Chapter 251: Gold Rush (Monthly Ticket Bonus Update!)

News of the discovery of gold mines in the Congo Territory soon spread within Spain and began to propagate to other regions of Europe beyond Spain.

The news of the gold mines immediately attracted the attention of the nobility. Some nobles who had plantation businesses in the Congo Territory immediately dispatched personnel to the areas where gold had been discovered to search for other mines. Some did indeed find new gold mines, though the scale of these new mines was not as large as they had imagined.

The location of the gold mines was in the northeastern part of the Congo Territory, which is absolute African interior. It can be said that apart from Spanish colonists, virtually no colonists from other countries had set foot in these regions.

This also allowed Spain to publicize the gold mines discovered in the Congo Territory extensively. This was essentially a piece of fat meat already in Spain's mouth, and other countries had no qualifications whatsoever to share in the spoils.

As the Minister of Colonial Affairs, William personally took charge of publicizing the news of the gold mines discovered in the Congo Territory. Regardless of the size or reserves of the gold mines, as long as they were discovered in the Congo Territory, they were all packaged and promoted in a high-profile manner.

The small gold mine discovered first was an alluvial deposit, so the shallow river sand had a gold content reaching 7-8 grams per ton, while the average gold content of the deep ore reached about 17 grams per ton.

Not all gold mines could reach this level of gold content, but this did not prevent the Department of Colonial Affairs from using this high-grade small gold mine for publicity and treating it as a representative of the Congo Territory's gold mines.

Because the relevant news only announced the estimated reserves of each gold mine, there was no clear range provided for the gold content of the mines.

This led the public to naturally project the first gold mine discovered in the Congo Territory onto the others, believing that the gold mines in the Congo Territory generally had a gold content of at least 7 to 8 grams.

Calculating based on 1 pound being worth 7. 3 grams of gold, the value of the ore in these gold mines exceeded 1 pound per ton.

The currency issuance of various countries is calculated based on gold holdings, which also means the value of this gold could at least multiply several times over.

Let alone those gold prospectors, even the Spanish nobility were stirred up by this.

The Congo Territory possessed a large indigenous population, and they could be forcibly compelled to mine gold for them.

Digging one ton of gold ore a day could yield a profit of 3 to 5 pounds. If 100 tons of gold ore were dug daily, the profit would reach 300 to 500 pounds, which is about 7, 00 to 13, 00 pesetas.

For the Spanish nobility, this was also a large sum of income, and it caused more nobles to start paying attention to news from the Congo Territory.

Just at this time, the Department of Colonial Affairs provided another assist. The Department of Colonial Affairs announced that Spaniards had the right to own the mineral resources they discovered in the Congo Territory, and the Royal Family recognized this property right.

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 could be safely put into their own pockets after legally paying taxes.

This removed all concerns for those nobles and gold prospectors; as long as they could discover gold mines in the Congo Territory, they would naturally possess the sovereignty of the Congo Territory.

Of course, only Spaniards had the right to own the minerals. If they were foreign nationals, even if they discovered mineral resources, they had no right to possess them.

This was mainly targeted at those nobles, as after all, only these nobles had sufficient strength to organize personnel to prospect for minerals and, incidentally, develop the Congo Territory.

As long as a gold mine was discovered in the Congo Territory, it was certain that more personnel would be organized to mine it. Once the gold mine was mined, the gold still needed to be extracted; with more personnel, the population of the Congo Territory would naturally increase.

Previously, the various policies promulgated by the Congo Territory only attracted a portion of the nobility to invest, but after the news of the gold discovery was published, many nobles took the initiative to go to the Congo Territory to invest, with the goal of obtaining a large windfall by discovering gold mines in the Congo Territory.

The Department of Colonial Affairs also heavily promoted the successful individuals among the nobility. Among them was a rather lucky baron who, due to his family's decline, bet almost his entire fortune and luckily discovered a small gold mine in the Congo Territory.

The gold content of this small gold mine was quite high, with a maximum content reaching 23 grams per ton and an average content of about 6 grams per ton.

The discovery of this small gold mine instantly turned this baron into a millionaire, and he was only one step away from becoming a multi-millionaire.

Although it would take a long time to fully cash out the gold mine, at least this baron successfully preserved his family's assets and had hope of making his family even more prosperous.

There were not a few nobles like this baron who bet their entire fortunes, because many Spanish nobles had already fallen into poverty.

Because of the large number of Spanish nobles, the lowest titles like count and baron had little presence in Spain.

After the reforms of Prime Minister Primo, the nobility lost all their privileges. Some nobles who had previously managed to get by on land rents completely lost their former glory after the reforms.

The gold mines in the Congo Territory were indeed an opportunity for them to rebuild their fortunes; at least this opportunity was relatively fair.

As long as they could find gold in the Congo Territory, they would have profits. If they were lucky enough to encounter a gold mine with larger reserves, returning to glory might just be a matter of a single thought.

Among these nobles, there were those who were lucky, and of course, there were those who were not so lucky.

