1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 15 The First Pot of Gold (1)

In the exchange, everyone is vying to greet these fools in their eyes, and they are all vying to do business with them. All people despise these fools in their hearts, but everyone smiles at them what they consider to be the most amiable-even if you are a fool or even a dog, as long as you have money for us to earn, we I will also smile at you from the bottom of my heart.

Warren Delano, Scrooge and Rockefeller greeted those guys with the same smiles, and through their fight, began to hold down the price as much as possible. Scrooge is not good at this kind of thing, at least not at the moment, so he just stayed beside him and studied.

In just one morning, Scrooge and the others lent more than 5,000 tons of grain from other merchants. There are also people who want to trade with them. But at this time, even Warren Delano, who had been through the storm, was a little scared, and Rockefeller turned pale.

Rockefeller turned his head and looked at Scrooge. To be honest, seeing this situation, Scrooge also felt a lot of pressure, although the history it knew told him that a few months later, because of the bumper grain harvest in Europe, especially Russia, the price of grain in the market fell sharply. The price of food fell to less than half of its original value. Moreover, he felt that the impact of own’s arrival on the world was negligible and should not cause such a major event to change. Although a butterfly in South America flapped its wings, it might cause a storm in North America. But the emergence of the butterfly effect requires a long time of accumulation. So in theory, he shouldn’t have anything to worry about, but Scrooge still feels flustered for no reason.

“Damn it! Speculative trading is really demanding on nerves. This way, although the money comes quickly, but… but it is really unreliable.” Scrooge thought in his heart. However, he knew that at this time, he couldn’t show any hesitation. Any such move would shake the military’s mind and lead to failure that shouldn’t have been.

“We are going to make a lot of money! Believe me!” Scrooge looked into Rockefeller’s eyes and said quietly and firmly.

Many years later, when Rockefeller was old and began to write his memoirs, in his memoirs, he described Scrooge in this transaction in this way.

“As a businessman, Scrooge has many shortcomings. For example, his negotiating ability has not been very good. Well, he is not very good at grasping opponents’ weaknesses in negotiations, and often misses good opportunities. So, you Many times, some important transactions are negotiated by his subordinates, and he just signs the final. Scrooge’s decision-making speed is relatively slow. He always thinks and thinks, thinks and thinks. But. But you must not underestimate him because of this. He has an outstanding ability that makes his various shortcomings unworthy of mention. Scrooge is always particularly accurate about how each business will develop in the future— —I have never seen him make a strategic misjudgment even once. And he has a firm personality. Although he may hesitate for a long time before making a certain decision, he will stick to it once a decision is made, no matter how unfavorable the form is. . And the facts have proven time and time again that his persistence is always right. For example, in the first cooperation between me and Scrooge, um, it was when we started emptying food in 1857. At that time, countless people took care of it. We acted as fools, vying to lend us food in order to eat up our flesh and blood in a few months. Faced with such a situation, to be honest, I was shaken—well, I was still immature at that time. However, Scrooge was very calm and determined at that time. This was also evident in many later times. This may be because he always thought very clearly before every action. Well. It’s amazing to think about how old Scrooge was at that time. Sometimes you may feel like God has stuffed the soul of an adult into the body of a half-old child…”

In the end, when the day’s transaction ended, they successfully borrowed more than 10,000 tons of grain and sold it at the prevailing price, in exchange for nearly one million U.S. dollars. If it weren’t for the money to be under the supervision of the bank, I’m afraid that Scrooge would have to take up the money and run away.

Back in the hotel where conditions were decent, and sat down in a chair, Rockefeller took out his little book again, flipped through it, but Scrooge could see that his spirit at this time was not really focused on On that little book.

Sure enough, after a while, Rockefeller dropped the notebook, gave himself a large glass of water, and drank it all at once. Then he said: “Well, Scrooge, what shall we do next…””You don’t need to do anything, just wait for the news.” Scrooge didn’t even lift his eyelids.

Rockefeller turned around in the room, picked up the notebook again, looked at it, as if to give himself confidence, read a paragraph in it: “The area of ​​wheat cultivation near the Paris Basin has increased compared to last year. About the first floor, the situation in the Loire Plain is similar. From the recent situation, French wheat is growing well… Austria’s planting area has also increased. The specific number is unknown, and the situation is good…Ukraine area…Good growth… There should be no problem!”

Rockefeller put down the notebook again, turned around again, then sat on the chair for two minutes, then stood up again…

“John, can you stop turning around in front of my eyes, my eyes are gone!” Scrooge raised his head and said.

“I’m sorry, but I… Maybe we have to do things earlier. Just wait for the result without doing anything. I really can’t stand it. It’s like, like, the suspect is waiting for the judge to pronounce whether he is acquitted or hanged. The same.”

“Well, really need something to do? Well, let’s clean up the lice on the boat while it’s still light. Otherwise, some bitterness at night…” Scrooge stood up.

“Well, just do it!” Rockefeller didn’t object to finding something to do.

There are still more than two months left before the scheduled delivery date, and it doesn’t make sense to stay in Chicago. So, early the next morning, they went to say goodbye to Warren Delano, ready to go back to Cleveland.

When the hotel waiter took them to the luxurious suite where Volendrano lived, Volendrano had just had breakfast and was sitting at the table wiping a handful of parts that had been broken down into a series of parts. Revolver.

“Ah, how early you guys are.” Seeing Rockefeller and Scrooge walking in, Warren Delano stood up slightly from his chair to welcome him, “Come to me so early, what can I do? ?”

“Mr. Delano, we are going back to Cleveland and want to say goodbye to you.” Rockefeller said.

