1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 498 Ruined America

"It's not that we are stepping into the abyss, but that one foot of America has stepped into the abyss." Vanderbilt frowned.

Including speculative capital, American domestic capital and even European international hot money, the hot money invested in the American railroad industry is not measured in tens of millions of dollars, but in hundreds of millions.

The economy of the entire country of the United States is highly bound to the railway, a carriage that is galloping toward the abyss, and it is absolutely impossible to turn around.

And what his son-in-law Liang Yao is doing now is to jump from the carriage before it falls into the abyss.

Jumping is definitely necessary, but the timing of jumping is critical.

Vanderbilt wasn't sure if it was a wise decision to jump off the car with Liang Yao now.

If you jump late, you will never be able to recover. If you jump early, the railroad industry in the United States is still booming, and he will make a lot of less money.

Capitalists are greedy. For capitalists, earning less is a loss. Earning less is an acceptable choice for ordinary people, but it may not be for capitalists.

Vanderbilt took out some data he had collected again. The first data was the gold production in California in the last two years, and his own statistics for the withdrawal of European capital from the American market this year.

"Since 1850, the contribution of California's gold to the American economy is beyond doubt. If the American economy is a high-speed train, California's gold is the locomotive of this train.

Since 1855, the growth rate of gold production in California has slowed down significantly, which means that the locomotive has slowed down, and the locomotive has slowed down, and the speed of the train will naturally slow down accordingly.

In addition, if you look at these again, since the end of the Crimean War, European and American capital has quickly flowed back to Europe.European capitalists have always had a keen sense of smell, which shows that their judgment is consistent with Liang Yao's, and they are not optimistic about the prospects of the American railway industry. "

William flipped through the data, and the more he looked at it, the more terrified he became.

Continental international hot money has earned enough money in the United States to slap their ass and leave, but it is difficult for them, native American capitalists, to stay out of the matter.

"Father."

While Vanderbilt and his son were talking, Vanderbilt's son-in-law Clark came in with a stack of papers in his hand, and he slapped the stack of papers on the table.

"Look what I found in Wall Street, these are the latest RMFBs from the pheasant railroads. I thought it was necessary to show you these things, so I came here."

The full name of RMFB is The railroad farm mortgage bonds (Railway Farm Mortgage Bonds).

Vanderbilt sat down at his desk and carefully read the financial product that had just been released on Wall Street.

As an old capitalist, after carefully reading this financial product, he saw through the tricks in it.

In the capital market of the United States, according to the order of financing, the railway company first borrowed from the big banks, and if the big banks could not get loans, they would borrow from the small and medium-sized banks.

If the way of bank loans does not work, you can go to Wall Street to raise funds. If you cannot raise funds on Wall Street stock market through conventional methods, then you can only go wild.

RMFB is one of them.

The so-called RMFB means that the railway company, which has been unable to raise funds through normal channels, makes a big deal for the farmers who own the land, exchanging the company's shares for the farmers' land.

Then use the land obtained from farmers as collateral to package it into a financial product called RMFB to raise funds from the Wall Street capital market.

During the whole process, these railway companies don't have to pay any other price except for printing a few railway company stocks for farmers.

To put it bluntly, the railway company in the middle is empty-handed and white wolf, using farmers' land to continue the life of its own company.

"No one has an annual interest rate lower than [-]%. How dare they give such a high interest rate! They will ruin the entire railway industry! Even the country!"

Vanderbilt is suffocated by these people's shameless operations, and he throws these so-called financial products in the trash like waste paper.

Such a high interest rate shows that those junk railway companies can no longer sell RMFB at normal interest rates, and can only raise interest rates to attract greedy and hard-headed speculators to enter the market to take orders.

The fact that the railway company began to raise funds in such a shameless way shows that this game of drumming and spreading flowers has come to an end, and the collapse of the railway industry and the arrival of the economic crisis are not far away.

The current situation is no longer a problem that the carriage of the railway industry is rushing towards the abyss at high speed, but that there is a pile of explosives tied to this carriage that will be detonated at an unknown time, and this carriage may also be falling into the abyss It was smashed to pieces by the explosives on the car before.

And the fuse that ignited the explosives on the carriage, if nothing else, was the RMFB thunderstorm.

"Except for the projects under construction, from now on, the Central Railway Company will stop all construction of any railroad projects, and all planned projects will be cancelled. In addition, any bond shares held by the Vanderbilt family related to the railroad company , All sold out in a low-key manner."

After recovering from the suffocation, Vanderbilt made a decisive decision.

"The consequences are so serious? The economic crisis 10 years ago is about to recur?"

