The Industrial Giant Reborn

The Hong Kong dollar crisis is getting worse.

On September 3, a gold store in Tsim Sha Tsui suddenly announced that it would not accept Hong Kong dollars. If you want to buy gold, silver or other heavy metal jewelry, you must buy US dollars.

The reason is very simple, because Hong Kong does not produce gold. Gold shops in Hong Kong who want to purchase gold jewelry or gold bricks from outside for processing themselves need to pay US dollars. In the past, they could be freely exchanged for US dollars, but now they cannot exchange for US dollars. , normal business can no longer be maintained.

This incident has also spread rapidly among fellow jewelry stores, and many people have begun to follow suit and no longer accept Hong Kong dollars. Except for a few larger gold store chain consortiums, they may be better and can maintain their prices. Go down.

The Hong Kong government may not know about such a thing, or it may not care yet. After all, gold is not a necessity.

However, as a large number of gold stores began to refuse to accept Hong Kong dollars, other types of stores also started to follow suit. Some of these stores also need to import goods from overseas, and some simply do not want to accept Hong Kong dollars anymore. US dollars It’s impossible to exchange them for Hong Kong dollars, and many people are even less willing to ask for Hong Kong dollars.

When shops related to people's livelihood start to operate in this way, the impact is huge, and the panic caused is greater than the bank not allowing the exchange of US dollars. After all, most of the people hoarding US dollars are just to prevent the Hong Kong dollars in their hands from depreciating too much. But if you can’t buy the goods, it’s really useless paper.

Seeing that more and more stores around us are rejecting Hong Kong dollars, a large number of people are going to those stores that still accept it. No matter what they have, buy it first. Even the rice you eat is much better than waste paper.

Once panic sets in, many people ignore logic, just like some people in later generations who bought hundreds of kilograms of salt at once.

And this process has accelerated the refusal of Hong Kong dollars by more and more stores, and the economic operation of the entire society is on the verge of collapse.

When things got serious, the Hong Kong government naturally had to stand up. So on September 9, the Hong Kong government issued an administrative order declaring that the Hong Kong dollar is the only currency in Hong Kong. It is a crime to refuse to accept Hong Kong dollars in any company or business place in Hong Kong. Behavior.

The chaos in the market was temporarily stopped because of this policy, but soon many merchants closed their stores. Isn’t it okay for me to close my shop? Even more ridiculous things happened, and some people even started to gather together to exchange things for things.

In response to these situations, the Hong Kong government has nothing to do. After all, this is not illegal. People’s shops can be closed and people can exchange things for things without any problem. But if administrative power is used to intervene again, it will become a joke in the global legal community, and even Leave your name in history.

When the new Governor Youde took over, he had to face the invisible pressure of the previous Governor MacLehose, who was rated as the best. Now such a crisis has arisen. He does not want to be remembered in history, nor does he want Hong Kong's economy to be seriously affected. collapse, thus ending his political career.

In the same way, Downing Street in the UK does not dare to really let Hong Kong's economy collapse. If such a problem occurs, it will seriously affect the image of the British in the world. Secondly, a large number of British consortiums have also invested in Hong Kong, and They were all confident that the Iron Lady could easily solve the problem, and then they fell into the Hong Kong real estate and economic crisis. The third is that the economy within the Commonwealth is closely related, and Hong Kong is also a relatively important part. Once something goes wrong, it is best to be unlucky. It’s still the UK. Fourthly, the mainland is also putting pressure. If Hong Kong’s economy collapses, the subsequent pressure will be even greater.

As a result, Hong Kong Governor Youde immediately convened an emergency meeting. Not only government departments, but also several major British banks in Hong Kong, including senior executives from HSBC and Standard Chartered, attended the meeting.

"Everyone, everyone knows the current situation. If we endure the economic crisis, we will eventually get over it. No matter how severe it is, it will not affect the functioning of society. However, the current Hong Kong dollar exchange rate crisis is a hundred times more serious than the economic crisis. Many people do not Accepting Hong Kong dollars, being unwilling to use Hong Kong dollars, and trying every means to exchange for Hong Kong dollars. If these problems continue like this, the entire Hong Kong economy, which has been developed in the past few decades, may really collapse." Youde said very worriedly: "This is not the stock market. The property market, but the whole of Hong Kong, covers all places. Once the Hong Kong dollar falls sharply, it will never rise again, and your companies will inevitably be seriously affected. So I hope everyone can get together and discuss it. How to solve this matter!"

"We also know the seriousness of the matter, but the root cause of this matter is the lack of foreign exchange. As long as there is enough foreign exchange, the current short-term problem can be solved. As for the long-term, I think Mr. Hong Kong Governor should know that this It's not something we can decide." Shen Bi replied.