“Ah, too, it will take two months to come out. It doesn’t make sense to stay here. I also want to go back to New York. Oh, when are you on the train?” Volendrano began to load his pistol. Get up and talk.

“Mr. Delano, it’s the train at one o’clock in the afternoon,” Scrooge said.

“Ah, that’s early. Well, Scrooge, John, you all sit down.” Warren Delano said, pulling a chair next to him, “Scrooge, you sit here.”

Scrooge sat down beside Warren Delano.

“Mr. Delano, are you taking care of the pistol?” Scrooge said.

“Oh, yes. Maybe I will use it soon. Although I don’t want this situation to happen.” Volendrano has basically installed the gun now. He installed the last big part-the runner, and then swung it casually. With a crisp sound of “click”, the whole gun was installed. Volendrano flicked the wheel with his left hand, and the metal wheel quickly spun, making a pleasant clicking sound.

“Mr. Delano, even if our adventure fails, you don’t have to…” Rockefeller said.

“John! See where you thought of it?” Warren Delano was a little unhappy, “I’m not as useless as you think! I mean, if this sale fails-even if we have it. According to the intelligence, the possibility is very small-I have to go back to Asia to take the risk. There, money is very profitable, but also very dangerous. A good gun is almost a life… How about, two boys, if this We were not lucky this time, would you like to follow me to take risks in Asia, so that we can make a comeback?”

“Mr. Delano, what business do you plan to do in Asia?” Scrooge asked.

“Of course it’s those high-risk, high-profit businesses. I used to be in China—the country where the man would wear a pigtail-like braid, God bless, that’s the ugliest hairstyle I’ve ever seen— -Dealing in porcelain and tea. This business is good and profitable. But now that I am older, I don’t have time to make money slowly, so I want to do a more profitable and more dangerous business-selling opium. Do this , This is indispensable!” said Volendrano, swinging his hand casually, swinging out the runner again, and then taking out a handful of paper shell bullets and starting to reload.

“Mr. Delano, can you teach me how to use this thing?” Scrooge said, staring at the revolver in his hand.

“Oh, my little Scrooge, this is not a toy, it is very dangerous. But…well, if you are also going to China, it is necessary to learn this.” The loaded bullet retreated, and then handed the gun to Scrooge.

This is a Colt 1851 revolver. It has a long barrel and a relatively small revolver. Scrooge held it in his hand and looked at it again.

“How to load the bullet?” Scrooge asked. Because he found that the bullet nest of this gun seemed different from the bullet nest he had seen before. The bullet nest of the revolver that Scrooge had seen before was actually a thing like briquettes, and the front and back of the bullet nest was really unreasonable. It’s just that there is a small hole at the back of each bullet hole.

“Oh, put the bullet in from the front first.” Warren Delano took the gun from Scrooge’s hand, and then stuffed a paper shell bullet through the opening in the front of the bullet nest. “Yeah. , And then install the flash hider at the back.””Oh my God, this loading is too slow, right? What if you encounter a group of barbarians and the bullets run out? I dare say that the time to load the bullets is enough for them to rush to kill us several times.” Scrooge said .

“So I have two such things, so I have 12 bullets.” Warren Delano said.

“But what if there are more than 12 enemies?” Scrooge asked uneasy.

“In fact, even if there are more than 12 enemies, as long as you hit one or two, the rest will be scared away.” Warren Delano smiled.

“But, isn’t there a gun that can be reloaded faster?”

“Reload faster? Yes. Recently there is a revolver called Warren Delano, but the caliber of this gun is only 0.22, which is too small. Besides, even if it is a Smith and Wesson M1. The bullet speed is not enough to deal with the situation you mentioned.”

“Oh, come to think of it, now the patent for the transparent bomb nest is still in the hands of Smith & Wesson. This patent may not expire in a few years. It seems that the plan to make money by copying the Colt python will not work. Now.” Scrooge thought.

“But that kind of gun is suitable for Scrooge. The recoil is small and easy to control.” Volendrano said, “If you really want to go to China to take risks, you’d better buy a Volendra. Promise, it’s very cheap, it’s only $12. However, if you want to kill people with a 0.22 caliber bullet, you really need to be big and accurate.”

The three chatted for a while, and Rockefeller and Scrooge stood up and left. Warren Delano didn’t leave them to eat lunch or anything, but told them to write to him if anything happened. So the two people left. It was almost eleven o’clock. They walked along the lake towards the small hotel they rented. From time to time, there would be public carriages passing by, but Scrooge knew Now, since time is not in a hurry, Rockefeller, who is in charge of the account, is absolutely reluctant to spend money on the public carriage. In addition, the scenery by the lake is also good, and it is not bad to walk around like this.

“Scrooge, if it really fails, do you really plan to go to China to sell opium?” Rockefeller asked suddenly.

“I might go to China, but I don’t plan to sell opium.” Scrooge thought for a while and said.

“As I thought, we are still young and we don’t have to be as eager to make money as Mr. Warren Delano. Opium is very profitable, but it will ruin the reputation. This is not what a devout Christian should do.” Rockefeller said. Say.

Scrooge nodded. He understood what Rockefeller meant. Opium is very profitable. But at the time, although the opium trade was still legal, it was constantly criticized. Many people compared the opium trade with the slave trade. It is regarded as a manifestation of conscience. If a merchant wears the label of an opium dealer, his future development will be more or less affected. In fact, those big consortiums that ultimately dominate the situation mainly rely on Baidao’s business to live their lives. Rockefeller is not necessarily really opposed to the opium trade, he is just unwilling to harm the long-term interests for short-term interests.