1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 78 Do you owe money?

Liang Yao accompanied Wu Yuanhua and Guangdong merchants to inspect San Francisco and Sacramento.

Although Liang Yao also provided low-interest loans to Chinese immigrant families who immigrated to California before, encouraging them to set up their own companies.

But the results are not satisfactory, and there are not many Chinese companies that can successfully stand out.

After all, most of these immigrants were farmers and fishermen, and those who were proficient in business were only a minority.

It would also be of great benefit to Liang Yao if Hong Kong merchants from Guangdong could enter California.

Although the thirteen lines have been on the decline for a long time, the wealth accumulated by their generations is still very considerable.

If they settled in California, Liang Yao would be able to quickly establish a Chinese consortium with him as the core.

At that time, using the commercial resources that these merchants have in the Qing Dynasty, he is fully confident that California will become a trade transit point between the Qing Dynasty and the United States.

The business ideas of these thirteen lines are not so old-fashioned. In his later years, Wu Bingjian had a premonition that the future of Guangzhou businessmen was not good, and he once revealed the idea of ​​immigrating to the United States. In the end, due to old age and frailty, it was inconvenient to travel by boat.

These shrewd businessmen are clear about not putting all their eggs in the same basket.

Now that Liang Yao was exploring the way for them and laying the foundation in California, Wu Yuanhua and other businessmen were eager to move. What's more, they even directly asked Liang Yao about immigration.

This is a good signal.

"The foreign consortium is here."

When Liang Yao returned to Tingtao Garden, Deng Wenyu reported the news to Liang Yao immediately.

This time, the eastern consortium came not only with the prospecting team, but also advanced mining machines with the fleet. It was clear that they wanted to take root and build a factory here.

"The fleet is the fleet of the Pacific Cruise Line, and those machines belong to the Astor family. You should be thankful that they encountered some problems at Cape Horn, otherwise they would have brought more machines to California."

Vanderbilt's assistant, Nigel, knew the fleet in front of him better than Liang Yao.

Two years ago, the Pacific Cruise Line, which rose almost overnight, became a strong competitor of Vanderbilt, and Nigel also dealt with the Pacific Cruise Line.

Nigel knew exactly how many ships Pacific Cruises had, who the top executives of the company were, and who the shareholders behind them were.

As for the Astor family, let alone the old Astor and Vanderbilt are well-known old enemies in New York.

Once there is any news and conflict between the two, they will be on the hot searches in New York the next day and become the hottest topic.

"They brought machines, they brought guards, they just didn't bring workers."

Liang Yao said while staring at the Pacific Cruise fleet and the personnel of the Astor family who were unloading machines at the port.

"For them, those gold diggers are the best cheap workers," Nigel said.

"Then they are making a big mistake. I believe that no gold digger is willing to give up the opportunity to make a fortune and serve as cheap labor for them." Liang Yao had already prepared for this.

Liang Yao had already prepared for the worst after learning that the American Congress might not recognize the land grant from the Mexican government.

His mouthpiece, the Daily Californian, vividly explained to the miners what the future would hold for them, the gold diggers, when the syndicates arrived.

These syndicates will occupy all the gold producing areas in California, and ordinary gold prospectors and their small gold mining companies will lose all opportunities to make a fortune.

They have only two options. One option is to collect enough money to buy a boat ticket back to the east, and continue to return to their ordinary and poor life.

Another option is to stay in California and enter the factories of these consortiums to work for these consortiums in order to make ends meet.

Although they are also engaged in the same gold digging work as before, the gold they scoop up will not belong to them, but to these chaebol bosses who are enjoying their profits.

No matter what kind of choice and result it is, these gold diggers will not be willing to accept it, at least they will not accept it easily.

It is human nature for people who are used to earning quick money to accept low income and hard work.

In comparison, Liang Yao seemed to have a lot of conscience, even though the gold producing areas in the Sacramento area belonged to Liang Yao.

But at least individual gold diggers and gold panning companies can still rent Liang Yao's land to continue to engage in gold panning business, at least there is a chance to make a fortune.

"Mr. Liang, there is a saying in New York, which can also be called a joke. I think I need to tell you." Nigel said.

"I would like to hear more about it, Mr. Nigel." Liang Yao looked away from the port.

"Why is there a large space in front of the first row of Congress? Because it is reserved for the Astor family." Nigel said seriously, "Although this is a common saying among the people, it is enough to prove that the Astor family is in Congress. Although Mr. Vanderbilt has some senator friends, their influence in Congress is far less than that of Mr. Astor's highly respected congressman friends."

"Thanks for the reminder, Nigel."

Liang Yao returned to his seat and sat down.

Nigel also left the window and found a seat to sit down. He continued to ask Liang Yao.

"What are you going to do next?"

"It depends on what they will do. As long as he does not touch our gold production in the Sacramento area, we will not violate the water."

