Alvin Rockefeller also fell into deep thought after hearing Marshall's words. Of course he knew about road construction. When it comes to whether there is money to be made from road construction, the answer is yes.
However, the income of this business is too single and requires heavy capital investment. The initial construction time may take three to five years, during which time no income will be seen at all.
And these consortiums know very well that the entire European aid plan is now planned according to four fiscal years.
In other words, when this highway is completed, the European aid program may come to an end. Everyone has no idea what Europe will look like by then.
More importantly, everyone understands that the European aid plan has a more important goal, which is to curb the infiltration and development of the Soviet Communist Party. Look at all the industries in the areas controlled by the Soviet Communist Party. Almost all of them have been nationalized.
Be it these large consortiums or individual capitalists, who would be willing to take such a huge risk to make such a heavy capital investment? Maybe you will lose everything by then.
Now, most of the people participating in this plan are actually here for the country's aid funds. In addition, they want to take the opportunity to bargain-hunt for some high-value industries in European countries.
As for a purely fixed asset project like a highway, once it is built, it is impossible to divest the investment. Once it is nationalized, all the money will be lost.
There is only one way to recover investment from roads, and that is to obtain a highway franchise, which is generally speaking, the right to charge. The fees collected are used to repay the cost of road construction, maintenance, operation and labor expenses.
Therefore, generally such projects need to be led by state-owned capital, but now European countries obviously do not have the ability and funds to take the lead in restoring their domestic road transportation networks.
The emergence of the European aid plan at this time obviously made many countries find a victim.
But it is obvious that the United States' aid to Europe is not intended to be taken advantage of. The entire aid plan only has 13.1 billion U.S. dollars. When spread among so many European countries, each country may only receive more than 1 billion U.S. dollars.
If this money is really used to build roads in Europe, it may be barely enough to connect some major cities. This is still assuming that there is a road foundation.
But the funds for this aid plan need to be used to purchase technology, equipment and basic living supplies from the United States.
If you want to build roads, you can't just purchase steel bars and cement directly from the United States! How much American capital can be mobilized to participate? Not to mention that American taxpayers will not agree, and even the consortium will not support it.
Rockefeller, who knew the situation in the United States, was certainly very aware of these situations, so he frowned when he heard Marshall raise this difficult problem.
He said directly:
"We are only providing assistance, how come we make it seem like we owe each other something?"
These words made Marshall look embarrassed. He glanced at Charles Morgan and said helplessly:
"These European countries also understand that our aid is not actually free, so they are a bit open."
This look was immediately caught by Fang Lang. At this moment, he couldn't help but start to wonder if all this was a trap set by the Morgan consortium to get him to stand up and take on this business.
After all, Rockefeller's appearance was clearly an accident.
Fang Lang is still unable to see clearly the conspiracy involved, but he knows very well that no matter what, it is impossible for any one company to undertake this business alone.
There are so many consortia that want to participate in the aid plan, and others have put forward conditions. We cannot let one family take over this mess, and let others go crazy and make money!
Thinking of this, Fang Lang glanced at Morgan and the others calmly, then slowly said:
“For this kind of project, governments of various countries can come forward and apply for loans from banks!
As long as these governments can provide suitable collateral, I believe that raising funds to build infrastructure will not be a problem, right? "
These words made several members of the Morgan family frown. After all, of the several consortiums here, only the Morgan family started their business through finance. If they were to be able to provide loans, it must be them.
But now they are obviously unwilling to make large investments in areas that are still uncertain.
In fact, the reason why Fang Lang felt that there was a conspiracy but could not find out the specific problem was that he had the ability to see through the fog of history.
Be able to know what the future history will be like.
But at this time, neither the financial groups nor the politicians had full confidence in the current situation. Now, whether it is Turkey and Greece on the front line against the Soviet Communist Party, or other European countries, such as Germany, Italy, France, etc.
