1850 American Gold Tycoon

"Sir, do you have anything to do with us?"

Liang Yao walked up to two detectives from Pinkerton Detective Agency. Before he could speak, the two detectives from Pinkerton Detective Agency took the lead in asking. Google search reading

They spoke to Liang Yao in a very polite tone. Liang Yao was well-dressed and had an extraordinary temperament. He was not an ordinary person.

Furthermore, Doyle's Cafe is not an ordinary coffee shop for ordinary people. The cheapest cup of coffee in Doyle's Cafe is sold for a sky-high price of 50 cents, which is not within the reach of ordinary working-class people.

"I want to see Pinkerton, the director of your firm." Liang Yao said directly.

"Our director is in Chicago, who are you?" A detective carefully asked Liang Yao's name.

"Liang Yao."

As he spoke, Liang Yao took out two $5 California gold coins from his pocket and threw them into the air.

With quick eyesight and quick hands, the two detectives reached out to catch the gold coins thrown by Liang Yao, with bright smiles on their faces.

"So you are Mr. Liang, we have heard of your name a long time ago! Thank you Mr. Liang for the tip!"

one detective said.

"It is an honor for Pinkerton Detective Agency to serve such a distinguished person as Mr. Liang. I think our director also hopes to meet you very much."

Another detective immediately chimed in.

"Very good, I'm going to see Pinkerton within a week." Liang Yao said.

Pinkerton Detective Agency (Company) is the world's earliest private detective agency. This detective agency played an important role in the United States in the mid-to-late 19th century.

During the Civil War, Pinkerton Detective Company was employed by the federal government to provide security services for President Lincoln of the federal government. It also provided intelligence services to the federal army and placed a large number of spies in the southern army to collect intelligence.

In addition, Pinkerton Detective Company is employed by major railroad companies, especially those in the West, to provide security services for these railroad companies, track down railroad thieves, recover stolen money, and make up for the lack of police force of the American police in the vast western region. , the problem of weak public security.

Because the Pinkerton Detective Company is a private company with higher efficiency, more ruthless methods, and interstate pursuit capabilities that state police do not have, the Western gangsters are more afraid of the pursuit of Pinkerton detectives than the police in each state.

Of course, in addition to these regular businesses, the Pinkerton Detective Company, which grew stronger in the mid-to-late period, also took over the work of suppressing the labor movement.

American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie hired thugs from the Pinkerton Detective Company to suppress the steel workers' strike in Pittsburgh.

At the end of the 19th century, the Pinkerton Detective Agency had more than 30,000 armed employees, which was once more than the U.S. Army. It was the most powerful civilian armed force in the United States.

However, at this time, the Pinkerton Detective Agency had just been established last year and had not yet grown. Its employees were only a few dozen people at most, and they could be hired at a very small price, or even brought under their command. .

The ability of Allen Pinkerton, the founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, is beyond doubt. Allen still holds a public office in the Chicago Police Department. When he is not working, he is very famous in the Chicago police circles.

Liang Yao planned to incorporate this detective agency for his own use, provide security services for the American Group and himself, collect intelligence, and create the CIA in the mid-19th century.

"No problem, sir! It is our honor to serve a noble person like you. I think our director also hopes to see you!" The detective put the gold coin in his pocket and said.

"I'll go to the telegraph office and send a telegram to our director!"

Liang Yao glanced at the sloping-roofed house next to Doyle's Cafe. The location of this sloping-roofed house was very good. He planned to buy it and open a teahouse.

Liang Yao pointed to the sloping-roofed house nearby and asked the detective who was still at his post.

"Who owns this house?"

"The owner of this house is Mr. Doyle, the owner of Doyle's Café," the detective replied.

Liang Yao nodded, walked into Doyle Cafe, ordered two cups of coffee, and found a seat to sit down with Kony.

Doyle, the owner of the cafe, did not know Liang Yao, but he knew Coney. At this time, yellow people were rare in New York. With Liang Yao's skin color, Doyle, who had been running the cafe for most of his life, quickly guessed Liang Yao. Show off your identity.

Liang Yao's reputation among the old aristocratic circles in New York is very poor, but Liang Yao's reputation among the New York public is still very good.

Cholera in New York was cured by adopting Liang Yao's experience in preventing cholera in California. Many people saved their lives and were no longer as afraid of cholera as before.

Even Londoners, who thought highly of themselves, condescended to send doctors to New York to learn from the New York doctors they had always looked down on on their experience in preventing and treating cholera.

And this time when he came to New York, Liang Yao even brought a delegation from the Qing Dynasty to the United States. This was the first time that the Qing Dynasty sent a diplomatic mission to a Western country.

The Qing diplomatic mission did not visit Britain, but directly visited the United States, which made New Yorkers feel very proud.