It is Liang Yao's bottom line that the eastern consortium does not touch the gold mining area of ​​Sacramento.

If they are willing to pay for land in the Sacramento area, as long as the price is reasonable, Liang Yao is also willing to sell a little land to them.

"It looks like we're having a hard time getting along with them in California."

Based on his understanding of the Astor family, Nigel quickly made his judgment.

Wu Yuanhua, who was eating melons at the side, probably also figured out the ins and outs of the matter. He interjected: "Everyone comes to San Francisco to make a fortune. Peace is the most important thing in everything. If you have any opinions, you can sit down and discuss them."

Wu Yuanhua didn't know much about the United States. In his opinion, in a foreign land, it is better to be patient as long as possible to avoid troubles.

Liang Yao just felt that Wu Yuanhua was standing up and talking without pain in his back, which was a bit of a double standard.

Liang Yao asked Wu Yuanhua back: "Brother Wu, as far as I know, after the five-port trade agreement, Fujian merchants and Lianghuai merchants seized a lot of business that originally belonged to Guangzhou merchants. Brother Wu, may you be willing to sit down and discuss with Fujian merchants and Lianghuai merchants?" Have a nice talk?
The British registered Jardine Matheson in the name of Jardine Matheson. Would Jardine Matheson be willing to sit down and have a good discussion with Jardine Matheson? "

Wu Yuanhua was speechless for a moment, there was really no way to talk about it.

Naturally, there is no reason to give up the fat to the mouth.

"Brother Yu is rude, sorry brother." Wu Yuanhua bowed his hands to Liang Yao and apologized.

"Speaking of which, the Astor family still has some connections with Senior Wu." Liang Yao was not angry either. He thought of the IOUs that Wu Yuanhua had shown him before, and the largest debt was from the Astor family.

"What is the relationship with my father?"

Wu Yuanhua was puzzled, he just thought the name Astor sounded familiar, and didn't notice anything unusual.

"The 1827 silver dollars that old Astor owed Jardine Bank in the seventh year of Daoguang (23) has not yet been repaid." Liang Yao laughed.

This year is the [-]th year of Daoguang. Emperor Daoguang passed away, and next year it will be changed to Xianfeng. The money owed by the Astor family to the Wu family has not been repaid for so many years.It's also possible that they have no intention of paying back the Wu family's money at all.

Old Astor's stinginess was even worse than Vanderbilt's.

Vanderbilt's stinginess means being stingy to himself and his family. In the mall, Vanderbilt is still very willing to spend money.

As for old Astor's stinginess, it was all-round stinginess, and he was the kind of person who wanted both face and stinginess.

To give an example, in order to show his generosity at a charity dinner, the old Astor promised ornithologist John Audubon in public, promising to invest $1000 to fund John Audubon's compilation of "Birds of the Americas". The book "Atlas" won the applause of the famous heroes present.

The vanity of the old Astor was also satisfied, but when John Audubon came to ask for the $1000 investment afterwards, the old Astor would shirk it every time on the grounds of financial constraints.

This poor excuse was used five times, until the sixth time, the old Astor wanted to repeat the old trick.

He winks at his son Astor Jr. to prove that the Astor family has no money in the bank and is now tight on funds.

Little Astor didn't understand his father's intentions, thinking that his father was asking how much money was left in the bank, so he told the savings of the Astor family in many banks, and the bank with the least deposit had hundreds of thousands of dollars .

Old Astor had no choice but to reluctantly write a check for $1000 to John Audubon.

People from the Astor family who came to visit and begged for $1000 have been procrastinating and unwilling to cash it, not to mention the huge arrears of 23 silver dollars on the other side of the ocean.

"Damn it, Daoguang's seven-year arrears have not been repaid! This is too rascal!"

Wu Yuanhua said with righteous indignation that after Liang Yao's reminder, Wu Yuanhua knew that the Astor family that Liang Yao and foreigners were talking about was not a family with the same surname, but the so-called old friend of his father Wu Bingjian in the United States, Old Astor. .

It's just that Wu Yuanhua was quite puzzled: "When my father was alive, he mentioned this time to some of our brothers, saying that the Astor family encountered difficulties, so if you can be considerate, please be considerate. I just listened to my brother's conversation. The Te family's wealth seems to be considerable?"

Liang Yao felt annoyed and funny: "Not only is it quite impressive, it's really impressive! The Astor family is the richest family in the United States now, and their life is nourished."

When the elder Astor died in 1848, he left his children and grandchildren more than [-] million U.S. dollars, accounting for one-hundred-seventh of the U.S. GDP that year.

There are only two people ranked higher than Astor on the American rich list, one is oil tycoon Rockefeller (1937) and the other is Vanderbilt (1877).

This kind of wealth is obviously not as simple as being quite considerable.

(End of this chapter)