Although HSBC has been trying to internationalize, the pace has been very slow. It’s not that it doesn’t want to go fast, but it’s that it can’t do it. It is very difficult for the traditional banking industry to expand overseas. Not to mention Hong Kong banks, even American banks are very difficult abroad. Therefore, most of HSBC's assets are still in Hong Kong. Once the Hong Kong dollar depreciates significantly, HSBC as a whole will inevitably suffer heavy losses. Although this may be his non-war crime, HSBC's strength will be greatly reduced, and its internationalization will inevitably become more difficult. Difficult, this is what he doesn't want to see.

"Can HSBC contact overseas banks and lend us a loan?" Youde asked with good intentions, but he was complaining in his heart: Isn't this nonsense? With foreign exchange, things would not be what they are today.

"I'm afraid this can't be done. If it's only two or three billion US dollars, that's not a problem, but this amount of money is obviously not enough. If it's more, either the British government will provide a guarantee, or we can find the IMF or commercial banks." Shen Bi shook his head and said .

"Forget about the IMF and the World Bank, and we have no authority to contact them." Youde shook his head and said: "The funds we need now need to be at least more than one billion, the more the better."

The Hong Kong government actually still has some foreign exchange in its hands. No matter how stupid it is, it will not wait until it really has no money before carrying out control. Otherwise, it will really not even have money to put out the fire. However, it needs to significantly restore the confidence of the Hong Kong people and requires huge amounts of funds.

Bill Winter, the senior manager of Standard Chartered who had been silent for a long time, said: "Mr. Governor, the root cause of this Hong Kong dollar crisis may be beyond our control, but if we just need US dollars, I think there is one person who can solve this matter!"

"Who?" Yoder asked quickly. This matter can be said to be urgent. With the current external situation, he doesn't know what the outcome will be if it is delayed for another week. And when it comes to the last resort, he can only ask The British government asked for help, but this would be a very failed political career event for him personally.

"This person is Chen Zhiwen. As far as I know, he has a lot of US dollars in his hands." Bill Winter said: "If he can lend money to the Hong Kong government, or he is willing to exchange the US dollars in his hands for Hong Kong dollars, then at least this This crisis can be stabilized in a short period of time, and with his influence, if he is willing to exchange it for Hong Kong dollars, it will also increase the confidence of many people in the market!"

"Chen Zhiwen!" Youde said with a frown. In fact, he probably guessed that Chen Zhiwen had a lot of dollars in his hands. After all, he had just spent billions of dollars to acquire Disney, but this was an internal meeting of the British Hong Kong government. If Chen Zhiwen was invited, Even having to rely on him in the end would be a slap in the British face.

No matter what the reality is, the face of the British Empire must still be preserved as much as possible.

"If such a matter is solved by a Chinese, wouldn't it be a joke?" Shen Bi said coldly. Previously, Chen Zhiwen asked HSBC to borrow 5 billion Hong Kong dollars, saying it was for the acquisition of Disney, but later he passed According to the news, Chen Zhiwen's acquisition funds all came from the US banking consortium. In other words, Chen Zhiwen borrowed 5 billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC and then converted it into US dollars, and nothing happened.

The Hong Kong dollar crisis that broke out today explains everything. The other party is preparing for this sharp drop in the Hong Kong dollar.

Borrowing 5 billion Hong Kong dollars, according to the exchange rate at that time, can be exchanged for at least close to 1 billion U.S. dollars. Now, according to the current price, this money can be exchanged for at least more than 7 billion Hong Kong dollars. Every time you go in and out, you will make a net profit of 2 billion Hong Kong dollars. As for that The interest is not much in such a short period of time.

Calculated in Hong Kong dollars, although HSBC did not lose money, being ripped off by others always made him feel uncomfortable.

After understanding everything, Shen Bi went to investigate and found that Hisense and Hutchison, owned by Chen Zhiwen, also exchanged foreign exchange on a large scale about a year ago. This result shocked Shen Bi, that is, It is said that Chen Zhiwen predicted today a year ago. What kind of vision is this?

"I am here today to provide solutions, not to fight among ourselves. You can decide for yourself whether you are willing to go to Chen Zhiwen." Bill Winter shrugged and said. He was entrusted by Chen Zhiwen to raise this matter at this meeting. As for whether the Hong Kong government will operate in this way later, he doesn't care.

Over the years, Standard Chartered Bank has enjoyed a lot of dividends from Chen Zhiwen and his companies. However, because of this, it has begun to drift away from British-funded consortia. However, the impact is not significant because Standard Chartered itself does not cooperate with them much. , British investors in Hong Kong mainly cooperate with HSBC.

"Okay, everyone, we are here to solve the problem. There is no need for disputes." Hong Kong Governor Youde waved his hands to calm down everyone and said: "At present, this is indeed a method. Whether it works or not, at least it is a retreat. Let’s see how it develops, and I will also contact Chen Zhiwen to see what to do.”

…

Three days later, at the headquarters building of Hisense Bank, Huo Jianning knocked on the door and walked into the boss's office and said: "Sheng Chen, this is the invitation just sent by the Hong Kong Governor's Office. Governor Youde wants to invite us to the Hong Kong Governor's Office. He said he got some high-quality Brazilian coffee and wanted to invite us to taste it.”