Vanderbilt's decisive attitude made William uneasy, and it seemed that the actual situation was more serious than he expected.

At the same time, William also admired Liang Yao. He didn't see through things in New York. Liang Yao, who was far away in California, had already seen through and left early.

"If only the economic crisis ten years ago reappears, it is God's blessing on America." Vanderbilt said with a wry smile.

The United States in the 19s had not yet completed industrialization and was still an agricultural country.

The primary industry (agriculture) accounts for as high as 77%. Although the secondary industry (industry) has increased in recent years, it only accounts for 21%. The remaining 2% is the tertiary industry. can be ignored.

RMFB has already been involved in agriculture. If there is no accident, this so-called financial product will be followed by many companies, and the interest rate will be raised even higher.

Once a crisis occurs in the railway industry, it will not only affect the industry, but also agriculture. Farmers who exchange their land for a pile of waste paper will also become a factor of social instability.

Moreover, the north-south crisis has not been completely resolved, and now there is another crisis added.

Such a mess, not to mention Buchanan, who is in sight of the presidency, even Washington and Jefferson may not be able to resolve this crisis and rescue the United States from the crisis.

"Withdrawal of all funds, how to arrange the withdrawal of money?"

William made a rough estimate that if all the funds were cashed out and only the Central Railway Company was left, the Vanderbilt family would have a liquidity of as much as 2300 million U.S. dollars.

How to arrange this astronomically huge sum of money will be a big problem.

"I won't move for the time being. I will go to California to investigate in person. Liang Yao's petrochemical industry has been booming in the past few years, but I don't know enough about this industry. I need to go to Los Angeles to inspect it in person before making a decision." Vanderbilt After a moment of meditation, he said, and at the same time he did not forget to emphasize to William.

"Selling stocks must be low-key, understand?"

"I understand, Father." William nodded.

"Father, did I do you a big favor?"

After the conversation between Vanderbilt and his son was over, Clark took credit for Vanderbilt.

"As soon as this financial product was launched, I noticed something was wrong, and immediately bought it for $8000 for you to have a look at!"

"Understood." Vanderbilt nodded lightly, then issued a $30000 Bank of America check to Clark, handed it to Clark, and praised him.

"You did very well."

With Liang Yaozhuyu in front, William and Coney both showed their business talents, Vanderbilt has always been lukewarm towards the son-in-law who won the daughter of the Vanderbilt family for money.

Clark happily took the check from Vanderbilt, and before leaving, he did not forget to pick up all the RMFB that Vanderbilt had thrown into the trash can.

These things that Vanderbilt sneered at will be waste paper in the future, but they are not waste paper yet, and they can still be sold at a loss.

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The employment contract between Liang Yao and Kony had expired. After Zeiss came back, Kony handed over the work to Zeiss and Carnegie.

After signing the confidentiality agreement, Kony officially resolved the employment relationship with Liang Yao.

"Young man, work hard. Working with the boss is not only promising, but you can also learn a lot of things that you can't learn." Kony patted Zeiss on the shoulder and said earnestly.

Kony and Zeiss graduated from the same business school, and he has a good impression of this junior.

"Thank you, Mr. Kony, I will work hard." Zeiss thanked Kony with a smile.

"Cai Si, although your godfather and I are good friends, one size counts for one size. I don't support idlers, especially in such an important position." Before signing the employment contract, Liang Yao said some ugly words to inoculate Ze Si.

"The half-year trial period, if you can meet my expectations, I will provide you with a long-term contract, if not, you will find another way out."

Although Zeiss was cultivated by himself, Garrett also spoke highly of Zeiss during his trial with the Atlantic Railway Company.

But the American Group's business is much more complicated than that of the Atlantic Railway Company, and Liang Yao's assistants are not competent by ordinary people.

Since 1850, his three assistants: Kony, Hu Jinchen, and Carnegie. Except for Hu Jinchen's slightly inferior ability, Kony and Carnegie are both very capable and have very high business talents.

Whether Cai Si is qualified for the position of assistant, Liang Yao has no idea.

Just because Zeiss got good grades in business school doesn't mean he can be a good assistant to him.

"Yes, sir, I will try my best to pass your test." Zeiss said confidently.

To play for Liang Yao, Cai Si had been waiting for this day for six full years.

If it weren't for Liang Yao and Cai Mingsheng, Cai Si didn't know whether his family could survive in California, where the law was not binding, and successfully study in a business school in New York.

Cai Si is very grateful to Liang Yao and Cai Mingsheng for being able to make it to this day.

Liang Yao looked at Cai Si, the son of a former grocery store owner and a newspaper boy on the streets of San Francisco, who had grown from a child of twelve or thirteen to a young man of eighteen or nineteen.

