1850 American Gold Baron

Although Vanderbilt is fifty-six years old, he is still very strong.

Liang Yao's hand was a little painful from being clamped by Vanderbilt, but he still pretended to be calm and persisted.

I wonder if Mr. Vanderbilt has an ulterior motive, or does he like to shake hands with everyone in this strange way when meeting them for the first time?

Later generations have mixed evaluations of Vanderbilt. Some people regard him as an American hero, while others denounce him as an American scum.

But evaluation is subjective, while facts are objective. No matter how you evaluate it, it cannot change the fact that Vanderbilt single-handedly changed American society in the 19th century.

No American had ever accomplished this before Vanderbilt.

As for the old aristocrats like Astor, their assets may be comparable to those of Vanderbilt, but they only changed the fate of a family, not the entire society.

The focus of investment of these families is on real estate. In essence, they are government and businessmen combined into one big landowner. They are only responsible for sucking blood, not making blood.

On the contrary, their existence is a stumbling block to social progress.

Even if these established big families and conglomerates raise the land prices in New York to a level higher than the low prices in the entire UK, it will not change the fact that the United States is now lagging behind the UK. It will only increase the cost of living for the American people, and ultimately cause public dissatisfaction.

Shooting yourself in the foot.

What really pushed the United States to become the world's hegemon were the advanced factories that sprung up on the American land during the Second Industrial Revolution and the continuous flow of industrial products manufactured in the factories.

Only industry is the cornerstone of a great country.

The United Kingdom is like this, the United States is like this, the Soviet Union is like this, and any future world hegemon will be like this.

Even Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Morgan, whose wealth exceeds that of Vanderbilt, regard Vanderbilt as their predecessor and humbly claim that they achieved these achievements by standing on Mr. Vanderbilt's shoulders.

Undoubtedly, he is the most successful representative of the "American Dream" in this era.

It shows the world how a poor Dutch descendant in the United States rose from the bottom of society to the upper class through his own hard work, a script similar to Shuangwen.

Although the so-called upper class still refuses to accept Vanderbilt, they have to admit that Vanderbilt's wealth and huge shipping empire have a huge influence on the United States.

"Father, your old habits are back again!"

Lisa Bai rolled her eyes at Vanderbilt before breaking the awkward handshake.

Vanderbilt laughed heartily and patted Liang Yao's shoulder hard several times.

"The young man has a pretty strong body."

"You are more like a captain or sailor than a businessman. I will ask someone to prepare a carriage for you and this lady."

Liang Yao put his hands behind his back and moved his painful right hand out of Vanderbilt's sight.

"No need, the road conditions here are very good. Let's walk all the way to your manor. Let me introduce you, this is my daughter Yin Lisabai."

Vanderbilt introduced Lisa White to Liang Yao.

"Hello, Miss Yin Lisabai, nice to meet you."

"I am also very honored to meet you, Mr. Liang. I have seen many reports about you in newspapers. Those newspapers without exception described you as a rude thug and an uncultured upstart."

Yin Lisabai held the small minibus, pursed her lips slightly, and curiously looked at the light under the street lamp. She really couldn't think of any words to use to describe the man in front of her.

At least based on his appearance and behavior, it is difficult to give him a suitable label.

Call him polite, he dresses casually like his father, call him rude, he treats others politely.

"At least you look more polite and cultured than my father."

This made Liang Yao couldn't help laughing, and Vanderbilt also glared at Yin Lisabai angrily.

Although Vanderbilt dropped out of school to work at the age of eleven and had little education, a person's accomplishments cannot be linked to his education level.

However, it is true that Vanderbilt had a strong sense of charlatanism, which was one of the reasons why New York's upper class looked down upon him.

"To be honest, the situation in California is better than I expected. There is really a lot of potential here."

Vanderbilt walked vigorously, and while talking, he and Liang Yao walked side by side towards the Tingtao Garden on the seaside.

“It’s not that promising, California is the future of America. If you invest one dollar here, you will get ten dollars or even hundreds of dollars in benefits in the near future.

The route you opened to Nicaragua will bring you at least millions of dollars in revenue every year."

Liang Yao is not exaggerating. This route to Nicaragua helped Vanderbilt get through the more difficult years of his life in the 1950s.

This route brings in at least millions of dollars in profit to Vanderbilt every year.

California's gold gave the United States the opportunity to compete with Great Britain on the gold standard and defeat the two largest silver empires in the world: the Qing Empire and Spain.

He had already started planning the route from New York-Nicaragua-California two years ago, and had established deep friendships with leaders of Nicaragua and several surrounding Central American countries to pave the way for this.

Based on Vanderbilt's superb emotional intelligence and financial ability, what Vanderbilt says in these countries is now more effective than the White House.

Keen business acumen and always one step ahead of others are one of the secrets of Vanderbilt's success.

However, no matter how good his vision is, he can't stop his son from cheating on his father. As a result, his route has not yet been completed.

"But I do not have a monopoly on this route. There are seven large shipping companies competing with me on this route. As for small and medium-sized shipping companies, there are countless more, but this is not the most important thing."

A look of worry appeared on Vanderbilt's face.

Although Vanderbilt was already one of the richest men in the United States at this time, and his shipping empire was also well-known throughout the United States, he had not yet completed his monopoly on the American shipping industry.

Vanderbilt would have to wait until the mid-1950s to completely complete his monopoly on the American shipping industry.

In the shipping field, he still has many strong competitors.

The existence of these competitors forced him to slow down his entry into the rail transportation industry.

"You mean the Pacific Mail Company, which has a monopoly on the Panama route?"

At this time, the information Liang Yao spent huge sums of money to collect came in handy.

One of Vanderbilt's strong competitors was the Pacific Mail Line, which was not a shipping company with a long history.

In fact, the Pacific Mail Line was only established in 1848, and its purpose was to specialize in the New York-Panama-San Francisco route.

It stands to reason that a newly established shipping company would not pose a threat to Vanderbilt, the shipping giant.

But behind the Pacific Mail Company was the United States Postal Service, which had a strong government background, and the company's shareholders were wealthy aristocratic consortiums in New York, and these consortiums had nothing to do with Vanderbilt.

This is the source of Vanderbilt's concerns.

The Pacific Mail Company later obtained a franchise for routes from the United States to China and Japan. The Chinese piglets who built the Pacific Railway were transported from China to the United States by the Pacific Mail Company's ships.

Until the 21st century, the Pacific Mail Line still existed, but it was renamed American Presidential Lines (APL).

"How do you know this?"

Vanderbilt was deeply surprised by this. He did not expect that in California, where information was limited, there were still people who knew about the Pacific Mail Line's monopoly on the Panama route.

His interest in Liang Yao became more and more intense.