There are a large number of political parties and people who believe in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the country, and even parties established in several countries have become the largest local parties.
This is also the reason why the political situation in various countries was chaotic during this period.
As for the United States and the United Kingdom, as the boss and second child of capitalism, of course they must find ways to maintain the order of the capitalist world. This is why the United Kingdom is still trying its best to support Turkey and Greece even though it is in very difficult circumstances. .
Because they knew very well that if the people of Turkey and Greece could not have a good life under their social order, they would not hesitate to fall into the arms of the Soviet Communist Party.
Once Turkey and Greece fall, the entire Europe will fall one after another like dominoes. This situation is absolutely unacceptable to the US and British governments that represent the interests of the big bourgeoisie and big landowners.
This is why the United States insists on advancing this European aid plan even though it knows that it may encounter strong backlash from the domestic public.
Even in history, when Marshall delivered a speech on the steps of Memorial Church in Harvard Yard, announcing that the United States was ready to help Europe recover, in order to avoid American newspapers paying attention to the speech, no American reporters were invited to the speech, and Truman also deliberately A press conference was held on the same day to divert the attention of domestic media.
Fang Lang, who came from a later generation, knew very well that this European aid plan actually achieved his goal.
Of course, this plan is only one of the means to maintain the capitalist world order. It is already January 1947. By March, Lao Du will deliver a speech at the joint meeting of the two houses of Congress, declaring: All countries in the world today They are all faced with the choice of two different lifestyles.
This was the announcement of the "Lao Du Doctrine" and also marked the official beginning of the confrontation between the two world hegemonisms.
People standing in the fog of history cannot see the future, but they can see the power of the Soviet Communist Party. Therefore, even the old and American people with their big guns have no absolute confidence that they will definitely be the victor.
Therefore, everyone is strongly wary of such total asset investment projects in road transportation.
Only after the Lao Du Doctrine was officially implemented in Greece and Turkey, and the United States sent troops to successfully intervene in the Greek civil war and won victory, did these large conglomerates and capitalists slowly build up the confidence to fight against the Soviet Communist Party.
As more and more victories were achieved later, various consortiums and big capitalists finally believed that they could win the final victory, and their investment in European countries increased.
In other words, although these large consortiums and big capitalists have seen the huge benefits behind this European aid plan, they still have some doubts about whether this plan will ultimately succeed.
Everyone's current focus is mainly on the US$13.1 billion in aid funds that the US government can provide. Therefore, major consortiums do not want to invest large sums of money in European countries now.
This is also the reason why preparations for the European aid plan had already begun, but were not implemented immediately. Instead, after the announcement of the "Lao Du Doctrine", with the support of the powerful military power of the United States, rehearsals were first conducted in Greece and Turkey.
After both Greece and Turkey achieved victory, the entire aid plan was officially announced the following year and launched rapidly. The process was even more bloody and violent.
Almost all were carried out with the cooperation of the US military, which is why the United States will have nearly a thousand military bases around the world in later generations.
Of course, these are the specific directions for subsequent implementation. Although the various consortia are not absolutely sure, they are very clear about how much benefit this plan can bring.
With the temptation of such a huge benefit, the capitalists will try every means to promote the implementation of this plan. As for whether it will trigger a new world war, it is not what the capitalists should be concerned about.
After all, there is no need for them to fight in the war. Instead, they can make another war fortune.
Therefore, this so-called European aid plan has never been a pure economic aid plan. Rather, it is an icing used to wrap cannonballs.
While European countries accept this assistance, they must also accept military intervention from the United States. Of course, this intervention is packaged under the cloak of a NATO ally.
Fang Lang even suspected that it was precisely because of this that Truman chose to appoint a five-star general as the civilian Secretary of State.
Now, the reason why everyone is hesitant about this type of infrastructure projects is due to risk assessment considerations.
Some people may also think that since they are not sure, they can put it aside for now! It’s not too late to wait until then. But in fact, before these large consortiums start to implement such a large plan, they must first distribute the benefits.