"Mr. Liang, here are your coffee and sugar cubes."

Doyle personally brought Liang Yao a cup of coffee and asked Liang Yaodao.

"Mr. Liang, you are an expert in gold. I would like to hear your views on the current hot gold trading market on Wall Street."

"I'm from a bad mining background, so I'm not an expert."

Liang Yao threw the sugar cube into the hot coffee and picked up a small silver spoon to stir the coffee.

“Digging for gold and speculating and trading gold are two different things.”

"To be honest, the price of gold is rising so fast and the profits are so tempting. I have bought a lot of gold futures in the past few days, but I always feel uneasy," Doyle told the truth. .

"It's okay not to be practical." Liang Yao smiled, "Have you ever played with soap bubbles?"

"My father made me bubble-blowing toys when I was a kid." Doyle was puzzled. "But what does this gold transaction have to do with soap bubbles?"

"Of course it does matter. You can blow the soap bubbles very big when the bubbles are small at first, but after the bubbles are blown up, the bubbles will burst sooner or later," Liang Yao said.

"I understand. Thank you very much for your advice. Thank God, I listened to what you said. Otherwise, I would have prepared to sell off my ancestral property."

Doyle suddenly realized, and at the same time Doyle was also thinking: Could Liang Yao be the person who blew the bubble? After all, before Liang Yao arrived in New York, the price of gold on Wall Street had always been normal, and the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and gold had always been very stable.

"You now have a chance to sell your ancestral property. I want to buy the house next to Doyle's Cafe." Liang Yao said.

"You want to buy my house? If you want to buy that house, I will sell it to you for $1,500. You must know that the location here is very good. The houses on Wall Street are all priced but not marketable, and you may not be able to buy them if you have money. Arrived." Doyle thought for a while and gave a price.

"The market price of this house is at least US$2,500. If you don't believe it, you can ask Coney. Coney is a New Yorker and knows the housing prices in New York.

I am willing to sell this house to you because of the advice you just gave me and in order to make you a friend. "

Liang Yao looked at Kony, who was sitting opposite. Kony nodded to Liang Yao, indicating that what Doyle said was true.

After Doyle left, Liang Yao looked coldly at the New York gentlemen talking about gold in the cafe. He wondered how many people would jump off the building and into the river after the gold bubble burst.

Wall Street has a history of nearly 60 years since its establishment, during which there have been no less than a dozen economic crises. In each economic crisis, some people went bankrupt and chose to commit suicide.

But as Hegel said: The only lesson humans learn from history is that humans do not learn lessons from history.

When the next new hot spot arrives, there will still be a steady stream of speculators investing all their wealth into Wall Street gambling.

“What is the current exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and gold?”

Liang Yao took a sip of coffee and asked Kony.

"The last time I checked, it was 151:100. However, with the current popularity of the gold trading market, the current exchange ratio will only be higher than this exchange ratio. Sir, do you think the turning point is coming soon?"

Coney glanced at the New York gentlemen in the cafe who were talking about trading gold futures and gold. It seemed that as long as they bought gold futures and gold, they could make a fortune immediately.

"I don't know exactly when the turning point will be reached. You have to ask Minister Corwin about this," Liang Yao said.

If you want to make the biggest profit, you will undoubtedly get the exact time of the Treasury Department's bailout from within the government, that is, Minister Corwin, and sell at the highest point of the gold price.

Obviously, Corwin would not tell Liang Yao this time, and Liang Yao had sold too many gold futures and gold, and it would take time to sell these gold futures and gold.

Liang Yao did not want to speculate on the specific time when the Treasury Department would put the gold from the federal vault into the New York Wall Street market, and took the risk of waiting for the highest point of the gold price. He decided to stop when it was good and get out before the gold market collapsed.

"You have invested a lot of money in the gold market this time. Don't be too greedy. Get rid of it now while you can. The Ministry of Finance will not sit back and watch the dollar increase in size and ignore it."

"My transactions follow your pace." Coney said with a relaxed look.

"How are the gold futures and gold sales we put into the market doing?" Liang Yao asked.

"The gold futures are all sold out, and two-thirds of the gold has been sold. The remaining one-third will be sold off tomorrow at the latest." Kony rubbed his hands excitedly and reported the results to Liang Yao.

“You earned US$750,000 from gold futures trading. If the subsequent exchange ratio between the US dollar and gold returns to the original 117:100, you will earn at least US$1.3 million from gold trading.

I made at least 2.05 million US dollars in two weeks. This is something I never dared to think of. You are really a genius. "

"I can't say I'm a genius, I'm just good at taking advantage of loopholes." Liang Yaoyun said lightly.

At this time, the Wall Street market was still not big enough. If he had done the same operation in London or Paris, Liang Yao could have made more.