larger reserves, returning to glory might be just a thought away.
Among these nobles, some were lucky, and of course, some were not so lucky.
Some people formed formal exploration teams but never managed to discover a gold mine in the Congo Territory. Some were luckier; although the reserves of the gold mines they discovered were small, they could at least guarantee no loss.
Regardless of whether these people were lucky or not, all those who successfully discovered gold mines in the Congo Territory were publicized extensively by Spanish media.
A certain noble or commoner becoming rich overnight in the gold rush wave almost became the most frequently mentioned news by Spanish newspaper offices in these months.
As for how many nobles went bankrupt because they bet their family assets, that was unknown, because no one cared.
Carlo underestimated the attractiveness of gold. If gold and currency of equivalent value to gold were placed together, anyone normal would choose gold.
The wave of gold prospecting in the Congo Territory did not stop with time; instead, it intensified with the passage of time.
Starting from the first gold mine discovered by the nobles, large and small gold mines were successively discovered, and the scope of gold mine discoveries was not limited to the northeastern part of the Congo Territory.
In addition to gold mines, the nobles also discovered silver mines in the eastern region of the Congo Territory. However, compared to the more enticing gold mines, the low-value silver mines were not paid attention to by anyone.
Newspapers publicizing the gold mine news in the Congo Territory only glossed over the silver mines, with the purpose of enriching the list of precious metal mines in the Congo Territory.
While the nobles were searching for traces of gold mines, Carlo naturally was not idle.
In fact, as early as the establishment of the Congo Territory, Carlo had already sent people to survey the mineral reserves of the Congo Territory.
Carlo had long known the value of this land in Congo, and there were naturally gold mines here. Currently, some larger gold mines had already been surveyed and mined by Carlo. The small and medium-sized gold mines that Carlo looked down on were the ones truly released for those nobles and gold prospectors.
Although gold mines were attractive, it had to be admitted that the currency prices of this era were indeed expensive.
1 pound sterling was worth 33 grams of gold, which destined the pound sterling to be the most valuable currency in the world. 1 pound sterling could be exchanged for 26 pesetas in funds, making the peseta seem not valuable.
In fact, 1 peseta was worth 282 grams of gold, and the peseta still had considerable value.
A gold mine with gold reserves of about 1 ton had an actual value of only about 5 million pesetas.
What was the concept of one ton of gold? If the gold content was around 8 grams, a total of 125,000 tons of gold ore needed to be mined to refine one ton of gold.
The gold mines currently discovered in the Congo Territory were basically small gold mines with gold reserves below 3 tons, and the maximum value of one gold mine did not exceed 10 million pesetas. Carlo indeed had no need to pay attention.
Currently, whether it was the Royal United Bank or the Royal Steel Company, the net profit provided to the Royal Family each year was above 30 million pesetas.
It was better to leave these gold mines to the nobles and gold prospectors, which could make them even more obsessed with the gold mines in the Congo Territory and invest more funds in the Congo Territory.
And it must be said, this really had effectiveness.
In just a few months, the population of the Congo Territory increased by nearly 5,000 people, most of whom were personnel dispatched by Spanish nobles.
Of course, there was also a portion of gold prospectors from various places in Europe. Their purpose was to search for alluvial deposits in the rivers of the Congo Territory and earn income through illegal mining.
Carlo naturally also allowed these gold prospectors to exist, after all, these gold prospectors were also population for the Congo Territory.
As long as some people could be left behind, the population of the Congo Territory could naturally develop and grow.
While nobles and gold prospectors were flocking into the Congo Territory, the Royal United Bank and the National Bank also opened branches in the Congo Territory.
The purpose of these two banks opening branches in the Congo Territory was naturally to issue loans to those gold prospectors and mine owners.
Mineral exploration and gold mining required great costs, and not everyone could afford these costs. These gold prospectors and mine owners were also premium customers of the banks, and they could completely use the newly explored gold mines as collateral to obtain bank loans.
Even if they could not repay the money, there was no need to worry; their explored gold mines would become the property of the bank.
Of course, such loans would only be issued to people with certain assets. Gold prospectors with nothing would not qualify for bank loans.
In addition to issuing loans, the banks also had the business of acquiring gold ore. After gold ore was mined, refining gold was also a troublesome matter.
Mine owners were fine, as they had sufficient equipment and capital to refine gold. Those gold prospectors who secretly mined might not have the ability to refine gold.
At this time, the banks could provide convenience. They could completely sell the gold sand they panned to the bank, and the bank would purchase the gold sand in their hands with pesetas equivalent to gold.
Currently, in the Congo Territory, there were only the Royal United Bank and the National Bank, and under the premise of no competitors, some smugglers had no choice.
Doing so could collect as much gold as possible and expand Spain’s gold reserves.
The more gold Spain mastered, the more pesetas it could issue externally. Before deciding to use the gold rush to attract some population, Carlo had already made sufficient plans.
In fact, exploring and mining gold did not necessarily make money; if no gold mine was found, it might result in total loss.
Even if a gold mine was luckily found, the early exploration costs and later mining costs were a large expenditure.
Under the premise that many nobles and gold prospectors ran to search for gold, Carlo did the opposite, letting the two banks provide logistics services to these gold prospectors and nobles, which was actually the most profitable.
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