Some people organized formal prospecting teams but never managed to discover gold mines in the Congo Territory. Others were luckier; although the gold mines they discovered had very small reserves, they could at least ensure they did not lose money.

Regardless of whether these people were truly lucky or not, as long as they successfully discovered a gold mine in the Congo Territory, they were all publicized by the Spanish media.

A certain noble or commoner becoming rich overnight in the gold rush became almost the most frequently mentioned news by Spanish newspapers in these few months.

As for how many nobles went bankrupt because they bet their family fortunes, that remained unknown, because no one cared at all.

Gao Da underestimated the attraction brought by gold. When gold is placed alongside currency of equal value, it is believed that any normal person would choose the gold.

The wave of searching for gold in the Congo Territory did not stop with time; instead, it intensified as time progressed.

Starting from the first gold mine discovered by the nobles, gold mines of various sizes were discovered one after another, and the scope of the discoveries was not limited to the northeastern part of the Congo Territory.

Besides gold mines, the nobles also discovered silver mines in the eastern region of the Congo Territory. However, compared to the more alluring gold mines, no one cared about the low-value silver mines.

The newspapers publicizing the news of the Congo Territory's gold mines only mentioned the silver mines in passing, with the goal merely being to enrich the list of precious metal mines in the Congo Territory.

While the nobles were searching for traces of gold mines, Gao Da was naturally not idle.

In fact, as early as when the Congo Territory was established, Gao Da had already had people survey the mineral reserves of the Congo Territory.

Gao Da had long known the value of this land of Congo, and gold mines naturally existed here. Currently, some larger gold mines had already been surveyed and mined by Gao Da; those small and medium-sized gold mines that Gao Da did not look upon were the ones truly released for those nobles and gold prospectors.

Although gold mines are attractive, one must admit that the currency of this era is indeed expensive.

The value of 1 pound is 7. 3 grams of gold, which also destined the pound to be the most valuable currency in the world. 1 pound can be exchanged for 26 pesetas, which makes the peseta look not very valuable.

In reality, the value of 1 peseta is equivalent to 0. 82 grams of gold, so the peseta still has a fairly high value.

A gold mine with gold reserves of about 1 ton actually only has an actual value of about 3. million pesetas.

What is the concept of one ton of gold? If the gold content is about 8 grams, a total of 125, 00 tons of gold ore must be mined to extract one ton of gold.

Currently, the gold mines discovered in the Congo Territory are basically small gold mines with gold reserves of less than 3 tons, and the maximum value of a single gold mine does not exceed 10 million pesetas, so Gao Da indeed had no need to pay attention to them.

Currently, whether it is the Royal Union Bank or the Royal Steel Company, the net profit provided to the Royal Family every year is over 30 million pesetas.

It is better to leave these gold mines to the nobles and gold prospectors, which can make them even more obsessed with the gold mines of the Congo Territory and invest more capital into the Congo Territory.

And it must be said, doing so was truly effective.

In just a few short months, the population of the Congo Territory increased by nearly 5, 00 people, most of whom were personnel sent out by the Spanish nobility.

Of course, there were also some gold prospectors from all over Europe, whose purpose was to search for alluvial deposits in the rivers of the Congo Territory and earn income through illegal mining.

Gao Da naturally allowed these gold prospectors to exist; after all, these gold prospectors were also population for the Congo Territory.

As long as a portion of the people could be kept, the population of the Congo Territory could naturally develop and grow.

While the nobles and gold prospectors were flocking to the Congo Territory, the Royal Union 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.

Prospecting and mining gold requires great costs, and not everyone can afford these costs. These gold prospectors and mine owners were high-quality customers for the banks; they could fully use the gold mines they had just prospected as collateral to obtain loans from the banks.

Even if they could not pay back the money, there was no need to worry, as the gold mines they prospected would become the property of the bank.

Of course, such loans would only be issued to people with a certain amount of assets. Gold prospectors who had nothing were not qualified to obtain loans from the banks.

Besides issuing loans, the banks also had a business of purchasing gold ore. After gold ore is mined, extracting the gold is also a troublesome matter.

Mine owners are fine, as they have sufficient equipment and capital to extract gold. Those gold prospectors who mine secretly might not have the ability to extract the gold.

At this time, the bank could provide convenience. They could fully sell the gold dust they panned to the bank, and the bank would purchase the gold dust in their hands with pesetas equivalent to the gold.

Currently, there were only two banks in the Congo Territory, the Royal Union Bank and the National Bank; without competitors, some smugglers had no choice.

Doing this could collect as much gold as possible and expand Spain's gold reserves.

The more gold Spain mastered, the more pesetas it could naturally issue externally. Before deciding to use the gold rush to attract a portion of the population, Gao Da had already made sufficient preparations.

In reality, prospecting and mining gold is not necessarily profitable; if one cannot find a gold mine, one might lose everything.

Even if one is lucky enough to find a gold mine, the initial prospecting costs and the later mining costs are both a large expenditure.

With many nobles and gold prospectors running off to search for gold, Gao Da did the opposite, letting the two banks provide logistics services for these gold prospectors and nobles, which was actually the most profitable.

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(End of this chapter)