786 Railway

The Tsarist Russian East-West United Railway Company was formally established, and Zhu Wencong, as the chairman, personally attended the opening ceremony.

This was a joint venture, with Russians contributing land, labor, and resources, while America and England provided money, technology, and talent.

In name, it was under the banner of Tsarist Russia; in reality, 90% of the shares were held by foreign investors, making it effectively a foreign railway company.

Tsarist Russia had not yet established a financial system, and its stock market was not yet in place, hence shares of the railway company were sold in England and America.

Zhu Wencong also planned to establish a temporary stock exchange in Saint Petersburg, utilizing telegraph for information transfer to help Russians purchase foreign stocks.

After all, building the railway would require more funding than could be raised by selling off ten Jiuding Groups—the Russian territory was simply too vast!