Zeiss has changed a lot. This change is not only reflected in the physical appearance, but more in the eyes and demeanor.

Zeiss six years ago can only be said to be a smart kid, but now Zeiss is full of confidence and calmness in every gesture.This kind of self-confidence and calmness needs inner things to support it.

In any case, this is a positive change, and Liang Yao also hopes that Zeiss can be qualified for this position.

A capable assistant is hard to find, and a capable and loyal assistant is even more difficult to find.

"Father sent a telegram saying he was coming to California."

Elizabeth came to Liang Yao's office with a slightly bulging stomach.

Liang Yao walked up to Elizabeth, and said with some distress: "The environment in San Francisco is not good, you should go to the small house in Sacramento to raise your baby first."

Since the environment in San Francisco is getting worse day by day, Liang Yao is already preparing to move to Sacramento, but his manor in Sacramento has not yet been completed.

However, Liang Yao's parents already disliked the poor environment in San Francisco, and had already moved to the small house that Liang Yao built in San Francisco.

After finding out that Elizabeth was pregnant, Liang Yao repeatedly advised Elizabeth to move to Sacramento, but Elizabeth insisted on staying in San Francisco because it was more convenient to handle the group's affairs in San Francisco.

"Kony has just completed the handover with Zeiss, and you usually have to deal with state affairs. You can handle so many things in the Americas Group by yourself?" Elizabeth shook her head.

Liang Yao and his father were of the same type. When he was young, his father would often be away from home for several months due to work problems. Before marrying Liang Yao, Elizabeth was already mentally prepared.

Compared with his father, Liang Yao's work was more arduous. Vanderbilt was devoted to business affairs, and did not participate much in political matters.

As for Liang Yao, he not only participated in politics, but was also the chief military officer in the entire western region. God knows how Liang Yao survived all these years alone.

If she could share some affairs for Liang Yao, the burden on Liang Yao's shoulders would also be lighter.

Liang Yao knew that he couldn't persuade Elizabeth, so he gave Connie a wink.

Kony is a smart guy and quickly figured it out.

Coney supported Elizabeth and said, "Sister, my brother-in-law and I are with whom. It's just a contract. They are all my family members. It's okay if I work for my brother-in-law for a few more months."

"Okay, okay, don't you just want me to move to Sacramento? I'll move to Sacramento in the next two days, so that you won't be nagging me." Elizabeth softened.

After promising to move to Sacramento, Elizabeth talked about her work again: "The American Group has too many businesses and is too complicated. It is involved in almost every industry. The management cost and difficulty have exceeded the limit that the group can carry. A few months I inspected many branches of the group before, and the management was very mixed.

Our competitiveness in some industries has become smaller and smaller, such as the Xiangshan Gold Mining Company in Nevada. I think if the group wants to go further, we need to clarify the development direction of the group group and concentrate on developing our comparative advantages field. "

In this era, there is no telephone, no fax, and no Internet. The management cost of companies, especially large comprehensive group companies, is very high.

The Americas Group is involved in so many industries, with businesses all over the country, and even touched Europe, the Qing Dynasty, and Japan. The difficulty and cost of management can be imagined.

If it weren't for the gradual popularity of telegraph during this period, Liang Yao's American Group would never have survived.

But the ability and efficiency of the telegraph to disseminate information is still very limited after all.

This is also the reason why most of the giants of this era are only deeply involved in one industry. For example, Vanderbilt is deeply involved in the railway industry, the Rothschild family is deeply involved in the financial industry, and Liang Yao, the steel magnate Carnegie in the history of the United States, is deeply involved in the steel industry. , Rockefeller deeply cultivated the petrochemical industry and so on.

A very objective and realistic reason is the limitation of information dissemination efficiency and management costs.

In this case, deeply cultivating a certain industry can save management costs to the greatest extent and improve competitiveness.

The ceiling of modern companies is continuously broken through with information communication technology.

The emergence of the telegraph gave birth to a large number of large companies with tens of millions of dollars in the middle and late 19th century. The emergence of the telephone further raised the ceiling of these companies, raising the company's upper limit to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the level of billions of dollars.

The emergence and popularization of faxes and the Internet after World War II have greatly reduced the cost of doing business across borders, and the ceiling of modern companies has also risen to a level of trillions of dollars.

At present, the value of all assets of the American Group has exceeded [-] million, and it is the first giant in the United States with assets exceeding [-] million.It is already the ceiling of a comprehensive group company in this era.

If the American Group wants to go further, it should indeed clarify the future development direction, divest some businesses whose competitiveness is gradually declining, and focus on the development of the group's existing advantageous industries.

(End of this chapter)