Otherwise, by then, everyone will know that there is a lot of money to be made here, and everyone will swarm in one direction, and won't it be chaos?
And now the difficult problem raised by General Marshall is the hard nut that no one is willing to take on.
If these benefits are not distributed before the plan officially starts, everyone will only want to eat the meat and not chew the bones, which will inevitably affect the subsequent plan for everyone to make a fortune together.
That's why Marshall said it's a difficult problem.
Although Fang Lang's words made Morgan frown, it made Marshall's eyes light up. As a military strategist and politician, his goal was not whether the consortium could make money, or how much money it could make.
But whether his political ideals and ambitions can be realized, when he heard Fang Lang's words, he understood that there was room for control.
It's not that he doesn't understand such a simple truth, but he has already had a round of communication with the Morgan Consortium and other consortiums on this matter, but everyone is obviously unwilling to invest funds in this kind of investment, which has slow results and huge risks. in the asset project.
His uninvited visit today was because the Morgan family deliberately asked him to raise this issue in front of Fang Lang again to create pressure on Fang Lang.
After all, now Fang Lang is staring at his share of grain exports and only wants to get the maximum benefit from the entire plan, but he has not paid enough. It is also time for him to understand that there is no free lunch in the world.
The reason why these big conglomerates can eat the fattest and biggest meat is because they also have to face the hardest bones to chew.
Unexpectedly, this guy said in an understatement, just let the governments of various countries provide mortgage loans. What does he need to say? If there were not the risk of political instability, who would not know that roads can be built with loans and money can be made by tolling.
But the regime of the Soviet Communist Party doesn’t care about you! All capitalists’ belongings are directly confiscated! If the plan fails by then, this type of asset-heavy investment will be a business that loses all its money.
Even the Morgan family may be directly bankrupt and liquidated. Who dares to take such a risk?
“Governments are certainly willing to provide appropriate collateral and even make appropriate concessions in other aspects such as the length of the franchise.
As long as road traffic in various countries can be restored as soon as possible, the local economic situation will definitely grow rapidly.
This is very important for the rapid recovery of the entire European economy, so I sincerely hope that you gentlemen can seriously consider it. "
At this time, Marshall didn't pay attention to Morgan's eyes, but quickly responded to Fang Lang's words. After all, he came here not only to help the Morgan family, but more importantly, he urgently needed to find a solution to the problem.
Everyone understands what he said, but at this time, no one is willing to take on this high-risk business.
Eli Morgan, who had always been close to Fang Lang, tilted his head towards Fang Lang and whispered:
"It's not that everyone doesn't know the importance of transportation, nor is it that everyone is unwilling to invest in road construction. The main reason is that the risks are too high. Take Greece now as an example. The Democratic Army of Greece formed last year has gone through several confrontations with government forces.
Instead of being eliminated, their strength has become stronger and stronger, and now they have a team of nearly 30,000 people.
If, once the Democratic Army wins, all our early investment will be in vain. "
After hearing what Eli Morgan said, Fang Lang said with some confusion:
"Have our troops not intervened yet?"
Fang Lang did not lower his voice. Everyone heard this and looked at Fang Lang in surprise.
After Marshall heard this, he coughed slightly in embarrassment and said:
"Ahem. This is another country's internal affairs. How can we just send troops to interfere?"
Now it was Fang Lang's turn to be surprised. He quickly realized why everyone gave such a high risk assessment to road construction. It turned out that Fatty Qiu from the UK had given a speech in the United States.
But at this time, Lao Du in the United States did not know whether Lao Duism had not yet thought of Lao Duism, or whether it was in the brewing stage.
In short, it is obvious that the Yankees have not yet begun to form the ideological concept of the world police in the future, and have begun to dictate the internal affairs of countries around the world.
I have to save my face to some extent and do not unscrupulously regard myself as the savior of the capitalist world.
(End of chapter)
